The realm of Retailing is currently undergoing significant changes across the globe.  Cisco Systems, Inc. released the results of a new market study, focused on the evolving retail shopping experience.  Their report examined the impact of automation, self-service and omni-channel shopping experiences -- plus, consumer views about providing their personal information in exchange for more personalized services.

The majority (61 percent) of global consumers are open to shopping at a fully automated "self service" store with vending machines and kiosk stations offering a virtual customer service.

Additionally, when "checking out," the majority of consumers globally (52 percent) prefer self-check-out stations in order to avoid waiting in line to make purchases.

The younger consumers were the most accepting of this retail shopping experience: 57 percent of Generation Y (aged 18-29) and 55 percent of Generation X shoppers (aged 30 to 49) prefer self-check-out, while baby boomers (50+) represent only 45 percent.

Overall, the report demonstrates consumer interest in more automated and personalized shopping experiences, the type of connections made possible by what Cisco describes as the Internet of Everything (IoE).

The Internet of Everything phenomenon brings together people, process, data and things to make networked connections more relevant and valuable than ever before. Cisco recently released an Internet of Everything economic analysis that identified a $14.4 trillion in bottom-line business value that will be created over the next decade by the Internet of Everything innovations.

Highlights and Key Facts from the Study

The Cisco Customer Experience Report surveyed 1,511 consumers across 10 countries to examine the perceptions of consumers on their desired retail shopping experience.

Omni-Channel Shopping Experience

• One-third (34 percent) of global consumers use multiple channels when shopping.  The survey shows 23 percent of consumers recently made in-store purchases based on research they did online, and 11 percent of shoppers purchased online after seeing it in a retail store.

Convenience of Self-Service and Automated Buying

• Avoiding lines: The majority of consumers globally (52 percent) prefer self-check-out stations in order to avoid waiting in line to make a purchase.
• Price check/product availability: When researching products in the store, 43 percent prefer using their own mobile phone, while 57 percent of consumers prefer using in-store touch screens.  
• Rise of the digital mall: The majority (61 percent) of global consumers would be willing to shop in a completely automated store with vending machines with products and kiosk stations offering virtual customer service. And 42 percent of consumers would prefer to shop in these kinds of environments.
• Automated milkman: Almost half (49 percent) of consumers would allow an automated engine to make purchases for replacement products automatically. This could include restocking milk in the refrigerator. 
• Budget tracking: Half of global consumers (52 percent) would likely purchase a device to help them stay on budget for clothing and other retail purchases.
• Automated shopping tips: Two-thirds (65 percent) of global consumers are comfortable receiving retail advice based on their location through their mobile device.

In-Person Assistance When Shopping

• Desire for more personal customer service: Although many shoppers want automation when purchasing, consumers are evenly divided, with 58 percent of consumers preferring help from an in-store associate. And when shopping online, slightly more consumers prefer to instant-message with a sales associate (30 percent), or call one on the phone (28 percent) than send an email (27 percent).

When you follow the proven methodologies of the market leaders, and deploy business technology for competitive advantage, you can fine-tune your current online business processes, improve operational performance and increase productivity.

But if this is the extent of your efforts to date, then I have good news for you -- we now know that there's huge upside potential for new value creation that's far greater than we ever imagined.

The Internet of Everything (IoE) is expected to enable global private-sector businesses to generate at least $613 billion in global profits in 2013, according to the "IoE Value Index" study released by Cisco.

The report -- announced via a global TelePresence event that connected more than 10 international locales -- found firms that optimize the connections among people, process, data and things will generate the largest profits.

The study of 7,500 global business and IT leaders in 12 countries reports that the United States, China and Germany are expected to realize the greatest value in 2013. However, the study also found that corporations could nearly double those profits through greater adoption of business practices, customer approaches and technologies that leverage IoE.

While IoE is already driving private-sector corporate profits, it is estimated that an additional $544 billion could be realized if companies adjusted their strategies to better leverage it.

"The Internet of Everything has the potential to significantly reshape our economy and transform key industries,” said Rob Lloyd, Cisco President of Development and Sales. "The question is who will come out on top and win in this new economy. This study shows us that success won't be based on geography or company size but on who can adapt fastest.”

The Internet of Everything is the networked connection of people, process, data and things, and the increased value that occurs as “everything” joins the network. Several technology transitions -- including the Internet of Things, increased mobility, the emergence of cloud computing, and the growing importance of big data, among others – are combining to enable IoE.

