Cloud Computing – Jessica N. Abraham | Designer. Writer. Publicist.

Too Legit to Quit: Why Skullcandy is Teaming Up with Icertis

February 23, 2016 No Comments

Cloud Computing Magazine | TMCNet, Technology Marketing Corporation

Previously Published to TMC Net’s Cloud Computing Magazine

No, we’re not talking about MC Hammer this time. We’re talking contract management.

Cloud-based contract management provider, Icertis, announced a recent partnership with Skullcandy, Inc. that will help the performance audio brand to excel in future business dealings within the global marketplace.

Since named “The World’s Coolest Ear Bud” by Fortune, Skullcandy has seen an increase in sales and interests, while already ranking as the third most-sold headphone in the United States. The company, preparing for rapid growth and adoption, has identified areas for improvement within daily business operations and structure.

After strategically analyzing multiple solutions, Skullcandy decided to go with adopting the Icertis Contract Management (ICM) platform in managing the contractual segmentation of those operations.

With that, the IT department got busy.

Skullcandy plans on rollout of ICM within the next 60 days. Various departments, such as legal, human resources, procurement and sales will be trained and onboarded into using the systems. Strategic partnerships and marketing will also benefit form this new platform, as they will be able to keep better track of contractual obligations and hold others accountable – without having to dig into the crate to find the originating contract or the latest amendments to it.

“Contract complexity and audit scrutiny is only expected to intensify, so the days of manually tracking contracts and assessing risk are becoming a thing of the past,” said Samir Bodas, CEO of Icertis.

In the days where we must be careful not to sneeze in the wrong direction, some form of cloud-based contract management is essential to business operations.

Law firms will be able to integrate eDiscovery platforms in staying on top of client portfolios. After all, many of them are receiving retainer to continuously monitor business activities and ensure legal compliance along the way. Why not avoid trouble from the early beginnings of an official business relationship.

One major difference between Icertis and other contract lifestyle management providers is that they serve a more broad-based contract type. Many organizations are content with contract-specific filing, but this isn’t always enough, especially in the case of a company that has built such demand.

In the case of Skullcandy, Icertis provides a “360 view” of operational and financial data, outlining details of each contract and minimizing risks in process, including communication, cross-departmental accessibility and expiration dates.

What Skullcandy enjoyed most about the platform was its ability to push real time notification and reminders to all users on the system. It literally notified everyone at once about changes in agreement, while updating all amendments. This software also allows Skullcandy to keep some documentation off limits to certain individuals, while continuing to keep sensitive information safe and secure.

“As a global brand, we have an extensive contract library relevant to all departments internationally,” said Oriana Kacirek, Senior Manager & Corporate Paralegal for Skullcandy. “We wanted a robust platform to manage our process across all of our supply, vendor and license relationships. Icertis’ platform offers superior capabilities that align with our technology, business and operational needs.”

The global technology research firm, Gartner (News – Alert), has predicted that by 2017, we will see a huge increase in contract lifecycle management with rates growing as large as 40%. It’s set to become a billion dollar business, because organizations are steadily becoming more tech-savvy and are adopting solutions that will minimize risks – especially association with revolving contractual agreements.

Cool Technologies, TMC Net Contributions

Smaller Devices and Motion Sensing: Is This the Future of Smartphones?

January 26, 2016 No Comments

Information Technology, InfoTech, IT, Technology News, Tech Information, Application Performance Management, Defrag, Application Performance Monitoring, BPM Software, Cloud Communications,Cloud Computing, Cloud Storage,Data Center Network, Data Center Power, Environmental Montioring, Infrastructure as a Service, Load Balancer, Managed Networks, Network Access, Private Cloud, Projector Lamp, Virtual Tap

PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED TO TMCNET’S INFOTECH SITE

Every so many months, we see the release of the “newest, best phone on the market.” The only problem is that they are almost never better than the most popular phone on the market and they will cost some outrageous prices, additionally locking you into a 2-year contract with a major carrier.

