Mobile Commerce, Speed, Operational Tempos and the Real-Time Enterprise, Part 3

This is part 3 in the article series.  Read part 1 and part 2 here.

The Shelf Life of Data and the Need for Speed

Today enterprises are facing a massive challenge that will require new strategies and investment. In fact, 80 percent of survey participants reported that increasing demand for mobile apps is forcing IT departments to rethink and change how they have designed IT environments.  Rethinking and changing IT environments requires investment and budget, and 83 percent believe the demand for mobile applications will force enterprises to make major investments in their IT environments to better support real-time interactions with mobile apps and to remain competitive.

Our survey reveals that real-time mobile data is critical for personalizing and optimizing the mobile user’s experience and promoting the adoption and utilization of mobile applications and websites. We have also found that organizations, IT environments, and business processes will require changes in order to support a faster operational tempo. One of the key reasons these changes are necessary is the shelf life of data. Data has greater economic value the faster it can be collected, transmitted, analyzed, consumed, and utilized. This brings us back to the speed requirement. If the mobile user can instantly be presented with a personalized and contextually relevant experience based on real-time and previously collected and analyzed data, then the user will realize the greatest value and utility.

Situational Awareness and Information Dominance

Military strategists today believe the size of opponents and their weapons platforms are less representative of military power than the quality of their sensors systems, mobile communication links, and their ability to utilize information to their advantage. We believe these same conclusions are also relevant in the commercial sector.

An enterprise’s ability to use information as a competitive advantage is central to a successful business strategy today. If a manager has the responsibility of optimizing the schedules of 5,000 service technicians during an ice storm, or routing 10,000 delivery trucks, then the faster they receive accurate data from the field - the better they can perform their jobs.

Information advantages often involve improving situational awareness — the ability to understand events and actions around you. This takes visibility and data. Visibility happens when people, mobile, and sensor data collection technologies are integrated with IT systems and processes that enable the measurement, collection, transmission, analysis, and reporting of remote activities and events. The faster this can be accomplished, the faster data-driven decisions can be made and tactics deployed.

Historically, it has been difficult to manage remote workforces due to a lack of visibility. There are too many unknowns and a lack of accountability, which forces managers to make decisions based upon conjecture, rather than on real-time data analysis. Robert L. Bateman writes in his book Digital War, “The three questions that have befuddled soldiers since the beginning of human history are:

1. Where am I?
2. Where are my buddies?
3. Where is the enemy?" 

Bateman speaks to the difficulty of managing from afar. The lack of real-time visibility often means critical operational decisions and optimized scheduling choices are delayed, which results in the inefficient utilization of resources and assets. Today technologies exist to eliminate many of those operational blind spots.

Network-Centric Operations and Data Collection

“The problem: Technology [used between WWI and WWII] was viewed in discrete packets as it applied to narrowly defined areas. As a result the US military did not fully develop the possible combinations of technology with tactics.” –Robert L. Bateman, Digital War

Many commercial organizations today retain the narrow view and strategy that Bateman wrote about. They continue to think about and deploy mobile and sensor technologies in line-of-business (LOB) silos. They believe in the utility of these technologies, but have no enterprise-wide strategy for combining mobile and sensor technologies with tactics to achieve an overall information advantage across the enterprise.

Modern military organizations use the term Network Centric Warfare strategies to describe an information-based strategy for winning wars. These strategies have been taught in military organizations for decades, but are less understood in the commercial sector, where these strategies can be found with names such as Network Centric Operations or Networked Field Services. Military organizations that have implemented Network Centric strategies are accustomed to using a wide range of mobile devices and sensors to create a web or grid of data collection capabilities that are all wirelessly networked together for the purpose of enhancing real-time situational awareness, organizational agility, collaboration, and decision-making. Commercial enterprises share many of the same requirements, but as our survey data shows, they have yet to adopt the necessary enterprise-wide strategies or IT systems with enough speed to support real-time interactions.

