Mobility Blog on Business Mobility Revolution

Wireless Strategies that Help you Save to Invest – Part 2

A few days ago I wrote the first part in a series of blogs about the different ways mobility can help you save money.  In that blog I focused on creating flexible workspaces in order to save on real estate costs.  In this second installment of the series I will expand on that conversation to include teleworking.

Probably the most effective means to reduce your real estate costs for office space is to create policies that allow your employees to work remotely from home (or other locations).  On average for each full-time teleworker an organization can expect to save $22,000 per year on commercial real estate.

Read More.

Posted by Dimitris Haramoglis at 04:36PM PST

Wireless Strategies that Help you Save to Invest - Part 1

As I was negotiating for budget to fund certain projects last week, I thought that many of you must go through the same process in your organizations to get budget for projects and investments you deem valuable.  Problem is, to win in this negotiation one has to prove their proposals have value and a high ROI.

In this multi-part blog series I will be discussing different wireless strategies you can employ to increase your ROI from a Cisco WLAN deployment.  In the process I hope to arm you with some tools to help you make the right infrastructure investment decision as you negotiate for budget with your peers.

Strategy 1: Create Flexible Workspaces to Save on Real Estate Costs

It may seem counterintuitive in this tough economy that you would invest in creating flexible workspaces in order to reduce real estate costs, when your workforce may be shrinking due to downsizing.  However, similar to future IT investment planning decisions, organizations should take a longer-term approach and plan for the inevitable upturn.

Read More.

Posted by Dimitris Haramoglis at 04:08PM PST

Reflecting on Wireless Security

As we gear up for Cisco Live! 2009 in San Francisco, I’ve thought back to some of the other shows that I’ve been to over the past couple of months.  In April, I had the opportunity to visit the RSA Conference 2009, where Cisco gave show attendees to RSA’s booth a sneak peak of the integration between RSA enVision and Cisco’s Context-Aware mobility service.  And at Cisco Networkers Solutions Forum in Toronto, I had the honor to lead two sessions, one on strategies for 802.11n deployment and one on mobility services.  On both occasions, I had the pleasure to interact with a number of customers and the same question came up: “Why do I need to worry about RF security if I don’t have a production wireless network?” 

Read More.

Posted by Sean Ginevan at 03:46PM PST

Business applications enhanced by network intelligence

The ability to access network intelligence can really enhance business applications.  By utilizing the open API of Mobility Services Engine technology partners are making network intelligence actionable. Steven Shalita , Vice President of Marketing for NetScout talks about the unique solution that is enhanced by adding contextual information like location to the NetScout application.

Read More.

Posted by Martine Velkeniers at 12:10AM PST

Enabling real-time collaboration through Mobility

Mobility is a key component of the collaborative experience. By enabling collaboration businesses can reap operational efficiencies that can be invested elsewhere. They can unlock employee potential by giving context to data and making it actionable. Putting collaboration in motion enables companies to get closer to customers, bringing them into the product development delivery process, or taking the product delivery process to the customer. In this video, Chris Kozup, Senior Manager of Mobility Solutions discusses Cisco’s recent Collaboration in Motion launch and talks about what it takes for customers to connect multiple workspaces using a robust mobility platform.

Posted by Chris Kozup at 06:26PM PST

(Interop) Las Vegas or Bust

Interop Las Vegas kicked off today, and up until last Friday, I’ve been asked by many folks, “What does Cisco have in store for mobility at Interop?”

I will keep this short by asking you to tune into the video that gives you a little taste of what is to come. 

Read More.

Posted by Ed Tan at 10:57PM PST

To Tag or Not to Tag – Is that the question?

This weekend I spent a considerable amount of time searching for a pair of expensive earrings that I misplaced.  Not a fun job, especially since I wasn’t ready to write off the value of this asset or to replace it. That’s when I began to wonder – how cool would it be if I could use the Wi-Fi network in my house to keep track of my valuable personal inventory - jewellery, handbags and TV remote control by tagging them.  The time I would save from looking for these items could definitely be spent productively on actually enjoying them.

While the concept and ROI of using active RFID tags with Wi-Fi networks for personal asset management might not be real just yet, it is definitely picking up steam in the business environment – especially in some key industries such as healthcare where tracking the location of assets such as infusion pumps, EKG monitors etc has saved some hospitals between $400,000-500,000 (for a typical 400 bed hospital) annually through loss prevention, fewer purchases, and labor savings.  Manufacturing is another industry where the ROI of using Wi-Fi based location technology becomes very apparent – think of an aircraft or car manufacturer who deals with thousands of parts and needs to know their location in order to ensure timely availability in the final product assembly process. 

Read More.

Posted by Renu Upadhyay at 04:01PM PST

A Clear Case for Mobile Collaboration in Healthcare

In early April, I attended the HIMSS show in Chicago where I showcased our enhanced mobile collaboration applications. One of our solutions featured the Cisco Unified Personal Communicator application on newly Cisco certified Mobile Clinical Assistants (tablet PC’s designed for the healthcare environment) and the ability to share high bandwidth images over the Cisco 802.11n network. I also demonstrated the integration of location information made available by the Cisco WLAN on the Cisco 7925 Wireless IP phone. This information allows nurses to quickly locate medical equipment, patients and members of the healthcare team. Our demo’s generated a lot of interest and I was overwhelmed by the positive response from customers who agreed that these solutions would make a difference in the productivity of caregivers who are the backbone of the healthcare system.

Read More.

