Enterprise Mobility, IoT and the Network Centric Operation

Manufacturing plants, vehicles, high valued equipment and other assets can take advantage of the IoT (Internet of Things) and low cost embedded mobile devices to provide visibility into operations and events in remote locations.  M2M (machine to machine) data can report on anything that a sensor can read for example: operational status, location, environment (pressure, heat, cold, wet, dry, etc.), hours of operation, maintenance and repair needs. This data can then alert field managers and service teams when there is a problem or event that requires their attention.
 
The location of mobile workforces can also be tracked via smartphones or vehicle tracking systems which enables management to better understand how to optimize the use of experts and assets across a geographic area.

Today wireless remote sensors are capable of bi-directional data exchanges.  Sensors can both send data to the central server and receive data in the form of machine commands.  In many cases remote sensors can receive commands from central servers to adjust settings or perform other functions via wireless data exchanges.  This opens up a wide area of possibilities.  Today we see irrigation canal gates, greenhouses and other facilities and assets controlled remotely using this technology.

M2M is a way of connecting physical and digital things to each other wirelessly through a network. These connections, and the data exchanged, can provide real time visibility and access to information about the physical world and the environments around the M2M enabled objects in it.  This is an important component used to develop full situational awareness of a given area of operations.  Used in the context of an electrical grid, enterprise asset management system, plant maintenance, field service automation system, or any other mobile workforce management solution, this data can lead to innovations and gains in efficiency and productivity that were never before possible.

Juniper Research predicted that the number of M2M and embedded mobile devices will rise to approximately 412 million globally by 2014.  ABI Research used a more conservative set of numbers and says that there were approximately 71 million cumulative M2M connections in 2009 and predicts this will rise to about 225 million by 2014.  GSMA predicted that there will be over 50 billion embedded mobile devices by 2025.  All of these predictions represent big numbers and a lot of data. The challenge for managers today is how to turn this high volume of available data into actionable intelligence.

Some of the key markets for M2M systems are:

• Utilities/Smart grids
• Fleet management/Automotive systems 
• Equipment monitoring/Plant maintenance
• Connected homes/Home Energy Management Systems (HEMS)
• Healthcare - Remote patient and health monitoring, medical equipment monitoring
• Vending/POS
• Remote asset management monitoring
• Security systems
• Consumer electronics (eReaders, Wireless Printers, Appliances, etc.) 

In a world filled with M2M data feeds, the question is what can you do with all of this data?  Where can this data provide value?  This is where business intelligence applications are needed - solutions that have the capacity to immediately analyze vast amounts of data and recommend how best to use it for optimal operational efficiencies.

I am seeing companies like ClickSoftware embed artificial intelligence into their scheduling and workforce optimization and field services solutions.  They use collected data to predict the needs of the field services workers.  M2M data enhances these kind of solutions with additional data provided by sensors on machines, in plants and across utility grids.  ClickSoftware has a new software component titled ClickButler designed to predict, based on a wide range of collected data, the information most relevant and needed by your mobile field services teams.  This is just the beginning of a new wave of innovation.

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Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) Cognizant

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***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and SMAC analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

The Importance of Spatial Data for ERPs and Enterprise Mobility

In field services, construction, engineering and other work in rugged environments there is a lot of data to be collected, stored and analyzed in order to complete a job and get paid for it.  This data has traditionally been collected using rugged laptops and other specialized data collection devices, but increasingly devices like consumer grade iPads are being utilized.  It is important to note that eighty percent of this data has a spatial component.

When collecting data, as in journalism, the Who, What, When, Where, Why and How matters. Those are the questions needed to complete work accurately, document and invoice it. That collected data often includes spatial data that is used by various solutions including CRM, CAD, engineering and surveying tools which are integrated with GIS, spatialNET, and other spatial software solutions.  Once the data is processed by these solutions it is shared again with those in the field using mobile devices. 

All of the contractors and sub-contractors working on projects in the field need data that accurately depicts the built environment; especially the parts buried, hung, or routed out of site.   As a result, any software UI (user interface) needs to intuitively connect the user to engineering drawings, spatial databases, and administrative forms. A construction and maintenance crew’s profitability is not measured by how much data they acquire and manipulate, but rather their metric of success is the built environment. 

Whatever software is in their tool kit must be able to access the databases used to model the built environment and provide complete office-to-field GIS, ERP and DMS integration without adding the burden of tedious training. It must also provide mobile and off-line functionality; as utility crews will need their data the most when connectivity is down.

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Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) Cognizant

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***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and SMAC analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Enterprise Mobility and Network Centric Management Strategies

Some of the most technologically advanced organizations in the world today are utilizing strategies based on the concept of the Network Centric Organization.  These strategies, methodologies and concepts are important for just about any organization that is geographically dispersed and requires the organization and management of remote and mobile workforces and assets.

The concept of the "network centric" organization relates to the fact that people, objects, events, activities, assets, inventories, locations, fleets, equipment, tools, etc, are all connected to the Internet (aka network), monitored, and most often visible on a map.  All of these connected components are providing data in real-time that can be used to manage operations.  This collected data is wirelessly sent to a central server where it forms a real time and unified view of operations that can be used for analysis, forecasting, resource allocation, planning and real time decision-making.

This networked approach enables users to see where their assets are located, where they are needed and how best to manage them at all times to successfully and efficiently accomplish the mission.  Network centric operations in commercial environments, is a relatively new concept that continues to evolve as mobile technologies improve and more assets are connected to and become visible to the network.

From a business strategy perspective, you want to gain an information advantage over your competition.   You want to set-up a robust network of well informed geographically dispersed people and assets that have situational awareness and visibility.   This networking, combined with changes in business intelligence, artificial intelligence, organizational structures, processes and people, enable organizations to behave and respond in ways never before possible.

