Amplified Influence and Mobile Apps

Businesses, and let's be honest most of us, are interested in amplifying our influence.  I remember reading adventure books as a child about pioneers and woodsman that craved isolation, and that would move whenever neighbors settled close enough to hear, but that's not an effective strategy for influencing people.

I started writing my blog on enterprise mobility, www.MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com in 2006.  At the time I was the CEO of a mobile platform company and intimately involved in dozens of custom mobile software projects at any given time.  Daily I shared experiences, mistakes, lessons learned, strategies, etc.  Over the next few years thousands of people subscribed to my blog (I now have over 5.7 million page views since 2009).

I remember two emails in particular, both arrived on Mondays.  One from a fortune 500 company in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, saying they had read my articles, downloaded my trial software, and were ready to purchase it. Another email came from Christchurch, New Zealand.  Seems the folks in a large engineering and utility firm regularly read my articles, understood the capabilities of our software and wanted to submit an order.  Both of these emails reflected an amplified influence.

These days when I attend conferences on enterprise mobility it is not unusual for people to shake my hand and say they have read my articles, or if less fortunate, watched my videos for many years.  I still find that notion crazy!  I live in Boise, Idaho, which is not exactly main street America!

SMAC (social, mobile, analytics and cloud) solutions are giving, aware businesses, capabilities far beyond what was possible only a few years ago.  The two examples I listed above were from countries far from mine.  I was able to generate sales and close deals on the other side of the world with very little investment.

Is your company effectively taking advantage of these influence amplifiers?  Are you using SMAC solutions for this purpose?

In addition to sharing content from thought leaders - you need a strategy.  Mobile content and mobile apps are an important part of that.  I use Google's Blogger platform to blog. It has a mobile app.  It sends out my content optimized to be read on either a mobile device or a bigger screen.  I record interviews with the camera app on my iPhone.  I edit it on the mobile iMovie app.  I upload it to YouTube where it can be viewed on the mobile YouTube app.  I tweet about the video on a mobile app, and upload it to the mobile LinkedIn app.  All of these actions are part of a strategy to amplify influence.  It works.

In the past 36 months, I have taught digital transformation and mobile strategies workshops in 17 different countries.  In the past few months I have received invitations to speak in South Korea, Belgium, New Zealand and Portugal.  I live in Boise, the most isolated state capital in the United States.  The next nearest big town is 300 miles away.  What if your giant multinational company were employing these kinds of strategies hourly?

If you haven't already, I would encourage you to develop a full strategy on how to use these mobile and social media tools to amplify your influence, marketing and sales.  Digital transformation is happening all around us at a breathtaking speed.  It is making the once impossible, possible today and your competition is learning fast.

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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

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.

Smartphones, SMAC, Political Chaos and Hope

Capturing the physical world and
digitizing it.

Wael Ghonim, a former manager for Google in Egypt, and others used Facebook and Twitter to organize demonstrations throughout Cairo that ultimately forced a regime change.

While Twitter, Facebook and YouTube received most of the publicity for their roles in disseminating information during the Arab Spring, it was the smartphone connected to the Internet and SMAC (social, mobile, analytics and cloud) solutions that made it all possible. Smartphones enabled information to be collected, packaged and transmitted for mass distribution in near real-time.

Matt J. Duffy, a teacher of journalism and new media at Zayed University in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirate writes, "During the January 25 protests in Egypt, for instance, protesters would carry their smartphones with them into the streets.  They could offer first-hand reports using their smartphones connected to Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. Often their information was verified with short video clips or photographs taken from their phones and effortlessly weaved into Facebook or Twitter updates."  Rick Sanchez, a former CNN correspondent, added his views that, "The smartphone is and was “The best piece of news equipment ever invented.”

Mobile technologies connected to the Internet have demonstrated their ability to influence and organize change, and to help people become free from autocrats, but has it actually made things better?  Change, as we know, does not always equal better.

Author Thomas L. Friedman wrote a series of articles in the New York Times this month titled Order vs. Disorder.  In this week's article he quoted his teacher and author Dov Seidman, “Protecting and enabling freedoms,” says Seidman, “requires the kind of laws, rules, norms, mutual trust and institutions that can only be built upon shared values and by people who believe they are on a journey of progress and prosperity together.”

Many people, at no fault of their own, are born in lands with limited opportunities and freedoms.  The components identified above, that are necessary for long-term freedoms simply don't exist.  What chance have these people to realize their dreams of freedom? Where is hope to be found?  In many regions leadership change is frequent, but the results seem to remain the same.  So the ability to influence change does not equal making things better.

It is necessary when thinking about complex and important issues to first define terms.  Friedman writes there are different ways of defining freedom.  He explains that over the past few years many peoples in search of freedoms have overthrown or replaced autocrats, systems and governments, and in doing so have become "free-from" them, but often they failed to achieve the notion of "free-to."  They have failed to become "free-to" vote in a democratic government, have a reasonable level of personal security, practice their religion in a safe environment, express themselves in art, express one's opinions in public without fear, establish the rule of law, gain an education for both sexes, create a trusted and stable economic system where one can engage in commerce and wealth generation, etc.  The concept of "free-to" rather than "free-from" is powerful.  How can mobile technologies promote and support an environment that is "free-to?"

Friedman goes on to write, "Values-based legal systems and institutions are just what so many societies have failed to build after overthrowing their autocrats." That’s why the world today can be divided into three kinds of spaces:

1. Countries with “sustainable order,” or order based on shared values, stable institutions and consensual politics
2. Countries with "imposed order," or order based on an iron-fisted, top-down leadership, or propped-up by oil money, or combinations of both, but no real shared values or institutions
3. Regions of "disorder," where there is neither an iron fist from above nor shared values from below to hold states together.

Can mobile technologies not just support and influence "free-from" efforts, but also "free-to" efforts?" I believe the answer is yes.