Posted by Martine Velkeniers at 12:14AM PST

Popcorn and the New Collaboration Effect

Every couple of quarters the Cisco mobility marketing team gets together to reflect on what went well and to plan for the rest of the year.  This year, we met at a colleague’s home and brought in those who were not in California over WebEx.  To provide an audio connection to WebEx, we turned to a Cisco Unified Wireless IP Phone 7925G connected back to the corporate office using Cisco Virtual Office.  The 7925G worked remarkably well as a conference speaker phone, delivering crystal clear audio.  But when a team member from Ohio was delivering her presentation, inexplicably, we noticed intermittent issues with the audio quality. 

Read More.

Posted by Sean Ginevan at 05:48PM PST

Follow us on Twitter

We are only a couple of days old, but tweeting away.

Follow us here.

Posted by Dimitris Haramoglis at 04:41PM PST

Wi-Fi or Cellular:  Is there one true medium for mobility?

With 3G cellular service becoming more pervasive both in the United States and across the globe, organizations often ask the question: Do I need Wi-Fi as part of my mobility strategy? 

The right answer is to use both Wi-Fi and cellular networks as valuable tools for mobilizing your workforce.  Wi-Fi is useful when your organization needs more dedicated mobile bandwidth and wants to support high bandwidth enterprise tools like video.  We’re all aware of the role that video has taken on the Internet: According to the comScore Video Metrix, 78.5% of US Internet users had viewed Internet video and over 14.3 billion videos were viewed by US users over the Internet in December 2008 alone. Within the enterprise, the consumption of video is expected to more than double by 2010, according to IDC.  Video is clearly here to stay as a dominant media type on today’s networks and Wi-Fi is the medium to mobilize it within the enterprise. 

Read More.

Posted by Sean Ginevan at 05:27PM PST

PCI Compliant, More Secure and For Less Money?

Yes you can!

Credit markets are still frozen, consumers are postponing non-staple purchase decisions, and the G20 are trying to figure out ways to stimulate the slumping global economy.  You would think that between re-inventing merchandising strategy, creating enticing promotions to bring consumers back to stores, while in the meantime reducing operating expenses, would keep most retailers and businesses that process, transmit or store credit card information busy enough.  However, now more than ever, you want to be in a position to attract customers into your stores and let them use whatever little credit they may have left without fear that their personal information will be compromised.  More importantly, the credit card companies will see to that, by making sure you comply with PCI DSS 1.2.

In this latest version of the standard, published in October 2008, requirement 11 specifies that companies must either perform quarterly scans of their networks or deploy intrusion detection and intrusion prevention system (IDS/IPS). 

When given an option most everyone will make a decision based entirely on cost – and who would blame them?  A simplified thought process along those lines would be something like:

Read More.

Posted by Dimitris Haramoglis at 11:22AM PST

January 13 Mobility TV Broadcast Playback

If you were not able to watch and participate in the January 13 Mobility TV broadcast on Cisco taking 802.11n mainstream, then you can view the playback at http://www.cisco.com/go/semreg/motvjan13/170665_17.

In the video on demand, the following topics are discussed:
- Introduction to the new Cisco Aironet 1140 Series Access Point and M-Drive Technology
- Cisco’s ClientLink Technology
- Key planning and development recommendations
- Best practices for optimizing capacity and coverage and improving client device connections
- Q&A wrap-up

Also, subscribe to Cisco’s Mobility Monthly newsletter at https://tools.cisco.com/gdrp/coiga/showsurvey.do?surveyCode=2427&keyCode=160911_52 to be notified of future Mobility TV broadcasts.

Posted by Ed Tan at 08:25AM PST

Cisco Taking 802.11n Mainstream with Aironet 1140

802.11n for the enterprise has come a long way since we launched the first enterprise-class Wi-Fi Certified 802.11n access point in late-2007. We’ve shipped more than 175,000 Aironet 1250 11n access points since then, and today we are announcing our latest innovation in next-generation wireless - the new Aironet 1140 Series Access Point, an enterprise-class, business-ready 802.11n access point that packs performance and power efficiency in a sleek design (see photo further below).

Hear from Ben Gibson, Cisco’s senior director of mobility solutions, on Cisco’s leadership in 802.11n, the demands and drivers especially at a time when businesses are becoming increasingly mobile and collaborative, as well as business operational benefits.

Also, learn about the Cisco Aironet 1140 Series Access Point and Cisco M-Drive Technology from Chris Kozup, Cisco’s senior manager of mobility solutions.

To learn even more about the Aironet 1140 Series Access Point, Cisco M-Drive Technology, ClientLink and the benefits of 802.11n, click here.

Posted by Ed Tan at 07:25AM PST

Reposting: 802.11n Performance Testing Results

I learned that we had a broken URL to the July 29, 2008 Mobility TV broadcast on 802.11n performance testing results, and want to give this one more shot. The video-on-demand is now available for playback at http://tools.cisco.com/cmn/jsp/index.jsp?id=78662.

When you click on the link, you can jump to segments of the broadcast rather than watch the entire video. Below is a list the presentation you can segment-surf to.

*Introduction - a welcome from Cisco’s Chris Kozup
*Cisco-Intel Joint Collaboration - Intel’s Mayura Garg discusses importance of the testing
*802.11n Testing Results - Cisco’s Jake Woodhams shares the 802.11n performance testing results
*Intel Video - watch the roaming robots from Intel’s testing lab
*MIT Case Study - Chris Murphy discusses MIT’s upgrade to 802.11n
*Southeast Alabama Medical Center Case Study - Scott Lapham shares Southeast Alabama Medical’s 802.11n performance results

Thanks for tuning in.

Posted by Ed Tan at 05:38PM PST