Mobility Means New Business Opportunities

We are living in a new mobile world evolved from the convergence of two separate mobile experiences: our cellular (mobile voice) world and our Wi-Fi (mobile data) world.

We’ve seen these changes in mobility transform business operations and create new opportunities for businesses like MGM Resorts International in hospitality. The question that now remains is how will your business capitalize on these new opportunities and keep up with the competitors in your vertical?

Developing a comprehensive mobile strategy will be key to staying competitive in this new mobile internet world. It’s an approach that requires more than keeping the lights on or running the business as usual. It’s changing the way we think about mobility and what it can do to transform your business. From leveraging mobility-enabled location-based services to empowering a mobile workforce through BYOD, the right strategy can reap rewards for years to come.

Here’s a look at a few key ways organizations can leverage the benefits of mobility.

The Value of Wi-Fi

According to Cisco’s latest VNI Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast, global mobile data traffic will increase 13-fold between 2012 and 2017. As organizations and service providers respond to this increase in traffic and more smart portable devices and things coming onto networks, it’s important to keep in mind how Wi-Fi and small cells can create new revenue opportunities and improve your business’s operations

For many enterprises who are effectively becoming mobile operators, Wi-Fi it extends real-time, reliable access to applications and services on mobile devices to guests and consumers in their venues. For service providers, Wi-Fi and small cells are becoming a key element to their mobile data strategy in providing mobile internet connectivity to their mobile customers. One example is how the hospitality industry is innovating wireless options by moving to a mobile architecture that allows them to offer carrier grade mobile experience with different levels of connectivity. This allows them to engage their guest when they arrive to the venue, enabling a continuous experience for the guest. It’s called Connected Mobile Experiences and can be used to provide your customers with a highly personalized mobile experience that builds loyalty and boosts satisfaction.

Mobility Transforms Operations and Customer Experiences

Gartner predicts that through 2014, mobile apps and applications will drive “the next evolution in user experience” by “leverage[ing] intent, inferred from emotion and actions, to motivate changes in end-user behavior.”

Simply put, Wi-Fi coupled with location based context awareness allows organizations to deploy new solutions – like mobile apps and applications – that will transform operations and how mobile users get local services and information in venue. In this new mobile internet world, guests will be able to find the points of interest around them within two clicks on their mobile device or be notified of ticket availability to their favorite show.

Wayfinding and location-based applications will help businesses reach customers and discover new ways to engage with them through real-time mobile activity. Whether it is booking dinner reservations or sending coupons when they are at a preferred shop, mobility is enabling a way to interact with customers and providing them with the best experience possible. Delivering value to both the guest and the venue.

Mobility Makes People Innovative

It’s clear that mobility is driving new opportunities and innovation.

According to the recent Cisco IBSG BYOD Financial Impact study, a comprehensive approach to mobility, especially BYOD, is helping drive employee-led innovation.

For all industries, the future of mobility will depend on how we use technology to drive better connections and clearer insights. By connecting people, processes, data and things, mobility propels the growth of the Internet of Everything (IoE).

Today’s approach to mobility must be more comprehensive than that of the past, due to mobility’s quick expansion. Along with mobility’s growth comes the quick expansion of user-defined experiences and devices. Organizations must find ways to do more for their customers in order to take advantage of this massive mobility progression – all made possible with high-performance, high-intelligence solutions that open new business models and create better experiences.

For more information about how mobility is enabling business transformation, check out this video and view my recent “Making Your Mobile Network a Strategic Asset to Your Business” Gartner presentation. Let us know what you want to hear more about via comment below or join the conversation on Twitter, #CiscoYourWay.