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17th April 2018

WiFi4EU: A Continental Shift In Free WiFi Access For Europe

On May 29th, 2017 the European Parliament, the Council, and the Commission reached a political agreement to provide free WiFi connectivity for citizens and visitors in the European Union. The WiFi4EU scheme will be delivered through simple and non-bureaucratic procedures including online applications, payments by vouchers (each worth 15,000 Euros) and light-touch monitoring requirements. The projects will be selected on a first-come, first-serve basis to install high speed, free public WiFi throughout EU communities and their public spaces, such as:

– Parks and squares
– Hospitals and health centres
– Public Buildings
– Museums
– Libraries

Purple have put together a number of resources, such as background, timeline, checklist and more, to support municipalities and associates with their WiFi4EU implementation, available here: WiFi4EU Scheme Resources.

The three European institutions will work together and set aside EUR 120 million, a sizeable budget, to support the installation of state-of-the-art WiFi equipment between 2017 and 2019. Upon completion in 2020, the installation will benefit 6,000 to 8,000 EU communities of both citizens and international visitors. When the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) policy comes into effect on May 25th, 2018 EU public authorities will also have to make sure their service providers are GDPR compliant.

President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, spoke at the State of Union speech on WiFi4EU, stating: “Everyone benefiting from connectivity means that it should not matter where you live or how much you earn. We propose today to equip every European village and every city with free wireless internet access around the main centres of public life by 2020.”

While initial equipment and installation costs are covered under the WiFi4EU budget, ongoing subscription and maintenance costs are to be paid by the municipalities and their associations. As we follow the roll-out over the next three years Purple will be working alongside our partners and customers to integrate cities and continents into ‘smart’, GDPR compliant digital markets. Purple have helped municipalities around the world use high-end WiFi infrastructure and the Internet of Things to turn into Smart Cities by collecting data, understanding how people are using physical spaces, and making more informed decisions.

At Purple, we understand any investments of WiFi installation, including the WiFi4EU scheme, need to generate a return on investment from analytics while offering a fast, free, and secure connection. As a first mover in our market we felt it logical to be the first GDPR compliant WiFi provider almost one year ahead of legislation. Purple’s Profile Portal gives end users around the world complete transparency and the ability to control how their data is used by;

– Viewing all of the personal information collected about them
– Accessing a breakdown of their activities, including the venues they have visited
– Choose their marketing preferences for future marketing communications

WiFi and the Internet of Things has the potential to help cities adapt to change more quickly and become more ‘smart’ to the needs of the population, while reducing impact on the environment. Purple’s platform already captures visitor data through WiFi for the City of York, the Highland City Council of Inverness, and London’s Borough of Brent. From as early as 2013, we have been empowering municipalities to gain a deeper understanding of their visitors. With presence reports, municipalities can identify how long people stay on average, the split between repeat and new visitors, peak traffic times in pedestrian shopping malls and attractions. Enhancing local WiFi access points to analyze and report information in real-time will be key to ensuring the WiFi4EU scheme is sustainable for public authorities in the EU’s Digital Single Market.

Technology’s pace for innovation is constantly increasing demand for easier access and improved services to the Internet. Businesses and institutions are able to improve connectivity, enable easier flow of information in the data economy, and collaborate over huge amounts of data forming efficient digital markets. Public authorities and local businesses can exchange data across transport, education, physical infrastructure, and healthcare industries to vastly improve urban developments and services. End users can also improve experience and productivity with secure connections that simplify login journeys and carry over information from smart devices, wearables, journey plans, cars, and even eHealth services. As more digital markets combine solutions and form Smart Cities, Purple are excited to become part of the next Internet of Things movement – Smart Continents.

 

Click through to our WiFi4EU Scheme Resources page to find out if you meet the requirements for WiFi4EU funding, or view Purple’s WiFi4EU page here. 

