Cisco Blog > SP360: Service Provider
By Tine Christensen, Director of US Service Provider Practice, Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG)
America’s healthcare system has been laid low with a scourge of acute symptoms. Spiraling costs, an epidemic of chronic diseases, and a spike in the senior demographic are all driving a mounting crisis. Throw in a gridlocked U.S. Congress and an unresolved regulatory climate, and a “miracle” cure seems a remote dream.
Lately, however, a healing light has been shining from a surprising source: service providers.
Tags: Cisco, collaboration, follow-up care, health care, healthcare, hospitals, IBSG, insurers, interactions, managed services, medical devices, network, partnerships, patient, preventive care, service providers, technology
It seems that everywhere you go these days, the little Wi-Fi icon on your mobile device lights up to show that an access point is nearby. In fact, The Wireless Broadband Alliance predicts that the number of public Wi-Fi hotspots globally will grow more than fourfold, to 5.8 million, by 2015. This increasing availability of public hotspots is creating a new “nomadic” network to rival traditional mobile networks and support new mobile devices and their owners’ lifestyles (see blog posting “A New Type of Mobility”). Consumers now expect to have Wi-Fi access when they are sipping a latte in their favorite coffee shop, watching their team score the winning touchdown at the local stadium, or even when they are waiting in line to pay for their groceries.
To learn more about what consumers are doing with their mobile devices, and how and where they are using them, the Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG) recently conducted a survey of U.S. mobile users. Following are our top three findings related to the use of public Wi-Fi: Read More »
Tags: Cisco, devices, ereaders, IBSG, mobile, research, Service Provider, Smartphones, survey, tablet PCs, Tablets, wi-fi
Have you walked into a retail store lately and seen someone use his or her phone to “scan” a product’s bar code to get immediate access to reviews from consumers who have bought the product? This customer might also (to the chagrin of retail store owners) be looking for cheaper prices offered online or in a physical store around the corner!
This is the new “omnichannel” reality that retailers have to face nowadays—one where virtual and physical channels come together to enable in-store access to web-based customer reviews and price comparisons, while also taking some physical store capabilities to the virtual channel (for example, Remote Deposit Capture in banking). Read More »
Tags: banking, branch, Cisco, IBSG, media, mobile, mobility, omnichannel, research, services, social, survey, video
One of this year’s Meeting of the Minds themes is “reinventing public/private partnerships.” And one question on the table for discussion: what do the partnerships need to look like in order to succeed in fostering smarter, more connected communities? In fact, in a recent post on May 29th, one particular question was highlighted as a promising area for collective inquiry: how can collaborative partnerships speed the development of a new broadband-centric economy?
A key element to bringing citizens, private enterprise, and the public sector together, especially in public-private projects is the presence of forward-thinking leaders to rally the players. That’s one of the roles performed by the annual Meeting of the Minds. One way that the sponsors, including Cisco, Toyota, Schneider Electric, Phillips, and the Lincoln Institute, lead is by bringing together diverse groups of professionals from many sectors. We’re thrilled this year to also bring an influx of new leaders who come to the table with real multidisciplinary skills and a definitive cross-sector vision to contribute. Read More »
Tags: Cisco, IBSG, public-private partnerships; Meeting of the Minds, university; learning; higher education; leadership; innovation; MBA; training
By Joel Barbier, Cisco® Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG)
Educators face a number of challenges, from increased pressure to improve student performance on standardized tests to shrinking state and local budgets. In addition, instructors are leaving their classrooms for better opportunities, and students’ learning skills are tuned more to social media and new technologies than to traditional educational models. These challenges require that institutions transform the way they retain talent—and the way they reach and teach students.
Although they have used recorded videos for many years to introduce new experiences to students, and some have started employing web-based video technologies to save travel costs, most educational institutions do not understand the critical role video can play in scaling resources to improve education quality despite budget constraints. Read More »
Tags: Cisco, Cisco Connected Classroom, education, faculty, higher education, IBSG, ISTE 2012, ISTE12, K-12, reach, scale, Solutions, Students, teachers, video, West Texas A&M University