Elliptic Labs is setting out to change the mobile marketplace with their new BEAUTY Ultrasound Proximity Software. Not only does this software aim to replace extra sensitive hardware-based sensors, but it will do so while causing the price of smartphone manufacture tot drop significantly. This would cause the pricing model of smartphones to change exponentially and marketplace competition to really get dirty.

An added value of this BEAUTY software is that it will also cause mobile devices to be much sleeker than they are at this point and allow manufacturers to add additional features to the internal guts of each smartphone device.

Many of our smartphones today include smart motion and motion gesture technologies. In fact, many of our devices – period – include this technology. This is a very similar to what the BEAUTY software actually powers.

One problem with most motion gesture technologies, however, is that so very often, they will drain our batteries very quickly and rarely capture motion at 180 degrees. What makes it worse is that actual proximity is in continuous need of calibration. And, when they go haywire, sometimes your phone finds itself “butt dialing” every body you haven’t spoke to for the last five years.

In fact, hardware-based sensors have been designed to turn off touch functionality when a user holds a device to their ear to speak on the phone. But, very often this actually becomes more sensitive, allowing our “fat faces” (cheeks and ears) to attempt three-way calls and pull up apps that we rarely use. With so many apps allowing in-app calling, themselves, there’s no telling the damage that can be done with a hardware sensor that isn’t working properly.

With more accurate touchless gesturing, Elliptic has been working to create alternative methods for user navigation and how users access their content. Beaming in high-resolution and across several platforms, the BEAUTY product users operates under low power and is able to be integrated into anything from PCs to televisions to the latest wearables.

Focused not just on how the software operates, Elliptic also focuses on how this software makes an end product look. This ultrasound software eliminates the multiple sensors we have toted on our smartphones since inception, which means that our smartphones will not only be more attractive, but they will also be able to withstand more torture.

Those finding themselves constantly replacing that glass face on their smartphones will find that their sensors won’t take so badly to the change.

Elliptic’s software uses the earpiece and microphone from the smartphone to decide proximity based on sound, in addition to a plethora of other motion triggers and detection. This means that software sensors are non-dependent of light and won’t rely on lighting to work.

One source speaks about this software’s ability to pick up notes made via paper and pen nearby the device. This almost tells us that this software will be able to sense 360 motion around the device. This is going to be interesting.

Optical sensor has been known to fail on devices, causing expensive smartphones to require repair. They are also unreliable in the cold or on rainy days. Much similar to the duraTOUCH technology in many of today’s top devices, Elliptic’s BEAUTY was also created to withstand certain weather conditions. Although one is all for touch, and the other is eliminating it, it would be interesting to see what the two companies could create in collaboration with one another.

Looking forward to adoption by many OEM manufacturers in 2016, we just may find ourselves holding a much more BEAUTY-ful device in the near future. Whether smartphones drop their price or not is something still to be said. Until then, we have something to be hopeful for.

TMC Net Contributions

Cloud-based e-Discovery Creating Efficiencies for Law Firms

January 19, 2016 No Comments

PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED TO TMCNET’S CLOUD COMPUTING MAGAZINE

Bloomberg (News – Alert) and many other news outlets are questioning whether or not 2016 is the “year of cloud-based e-discovery.” This makes sense, given that 2015 was the year cloud-based innovations erupted into the mainstream. Experts are predicting that e-discovery will soon adopt and completely immerse itself into the cloud universe.

Law firms especially have taken to hosting secure servers externally, eliminating security concerns by hosting on internal servers or breach of privacy in confidential information through access by local IT professionals, who might be tempted to manipulate files and change details in local cases.

External cloud servers have become unbiased custodians for cases that may last several years on end. Concerned with the security related to accessing clouds through the Internet, there are some law firms that are quickly realizing that external sources are indeed more secure than hosting in-house, although completely against the move in previous months. External sources are becoming more secure as technology is being strengthened to meet the growing concerns for secure portals.

In meeting cost efficiencies, legal teams are also finding that hosting on external servers is cheaper to maintain than hosting internal machines and hiring the operators to engineer them. Firms are aligning with their exact needs by finding providers that can meet those exact needs, thus eliminating the need to create these needs in-house. They are also learning that external sources allow for a more concrete “uptime” than they have experienced through proprietary servers.