"This study confirms the potential for the Internet of Everything and our ability to make the world smarter, together," said SmartThings CTO Jeff Hagins, who participated in the global Cisco event. "With the SmartThings platform and open community, we believe that more developers and inventors will be able to participate in the value chain and ultimately bring the physical graph to life.”

The Internet of Everything Value Index builds on research that Cisco conducted earlier this year, which found that global businesses could pursue as much as $14.4 trillion over the next decade by leveraging IoE to improve operations and customer service.

Among business leaders who participated in the IoE Value Index:

• 69 percent said they thought the global job market would stay the same or improve due to IoE.
• 89 percent thought wages would improve or stay the same.

In addition, business leaders believe that the Internet of Everything will help drive better information security – an indication that they understand the importance of security and privacy to the growth of IoE. Fifty percent of business leaders said IoE would improve security while 26 percent thought there would be no change.

While businesses in the United States, China and Germany are poised to realize the greatest level of profits in 2013, IoE value is spread across firms around the globe. The 12 countries included in the study, which account for nearly 70 percent of global Gross Domestic Product (GDP), are expected to realize the following value from IoE in 2013:


While the Internet of Everything is driving a huge amount of corporate profits, an additional $544 billion could also be generated in 2013 if companies adjusted their strategies to better capitalize on it. “That figure should be a wake-up call to businesses large and small that IoE can significantly add to their bottom line,” added Cisco’s Lloyd.

To capture more value in the IoE Economy, companies should:

• Invest in high-quality technology infrastructure and tools.
• Adopt and follow inclusive practices that enable all employees to contribute.
• Develop effective information-management practices.

To maximize value from the Internet of Everything, firms should focus on the IoE-driven capabilities that will benefit their industries most:

• Manufacturing firms: real-time, multidimensional data analysis; integrated video collaboration; remote tracking of physical assets.
• Energy firms: integration of sensor data; ability to locate experts; predictive analytics.
• Retailers: predictive analytics and data visualization; BYOD and interacting with customers using rich media; mobile payments and remote customer monitoring.

Among all industries, services ($158.8 billion) and manufacturing ($103.1 billion) are expected to realize the greatest IoE value in 2013. To learn more about the upside potential view the following video, then visit www.InternetOfEverything.com to discover how to realize the full potential in your business.

We’ve certainly come a long way. Over the last couple of years, we’ve witnessed the trials and tribulations of the early-adopters of managed cloud services, and we’ve observed how the offerings have matured to attain broad-based market acceptance.

Cloud computing has become pervasive within today’s forward thinking companies. It’s already a transformative force throughout the global networked economy. Every enterprise that uses Business Technology is either considering or implementing cloud solutions -- to create a strategic advantage over their late-adopter industry peer group in the marketplace.

According to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC), about 77 percent of North American companies were already using at least one public cloud service in 2012. IDC believes the companies that are spending on cloud-based capability have reached a deployment pace that’s unmatched by any previous business technology transformation.

Moreover, they say that those leaders who have adopted services are exploring cloud computing from two primary perspectives: either to move their existing internal IT capabilities to the cloud or to respond to a pressing internal business need -- thereby enabling a new capability quickly and effectively.

Put simply, cloud-based solutions empower IT organizations to offer a more complete set of capabilities to their internal constituency -- without the hardware, software, support, and maintenance headaches that are typically inherent with an in-house IT solution.

The Apparent Shift to Public Cloud Solutions

IDC research demonstrates that IT buyers are rapidly shifting their spending patterns from private cloud to hybrid or public cloud. The public cloud and virtual private cloud models are both built and delivered from a service provider's site.

IDC expects IT buyer patterns to shift as follows:

• 31 percent of companies will source greater than half of their IT spend from public cloud by 2016.
• U.S. businesses will spend $43 billion on cloud-delivered IT in 2016.
• During 2012–2016, SaaS spending will increase by 123 percent, PaaS spending will increase by 48.5 percent, and IaaS spending will reach $31 billion.
• In 2016, a majority (80 percent) of Global 2000 businesses will have 30 percent of their IT capability residing offsite.

Remaining Barriers to Increased Cloud Service Adoption

IDC’s latest research has uncovered that security is still the single-largest IT buyer concern of public cloud services -- as it has been for the past six years. However, IDC believes that concerns about security will dissipate over the next two years -- as potential new cloud users better understand the technical and business process implications of moving their applications to the cloud.

