Big data seems to be everywhere these days. Everywhere you look there are new companies and technologies that promise to crunch up enormous databases and instantly extract from them knowledge and understanding.  Although that sounds impressive, it raises the question -how can that help me and my business? How does fitting an N degree polynomial to a CRM database help me grow my business?

At Cisco, we've taken a very practical approach to big data. We started by asking our customers: what do they want to know? What information would help our customers' better manage their sites, optimize their operations and grow their business? We took those questions and built Connected Mobile Experiences (CMX) Analytics around them.

Wouldn't a store manager want to know how many of his customers were new? Did that new marketing campaign launched last month really drive new visitors to the store? Or another example, let's say the layout of the store was just changed, wouldn't the manager want to know if it was effective? Did people spend more time in the store? How about better understanding your customer base?  Which web sites do my visitors visits? And of course retail isn't the only segment that would like to know things. Wouldn't an airport want to know how long people wait in the security line? Would a train station like to know how long before the train leaves people come into store?

Cisco's CMX Analytics takes anonymous device location data gathered by the Cisco Mobility Services Engine (MSE), and leverages that data to provide clear, concise and relevant information.  In order to make the data easier to visualize, we have recently enhanced our user interface adding many features that help users immediately and intuitively grasp the data.  Our new dashboard enables every user to customize the views they wish to see and prioritize which data is meaningful to them. Our new Path engine enables customers to visualize how many people walk through the different paths in their venue. Our new reports can tell our customers everything from how many people are using their Wi-Fi to which floor people spend the most time in.  These are just a few examples of the many innovations pouring into out CMX Analytics platform.

In our latest release with CMX Connect and Browser Engage solutions, visitors in a venue can seamlessly connect to the guest network and access the value added services that are offered by the venue operators. There is nothing more frustrating as a shopper to go to a store and not get the help or the item that is on your shopping list. It is also frustrating for the retailers when shoppers' walk-in, check out the item in the store and decide to purchase it online later. Survey says, 40% of shoppers admit to this kind of "show-rooming" behavior. With CMX Browser Engage, there is finally a tool that can help retailers gain visibility into what the shoppers are looking for online while they are in the store. If the retailer stocks that merchandise, they can offer the item for sale on the same day or offer to ship it directly to their home. With retailers offering on-site service and many now matching internet prices, this is a real win-win proposition for retailers and shoppers alike.

We are very excited about the upcoming CMX for Facebook Wi-Fi, a capability jointly delivered by Cisco and Facebook that allows guests to seamlessly authenticate with their Facebook credentials. Upon successful authentication, guests can automatically check-in to merchants FB page. Every FB check-in increases merchant's brand awareness. Through the FB Insights page, merchants gain anonymous and aggregated analytics about the guest demographics such as -age, gender, languages spoken, nationality etc. One of the key points to underscore here is that, CMX Connect, Browser Engage and Facebook for Wi-Fi are optional services that users can opt-in/out.

The CMX solution helps organizations detect, connect and engage with end users and provide in-venue, online and social analytics. The CMX solution is built on the Mobility Services Engine (MSE) platform with location based services that only Cisco can provide.

So check us out at cisco.com/go/cmx and see how Cisco can help you use your network data to improve and grow your business.

For more on Location Analytics, read the technical white paper or the business overview.