Retailers Can Now Master Omni-Channel Customer Engagement with "Project Avatar", a Smart-Mesh Beacon Technology from Sirqul and Inventec

SEATTLE, March 31, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Sirqul, a global IoT enterprise platform, and Inventec, one of Asia's top Original Device Manufacturers of IoT & smart consumer devices, today announced Project Avatar. The combined technologies create increased retail monetization opportunities enabling advanced mobile and in-store engagement, as well as shopper loyalty via machine learning and predictive data analytics.

"By combining Inventec's smart 2-way communication devices with Sirqul's IoT platform, retailers can revolutionize the customer and sales experiences," said Robert Frederick, CEO at Sirqul. "Project Avatar empowers the future of retail by leveraging in-depth behavioral and preferential intelligence to dramatically increase consumer adoption, loyalty, traffic conversion, and transaction size. Retailers will be able to use Project Avatar to rapidly create immersive experiences that aid shoppers in a way that generates results."

A Smarter, More Engaging Retailer Experience

Retailers can leverage Project Avatar to create feature-rich co-shopping experiences that include private chat and meet-ups. They can also deliver product demo videos that can be contextually shared between customers, brands, and sales personnel in real-time. Best of all, the platform includes a patented Sirqul Playfield™ Mesh Network technology that operates indoors where cellular connections are often unavailable. This means customers can now have a seamless, reliable, and customized indoor mobile experience while shopping.

Project Avatar includes:

• Hardware: Inventec's device hardware runs Android OS (Marshmallow) and is capable of managed OTA & OTT updates. The Sirqul SDK and Libraries allow retailers to remotely install and manage custom applications onto the devices.
• Software: Sirqul's embedded software on Project Avatar and the Sirqul IoT platform of APIs and available dashboards empowers retailers to drive more engagement.

• Management tools to upload floorplans and deploy across multiple business locations
• Contextual rules management UI to trigger interactions based on proximity detection, geo-fence alerts and behaviors
• Indoor positioning services that provide turn-by-turn directions, traffic heat-maps, and meet-ups
• Application integration APIs & features - shopping lists, loyalty programs, and hooks for application developers
• Inventory integration with POS, beacons and RFID readers to enable checkout, reduce inventory loss, and maximize relevant product placement
• Predictive machine learning to trigger contextual, personalized offers, coupons and recommendations
• Analytics visualization & reporting with easy to use UX/UI to turn data into actionable intelligence
• Private IM & group chat via Playfield™ Mesh Networking
• Traffic (indoor congestion) detection and avoidance

• Interoperability: The Sirqul IoT platform is protocol and device agnostic. Project Avatar devices support Bluetooth, Bluetooth Classic, Wi-Fi, and RFID readers. With Sirqul Playfield Mesh Networking and app solutions, devices can communicate with each other via adhoc mesh networks that can be leveraged via approved apps running on each device and on other connected devices (phone, tablets).  

"The Internet of Things movement will help shape the future of the customer experience and prove to be the best customer engagement tool," said Fred Chang, President of Personal Solution Group at Inventec.

Project Avatar devices work seamlessly with Sirqul's existing IoT platform. To learn more about the devices and how to run your own Sirqul servers, please visit http://avatar.sirqul.com.

About Sirqul  
Sirqul™ (http://www.sirqul.com) provides an IoT EaaS (Engagement as a Service) Platform and over 30 customizable native application templates. Headquartered in Seattle, WA, Sirqul is led by Robert Frederick, one of the original technical founders of Amazon's first forays into Secure Mobile Commerce (Amazon Anywhere) and Amazon Web Services (AWS). Sirqul enables the rapid conceptualization, development, deployment, and monetization of branded, connected IoT applications. Built upon decades of thought to create a connected world, Sirqul removes the complexity associated with scalable, enterprise quality software and enables the rapid deployment of interoperable IoT ecosystems based upon plug-and-play APIs, tool kits, and starter projects.

About Inventec
Since its establishment, Inventec has adhered to a corporate philosophy of "Innovation, Quality, Open Mind, and Execution". Starting from calculators and telephones, Inventec moved forward into the notebook industry and established a compelling reputation. In the 21th century, Inventec has diversified into the fields of cloud computing, mobile computing, Internet of Things, wireless communications, network applications, digital home appliances, software applications, and sustainable energy for the diversification.http://www.inventec.com