Specifically, the strategy of Network Centric Operations contains the following four tenets in its hypotheses:

1. A robustly networked workforce improves information sharing.
2. Information sharing enhances both the quality of information and the shared situational awareness.
3. Shared situational awareness enables collaboration and self-synchronization, and enhances sustainability and speed of management decision-making.
4. These, in turn, dramatically increase productivity.

In order to optimize operations, in the context of field services, asset management, engineering and construction operations, it is critical to know, in real time, the location of all resources, the status of each job, the assets, parts and equipment needed, and the time each job will require. When effectively coordinated and managed, human resources, equipment, assets and mobile inventories can be shared between multiple projects, and the right experts with the right levels of experience can be used on the right projects at the right time.

The bottom line is that a leaner, more efficient organization can be put in the field that can accomplish more work with fewer resources and generate a higher return on investment.

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Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) Cognizant

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Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

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***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and SMAC analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Mobile Expert Video Series: Shishir Kapoor on Mobile Payments and Security

In this Google+ Hangout interview with Cognizant's mobile payment expert Shishir Kapoor, we discuss the details of mobile payment systems, Truzign, the problems and challenges and how they can be solved.  Warning - the video recording seems to skip a bit (blame Google) but there is some great information here.

Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BnHU0ffNLs&feature=share&list=UUGizQCw2Zbs3eTLwp7icoqw

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Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) Cognizant

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Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and SMAC analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Code Halos, Big Data and SMAC

In this short video you can quickly learn how companies use collected data (code halos) to provide you with a customized version of your mobile or Internet experience.

Video Links: http://youtu.be/Kr_Q8rtSGic


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Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) Cognizant

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Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and SMAC analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Mobility and Real-Time Capability Projection

This weekend I was clever.  That is newsworthy because it doesn't happen very often.  Our son is stationed at a military base that did not receive TV coverage of the Boise State football game on Saturday night.  It must have been the government shut-down.  I can't think of any other reason they wouldn't have shown it.  The solution was a three hour Google+ Hangout whereby mom and dad got to talk to our officer son while the laptop camera "inadvertently" captured and streamed the Broncos game showing on our big screen TV.  It was a nice Hangout - they won!  We tried Skype first, but the picture was blurry.  Google+ Hangout, however, was picture perfect.

Our son is stationed a great distance away, however, using real-time communication and video we can communicate and share what is going on in our lives.  This same kind of technology can be used in the context of "capability projection" for companies.  Here is my definition of capability projection, "The ability of a business to apply all or some of its capabilities such as marketing, sales, distribution, etc, over great distances to respond to and take advantage of new market opportunities."

What does it take to project your capabilities over great distances?  The ability to in real-time collect data, analyze data, and distribute the results in order to make good decisions.  It takes the ability to view information and operations at a distance and have the ability to act instantaneously from afar.  Without this capability, you cannot implement good business tactics.  Tactics are the art and science of positioning resources for optimal use and maneuvering them to keep them as such.

The bottom line, you can't expand your operations and business over great distances and/or remote markets unless you are implementing a good real-time SMAC (social, mobile, analytics and cloud) strategy.  A good SMAC strategy provides the technical platforms that enable distributed organizations to effectively collaborate, design and execute plans.

The Internet, mobile devices and collaboration platforms have greatly empowered organizations to be able to expand beyond historic geographic barriers.  This capability opens the door to expanding your influence and business efficiently and cost effectively across the globe.
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Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) Cognizant

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Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

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Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and SMAC analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Gartner Reveals Predictions and the Tsunami of Digital Transformation

This week at the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2013, Gartner unveiled their top predictions for 2014 and beyond.  Here they are:

• Digital Industrial Revolution (3D printing and its impact on manufacturing and IP)
• Digital Business (social, mobile, analytics, cloud, code halos and their impact) 
• Smart Machines (self-learning machines and artificial intelligence)
• The Internet of Things (network centric operations, situational awareness, etc.)

These predictions align closely with what I have been writing about and teaching for the past 12 months. However, I have not covered the "Digital Industrial Revolution" in the context of 3D printing.  I will have to start paying more attention to that area.  I blame some of my inattention on those that came up with the term "3D Printing." When I read the word "printing" I lose interest.  I guess I need to start being interested.

In fact, we all need to start paying more attention to the four areas listed above.  Gartner is not just highlighting new IT trends, but warning that these trends will have a significant impact on politics, economies, cultures and societies.  They are predicting the process of "digitizing" businesses and manufacturing will displace large numbers of workers that will not find available jobs waiting.

I talk about the speed and the pace of business often these days.  Information volumes are exploding, innovations are accelerating and real-time communication is nearly universal.  Secrets are hard to keep, and entire populations and markets are swarming around new ideas and causes that burst forth in seemingly spontaneous manners.

As more data is captured and analyzed by the big data engines, this information will start to have a larger impact on each of our personal lives (see Code Halos).  Our automobile insurance, mortgage loan rates, educational opportunities, job prospects and the products and services offered and the prices of these items will all be the result of big data analytics.

The digitization of our world means computers will be able to do more of the work that until recently supported the middle class.  Here is a summary of what Thomas L Friedman had to say about this phenomena last year in an article titled, The Theory of Everything (Sort of) in the New York Times - Because of cloud computing, robotics, 3G wireless connectivity, Skype, Facebook, Google, Linkedin Twitter, the iPad and cheap Internet enabled smartphones, the world has gone from connected to hyper-connected.  Today to be in the the middle class, you have to study harder, work smarter and adapt more quickly than ever before.  All of this rapid change is eliminating more and more “routine” work – the sort of work that once sustained a lot of middle-class lifestyles.

Displaced middle class workers are not going to be happy.  We need to watch carefully the unintended consequences of these technological innovations.  The middle class are not the only potential losers of these changes.  Large numbers of businesses will not be able to decipher the meanings of rapid changes around them, and those that do may not have the expertise or capital to act fast enough to keep up with the pace.