• I think of mobile payments supported by stable, trusted multinational organizations that adhere to internationally accepted norms and laws.  Multinational organizations beyond the control of regional "imposed order" or "disorder."  They provide trusted mobile apps and mobile payment systems with cross-border and multi-currency support.  They provide transparency and accountability.  They enable direct payments to mobile phone accounts that are beyond the reach of corrupt hands.
• I think of mobile commerce.  The ability to buy and sell via online markets beyond the control of local thugs  
• I think of online education available to anyone with Internet connectivity and a smartphone.
• I think of the ability to share ideas, organize and to collaborate using mobile phones.
• I think of idea exchanges and connections that enhance innovations
• I think of micro-loans that enable start-ups and small businesses to grow 
• I think of data collection and news reporting in near real-time via mobile devices

Can shared values, stable institutions and consensual politics, the building blocks of a "free-to" environment, also be developed and supported via mobile devices connected to the Internet?  If peoples suffering under "imposed order" or "disorder" cannot realize the "free-to" environment within their country's borders, can they find it beyond in a mobile and digital world?

In considering current immigration debates, it is apparent the country you are born into means a lot. At birth you are either a winner or loser of life's lottery based on which side of a border you find yourself. On one side there is an abundance of "free-tos" and opportunities, while on the other there is not. Is it possible that we can change this model? Can mobile technologies and the Internet help create a more flexible boundary - perhaps even a mobile boundary beyond the control of local despots.  A boundary that can be reshaped and expanded as a result of mobile and digital technologies?  Can the digital world with mobile boundaries provide many of the "free-tos" that man-made borders on a map often deny today?  Can there be a digital universe in parallel to the physical where "free-tos" exist in abundance and are but a smartphone connection to the Internet away?

In the long-term, will the digital world be able to influence and shape the physical world to make it a better place?  I think the answer lies in how we move forward into the digital future.  Will we be able to move beyond our digital minutia, selfies and cat videos into nobler pursuits?  For the good of all, will we create shared values, stable and trusted institutions and consensual politics in the digital realm where we have failed in the physical?  Can we become a digital community of people who not only believe they are on a journey of progress and prosperity together, beyond the reach of despots, or will the tribalism and violence of the physical world invade and corrupt the digital as well?

Thoughts?
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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

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.

Mating Calls, Bird Watchers, Enterprise Mobility and Mobile Apps

The mating dance of a forest bird attracts the seductive sounds of an invisible mate.

Is there no end to what mobile apps can do?  Last week, several of us sat quietly on a weathered dock extended out and over a forested pond in the foothills of SW Washington.  We watched the birds and other wildlife enjoying the spring sunshine.  Suddenly we spotted an unidentified bird dancing about the branches of a distant tree.

Google Glass for Bird Watchers

Our good friend, Candy, came equipped with a professional grade camera with a 20 pound telephoto lens, but even with that, the bird was too distant to properly identify and photograph.  My wife, however, came up with a brilliant idea and reached for her iPhone. On her iPhone was a bird watching app called ibird.  Don't stop reading yet!  It gets better and I will bring it around to enterprise mobility before we are through.

This app comes with the following SMAC (social, mobile, analytics and cloud) features:

• Popular field guides for birds
• Topographical maps
• 38 Search Attributes

  

  The Yellow-rumped Warbler
  Credit Candy Anderson

• Zoom-able HD Images
• Ability to import photos and assign them to any species account
• Social forums - App connects directly to the www.whatbird.com forum where experts are standing by to help you ID a bird you can’t find with the search engine
• Directly links to iBird Journal app from any species page
• 5 hours of bird songs (5,000 unique sounds) and calls from the gold standard of recordings; the Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology
• Spectrographic Audio. The display brings insight to the structure of bird songs by allowing you to view the sound’s frequency components
• GPS integration with date and time stamp
• Google Glass support

Now back to my story.  Using the ibird app my wife quickly narrowed her identification to a couple of candidates.  She then listened to the bird song from the tree branches above the pond, and played the songs (audio files) of the candidates.  BINGO!  We had our bird!  It was a Yellow-rumped Warbler.

A challenge remained, however, as we could not get close enough to get a good photo.  My wife again solved the problem.  She turned up the volume and held up her iPhone.  The beautiful notes skipped across the pond and the Yellow-rumped Warbler immediately cocked its head to one side and flew through the tree branches and landed right in front of us.  SNAP! Or in Candy's case, SNAP, SNAP, SNAP!

I felt sorry for the poor male Yellow-rumped Warbler.  For the next 30 minutes it searched, danced and sang for the female behind the cheerful notes emanating from the iPhone, but alas, he found no satisfaction.

What does this have to do with enterprise mobility?  This mobile app highlights digital transformation.  It takes a paper-based process of using field guides to complete a task (identify birds) and digitizes the experience using sensors, multimedia files, a unique UX, and social and cloud-based platforms to rethink the entire process.  It incorporates the use of SMAC features all in one app.  This model, and the unique data collection, querying, visualization and identification tools turns a simple library and list app into a library of multimedia content and files connected to social and cloud platforms (bird watchers worldwide eager to help you solve your bird watching problems).  There is a great deal to learn from this app, and it would be worthwhile for enterprises to study it and the problems it solves.

Watch the video here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4upoPkmvDUE

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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.

Wake Up! Your Business Has Changed!

We have all been there. Sitting in a stuffy conference room white-boarding and sharing innovative ideas only to be shut-down by the words, "Our IT environment won't support that."  I remember during my time as an IT manager hearing those words over and over.  We were encouraged to be innovative and to beat our competition by being faster, quicker, cheaper, but every idea met with an insurmountable IT obstacle.  It was, at least, insurmountable from our perspective and pay grade.

I see the following weekly:

• Outdated technology stalls company's growth
• Outdated technology kills future potential
• Outdated technology limits and prevents adjustments to business models
• Past IT investments never achieved predicted ROIs so future investments denied

How does the CEO make the case for a do-over with his/her IT environment to prevent an extinction event?  It's a hard case to make, but a necessary one.  I believe that is the appeal of cloud services and companies like Salesforce.com.  You can use their services, and remain flexible to change if the market demands it.  You are not locked into massive upfront financial commitments and decades worth of business models and processes cemented by outdated ERPs.

