The Return of the CIO How Savvy Tech Leaders Will Help Their Companies Win in the Wild, Wild Wi-Fi World We are truly living in a Wi-Fi world. The International Telecommunications Union estimated that there were seven billion mobile subscribers in the world in 2012 - the equivalent of almost one device for every person on the planet. Taking the most conservative estimates of growth from various experts and organizations, that number has surely grown by more than one billion in the last two years. As computing, email, and entertainment moves from desktops and laptops to smartphones and tablets, mobile data traffic has more than tripled over the last twentyfour months alone, and will likely double again in the next twelve. According to the Wireless Broadband Alliance, the number of public Wi-Fi hotspots globally will grow to almost 6 million by 2015 – an increase of more than 400 percent in three years. And this is not merely an outside-the-home story: almost half of all households in the world are predicted to have Wi-Fi by 2016, or 83 percent of all broadband households. Welcome to the Wild, Wild Wi-Fi World. What’s driving this runaway growth? Simple: unprecedented consumer demand for Wi-Fi and the explosion of new products and services to meet that demand. The burgeoning move to free Wi-Fi hotspots, more data restrictions on cell phones and consumer behavior that is demanding ever-greater torrents of data at low or no cost to them have all combined to revolutionize the Wi-Fi world. Virtually every prediction from telecom experts about the demand for Wi-Fi services made in 2011 and 2012 have been far outstripped, and the demand shows no signs of letting up anytime soon. So what does this mean for your business? Simply this: if you are not up to speed on at least the basics of equipping your location with robust Wi-Fi capability, not only are you missing a significant business opportunity, you are flirting with potential business disaster. To help you avoid this calamity, we have outlined this special report for you on how to win in the World of Wi-Fi. Based on direct interviews with clients, partners and prospects, as well as data pulled from other industry primary research, we at Netvious have identified three broad strategies that you can put to work in your business to help ensure you become an agent of change, rather than a victim.

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Strategy Number One: To be the leader, be the teacher. The CIOs, CTOs and senior facility management professionals who will stand out in the future will be those who not only are open to deploying advanced Wi-Fi technology, but who are adept at educating their business colleagues (their internal customers) on the business advantage and value of doing so in the right way. For instance, a major university system was experiencing significant service glitches with their incumbent Wi-Fi solution at the headquarters. Not only was this embarrassing, it was hindering the free flow of information – particularly video information vital to the regular meetings of the board of trustees and the senior executives. Netvious consulted with the IT and finance management to help deploy advanced wireless array technology, which not only increased communications capability, but also helped maximize financial leverage by reducing the cost of legacy system replacement. The icing on the cake was the fact that the IT and facilities staff were educated and empowered to become more than passive caretakers of support systems; they became teachers and mentors to their colleagues across the system, advising them on how to strategically assess, plan and deploy systems that not only make current operations run more smoothly, but provide the capability to work in new and improved ways. Today, most business people still don’t see the facility in which their business operates as a strategic asset, but in a few forward-looking companies, that is changing. For instance, the Big Four accounting firms report that their single biggest business challenge is attracting and keeping talent – especially Millennials. One of their key strategies for doing so is by ensuring that their workspaces are conducive to how the Millennials want to work, with ubiquitous, high-quality broadband data capability at or near the top of the list. The same phenomenon is being repeated in other industries, such as law, financial services and IT consulting. This provides a tremendous opportunity for CIOs to step to the forefront of their companies and industries, providing guidance not only on the nuts and bolts of technology, but on how to use it strategically to maximize benefits well beyond the server closet.