Given the importance of an information advantage, what should commercial organizations focus on in 2015 and beyond? Broadly the answers are:

• Recognizing that information can be used as a competitive advantage
• Recognizing the importance of achieving real-time operational tempos
• Developing and implementing enterprise-wide network centric operational strategies
• Utilizing mobile applications and sensors to reduce operational blind spots and improve situational awareness
• Personalizing and contextualizing the mobile user experience using real-time data and Code Halos strategies
• Employing artificial intelligence and machine learning to improve the speed of decision-making and the execution of tactics

An organization’s ability to be competitive now and in the future largely depends on its ability to successfully navigate the process of digital and organizational transformation to achieve an information advantage.  If you would like to brainstorm these issues and discuss your specific business environment please contact us.

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Kevin Benedict

Writer, Speaker, Senior Analyst

Digital Transformation, EBA, Center for the Future of Work Cognizant

View my profile on LinkedIn

Read more at Future of Work

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Browse the Mobile Solution Directory

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

IoT, Software Robots, Mobile Apps and Network Centric Operations

Articles about the IoT (Internet of Things) have moved from technical journals to our daily newspapers.  In this article we will go beyond the simplistic applications talked about in the local paper and discuss how IoT and complementary technologies, including software robots, can add real business value to the rugged outdoor work found in many industries.

In the rugged blue collar environment, vehicles, high valued equipment and other assets can be connected to the IoT to wirelessly report on their status, hours of operation, location, environment, maintenance and repair needs. This data can alert management when there is a problem, event or automatically create service tickets or send alerts when an action or decision is required. The IoT has the ability to provide "situational awareness" across large geographic areas and thousands of assets all at the same time.  This capability helps both decision-makers and automated systems (software robots) better understand how to optimize the use of experts, equipment and schedules across different geographic areas.

Today, sensors can be connected to many different pieces of equipment and are capable of bidirectional data exchanges.  That means they can both send data and receive data.  Data sent to them can include commands to perform a task.  These tasks may be to unlock a door, open a gate, increase or decrease the temperature, reposition a video camera, or to remotely operate equipment, think drones!  This capability is powerful and we are just scratching the surface of possibilities.

The IoT delivers on a vision of connecting physical and digital items to each other wirelessly through a network. These connections, and the data exchanged, can provide real-time access to information about the physical world in distant and remote locations.  This information can be analyzed by humans or software robots and turned into actionable intelligence that can be utilized by automated systems or human decision-makers. Connected IoT devices integrated into business systems can lead to many innovation and gains in efficiency and productivity that were never before possible.

A few of the key markets for IoT are:

• Utilities/Smart grids
• Defense
• Fleet management/Automotive systems
• Field services management
• Rental equipment
• Heavy equipment monitoring (think tractors, bulldozers, cranes, etc.)
• Plant maintenance
• Facility management
• Connected homes/Home Energy Management Systems (HEMS)
• Healthcare - fitness, remote patient and health monitoring
• Medical equipment monitoring
• Vending machines
• ATMs
• POS systems
• Remote asset management monitoring
• Security systems
• Consumer electronics (eReaders, Wireless Printers, Appliances, etc.) 
• etc.

In a world filled with data from mobile users, databases, websites and the IoT, the big question is what can be done with all of this data? This is where real-time analytics are required - analytic solutions that have the capacity and capability to analyze large amounts of incoming data in real-time.  The results of their analysis can be utilized by humans and/or software robots to optimize productivity and efficiencies.  Many of today's most advanced workforce optimization and scheduling solutions use software robots that can instantly react to the real-time data and optimize thousands of schedules and assignments in seconds (see ClickSoftware).

What are software robots?  According to a new study by my colleague, Rob Brown, at the Center for the Future of Work, titled The Robot and I, humans are working smarter with sophisticated software (robots) to automate business tasks that help humans attain new levels of process efficiency, such as improved operational costs, speed, accuracy and throughput volume.  In short, software robots are digital assistants and force-multipliers for humans.

