Technology is a funny thing: it enthralls some, mystifies others. As evidenced by CES and NRF, there is no shortage of gadgets and dashboards these days to help businesses solve their every need. And it just keeps coming.

From an IT perspective, choosing the right tools to solve each technology challenge should involve a full evaluation the merits of feature sets, while balancing the (rapidly shrinking) budget.

But how often is IT allowed to do that anymore? Truth is, the business doesn't wait. Flanked by consumer-mindset-driven employees insisting on using any tools that suit their fancy (hello, Shadow IT) and visionary execs eager to stay on top of visionary buzz words like Big Data and Analytics, IT often feels squeezed out from getting a seat at the table when driving the business.

The industry is witnessing a shift in IT budgets being moved over to LoB, a clear nod towards the business relevance of digital engagement.

In fact, 44% of mobility initiatives are now either completely funded or jointly funded by Line of Business (LoB) leaders.

Mobility is key. This is a great opportunity for IT to strategize and align to LoB interests to drive programs that allow LoB and IT to win together and successfully deliver business outcomes using technology.

Cisco's Connected Mobile Experiences (CMX) sits at this sweet spot where the network, traditionally owned by IT, can help LoB with their painpoints: data analytics on customer behavior, statistics for operational optimization, and even customer engagement opportunities. To learn more about how this works, visit cisco.com/go/cmx.

And now,CMX is evolving beyond Wi-Fi to other data sources from the network (think BLE, video, CRM and more) in order to help our customers transform their business models for the mobility age and the impending Internet of Things.

With the latest updates to the solution, our customers can now:

Gain Customer Insights Using the Latest Location Innovations

• Improved location on 3 vectors to better understand customer behavior, identify movement patterns and gain real time insight

• Introduction of Hyperlocation Module bringing Wi-Fi location accuracy up to submeteraccuracy when combined with BLE
• Enhanced FastLocate to bring location data to big data levels with up to 120 locationupdates per minute
• Comprehensive Cisco BLE Strategy for hybrid location approach: Wi-Fi and BLE together for granularity, visibility and control.

Simplify Tools with User Centric Design

• Unified Dashboard consolidating all views for Mobility Services Engine (MSE) including historical and real time location analytics, BLE, captive zone portals and systems management
• Pre-designed Vertical Analytics for enterprises that want more comprehensive analytics tools

Prepare Your Business with Big Data Ready, Scalable Infrastructure

• Server Scaling and Clustering with MSE 10.0 for greater infrastructure elasticity to support up to 1M clients and analytics data storage improvements for 150M records

• Cloud-based EMSP Consumption Model option for monthly invoicing

To learn more about these updates and how they can make an impact on your mobility strategy, join Robb Boyd and Jimmy Ray Purser as they delve into how to go beyond Wi-Fi location to transform business models in this Techwise TV episode: REGISTRATION LINK.

And check out this video for a fun way of understanding the relevance of CMX for solving LoB challenges.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rje2xTSuoGg

Look for deep dives into each of these new features on this blog coming soon.

Tweet us @Cisco_Mobility if you have any questions or comments.