Cisco Connected Mobile Experiences: Boost Revenues with Better Service

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A hospital empowers patients and families with a Cisco location-based Wi-Fi solution.

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Transforming Hospital Experiences

A conference center engages attendees with the Cisco CMX for Facebook Wi-Fi solution. (2:14 min)

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Learn about the benefits of the Cisco CMX for Facebook Wi-Fi solution. (0:58 sec)

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Cisco Developer Network Partners deliver joint solutions using the Mobility Services API.

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Learn how the Cisco Mobility Services Engine fuels powerful, advanced location services. (4:02 min)

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Wi-Fi has always enabled faster, mobile network connectivity to make internal processes more efficient. Now you can use it as a tool to more effectively engage your customers, provide the right content at the right time, and generate revenue.

Using smartphones and the mobile Internet, your customers have embraced a connected lifestyle. Whether you are in retail, hospitality, transportation, healthcare, education, or government, Cisco Connected Mobile Experiences (CMX) lets you tap into this lifestyle now. Provide your customers with a highly personalized mobile experience that builds loyalty and boosts customer satisfaction.

Built upon Cisco Unified Access infrastructure, CMX is a platform for business innovation that includes:

Cisco Mobility Services Engine, Cisco wireless access points, and Cisco wireless controllers

Detect presence of mobile devices, transparently connect to Wi-Fi, and locate mobile devices to deliver location-based services.

An open Mobility Services Representational State Transfer (REST) API

Easily integrate location and contextual attributes into relevant customer applications.

Cisco and ecosystem partner applications

Deliver location-aware guest access, device-based services, browser-based services, mobile apps, online and onsite analytics, social analytics, and ads and offers.

CMX helps organizations increase efficiencies by better understanding customer behavior with onsite, online, and social analytics.

Onsite location analytics uses CMX to detect presence, locate, and track all Wi-Fi devices. It then aggregates and enhances the data to gain insight into the visitor interaction with the venue. The analytics engine classifies and groups the data based on defined criteria to provide information such as dwell times, crowding index, and traffic paths.

Online analytics equip organizations with the top websites that customers are visiting while in the venue, and the percentage of visitors who have taken advantage of online banner campaigns. Online analytics can help organizations better understand aggregate trends of websites such as online reviews, competitor offers, and social media chatter. The data helps customers combat show rooming and deliver a more relevant mobile experience.

Social analytics, including the Cisco CMX for Facebook Wi-Fi solution, deliver social media demographic information of customers who have checked in to the venue from their mobile device. With this information, organizations can gather aggregate trends such as age, gender, or city of origin.

The intelligence from CMX Analytics helps you provide the most rewarding experience for you and your customers. Get more from your wireless network with Cisco CMX.

The ability to capture new customers and keep existing customers by delivering more value is essential to continued growth in all customer-facing industries. Cisco Connected Mobile Experiences (CMX) allows customers to connect through your onsite Wi-Fi. It opens a direct channel of communication that lets you better understand and deliver what your customers want.

When you more effectively engage your customers, you can:

Increase loyalty of existing customers and attract new customers by providing them with a personalized experienceIncrease customer conversion by providing key information at critical decision points in the purchase processReduce potential for show rooming by proactively responding to online customer behaviorIncrease brand exposure through social media check-in and feed streamingIncrease customer satisfaction by helping customers make decisions more aligned with their needs

By helping you better understand how your customers actually behave while at your site, Cisco CMX helps you make the best use of your floor plan. With this improved insight, you can:

Determine the most trafficked locations to position or price products or servicesAdjust venue layout to optimize traffic flow in periods of high useAdjust venue layout to place goods or services along the most used pathwaysStaff service locations to accommodate customer flows and time of dayEvaluate impact of floor plan adjustmentsFor your customers and your business, the Cisco CMX solution can deliver the right information at the right time.

The CMX solution integrates new and existing Cisco technologies and services with hardware and software components supplied by third-party partners.

Cisco Aironet Access Points

Provide robust wireless performance and optimized performance.

Cisco Wireless Controllers

Support large and small wireless deployments.

Cisco Mobility Services Engine (MSE)

Get advanced spectrum capabilities, location services, advanced location services, and adaptive wireless IPS. The MSE is available as a physical or virtual appliance, and includes APIs and an SDK to support a growing ecosystem of third-party applications.

Cisco Identity Services Engine

Manage and enforce policy for wireless onboarding and access with saved profiles that determine the level of access suitable for guest networks.

Cisco Prime Infrastructure

Get complete wired and wireless network management and reporting from a single pane. Cisco Prime Infrastructure functions as the interface for the Cisco Mobility Services Engine.