Data and Real-Time Decision Making

Enterprise mobility apps offer significant value on their own, but when integrated into a network with many other applications, objects with sensors, software robots and other data collection technologies, the value of this "network of applications" is multiplied.   The challenge, as identified earlier, is to understand how to use this plethora of real-time data for the purpose of real-time decision-making and operational improvements.  Innovations within many modern military organizations offer lessons for us in the commercial space.

USAF Colonel John Boyd

USAF Colonel John Boyd is credited with the concept of the OODA loop. The OODA loop (Observe, Orient, Decide and Act) is a concept originally applied to combat operations and processes that involves analyzing real-time data and rapidly making decisions that enable you to out-maneuver an opponent.

According to Boyd, decision-making occurs in a recurring cycle of observe, orient, decide and act.  An entity (whether an individual, organization or software robot) that can complete a decision-making cycle quicker - observing and reacting to unfolding events more rapidly than an opponent, can thereby "get inside" the opponent's decision cycle and gain the advantage.

In the business world, OODA loop is an emerging concept for making better decisions, faster, and managing more effectively.  The ability to observe and react to unfolding events more rapidly than competition requires data collection, communication, analytics and solutions that can use the data to optimize operations. Some of the different enterprise solutions that can exploit IoT data are:

• Field services solutions
• Fleet management systems
• Supply chain management systems
• Optimized workforce scheduling solutions
• Solutions using predictive analytics and machine learning
• Enterprise asset management solutions
• Plant maintenance systems
• Facility management solutions
• CRM solutions
• Healthcare management systems
• etc.

Many of these solutions are already utilizing software robots to quickly accomplish complex tasks and to analyze and act on incoming data.

Let us walk through a field service scenario together.  Mobile apps and sensors (human and machine) supply the data that enables a field services manager or software robot to observe.  Business analytic systems can be used to help managers or software robots to be oriented as to what the data means, and how it impacts the mission/project/task.  Next the manager or software robot needs to decide what actions to take, and then act.

OODA Loop

The “loop” in OODA Loop refers to the fact that this is a continual process. Each time you complete a cycle in the OODA loop you again observe, orient, decide and act based upon the results you see from the prior cycle.  The speed at which you cycle through the loop can be greatly enhanced by the use of supporting software robots.

Those involved in agile development projects will recognize these cycles.  If the results are positive, you can continue down that path and improve it. If the results are negative, you quickly adjust. It is a fast moving process of trial, error and adjustment until you get the results you want.

The OODA loop is particularly useful in environments that are unpredictable.  In these working environments, decision-making is often very difficult and without the appropriate training, or automated systems (software robots) - indecision, inaction, inefficiency or even chaos may occurs.  The OODA Loop is a decision-making process that is well suited to helping people or software robots make decisions and act in situations where there is no identified plan or obvious right answer.  

The military has effectively implemented the OODA Loop decision making process for use in many different areas including air combat, tank warfare, maneuver warfare strategies and daily in Special Forces operations.  Today, predictive analytics and software robots are utilizing OODA Loops with machine learning to cycle through analysis, decision-making and action even quicker.  In fact, many of today's most advanced jet fighters require the use of ultra-fast software robots in order to maneuver and stay airborne.

In a world where nearly 40 percent of the workforce is mobile, companies must learn and implement these concepts in order to successfully manage mobile and remote operations and services.  To be successful implementing and integrating the OODA loop, software robots and Network Centric Operational concepts into field services operations it requires the following:

1. Data collection systems, sensors (IoT)
2. Mobile apps 
3. Real-time mobile communications
4. GPS tracking - real time knowledge of the location of your mobile workforce, assets and inventories
5. Real time knowledge of the capabilities and expertise of your mobile workforce
6. Real time status and progress updates of the tasks, work assignments, projects and the schedules of the mobile workforce
7. Real time knowledge of the location of all materials, equipment, tools and other assets required to complete specific tasks
8. Field service management system that assigns, schedules and dispatches specific assignments to specific members of your mobile workforce (often utilizing software robots)
9. Real-time business analytics 
10. OODA Loop or similar rapid decision-making processes

All of the items listed above help provide the real time visibility into your field operations that is required in a networked field services organization practicing OODA Loop strategies and processes.

