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Showing posts from April, 2013

When IT is Destroying Your Company's Future

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A long time ago, before gray hairs appeared on my head, I was an IT manager.  My title was B2B E-Commerce Manager for a computer manufacturer.  I remember sitting in long meetings discussing how successful Dell Computer was with their just in time manufacturing and just in time supply chains.  I also remember our business representatives asking IT if they could develop systems that would allow us to operate in a similar supply chain model and the answers seemed always to be, "NO!"  Our IT systems were not set-up to support a real-time environment. Of course the business would then say this must change if we are going to be competitive, and the IT would say then give us the budget to change.  Many years after I had moved on, the computer manufacture closed.  This manufacturer had never been able to gain freedom from their business-limiting legacy IT environments. I was in England and Scotland last week teaching SMAC strategies (social, mobile, analytics and cloud) to large

Social Analytics for Your Enterprise with Google+ and Ripples - Guest Expert Post

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I have Google's Blogger app on my iPhone and iPad mini.  I can write articles for publication from anywhere with an Internet connection, but are they read, are they shared?  That is our subject for today. One of the biggest growth areas involving mobility is mobile marketing.  If your company's target customers are researching products, comparing products and buying products on mobile devices then the following information about Google+ and Ripples may be of interest to you as it is to me.  I have invited social media expert Allison Rice to share her expertise in this area with us. Question: How do you know the number of people paying attention to your company's messages or articles on social media? If you use Facebook, as more than 700 million active users do (most on mobile devices), then you click on your business page's Insights tab and read through about four pages of fairly detailed graphs and statistics. If you're on Pinterest, you've probably alr

Crowdsourcing, Collaboration and Enterprise Mobility

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I spent time with a company recently that identified one of their strategic initiatives for 2013 as being crowdsourcing.  Are you familiar with the term?  Here is Wikipedia's definition, "Crowdsourcing is the practice of obtaining needed services, ideas, or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people." This company, we'll call ACME Inc., is purposely asking their employees to contribute ideas which are then reviewed, voted on, and the winners identified and rewarded.  I love it!  Now to be sure this is all very new to ACME Inc., but I applaud their thinking!  If employees know their ideas can make a difference and be recognized, and that actual thinking will be rewarded, then the sky is the limit on innovative thinking within a company!  All too often employees think only certain bestowed titles and roles in the company are paid to think, while the rest of the brain power in the company is put on sleep mode. I am here to tell you - in the comi

Google Enterprise, Collaboration and Enterprise Mobility

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I would invite anyone in an IT department buried in demand for mobile apps to first take a look at Google Enterprise  http://www.google.com/enterprise/ , before trying to develop everything yourself.  There are many mobile capabilities already available in the Google world which are free to individuals and available free or on a subscription basis for companies.  Here are a few of them: Google Drive - Keep all your files, documents, spreadsheets, videos, photos, everything digital in a free secure cloud.  Access from any mobile or desktop device. http://youtu.be/wKJ9KzGQq0w  Google+ - Strives to make sharing online, like sharing in person.  We at Cognizant have been using Google+ for many of our strategy groups and discussions.  I love it.  I use it for both work and personal.  I have specific "Circles" and "Communities" for work and personal. Google Hangouts - This is a very powerful solution that let's you video chat with your team no matter where in

Mobile Expert Video Series: Sahara Alexis, Part 4

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In this short video interview, I ask Cognizant's Head of Advisory Services for Mobility, Sahara Alexis here predictions for enterprise mobility in 2013.  Enjoy! Video Link:  http://youtu.be/Igx9M-xaVPY ************************************************************* Kevin Benedict , Head Analyst for Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) Cognizant View Linkedin Profile Read the whitepaper on mobile, social, analytics and cloud strategies Don't Get SMACked 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.

Google Enterprise, Mobility and Business Transformation at Woolworths

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In my research on companies that are transforming themselves by adopting an integrated SMAC (social, mobile, analytics and cloud) strategy, I came across a recent blog article by the CIO of Woolworths Limited, Dan Beecham.  I will share some excerpts from it here. Woolworths is an Australian company that was founded in 1924 in Sydney. Today Woolworths has more than 3,000 stores across Australia and New Zealand that span food, liquor, petrol, general merchandise, home improvement and hotels.  Last fall I had the honor of being invited to teach a SMAC strategy session for Woolworths at their beautiful campus outside of Sydney. This is what Beecham said about their strategy, “We’ve decided to move to Google Apps and Chrome. Changing to a cloud-based suite of tools is a key part of our strategy to use technology to promote greater collaboration, productivity and effectiveness.” Collaboration is one of those themes that I have been hearing a lot about recently from CIOs.  Companies ar