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Strategy Number Two: Life is better on the right side of the ledger. In the Wi-Fi world, money is not only saved, it is made. Historically, data connectivity has been seen as a back-office function that resided on the left-hand side of the ledger – in other words, it has been seen solely as a cost center. But as customers – particularly business customers – come to expect strong connectivity everywhere they work, live and play, businesses can derive a huge competitive advantage that can be turned into a revenue-generating profit center. Thus, Wi-Fi connectivity can be moved to the right-hand side of the ledger. The implications for smart businesspeople are enormous. For instance, a 2013 Hotels.com survey found that hotel guests rated free Wi-Fi as the number one amenity they sought in choosing where to stay. Access to free Wi-Fi trumped free breakfast, free parking, access to transportation and dining and even comfortable chairs. Smart hotel managers have gotten the message, as dozens of hotel chains have announced free Wi-Fi not only in lobbies or business centers, but in rooms as well. Not only do many of them report winning additional convention and meeting business as a result, but some of the particularly savvy ones have seized on the strategy of offering free Wi-Fi at a base level and adding a premium tier of super-high-speed Wi-Fi for an additional charge. So from both a near-term revenue enhancement perspective to a long-term customer loyalty perspective, they are winning in the Wi-Fi World. Hotels aren’t the only beneficiaries. Major entertainment and sports venues are experimenting with extremely promising strategies to add revenue during their events. Retail stores, taking a page from their online rivals, are using location-based visitor data to gain insights and offer real-time, on-location customer deals. While the opportunities to drive significant new revenues from these premium-priced products and services are substantial, both the technology infrastructure and the strategic know-how must be extremely robust to take advantage of those opportunities.

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Strategy Number Three: Make the “C” in C-Suite Stand for “Connectivity” In the heady, go-go days of the late 1990s Internet boom, the CIO was the rock star of the corporate executive floor. The CEO had him or her making the featured report to the Board of Directors, the CFO was taking him or her on Wall Street road shows, and the General Counsel approved even the most obtuse technology contract provisions. Then came the 2000 Internet bust, and all things related to technology lost luster in the C-suite. But in this new era of Wi-Fi, social media and big data, things may be changing, and this change likely represents an important window of opportunity for the savvy CIO/CTO. Witness this statement by Peter Sondergaard, head of research at the influential technology analyst and consulting firm Gartner, discussing in his blog the findings of his firm's 2014 CEO and Senior Executive Survey: This (new and increased) level of engagement by CEOs with technology has probably not been seen since the late 1990s … technology has always been visible in the last decade of Gartner CEO surveys, but not so far to the foreground as it is this year. As any successful business leader will tell you, a great attitude and mindset will only get you so far; there’s got to be substance to back it up. This is at the heart of the challenge for CEOs. Many leaders are lagging behind in their understanding of what digital business means. This is where the CIO comes in. CIOs must take the lead in closing this huge gap in understanding by educating the CEO, their board, executives, senior and middle managers on the transformative value of digital. A decade of believing that IT was a commodity function has left many business leaders with a very polarized—and increasing outdated— view of what technology can do to support organizations goals. Sondergaard’s observations track directly with our informal research as well as with our direct interactions with customers at Netvious. Chief Information Officers and their management teams are becoming more influential with the mushrooming importance of data technologies, and they are increasingly turning to partners to help them drive their forms forward. The only question is will they – and their business partners – be savvy enough, nimble enough to take full advantage of the possibilities and promise of this exciting new era? __________________