In 1970 Alvin Toffler published a best selling book called Future Shock that predicted that affluent and educated citizens of the world’s most technically advanced nations will fall victim to the disease of change. Unable to keep up with the pace of change, brought to the edge of breakdown by incessant demands to adapt and evolve, many will plunge into future shock. The main thrust of the book is that both individuals and societies need to learn how to adapt to and manage the sources and pace of change.

The bottom line is that companies need to invest today in change management education and watch emerging trends very carefully.   Companies need to fully understand what it means to move from industrial to digital.  These emerging trends then need to quickly be analyzed so executives can understand how these changes should translate into today's business strategies, budgets and investments.  Those in politics also need to pay attention to these rapid changes because they are already impacting societies and economies.

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Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) Cognizant

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Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

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***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and SMAC analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Tactical vs. Strategic Enterprise Mobility

Tsunamis of Change

In the recent survey I conducted titled "State of Enterprise Mobility 2013" I asked the question, "Does your company view mobile solutions as tactical (LOB or process specific) or strategic (critical to the success of the company)?"  Over 220 participants answered the question with 71.3% answering strategic, and 28.2% answering tactical.  However, when I filtered for just the answers from end-users (removing analysts, consultants, software and mobility vendors), then 48% answered tactical, and 52% answered strategic.  There are still a lot of enterprises that view enterprise mobility as merely a tactical solution.

What is the difference between strategic and tactical enterprise mobility?  I think it relates to the scale and transformational nature of your implementations.  For example, if your CPG (consumer packaged goods) company had 27 food processing inspectors that needed mobile apps to conduct in-house inspections, then I would consider that a tactical implementation of a mobile solution.  However, if your company implemented an enterprise-wide mobile app to facilitate better enterprise collaboration, then that might be strategic. Strategic mobile applications fundamentally change the way a company operates.

I see a lot of strategic mobility especially used in B2C (business-to-consumer) apps.  Many of these apps can completely change the way customers feel about your company, research products and services, buy things and recommend them to friends.

Social, mobile, analytics and cloud (SMAC) and other IT mega-trends are causing massive changes today.  Here is what Gartner said this week at their symposium, "IT is no longer just about the IT function. Instead, IT has become the catalyst for the next phase of innovation in personal and competitive business ecosystems."  Did you catch that?  IT is becoming even more important, and is key to making their businesses competitive!

I get concerned when I meet with IT strategy teams in 2013 that tell me, "We are conducting POCs with a couple of simple mobile apps."  WHAT?  What are they trying to prove with a POC?  That is like saying, "I know a Tsunami is coming, but I am going to practice my breast stroke and back stroke to see which I like better."  You have got to be strategic enough to MATTER!

Here is another comment from the Gartner Symposium this week, "The savvy CIO will get his or her CEO to recognize the change being brought about by disruptive shifts, and that they are coming at an accelerated pace and that they will have a global level of impact."  These changes and economic shifts are seismic!

It is time we recognized these massive changes for what they are, and get serious about implementing a strategy shift that enables us to respond to changes at a much faster pace than ever before.

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Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) Cognizant

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Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and SMAC analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Personal and Enterprise Clouds, HTML5 and Mobile Devices

Click to Enlarge

In the recent survey "State of Enterprise Mobility 2013" I asked the question, "How many wireless devices do you use daily?"  An incredible 69 percent use three or more wireless devices daily.  I myself use three - my MacBook Pro, iPad mini and iPhone.

I use my iPad mostly for reading email, notes, news, ebooks and social media, plus I watch videos and listen to music on it.  I use my iPhone for the same purposes when I am on the go, plus texting, phone calls, the camera, fitness apps and maps.  I use my laptop to do many of the same things, but specifically to write, use Microsoft Office apps, participate in video conferences and conduct research and store photos.

There are a lot of overlaps in what I do on the devices, which is the reason the whole concept of the "personal cloud" is so valuable to me.  Rather than store all content on devices and worry about synchronizing updated versions of my content across other devices, much of my personal content is stored in personalized clouds.  My Blogger and Facebook accounts are personal clouds where I store and share my content.  LinkedIn, Twitter, iCloud, EverNote, Box.net, DropBox, Instagram, Pinterest, etc., are also personal cloud services where you can store and share content.  The value, of course, is that you can access all of your content from any of your wireless devices with minimal effort and maximin convenience.

Enterprises will find the same kinds of benefits that I do but on a much larger scale.  Companies that recognize a permanent requirement to support an increasing number of enterprise mobility apps on ever-changing devices, must seek a model of design, development, deployment, maintenance and support that maximizes efficiency, productivity and minimizes TCO (total cost of ownership).  In today's world - that model looks like HTML5 apps managed and deployed using enterprise cloud services.

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Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) Cognizant

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Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

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Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and SMAC analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Kevin Benedict's Mobile Expert Google+ Hangout with Chris Willis

In this Google+ Hangout interview with mobility expert Chris Willis, we discuss current enterprise mobility trends, Verivo's strategies, evolving mobile platforms and business models.  Enjoy!

Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rS6-y1oppNE&feature=share&list=UUGizQCw2Zbs3eTLwp7icoqw

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Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) Cognizant

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Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and SMAC analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Kevin Benedict Selected to the 2013 Power Players in Technology Business Media List

AlwaysOn is proud to announce the Power Players in Technology Business Media list, honoring the technology journalists (and Bloggers) who are keeping the Global Silicon Valley connected and informed.   Cognizant’s Head SMAC Analyst, Kevin Benedict has been selected as a 2013 winner.

The AlwaysOn Power Players in Technology Business Media list honors the editors, writers, and bloggers in the technology world who are keeping technology entrepreneurs informed and connected. Reporting on the massive technology breakthroughs hitting the market almost every day, these individuals are the voices behind the ideas that make the Global Silicon Valley an incubator for success, helping inspire entrepreneurs who are building strong companies and forward-thinking, indispensable products. - See more at: http://aonetwork.com/Announcing-the-2013-Power-Players-Technology-Business-Media/#sthash.fzgwu8C4.dpuf

I am honored.