Today more than ever a company's ability to compete and be successful is dependent on technology. Technology evolves so rapidly every company should have a dedicated team studying emerging technologies and their potential impact on their industry, market and company.  IDC and Cognizant are now identifying a third platform of computing emerging.  It follows the platforms of mainframes and client/servers.

The third platform of computing is made up of four evolving technologies that have combined:

• Social
• Mobile
• Cloud
• Big data

This third platform is transforming IT much faster than previous platforms ever did. This has tremendous implications for the IT industry's budgets and priorities.

CIO magazine's managing editor Kim S. Nash writes in the March 28, 2014 edition, "Some of the most effective competitive moves happening today in social, mobile, analytics and cloud technologies weren't on anyone's threat horizon until recently."  Nash is emphasizing the incredible speed in which these changes are happening and impacting the IT environment.  And as we know whatever impacts the market impacts the IT environment and the business.

In my last meeting with Forrester VP John McCarthy in London he stated, "Enterprise Mobility will be as transformative as the introduction of ERPs."  That is a bold prediction and one that many CEOs/CIOs are not yet tuned into.

I work with strategy groups in large enterprises around the world, and I must say most do not realize the speed at which digital transformations are happening around them.  They feel they can delay budgeting significant IT transformation projects another few years.  They think they can maintain a slow iterative pace.  My response,  "If a company does not keep up with technology at the same pace at which their customers are adopting the technology, they are losing the race and opening up opportunities for competitors."

Salesforce.com's President Keith Block predicted this week that they will be bigger than SAP.  He might be right.  The market is evolving and adopting cloud services that fast.

Download Cognizant's free Code Halo app for iPads here - https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/code-halos/id752380930?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4 and learn how Code Halo strategies are changing the rules of business.

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

Kevin Benedict

Senior Analyst, Digital Transformation 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

***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.

Mobile Expert Interview: Ved Sen on Enterprise Mobility in Europe

This week I am working and teaching in London.  While here I had the opportunity to interview my colleague at Cognizant, Ved Sen on the state of enterprise mobility in Europe.  Enjoy!

Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJwYxJAMYQ8&list=UUGizQCw2Zbs3eTLwp7icoqw&feature=share

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

Kevin Benedict

Senior Analyst, Digital Transformation 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

***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.

The Internet of Things - Under the Covers

My colleague, the always opinionated Peter Rogers, provides us with an "under-the-covers" look at how Android plans to power the Internet of Things.  Pull down your geek hat and hold on!!!
***
In previous articles I predicted that wearable technology would be powered by light-weight operating systems, citing Samsung’s decision to go with Tizen instead of Android. This decision was apparently based on battery life and user interface considerations. However, just after the article hit the Internet, Google executive Sundar Pichai announced the Android SDK for Wearables.  Android is used in many different ways as demonstrated by Kindle and Nokia X (Nokia X seems to have deployed a Windows 8 look and feel on top of Android). Indeed, for this very reason Android 4.4 has moved a lot of key APIs into the Cloud.

Wearable device developers are interested in the APIs available to them. If we turn the clock back to the J2ME days there was a dedicated API for user interfaces (UI) called javax.microedition.lcdui. This was a small UI library compared to today's Android libraries. Indeed you wouldn’t run Java Swing on Android, and likewise a wearable device needs a more constrained API for the UI. Even though a wearable device may be supporting a full operating system, it will most probably have a constrained UI and that means a slightly different programming style.

Recently there was an interesting post in the Washington Post supporting my claims that Wearable Devices and the Internet of Things requires different skill sets. The article listed the new skills required as data analytics and enterprise data analysis. Basically you need to know how to capture the data, read the data and then apply the data to your specific business domain. Surely real-time analytics and visualisation tools will become critical in the wearable space and this is where a new term called Fog Computing has been introduced by Cisco.

“Fog Computing is a paradigm that extends Cloud computing and services to the edge of the network. Similar to Cloud, Fog provides data, compute, storage, and application services to end-users. The distinguishing Fog characteristics are its proximity to end-users, its dense geographical distribution, and its support for mobility. Services are hosted at the network edge or even end devices such as set-top-boxes or access points. By doing so, Fog reduces service latency, and improves QoS, resulting in superior user-experience. Fog Computing supports emerging Internet of Everything (IoE) applications that demand real-time/predictable latency (industrial automation, transportation, networks of sensors and actuators). Thanks to its wide geographical distribution the Fog paradigm is well positioned for real time big data and real time analytics. Fog supports densely distributed data collection points, hence adding a fourth axis to the often mentioned Big Data dimensions (volume, variety, and velocity).”

In trying to predict what will be in the Android Wearable Software Developer Kit (SDK) then it is very interesting to note that Google acquired Android Smartwatch vendor WIMM Labs last year. WIMM Labs released its first Smartwatch back in 2011, the WIMM One, which ran Android and included an SDK for developers. Interestingly the WIMM website has removed all of the documentation for the SDK but a lot of WIMM One developers downloaded it before it got taken offline and so were able to get a potential glimpse of what Google is planning. WIMM had a Micro App Store which featured the following categories: entertainment; productivity; health;  shopping; travel; utilities; watch faces; and games.  As well as a Software Developer Kit there was also a Hardware Developer Kit which allows you to make accessories that wrap around the WIMM module.

The Wearable SDK itself will obviously have changed from its origins of the WIMM One SDK but it is certainly interesting rooting around through the API. The comm.wimm API extends the Android 2.X API and it is assumed that only the WIMM API itself can be used. There are some very interesting features offered for sure: notifications; custom watch faces; widgets; network services; sync services; calendars; broadcast events; weather; world clocks; location fixes; audio beeps; and various simple UI element.

