Link Simpson

If you’re looking for new and different ways to provide a great customer experience, consider the surveillance systems you already have in your stores, warehouses and even parking lots. They’re there to thwart theft, but with a little incremental investment, these systems can identify opportunities to wow customers and keep them coming back. Take checkout…

One of the biggest barriers to digital transformation is knowing where to start. Another is finding the budget. Enhanced video surveillance provides a great example of how to overcome both. Take retail, for instance. Most stores have extensive video surveillance systems to catch shoplifters and pilfering employees. Often, these systems can be quickly and cost-effectively…

Digital transformation enables companies, government agencies and other organizations to make more informed business decisions, maximize productivity, improve security and provide better customer experiences. That’s a lot of benefits, but research indicates that while most organizations are considering digital transformation, many aren’t actively pursuing projects. Why not? A common obstacle is figuring out where to…

Unless your organization is stagnant, uncompetitive and happy that way, digital transformation is a matter of when, not if. More than merely digitizing paperwork and other analog processes, digital transformation is about leveraging the Internet of Things to make smarter, faster business decisions, improve operational efficiency and wow your customers. Enabling those kinds of fundamental…

Lately, I’ve spent a lot of time talking about digital transformation — what it is, how it impacts business and where IT teams should begin their efforts. I even sat down with my colleague Matt Tourney to discuss how thinking big, acting small and moving fast can accelerate the return on digital transformation and Internet…

There’s an old maxim in business that you can’t manage what you can’t measure. Digital transformation and the Internet of Things (IoT) offer immense promise to improve our ability to measure a variety of factors in everything we do. With this comes a greater ability to manage operations, which can spark innovation and unlock new…

Retail really is all about the customer experience. For years, some observers have been saying that retail stores are on their way out, that they can't keep up with online retailers who can sell customers the items they want at a lower cost, since they don't have to maintain stores or pay a sales staff.…

How fast is the Internet of Things (IoT) growing? Another 31 percent this year, for a total of 8.4 billion connected devices worldwide, according to Gartner. By the end of this decade, the amount should top 20 billion. Those numbers mean businesses, colleges, government agencies and other organizations need to develop IoT strategies as soon…

The days when digital technology lived only on our desktops and in our data centers are gone. Now almost everything in our work environment is digital, from our vehicles to our air-conditioning systems. And we have powerful computers in our pockets at all times. IT leaders must understand — and respond to — this new…

In my role as CDW’s Internet of Things practice lead, I hear a lot of different definitions of IoT that complicate the discussion. At its core, IoT is the convergence of IT and operational technology, or OT. To simplify the concept of IoT, I draw an analogy between IoT and the human body. IT is…