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Digital Transformation

What’s The Difference Between Beacons and Geofencing

Thanks for John Spyers for pointing this out to me.  I’ve heard a lot lately about the “contextual” experience.  By that I mean, an up to the minute completely personalized experience based on more than just what a company knows about you.  Now you can take into account all of the usual items like how good a customer they are, do they have a shipment on the way, and did they just call customer service.  You can add to that things like, where are they and do they have a reservation.  Where are they depends on mobile technology usually.  iOS engineer Andrew Frederick answers the question on the difference between beacons and geofencing.

 

Here’s the really short version:

Geofencing – use of GPS to determine where you are. It’s useful and can pinpoint you pretty well but can be really tough on battery life

Beacons – use of low power bluetooth and a small “beacon” at a particular location. When you come within 50 feet of that beacon signal, your phone can react to it.

 

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Michael Porter

Mike Porter leads the Strategic Advisors team for Perficient. He has more than 21 years of experience helping organizations with technology and digital transformation, specifically around solving business problems related to CRM and data.

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