|
Mexia Interactive |
|
|
|
|
November 16, 2015 Issue |
||
|
The Most Powerful Name In Corporate News and Information |
|||
|
Indoor Satellite Network for Airport Queue Management Systems, Location Based Services and Wait Time Analytics |
|||
|
President & CEO
Mexia Interactive
Interview conducted by: Lynn Fosse, Senior Editor, CEOCFO Magazine, Published – November 16, 2015
CEOCFO: Mr. Tinley, what is the concept behind Mexia Interactive? Mr. Tinley: Our vision of Mexia is to be the Indoor Satellite Network that enables consumers to be as connected indoors as they are outdoors using GPS but in a much more granular way. Until our SMRT Sensor was engineered, companies tried, with varying levels of success, to patch together existing hardware or new types of technology in order to connect with consumers in a single way. What Mexia has done, essentially, is take the technology behind GPS and engineered it into a Sensor that provides indoor geo-location, wayfinding, offline analytics and deep levels of engagement through one open-source Platform. This allows our clients around the globe to Understand, Engage and Connect within any indoor environment that our SMRT Sensors have been installed. This can be passengers of an airport, users of an underground metro system, visitors to a mall, attendees to an expo center or consumers of a retailer. Google, Apple, Facebook and others, use satellites in the sky to connect to consumers and engage with them. They know exactly what street consumers are on, and what store they may be standing in front of, but when people go indoors, these satellites are of limited or no use. This is because the satellites rely on line-of-sight to accurately follow a consumer’s movements. When you are going through a mall, mall operators want to know details such as what stores you visit, how often you visit them and how long you spend there. When passengers get to an airport, they want to know exactly how long the wait at security is or that their flight has changed gates and how to get there. Airlines want know where a passenger is within the airport so that they are not holding flights or off-loading bags. In order to deliver on the expectations of consumers, there are multiple technologies that can be utilized, but when these are brought together in one open-source Platform that replicates and even enhances the GPS experience, it creates a powerful enabling tool for companies and a seamless transition from outdoors to indoors for consumers.
We have created the world’s only true Indoor Satellite Platform that provides the insights, analytics, engagement and connectivity that the Internet of Things is built around.
CEOCFO: What is the technology? How have you been able to create this when it may be elusive to others? Mr. Tinley: We started out doing mobile device location analytics. Clients were asking for a more granular level of information, and we have always taken a view that indoor satellites would need to be launched to replicate GPS capabilities. Through our proprietary hardware and software, we have engineered the SMRT Sensor to allow us to enable this transition to the Indoors. The software is essentially the secret sauce that runs in the background. However, it is the open source hardware (SMRT Sensor) that we install. We have taken the technology as it is, and through our expertise in GPS, RF programming, antennas and how mobile signals react based on environment, and we have engineered something quite special.
CEOCFO: Who is using your services today? Who should be using them? Mr. Tinley: Right now, airports and shopping malls are our core customers. This is because they are large spaces that have many people in them at one time and there is no set path that visitors have to follow. When you walk into a mall, you are not going down a specific lane or isle. Essentially, you are just wandering. When you are in an airport, although there is a certain predetermined path of going through security and to the gates; in and amongst those areas you still have a free-flow of passenger movements. Those are consumers our clients have the most difficulty understanding. Mexia provides the deep and accurate insights into consumer behaviors. They are so vast, so large, and have so many people at one time with no control necessarily over where people are coming and going. Our clients need to understand that, just like they understand the people that go to their website and what pages they visit. They need to understand the specific stores, departments, retailers, gates, restaurants and more that people visit in order to create the best experience for their consumers in the future.
