Karrie Ilagan (Cisco Meraki)
Source: Cisco
Hybrid work, automation, artificial intelligence (AI) and digital workspaces are common characteristics of a post-pandemic workforce. Throw sustainability into the mix and organizations are left with a daunting task of transforming and equipping work environments suitable for new employee demands while communicating and collaborating effectively to sustain green behavior.
Recently Meraki Fast-Forward: Day of Innovation in Smart Spaces in Singapore, Cisco Meraki redoubles its commitment to deliver “business and people outcomes” along with a sustainability mandate by reimagining smart spaces using a combination of IT solutions and the Internet of Things (IoT).
The event’s keynote speaker, Charles Reed Anderson — principal of design services firm Eight Inc — pointed out that the global interest in sustainability is driven by things like government regulations in terms of taxes. on carbon and green building requirements.
This is in addition to the modern-day workforce, especially the younger demographic, which embraces sustainability, that today’s employees and job seekers “want to work for companies with a purpose and not just for of profit”.
Green investment as a business priority
In an opening speech, Karrie Ilagan — head of sales across Asia Pacific, Japan and China (APJC) at Cisco Meraki — acknowledged that physical spaces are being reimagined because “expectations are changing of the people”.
Ilagan showed how COVID-19 has changed the way of “viewing productivity and how to achieve individual productivity in a new world of hybrid work”.
“Moreover, it provides a different perspective on how spaces need to be reimagined and redesigned,” Ilagan added, while pointing out how end-users are demanding more “immersive experiences” and customer experience has now become a “strategic priority” for IT leaders post-pandemic.
Ilagan emphasized that sustainability is another key strategic priority for businesses. In particular with Cisco Meraki, the industry executive outlined two of its approaches — the “greening of technology” and “greening through technology”.
In terms of how Cisco Meraki is “greening” their technology, Ilagan shared that strategies include increasing the energy efficiency of products, facilitating the internal use of renewable energy, embracing hybrid jobs, investing in carbon removal solutions and embedding sustainability and circular economy principles across the entire business.
In particular, Ilagan explained that their circular economy principles range from how they “design, manufacture and deliver products” to how they manage products for “multiple lifecycles and deploy new- as-a-service business models to facilitate a circular model”.
Those efforts are supported by partnering with suppliers to manufacture products in “zero-waste factories” and sourcing recycled materials.
Cisco Meraki also implements programs that “repair and replace equipment in the field, take back equipment from the customer side after their use, and sell certified remanufactured equipment.” through Cisco Refresh” to meet ongoing sustainability ambitions.
Meanwhile, another approach to “greening through technology” is defined by three pillars: saving energy, reducing waste, and reducing travel. Ilagan revealed that the Cisco Meraki platform, sensors, cameras, network monitors and other devices help provide such results.
The vendor’s approaches to energy savings include moving workloads to the cloud to reduce the on-premise carbon footprint, using sensors to determine heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) efficiency, and tap its MS switch port schedules to achieve savings from assets that may not be used at night or on weekends.
In terms of waste reduction, Ilagan explained that Cisco Meraki sensors can monitor perishable items to prevent spoilage and waste, as well as inspect IT infrastructure environments to detect potential hardware failures. resulting in waste.
Finally, Cisco Meraki aims to help customers reduce unnecessary travel to manage the physical environment of their organization by using the cloud, zero-touch deployment and, also, through cameras and its sensor.
Ecosystem use cases
The event also featured use cases from some of Cisco Meraki’s ecosystem partners — meldCX, PlaceOS, and SES-imagotag — who shared how they are integrating a set of IoT-provider technologies into their solutions aim to help businesses optimize workplaces “achieving sustainability, accelerating productivity, maximizing ROI and improving user experience”.
For example, Joy Chua, executive vice president of Strategy and Development at meldCX — an AI-powered customer experience platform provider — demonstrated a face-mapping and detection product, Viana and outlined how the business can join the Meraki platform and its smart. cameras to help organizations “maximize” their physical spaces by tracking data on how the space is being used and enabling “actionable insights”.
Also helping organizations develop smart spaces is Sabrina Venish, COO of PlaceOS, which provides an integration platform that empowers user experiences through automation. PlaceOS leverages Meraki’s switching, wireless LAN and smart camera products in an effort to improve employee and customer experience levels, as well as operational efficiency and instill sustainability in organizations across various market verticals.
Meanwhile, Steven Largent, who heads innovation and business development in Asia Pacific for SES-imagotag — a provider of electronic tags and other digital solutions for the retail sector — outlined what how the Cisco Meraki platform and tools influence the digitalization of physical retail. store in three ways.
The first result is the provision of quality data through digitized shelves. Real-time product information or inventory statuses can be sent from shelves to retail staff without having to be physically there. With technology, SES-imagotag aims to “increase store efficiency” and ultimately “increase store revenue”.
In addition, by digitizing the edges of the shelf, it is set to expand the sales opportunities for retail stores. Largent calls it “bringing emotion to the shelf” and it is necessary in e-commerce that “raises the expectations of shoppers”. Interactive, creative shelves that communicate product and sales information can further influence a shopper’s purchase decision or simply “increase shopper satisfaction” and are therefore a viable growth area.
The third result is enabling store automation. Largent explained that electronic shelves and the use of a “fully cloud-based” solution will reduce in-store work leading to greater efficiency and sustainability.
Overall, Largent described the integration of these technologies for retailers as enabling “high performance at minimum cost”.
Finally, Vipula Manukularatne, product marketing specialist for Cisco DNA Spaces – which offers a cloud-based location service platform – described that their technology uses data obtained from Meraki’s devices.
Some of the specific benefits of the technology listed by Manukularatne include identifying air quality and thus improving safety, improving the employee experience in a smart workplace, increasing productivity by tracking the availability of meeting rooms in efficient offices, and ensuring the use of space from a point management facility. in perspective.
Inspire a sustainable-first future
Together with a panel moderated by Ilagan, Cisco Meraki and its ecosystem partners advise that it is important for customers to know what a successful business outcome looks like for them, and make they make it their mission to help identify what their customers want to achieve. .
The convergence of IoT and AI is the basis for the development of modern smart spaces and the journey towards the sustainability and creation of smart spaces, James McKee, product sales specialist for IoT and Edge Intelligence at APJC at Cisco Meraki, said organizations are also encouraged to “prepare. to change the requirements.”
Above all, Ilagan summarized that organizations should think about “sustainability first” when building smart spaces, highlighting the growing demand and need for changing the physical environment in Asia Pacific.
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