One of the most interesting features is location information being retrieved from one or more sources, including built-in GPS, network based IP-location lookup, or a paired Android or Blackberry smartphone. This demonstrates that the Wimm One was able to perform even when not paired to a device and it was equally able to pair with a Blackberry.

If we look at the Android Wearable SDK then it is heavily rumoured to support Google Now, the voice control feature. It will also have to support Bluetooth Low Energy integration for communication with mobile devices for pairing and indeed detecting other sensors. It is also worth looking at the Google Glass Developer Kit (GDK) for a few hints at what may be revealed. The GDK was the alternative to the Mirror API which only really supported REST calls to a Google Cloud Service. The GDK is an add-on that builds on top of the Android SDK and offers the following: voice; gesture detector; and cards. It is safe to assume that voice control, local networking, touch control and potentially gesture control are all on cards. Google will show their hand at Google I/O and Samsung have already shown their Gear 2 devices at MWC. Next it is time for Apple to finally show their hand and we have to wonder if it will be a decisive one, quite possibly if history has taught us anything.

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

Kevin Benedict

Senior Analyst, Digital Transformation 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

***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.

The Impact of Digital Transformation and Mobility on Learning and Publishing

Have you ever considered how the traditional author, teacher, textbook and student relationship will change when digitally transformed and mobile device enabled?  What if writing a textbook is no longer enough for an author?  What if all textbooks, in order to be widely sold and used, also required a mobile app, audio and video editions and an integrated social platform?  In other words SMAC (social, mobile, analytics and cloud) enabled.

What if the content in textbooks were digitally enabled and viewable on a tablet computer that was GPS enabled?  Could you tap into data from Google Field Trips, http://www.fieldtripper.com/, to make the textbook location-aware.  Could the study of a period in history automatically identify nearby historical points of interest, photos or videos related to the content?  Could your surroundings, now digitized, augment your reality?

What if before reading the book, you took a short assessment to determine which learning styles are most suited to you?  What if that learning style followed you across all online textbooks?  What if all content and presentations changed based upon your assessed and recorded learning styles or the recorded preferences of the reader?  Code Halos, the data about each teacher, tutor and student could be saved and used to help students learn better and faster, and for teachers and tutors to be more efficient and effective. Could there be six different versions of each textbook based upon the different learning styles?

Could gamification be introduced into textbooks to motivate assignment completion and compliance? Could better scores unlock levels in an associated learning game?

What if an online AILA (Artificial Intelligent Learning Agent) followed you across all textbooks and online content and helped present the content in a manner most suitable to your learning style?

What if every online textbook was automatically socialized, and students could discuss each page and subject and link out to additional information?  What if there were all kinds of complementary content and tutorials available that were both free and for a fee?  Everything from videos, podcasts and additional help notes.

For teachers, what if suggested assignments, quizzes and tests (and optional online automatic grading) were available for use by registered teachers.  This would make the textbook more appealing if the teachers could be more efficient with their time when they used it.

What if AI (artificial intelligent) learning agents helped the teacher remember the student’s details, and the student’s most suitable learning style and history each time an assignment was reviewed?  Could this intelligence help the teacher better adapt his/her teaching style to the individual student?

What if the textbook was really just a platform for learning.  One that included text, images, audio, video, games and assorted other learning tool?

Could students with the same learning styles be aligned with online teachers and tutors that specialize in those styles?

I hope these questions will help you ponder the incredible impact that the transformation from physical to digital will have in the learning and publishing industries and in others.

It is important for every company to be thinking through digital transformation and how it will impact their specific company, market and industry in the very near future.

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

Kevin Benedict

Senior Analyst, Digital Transformation 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

***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.

Mobile Technology, Roman Roads and Legionaries - Director's Cut

In this short 10 minute video you will learn how enterprise mobility and the Roman Roads share much in common.  This is the Director's Cut that includes all the clips in one video and the 13 similarities between enterprise mobility and the strategies of the Roman Legionaries.  I had fun making it and hope you have fun watching it.  Enjoy!

Video Link: http://youtu.be/8B76oLJy8kw

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

Kevin Benedict

Senior Analyst, Digital Transformation 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

***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.

Mobile Expert Interview: Yuval Scarlat on Cloud Mobility

I had the privilege of interviewing the CEO of Capriza, Yuval Scarlat, last week.  We discussed a wide range of topics such as cloud mobility, MADPs, MBaaS, mobile strategies and why he thought the market needed another mobile solutions vendor.

On a side note, I think Capriza's website design is very effective.  Enjoy!

Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4MQHp21k-w&list=UUGizQCw2Zbs3eTLwp7icoqw&feature=share


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

Kevin Benedict

Senior Analyst, Digital Transformation 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

***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.

Merging the Physical with the Digital for Optimized Productivity

I write and speak a great deal about digital transformation, however I don't think I have yet clearly defined it and its relevance to businesses.  Let me step back and start by saying my working definition of digital transformation is the application of digital technologies in a manner that enables new types of innovation, businesses models, behaviors, products and services.  Often digital transformations disrupt the status quo, traditional business paradigms and accepted best practices as a result of the merging of the physical world with the digital.  The process of merging, changes many things and we will consider a few of them here.

Figure 1

In a study conducted in October 2013 by Cognizant, 247 executives were surveyed and shared that 73% of core business processes will need to be modernized to meet cost, agility and new market pressures over the next 24 to 36 months.  I believe these "new market" pressures are a direct result of digital transformations happening all around us.

In figure 1, we see an example of the 3D laser scanning of a physical object (the bridge).  The 3D laser scans a physical object, and then creates a digital representation of it.  This digital representation is precise. Once the digital representation is in your computer, you can import it into asset management, maintenance, service and other kinds of software systems.  Here you can add notes, tags, location data, maintenance schedules, inspection reports and regulatory and compliance documents.  All of these data points allow the organizations responsible for maintenance and services to have a very clear understanding of the asset and the services required.  Maintenance and services performed can be tagged to exact locations and documented precisely.  For example, you can mark an iron beam, a bolt, a weld and document maintenance done to each.