CEOCFO: Are just the number of people enough? Does it matter if they are men or women or does it matter where they are from? What can be gleaned? Is it strictly numbers you are providing? Mr. Tinley: This is where our Platform is different. That is why we call it: a Platform. On the basis of it, yes - it is numbers, but at a more sophisticated level. With airports, we know when a device enters the building and when it boards the plane; true curb-to-gate analytics. What is important to the airport itself is how long in advance of their flight did the passenger arrive, how long they did they have to spend at check-in, how long did they have to spend at security; was it too long, did they go to retail areas, did they go to the food and beverage areas? We know what flight they got on because the data from our airport client will show: “Here is Gate 10 at 12:00 p.m. flying to London.” We can then take that, and provide the airport with: “Of all the people that got on that plane flying to London, this is where they spent time. Their average time before check-in was X. This is the percentage of people that spent above a certain amount of time at security. This is the percentage of people that went into the retail area for X amount of time.” The information that is gleaned from it is not simply numbers; it is insights into what people are doing. Again, this is anonymous. It is aggregated data. It has nothing to do with personal information. Technologically, we cannot get any of that. What we do is provide insights to say “This was time of day and the Queue time at security. It was longer than what you want it to be, so you can open up additional security lanes.” They will know to do that in real-time because of the data that Mexia provides and the on-board Adaptive Video Analytics system. That is the data side of it. From a shopping mall standpoint, when a customer enters a mall the operator currently does not have any idea what stores they visit and for how long, if customers who come in before noon typically spend most of their time in the food court or are they going to different stores, what the most popular category of stores are and so on. Those are what we call granular insights, and we provide these insights through our platform to allow our clients to make decisions about things like rent levels, marketing programs and ROI measurement and staffing levels – all of which are things they have control over. As it is a Platform, we also have additional technology on our ‘satellite’ that allows for engagement – one of which is beacons. Our clients have the opportunity to take advantage of beacons--iBeacon through Apple and now Google with an Eddystone Beacon™. If they want to take advantage of those technologies to engage personally with their customers who have downloaded an app, provide wayfinding or who have opted in to be engaged with, then our Platform enables this. We provide data, reporting and information that clients can glean insights from. Once we have those insights and our clients have a way to personally connect with their customers, we can provide the Platform to allow them to do that. That is really where we differentiate ourselves from anyone else in the industry. It is because we combine everything to happen through the SMRT Sensor.
CEOCFO: Do you know if airports actually make changes from the information? Mr. Tinley: Absolutely! I actually just hung-up off of a Skype call with one of our airport clients in Cyprus whom we are working with specifically because they are taking wait-times at security and reducing them to improve the passenger experience. They are able to do this through staff management using our data. This decreased wait time will then correlate with adding available shopping time in retail and translate into an increased spend per passenger. It will also help create a less anxious passenger experience because they know how long approximately it will take them to get through security in real-time. They are very much taking that information and not only saying, “yes, we understand this,” but using it to affect change. Our clients know the results of decreasing the wait time in security. They know in real-time when they need to open a security lane to meet their KPI’s. They know what areas of retail that specific destination bound passengers are visiting. We provide insights and actionable information. That is why I refer to us as an ‘enabling’ company.
CEOCFO: What is your geographic reach? Mr. Tinley: Within the last 18 months, we have quickly become a global company. We have multiple installations in Cyprus, the U.K., Ireland, Puerto Rico, Brazil and of course North America. We have also done some project work in Australia and are in the process of signing a joint venture for Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia. We are also negotiating with some strategic partners in the US, Canada and Europe who wish to expand their business within the indoor space and need a company to provide the accurate, consistent and reliable data that Mexia has become known for.
CEOCFO: How would someone find Mexia? What might they search for online? Mr. Tinley: If they were in an airport they would search for ‘queue management systems’ or ‘wait time management systems.’ An airport might search for location analytics or location based services. That is how they could find us online. We do many trade shows and events and are asked to speak at different conferences; airport-focused mainly right now but lately many IoT events are asking us to become involved because of the scale of our Platform. Airports specifically understand that we take a very holistic view of the Internet of Things and we can provide them the Platform to benefit from this. We also get many inquiries through positive word of mouth. As big as the airport industry is, it is a small community that shares ideas about success and about what is and is not working. More and more we are getting inbound calls and references from clients that are saying, “Others say they do this but they’re limited in their scope. Mexia really is a holistic Platform that allows not just analytics but a whole depth and range of services.” Our success with our current clients is helping us attract new business and new verticals such as asset tracking in healthcare.
CEOCFO: How do you provide the analytics? What are you showing? Is it raw numbers, graphs or charts? Mr. Tinley: All of our clients have access to a dashboard; a set of reports that we work with them to create. Those reports are either regarding specific use cases or items such as what was the peak dwell time in security today, down to reporting variance to their KPI’s. We provide a range of different reports and insights to do that. We also work with third party groups and companies. They are now starting to utilize our data because the key component that they have been missing is the granular analytics and data that Mexia can provide through our SMRT Sensor and software. They are now able to take that information and help provide additional insights to their clients. We provide dashboards, but we also provide data itself to be utilized and combined with other third party data and information so that you can really get that holistic view of what is happening, what is affecting change and where we can make more of the positive change that the group or company might need.