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Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) Cognizant

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Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and SMAC analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Mobility, Metamemory and the Connected Second or Third Brain

Does having a library close to your home erode your brain's ability to remember?  Unlikely right?  But many people continue to believe that having information available nearby, such as in your pocket or purse does.  I have heard people speculate that access to Wikipedia and other personal cloud or internet content via smartphones must negatively impact memory?  That claim just does not make sense to me.

Today, I read an article by Clive Thompson titled, "Is Google Wrecking Our Memory."  In this article Thompson says the short answer to the question in his article title is no.  Seems about 30 years ago Harvard psychologists Daniel Wegner, Ralph Erber and Paula Raymond noticed humans use a memory process called "transactive memory" whereby we remember where to find answers in other people.  For example Wegner's team noticed spouses often divide up who remembers what.  The wife might remember everyone's birthdays, but the husband remembers what kind of work all the various family members do and where they live.  Combined, the couple has a great memory. Uncoupled, their memory is incomplete.

It turns out we are all pretty bad at memorizing details (unless we are passionate about something), but really good at memorizing where to find information.  As a result humans quickly come to recognize who knows what and where to find answers.  The end result is a group of friends or family members quickly recognize who in the group knows about certain things - Ralph knows about cars, Mary knows about geography, Claus knows the Bible, Susan knows computers, etc.  This recognition of where to find information is called "metamemory." You know where information is stored and can retrieve it quickly from your friend's brain.  This metamemory expands your memory to a group memory, or a network of memories.

Before computers, the cave men knew which cave contained the painted story of a great hunt.  As languages developed, people soon recognized who amongst them maintained specialized knowledge.  A village leader may have been the person who used their networking skills and metamemory to get things done.  They knew which member in the village knew how to solve a particular problem.

Today, we use our smartphones' access to Wikipedia as the painting on the cave wall.  In businesses we know our customer and sales information is kept in our CRM system.  We recognize where the information is stored.  Our metamemory has expanded from cave walls, to people, to books, to Wikipedia and our business solutions.  We continue to develop our metamemory, it is just not limited by geography or people today, or is it?  Where are Mary and Susan when you need them?

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Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) Cognizant

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Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

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***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and SMAC analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

State of Enterprise Mobility 2013 Survey Results, Part 1

I am working on the "State of Enterprise Mobility 2013" survey report this week and wanted to share some of the interesting results.  Here is the first question, "How important is B2E (business-to-employee) mobility to your company's success?"  Here are the answers:

• End users - 30% stated it has a large to critical impact
• Analysts -  69% stated it has a large to critical impact
• Consultants - 40% stated is has a large to critical impact
• Mobility Vendors - 51% stated it has a large to critical impact
• Software/ERP Vendors - 46% stated is has a large to critical impact

Here is the second question, "How important is B2C (business-to-consumer) mobile apps to your company's success?"  Here are the answers:

• End users - 40% stated it has a large to critical impact
• Analysts - 23% stated it has a large to critical impact
• Consultants - 33% stated it has a large to critical impact
• Mobility Vendors - 35% stated it has a large to critical impact
• Software/ERP Vendors - 29% stated it has a large to critical impact

It is very interesting that "end-users" value B2E less than the rest of the market, but value B2C more than the rest of the market participants.

It is also interesting that "analysts" place a much higher value on B2E mobility than the rest of the market participants, but value B2C less than the rest.

What are your interpretations of this data?

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Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) Cognizant

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Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and SMAC analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Mobile Expert Video Series: Bob Egan, Part 2

Bob Egan is a friend, the founder/CEO of the Sepharim Group, veteran enterprise mobility expert and analyst.  In this interview Bob shares his thoughts on the current state of mobile devices, enterprise mobility and trends.  Enjoy!

Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_vTZ44rRWA&feature=share&list=UUGizQCw2Zbs3eTLwp7icoqw

*************************************************************

Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) Cognizant

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Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and SMAC analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Extinction Events and Democracy - The Death of Blackberry

There is a saying in America, "Every dog has its day."  That idiom means everyone will at some time in their life have a moment of success.  That moment may be a second, a minute, perhaps a day, a week, several months or even years.  BlackBerry had its day.

In an article titled, "The Fatal Mistake That Doomed BlackBerry," writer Sam Gustin identifies a number of critical points in BlackBerry's history that my colleagues at the Center for The Future of Work would describe as crossroads.  Good decisions at the crossroads lead to success, bad decisions at the crossroads lead to "extinction events."  Here are a few identified by Gustin:

1. BlackBerry failed to see the power shift from enterprises to consumers.  They focused on the enterprise until it was too late.  They thought decisions in the enterprise drove demand.
2. BlackBerry failed to understand and embrace the "apps economy" that started and fueled an uncontrolled frenzy of innovation from developers and demand from consumers.  BlackBerry thought they dictated and controlled progress and innovation.
3. BlackBerry failed to understand mobile phones could become more than voice and text communicators.  They missed the whole notion that mobile devices could be entertainment hubs for the masses.
4. BlackBerry failed to realize that bigger screens trumped physical keyboards.  Consumers embracing their devices as entertainment hubs wanted to watch videos, play games and view maps on bigger screens.  
5. BlackBerry considered providing secure email on a mobile phones the pinnacle of innovation, rather than just the start.  Apple and Android saw mobile phones as mobile computers that could support an unlimited number of software apps and functions.

I am struck by the amount of power and influence BlackBerry believed it controlled.  It seemed a kind of institutional arrogance.  The advent of the world wide web, wireless broadband and social media ensured a kind of democracy in technology.  The mobile world could and would no longer be controlled by a single company in Waterloo, but rather by the consumer.

