Why Microsoft might need to focus on Beacons

Microsoft had started to focus on data and as a result we can see the acquisition of LinkedIn. But then it is the time to generate the data than buying it.

Right Place. Right Time. Right thing.

When it’s about business, we can see the above tag used everywhere and to achieve it much focus is required over people than just technology. It is practically achieved by Contextual Intelligence. It is nothing but sensing the objective and act to the situation based on the place, time and past experiences. Google Home & Amazon’s Echo and other smart home controllers works based on the contextual behavior. Similarly, Beacons are the device that behaves & provide data much based on contextual intelligence.

Mr. Smart

We are not here to discuss much on Apple’s iBeacons or Google’s Eddystone as we are going to see how far beacons can merge with the Microsoft products.

We can’t expect Beacons to track places or compare it to GPS because it is beyond GPS in the usage of Indoor Navigation. It can broadcast data to the mobile apps in the earlier days but now Google has changed it’s dimension by introducing Eddystone platform and now it can broadcast data with apps or without apps using Physical Web to any mobile. With the long living battery life, beacons can withstand for 5 years and with the much secured network.

Microsoft’s movement on ‘Mobile first, Cloud first’ strategy haven’t stopped at moving the data to cloud platform alone but then need to be focused on people who are focusing on the Mobile platforms. The Repackaged Cloud Service  Microsoft Dynamics 365 which includes CRM and ERP with Sales, Marketing, Financials, Operations & Services (Customer service, Field service, Automation service) needs to join hands with Beacons for the better version. Beacons are the devices which has the potential to be used both in the CRM and ERP.

The Platforms like Online to Offline commerce & marketing still rules the majority of the market. To enhance this unit, beacons can be used to collect customer’s data and passed on to the CRM for further Sales & Marketing analysis.

The beacons will play a major role in the enhancement of Retail Sales not just by a Push notification but to the entire deeper roots like Loyalty Programs, Educating Customers about the Product by sharing the relevant information about the product right from the specs till the availability of the goods in the Inventory which will increase the Sales by genuine data. Since the product information is shared to the Customer through the beacons, the employees count can be reduced as it plays the role of Customer Interaction.

When it’s Supply Chain Management, the tracking of the goods is a must. The Beacons will take the tracking to the next level where scanning of goods doesn’t require physical presence and also the data can be transferred and maintained in the Cloud in a faster manner. Thus, Warehouse Management is handled in a easier way. The same way, Employee tracking and Asset management is also done and these all happens in real time. All the above activities are handled in the industry with manual process. With the help of Beacons, Microsoft ERP can automate all the manual operations in the system.

The future industry process needs a smarter system with the dynamic access in it. This can be achieved by engineering the application with the smart controllers like Beacons.  The Enterprise products like Microsoft Dynamics 365 needs to be focusing on integrating it’s services with Beacons which will take Microsoft Dynamics to yet another level.