Location-based services and companion context-aware services are possible at a scale and a cost that was impossible before.
Employers and retailers can use low-cost small cell 3G coverage systems to provide location-based services in order to improve employee effectiveness and customer service. In normal retail or office settings these services can be made available with decent accuracy (five – 10 meters) using 3G signals to handsets with no GPS, or without Wi-Fi/Bluetooth/NFC/RFID available. Furthermore with an appropriate relationship with a mobile carrier, the information can be enhanced with demographic information.
Imagine being able to see the office usage profile change, then drilling into the data and looking for demographic patterns (Maybe males aged 50 – 65 are unchanged in their office usage, so you can alter your messaging or communication channels to fit).
Imagine negotiating a lower service fee with your facilities management company based on de-risking the contract based on real usage data, or basing services received upon real-time usage or dwell time in critical areas (coffee shop, canteen, hot desk areas).
Imagine tracking meeting room usage and relating it to meetings booked and people invited. Imagine knowing how long a customer queues at the check-in desk, immigration or baggage claim in an airport. And being able to target offers and information to improve both the airport’s on-time performance and the customers’ experience of travel. Now imagine all of those things as an enduring continuous capability and not a one-time study. How could the enterprise evolve if we received and acted on this information all of the time?
In a recent conversation with a customer we ended up focusing on two aspects:
—The nature of the location information (only detecting presence versus providing a more precise location).
—The management/maintenance burden of the system (in order to maintain the value of the target use cases).
Other talking points included anonymity, permission taking and demonstrating value to the user.
The challenge is that for different use cases different solutions will have a lower total cost of ownership over the life of the solution. And therefore it can be difficult to select the best solution for you.
A 3G/4G-based location system is unlikely to be the sole solution for all enterprises or customer-facing use cases/services, but it does represent a low-cost and easily managed way to dip your toe in the water, especially if you are partnering with your telecom provider to improve in-building coverage via a small cell system already.
John Waterfield is a distinguished technologist with Hewlett-Packaed. He is currently leading the global CTO team for a major mobile operator, providing technology and innovation leadership.
This is the second of a five-part small cell series. Part One focuses on the role of enterprise small cells in a service provider’s overall network strategy.