Today, I still come across vendors who seem to believe they control the direction of enterprise mobility.  As soon as I observe this attitude, a vision of an extinction event fills my mind.  Vendors must innovate both in front of and in parallel with the the direction customers are heading.  They can no longer dictate and control the direction of the consumer.

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Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) Cognizant

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Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

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***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and SMAC analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

SMAC Expert Series: Cloud Services and Enterprise Mobility Risks and Vulnerabilities

I had the privilege of recording a Google+ Hangout On Air with cloud services and mobile security expert Rajiv Gupta, CEO/Founder of SkyHigh Networks this week.  In this interview we discuss the risks and vulnerabilities of letting your mobile and enterprise users access cloud services.  This is a very interesting area that I had not spent much time considering.  Enjoy!

Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ay_RlYNYJ_s&feature=share&list=UUGizQCw2Zbs3eTLwp7icoqw

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Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) Cognizant

View Linkedin Profile

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and SMAC analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Power Projection on a Global Scale and Enterprise Mobility

Power Projection

Hillsong United, is a global musical powerhouse headquartered in Sydney, Australia.  While I was in Sydney recently I was able to attend a musical program led by Hillsong's Taya Smith.  Taya Smith is the singer of the popular christian worship song Oceans.  Last week, our daughter sang this song at Whitworth Univeristy in Spokane, Washington, and we heard this same song again in Austin, Texas over the weekend.  That is "talent and influence projection."  A musical group from thousands of miles away can project their talent into musical programs worldwide within days thanks to digital technology.

The term "Power or Capabilities Projection" is the ability to influence events and act from afar.  This is what enterprise mobility is all about.  It's the ability to provide better customer service over vast distances because you know where your 5,000 service technicians are located and the status of the jobs they are working on.  You can provide more accurate estimates of their arrival, more efficiently assign jobs and route them to the next location all from hundreds or thousands of miles away.

Companies that recognize the importance of "power or capabilities projection" and the role enterprise mobility plays in it, can develop economies of scale previously unimagined.  Today a company's SMEs (subject matter experts) can be brought to a job site "virtually" using mobile technologies.  The SME can view a job site via live video, ask questions, analyze data collected on mobile devices and assist in solving solutions remotely.  Rather than hire an SME for every location, one SME can now project their expertise globally, thus enabling better service and reducing costs.

In addition, mobile enterprise collaboration apps connected to cloud platforms can enable leaders and SMEs globally to work together to quickly and efficiently solve problems in distant lands.  This is a big deal.  Many countries may have a strong military able to defend their own borders, but few have the ability to "project" their power outside of their region which limits their influence and power.  Companies able to project their capabilities have nearly unlimited potential for growth.

Cloud-based solutions can also offer incredibly powerful capabilities to project your company, brand, products and services.  Today, a competitor's team can land in your market, connect to the Internet and have access to complete ERPs, CRMs, logistic systems and social/mobile marketing platforms in seconds.  That is a different level of competition and speed to market than many of us are accustomed to dealing with.  It takes a different game plan.

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Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) Cognizant

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Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and SMAC analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Digitizing Beds - Is Your Enterprise in Jeopardy of Digital Transformations?

Coin operated vibrating beds!!!!

In a recent report I read titled Q3 2013 iPass Mobile Workforce Report, mobile workers (1,375 of them) reported hotel WiFi was as important as a comfortable bed.  Seventy-four percent say a bad WiFi experience in a hotel would prevent a return visit.  BAM!

Competition among hotels over who has the most comfortable beds just got digitized!  In a flash, the competitive arena changed from beds to WiFi and beds. It is happening all around us today.  The problem is many three-year strategic plans don't anticipate this rate and pace of change and digital transformation.

I see digital transformations in retail banks today.  Banks have been investing in interior designers, foot-traffic experts, retail and customer service gurus and neighborhood banks blessed with good feng shui (a Chinese philosophical system of harmonizing the human existence with the surrounding environment), but no one is going to banks any more.  The competitive arena moved to the mobile retail banking apps and mobile banking services.  BAM!

How would you like to be in the paper map making business, or even a dedicated GPS device company like Garmin or TomTom?  BAM!  The maps are digitized and the GPS is in your smartphone.

The insurance industry is also experiencing major digital transformations globally.  Traditional brokers and agents, and even claims adjusters, are being displaced by mobile apps, call centers and websites. BAM! Insurance companies are hesitant to embrace the digital transformation for fear of alienating their traditional sales channels, but the digital and mobile public are migrating there rapidly.

The retail industry is struggling to understand the best strategy for responding to shoppers who use their smartphones in stores to comparison shop.  How do you prevent people from taking a picture of a book and then ordering it from Amazon?  If I see a good book on the shelf, I want to know if it comes recommended, if it is available in paperback and are there good used copies to be found for less?  I can't get that today by looking at the shelf.  BAM!

Last week I was in Copenhagen, Denmark with a hankering for Indian food.  I used my iPhone to search for Indian food and found a number of restaurants listed.  As I was walking to a location listed on the map I passed several Indian restaurants.  These restaurants were in digital blind spots.  They did not appear on Google's search engine, and they lost my business.  BAM!

I just recently discovered my DirecTV is available on my iPad.  Who knew?  I can watch my recorded shows from anywhere in the house on my iPad while pretending to watch re-runs of West Wing or Pitch Perfect for the 18th time with my family.  BAM!  My big screen TV just got less cool since it is fixed to my wall and must be shared with others.

I can image a scenario where restaurants must change the way they operate because of digital transformation.  Perhaps you are in a food court environment and you can pull up the individual menus of all restaurants in the building and aggregate them automatically into one giant menu.  You can now pick a hamburger from one place, fries from another and a Milkshake from still another.  You purchase through your mobile app, and the food is delivered to your table.  You can unlock food choices and options from paper menus and customize your own meal.  You could then create your own food favorites list.  BAM!  Just like in the music business where you can purchase one song at a time and create your own play lists.