9th April 2018

Purple helps students develop their coding skills at Changing Horizons event

Earlier this month, Changing Horizons, branched out to Oldham’s Queen Elizabeth Hall following its prior success in Blackpool in 2017 and 18. Along with Blackpool, Oldham has been identified as one of the lowest areas of social mobility in the country which made it a particularly important location for the event.

Changing Horizons is the Civil Service Local flagship careers event. The event gives young people the opportunity to build contacts with employers from the public and private sector and to develop skills through a variety of tasks and activities set by local companies including Purple, Border Force, Saddleworth Air Cadets and more.

Purple set a number of activities for the students to complete. One task involved the students using code to send personalized SMS messages to friends and family; demonstrating how programming can be used to interact in the real world. Another involved getting the students to ‘pitch’ the Purple WiFi analytics solution to Oldham Council, and discuss how they would benefit from utilizing the services.

Raymond Jones, Senior Developer at Purple said: “Our activities presented a great opportunity for young people to get together and really test their coding skills. Some of the students had previous experience of programming (python) and were really engaged during the tasks – it was great to see.”

Cathy Belford, Global HR Manager at Purple, said: “We wanted to get the students involved in real-life working situations, and educate them on the types of opportunities that are available within a technology business.

“Supporting the local community is a big part of our culture at Purple – it was fantastic to see that the event had such a positive impact for everyone that attended.”

The event proved to be a great success, with teachers and students alike quickly pointing out that they were thankful for the opportunity. Many guests and stallholders also reported that there was a real “buzz” of positivity throughout the course of the day.

Highlighting its importance to the area, a collective of local dignitaries joined the event including the Enterprise Adviser Network’s Oldham lead Michaela Andrew; High Sheriff of Greater Manchester, Gerry Yeung OBE; and Oldham’s Lead Member for Education and Early Years, Cllr Amanda Chadderton, who opened the event by directly acknowledging the needs of the students in attendance.

In closing the event, Andrew Sutherland, Oldham Council’s Director of Education and Early Years furnished the students with a few words of cautious optimism.

“I hope that you’ve learned today that for you guys to predict your future is to create your own future. No-one will give it to you. It’s not a dress rehearsal. This is your life. Please take from today what you can, learn from it, move on, choose great careers, and I hope you look back fondly on this event that hopefully stimulated you, gave you some ideas that you haven’t had before and hopefully made you think “yeah, I can do this”.

27th March 2018

Purple appoints new Director of Sales – US and Canada

Global WiFi analytics provider, Purple, has named Amy Horowitz as their new Director of Sales – US and Canada.

The appointment comes shortly after Purple announced a whirlwind 2017. During this time the company demonstrated a 367.2% increase in revenue compared to the previous year in America alone.

Horowitz has more than 15 years leadership experience in the technology sector, and a history of leading high-performing sales teams in the software space, that drive market and profit growth.

Gavin Wheeldon, CEO at Purple commented: “Amy brings a wealth of knowledge and experience that will be essential in building on and accelerating the growth of our business in the US and Canada. We have a number of exciting developments planned and Amy will play a crucial role in supporting the execution of these plans, and ensuring the Purple message is heard on a global scale.”

Wheeldon continues: “The US is our largest market. Investing further in our presence is a logical decision that will really help drive the business forward. We’re excited to have Amy on board to steer our sales strategy.”

“WiFi analytics is an emerging market, one that I am very interested in. With Purple, companies can begin to gather key demographic data on their customers and understand how they interact within their venue. This kind of data is invaluable and allows our customers to analyze and respond to customer behavior, which in turn helps with overall customer retention,” explained Horowitz.

“I’m excited to help the company build on its prior success across North America, to grow and remain a definitive leader in the market”.

Horowitz will operate out of the company’s new office in Austin, Texas, creating and implementing high growth strategies and cultivating key client and channel partner relationships.

Purple made the move earlier this year to TechSpace, a vibrant and creative shared office space, enabling the company to execute plans to build on the existing team.

In addition to the appointment of a new Director of Sales, Purple have also hired two Partner Success Managers, Shelly Parker and Katie Elston, and are currently recruiting an Enterprise Sales Manager and two Account Managers.