Google Enterprise Shows Us SMAC in the Real World

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For readers not yet familiar with the acronym SMAC, it represents social, mobile, analytics and cloud.  In this short video, Google demonstrates, through Google Enterprise, how companies can implement a SMAC strategy to improve the following: Improve meetings and collaboration Work better with mobile and remote team members Speed up decision making Improve company meetings Better manage projects and share documents, presentations and spreadsheets Secure data Easily train new employees Rapidly create new collaboration sites for new projects and initiatives Reduce IT costs Stay focused on your core business Better support for mobile workers Access data and content on any internet connected mobile device More... Video Link:  http://youtu.be/vNJUL92y9wo ************************************************************* Kevin Benedict , Head Analyst for Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) Cognizant View Linkedin Profile Read the whitepaper on mobile, so

Mobile Expert Video Series: Sahara Alexis, Part 3

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In this short video interview, I ask Cognizant's Head of Advisory Services for Mobility, Sahara Alexis, her opinions on BYOD, MDM, MAM and other strange acronyms related to enterprise mobility.  Grab some popcorn! Video Link:  http://youtu.be/f60JuVWwm3A Watch Part 1 - http://youtu.be/8vp1fhCBPyI Watch Part 2 - http://youtu.be/QKyRDjYh64k ************************************************************* Kevin Benedict , Head Analyst for Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) Cognizant View Linkedin Profile Read the whitepaper on mobile, social, analytics and cloud strategies Don't Get SMACked 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

Mobile Expert Video Series: Jeff Wallace Part 4

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In this short video interview with Cognizant's Mobile Practice Lead, Jeff Wallace, we discuss the future of enterprise mobility, mobile strategies and the role of the cloud in enterprise mobility.  Grab some popcorn! Video Link: http://youtu.be/dfZl7TWRYIc Watch Part 1 - http://youtu.be/RaIsHhED1O4 Watch Part 2 - http://youtu.be/UrqiiUSuKeM Watch Part 3 - http://youtu.be/ljeI4ahZBtw ************************************************************* Kevin Benedict , Head Analyst for Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) Cognizant View Linkedin Profile Read the whitepaper on mobile, social, analytics and cloud strategies Don't Get SMACked 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 wi

Mobile Expert Video Series: Jeff Wallace Part 3

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In this short video, recorded last week in San Ramon, CA, I ask Cognizant's Mobility Practice Leader, Jeff Wallace about his thoughts and opinions on the use of MEAPs (mobile enterprise application platforms) and MADPs (mobile application development platforms), their value and purpose.  Enjoy! Video Link:  http://youtu.be/ljeI4ahZBtw If you missed Parts 1 and/or 2 of this interview, you can watch them here: Part 1 -  http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/2013/04/mobile-expert-video-series-cognizants.html Part 2 - http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/2013/04/mobile-expert-video-series-cognizants_8.html ************************************************************* Kevin Benedict , Head Analyst for Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) Cognizant View Linkedin Profile Read the whitepaper on mobile, social, analytics and cloud strategies Don't Get SMACked Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com Follow me o

Mobile Expert Video Series: Sahara Alexis, Part 2

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In this short video I ask Sahara Alexis, Cognizant's Head of Advisory Services for Mobility, to explain Mobile COEs (Centers of Excellence), their value and how they should be organized. Video Link:  http://youtu.be/QKyRDjYh64k Missed Part 1 of this interview?  Watch it here! ************************************************************* Kevin Benedict , Head Analyst for Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) Cognizant View Linkedin Profile Read the whitepaper on mobile, social, analytics and cloud strategies Don't Get SMACked 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: Sahara Alexis, Part 1

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In this short video recorded last week in San Ramon, CA, I interview mobility expert Sahara Alexis on what makes an enterprise mobility project easy, and what makes it challenging.  She also explains the complexity involved in developing an enterprise mobility strategy.  Enjoy and grab some popcorn! Video Link:  http://youtu.be/8vp1fhCBPyI Watch Part 2 of this Interview here! ************************************************************* Kevin Benedict , Head Analyst for Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) Cognizant View Linkedin Profile Read the whitepaper on mobile, social, analytics and cloud strategies Don't Get SMACked 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 w