One of the remaining challenges, however, with the systems listed above is that humans quickly become overwhelmed by large volumes of data.  Complexity can become an inhibitor to the practice of OODA.  It is not enough to have real time visibility into massive volumes of data, one must be able to orient, or understand what the data means and how it will impact the mission.  That is where automated systems/software robots solve a real problem.  Let's consider the following scenario in a Networked Field Service environment:

1. A high value bulldozer with an engine sensor wirelessly notifies a service provider that maintenance is needed.
2. The information is instantly integrated into the work order management system of the service provider.
3. The business intelligence feature analyzes the scheduling requirements related to the maintenance code that was received.
4. Automated processes (software robots) quickly search for maintenance updates or alerts from the tractor’s manufacturer that might be related to the received code.
5. Automated processes (software robots) search for the location of the nearest available and qualified diesel mechanic
6. Automated processes (software robots) review all qualified mechanics' schedules and compares them for the purpose of optimizing all schedules.
7. Automated processes (software robots) search for the nearest location where there is an inventory of parts for that particular make and model of tractor.
8. Automated processes (software robots) looks for the nearest inventory of tools and repair equipment that may be necessary to complete the job.
9. Automated processes (software robots) search for and reports on the current account status for the customer and any relevant warranty or service contract details.
10. All of this data is unified and wirelessly sent to the service technician’s smartphone.

All of the above steps can be performed in seconds, with the right data, analytics, processes, solutions, software robots and strategies, but only when accurate and real-time data is available.

In summary, the Network Centric Operations concept seeks to translate an information advantage, enabled in part by mobile, IoT, analytics, management solutions and software robotics into a competitive advantage through the robust networking of well informed geographically dispersed people and assets.   This networked organization, using the OODA loop decision making cycle, has the tools necessary to make good and quick decisions in chaotic and unpredictable environments.

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Kevin Benedict

Writer, Speaker, Senior Analyst

Digital Transformation, EBA, Center for the Future of Work Cognizant

View my profile on LinkedIn

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Browse the Mobile Solution Directory

Subscribe to Kevin'sYouTube Channel

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies

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

Information Dominance as a Company's Mobile Strategy

In many industries today the competitive battleground is quickly shifting to the effective use of data to drive marketing, sales, customer support, R&D, and to deliver hyper-personalized user experiences and digital products.  These changes are most readily seen in companies that engage customers on the web and through mobile apps.  As more and more of customer interactions and engagements move to mobile apps and websites these changes will be all the more pronounced.  Just think about mobile banking, mobile commerce, mobile search, mobile media, mobile news/content and mobile travel apps.  These apps and the companies behind them are now offering incredible levels of near instant personalization based upon their knowledge of your preferences, location, shopping history, loyalty status, etc.  The more effective companies are at using their knowledge of you to personalize your experience, the more attractive, convenient, productive and sticky their apps become.  We at Cognizant call the effective use of data, "Code Halos" strategies.  Code Halos are the data that surround you, your activities and preferences.  It is the combination of personal and enterprise data used to provide the optimal experience.

Companies that will win in this competitive battlefield will understand that data collection, processing speed, analysis, situational awareness and the hyper-personalization of the users' experiences are the keys. They will recognize it is about speed.  It is a race to collect, analyze, and personalize.  The late US Air Force Colonel and great military strategist John Boyd coined the acronym OODA for observe, orient, decide and act.  He identified the fact that decision-making could be a competitive advantage.  If you can make good decisions faster than an opponent you have a powerful advantage.  Think about this in terms of a boxer in the ring, or a fighter pilot in the sky.  If you can understand the situation, make good decisions and act faster than your opponent you will likely win.  The same is true when the effective use of data is involved in user experiences and commerce.

