Plume has announced its expansion into a new area of Connected Customer Assurance & Protection with the launch of WorkPass, a suite of intelligent services and management tools aimed at small businesses. Its solutions builds on its HomePass suite which is aimed at households.
“The specific needs of small businesses have been ignored for way too long,” said Fahri Diner, Co-founder & CEO, Plume. “CSPs have been trying to serve Main Street either through residential offerings, or through enterprise campus focused systems, both of which are square pegs in round holes.”
Plume is seeking to redress this with a new offering called WorkPass. A suite of services that unifies support for small businesses’ networking, cybersecurity, guest analytics, business insights, marketing & advertising, and employee management needs through a common app and web portal that provides a DIY self-install approach. It will be sold directly to small businesses in the US and via CSP partners elsewhere.
The new solution includes:
- Adaptive WiFi that ensures small business premises have good WiFi coverage throughout, supported by Plume’s AI-driven algorithms that continuously optimise the performance of devices and applications.
- Easier control of networks and settings, enabling small businesses to monitor, manage and troubleshoot guest networks, security settings and device access directly from their smartphones.
- Real-time insights into customer behavior. The Concierge solution turns guest analytics – such as visit frequency, data usage, or length of stay – into opportunities, while Flow uses WiFi sensing technology to offer real-time presence detection that provides insights into traffic movement to enable optimisation of merchandising, staffing and layout decisions.
- AI-driven security to ensure data, smart devices and business remain safe. Multiple access zones ensure back-end systems, employees and customers have the right access and security, with alerts if motion is detected outside expected hours.
- Simplified hardware choices WorkPass is built to work with Plume’s hardware (including its SuperPod WiFi access points), but OpenSync widens the choice of hardware and provides LTE back-up options that mean small businesses don’t lose either connectivity or data if there’s a broadband or fixed line outage.
Omnisperience’s view
Plume continues to expand its footprint in the CCAPS space, adding much-needed functionality for small businesses. This move makes Plume’s solution, which combines its own offering with that of partners, one of the most comprehensive in the market. With an emphasis on ease-of-use, Plume is demonstrating that it really understands the zeitgeist of the Work Anywhere market and the needs of small businesses. This market is vast, with 9 in 10 businesses employing less than 10 people. The challenge has always been how to meet the needs of small businesses that are less tech savvy, don’t have IT support, but still need the benefits of the connected world. Tapping into this market offers huge potential for both its service provider partners and Plume itself.