Lack of resources and a full staff of necessary professionals to operate systems under a set budget is one thing that sets internal servers apart from external clouds. They are now able to integrate programming and the ability to provide access to attorneys while out of the office. With increased security and lower costs for e-discovery systems, clients will also save in service prices, ensuring long-term relationships with clientele.

Cloud-based e-discovery solutions aren’t one-size-fits-all solutions to e-discovery tools for law firms, however. Some smaller law firms may realize that they don’t need such a complex server to meet their immediate needs. Likewise, larger firms, who have put a CISO, Chief Information Security Officer, in place to ensure security at all times, may also realize that they can efficiently do everything in-house, especially in the situation where their caseloads are enormous and that migrations would be extensive. This includes the need for large storage solutions. They still face concern of internal data breach.

Larger firms, who may choose not to make e-discovery available through a cloud, may still institute a system that includes cloud technologies, whether through integration or through a separate system altogether. Because many enterprises are realizing the need for “always on” connectivity, remote access of the work environment continues to provide further documentation and control of cases from outside the office place. This benefits firms, whereas external contributors or remote personnel are associated with a specific case.

Through this they have systems in place to ensure proper communication, internal collaboration and – of course productivity… the ongoing theme of cloud innovations.

TMC Net Contributions

Sharegate Escorts Proprietary Information to Enterprise-friendly Platforms

January 13, 2016 No Comments

PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED TO TMCNET’S OFFICE365TODAY

At a time when less is becoming more, we’re seeing the tech industry shift to efficiency and centralization. This week, Sharegate released a tool that will most likely gain popularity over the next few months. This tool, like so many others, is promising on better collaboration, communication and productivity. But, most importantly, as cloud-vested as it is, it is focused on ownership and security.

First of all, we need to acknowledge David Roe at CMS Wire for filling us in on the smaller details of this new innovative tool. Next we have to explain why this tool is so important. Let’s break it down.

Sharegate is, in a way, a bodyguard. He’s coming to usher information from Google (News – Alert) Drive, peacefully escorting properties from one user account to a more powerful enterprise account on Office 365. At Google Drive, or Google for Work, these properties were connected and made available through a web of connected users. At Office 365, they will now be stored on a central enterprise cloud with only primary ownership by each user. Sharegate is making sure this data gets to its destination safely – and without getting lost along the way.

If you’re wondering why anyone would care so much about moving data to the Office365 platform when they are receiving great service at Google for free, then you will have to look at the current business model opposing Google Drive.

At Drive, individual users are owners of proprietary information. Once they delete their account or disconnect themselves from a workgroup, their data is no longer accessible to the team. Additionally, if they delete those files, they are no longer existent. What happens when someone moves on from a company into another position elsewhere – or what happens when someone is fired? They have the power to take that data with them and to disconnect previous shares from each file and drive.

While Google is amazing for the individual user, it is not effective for the enterprise model.

Sharegate is shifting focus by allowing the ownership of these files by individual users, but moving them into possession of the enterprise itself. This bars users, who are no longer part of the company or workgroup, from accessing secure documents and proprietary information. This gives more security to the enterprise systems that have been showing concern where cloud systems are lacking security.

Roe points out one very key fact. Drive was never really meant to be a cloud. In fact, Drive was originally Google Docs and an online storage and device synchronization with open source word processors and spreadsheets. When they partnered with Microsoft (News – Alert), they became Google Drive and increased productivity from within. Competing with Office 365’s new presence in 2014, they became Google for Work through rebranding and focused on collaboration.

With Office 365’s split into a more prominent product on its own, we have been seeing more adoption and partnership from companies all over the Net, as they integrate this product into their own service strategies. So, again, it comes back to integration.

Not only are enterprise companies given more protection over internal company data, they are also able to integrate with broader product and service lines by using Office 365, as opposed to Google Drive… even if they have to pay a little more to do so. Systems are seeing less breach through this process.