Evolved Mobile Strategies and Business Transformation

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Best selling author and innovation expert Daniel Burrus recently described what an evolved mobile strategy looks like in the article titled Does Your Organization Have a Mobile Strategy to Accelerate Growth?   "When you think about mobility, don’t just think about devices and apps and how you might use those. Step back and create a bigger strategy, because mobile is far bigger than that. Instead, ask yourself," How can we accelerate growth Gain new competitive advantages  Transform all of our business processes Transform how we communicate Transform how we collaborate Transform how we innovate Transform how we train Transform how we educate Transform how we sell Transform how we market Transform how we share knowledge? I know we often discuss topics like HTML5 vs. native apps and the different kinds of mobile application development tools and platforms here, and these subjects are important, but the impact of digital and business transformations caused by social

Mobile Expert Video Series: Cognizant's Jeff Wallace, Part 2

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In Part 2 of this interview series ( watch Part 1 here ) with Cognizant's mobility expert and Mobility Practice Lead Jeff Wallace, we explore when HTML5 is the best development option, and when native is the best development option for mobile apps, plus how different mobile application development platforms have approached this issue.  Grab some popcorn!  ************************************************************* Kevin Benedict , Head Analyst for Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) Cognizant View Linkedin Profile Read the whitepaper on mobile, social, analytics and cloud strategies Don't Get SMACked 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 th

Mobile Expert Video Series: Cognizant's Jeff Wallace, Part 1

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Last week I spent some time in Silicon Valley and met up with my colleague Jeff Wallace who runs Cognizant's Mobility Practice.  I cornered him and asked his thoughts and opinions on HTML5 in this short video.  Jeff shares how HTML5 is maturing and closing the capability gap between native and HTML5.  Grab some popcorn!  When you are done, watch Part 2 here . ************************************************************* Kevin Benedict , Head Analyst for Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) Cognizant View Linkedin Profile Read the whitepaper on mobile, social, analytics and cloud strategies Don't Get SMACked 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 t

SMAC, Mobile Collaboration and Google

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Have you had a chance to review the full inventory of Google's solutions and apps lately?  I have been working with many of them this week and am impressed with how Google is enabling enterprises to become true social businesses.  It is very interesting how they are not just demonstrating cool and innovative solutions but entirely new ways of running and managing businesses. If fact, Jon Reed, John Appleby and myself recorded a Google+ Hangout session this week on the subject of enterprise mobility.  I will post the link of the recorded session as soon as it is ready.  I suggest that all businesses should study Google Hangout and understand how powerful it is.  Google Hangout is now embedded in Google Docs, Sheets and other apps.  Anytime you need to collaborate, simply push the Hangout button in the document.  Very interesting and useful! I have also been collaborating with a group of folks around the country this week using Google Docs.  All of us can login and collaborate in

Integrating the Digital and Physical Worlds with Enterprise Mobility

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New York City oversees 900,000 buildings and picks up 12,000 tons of trash per day.  They know how much electricity is used in the average house/apartment.  They know how many people live in the average unit.  They know what neighborhoods complain the most.  They know the health inspection records of restaurants in the area.  They have information on boilers, sprinkler systems, local taxes paid, numbers of heart attacks, fires, roach complaints, construction noise, commuting habits and test scores all stored in massive data archives available for Big Data analysis. This is digital data, however, if you are looking to move into a new physical neighborhood in New York City, you might find this information incredibly valuable.  Real-time and Big Data capabilities integrated with location services on smartphones have the ability to revolutionize the way we live and work. It is not hard to imagine wearing Google Glasses with this kind of data coming up on your lenses in real-time as y

Advanced Mobile Strategies and Integrated Sensors

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Last week I watched a presentation recorded at GigaOm Structure:Data conference featuring Gus Hunt, CTO of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).  In his presentation, he identified SMAC (social, mobile, big data analytics, and cloud) as the culprit for the massive increase in available data in the world.  He explained that the average smartphone generates huge quantities of data from the following embedded sensors: proximity sensors 3-axis accelerometer sensors touch sensors image sensors microphone sensors light sensors GPS (geo-location) sensors You can imagine, with the billions of phones around the world, how much additional data is produced each day!  Now add the mass volumes coming out of social media! Hunt went on to say there is a time-value-of-data.  This is an important concept for us to understand.  The value of data is worth more this second, than it is worth in two weeks.  When I activate the GPS on my iPhone, I want something to happen now not tomorrow.  T