IDC believes that by 2015, the three most important aspects of IT buying decisions will be the overall cost, internal management of cloud services, and identifying which applications to run on the cloud.

Moreover, network latency of service delivery can lead to poor performance for users. Therefore, broader distribution of 1GbE-capable networks and development on new browser protocols – such as HTML5 -- are believed to be significant issues confronting cloud service providers and enterprise users.

IDC says that those same issues will likely continue to have an impact on performance, and thus the ongoing adoption, of managed cloud services.

What are the key demands of these prospective cloud service adopters? Customers say that they want to be able to access all their external services across a consistent performance platform, and the Web browser is the most common denominator to achieve that objective.

Future Outlook for Managed Cloud Service Buyers

So, what’s next for the cloud services marketplace? According to IDC’s assessment, the CIO and IT manager focus is increasingly being directed toward a greater cloud adoption model.

In summary, the typical cloud applications buyer is becoming an IT broker of physical or virtual application services. They’re seeking new choices for integrating and managing across public, private, and hybrid cloud scenarios -- plus incorporating any preexisting legacy environments.

Meanwhile, IDC analysts expect that cloud service developers will evolve towards the major growth opportunities – such as enterprise mobility, big data, and social commerce applications.

To learn more about their available IT buyer guidance, visit the IDC website.

The young and savvy business executives of tomorrow will have high expectations and won't embrace or tolerate obsolete processes. As a new generation is entering the management ranks of companies worldwide, they will bring with them their own preferred ways of communicating and collaborating.

A global market study by Cisco Systems has revealed that the majority of these next-generation executives intend to depend heavily upon business-class video to connect with their teams, colleagues, suppliers, customers and prospects -- as well as to help their businesses deliver new products and services.

The 2013 Cisco Global Young Executives' Video Attitudes Survey gives insight into what management-track leaders aged 34 and under think about business-class video, which delivers high-quality, reliable, and highly secure lifelike video to users. Cisco commissioned Redshift Research to conduct the survey of more than 1,300 global respondents.

"Today's leaders are often tech enthusiasts. Tomorrow's leaders are increasingly tech dependent and video is no exception to the rule. The next generation of leaders is realizing that using video makes them more productive, helps companies reduce costs, and even plays a role in attracting the best talent available. They understand why video can be better than being there," said Rowan Trollope, senior vice president and general manager, Collaboration Technology Group, Cisco.

Top findings from the worldwide study include:

• Three out of five young executives say they will rely more heavily on business-class video during the next five to 10 years.
• 87 percent believe video has a significant and positive impact on an organization, citing benefits ranging from enhancing the experience of telecommuters to saving money on travel costs and even attracting top talent.
• 94 percent of those organizations with less than 400 employees value video as a way to break down language barriers in the increasingly global marketplace.
• 87 percent say they would choose to work for a video-enabled organization over a company that has not invested in business-class video communications, because the video-enabled organization "cares about using technology to fuel business growth."

The study's findings fall into three main categories that are top-of-mind for future leaders: video's impact on their career, its impact on the broader organization and future business needs.

Career Impact

Findings show that young executives anticipate that video will dramatically impact the way they communicate.

• While three out of five (61percent) of the young executives said they will rely more heavily on business-class video in the next five to 10 years, those who aspire to manage the largest teams intend to rely upon video even more; 70 percent of those who aspire to managing teams with 51 or more members said they will rely more heavily on video as their careers progress.

• As video is clearly on the rise amongst young executives, what do they perceive as the medium's main benefits both today and tomorrow?

• Today: The top three benefits young executives stated they derive from video are the ability:
• to read visual cues
• to "be there" without travelling
• to share content in real-time

• Tomorrow: They anticipate video technology innovations will allow them to both customize and enhance the experience - both things one cannot readily do when face to face.

• 54 percent indicated an interest in customizing the experience (for example, the ability to quickly edit and/or cut a video recording from a meeting and share it via social media tools; understand the dynamics of a business video meeting-in-progress when they join late, by allowing them to privately watch/listen/scan content from earlier in the meeting).
• 21 percent indicated they are keenly interested in features that will take the conversation to the next level—such as real-time language translations (for example, closed captioning for telepresence) and pop-up bubbles that would provide background information on participants from sources like LinkedIn and Salesforce.com.