America is Purple’s largest market and having already collaborated with a number of businesses across the region including Miami Heat, Legoland, LifeWay and Michael Kors, the number of US customers is expected to soar in 2018.

The Purple platform now has 50 million users worldwide across 34,000 venues, and with offices in the UK (headquarters), US, Chile, Spain, Singapore and Australia, Purple’s growth shows no sign of slowing.

23rd March 2018

Purple takes home the Judges’ Award for International Success at Northern Tech Awards

Purple, global WiFi analytics providers, were last night presented with the Judges’ Award for International Success at the Northern Tech Awards, hosted by GP Bullhound.

The awards, held at The Hub in Edinburgh, recognized key players in the region’s digital sector and celebrated the fastest growing and most promising technology companies in the North.

Purple took their place at the top amongst a number of other leading innovators including Touch Networks, Sykes, MusicMagpie and Peak AI.

Purple has been well established in the UK for over 5 years, however, in recent years they have seen significant global year-on-year growth, largely down to the success of their US and APAC regions.

Just this month, Purple expanded their operations in the US, appointing a new Director of Sales to drive further growth across the US and Canada. The appointment came shortly after Purple announced a whirlwind 2017; during this time the company demonstrated a 367.2% increase in revenue compared to the previous year in America alone.

Purple CEO, Gavin Wheeldon said: “It’s an absolute honor to take home the Judges’ Award for International Success. We have worked hard to raise our global profile over the last couple of years and this award is testament to those efforts. We’ve got a big year ahead, and we are working on a number of exciting new developments that will help take our solution to the next level.”

The Purple platform now has 50 million users worldwide across 34,000 venues, and with offices in the UK (headquarters), US, Chile, Spain, Singapore and Australia, Purple’s growth shows no sign of slowing.

22nd March 2018

All access WiFi lands at Miami HEAT’s AmericanAirlines Arena

As part of the Miami HEAT’s commitment to make the AmericanAirlines Arena the premier sports and entertainment venue in South Florida, a wide-spread and secure guest WiFi network has been introduced to enhance the customer experience.

In July 2017, Purple was expertly installed across over 350 access points throughout the AmericanAirlines Arena to help the HEAT elevate the fan experience and encourage return visits.

Matthew Jafarian, Vice President of Digital Strategy and Innovation for the Miami HEAT, said: “Fans want to see video replays and real time statistics, and they want to be able to share their experiences instantly with friends and family. We needed to introduce a WiFi network that could meet those expectations.”

Following a directive to make the Arena’s network “the best WiFi out there”, in early 2017, the Miami HEAT went through an RFP process that looked at WiFi gear providers. Jafarian said: “Purple has provided a platform that has helped us achieve our goal of elevating the fan experience. Not only do fans have easy access to the WiFi throughout the Arena, but with the customer data we are collecting, we are able to personalize our interaction with new and returning guests and send automatic updates and information based on specific demographic criteria.”

Jafarian continued: “Online ticket sales mean that we don’t have the ability to collect as much data as we’d like on our visitors. Whether that’s through one fan buying multiple tickets, or fans purchasing tickets through third party websites; not to mention ticket resales. We miss out on a lot of data. Through the installation of WiFi analytics, we have been able to start bridging that gap.”

Since the installation in July, the Miami HEAT has seen over 230,000 people connect to the WiFi, with an average of over 28,000 visitors connecting each month. The HEAT has also reported that on average, around 20% of attendees are connecting to the WiFi during an event, whether that’s for an NBA game, concert or other activity. These numbers have “far exceeded our expectations”, said Jafarian.

From the data collected, the Miami HEAT has been able to confirm that 90% of people who come to the Arena are singular visitors. The HEAT are using the data collected on these individuals to try and maximize spend through custom splash pages; offering discounts on various food and beverages and merchandise from The Miami HEAT Store.

Jafarian concludes: “The guest experience has been and remains our primary focus and we feel like we have found an organization with similar values in Purple. Their team has been responsive and collaborative and we look forward to continue working with them.”

