August 2020

Introduction to Cisco Spaces

Cisco Spaces is a powerful location services platform that leverages existing wireless and/or IoT (BLE) infrastructure to provide actionable insights and drive business outcomes through spaces built-in applications.

Insights from Cisco Spaces include:

  • Location Analytics that provides the capability to slice and dice location data by time or location and get a deeper visibility into behaviour of people that are connected to your network.

  • Right Now Reports provide real time count of the number of visitors (identified by devices connected to WiFi) within your physical space and how it compares to the historical average. Based on the authentication method in use, Right Now reports can detect multiple devices belonging to a person and count them as one visitor.

  • Business Insights gives the capability to measure how frequently people visit your physical location and how much time do they spend at your business locations. This data is benchmarked monthly across all locations. It also provides the capability to compare and benchmark the performance of your locations historically, by group or by industry.

  • Impact Analysis provides the capability to measure the impact of at-location events, campaigns and layout changes on behaviour. It is easy to create an Event using the tool and measure the impact of this event based on specific timeline such as Before, After and During the impact on time spent and frequency.

Cisco Spaces applications include customer experience management apps such as Captive Portals, Location Personas, and Engagemens that allows you to connect with your customers in real time when they are at your physical location. Additional applications also include an Asset Tracking app, a service manager to manage and configure IoT Services (Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)) as well as an open API framework in case you would like to extract this data and correlate it or integrate it into other enterprise systems.

Cisco Spaces provides a single dashboard interface to avail these multiple services through various location based technologies and intelligence. Cisco Spaces enables you to connect and engage with visitors at your physical business locations. It covers various verticals of business such as work spaces, retail, manufacturing, hospitality, healthcare, education, financial services, and so on. The asset tracking application in Cisco Spaces provides solutions for monitoring and managing assets in your premises. Cisco Spaces offers a variety of toolkits, apps and APIs to turn these insights into actions.

Cisco Spaces through its partner program, offers businesses access to various different partner applications across verticals.

Cisco Spaces is compatible across Cisco Catalyst, Cisco AireOS and Cisco Meraki infrastructure.

In addition to the above services, the scope of Cisco Spaces apps have been extended to meet the business requirements that arise due to the global pandemic, COVID 19. Extensions have been built on existing applications and newer applications have been added to meet specific requirements for COVID 19. Extensions to apps such as Impact Analytics, Location analytics, Behaviour Metrics, and Right Now, allow you to analyse the impact of COVID 19 at your business locations as well as take appropriate actions. For example you can now create a rule based on device density at your location such that you will be automatically notified if the number of people at your location exceeds a specific count or density (people/area). The Location Analytics app now has the capability to share executive summary reports with your colleagues in the organization. Additionally, COVID-19 based trend analysis for individual/group locations can now be done using the Behaviour Metrics app, and you can compare specific business locations with that of the overall organisation as well as specific industry vertical.

Cisco Spaces has added a new Proximity Reporting App that provides a quick way to review the location history as well as device proximity history of any impacted device. One needs to just enter the user ID or MAC address, and a report for the device location in the building for the last 14 days along with the proximity of other devices is generated. This report can be exported or shared using the share feature. Similarly the Detect and Locate app now has the capability to cluster devices into specific counts to check and report on areas that may be violating social distancing guidelines.

The following are the major features of this release:

  • Provision to add and view the profile details of the Cisco Spaces user.

  • Added a new license type Extend in Cisco Spaces.

  • New option, Cisco Spaces: IoT Services that enables you to claim, manage, and monitor IoT devices using Cisco's wireless infrastructure.

  • Opt In support for the SMS with Link Verification authentication.

  • Enhanced the location hierarchy to display the More Actions menu when hover over a location name.

  • Provision to display controller IP address for access points.

  • Restricted the Total Area value that can be defined for the locations to avoid impractical entries.

  • Displays the Detect and Locate app under the SEE license.

  • Support to provide independent access rights to Map Services and DNASpaces using Roles.

  • Updated the Terms and Conditions for the Partner dashboard.

New Features - August 2020

Cisco Spaces Dashboard

The following new features are added to the Cisco Spaces dashboard:

Profile Information

Cisco Spaces now supports to add the profile information such as first name, last name, and mobile number of the Cisco Spaces dashboard user.

  • A new tab, My Profile, is now available in the Account Preferences window to add the profile information. You can specify the first name, last name, and mobile number in this window, where mobile number and its verification are optional. When you specify the mobile number, a Verify Mobile Number link appears, which allows you to verify the mobile number using One Time Password. Once the mobile number is verified, the status Verified is shown. The Verify Mobile Number link will appear again when you change your mobile number.

  • The Login workflow for Cisco Spaces is modified to display the Update Profile Information dialog box as part of the login process if the Profile Information is not available for the particular Cisco Spaces user. You can skip this step, and can proceed to log in. You can then add the profile details through the Account Preferences window any time later. However, the Profile Information dialog box is shown as part of the Login workflow till the time information is provided.


Note


The SSO users will not be able to edit the profile information or verify the mobile number. Also, the Update Profile Information dialog box will not be shown to SSO users during login.


Extend License Type

Cisco Spaces now provides a new license type Extend. The Extend license offers all the apps that are available for the SEE license along with access to activate the Partner apps in Get Partner Apps > App Center.