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About Netvious Netvious provides dependable mobility solutions for your wireless needs. We have partnered with industry-leading technology solution providers, but we provide more than just technology: our expertise is in designing systems that can meet your needs today and tomorrow. In the fast-changing world of mobile technology, that’s a promise few other companies can keep. We specialize in mobility, especially in facilities experiencing poor Wi-Fi performance. Wherever people gather – in conference rooms, classrooms or dorms, stadiums, hotels, office buildings or airports – their laptops and smartphones, tablets and countless other devices all put a strain on your existing wireless infrastructure. Netvious is proud to partner with Xirrus and their high performance wireless network equipment. Developed from the ground up, Xirrus solutions use modern cell phone tower technology to provide 4X the coverage and up to 8X the bandwidth and capacity of the conventional thin AP architectures. That means fewer devices, cables, switch ports and maintenance expenses while delivering flawless and secure wireless access. How We Can Help You Win To be a true technology leader in the Wi-Fi World, technology executives must start with a deep scan of both their current and upcoming business imperatives. They then must take three extra steps: 1. They must develop a clear, cogent and convincing point of view about the exact kinds of technology the business should deploy based on what the market dictates today and tomorrow, and not only from a technology engineering standpoint. 2. They then must outline how such a deployment could best be implemented given the current technological, financial and political realities of the business. 3. They must develop an effective strategy to become the technology evangelists not only on behalf of the business’ internal needs, but on behalf of customers as well. Smart senior technology leaders know that they need help to get this done. They will need partners who are not only expert in helping them choose and promote the technology, but who are nimble enough to work in today’s dynamic and rapidly-changing corporate environment. The winning technology vendor will be customer-focused, not technologystubborn, and above all, must be a trusted advisor and committed to true partnership. When you are ready for that kind of partnership, you are ready for Netvious. We bring an unmatched combination of business acumen, technology smarts, operational flexibility and partnering skills to your critical business mission. Let’s talk. Today.

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Sidebar: 30 ‘Wi-Fi World’ Facts You Should Know 1. At the end of 2013, there were more mobile devices than people on earth. – SAP 2. Mobile users check their phone 150 times each day. – Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers's 3. Ninety percent of people have a mobile device in reach 100% of the time. – Pew Research Center 4. Forty-four percent of people sleep with their smartphone beside their bed. – SAP 5. Eighty percent of smartphone users check their phone within 15 minutes of waking up. – IDC 6. Seventy-nine percent of smartphone users have their phone with them for 22 hours a day. – IDC 7. Twenty-nine percent of smartphone owners say "they can't live without it." – Pew Research Center 8. Seventy-five percent of people say one week without Wi-Fi would leave them grumpier than one week without coffee. – Iconic Displays 9. There were more than one billion new smartphones shipped in 2013. – IDC 10. There will be more than 7 billion new Wi-Fi enabled devices in the next 3 years. – Sys-Con 11. Wi-Fi has become the medium of choice. Two-thirds of US consumers prefer Wi-Fi to Cellular. – Deloitte 12. More than half of all networked devices will be mobile by 2015. – Infonetics 13. Ninety percent of all smartphones have Wi-Fi capabilities that are “always on” and occupying network capacity. 14. Fifty percent of PCs shipped in 2014 will be tablets. – Canlys 15. Ninety-four percent of people cite Wi-Fi as the most important amenity. – Hotel Chatter 16. Sixty-four percent of hotels now offer free Wi-Fi. – Hotel Chatter 17. Only 39% of schools in the US have Wi-Fi access. – National Center for Education Statistics 18. Most businesses are planning to increase Wi-Fi capacity by at least 20% in 2014. – Infonetics 19. Thirty-eight percent of two-year-olds use mobile devices. – Common Sense Media 20. Average age for first cell phone is now 13. – SAP 21. Smartphone users spend an average of 60 minutes a day. iPhone users average 90 minutes a day. – Experian 22. A Wi-Fi attack on an open network can take less than 2 seconds. – Extreme Networks 23. Ninety-three percent of tablet owners will utilize Wi-Fi only. – Deloitte 24. Seventy-one percent of all mobile communications flows over Wi-Fi. – Wi-Fi Alliance 25. Twenty-two percent of new carrier capacity will come from Wi-Fi in 2014. – Wireless Broadband Association 26. By 2017, 60% of carrier network traffic will be offloaded to Wi-Fi. – Wireless Broadband Association 27. Next generation Wi-Fi on Flights will provide 10x speed compared to today. It will be rolled out in 2014. – GoGo 28. Sixty percent of people can't go without Wi-Fi for more than 1 day. – Iconic Displays 29. More than 2.7 billion people used the Internet in 2013. That's more than half the world's population. – StateTech 30. By 2020, it is predicted that 24 billion devices will be connected to the Internet. The vast majority will use some form of wireless for access. – Gigaom ______________________________________________________________

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