While Google currently reports that over 2 million users are regularly using the Google for Work service, which includes a claim of an estimated 60 percent of Fortune 500 companies, only 23 of over all prominent businesses are actually accessing Drive on a regular basis. While they may have files on the system, most IT departments are slowly migrating files into the new system. The problem is accessibility, inconvenience and time inefficiencies.

A Bitglass report from August 2015 shows a 300-percent growth in Office 365 adoption and utilization by enterprise and small business users with Skyhigh reporting a total 87.3 percent of businesses regularly accessing the system for all their collaboration and file sharing needs.

While 4 million paying enterprise users are said to use Google for single in-app sign on and service features, most of these users are more active on Office 365 according to multiple studies. It is most likely that this four million simply kept their previous accounts, while using Drive for personal and freelance use in their Android (News – Alert) and Google-powered devices.

With Sharegate’s new migration tool, it will be interesting to see whether this influences the reported 4 million still accessing Drive’s current services or if the 2 million active users dwindles down. Making migration more efficient could impact Drive’s adoption and utilization quite drastically.

Will Drive become another Google service that ends up failing them? Most likely not, because they serve the individual user – But, less enterprises will be accessing Drive for their daily operations and collaborative needs. Then, again, Google is already showing signs that they aren’t about to let this happen. The competition begins.

TMC Net Contributions

How Millennials are Shifting the Cloud Contact Center in 2016

January 4, 2016 No Comments

PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED TO TMCNET’S CLOUD CONTACT CENTER

According to Datamark, there are six contact center trends to watch this year. In case you didn’t get the memo, 2016 is already here; and the future of our cloud contact centers will to be reshaped by our millennial generation. These young, social savvy professionals are hungry for innovation, full of passion and really hate to be tied down. They were born with a silver keyboard glued at the fingertips and are now powering a $2.45 trillion marketplace.

Everything powers on. Everything is connected.

One thing that often goes unsaid about millennials is that they are truly workaholics. Many of them are content with working around the clock and have leveraged this quality to quickly build and accelerate their careers. But, millennials are also full of adventure. They prefer to be “out and about” while doing business than cooped up inside staring at wall in between business transactions.

For this reason, companies are okay with investing into necessary resources to keep Millennials focused, happy and working around the clock. Because other millennials are also connected around the clock, they seem to find their way to one another on social media at all hours of the night. Businesses are learning that social media growth is definitely a resource they want to shift into the New Year.

The goal with social media is efficiency. Many of our millennials grew up with platforms like Yahoo! Answers and Cha-Cha in which answers are provided to them immediately with little effort on their behalf. These same millennials are now returning the favor and providing their on consumer base with the same efficiency they once craved. Doing this on an enterprise level is one thing, personalizing the experience is another?

Businesses are listening to their consumers now more than ever. Much of this is happening via social media and proving extremely beneficial in acquiring new customers and combatting negative feedback before it goes viral.

One Harvard Business Review shows that from 2013 to 2014, customer service has grown by 70 percent on just Twitter (News – Alert) alone. Couple this with the fact that Pinterest is named the most effective network for converting customers during marketing campaigns and that YouTube (News – Alert) has now become our largest search engine provider and the possibilities have become endless.

External devices that stick out of our computers and memory cards larger than a pinky nail have become irritating to us. We don’t like lugging them around – potentially losing them with valuable data in tote. Shoot, we don’t even want to bring the laptop with us any more.

We want to leave our table at Starbucks without worry of someone taking off with our previous devices. The set up and tear down even becomes a nuisance for a split-second purchase or at a time we just want to empty our bladders. For this, we have adopted the cloud and have made it the new norm.

We now have ability to connect to extensive storage systems access programs at a distance and we can even connect directly to another human, as we collaborate to launch our new product line – from the middle of the Grand Canyon.

Life has become more flexible, and we owe it to cloud. And, while 13 percent of our workforce still refuses to adopt this technology based on security paranoia—a majority of our corporate world rather not have it any other way!