Overview of Cisco Spaces: IoT Service (Wireless)

Cisco Spaces: IoT Service (Wireless) is a platform service within Cisco Spaces that enables you to claim, manage, and monitor IoT devices using Cisco's wireless infrastructure. IoT Service is designed to enable management of IoT devices across vendors, form factors, and technology protocols. Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) is the first technology available for management using IoT services.

IoT service (wireless) encompasses hardware, software, and partner components to enable the management of devices that support critical business outcomes. IoT service (wireless) uses Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers, Cisco Spaces: Connector, Cisco Wi-Fi6 access points, and Cisco Spaces. IoT service (wireless) adopts a next-generation approach to manage complexity in an enterprise  environment.

Using the IoT service (wireless), you can perform the following IoT management activities:

  • Deploy BLE gateways on supported APs in your network.

  • Claim the BLE beacons that you acquired from Cisco Spaces: IoT Device Marketplace.

  • Configure APs and manage floor beacons.

  • Monitor device attributes such as location, telemetry, battery status, and movement status.

Enhancements - August 2020

Cisco Spaces Dashboard

The following changes are made to the Cisco Spaces dashboard:

SMS with Link Verification Authentication-Opt In Support

The Captive Portals app now supports the Opt In option for the authentication type, SMS with Link Verification. In the Portal window, when you choose the Authentication Type as SMS with Link Verification, the Allow users to Opt in to receive message check box is displayed.

Location Hierarchy

To notify the actions that you can perform for each location in the location hierarchy, the More Actions menu is now displayed for a couple of seconds when you hover over the location name. You can then access the More Actions menu at any time by clicking the three dot (ellipsis) icon as earlier.

Controller IP Address

When Cisco Spaces is connected through Cisco Spaces Connector or WLC Direct Connect, in Location Hierarchy, the IP address of the controller is now displayed in the Access Points tab for a location. In the Access Points tab, a new column Controller IP Address is now available to display the controller IP address.

Location Information

In the Location Data window under the Location Info tab, the Total Area that can be specified for a location is restricted to avoid unrealistic values. A tooltip that states the area allowed in Square Feet is between 100 and 10,00,000 and in Square Meter is between 10 and 100,000 is displayed, when you are entering the Total Area value.

Detect and Locate

In the Cisco Spaces dashboard, the Detect and Locate app is now available for the SEE license. Previously, the Detect and Locate was available only for the ACT licenses. However, the app functionality remains the same.

RBAC Map Services

RBAC now provides access rights to Map Services separately so that you can restrict the users who can access the Maps. Access to Map Services are no more provided as part of the DNASpaces as earlier However, you can assign MapServices to a role only with DNASpaces. For example, you can create a role with read and write access to Map Services and Read Only access to DNASpaces.

To support this enhancement, a new option MapServices is now available under APPS in Admin Management > Roles > Create New Role. If MapService is not assigned when defining a role, the users with that role will not have the MapService option displayed under Setup.


Note


This enhancement is applicable only for new users. All the existing users of Cisco Spaces will continue to have full permission to Map Services.


Cisco Spaces Partner Dashboard

The following enhancements are made to the Cisco Spaces Partner dashboard:

Terms and Conditions

The Terms aand Conditions for the Cisco Spaces Partner dashboard has changed. Now, the updated Terms and Conditions will be shown during your first login after this update. The access to the dashboard will be permitted only after accepting the Terms and Conditions.

Cisco Spaces Runtime

The following changes are made to the Cisco Spaces runtime:

Enhancements for Enterprise Captive Portal

Cisco Spaces now provides the following support for the Enterprise Captive Portals.

  • Support to send notifications to an API endpoint using Trigger API.

  • Support to tag the Captive Portal Users based on their actions.

Issues

Issues describe unexpected behavior in the Cisco Spaces application. The Resolved Issues and Open Issues sections list the issues in this release.

The following information is provided for each issue:

  • Identifier: Each issue is assigned a unique identifier (ID) with a pattern of CSCxxNNNNN, where x is any letter (a-z) and N is any number (0-9). These IDs are frequently referenced in Cisco documentation, such as Security Advisories, Field Notices, and other Cisco support documents. Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC) engineers or other Cisco staff can also provide you with the ID for a specific issue.

  • Description: A description of what is observed when the issue occurs.

This section contains the following topics:

Cisco Bug Search Tool

Cisco Bug Search Tool (BST) is a gateway to the Cisco bug-tracking system, which maintains a comprehensive list of defects and vulnerabilities in Cisco products and software. The BST provides you with detailed defect information about your products and software.

Open Issues

Table 1. Open Issues
Issue Identifier Issue Description

CSCvq83680

RBAC - Admin users who have access only to specific locations are not able to login to dashboard.

CSCvt29202

By default Visitor and Visits counts are displayed for newly created account in Digitization Stats.

CSCvs79627

Meraki camera - User is able to import non camera devices as well.

CSCvu46143

Proper error message should be displayed when trying to use the already accepted invitation.

CSCvt93539

In the Right Now -Visits by floor section, Floor names are not shown in tooltip text, when count of visits is low.

CSCvv22691

When activating deactivated users,'My Profile' information is not getting saved for the first time.

Resolved Issues

Table 2. Resolved Issues
Caveat Identifier Caveat Description

CSCvs97445

Incorrect “Users Count” is displayed in location hierarchy.