Gavin Wheeldon, Purple CEO said: “People have come to expect personalized content and experiences, so it is crucial that venues are able to identify and engage with their fans. The amount of data that is being collected is really impressive and I’m excited to see the impact this will have on driving retention and revenue for the Miami HEAT.”

Click here to read the full case study.

20th March 2018

Introducing the Customer Algorithm: Bringing your digital and physical analytics together

The digital economy is facilitating a new era of engaging with customers. And so, businesses are always looking for new and innovative concepts to improve the customer experience.

We wrote a piece earlier this month around ‘new retail’; a strategy first introduced in 2016 by Alibaba Founder, Jack Ma. We have taken this concept and the principles it carriers, and extended it far beyond the retail sector into hospitality, entertainment, transport, healthcare and more. We’re calling it the Customer Algorithm, and it applies to all businesses that have a physical venue.

The Customer Algorithm is a concept that aims to combine data from both the online and offline worlds, and leveraging this data to enhance a customers experience through personalization.

Your customers have their own ‘digital algorithms’ – design for them

Personalizing a customers experience can have a significant impact on retention and revenue. However, efforts to engage with customers and make the most of revenue opportunities fall flat when you can’t identify who is in your venue – more than half of customers can be anonymous entities.

Customer segmentation is key to anticipating customers needs, and a proactive approach to removing customer anonymity and identifying their needs and behavior is critical.

You must place customers’ at the center of your operations, with full consideration of the end-to-end customer experience, from awareness right through to purchase and referrals.

You therefore need to commit to embedding data and smart technology into your operations, because in order to place customers at the center of your operations and understand their ‘digital algorithms’, you need to know exactly who they are and understand their buying requirements; both in the online and offline worlds.

The value of data capture

Understanding customers and how they engage with your brand means collecting data. Specifically data around demographics, interests, engagement, dwell and frequency of visits.

You can begin to gather this data through a number of different methods including, website analytics, social media, e-commerce etc. Although, notice that these methods of data capture focus on the digital world, and not the physical.

Remember that the customer algorithm concept is one that aims to combine data from both the online and offline worlds in order to achieve personalization. Offline makes up a huge proportion of your customer base and the importance of capturing this kind of data should not be underestimated. If you fail to do this, you risk being left behind.

Where online metrics aren’t available to paint a picture of customers’ demographics, likes or dislikes, transforming your venue itself, embedding data and smart technology into your operations, is the future of the customer experience.

Data capture methods in a physical space can include; point of sale, location analytics, and WiFi analytics, just to name a few. Using these methods, you can not only begin to understand who your customers are, but you can start to build an in-depth understanding of how they engage with your venue. This data is crucial in allowing you to design for their ‘digital algorithms’ and in enabling you to reach a proportion of your customer base that will be missed through deploying digital data capture alone.

Combining this data with your online efforts to enhance the customer experience through personalized engagement is key to implementing a successful Customer Algorithm strategy.

To help businesses understand the importance of marketing personalization and how it can impact revenue and customer retention, we have developed an in depth guide covering every aspect of personalization from understanding the Customer Algorithm, to achieving personalization through data capture, to creating a business case for marketing personalization.

Click here to open the report: How to amplify revenue through customer personalization

20th March 2018

Mad Mex see a 7 percent increase in customer retention after installing guest WiFi

The Mexican food chain, Mad Mex, wanted to take their service to the next level through offering exceptional and secure guest WiFi to enhance the customer experience, whilst also collecting valuable demographic data to support marketing campaigns and personalize communications.

In November 2016, WiFi analytics was successfully installed across approximately 50 Ubiquiti access points in over 50 restaurant locations across Australia.

Ronan Alonzo, IT Manager for Mad Mex, said: “From our initial engagement with Purple, we confirmed that the product met a number of our requirements. We were keen to implement a scalable solution that mirrored our business growth and that would integrate well with our existing infrastructure. We were also looking for a solution that had a centralized reporting platform and API access so we could integrate the data collected with our own CRM.