Code Halo strategies is a way to think about and structure your information logistics in a manner that will give you information dominance.  Information dominance means you have an information logistics infrastructure in place for collecting data, analyzing and personalizing experiences better and faster than your competition.  This information, with the right IT infrastructure and architecture, can be used to instantly provide hyper-personalized experiences on the web and on mobile apps for customers, prospects, partners and employees.

Your information logistics systems must be fast enough to keep pace.  If your information logistics systems lag due to legacy systems that cannot support a "real-time" environment that is required for mobile apps and websites, then you have some hard choices to make that will impact your company's ability to succeed in this new world dominated by information.

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Kevin Benedict

Writer, Speaker, Editor

Senior Analyst, Digital Transformation, EBA, Center for the Future of Work Cognizant

View my profile on LinkedIn

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Browse the Mobile Solution Directory

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies

Recommended Strategy Book Code Halos

Recommended iPad App Code Halos for iPads

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

Competitive Decision Making and Enterprise Mobility

The late US Air Force Colonel, and great military strategist John Boyd talked a lot in his workshops about "competitive decision-making."  He taught that individuals that could think better and faster than their opponents had a great advantage.  I agree with Boyd, and believe that implementing mobile solutions in the enterprise can facilitate this advantage.

Last year's report by the Aberdeen Group titled Mobility in ERP 2011 also touched on this point with three specific statements:

1. Getting the right information, to the right people, so they can make the right decisions is the driving force behind mobilizing the workforce. 
2. Why is there a need for mobility?  Much of it is related to volatility.  The need to be able to react as quickly as possible to issues without being tethered to a desktop.
3. Mobile solutions should provide workers with information to make good and timely decisions.

Aberdeen Group describes the value of mobile solutions as - it helps you make "right, good and timely decisions, and to react as quickly as possible to issues."  That sounds like competitive decision-making to me.

How do you put these kinds of values into an ROI for enterprise mobility?  Boyd said, "How one thinks is critical to your success in competition.  Well trained and well-educated people, who think well and quickly are the most important assets."  I suggest that mobile solutions and up-to-date information shared on mobile devices can help well-trained people react quickly to issues.

Boyd further taught that competitive decision-making enables the benefit of compressing time and using it as an ally.  What he meant was the ability to get more done in the same amount of time.  "Advantages in observation and orientation (OODA) enable a tempo in decision-making and execution that outpaces the ability of your competition to react effectively."  Advantages in observation and orientation can be providing by having real-time data exchanges, real-time business analytics, and connect mobile apps.

I ask the difficult question again, "How does one show an ROI on enterprise mobility solutions by providing quicker, faster, better thinking?"

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

Read The Future of Work

Visit 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 analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Kevin Benedict's Video Comments - The Real Time Enterprise and Enterprise Mobility

In this segment of Video Comments, I discuss the new ways of thinking that are necessary in a world of real-time enterprises that requires real-time data, enterprise mobility and "competitive decision making."

***Get the free Mid-Year Enterprise Mobility Survey Report by taking it today!
Survey link - http://survey.constantcontact.com/survey/a07e64mo7lmh4g6ur76/start
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Kevin Benedict, Mobile Industry Analyst, Mobile Strategy Consultant and SAP Mentor Alumnus

Visit MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the SAP Enterprise Mobility and Sybase Unwired Platform Groups

Read The Mobility News Weekly

Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility analyst, consultant and blogger. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Enterprise Mobility and Competitive Decision Making

Colonel John Boyd

One of the greatest military strategists of the 21st century was the late USAF Colonel John Boyd.  In his workshops he emphasized the need for agility, new and quicker ways of thinking, and competitive decision-making.  He taught that advantages in observation and orientation enable a tempo in decision making and execution that outpaces the ability of your competition to react effectively in time.  His core strategies were compiled into the acronym OODA (observe, orient, decide and act).

