Update: Cisco Meraki Presence is now known as CMX (Connected Mobile Experiences), a comprehensive location analytics and engagement platform ideal for both cloud-managed or on-premise solutions. Click here to learn more.

Back in May, there was plenty of excitement when we announced Presence, our integrated location analytics. Suddenly it became far easier to establish site visitor behavior by measuring the frequency and duration of visits through WiFi-enabled devices. This has particularly resonated with retail customers, where this information is invaluable for determining the appeal and efficacy of store design.

To build on the success of Presence, our engineers put their heads together to imagine what other valuable information could be extracted from the data. If we could pinpoint the location of devices by triangulating via the APs, then we’d be able to see the popularity of a given area. Combine this data with the time of day, plot it onto a floorplan, and voilà!

Introducing Presence heatmaps: so intuitive, you need only watch this video for it all to make perfect sense:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5u9YwAiilO8

The first time this was shown to the broader Cisco Meraki team there was a whoop of excitement around the room. It was clearly an immediate hit, and we hope you’ll feel the same. You can be sure we’re hard at work planning the next enhancement to Presence, an exciting technology with tangible benefits for our customers, so stay tuned.