This past spring, Cisco and John Lewis—the United Kingdom’s leading department store retailer—successfully completed their pilot of the Cisco StyleMe virtual fashion mirror. The Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG) ran the pilot, while partnering with C In-store and AITech.
During the six-week pilot (April and May), more than 1,000 customers tried StyleMe (an average of 40 a day)—far more than expected. In addition:
A staggering 34,000-plus garments were viewed in the outfit builder, and almost 2,500 garments were tried on virtually.
67 percent of customers gave the mirror a positive assessment, and some great shopper stories emerged—including one from a delighted disabled lady, who was able to try on clothes for the first time in a store, thanks to Cisco StyleMe.
The John Lewis Partners (staff) also loved it. They found that StyleMe was a tool that created shop floor “theater” (crowds formed) while helping them provide great service sell even more effectively. They came up with lots of ideas on how to develop the experience even further.
By Bryan Mobley, Director, IBSG Service Provider practice
Service providers continue to struggle to monetize the tsunami of data traffic flooding their networks from consumers and business customers alike. While data traffic is growing exponentially, revenue is relatively flat. In engagements with major service providers and global enterprises, Cisco’s Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG) has uncovered potential ways for service providers to generate additional revenue by helping software-as-a-service (SaaS) providers deliver a better experience to their enterprise customers. This blog describes one way service providers can participate in a SaaS market estimated to reach $30 billion by 2013.By 2015, Forrester Research predicts the SaaS market will exceed $78 billion, representing more than 80 percent of the global public cloud market.
Security Concerns Can Limit SaaS Benefits
Many large enterprises today have embraced SaaS as a way to Read More »
How can advanced network technology help governments to ‘listen better’ and ‘listen smarter?’ This is not a rhetorical question: planning has traditionally been a top-down affair, and this approach has, frankly, gotten us all (and particularly our cities, counties, and states) into a world of trouble.
There is a plethora of amazing technology at our disposal; how can we use them in new ways to empower decision-making that’s both bottom-up and top-down?
There is some good news to report: the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, a think tank well known for traditional academic research, is embracing cutting-edge technology in planning and tools for civic engagement. Read More »
The future of TV is already upon us. Driven by technology advances, business model challenges, and consumer behavior, over the next five to ten years, TV as we know it will be a thing of the past.
However, many of the changes identified by Cisco IBSG in our work on the “Future of TV” will occur much more quickly. One such dimension is Social TV. Looking back 20 to 30 years, we see that TV began as a social tool. It’s what we gathered around on Sunday night to watch family programming. It’s what we talked about at work on Mondays. It’s what advertisers utilized to make an impression on viewers.
Today, we have lost some of those social aspects of TV viewing. Instead, we often watch TV alone, in rooms that are not optimized for gathering, our friends and family dispersed in far flung places. As such, advertisers are losing their ability to extend their message through the power of conversation and discussion, challenging their effectiveness. Cisco’s IBSG’s 2011 study The Future of Television: Sweeping Change at Breakneck Speed predicted that Social TV would become increasingly embedded in TV experiences. Two of the study’s 10 predictions involved Social TV: #5 Don’t Just Watch, Get Involved and #9 Watch Together Virtually. Social TV attempts to take us “back to the future” of TV, rekindling those social experiences of yesteryear in a way that is more powerful and aligned with today’s realities.
To bring some clarity to the Social TV opportunity, Cisco IBSG has developed a comprehensive taxonomy of Social TV use cases that Read More »
Collaboration is again on my mind as I prepare to board a giant Airbus A380—the largest passenger jet in service today—for the long flight from San Francisco to India via Frankfurt.
I think about the various problems reported about the A380 program. The plane was essentially built in France and finished in Germany. The two locations used different versions of engineering software to design the aircraft’s incredibly complex wiring and electronics. Needless to say, the designs were not compatible, leading to an enormous amount of rework and production delays. This resulted in higher production costs, canceled orders, and billions of euros in lost revenue. It is doubtful that the A380 program will ever be a commercial success for Airbus.
By Bryan Mobley, Director, IBSG Service Provider practice
By Bill Gerhardt, Director, IBSG Service Provider