CEOCFO: Do you find people who say, “We really do not need this?” Mr. Tinley: I would say that 18 months ago, I might have heard this, but more and more the response is “We really NEED this and we need it now!” But at the same time, the people I speak with at the CEO, CIO, CTO, CMO level all repeat that what they don’t need is a company just to give them more data that they can’t get actionable insights from. They also want one company to be their IoT partner, not a group of small companies that sell battery based beacon systems and software and another to work on mobile analytics and another to do people counting. This is not efficient and more often than not leads to stress over who is providing what, for what and where it is being used. Any brick-and-mortar based company wants to understand what is truly happening within their locations, but they need insights and the ability to action this through better consumer experiences or monetize this through personal engagement. I would suggest that in some instances, we can be our own worst enemy because our Platform is so vast that it can be difficult to comprehend all that we do. I will catch myself getting too wide in terms of the future and where the industry is going. I have to slow down and ensure that our potential clients are not overwhelmed by all of this. Of course, once they start working with us, they appreciate the fact that we have not looked at this with a two-year horizon, but more of a five to seven year plan.
CEOCFO: Do you foresee a time when it would be cost effective for every major retailer to have a system from Mexia or is it just prohibitive for an individual store? Mr. Tinley: No, it is not cost prohibitive. Our business model is Opex not Capex based and it is scalable for large installations in an efficient way. We charge for services that clients need and these can be turned on or off when required. Our Platform is the basis for what is becoming the Internet of Things and we can remotely adapt, update or change as technology evolves or announcements such as the Google Eddystone Beacon are made. We had always believed in Beacon technology, but also that Apple and Google would not settle on one system. We have always included two USB powered Beacons in our SMRT Sensor- one that is set to iBeacon protocols and one that was left available for just this type of event. We were able to remotely flash the firmware on our ‘open’ beacon to have it meet Eddystone protocols. This is what we mean by scalable and future proof when we speak to clients, and why our Platform can be the only one they require to enable their IoT strategy. When we speak to an airport, mall, or a retailer like Home Depot, we do not say to them, “We want you to buy a bunch of hardware.” My introduction to many potential clients is, “I am not here to sell you hardware, I am not here to sell you a dashboard and reports. I am here to help you improve your customers’ experience and help you make more money.” How we do that is by providing our Indoor Satellite Network that will allow you to gain understanding, allow you to personally engage and allow you to connect with your customers. What we do not do is sell you hardware that requires an upgrade path at a later date. We provide the hardware. We put in the satellites, we install them, we monitor them. We take care of them, we update them where needed. That way, what the client pays for is access to the system at whatever level they to choose. Going back to your reference of if it is cost effective for Home Depot; I would suggest that a client like Home Depot would absolutely want to put the system in. Not only do we help them with that high level of granular understanding about their customers, but because our Platform is open, we are the system integration enabler who can work with their mobile App developers, their marketing agencies and other partners to provide data, systems, access and more. It is a future proof system for them going forward as well. The short answer is yes. Home Depot or their competitors should absolutely be a Mexia client because it allows them to have all of this on a go-forward basis.
CEOCFO: Why is Mexia Interactive a noteworthy company? Mr. Tinley: People should pay attention to Mexia because we have what I again will call a holistic view of this Internet of Things world. We have developed a Platform that we have yet to see any rivals for in terms of the breadth and depth of what it does in terms of granularity, consistency, and insights that can be actioned. We have quickly become the leading Platform for the airport and mall space. We are also quickly expanding into healthcare and even the mobile payment space through a joint venture. If any business with an indoor location truly wants to enable their Internet of Things strategy, Mexia Interactive is the right choice. |
“We have created the world’s only true Indoor Satellite Platform that provides the insights, analytics, engagement and connectivity that the Internet of Things is built around.” - Glenn Tinley
Mexia Interactive
Contact: 855-481-1033
|
||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Airport Queue Management Solutions, Mexia Interactive, CEO Interviews 2015, Glenn Tinley, Indoor Satellite Network for Airport Queue Management Systems, Location Based Services and Wait Time Analytics, queue management systems, wait time management systems, location analytics, location based services, IoT, Internet of Things, Indoor Satellite Platform that provides the insights, analytics, engagement and connectivity that the Internet of Things is built around, indoor navigation app, Technology Companies, Recent CEO Interviews, Mexia Interactive Press Releases, News, Tech Stock, Companies looking for venture capital, Angel Investors, private companies looking for investors, queue management companies seeking investors, indoor navigation companies needing investment capital |
|||
|
|
|||
Glenn
Tinley