These strategies are meaningful to nearly every company that is developing a mobile strategy and thinking about potential ROIs.  Have you considered the negative impact on your business that might develop if your competitors connected their mobile workforce to real-time business analytics, CRM, EAM, field services, ERP, etc, and you did not?  What if your competitors could respond faster to customer service issues, optimize real-time scheduling, respond faster to new sales opportunities, solve problems faster and make better decisions in the field?  What if they could run circles around you?

Boyd stressed that the key to winning is the tempo.  He called his theory, Fast Transients. The theory of Fast Transients suggests that in order to win or gain superiority we should operate at a faster tempo than our adversaries.

There is a big difference between running a batch mode or offline business, and running a real-time enterprise.  Real-time means you have mobilized your workforce and you can make the best decisions possible, and respond as fast as possible from nearly anywhere.

In the mobile strategies workshops that I taught in 11 countries last year, I start by asking the audience what kind of business tempo do they want to support and maintain.  The purpose of this questions is to get my clients thinking about how their business can be transformed if they operated on a faster tempo with mobile solutions and real-time data exchanges.

Boyd preached that the key to winning is the speed with which you change and adapt to changes.  How fast can you switch from Plan A to Plan B?  How soon can you recognize the need to change plans?

In the mid-year enterprise mobility survey that I have open right now, making better real-time decisions is currently the second leading ROI that companies are seeking by mobilizing their enterprise.  The third is developing better customer interactions by using mobile solutions.  Better customer interactions often involve responding to your customers' needs faster.  Sounds like Boyd's tempo strategy again.

If you would like a free copy of the mid-year enterprise mobility survey results, please take the survey and I will send the final results to you.

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Kevin Benedict, Mobile Industry Analyst, Mobile Strategy Consultant and SAP Mentor Alumnus

Visit MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the SAP Enterprise Mobility and Sybase Unwired Platform Groups

Read The Mobility News Weekly

Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility analyst, consultant and blogger. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

The Mobility World is Not What it Was a Week Ago!

Click to Enlarge

Wow!  What a week in mobility!  First Google buys Motorola Mobile and gets into the hardware business.  This puts a cash rich competitor into the handset space, and another arrow into RIM (the manufacturers of the Blackberry), and a fatal blow to HP and their webOS aspirations.

HP surrenders the mobile device and mobile operating system battle as there is NO way they can compete against Apple, Google or even RIM.  They are even wanting to leave the PC/laptop market now.  I think they recognize the PC/laptop market is morphing into the same business as mobile devices and they cannot compete against Apple and Google in that space.

Nokia surrendered a few months ago on the software/OS (operating system) battle and partnered with Microsoft.  Now all the major mobile OS players are intimately connected to specific hardware manufacturers.

My analysis, both Apple and Google are inside the "decision cycle" of RIM, Motorola, Nokia, Microsoft and HP.  In another words, Apple and Google are making good strategic decisions and executing them faster than any of the others can even respond.  This according to Colonel John Boyd and his OODA principals, causes confusion, frustration and panic among opponents.  The result is what we have seen this week.

Colonel Boyd says that all battles are won not by technology, but by people.  People with better ways of thinking.  Congratulations Apple and Google teams!

I would invite anyone interested in competitive decision making and strategic thinking to read up on Colonel John Boyd's OODA principals and how they relate to management, competition and strategy.

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Kevin Benedict, Independent Mobile and M2M Industry Analyst, SAP Mentor Volunteer

Visit MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the SAP Enterprise Mobility Group

Read The Mobility News Weekly

Read The M2M News Monthly

Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility analyst, consultant and blogger. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.