This Cisco developed standard allows mobile device users to automatically shift from 3G/4G to W-Fi connectivity based on roaming credentials administered by services providers.

Most of the world's leading service providers use Cisco carrier-grade switches, routers, and network components.

CMX Ecosystem Partners

Partners in the Cisco Developer Network deliver location-aware guest access, device-based services, browser-based services, mobile apps, online and onsite analytics, social analytics, and ads and offers.

Open up new revenue opportunities for enterprises and service providers. Cisco Connected Mobile Experiences (CMX) provide the wireless platform for business and network service innovation. Cisco Services, together with Cisco partners, offers services to help plan, build, and manage your mobile wireless solution and get the most from your existing network.

For enterprises, Cisco Services helps extend bring-your-own-device (BYOD) initiatives beyond employees, to engage customers with a personalized mobile experience based on their location and preferences. For service providers, Cisco Services can help expand 4G, Long-Term Evolution (LTE), and Wi-Fi services with small cells to provide personalized mobility services.

To deliver an effective and optimized mobile experience, your deployment should consider the industry, business, customer, and your existing network infrastructure. Cisco Services, together with its partners, can help with professional services that support you across three important areas of your CMX platform:

PlanningDeploymentManagement

During the planning phase, Cisco Services or a certified partner will assess your WLAN to:

Evaluate your existing WLAN infrastructureCapture both technical and business input and requirements

Next, the team will use the Cisco WLAN Planning and Design Service, which includes location services and high-density wireless. Your services delivery team will use the assessment findings to help you plan and design your connected mobile experience solution, addressing important elements such as:

Access point placement and mapping against venue sizeLocation service functionalitySecurity and compliance concerns

With the scope of your solution deployment well defined, your Cisco Services team can design a high-density, location-aware wireless network that:

Addresses your primary needsProvides a clear path to future growth and expansion

The actual development and deployment of your Cisco CMX solution can be performed by Cisco Services teams or a qualified professional services partner. Either delivery model:

Is built on proven Cisco methodologiesIncludes advanced technology expertiseUses Cisco smart services technology and intellectual capital

After your Cisco CMX solution is in place, you can let Cisco or one of its partners manage day-to-day operations to help ensure:

Peak performanceOptimal return on investmentTalk to your Cisco representative or a certified partner service representative to tailor a solution for your needs.

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Alex Smith needs to protect himself a little better

Posted by Mike Florio on September 19, 2013, 6:02 PM EDT AP

With all the concern regarding the ability of Andy Reid’s former quarterback in Philly putting himself in harm’s way, red flags should be hoisted regarding a sudden reckless streak from Reid’s current quarterback in Kansas City.

Smith, who lost his starting job in San Francisco after a concussion opened the door for Colin Kaepernick, repeatedly put himself in harm’s way during the opening drive in last Sunday’s home opener against the Cowboys.

During the 13-play, 77-yard scoring march, Smith ran the ball five times.  Every time, he finished the effort with something other than a slide or a run out of bounds.  At one point, Smith capped a 17-yard run on third and 15 by launching himself butt first along the sideline.

On each of Smith’s next three runs during the game, he either went out of bounds or slid.  So maybe it was adrenaline on the opening drive, and maybe he was told to calm down and be careful.

Regardless, when we’re watching and waiting for Mike Vick to get blown up, sir on Thursday night, it makes sense to also keep an eye on whether Smith gets ear-holed.

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Wis. killer might have been better off in prison

By DINESH RAMDE
Associated Press

WAUKESHA, Wis. (AP) - Alan Randall may have been better off going to prison for killing two Wisconsin police officers in 1975. He might have been freed in his early 30s, with most of his life still ahead of him.

Instead, Randall likely will be discharged from a Madison hospital Friday as a 55-year-old who has spent his entire adult life in psychiatric institutions for a mental illness he never had.

At age 16, Randall ambushed two officers outside the tiny police station in his rural southeast Wisconsin town of Summit. He had robbed the station, and later told investigators that the officers' arrival had startled him. Randall gunned down the two men, then drove off in their bloody, bullet-ridden squad car to commit another burglary before going home to bed.

Randall was tried as an adult and convicted of killing the officers, but during a second phase of the trial, he was found not guilty by reason of insanity. Randall's lawyers were prepared to introduce evidence that he was paranoid schizophrenic - evidence that has since been lost - but prosecutors allowed the claim to go unchallenged.

Randall was sent to a mental institution in northeastern Wisconsin, where doctors eventually concluded he wasn't mentally ill. Randall never required anti-psychotic medication, and several experts said that likely means he was never paranoid schizophrenic, which is a treatable but incurable condition.

