Mobile is more than just a way for companies to get an app on a customer’s phone. Mobile is also a power to provide new services and to shape the customer experience with location-based interactions. The world moves, both people and products. Technology to track and take advantage of that movement will be part of the tech landscape going forward.

To gain some insight into mobile technology, John Furrier (@furrier) and Dave Vellante (@dvellante), cohosts of theCUBE, from the SiliconANGLE Media team, visited the HPE Discover 2016 conference in Las Vegas. There, they joined Nick Newton, director of Product Management – Mobile Engagement at Aruba Networks (an HP company).

Talking beacons

The discussion started with the hosts asking Newton to explain the concept of beacons. Newton said beacons are way to track location with benefits in both accuracy and latency. They allow for location-based interactions. He stated that this provides a soft ROI in improved customer experiences and a hard ROI in increased business from those customers.

Beacons, and their technology, also translate to the enterprise setting. Newton described several use cases, such as using beacons to help find offices and conference rooms. He also mentioned combining this location-based data with scheduling systems to see who is using what, and where, providing a more efficient utilization.

The tipping point

“It’s all about use cases,” Newton said. He stated how when they see use cases in the enterprise, it’s always around a pain point — finding conference rooms, for example. People experience these problems themselves and want a solution.

He explained how the big deal is mobile engagement and enabling that capability. He said the number one use case is on corporate campuses. Tracking location also opens up the possibility for mobile to let a person use their own data and apps on any device at any time.

Watch the full interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s coverage of HPE Discover 2016.

Photo by SiliconANGLE