Cisco Consulting Services

January 13, 2014

RETAIL & HOSPITALITY

Straight From NRF: Want Your Share of $100 Billion? Build Customer Trust

3 min read

As I’m sure most of you know, Jon Stine presented this morning at NRF on the results of his fourth “Catch ‘Em and Keep ‘Em” survey, which is a highly respected study done each year to identify how shoppers are responding to retail technologies. As a followup to his NRF Big Ideas session, I’d like […]

January 13, 2014

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

With IoE and a Smartphone, You Can Shop Like a Superhero

3 min read

Superheroes and their super strengths have long captured our imaginations. And since many of these abilities are normal human traits stretched to a magical extreme, you may well have pictured how your own life would change with super speed, agility, or senses. Today, such daydreams are getting just a bit closer to reality.  And while […]

December 20, 2013

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

The IoE Enterprise: Diverse, Inclusive, and Hyperconnected

3 min read

If it seems as if the roles of chief information officer (CIO) and chief diversity officer (CDO) rarely overlap, think again. In today’s hypercompetitive — and hyperconnected — global marketplace, inclusion, collaboration, and technology are merging as essential drivers of innovation and business success. And the relationship between the CIO and CDO may never be […]

December 17, 2013

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

Digital Disruptors and the Future of Consulting

2 min read

In my role as leader of the Analytics Practice for Cisco® Consulting Services, I often meet with clients who remind me of how the nature of consulting is changing. Traditionally, a consultant’s value and relevance to the customer has been derived from his or her business background and knowledge of specific industries or areas of […]

December 10, 2013

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

A Room with a View (of Crucial Big Data Insights)

3 min read

What’s the problem with Big Data? You guessed right — it’s BIG. Big Data empowers organizations to discern patterns that were once invisible, leading to breakthrough ideas and transformed business performance. But there is simply so much of it, and from such myriad sources — customers, competitors, mobile, social, web, transactional, operational, internal, external, structured, […]

December 5, 2013

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

Your Data, Yourself — in the Marketplace of Me

3 min read

On a typical day, we leave a vast trail of data in our wake. Our browsing histories, online preferences, shopping habits, work decisions, social interactions—all are rendered in binary code, prompting a complex interaction of requests, responses, affirmations, and denials. And that’s just from our laptops and smartphones. What about when the Internet of Everything […]

November 21, 2013

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

The Internet of Everything: Creating Better Experiences in Unimaginable Ways

2 min read

Futurists have long envisioned a world where fabulous innovations transform our lives in mind-boggling ways. And while some of their ideas may remain far-fetched, the most exciting thing about their future is that so much of it is already here, today (flying cars notwithstanding). Indeed, we are living in an age of unprecedented technological transformation, […]

November 6, 2013

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

Big Business from Big Data

4 min read

“Dad, how many mobile phones were sold last year in the whole world?” “Is this a trick question? Well, there are about 7 billion human beings on earth. Assuming every…” “No, no—give me a number.” “Well, I am not 100 percent sure. How many do you think were sold?” “1.75 billion.” “How do you know?” […]

November 4, 2013

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

There’s No Place Like (a Connected) Home

3 min read

It doesn’t take long to realize it’s going to be one of those days. You drag out of bed, bleary-eyed after a bad night’s sleep in a stuffy, overheated room. Desperately in need of a caffeine jolt, you then discover that you’re out of coffee. You turn on the TV but are too harried to […]