“Purple’s dashboards, data visualization and reporting tools allow us to understand the data we have collected and identify key customer demographics. The solution has bridged the gap between our customers and our ability to reach out to those customers on a more personal level.”

Through personalizing their marketing, Mad Mex hope to encourage repeat visits, increase the number of customers signing up to their loyalty program, and increase their social following to elevate brand awareness.

Alonzo continues: “Initially, we were very surprised by the number of customers that were happy to provide their personal details when logging into the WiFi. In the last 12 months, close to 22,000 people have connected, 58% of which logged in via Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

“Our CRM is near the final stages of being built, and it’s great to know that the data is there and ready to be used by the marketing team to personalize our communications, relevant to each of our customer groups.”

Since the installation, Mad Mex have seen over 25,000 customers connect to the WiFi. Over the past 12 months, Mad Mex have also seen a steady increase in the number of returning customers to their restaurants. When comparing the number of return visits, month on month, between January 2017 and January 2018, we saw that on average the number of return visits increased by 7.14 percent.

Commenting on the solution, Alonzo said: “Purple has provided a platform that has helped us achieve our goal of elevating the customer experience. Not only do customers have access to a strong WiFi network throughout our restaurants, but with the customer data we have collected, we will be able to begin personalizing our interaction with new and returning guests.

“I see a promising future with Purple and I am excited to collaborate on future projects to build on what is already a robust, secure, and valuable solution to guest WiFi”.

Gavin Wheeldon, Purple CEO said: “It’s fantastic that through offering guest WiFi, Mad Mex have seen a positive impact on customer retention. It will be really interesting to see how this figure changes when Mad Mex start to personalize their engagement with guests.”

Click here to read the full case study. 

14th March 2018

PTC join Purple’s global partner network

Purple has formed a new technology partnership with PTC, specialists in enterprise data management solutions, to provide businesses with in-depth data and analytics around their customers and physical spaces.

Founded in 1991, PTC have been providing IT solutions and consultancy services for over 26 years with the aim of simplifying data management, data access and improving network performance for their customers.

PTC work with a number of high profile partners including, Netapp, Dell EMC, Cisco and VMware, and through partnering with Purple they hope to demonstrate how customers can monetize their WiFi infrastructure investment through the implementation of WiFi analytics and marketing.

Mr. SS Lim, Founder of PTC, said: “Everything is data driven. If you can harness data and utilize this data in a way that is beneficial to your customers, you will positively impact business outcome.”

Saurabh Madan, Enterprise Sales Manager at Purple said: “We are thrilled to have PTC join our partner ecosystem. PTC have a strong presence across Southeast Asia, in particular, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Indonesia. This gives Purple a well-established partner to work with and provide us with strong region-wide coverage.”

To demonstrate to customers how they can monetize their WiFi infrastructure, PTC will be creating a ‘Purple Lab’ at their Singapore offices. Through installing a number of Meraki access points in their building with Purple’s cloud-based WiFi analytics solution enabled on top, any prospects interested in learning about the solution will be able to try it first hand by simply connecting to the WiFi. Prospects will experience custom splash pages, social login, and real-time email and SMS marketing features.

Mr. Madan continued: “We’ll be supporting PTC and the team with their Purple Lab setup in the next few weeks, and in the following weeks we will be looking to invite potential customers to their offices to experience the technology with live demonstrations.”

Gavin Wheeldon, CEO of Purple commented: “It’s a really innovative idea that will enable customers to ‘try before they buy’. We’re excited about our partnership with PTC and it will give us the platform we need to expand our operations across Southeast Asia.”

9th March 2018

Purple and Airship land a winning solution for Revolution Bars Group

Revolution Bars Group have commissioned CRM provider, Airship, and WiFi analytics provider, Purple, to deliver a new welcome journey for their first-time visitors to increase customer retention.

Purple and Airship have implemented a solution that enables Revolution Bars Group to collect key demographic data on their customers and drive engagement through a hyper-personalized experience.