In the lobby of my medical doctor's office, they are promoting their new electronic patient records system and the benefits it offers patients.  This is huge! BAM! If any of you have had to deal with multiple doctors, multiple tests, multiple locations, multiple prescriptions and multiple treatments, then you already know how obviously valuable electronic patient records and how much potential there is for positive benefits.  I would change doctors to get the listed benefits!  The competitive environment suddenly is shifting from bedside manners to digital capabilities.

I would encourage everyone in every industry to take a long hard look at what SMAC (social, mobile, analytics and cloud) trends and digital transformations are doing and will do to the traditional way your business operates and how this will impact the competitive landscape of your industry.

For more information on digital transformation and how these changes are impacting industries, markets and businesses, I would invite you to visit, www.unevenlydistributed.com.

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Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) Cognizant

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Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and SMAC analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

The Industrial Internet and SMAC - Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud

The Industrial Internet refers to the world of connected sensors on people, equipment, machines, parts, assets, vehicles, inventory, etc.  These items are connected by embedded wireless chips that monitor sensors and wirelessly send data to a server somewhere in the world.  Here is an example of how one of the largest companies in the world is utilizing the industrial Internet.

Every major part of a GE jet engine, locomotive or turbine is equipped with wireless sensors that continuously measure and wirelessly send every aspect of performance to a central server that is often in the cloud. As the data is received by the server, it is analyzed by big data analytical solutions and the results are used to improve everything from the flight path to energy efficiency.

This same kind of Industrial Internet platform could also be used to monitor and improve the health of large populations of people as well.  I think immediately of the elderly, those with chronic diseases, those recuperating from any kind of health issue.  If they can be monitored and cared for while staying at home, that is a far more comfortable and less expensive place to stay for many.  I can foresee a time when we will subscribe our elderly parents to a full time health monitoring plan.  Our elderly parents will wear a bracelet that contains a large number of sensors that monitor a spectrum of things from location to activity levels, temperature, pulse, heart rate, etc.

The industrial Internet will result in massive amounts of new data being added to wireless networks.  MNOs (mobile network operators) make less money supporting a small embedded wireless chip in a piece of equipment than adding a new iPhone customer, but the embedded wireless sensor chip is unlikely to change carriers, call a support center, or dispute an international call; so although the embedded wireless chip is not as profitable as a smartphone customer, the cost of sales and support are far lower.  This area is considered one of the major growth areas for mobile network operators and is currently being heavily promoted by MNOs.

In the enterprise, the ability to know about your operational area is critical.  If you are managing a fleet, it is important to know where they are, which vehicles need new tires, oil changes and other maintenance.  It is important to know and plan for how much money you need to spend each month/year on maintenance and replacement costs.  If you know the location of your fleet, you are better able to provide least cost routing, improve scheduling, avoid traffic and weather hazards and improve overall profitability.  The industrial Internet connects managers with real data, in real-time.  The Industrial Internet proves that knowledge is power.

What is the connection of the Industrial Internet to SMAC (social, mobile, analytics and cloud)?  Let's consider the description above of how GE is using the Industrial Internet.  Every major part of a GE manufactured jet engine has a wireless sensor.  These sensors are continuously sending data to a server.  Many of those major parts are manufactured by third parties - contract manufacturers.  When strange data starts coming in from several parts - I can image there is an immediate need to analyze, communicate and collaborate among many different teams.  As many of your smartest key people are mobile and traveling, you will need mobile communications and the ability to review shared data (a good use case for a cloud-based collaboration environment).

The Industrial Internet has the ability to transform working environments, strategies, industries, processes and methodologies in big ways, just like mobile devices have changed entire businesses, industries and processes.  These two trends are not separate. They build off each other, and because of this the changes and transformations introduced will not be linear.  They will introduce exponential change at a pace most are not equipped to handle.

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Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) Cognizant

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Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and SMAC analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Mobile Expert Video Series: Kevin in Copenhagen

This week I am working in beautiful Copenhagen, Denmark.  I've had the opportunity to work with a large bank and CPG company and to learn a great deal over the past couple of days.  Today, however, I spoke at the 600minute Executive IT conference.  My session was called, "Mobile Strategies, SMAC and Digital Transformation."  In this short video I highlight the key points in my presentation.  Enjoy!

Video Link: http://youtu.be/bC8rLS5_-q4

*************************************************************

Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) Cognizant

View Linkedin Profile

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and SMAC analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

How Do You Fund Innovation for Mobile and Digital Transformation?

Last month while in Sydney, Australia I participated in an interesting session taught by my colleague Ajoy Mallik on how to organize a continuous innovation program in-house.  Our client had asked us to help them develop this program.  It was while participating in this workshop that I recognized the value.

Fast forward to today and I am in Denmark experiencing late summer rain and working with a large CPG company and sharing our latest research on Code Halos, enterprise mobility, SMAC strategies and digital transformation.  During the workshop one of the attendees asked the question, "How do you motivate executives to fund innovation?"  It was a great question!  That is a challenge for most companies. Someone needs to pay for it!

The first question might be,  "Can't we just replicate innovation when we find it?"  My answer is that your frontline employees are in the best position to recognize where innovation is needed and how it could most benefit your company.  That kind of specific innovation requires motivation, collaboration and organization, ie., funding!

