Wearable Technologies in the Enterprise Give Businesses a Competitive Edge

Wearable technologies are the next evolutionary step in computing. Businesses are already finding a multitude of ways to profit from them, and the wave is just beginning.

Wearable Sensors Enable Physioletics to Improve Workplace Efficiency

Frederick Taylor would have loved to have been able to monitor the efficiency of workers with wearable sensors. Tesco uses armbands to track how workers are transporting goods in their warehouse. Employees like it because it saves them from having to carry and fill out clipboards of paperwork.

Some Wearables Even Track Worker Health and Fatigue

The technologies are not only about efficiency. In the construction industry, now sensors can notice when a backhoe driver's head falls forward or their back slumps. That indicates they're tired or even that they experienced a "microsleep," where they actually did fall asleep for a fractional second. When operating heavy equipment, that's plenty long enough for a mistake that could cost somebody an injury or their life. Therefore, if the continues to work, they're at greater risk of an injury. Some wearables can track such longterm health indicators as rates of breath and heart beats per minutes.

Displaying Hands-Free Data

20 years ago, Boeing began using technology that allowed pilots to see critical information without having to glance down at dials. Now, many technicians from wire assemblers to plumbers can access instructions without having to use their hands to thumb through instruction manuals. Some smartglasses allow the workers to talk one-on-one with a remote expert.

An EEG headband developed by Melon may help knowledge and creative workers by monitoring their brain waves to determine when they are about to have a new idea and to track at what times of day or under what circumstances they are most productive.

Increasing Security

One obvious use of wearable technology is to monitor employee locations. Along with that, it could track visitors to make certain they remain within authorized areas. Employees with authorization could enter restricted areas with less hassle over identification. It could also keep them away from areas under construction or repair.

Protecting Police, Firefighters and Soldiers

Police are wearing technologies to track their activities to better respond to allegations of abuse. One city in California had complaints against police drop by 88 percent. And police in trouble no longer have to call on their radios or rely on a citizen to call 911 if they're unable to. The military can also track activity as well, to respond more quickly when someone attacks soldiers. Sensors can let firefighters know when they're approaching dangerous levels of heat and gas.

Many Employees Like the New Technologies

According to Goldsmiths, University of London, these new technologies improve employee satisfaction by 3.5%. That's from a survey taken of 4,000 adults in the United States and the United Kingdom. One out of every three reported that wearable technologies had enhanced their careers.

Netclearance has launched a suite of wearables for the enterprise including the mBeaconSense and the employee mBeaconCard badges that can help monitor employees and visitors. It also works as a way for employees as a way to signal for help during emergencies. Wearable technologies in business enterprises are here, and are going to become mainstream in the years ahead.

Revolutionizing Proximity Payments Technology

Over the past few decades, we have seen society's preferred mode of payment shift from physical currency to debit cards and credit cards. As time goes on, other forms of payment have emerged, and are poised to take over as our new preferred method of payment. Proximity payments technology is but one of these technologies, and consists of the use of smartphones in order to transfer funds between businesses and customers in exchange for products and services, transcending industries and finding more nuanced uses every day. According to eMarketer.com, proximity payments in the United States handled $8.7 billion in transactions for the year 2015. For 2016, experts expect this number to climb as high as $27 billion. If this trend continues, this means that this technology will be the main method of financial transaction by 2019.

How Does Proximity Payment Work?

Proximity payment technology consists of an exchange between a smartphone and another compatible device via Bluetooth technology, where the smartphone acts similarly to a debit or credit card, connected to a customer's bank account. Of course, this means that both devices in a proximity payment exchange need to have Bluetooth capabilities, but as time goes on, more and more devices are becoming Bluetooth compatible.

Netclearance vs. Other Proximity Payment Technologies

As proximity payment technologies have become more popular, many companies have tried to jump on this trend, each with varying degrees of success. Examples include Android Pay, ApplePay, and Samsung Pay. While each of these technologies are innovative, they all have their own issues that impede ease of access, including:

• Usable only on phones they manufacture (walled garden effect)
• Credit card based systems
• User data shared with Google and other sites
• No options for customization
• Added fees

With our mBeaconPay technology at Netclearance, we want to help our users break away from these constricting qualifications, offering freedom through features such as:

• Phone agnostic (supports all smartphones regardless of make and model)
• App-based
• User data shared only with relevant banks and retailers
• No or low transaction fees
• Customizable (white-label)

With such a stark contrast, it's clear why mBeaconPay available here at Netclearance is more effective than its competitors. Contact us today to find out more!

Mobile Technology Will Make Customer Loyalty Cards a Relic of the Past

Today, most consumers keep several loyalty cards for their favorite retailers, cards that they either stuff in their wallets or tether to their keychains. Swiped or scanned at the start of a transaction, these cards can give customers discounts while also providing the retailer trackable data about customer shopping habits. But the most important aspect of loyalty cards is that they keep customers coming back for more.

Retailers love customer loyalty programs because it’s easier and less expensive to generate revenue from an existing customer than it is to try to attract unfamiliar consumers and try to wring sales from these new customers. Of course, retailers still want to attract these new customers. The longer-term goal is to turn these new customers into repeat customers, perhaps with the help of a loyalty card. For example, Starbucks claims its My Starbucks Rewards program was as a key revenue and profit driver for the coffee chain, notes Entrepreneur magazine. In a similar approach, Best Buy tweaked its rewards card program with a small points percentage boost in rewards that a customer could apply to future purchases.

While loyalty cards have been successful, they do have limitations. From the perspective of a consumer, a loyalty card is just one more thing to pack in an already bulging wallet. It’s also one more thing that could easily get lost. But there’s a loyalty card replacement on the horizon. The consumer migration toward mobile transactions will make loyalty card worries a thing of the past.

Customers are always looking for deals — that’s one of the reasons that they sign up for loyalty cards. But customers are also looking for convenience. Mobile loyalty programs give them that convenience. When the loyalty program is managed as mobile app on a smart phone, the customer no longer has a card to carry around and worry about losing.

In today’s digital world, most people are never without their smartphones. And having a digitally deployed loyalty programs means that consumers can take advantage of all of their programs from the convenience of their phones. No longer will they need to carry around multiple cards in a wallet. From the retailer’s standpoint, the constant digital interaction provides more detailed information about customers’ preferences and purchases.

These mobile loyalty programs are not far away. Netclearance offers an app called Bounty, which gives consumers access to coupons as well as information about places for food and entertainment. The app works with Netclearance’s multi-mode (Wi-Fi + BLE) proximity beacon technology, which provides to retailers tracking and location capabilities. By knowing the location of a customer, retailers can then offer customized content and promotions intended to drive more sales. Furthermore, analytics of browsing habits and purchases can help retailers plan and manage their inventory more efficiently. The future of digital loyalty is already here. Contact us to learn more.