Purple’s WiFi analytics solution has been installed over 231 access points across 68 of the groups 72 locations; enabling customers to access the WiFi in exchange for a few personal details by logging in with their social media accounts or a short customized form. Airship’s integration with Purple enables them to send the data, collected in real-time, to Airship’s CRM and segment the data to create specific customer profile groups.

Airship created a four-stage marketing communication strategy that included a series of targeted email broadcasts with incentives aimed at encouraging repeat visits and driving revenue.

Airship used a mixture of unique codes (with an offer to redeem in venue) and click for call back mechanics to generate warm leads that could be followed up by Revolution’s sales teams at individual site level.

Over the course of the initial campaign, which ran between 1st June – 31st August 2017, Purple collected data on 95,869 guests. This made up 64% of the total data collected and used for Airship’s campaign. Using a combination of incentives like 50% off food and a free round of shots when making a booking, Airship achieved an average click rate of 17.47%, 425 visit redemptions, and generated 440 warm leads. This amounts to a total of 4.5% redemptions from engaged customers.

Dan Brookman, Airship’s Commercial Director, said: “Revolution were thrilled with the results that we managed to achieve from this campaign, generating hundreds of warm leads for their sales teams to take up. Without our partnership with Purple, we wouldn’t have been able to acquire such valuable data. Purple’s WiFi data, combined with our CRM and email marketing expertise, has allowed us to deliver a campaign with a significant return on investment for our shared client Revolution Bars Group.”

Gavin Wheeldon, CEO of Purple, said: “It’s great to see that almost 100,000 people logged into the guest WiFi. Offline makes up a huge proportion of a business’ customer base, particularly in the hospitality industry, and the importance of capturing this kind of customer data should not be underestimated.”

Wheeldon continues: “Airship have executed an exceptional campaign, and with access to Purple’s real-time customer insights and behavior, it’s clear to see that they have been able to make a big impact.”

6th March 2018

Purple and Local Measure unveil new engagement connector at Cisco Live ANZ

Purple, the intelligent spaces company, and Local Measure, local customer intelligence experts, unveil the Local Measure Connector at Cisco Live ANZ. The Connector provides businesses across retail, hospitality, stadiums and entertainment and other industries, with a holistic approach to customer engagement.

The two global tech companies have been collaborating within the Cisco and Cisco Meraki partner community to introduce their real-time integration in the Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Centre this week.

“We’re excited to be working with Local Measure to further amplify how businesses identify and engage their customers in both their online and offline spaces,” said Madelaine Coates, Regional Manager in APAC at Purple.

“Purple help businesses identify their previously unknown customers, understand their interests and behaviors, and develop personalized campaigns to elevate customer experience and return rates. Purple achieves this by using Cisco or Meraki to overlay in-store WiFi with analytics software and intelligent LogicFlow marketing tool to drive engagement in real-time,” said Coates.

What the new Connector will do is integrate this data with Local Measure’s engagement platform used to manage the online social conversations and influencers in their locations, and complete unique customer profiles with rule-based notifications for staff around customer activity on-site.

“Local Measure provides a lens to learn more about your on-site customers. Brands can engage with their customers’ public posts on social media and with customers who have connected to WiFi to drive personalization and unique customer experiences at scale,” said Jonathan Barouch, CEO at Local Measure.

“Through the connector with Purple, clients can have access to rich venue data and high-level reporting to complement Local Measure’s customer insights. It’s a powerful combination that we are very excited about,” said Barouch.

Coates further commented on the impact the combined set of insights, stating, “Businesses don’t realise they have one chance to capture 75% of their customers’ details or they won’t be seen again. Identifying who your customers are walking in your store is the first step to understanding your customer demographics, social interests and how they behave within your physical space.

“We’ve found that just by having WiFi and users logging in, it can increase return visits by 7% compared to visitors who don’t log into WiFi. This is because the personalized communication of timely, automated messages that are personalized to the specific customer segments. What you as a business can do then with Local Measure is complete the picture. Businesses can follow social media campaign reactions, monitor individual preferences, and notify staff on customer activity,” said Coates.