Your company needs to recognize the importance of continuous innovation - not project based innovation, but systemic.  A system that is continuously asking questions like the following:

• How are SMAC (social, mobile, analytics and cloud) developments and trends going to impact your markets, customers, partners, suppliers and your industry?  How are these developments going to change the future, and are your budgets aligned with those changes?
• How is the process of digital transformation going to impact your products and services?
• How are mobile technologies going to impact your brand, marketing, sales and business models?
• How are social media channels changing your market and industry?
• How can you deploy enterprise collaboration solutions to your advantage?
• How can you become more agile as a business, when your ERP and technology vendors are constantly trying to lock you into their expensive and slow paced technology cycles?
• What opportunities and risks are presented by the transformation from controlled PR, branding and messaging, to real-time social media feedback and swarming market behaviors?
• What new risks are being presented to your business models and markets because of all these changes?
• What changes need to happen within your ERPs and IT infrastructure to support a move to real-time information and updates?
• How does your company's organizational chart need to change in order for managers to respond quicker to real-time problems and market opportunities?

All of these issues are here today.  Companies must be continuously addressing these changes and trying new ideas, innovations and processes.  This is at the least, self-preservation, and at the most an opportunity to capture market share and achieve competitive advantages.  The future, if a company is to have one, must be funded.

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Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) Cognizant

View Linkedin Profile

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and SMAC analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

What Do All these SMAC Developments Mean?

The research team at Cognizant has come up with some interesting numbers related to SMAC (social, mobile, analytics and cloud) for us all to ponder:

• 37% of all media consumption in the U.S. in 2012 was via a mobile device
• 3 out of 5 searches are done through mobile devices
• Data production will be 44 times greater in 2020 than it was in 2009

What do you think these numbers mean for enterprises today and tomorrow?

Opinion:

I see digital transformation spinning off many different business trends and technology waves.  Consumers want to consume media on mobile devices. This in turn drives tablet sales, as most media is easier to view on tablets.  Tablets and other mobile devices encourage and promote the digitization of customer engagements and produce more data (code halos) that enables new business models to emerge based on a strategic use of big data analytics tied to marketing and commerce platforms.

The more data and commerce that flows through mobile devices, the more companies focus on mobile marketing and sales channels.  I see no end to the popularity of mobile devices, so this trend is guaranteed to continue.  The question for us now is how this will impact traditional sales and marketing channels and strategies.

Real-time communications and data exchanges on mobile devices, drives the desire for all kinds of additional real-time interactions including collaboration, and commerce.  This in turn requires businesses to transform themselves and re-engineer their businesses to support real-time interactions and engagements.

The competition will quickly move beyond just supporting mobile devices, and re-engineering for real-time commerce and services, to personalizing engagements and enabling context-aware applications and devices (think health and fitness) and Pandora's, Netflix's and Amazon.com's ability to recommend items based on the data they have collected on you.  This same context aware capability will quickly spread into the enterprise where mobile applications will understand you, your role, your task, your location and support your needs without being asked.  There is a lot of work to be done here.  ClickSoftware, as an example, has created context aware mobile applications for field services.  You can read and watch a short video on their ClickButler here.

Another emerging trend is the convergence of mobile and wireless data whether it is from a mobile device or an embedded wireless sensor in your car, home appliance, home security system, oil pipeline, city bus or manufacturing assembly line.  These sensors will quickly be in everything, producing massive quantities of data begging to be used in clever applications for both personal and enterprise purposes.

Recommendation:

I am not reporting anything new here.  This is all happening now. We all see it. Enterprises need to be evaluating their entire "information logistics" systems today to understand where they have problems supporting mobile and real-time environments.  They need to replace any systems that cannot support this quickly emerging world.  They also need to secure this new wireless world and their data from bad guys.

Real-time environments require different management practices.  Companies will need to re-train managers and executives on how to work with real-time data and business intelligence so as not to suffer from decision-making paralysis.  New decision-making tools and methods will need to be employed.  In addition, new business strategies, business models, management techniques, customer service and engagement paradigms all need to be re-thought in this fast moving, mobile and real-time age.

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Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) Cognizant

View Linkedin Profile

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and SMAC analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Mobile Marketing History and Infograph

Mobile is now the first screen of influence for many marketers while adults are spending more time on mobile media than newspapers and magazines.

Timeline of Mobile Marketing

Middle ages

- Town criers are used to spread messages

1876

- First telephone introduced by Alexander Graham Bell

1973

- First mobile portable handset invented

1992

- First text message sent from computer to mobile phone

1993

- First mobile phone that both sends and receives texts introduced

1998

- Term "spam" officially added to dictionary to mean unwanted, junk emails

2003

- First commercial mobile SMS launches. Short codes introduced for use with text message marketing

2005

- Nike and Pontiac launch SMS campaigns

2007

- 2.4 billion SMS users worldwide
- Apple iPhone is released in U.S.
- Texting is embraced: Average monthly texts (218) outnumber calls (213)

2010

- Quick response (QR) codes start being used in mobile marketing
- Cambridge dictionary adds "text" as a verb

2011

- Mobile marketing becomes a $14 billion+ industry, including $9.3 billion worth of music

2013

- Android and iOS battle it out for market share

Businesses embrace new technology for mobile outreach

• Square-like apps for payment
• Same-day shipping through Amazon and eBay
• Mobile fingerprinting to secure payments
• Augmented reality in which customers can point their mobile cameras at products for reviews and discounts

2014

- Mobile Internet usage will overtake desktop Internet usage

2015

- 81% of U.S. mobile customers will have smartphones
- Mobile marketing will generate $400 billion in sales (a 52% increase in just two years)
- Retailers and marketers will spend $19.8 billion on mobile marketing, up from $6.7 billion in 2012)

2016

- Global mobile marketing spending will grow to $22 billion

We Love Our Mobile Phones - and So Do Businesses

91%

- Adults who have their mobile phone within arm's reach

271 million

- Adults who own some type of mobile device

75%

- Percentage of smartphone market held by Apple and Android

86%

- Users who use their smartphone while watching TV

$22 billion

- Mobile advertising spending
- 2012 - 2010
- $22 billion - $3.4 billion

15%

- Online retail sales in 2013 made through mobile devices

3 in 4

- Mobile users who use their device for shopping

$39 billion

Original Source: http://www.topmarketingschools.net/mobile/

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Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) Cognizant

View Linkedin Profile

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and SMAC analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Growth of Cloud-Based Mobile Platforms

This morning I was reviewing the preliminary results of my "State of Enterprise Mobility 2013" survey.  Over 210 people have now completed it.  Thank You!!!!! The results are very interesting and point to many changes in perceptions and preferences year-over-year.  Stay tuned here for the complete and final results soon.

