Pulling Visibility from the AirwavesPulling Visibility from the Airwaves
Using indoor positioning analytics from Inpixon, organizations can optimize processes based on how people and assets move around their environments.
March 17, 2017
If you're looking to better understand the movement of people and assets in your environment, positioning metrics from Inpixon can help.
Inpixon (formerly Sysorex) provides an unobtrusive indoor positioning analytics solution using passive sensors that monitor airwaves and everyday ping traffic emitted by mobile devices. Note that Inpixon doesn't register, track, or uniquely identify a person associated with a device.
On cellular networks, Inpixon collects unencrypted information publicly broadcast by a device. This includes in the cellular band (GSM, CDMA, etc.), and broadcast frequency. Inpixon logs the length of the transmission and strength of the device's broadcast signal as observed by each sensor.
On Wi-Fi and Bluetooth networks, Inpixon collects unencrypted information publicly broadcast by a device, including MAC address, broadcast channel, and in some cases, the manufacturer of the radio chipset.
I see significant value in the traffic flow information Inpixon provides. The movement of people can be invaluable data for many businesses, such as commercial retail. Perspective clients seeking to lease retail space in a mall, for example, could use the metrics to learn about traffic flows of shoppers while existing retailers can learn how customers move throughout their stores. With this information, retailers can adjust store layouts to optimize visibility for more merchandise.
In addition, using the Inpixon data, store managers are able to better predict peak times and staff up or down as appropriate so that customers aren't left waiting in lines. Likewise, retailers can use the data to optimize their inventory levels and understand depletion rates.
The healthcare vertical provides another example, with its expensive assets and resources and burdensome processes that inflate costs. Traffic flows and knowing the "journey" of patients are key metrics for hospitals, for example. Traffic flows reveal patterns and enhance predictability, and understanding what's happening can help an organization improve processes. This leads to decreasing costs and better utilization of resources.
To help organizations make sense of the data collected, Inpixon has partnered with BI provider Tableau, a visual BI provider. Tableau paints pictures with data to provide meaning and understanding from the analytics collected. Past concerns of the information age of being overwhelmed and overloaded with too much data are still valid. To counter these concerns enterprise can pictorialize the data or present it in such a way to different audiences that it can make a difference or impact to necessitate change or action.
There's always something to be said about the "journey," and this is what became clear when speaking with Inpixon about its use of sensors and methodology of collecting data. These metrics can lead to more than improved customer experiences, and in more areas than just retail or health care. Traffic flows will reveal traffic patterns and knowing your traffic in the context given here is key to making significant process improvements and customer experiences.
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