Purple overlays Cisco or Meraki to collect, gather and action the WiFi analytics and location data, while Local Measure operates on real-time integration into Cisco Spark and Cisco Vision digital signage for user generated content.

“The team are looking forward to the next level of creative engagement that businesses across all industries can achieve with the Purple Platform and Local Measure’s customer insight tools,” said Coates.

For further information about the Purple Platform and Local Measure Connector, visit Madelaine, Franck, and Zak from Purple at booth E29 between 6 – 9 of March.

5th March 2018

Return of the Hack: Purple puts students to the test at Tameside Hackathon

Following the success of last year’s event, Purple once again put students across Greater Manchester to the test at the 2018 Tameside Hack.

The two-day event, run by Tameside Council and Tameside College, gives young people aged 12-18 the chance to get competitive with their coding, digital and creative skills. Local companies including Purple, Avecto, Brother UK, Code Nation and Manchester Digital, each created their own unique technical challenges for the youngsters to tackle head on; competing for a number of exciting prizes.

This year, Purple challenged the young coders to “enhance daily life using accessible data” like Google APIs, TfGM data, and Yahoo Weather.

Janet Daington, Developer from Purple and Mentor at the Hack said: “The event presents a fantastic opportunity for young people to get together and test their coding skills, and it’s great to be so involved.”

The winning team, the Sidewinder Cookies from West Hill School, took home a drone and a £30 shopping voucher each. Vishal, Junaid, Amish and Will created a geo-triggered reminder App that enabled users to set a ‘note’ or ‘task’ on their mobile device. Through the use of Google APIs, the user would be notified if they passed a location that would allow them to complete the ‘note’ or ‘task’ set. Not only this, but the App also had the ability to plan routes for the user, allowing them to complete multiple tasks in the shortest route possible.

Members of Purple’s development team were on hand to support, offering guidance throughout the hackathon, brainstorming and helping the teams develop their ideas and technical skills.

The event, now in its third year, has proved to be very valuable for participants. Daington adds: “Events like this are really important in ensuring young people develop the skills they need to succeed in a modern economy driven by technology.”

26th February 2018

Purple welcomes Shopronics on board its global partner network

Purple has formed a new technology partnership with Shopronics, providers of big data and predictive analytics, to supply businesses with in-depth data and insights around their customers and physical spaces.

Shopronics specialise in big data and predictive analytics, and use the Internet of Things to gather data around their clients’ physical spaces. Through collecting data from 2D/3D sensors and smart cameras, Shopronics use sophisticated proprietary algorithms to generate insights. These insights equip clients with the information they need to make critical business decisions through custom reports, consulting services and real-time dashboards.

Saurabh Madan, Enterprise Sales Manager at Purple said: “We are delighted to have Shopronics come on-board as a Purple reseller. The team’s technical experience and their market focus is exactly what we look for in a partner”.

Founded just last year, Shopronics have had some significant successes and are already working with a number of high profile clients including Unilever and Nestle, to whom they are providing category assessment and store transition solutions.

Commenting on the Purple solution, Fahd Mukaddam and Ahmed Rafiq, Co-founders and Directors of Shopronics Pvt. Ltd said: “Purple’s WiFi analytics enables our clients in the growing retail, hospitality and restaurant industries to better understand and engage with their customers through guest WiFi.

“We are always looking for new and innovative ways to help us on our mission to redefining retail analytics. Through using 2D/3D sensors, Raspberry Pi computers, smart cameras and now Purple, we have been able to develop a quality integrated solution for our clients.”

Shopronics’ easy-to-read dashboards and reporting enables clients to quickly and easily leverage the data and perform big data analytics to optimise their locations and better understand customer behaviour.

Purple CEO, Gavin Wheeldon said: “The use of multiple methods of data capture is a great concept that I think will appeal to a lot of businesses. Shopronics have achieved a lot in their short one year history and I look forward to seeing what else the business achieve moving forward.”