For the most part, the millennial generation is constantly found texting. If they had to thumb wrestle for their next dinner, they would be the new gladiators. By 2017, Millennials are expected to surpass the baby boomers; who are now retiring and stepping down to less demanding positions.

Millennials hate sitting through telephone prompts. Why take a survey via inaccurate touch-tone keypads when we can reply to a text message? Without major providers raping us for short codes like they use to, consumers find it easier to interact with their favorite brands via text. In fact, they prefer it … especially if the conversation circumvents a discount or exclusive offer!

These same brands can choose to upsell products and services to their consumers thanks to the level of customer satisfaction that they have already cultivated. In fact, it is this same customer satisfaction that is leading companies to throw old mentalities completely out of the window.

When measuring call quality, they are learning that volumes and call times aren’t always the best indicator of good quality service. Very often, good quality service comes from an agent taking the time – no matter how long it takes – to understand their audiences needs and handle issues right then and there. In fact, the more time spent listening to the customer, the better the agent can paint a picture of the crisis.

The loyalty that is gained from a customer who feels important and has just found a solution to their problem is priceless. Rushing customers off the phone will only make them irate and teach them to distrust a brand that has them forking over hundreds of hard earned dollars every month.

A positive response rate and an amazing customer experience will lead to work of mouth opportunities that the brand can cash in at a later date.

TMC Net Contributions

Predictions for Real Estate 2016: How Agents and Facilities Managers Will Benefit

December 22, 2015 No Comments

Healthcare Apps, Unified Communications, WebRTC, IoT, RFID, Healthcare Solutions

PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED ON TMCNET’S REAL TIME COMMUNICATIONS

Planon, a software provider in support of workplace optimization and Integrated Workplace Management Systems (IWMS), has released their predictions in Real Estate and Facility Management efficiencies for 2016.

“Many of the trends that will come into focus in 2016 already exist today, but their significance is expected to grow and become mainstream in the near future,” states David Karpook, Strategic Business Consultant at Planon. “Today’s facilities management and real estate managers face an increasing need to respond to the evolution of technology and sustainability, ensure compliance, and increase cost efficiency.”

Planon predicts that IoT opportunities will be made more applicable to the Real Estate spectrum in 2016. Therefore, it will be increasingly adopted by agents all over the world. Bottom lines will increase with the placement of affordable sensor technologies. Analytics data will be easily collected through occupancy of the workplace or meeting room. Additional IoT implementations point to better utilization of smart screens triggered by in app functionality or by room sensors, alone.

In the case of real estate, the amount of time an onlooker spends in each room may translate to sales potential, funneling sales interest data collected during the time spent in each room, individually. This data can be used to physically enhance the features that potential buyers enjoy the most and call out the needs for improvement in areas that guests most dislikes on the property. Doing so will lead real estate companies towards increased sales and shortened periods of closing. It will also provide insight as to where, exactly, a visitor may actually lose interest.

Workspaces can be checked for availability within a facility through the scanning of QR codes or the swiping of RFID tags. This will save time and face, while meeting with clients in a busy conference space.

Much of 2016 will see an increase in the use of mobile technologies for just about every phase in daily process. Not only are individuals now using mobile devices to make and accept payments on the go, but also team collaboration and communication can more frequently be made feasible. Integrations in communications tools are now allowing for better project management and workforce productivity through in-app tools and centralized clouds, allowing users to stay in just one application all day without the need to toggle between apps to complete a single function.

In fact, “Cloud delivery models will continue to transform the workplace,” claims the Boston-based software company. They will cut costs significantly for IT departments and eliminate the need for big-bulky equipment. Although true, there are many big businesses that are still skeptical about adopting cloud-based technologies in storing proprietary information.

Through mobility, employers are seeing more stretch-room in the physical workplace and may even save on operating costs with the ability to downgrade unnecessary expenditures. With flexible schedules, the workforce is being made more available at untraditional business hours and increasingly made available through “always on” technologies.

Workers are less stressed and therefore more productive. According to Planon, “More than 90 percent of respondents in research agreed that new workplace concepts will improve employee productivity.”

