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 based services, location services, mobility, mobility; location; location analytics; mse; mobility services engine; wi-fi; wireless; network; release; cisco, mse, retail analytics, Thinksmart, wi-fi, wifi, wireless

Having been at the Air Passenger Expo with SITA last week and following a series of customer discussions since then and in the weeks prior to the expo the awareness of location capabilities is ramping up very rapidly within the Airport/Airline industry.

• Airports are looking to deliver value added services and customer experiences to their travelers, while getting enhanced insight and information that can deliver both operational and marketing benefits
• Airlines are looking to also provide enhanced experiences to their passengers -- enabling ease of movement, navigation, notification and alerts for gate changes etc..

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Tags: analytics, Cisco, location based services, mobility, mobility services engine, mobility; location; location analytics; mse; mobility services engine; wi-fi; wireless; network; release; cisco, wireless

You heard about the new features packed into Cisco Wireless Release 7.4 before the holidays. We are now unveiling the 7.4 Release for the Mobility Services Engine, and I am excited to announce the General Availability of Cisco Advanced Location Services for the Mobility Services Engine (MSE), a capability that enables Cisco Connected Experiences.

Cisco Connected Mobile Experiences allows enterprises and service providers to detect, connect and engage their end users on their Wi-Fi network, enabling them to communicate with relevant mobile content. The star feature of our new software release is Cisco Advanced Location Services, which includes Location Analytics and Mobile Concierge. Location Analytics provide real-time location analytics gathered from the Wi-Fi network, alongside historical trends, enabling greater visibility into customer movements and patterns through trending data.

Mobile Concierge allows engaging users through a native app on a smartphone. It also includes the Mobile Concierge SDK, powered by Meridian, a developer’s kit that provides an easy-to-use approach to developing mobile applications that leverage location data from the MSE.

Cisco MSE Datasheet

Cisco MSE Licensing and Ordering Guide

Cisco MSE Product Overview

Cisco Connected Mobile Experiences At-A-Glance

For more information on the Mobility Services Engine, see www.cisco.com/go/mse.

For more information on Connected Mobile Experiences, see www.cisco.com/go/cmx.

Tags: mobility; location; location analytics; mse; mobility services engine; wi-fi; wireless; network; release; cisco