Randall asked to be freed in 1989 and his doctors testified that he presented little danger, but his lack of mental illness worked against him. If he had been sick at the time of the killings but successfully treated, he could have argued that the risk was gone. But if the cause of his violent behavior wasn't a known mental illness, then the unknown homicidal trigger might still exist, the judge reasoned in denying the request.

The state Supreme Court upheld the decision on appeal, ruling that the state can keep a sane person committed to a psychiatric institution if it believes that person might become violent again.

Undeterred, Randall kept applying for his release, noting each time that doctors had given him a clean bill of health and that his good behavior had earned him privileges, including the opportunity to leave the facility during the day for a fulltime job at an art gallery.

His efforts were finally rewarded this spring, when a jury recommended that he should be freed. A judge was expected to sign off on his release Friday.

The widow and a sister of one of the officers Randall killed, Robert "Rocky" Atkins, said they're resigned to Randall's release.

"Have I forgiven him? No. I haven't forgiven him because he has not asked for forgiveness," said Atkins' sister, Diane Stojanovich. "I have to admit I wonder: If he's put in a corner would he ever do that again?"

Neither Randall nor his attorney responded to interview requests.

Bill Casper, who runs the Neenah gallery where Randall worked, described Randall as a gentle person who worked well with customers. He said Randall often expressed remorse about what he had done.

"Many times he said, 'I'm really sorry and sad about my situation,'" Casper said. "He never once tried to say, 'I was only a kid, I didn't know what I was doing.' He never tried to downplay what he did."

Casper said Randall was miserable in the institution. While perfectly sane, Randall was surrounded by people who were seriously mentally ill. So he spent a lot of time with staff members, the only people with whom he could have normal conversations, or in a greenhouse where he could be alone, Casper said.

Because Randall was only 16 when he killed the officers, had he shown the same exemplary behavior in prison that he did while he was committed, he might have been paroled in 17 to 20 years under the rules of the time, said Brad Schimel, the Waukesha County prosecutor currently handling Randall's case. That means he could have been freed as early as 1992, when he would have been 34 years old.

Instead he has remained in an institution.

"The public might think it's an easy life but I don't think anyone would choose to be here," said Greg Van Rybroek, the director of the Mendota Mental Health Institute where Randall is currently committed. "One would recognize that freedom is lost in coming here."

___

Dinesh Ramde can be reached at dramde@ap.org

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Better East Texas: Pressure on Washington Redskins to change team mascot

(KLTV) -

What is in a name? That's an old question that resonates loudly even today.

There has been an on going debate about the offensiveness of the name of the NFL football team from Washington – the Washington Redskins. Native American groups are offended by the use of the term "redskin" to the point that they are protesting in advance of the team's upcoming games as well as buying media schedules to express their displeasure with the use of the name.

Team owner Daniel Snyder has pledged never to change the name, and if you are a football fan, it is hard to imagine a better rivalry than the Redskins and Cowboys through the years. So what should the sensitivity be to a professional or amateur team's name and the potential to offend? Now, in America, it is certainly appropriate to express your view and if offended, you can express that rationale behind the offense.

I can see why the term "redskin" could be upsetting to Native Americans but I also see decades of support, honor and even reverence associated with this team name. It is ultimately up to the team owner, but if we dilute team names down to characters and causes that are universally accepted, we will end up with 32 teams that all look like the Cleveland Browns, who incidentally were named after their first coach Paul Brown. That is fine until someone in the Brown family commits a heinous crime, causing protests, well you get the picture.

We need to keep the Redskins, the Redskins. It brings character and personality to the sport and ultimately keeps a strong connection to Native Americans.

Copyright 2013 KLTV. All rights reserved.

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Better East Texas: George Zimmerman continues to make news

(KLTV) -

George Zimmerman seems to be out of control at a time when he should be doing everything to stay off the radar.

Whether you agree or disagree with the verdict in the Trayvon Martin case, it is hard to say that George Zimmerman is acting like a man who just missed going to jail for Martin's death. You would think he would be doing his best to stay out of the spotlight, instead he continues to have issues with law enforcement.

Recent incidents include several stops by police for speeding and then now a run-in with his soon-to-be former wife who lied for Zimmerman on the witness stand. Zimmerman's attorney has decided he has had enough and he has elected to drop Zimmerman as a client. The only thing missing at this point is a made-for-TV movie, which would elevate Zimmerman to an even higher celebrity status and be a set up for what looks like a fall based on numerous bad decisions.

Perhaps we can all learn a little lesson from George Zimmerman and that is that when we are given a second chance we need to humbly return to our roots and rebuild, and not follow his example of the appearance of defying and even challenging law enforcement by his actions. You hope at some point he becomes less of a flashpoint for his own sake and moves out of the spotlight for his own good.

Copyright 2013 KLTV. All rights reserved.

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