Aerohive Offering Targets The Next Generation Of Retail

Aerohive Networks Tuesday delivered what it is calling a Personalized Engagement Ecosystem built to boost customer activity at brick-and-mortar retail stores.

The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company integrated offerings from eight vendors -- Radius Networks for iBeacon and Wi-Fi AP integration; OpenDNS for cloud security; Airwatch by VMware for mobile device management solutions; Lightspeed for a point-of-sale bundle with Verizon BR200 LTE; Eucilid Analytics for big data; Passforce to create a loyalty app known as HivePass; and Magnet Systems for an inventory search app known as Endless Aisle -- into one solution Aerohive partners can bring to the retail vertical space.

Abby Strong, Aerohive’s director of product marketing, said the genesis of creating the ecosystem and the two new apps spawned from hearing the problems that brick-and-mortar retail stores have with customers looking at a product inside their location only to buy it later online.

[Related: Aerohive Networks Teams With Apple To Drive Obama's ConnectED Program]

Matt Woestehoff, director of business development and operations at Minneapolis-based The Foundation, which partners with Cisco Systems, Apple and Aerohive, said the Personalized Engagement Ecosystem will help retailers’ top line as well as solution provider partners managing those environments.

"Aerohive is really partner-focused and wants the companies that they’re working with to succeed, rather than just selling a bunch of boxes," said Woestehoff, whose company remotely manages 5,000 retail locations. "They have a good play and have great customers in retail, and they’re investing in ways to make the experience a lot better for their users.

"Aerohive, in my opinion, is really leading the way in partnership ability and their focus on how they can help particular channels," said Woestehoff. "From a wireless standpoint, we work with Cisco Meraki, Ubiquiti [Networks] and others, but a lot of the times our clients end up with Aerohive because of the competitive advantage in where they're going to get the benefit from having more than just a Wi-Fi device per se."

The Personalized Engagement Ecosystem allows brick-and-mortar retailers to have access to information and data about their customers that online retailers already have.

"We're providing more options for our retail customers to get more engagement opportunities from their customers," said Strong. "Many of our customers want a chance to try more ways to engage customers. They want to be part of the retail stores of the future, but it's scary finding out what pieces they need and what will provide value."

Zeus Kerravala, principal analyst at ZK Research, said Aerohive is providing retailers, which are typically light on the IT side, with a complete solution.

"To stitch together a bunch of technologies to create some sort of solution is very difficult for retail," said Kerravala. "So what Aerohive is going to do is go to market with not just a bunch of products, but an actual solution that retailers can use to monetize right away."

PUBLISHED JAN. 20, 2015