Figure 2

The digital representation of the bridge can then be added to a map.  Now you have an exact location and an exact digital representation of the physical object on the map.  These precise digital representations enable the organization that owns the digital content to have a significant competitive advantage over companies that don't.  They can use this data to optimize planning and SLAs. The digital content has an economic value.  It provides a competitive advantage.  You have precise data that your competition does not.

Stored digital content about a person or object is often referred to as a "code halo."  The code (digital content) surrounding something can be used to develop all kinds of new and innovative services, products and businesses.  In figure 2, we have a digital representation of a plant.  Plants need to be maintained and location data, maintenance schedules, maintenance history, parts, materials, SLAs, warranties, service providers, manufacturers, production schedules, costs etc., can all be tracked for every part, machine, pipe, belt and component of the plant.  Sensors with wireless embedded chips connected to machines, equipment and other key components of the plant can monitor the operational status of the plant and can provide additional digital representations of the health of the plant.  Problem areas can quickly be identified, isolated and visualized.  Maintenance and repairs can then be conducted on an optimized plan and schedule that minimizes downtime.

A plant that is digitally transformed is likely to be far more productive and profitable than one that is not.  We have been considering digital transformation in the context of bridges and plants here, but these same types of transformations are impacting retail banks, insurance, healthcare, education etc., as well.

Over the next 5 years we will witness the rapid digital transformation of just about every industry and market around the globe.  The winners in the global marketplace will be those companies that best understand how these digital transformations can be used to lower costs, increase situational awareness, improve productivity, customer service and sales.

Software companies like ClickSoftware, the leader in Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Field Services three years in a row,  are investing heavily into digital transformations, utilizing real-time enterprise mobility, geospatial data and artificial intelligence to optimize workforce and service scheduling.

In the book industry, physical books were transformed into eBooks. Physical bookstores were transformed into online digital marketplaces.  Book warehouses were transformed into databases. Physical transportation and logistics services were transformed into digital downloads.  In music and entertainment, physical records, tapes, CDs, DVDs, etc., were transformed into digital downloads.  Physical music and movie rental locations have also been replaced by digital markets.  In retail banking, mobile apps are quickly replacing physical bank branches.  The transformations are endless.

It is each of our roles to monitor our own industries, markets and businesses and to embrace the digital transformations taking place and to position ourselves to be in the the winners column.  We must continually ask ourselves, "Are we acting strategically enough to matter, and at the pace of innovation required to succeed?"

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

Kevin Benedict

Senior Analyst, Digital Transformation Cognizant

View my profile on LinkedIn

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

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Browse the Mobile Solution Directory

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.

Thinking about Enterprise Mobility, Digital Transformation and Doctrine

Last week I was in Europe speaking and teaching enterprise mobility and digital transformation strategies.  I worked with several large multinational companies where I heard the same questions asked, "How do we convince our executives that we must change, and invest in change?  How do we establish a culture of innovation, capable of winning in a world of digital transformation?"  The change they were referring to had to do with the convergence of the physical world with the digital and its impact on markets.  These changes are introducing new ways of selling, marketing, manufacturing and moving products in a digital world that is rapidly being transformed as a result of innovations in social, mobile, analytics and cloud technologies.  We are seeing entire industries and marketplaces turned upside down as a result of these innovations.  How can companies deal with all these changes at the pace required to remain competitive?

I have been pondering those questions since.  How do you change the traditional culture of a large multinational organization with institutionalized ways of planning, operating and decision-making that were developed and codified in a different era?   An era that was operating at a far slower operational tempo.

The people attending my sessions last week understood their marketplaces were changing.  They also understood that their companies were not aligned with those changes, or the pace of those changes.  They expressed sincere and deep concern about these changes.  You could see they were challenged with how to move forward.

We have some examples of change and transformative experiences.  We have seen these levels of change happen in modern militaries over the past couple of decades where they recognized an urgent need to re-invent themselves.  They realized a need to change and implement new organizational structures, prioritize budgets differently, develop new strategies and technologies in order to remain relevant.  There was and is a big difference between the needs of the cold war era, where armies were lined up across from each other along the Iron Curtain, and the requirements of modern, geographically dispersed battlefields of today.

Militaries recognized a new level of importance around information collection, processing, analyzing, reporting, sharing and collaboration.  They labeled information logistics the 5th dimension of warfare.
They recognized the value and implemented "network centric operational" approaches that place a premium on information sharing, speed, innovation, swarming and agility.

When military organizations recognize that battlefield requirements have changed significantly and that new ways of thinking will be required to be successful, they begin a transformational process that starts with developing a high level doctrine that communicates a new way of thinking across the organization.  I believe this is also what is needed in commercial enterprises today.  Management must identify the "new-way-of-thinking" that is required to compete successfully in a transforming marketplace.

What do I mean by enterprise doctrine?  I define enterprise doctrine as a way of thinking, a common frame of reference across an organization. It provides an authoritative body of statements on how the business should operate and provides a common lexicon for use.  It is a formal expression of best practices which covers the nature of competition, research and development and go-to-market strategies for winning in the marketplace.  It does not provide a checklist of procedures or tactics, but is rather a guide, describing how the enterprise thinks about business and marketplace competition.

From the top down, management must define how the organization should think about things like innovation, mobility, digital transformation, big data and competition.  This enterprise doctrine should be obvious in every program, project, campaign, product and service within the company.

An enterprise doctrine may include clear statements like:

• Mobility is where we find, market, sell, transact, collaborate with, and service our customers, employees, suppliers and partners.
• The digital transformation of our marketplace is real and will drastically alter the competitive landscape and create new winners and losers.  We will embrace these changes by rapidly transforming our strategies and processes to meet these changes and to be a winner.
• Competition will be intense and winners will be those better able to collect, transmit, process, analyze, report and collaborate around real-time data.  Our information logistics systems will be superior to our competition, and we will invest appropriately to achieve and maintain this superiority.
• We recognize a need to rapidly respond to market and consumer behavior changes at a pace never before seen.  As a result, we will organize ourselves for agility, speed and real-time decision-making.  We will develop and optimize our infrastructures, organizations, manufacturing, supply chains and logistical systems for maximum agility and speed to market.
• We will develop a culture that encourages collaboration, innovation, creativity and promotes good ideas rapidly through a well-defined innovation process that supports Cognizant's motto of, "Think big, start small, fail fast, scale quickly."