Finally, Planon predicts that building information modeling, BIM, will continue to increase in adoption. Their claim is that it will hold great promise for facilities management and real estate in the very near future.

Applying BIM and its methodologies to operations will allow more efficiency in management of the building space. This includes maintenance and construction during lifecycle process in providing a platform for real-time collaboration, logistics and quality management. Agents and construction superintendents will, themselves, be able to better predict the future of their own real estate empire.

Smart businesses and smart buildings will continue to make their presence known through the adoption of IoT and cloud technologies, allowing employees to be more mobile and embracing the alternative workplace. BIM-culture will become a norm, as teams will be impacted by better communications and interactive visuals in which promote efficiency.

TMC Net Contributions

BrightPoint Security Enhances Community-Based Threat Intelligence Capabilities

December 21, 2015 No Comments

PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED TO TMCNET’S CLOUD SECURITY

It’s no secret that criminals will always search for ways around even the most advanced security, whether with the mission to takeover, destroy or steal. Cyber attacks are imminent for all businesses that find themselves doing well – or at least appearing to be. Early warning signs aren’t always there to shield businesses from threat; but when they are, BrightPoint Security can provide solutions, intelligence and protections amongst their IT infrastructures and partner ecosystems.

BrightPoint Security’s Threat Intelligence Platform provides “automation, curation and the sharing of threat intelligence” amongst enterprises, helping them to shield against cyber attacks based on trends and vulnerability. In the latest Sentinel release BrightPoint Security has added enhancements to give IT security professionals better insight, almost immediately, for predicting when potential threats could strike, as well as the risk level that comes with it, enabling IT to enforce security controls.

Of interest here is the use of community-based threat intelligence which allows businesses to share experiences, providing insight to one another and awareness of current and emerging threats across enterprises, their digital ecosystems and infrastructures. In this way community member will be able to at first assessment to remediate potential risk, while calculating velocity, time and frequency of future attacks.

An evolved technology from the already widely received Security Command Platform (SCP), Sentinel adds modules and deeper insight to how to avoid these attacks through Sentinel’s Trusted Circles. As BrightPoint Security notes, the solution is unlike other threat intelligence platforms that focus only on the tracking of popular, volume-based threats. Utilizing early prediction forecasts, Sentinel is characterized as a weather map of trending threats to the digital ecosystem.

“An industry first, this predictive insight and threat trending dashboard gives organizations the solution to determine the urgency of response needed to protect themselves,” states Rich Reybok, BrightPoint CTO. Reybok continues, “Today’s offering helps customers drive security strategy and get the most out of their security investments and resources by now having the ability to respond to the most immediate and relevant impending threats and to mitigate exposure fast.”

The latest release of Sentinel allows integration with Carbon Black, scanning the environment for any and all internal threats to provide real-time insights within set perimeters. “Working with BrightPoint’s evidence-based solution enhances our support across customers’ ecosystems and infrastructures with predictive insights into risk-prioritized actions for remediation,” said Brian Hazzard, Bit9 (News – Alert) + Carbon Black VP of Technical Alliances. “Adding the endpoint into the mix of threat vectors deepens organizations’ overall view of the threat landscape of their organization and those with whom they share information in their ecosystems.”

TMC Net Contributions

LiveOps Cloud Platform Acquired by Global Investment Firm

December 7, 2015 No Comments

Previously Published to TMC Net’s Cloud Contact Center

Global investment firm Marlin Equity Partners has announced it has acquired the LiveOps Cloud Platform. With over $3 billion in managed capital, the firm can now focus on the future of the cloud contact center and customer service solution, adopted by more than 400 companies around the world. Existing investor Presidio Partners was also part of this acquisition, which will allow LiveOps (News – Alert) CEO Vasili Triant to remain at the head of the LiveOps Cloud Partner. The market for cloud-based contact centers is expected to reach over $14.7B by 2020 with LiveOps holding a large portion of this market space.

