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Showing posts from June, 2013

Mobile Expert Video Series: Eugene Signorini

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I was able to spend time with and interview mobility expert and former Yankee Group enterprise mobility analyst, Eugene Signorini, this week in Miami, FL at the Enterprise Mobility Exchange.  He is a brilliant guy with a wealth of knowledge and experience.  Enjoy! Video Link:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=022KZ6sdHLs&feature=share&list=UUGizQCw2Zbs3eTLwp7icoqw ************************************************************* 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 wi

Mobile Expert Video Series: Bill Moylan

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I was in Miami this week at the Enterprise Mobility Exchange 2013.  While there I met up with mobile expert Bill Moylan, Global VP of Alliances for ClickSoftware , and interviewed him about new "context aware" mobile apps.  Enjoy! Video Links:  http://youtu.be/ztoL-CqTaXE ************************************************************* 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 Expert Video Series: Bob Egan

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This week I had the privilege of meeting and interviewing renown mobility expert and industry analyst Bob Egan.  In this interview we focus on failure.  How can a company guarantee their mobility project will fail!  Enjoy! Video Link:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iq1mw77GOhI&feature=share&list=UUGizQCw2Zbs3eTLwp7icoqw ************************************************************* 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 a

Mobile Data as a Competitive Advantage

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The success of companies today is less dependent on their physical assets, and more dependent on their ability to competitively utilize data.  Just think of companies like Kodak, Borders, Blockbuster, etc., that had great physical assets but could not effectively make the transition into the data driven digital era.  In the new whitepaper Code Rules: A Playbook for Managing at the Crossroads , the authors Malcolm Frank, Ben Pring and Paul Roehrig provide examples of this theory and recommendations for supporting it.   This theory resonates with me.  I speak weekly with service companies that want to support a real-time environment that will provide situational awareness of all field operations, but their IT infrastructures are not capable of supporting a real-time environment.  This is a problem as it prevents effective use of data which limits their competitiveness. Let's image a scenario as follows - two service companies are competing for a large industrial HVAC (heating, ve

Mobile Apps for Short-term Projects

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I had the privilege of speaking before a group of service sector leaders this week in Chicago, Ilinois on the 95th floor of the John Hancock building.  During this event I had the opportunity to speak with many field services professionals about their operations and strategies.  Many of the challenges these folks face are the typical ones around change management, process re-engineering, mobile device selection and connectivity.  However, I also heard about the need to quickly develop mobile apps for short-term projects, a recurring issue in many construction, inspection and engineering related projects. There is a significant segment of the "hard hat" market that needs project based mobile apps.  These apps must be quick and easy to develop as they may only be used for three months on a particular project.  The ROI needs to be a matter of days, not years.  During those three months, however, project management and the profitability of the project could realize great bene

Mobile Marketing, Business Analytics and Code Halos

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In an article I published earlier this week, Digital Transformation, Code Halos, Analytics and Mobility , I provided an overview of the concept of Code Halo™.  The idea is that nearly all organizations, brands, products and people are surrounded by a halo of data .  Companies that recognize the value of code halos will develop new business models and IT systems to utilize these code halos to better engage with customers and prospects, deliver more relevant content and employ precision marketing and support campaigns based upon known interests and desires. Today I want to explore the role of mobile marketing and how it relates to code halos.  First, let's review the four basic elements of a "logistics of information" system that can derive value from code halos: There must be effective data collection strategies - Often in the form of mobile apps, loyalty programs and online commerce sites that enable a customer to opt-in to various programs, campaigns and deals and sh

Digital Transformation, Code Halos, Analytics and Mobility

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A retailers' mantra throughout history has been location, location location.  This is always important, but perhaps of less value than other innovations caused by digital transformations today. The ongoing digital transformation of many industries has created new competitive playing fields that are increasingly related to data.  The winners are those that can more quickly collect, analyze, report, make data driven decisions and capture value from the data. The data that surrounds customers, partners, companies and individuals is called "code halos™" by my colleagues at the Center for the Future of Work  in their new whitepaper Code Rules .  It is their analysis that companies that understand and manage code halos most effectively will be the winners in their industries. Let me paint two scenes for you. 1) A brick and mortar retail operation is located on Main street, advertises in the local newspaper and via the Yellow Pages.  Greets their anonymous customers at the

What Does Research Say is the Competitive Advantage of Data?

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The explosion of mobile devices, e-commerce and "The Internet of Things" is introducing massive amounts of new data into our ecosystem.  Some companies ignore this data for all but the most tactical explorations, but others are revolutionizing entire industries by recognizing the value of this data and taking advantage of it. My colleague, Ben Pring, has been conducting a lot of research this year on the impact of business analytics, big data and other fast emerging business strategies on a company's ability to compete.  In this guest post Ben shares his latest findings. What one key characteristic separates today’s high-flying outperformers – such as Apple, Google, Amazon, Netflix and Pandora – from fast-followers, wannabes, and laggards? It’s a precision focus on the information that surrounds people, organizations, products and processes – what we call Code Halos ™ – to build new business and commercial models. These leading companies have realized that the data –

SMAC Expert Series: Paul Roehrig and Ben Pring

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How does big data impact companies today?  How are companies competing on the use of business intelligence?  What business transformations and business model changes are taking place due to these capabilities?  Watch this interview that I recorded with Cognizant's Co-Directors of the Center for The Future of Work, Paul Roehrig and Ben Pring as they share their latest research with us.  Enjoy! Video Link:  http://youtu.be/ctycYs18dyk ************************************************************* 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

Mobile Expert Video Series: Florian Ganz

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In this short video interview with mobility expert Florian Ganz, recorded in Lisbon, Portugal last week, I ask his opinions on how to select the most appropriate mobility platforms, cloud mobility and when to use HTML5.  Enjoy! Video Link:  http://youtu.be/6DKgCoHX_bA ************************************************************* 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.

Gartner's Latest Thoughts on Enterprise Mobility and SMAC

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ClickConnect Europe 2013 I had the good fortune to attend a session this morning at ClickSoftware's ClickConnect Europe 2013 with Gartner's Research Director Dr. Richard M. Marshall.  Here are some of the notes I took from the session: By 2017 Microsoft will sell as many mobile operating systems as Apple.  This is a bold prediction, but Gartner insists their projections are on track. Enterprise collaboration tools will be the source of "huge" productivity gains. By 2017 82% of handsets shipped will be smartphones Mobile security, mobile device management and mobile app management are only going to get more complex.  Recognize how each additional app adds to the complexity and develop a strategy now that will keep the TOC manageable.  No wonder the MDM (mobile device management), MAM (mobile application management) and EMMP (enterprise mobile management platform) vendors are getting all the investor attention this year. The Internet of Things (IoT) is a big

Connecting the Dots Between Enterprise Mobility and IoT

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Lisbon, Portugal I had the privilege of having breakfast with Dr. Moshe BenBassat, Founder/CEO of ClickSoftware , on a deck overlooking the Mediterranean this morning.  Over an English breakfast, Dr. BenBassat shared that back in 1985 his team had developed software tools to diagnose equipment for the military.  It seems two thirds of all parts replaced were unnecessary.  The parts were being replaced in an effort to find and fix a problem without having first properly diagnosed it.  His team was tasked with designing an artificial intelligence system to process and analyze data in order to properly diagnose problems so only the required parts would be replaced. In 1985 there were huge challenges to this task.  There were not wireless data networks commercially available.  There was not a lot of data available.  There were no IoT (Internet of Things) solutions deployed to gather data, there were not "big data" systems that could crunch numbers in seconds and there were