Infotech Lead India: Aruba Networks has acquired Meridian Apps.
The acquisition enables Aruba to offer new location-based services by combining its network-based contextual information about users, devices and applications with Meridian’s Wi-Fi based wayfinding solution for smartphones and tablets.
The Meridian enterprise software platform is targeted at public-facing enterprises, including casinos, hospitals, malls, stores, transport hubs, convention centers, museums and campuses, to help customers navigate these large, indoor facilities.
Enterprises use the platform to create custom-branded mobile applications to provide turn-by-turn directions, highlight points of interest along the way, deliver context-awareness advertising and offer detailed analytics about users’ travel patterns and preferences.
“GPS-based wayfinding solutions are extraordinarily popular, but they don’t work well indoors. We intend to address that gap by creating ‘indoor GPS’ using Aruba’s Wi-Fi infrastructure and Meridian’s wayfinding platform,” said Keerti Melkote, founder and chief technology officer at Aruba Networks.
The addition of Meridian will enable enterprises to tap into a wealth of network-driven information so that they can better engage their customers with more personalized services.
This is a clear opportunity for Wi-Fi to become not only an enabling platform for BYOD, but now across industries, a revenue-producing, customer engagement platform for the business.