LiveOps will continue to be an independent entity, but it will be working to advance the potential of this platform through strategic initiatives in development and innovation. LiveOps Agent Services, as led by General Manager of Agent Services Greg Hanover, was not part of this acquisition but will remain a key customer of the LiveOps Cloud Platform. This is an important point to clarify.

“LiveOps Cloud Platform is a true cloud solution that is utilized by hundreds of brands worldwide,” noted Ryan Wald, a Partner at Marlin. “We believe the platform is well positioned to continue on its growth trajectory and we look forward to providing the financial and operational support to further build out the company’s SaaS (News – Alert) offering and extend its leadership position in the cloud contact center market.”

Experiencing an 84 percent growth in the last two years, LiveOps Cloud Platform continues to offer advanced customer service features on behalf of client and partner brands. As an award-winning platform for “multi-tenant contact center solutions,” businesses of all sizes are able to scale in meeting business objectives with outstanding quality, performance and flexibility.

The success of LiveOps comes from years of dedication to the “brand” — putting each client’s brand first, catering to each customer on a very intimate basis to ensure brand loyalty and continued service. To achieve this, they continuously employ effective multichannel, social and mobile interaction with customers. LiveOps has been servicing the world for more than 14 years, utilizing the talents of over 20K home-based agents.

Technology must continue to meet the growing needs of clientele, while effectively meeting innovation in the consumer-tech space. With Presidio’s experience with diversified investment strategies focused on IT, live sciences and energy technology and Marlin’s strength in enhancing brand value across multiple industries, LiveOps Cloud Platform will surely excel and stay ahead of those ever-changing needs in technology.

“LiveOps has undergone a significant business transformation in the last few years that has seen us gain strong market share in both our contact center and agent businesses,” noted CEO Vasili Triant. “We’ve built a strong software platform based on our 14 years of experience, taking the lessons learned from our contact center agents, and the brands that employ them, to create the most comprehensive cloud contact center offering on the market today.

“Marlin shares our vision of creating outstanding experiences for brands and their customers via cloud-based services and we’re excited to take the next step in our evolution with them as our partner. We believe that this acquisition positions both LiveOps businesses to refine and focus on their individual strategic objectives to accelerate growth.”

With plans already underway, a shift in technological advances to home-based contact centers has begun.

TMC Net Contributions, Uncategorized

HP Aruba Empowers Smart Venues

December 4, 2015 No Comments

iot, m2m, drone, fog computing, edge computing, smart home, smart city, connected home, smart transportation, wireless, big data, iot power, cloud computing, infrastructure, security, cybersecurity, manufacturing, supply chain, IIoT, industrial IoT, autonomous

Previously Published to TMC Net’s IoT Evolution

Provider of next-generation enterprise networking solutions, Hewlett Packard’s enterprise company, Aruba, delivers IT solutions meant to empower organizations. Serving the now generation of mobile-savvy users by creating cloud-based business apps for “every aspect of their work and personal lives.” Aruba recently announced the “next wave” of the Aruba Mobile Engagement solution. Aruba also announced the inception of the a new app developer partnership program, “encouraging innovation at the pace of mobility.”

Designed for integration with multi-vendor Wi-Fi networks and beacon analytics, location-based mobile solutions will be providing organizations with a deeper understanding of their internal users, whether an employee or a customer, allowing them to better engage with specific more effectively. In-venue, locational triggers will allow businesses to directly interact with the consumer base, enhancing customer experiences through brand engagement strategies. This will impact vendor potential and expand opportunities for revenue growth.

Accelerating innovation in location-based mobile technologies, Aruba has also partnered with promising vendors, who have been creating amazing new features and applications for integration within the “Meridian Mobile App Platform” for developers. This, powered by Aruba Beacons and Aruba Mobile Engagement, has also led to the satisfaction of an existing customer base in the early stages of adoption. For vendors currently using these technologies, the results have been almost game changing.