I was surprised to see that 34.7% of participants now prefer cloud-based mobile platforms.  That is especially meaningful when you consider 23% don't even use a mobile platform.  If my math is right, 45% of those that use or want to use a mobile platform prefer a cloud-based platform.  That is meaningful.

On the topic of mobile security, 42.7% of survey participants prefer a cloud-based mobile security platform.  Since 10.7% don't choose to use mobile security platforms, that means 48% of those that do or plan to use a mobile security platform prefer a cloud-based one.

Please add your thoughts and opinions to this quick survey here: http://survey.constantcontact.com/survey/a07e81h7ar7hklpypms/start

The preliminary results definitely show a growing preference for cloud-based platforms.  That is good news for cloud-based mobile platform companies like www.FeedHenry.com.  FeedHenry is specifically designed for cloud-based enterprise mobility deployments.  I recently had the opportunity to interview Steve Drake, VP of Business Development at FeedHenry.  You may remember his work at IDC over the past 16 years where he built up their mobility and telecom practice.

The focus of FeedHenry is to provide the next generation, cloud-based mobile enterprise application solution that simplifies the development, deployment and management of mobile apps for enterprises. They believe they have a better platform, that is more flexible and agile than heavy on-premise competitors.  They also believe their pricing is much more rational and better suited to a cloud-based environment than other vendors with a primary focus of on-premise platform deployments.

FeedHenry is popular with telecoms and they have big channel partners in Telefonica and O2.

They also believe there is a big difference between platforms designed from the ground up for on-premise and from the sky-down for cloud.  Their platforms are designed for cloud-based environments, which is a good place to be based upon my survey data.

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Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) Cognizant

View Linkedin Profile

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and SMAC analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Mobile Technologies, Delights and Family Life

The Benedicts

Mobile technologies are having a massive impact on our economy, society and culture.  Much is written both here and in many other places about these impacts and changes.  In this article, however, I am going to share some personal ways mobile technologies are having a significant impact on our family.

I publish articles, videos and newsletters daily about mobile and SMAC technologies and trends.  I can continue writing and publishing uninterrupted no matter my location in the world as long as there is Internet connectivity.  This was not possible even a decade ago.  I am still amazed by it.  Today, I can and do publish content from airplanes via WiFi!

Our son graduated last year from Boise State University and went immediately into training and schooling in preparation to serve as a military officer.  While going through training his class had a social media team that would post updated pictures of their training and exercises to Facebook nearly every day.  This simple act, was incredibly important to us and his friends.  We experienced his life, in a small way, through near real-time pictures and social media.  Every day we would search the faces of sweating soldiers for our son and study the photos intently to understand what he was doing and experiencing.

On most weekends, we were able to catch up briefly with our son via his iPhone.  Sometimes for only two or three minutes, but those minutes were precious and highly anticipated.

As his graduation neared, we visited the Facebook page of his organization to learn the details of graduation, schedules, how to dress, where to stay, rules and advice.  It was extremely helpful!

Now as an officer, with a more regular schedule, he can communicate with us and his friends regularly through texts, emails, Facetime and even voice!  He can easily pay his bills, complete his banking and conduct business in Boise, Idaho while he is located elsewhere.  Nearly all of his finances can be managed via his iPhone.

The distance that separates us is minimized by mobile communications and social media.  In fact, last week he uploaded a photo of some materials in Boise that he wanted to sell and posted it on Craig's List.  He is not currently located in Boise, but that is not a limitation these days.  I love it!

A few months ago our daughter graduated from high school.  This summer, as she was preparing to enter the university, her freshman class developed a Facebook page and everyone starting introducing themselves, their class schedules and their dormitories.  She quickly met her classmates, her roommate, and started developing relationships and preparing according to the advice others were sharing online.  We, as parents, will still feel the pain of separation, but also be comforted by the ability to communicate and witness our daughter's experiences via social media and mobile technologies.

Here is another example of how digital and mobile technologies are enhancing our lives.  This week my lovely wife asked her online community about problems with our dishwashing machine.  She received over a dozen responses full of great advice and recommendations within hours.  Some of the advice actually worked!  Problem solved at no cost!

In another example, a small group of us are very active in helping refugee families integrate and adjust to Boise upon their arrival from overseas.  It takes a surprising amount of organization, planning, scheduling and coordination to help new refugees.  They have a massive amount of paper work, appointments and meetings to attend.  They have language classes, schools, medical appointments and case managers to communicate with.  They are all on a timeline with pressure to get integrated, working and sufficient ASAP.

Integrating our refugee friends
into Boise (State) society

When we started working with refugees, we quickly realized that outfitting the refugees with mobile phones was an absolute priority.  It was critical to be able to find people, ask and answer questions, respond to emergencies and arrange transportation to various appointments.  This became quickly apparent after searching the streets of Boise many times over several days for various families and family members that had missed appointments and transportation arrangements, and experiencing deaths and births among the refugee community.

Today, the refugee families we work with are all organized and outfitted with mobile technologies.  Many of the families are now also communicating via SKYPE and Google+ with family members in their home countries preparing them for the journey to Boise.  Mobile and online technologies enable families to maintain and foster relationships with friends and relatives separated by thousands of miles.

I am not one of those people to pine about days gone by.  I love mobile and social media technologies!  It can and will be abused, but that cannot diminish the benefits and delights these technologies bring to the lives of my family and millions of others.

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Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) Cognizant

View Linkedin Profile

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and SMAC analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.