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

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

***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 is Causing a Y2K Event in the Enterprise - Forrester Research

I had the privilege last week to present alongside Forrester Research's enterprise mobility expert John McCarthy in London.  I was able to write a full page of notes from his presentation that I share here with you.

• The Age of Cheap and Cheerful Mobile is Over!  It's now going to be complex and innovative which equals expensive.
• "Enterprise Mobility will be as transformative as the introduction of ERPs,” ~ John McCarthy.  Seems CIOs will use enterprise mobility as a driver for change to transform old systems that cannot support the real-time and speed requirements of a mobile era.
• Smart products (i.e. Internet of Things/M2M) are much cheaper today because of the evolution of mobile platforms and security.
• Mobile apps guide people in their physical world.  Merging physical context with virtual intelligence to take the next most likely action (context aware).
• IT Systems will become much more proactive, because they will be context aware and know your patterns and habits.  This will change business processes.
• New mobile apps and businesses like My Taxi, Hailo, Uber offer benefits to both customers and service providers (Taxi drivers), not just to the consumer.
• In markets where products and services are very similar and hard to differentiate, companies like Deutsche Bank, have developed mobile apps for iPads and other tablets to help with financial planning in ways their competition has not.
• Delta Airlines has developed "proactive" capabilities  in their mobile apps.  The apps will automatically show you alternative flights and options when a flight gets canceled, instead of making you do it all manually by standing in line and searching for options with a customer service person.
  
• In the near future - apps will change features and functions based upon context.
• Video cameras can now watch store shelves and alert for stocking issues.
• ERPs are about cost cutting.  The new Mobility and Internet of Things are about revenue generation.
• The dark side of mobility - we are automating huge numbers of people-intensive processes which are eliminating middle-class jobs.
• Lowering high IT costs is no longer the top priority of CIOs, rather meeting customer’s increasing expectations.
• Mobile apps drive 3x to 10x more traffic than the same app on a web/desktop apps.
• People expect the same treatment and functionality regardless of choice of device or platform.
• Companies are still budgeting for mobile apps out of silos, when the projects are really about enterprise-wide transformation.  This must change and be recognized as strategic.
• Old IT model, simple front-end, complex backend.  New model, complex front-end, simple backend so the business can be fast and agile.  This is a requirement of the future.
• The mobile app is the company brand.  Companies need to invest appropriately.  Mobile apps are how we interact many brands.
• Mobile is causing a Y2K event with backend systems.  Many backend systems cannot support the new mobile world and the clock is ticking.
• If the bank branch is in your pocket, why does it also need to be on the corner?
• The average smart TV has 25 software applications in them.
• People are fatter than ever, but they are not joining weight loss programs like Weight Watchers in the same numbers.  Instead, they are downloading mobile apps.
• Systems of records must give-up their maintenance budgets to systems of engagements.

We live in very interesting times!

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

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

***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 Mobile Strategy and Management Challenge

Believe it or not, a fair number of people like my workshops on mobile strategy.  The problem though is a fair number don't.  Why?  Sometimes developers come into my sessions, stay for 15 minutes and then leave.  They were expecting to learn how to develop mobile apps, or how to secure and integrate them with back-office systems.  They had no interest in learning about enterprise wide mobile strategies.

Enterprise wide mobile strategies are increasingly a business and IT leadership issue.  They involve brand, product and service strategies.  They involve plant operations, logistics and transportation.  They involve asset management, field operations and sales.  Enterprise wide mobile strategies touch every corner of the business.  Enterprise mobility is no longer an IT issue, or just a technical discussion.  Enterprise mobility is a C level discussion today.  Because of this mobile solution vendors must change their marketing strategies to address the needs of both business and IT decision makers rather than developers.

I had two people from different large oil companies come to a session I was leading in Orlando this month at the Enterprise Mobility 2013 conference.  They both had just suffered cyber-attacks that had caused major damage.  They only wanted to know about mobile security, not enterprise wide mobile strategies.  I understand.  That was the disaster on their plate that day.  They had no time to discuss strategy.  The challenge though is that without a strategy, it is hard to deliver mobile solutions that are strategic enough to matter.

I was reading an article from Forrester Research over the weekend.  Forrester Research is predicting the prices of mobile solutions will rise in 2014.  Why?  They will become more strategic.  They will offer significant competitive advantages.  They will support innovative products, services and business models.  They will make a difference.  The time for POCs (proof of concepts) is over.  It is time to execute with a strategy.

*I am in London speaking on mobile strategies and mobile led transformation with Forrester Research and Cognizant on Friday, December 6th.  Let me know if you would like to join us!  Email me here.

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

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

***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 is a Component of Digital Transformation

Companies don't want enterprise mobility.  They want increased sales, lower expenses, better products, improved customer service and more profits.  They want to be survivors during this period of massive digital transformations.  What do I mean by digital transformation?  I mean the fact that entire industries are being changed before our eyes because the physical world is merging with the digital.  I mean big data analytics, mobile applications and broadband connectivity to the internet through mobile devices that introduce completely new business models, processes, products and markets.   In order to be a survivor in this competitive climate, companies must have a clear understanding and vision of what digital transformation is, and how it is impacting their industry, market, products and company.

I met with a large national paper manufacturer today.  They have yet to start any mobile application projects internally.  I wonder if they have ever read about the impact of digital transformation on Kodak film sales?  I don't revel in writing about this. I cringe.  The challenge is not IT. It is in the business that chooses not to commit a budget to preparing for digital transformation.  That sounds to me like waving the white flag in the face of change.

