Nobody can question that location-based services are hot these days--especially in the retail space.

Retail in general is under increasing competition and pressure to maintain its revenues and profitability, especially physical retailers who are threatened by online businesses, ranging from one person outfits to global giants.

Physical retailers big and small are all facing the same phenomenon: smartphone users walking around their stores (inside and out). Google and Nielson recently reported that shopping queries are two times as likely to be in store. So people are actively on their smartphones in stores. The significance of this statistic to retail is that there is a huge opportunity here to optimize dollars, be it marketing funds or operational savings–all of which can be enabled by location-based services.

Cisco’s location based services using the Mobility Services Engine and the Connected Mobile Experiences solutions is market leading and generates a lot of interest among customers and I get the privilege of speaking with many retail business executives on a global basis.

In retail, the two big rocks are revenue and loyalty.  The Cisco Connected Mobile Experiences (CMX) solution helps line of business leaders reach those goals by aligning with the mobility trend. Armed with the location-based services of CMX, you can captivate your customers by creating personalized, context-based engagement to boost loyalty, while generating location analytics data on customer movement patterns and behavior for optimizing operational costs. Read More »

Tags: Cisco, Cisco Advanced Location, location, location analytics, location based services, location services, mobility, mobility services engine, mse, network, release, retail analytics, revenue, Thinksmart, wi-fi, wifi, wireless network

Improving School Safety with Your WLAN

See how your campus Wi-Fi can improve emergency response

Register Now    |        May 22, 2013    10AM-11AM PDT

Tony De La Rosa shared with us a teaser last week about the riveting webinar we have coming up this week on how Wi-Fi technology can be used in K-12 schools. If you missed it, here’s the original blog--it’s not too late to register for the webinar!

Join us on this Wednesday, May 22 at 10 a.m. Pacific Time/1 p.m. Eastern Time as our experts walk through several real-world scenarios of how Wi-Fi can be used in campus emergencies. They’ll also discuss the latest Cisco solutions and take your questions in a live Q&A. Read More »

Tags: 1:N, analytic, bring your own device, byod, children, Cisco, device, devices, email, K-12, K12, kid, kids, laptop, location, location-based, mobile, mobility, network, networking, police, public, responder, safety, solution, technologies, technology, webinar, wi-fi, wifi, wireless

Can you remember life without Wi-Fi? Mobility is an integrated part of our daily lives – from how we operate as a mobile user or consumer to how we conduct business. And as Cisco continues to focus on architectures and solutions that transform our customers’ businesses, our Wi-Fi business soars: in last week’s Q3 earnings, we reported a 27 percent increase in year-over-year revenue and a 200% increase in sales of Service Provider Wi-Fi. We’ve now seen 6 out of 7 quarters of Wi-Fi growth, and we continue to be the clear industry leader.

We’ve made exciting new announcements in wireless – the industry’s first edition of the 802.11ac module; extending our portfolio for a cloud-managed offering with the acquisition of Meraki; and unveiling several marquees customer deployments.

One of the truly differentiated ways Cisco is delivering business-relevant solutions is extending the Unified Access architecture through the Connected Mobile Experiences solution. This solution embodies Cisco’s commitment to deliver relevance to line of businesses by shifting the network to a revenue enabler that creates meaningful Wi-Fi user experiences and increases business efficiency.

The Connected Mobile Experiences solution uses Cisco Wi-Fi infrastructure– access points, controllers, Mobility Services Engine (MSE), and management – to detect, connect, and engage end users and to provide unique insight to venue owners through location analytics.

Read More »

Tags: analytics, aruba, business, Cisco, connected mobile experiences, End User, location, location-based, Meridian, mobile, mobility, network, operations, unified access, wireless

Innovate the education environment by deploying Cisco BYOD Solutions for K-12 to facilitate teaching innovation and emergency  safety . 

Small, medium, and large school districts across the country are utilizing Cisco technology to provide pervasive wireless coverage for their schools.  Wireless coverage can not only provide an enhanced teaching and learning resource, but it can also be utilized as a tool for public safety.

The K-12 Education (PT III): Using Wireless Technologies in Public Safety webcast will take place on May 22^nd, 2013 from 10:00 – 11:00 am (PST).  To register for the webcast please click here.

Here’s a sneak preview:

There is nothing more alarming then the event of a lockdown occurring during school for the protection of the students, public safety is a huge concern for parents and teachers alike.  Leveraging Cisco BYOD Solutions for K-12 Education  real-time location tracking in schools becomes a reality in order to determine the whereabouts of mobile device users throughout the campus.  Read More »

Tags: 1:N, analytic, bring your own device, byod, children, Cisco, device, devices, email, K-12, K12, kid, kids, laptop, location, location-based, mobile, mobility, network, networking, police, public, responder, safety, solution, technologies, technology, webinar, wi-fi, wifi, wireless

Location Services has been a holy grail in many industries for almost 5 years now and none more so that in the retail industry. In recent discussions with Chief Executive Officers in leading retailers especially those from a marketing or operations persecutive some interesting comments and trends are emerging.

Firstly about a year ago retailers were looking at LBS and saying we must have this, were unsure how to use it to effectively drive their business.

Today in April & May 2013 these executives are equally as excited about the possibilities location services brings to their business, however they are also putting an even greater focus on the ROI. When vying for capex resources a compelling business case is one that has a clear return on the investments needed. When considering a guest WiFi deployment and associated location based services the business cases emerging are varied especially  when speaking with some global retailers. Read More »

Tags: Cisco, Cisco Advanced Location, location, location analytics, location based services, location services, mobility, mobility services engine, mse, network, release, retail analytics, revenue, Thinksmart, wi-fi, wifi, wireless network