Aruba Beacons are paired with Bluetooth radio technologies in combination with a Wi-Fi client, to allow cloud-based beacon management throughout multi-vendor networks and through secure Wi-Fi connections. Aruba Sensors, newly merging into the Internet of Things (IoT) scene, are enterprise-grade focal points that relay battery life data, power settings and beacon location through management and monitoring of data. Cost effective, Aruba Sensors easily integrate into pre-existing IT networks. The also transmit vendor information through the beacons to mobile devices, based on consumer preferences.

Directly interacting with customers, enterprise businesses are able to communicate important information straight-to-device, through location-based triggers and the customer’s proximity to an Aruba Beacon. Analytics will be transmitted to a central location via Aruba Sensors, which measure the customer’s behavior and interaction with the brand, based on certain proximities. This data is considered valuable business intelligences that will allow the brand and mobile developers to transform in meeting the growing needs of each consumer.

Growing in demand and popularity, technologies are being deployed and integrated at larger scales than before. This increases complexity and challenge. The Aruba Meridian platform is designed to power an unlimited amount of location-based applications at any one given time. Even with all infrastructure aligned and capable of handling heavy-duty activity, complexity and speed, creativity poses as a limitation in process.

This inspired the new application partnership program, allowing vendors to create apps for venues that streamline productivity, check-in processes and create efficiency for customers as they enter venues with a specific purpose. These efficiencies save time, money and confusion. They also allow for better communication between teams, consumers and the venue, itself.

“Our booking system, combined with the Meridian Mobile App platform, provides a complete solution with visibility into meeting room availability, their amenities, and the location and directions,” states Sam Dunn, CEO of Robin. “Together we’re helping people find the right tools, at the right time, so they can do better work.”

Partnering with other enterprise mobile developers, Aruba is given more freedom to focus on the “how to make it all work” element behind these new possibilities. Many of these partners already had solutions but needed a system like Aruba to put them to use. Aruba’s infrastructure is protected and highly secure, meaning user data will remain private. In a recent statement by the company, “Aruba estimates approximately 48 hours of time savings in a 1,000 beacon deployment during a single maintenance window.” Connecting various vendors to one system allows increased efficiency in management of systems and reduces overall IT costs through the utilization of this one central unit.

TMC Net Contributions

A Connected Experience Capitalizes on the Power of Wi-Fi

November 30, 2015 No Comments

PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED TO TMC NET’S IOT EVOLUTION

A Connected Experience platform, Aerohive Networks’ new suite of enterprise technologies has been released that is designed to enable businesses to, according to Yahoo! Finance, “unlock the future potential of Wi-Fi” through its cloud networking architecture. “The intersection of mobility and cloud networking gives every organization the chance to transform how they serve their customers,” said David Greene, SVP and CMO, Aerohive Networks.

“Our Connected Experience platform and next generation of cloud networking enables businesses to build on the foundation of their Wi-Fi infrastructure to improve customer engagement, create new business insights and drive growth,” said Greene. They are doing this through integrated APIs that will allow developers to scale and resolve issues of privilege through BYOD challenges, arising when guests and employees connect personal devices through enterprise servers.

As enterprises adopt the ideology that mobile technologies can transform personalized delivery of information to internal teams and customers, they are finding that the connected experience can promote collaboration and engagement that will shift effectiveness of communication and growth. Addressing these points head-on, Aerohive’s cloud networking solution takes advantage of Wi-Fi to empower customers, keeping them connected to updated information, proprietary applications and business insight. IT professionals will gain access to customer interactions and behaviors while in the system. They will be able to drive new initiatives targeting consumers on a more one-on-one basis through the same API connections.

With a history of innovation in cloud networking, Aerohive’s HiveManager NG works in the same manner, through public subscription, that it does within a firewalled datacenter, installed directly into an enterprise’s infrastructure. This means that a company can decide whether or not they would like to use this technology from behind closed doors or allow access remotely, based on strategy for the customer experience. This opens doors for retail in ways that have never been experienced before. Customers can be pulled into the conversation, based on location triggers within the store. Through this innovative use of Wi-Fi networks, teams will be closer than ever, customers will be more engaged and businesses will expand their limitations. Through this technology, personalization is one step closer to loyalty than ever before.

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