When I talk to companies about mobile strategies, I am not really talking about mobile strategies.  I am talking about digital transformation and how mobile applications support this transformation.  If you buy into the fact that entire industries and marketplaces are being digitally transformed (think film, newspapers, media, retail, banking, travel, education, healthcare etc.), then you recognize mobile applications are about real-time prospect, customer and employee engagement, commerce, interaction and collaboration on any device, any place and at any time!  The mobile app is the interface between the outside world and the company.  However, the mobile app will provide very little value if the internal IT systems are not capable of supporting the demands of evolving marketplaces.

Let me emphasize the concept of "real-time."  Mobile devices and mobile applications feed our desire for instant results accompanied by instant satisfaction.  This desire generates intense pressures for companies to upgrade and transform themselves, their business processes and IT systems to be able to respond in real-time.

In addition to our desire for real-time information capabilities, we must be able to creatively innovate our way into the new landscape where the competition is around "information logistics" systems.  Where our success is dependent upon our ability to collect data (from mobile devices, websites, social media, apps, sensors and other database) faster than our competition, and then integrate, analyze, report and put it to use in new business processes and services faster than our competitors.  It is the ability to look at all of these capabilities and to envision new business models, products and services never before possible without real-time capabilities that will determine the market winners.

It is our "information logistics" systems that enable us to digitally transform and be competitive.  It enables us to market to customers with precision.  It enables us to provide better SLAs (service level agreements) because of better visibility into remote operations and delivery capabilities.  It enables us to manage our cash better, because we can manufacturer in a "just-in-time" paradigm based upon real-time visibility into demand and orders.

Yes enterprise mobility is a crucial element in all of this.  It supports the "information logistics" system required to remain competitive in a world undergoing digital transformation, but let's not become mesmerized by enterprise mobility.  It is not the end goal. It is simply an enabler on the journey through digital transformation.

**Have you read the new Mobile Solution Directory here - http://mobilesolutiondirectory.blogspot.com/?

Read more on the Future of Work here - www.unevenlydistributed.com.

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

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.

The Race for Sensors to Supply Big Data and Enterprise Mobility

Today's competitive marketplace requires companies to collect more data, analyze more data and utilize more data to improve customer interactions and engagements.  Mobile devices are exceptionally designed to assist in this effort.  Apple's iPhone comes with an inventory of sensors:

• Touch
• Voice
• GPS
• Proximity
• Ambient Light
• Accelerometer
• Magnetometer
• Gyroscopic

I listened to an IT expert in the CIA give a presentation on how they could use the sensors on a typical smartphones to uniquely identify the walking style and pace of individuals.  For example, the intelligence agency may suspect a person carrying a phone is a bad guy.  They can remotely switch on the smartphone's sensors and record the walking style and pace of the person carrying the phone and match it with their database records.  SCARY ISN'T IT!?

Those are just a few of the sensors available that integrate the physical world with the digital.  Read this article I wrote to learn more about the incredible capabilities of sensors.

Mobile apps can also be considered the API (application programming interface) between humans and smartphones.  For example, a mobile application for recommending local restaurants may start by asking the user what kind of food they prefer.  The human queries their stomach, and then inputs the results into their mobile app by touching the keypad or using their voice.  Suddenly a server in an Amazon data center knows your stomach's inputs!  That is one powerful sensor and API!  Given the vast array of sensors in the human body incredible things can be done once those sensor inputs are digitized.

Although there are many powerful sensors in the human body the API is still the human's touch, typing or voice.  The emergence of wearable sensors and smart devices are a way to try to automate the process of data collection so humans are not required to take time and effort to input the data.

Sensors are also connected to the non-physical.  Sensors can connect with time.  Once time reaches a specified place, a digital alarm can go off striking your physical ear with sound waves.  That is making the non-physical inputs, physical.

The challenge for businesses today is to envision how all of these sensors and available real-time data can be used to improve customer service, product design, marketplace interactions and engagements so there are more profits at the end of the day.  

In the book Digital Disruptions, James McQuivey writes that for most of history, disruptions (business and marketplace transformations) occurred in a physical world of factories and well-trod distribution networks.  However, the disruptions of tomorrow are likely coming from digital disruptions - sensors, code halos, big data and mobile devices and wearables.

The task and challenge of every IT department is to understand and design a strategy that recognizes that the competitive playing fields of tomorrow are among the digits.

***Have you seen the new Mobile Solution Directory here http://mobilesolutiondirectory.blogspot.com/?

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

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.

Enterprise Mobility and the Gift of Time

McCall, Idaho - Winter Wonderland

I was standing next to a grizzled old man (definition: anyone older than me that can grow a beard), at the coffee shop today.  He said he had been standing in lines all day.  I said, "Makes you appreciate smartphones, doesn't it?"  He agreed and added they save me so much time!

That comment is a perfect example of "blogger's inspiration!"  I said, "What do you mean by - "It saves you so much time?"  He said his work is closely tied to the weather.  He runs snow removal services in beautiful McCall, Idaho.  As a result, he must carefully monitor the weather including wind direction, precipitation forecasts and the beginnings and endings of storms.  He can now do all of this precisely from his smartphone.  He said he is absolutely more productive.

He went on to say, "I want to start working at the tail-end of a storm to maximize my productivity and customer services."  If he starts work too early his work will be covered by snow and he will have too remove it again, adding expense and delaying his work for other customers.  If he starts too late, he will have dissatisfied customers."  He uses his smartphone constantly in the winter to maximize his productivity.

Enterprise mobility solutions can provide all kinds of "gifts of time" to employers and employees.   From simple collaboration with colleagues, prospects and customers using your smartphone for voice, SMS, Skype or Google+ instead of traveling to a face-to-face, navigating quickly and accurately to a destination or to collect data in the field that is integrated with back-office systems.  There are all kinds of ways time can be saved by utilizing mobile technologies.

In recent decades productivity gains in manufacturing have been driven through better processes and process automations, automated data collections, advances in SCM (supply chain management), logistics and ERPs.  Today, there are even more productivity gains to be had in each of these areas by using mobile technologies to improve real-time visibility into events, processes, statuses, locations, resources and snow fall!

Have you reviewed my new Mobile Solution Directory at http://mobilesolutiondirectory.blogspot.com/?

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

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.

Using Artificial Intelligence in Health Services Requires Real-Time Enterprise Mobility

I am intrigued by the increasing use of artificial intelligence in areas like field services management and home healthcare services.  I read a use case (http://www.clicksoftware.com/Collateral/Documents/English-US/KinCare-Case-Study.pdf) this morning about KinCare and ClickSoftware in Australia.  KinCare provides all kinds of home and healthcare services across a wide geography in Australia.  They are one of the largest providers of in-home care and assistance in Australia and they get paid by providing documented services compliant with government regulations.  There are designated fees for each service and there are little to no margins for errors. It is very easy to screw up and to lose a lot of money in this kind of operation.

Let me provide an example of KinCare's services:

• Nursing care
• Personal care
• Domestic assistance
• Social support
• Respite care
• Transportation
• Case management

Some of their clients need all of these services.  These services are often provided by different people at different times.  Let's image tens of thousands of clients, care givers and service providers located all across Australia.  All of these participants and their appointments must be scheduled and coordinated.  Does that sound like a big enough challenge for you Mate?

The only way to run this kind of operation efficiently is to make sure the care givers and service providers are connected (via mobile devices) to an intelligent software system (using artificial intelligence and context aware systems) to understand how to most efficiently provide and schedule hundreds of thousands of services.  In addition, must also make sure each care and service provider is qualified, available and in close proximity.  Also it is important to note that these services are critical to a persons health and welfare.

The mobile devices are used as mobile data collection devices, sensors (GPS) and reporting systems in the service delivery process. Mobile devices feed real-time data to the real-time analytics and artificial intelligence systems that schedule all parties across the country.  Since all of these participants are mobile, it takes very careful and fast analytics to ensure all parties can meet in the right places, deliver and receive services efficiently, document services and invoice for those services.

Smartphones and tablets, broadband internet connectivity and ultra-fast artificial intelligence capabilities integrated with human resource, talent management, scheduling, case management, patient and service management, billing and dispatch systems are all required to make this work.  Wow!  Speed and artificial intelligence systems are revolutionizing these kinds of operations today.

When I am out teaching mobile and SMAC strategies to large companies the topics of speed, context aware and artificial intelligence comes up every time.  These are the game changers today.

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

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.

Digital Millennials and The Real Reason Employees Want BYOD

"Thanks to the merger of globalization and the I.T. revolution that has unfolded over the last two decades - which is rapidly and radically transforming how knowledge and information are generated, disseminated and collaborated on to create value - the high-wage medium-skilled job is over."
~ Stephanie Sanford, Chief of Global Policy and Advocacy for the College Board.

The middle-class jobs of the past, the jobs you and I could start with and retire from, are mostly gone today.  It is much harder for millennials to find jobs that require simply hard-work, responsibility and dedication.  In today's world, in order for a millennial to live a traditional middle-class lifestyle that supports home ownership, cars, a college education and a family, it takes a different mindset and inventory of skills.  A set of skills our education system has yet to fully understand and embrace.  These are the skills of a digital millennial (DM).

DMs depend less on company issued laptops, smartphones and tablets, as they prefer to bring their own personal devices (BYOD) and tools that can accompany them from job to job and employer to employer.  DMs depend less on companies for  software applications and seek cloud-based applications and services that are tied to them personally, not just their current employer.  DMs seek recognition for their work beyond the four walls of their employer.  They want their contacts and followers (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+) to be on their own personal networks, not just their current employers'.  They want their accumulated work history, reputation, skill sets and competencies to be in the public domain, not buried inside the file cabinet of a past boss.

I propose that DMs will also favor and advocate for investments, retirement and health insurance plans that are abstracted from employers, and attached to them personally.  These plans will follow them throughout their careers with no dependency on a particular employer.

To quote from Thomas L. Friedman, "The globalization/IT revolution is super empowering individuals, enabling them to challenge hierarchies’ and traditional authority figures from business to science to government." As businesses increasingly take advantage of technologies that reduce their dependence on and loyalty to the middle-class as a workforce,  the aware DMs or "super-empowered middle-class" will recognize their need to view employment as a transient state, rather than a semi-permanent state and will adjust their habits and practices to meet these emerging realities.

Let me quote from McKinsey Global Institute's James Manyika,  "How we think about 'employment' needs to expand to include a broader set of possibilities for generating income compared with the traditional job.  To be in the middle-class, you may need to consider not only high-skilled jobs, but also nontraditional forms of work.  Work itself may have to be thought of as a "form of entrepreneurship" where you draw on all kinds of assets and skills to generate income."

DMs of the future may find their dreams for a middle-class lifestyle can only be accomplished by engaging in multiple income generating activities.  They may rent out a room in their home through AirBnB, rent their car out through Lyft, sell products via eBay and contract their time and skills out through online contractors marketplaces.

DMs may view traditional home ownership as more of a liability than a benefit as their income sources and locations are less predictable.  They may seek stability in digital assets rather than physical.  We see this modeled when physical photos were replaced by digital photos, and as one's life-narrative migrated from a neighborhood and employer to Facebook and LinkedIn timelines.

DMs will find it hard to maintain a long career with one company or a dedication to just one area of expertise.  They will find it hard to cruise into retirement.  They need to adopt a new lifestyle that recognizes and values agility, persistent learning, networks and the survival skills and tools necessary in this new world.  In today's world, those tools look a lot like cloud-based services and marketplaces, social networking platforms and mobile apps running on personal smartphones and tablets.

For more information on the future of work and similar trends visit, www.unevenlydistributed.com.

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

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.