Mobile Expert Interviews: AnyPresence's Kristian Meier

The enterprise mobility space has been evolving quickly over the past 24 months and the category of solutions called MBaaS (mobile backend as a service) has emerged as one of the winners.  Within this category are many different strategies for supporting enterprise clients, and in this interview with AnyPresence's mobile expert Kristian Meier we learn their approach and strategy.  Enjoy!

Video Link: http://youtu.be/W91WaDYZ7Y4?list=UUGizQCw2Zbs3eTLwp7icoqw


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

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.

Mobile Expert Interview: AnyPresence's Founder Rich Mendis

In this segment, I had the privilege of interviewing the founder of AnyPresence, Rich Mendis on his views of the enterprise mobility market, mobile strategies and his predictions for the future.  Enjoy!

Video Link: http://youtu.be/GvvGl652Q9k?list=UUGizQCw2Zbs3eTLwp7icoqw

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

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.

Wearable Devices, Mobile Apps, Sensors and Clothing Companies

Nike FuelBand

As I was working this morning I become annoyed that my Nike FuelBand kept rubbing against my MacBook Pro keyboard while I was typing.  The Nike FuelBand is my first wearable (M2M or IoT) device.  It is a bluetooth enabled sensor inside a wristband.  The sensor has an accelerometer that records the level of activities you participate in during a 24 hour period.  When you press a button it syncs its recorded data with your iPhone.  The iPhone in turn uploads the FuelBand data into your Nike account in the cloud.

Once the data enters your mobile app on the iPhone and/or your account in the cloud, it analyzes it against past and future activities, recorded goals and other measurements.  On nearly every screen you are encouraged to be social, and to share your activity data with friends, family and the Nike social family.  There is also a whole lot of gamification going on.  You can escape and survive all kinds of dangers presented in a game on the Nike cloud site by keeping your activities up and meeting your goals.

One of the challenges, however, is the Nike FuelBand does not have a GPS tracking system (although your iPhone does), nor does it know you are engaged in certain activities like riding a bike, either on the road or a stationary one.  There is no method for manually entering activities that are not easily monitored by the Nike FuelBand.  I solved a few of those problems, after a little research, by integrating the Nike FuelBand app and account, with my Nike Running app (which uses my iPhone GPS capability).  I could then precisely track times, distances, paces and routes. Both the FuelBand and the Running app are integrated through my Nike cloud account so they can both access the same data and monitor my activities accurately.

I was, however, still faced with the problem of recording and tracking exercises and activities that are not accurately captured by the Nike FuelBand or the Nike Running app on my iPhone.  I eventually discovered a solution, however, by finding that I could integrate my Lose It! mobile app with my Nike cloud account as well.  Lose It! is a great app for manually tracking calories consumed and exercises completed.  Lose It! does not have its own hardware or sensors, but integrating it (a simple check box) with my Nike cloud based account enabled it to share data I manually entered, and for the Lose It! app to read and integrate sensor data from my Nike Running app and my Nike FuelBand (wearable sensor).

Let's review the components:

• iPhone and GPS sensor
• Nike FuelBand (bluetooth enabled accelerometer sensor in a wristband that communicates with your iPhone) to monitor activity levels
• Nike Running iPhone app that uses the iPhone GPS to track distance, speed, pace, etc.
• Nike cloud based account to aggregate, analyze, report on and archive the data
• Lose It! iPhone app that enables you to manually enter foods/calories and exercises.  It can be integrated with your Nike cloud based account so exercises, activity levels and running data can be more accurate and shared.

I believe the wearable mobile device and exercise/activity apps market will mature and these disparate capabilities will soon converge into a single wearable device and a full functional app.  Today, however, us early adopters have the fun of discovering their limitations, reviewing each update, and finding work-a-rounds.

It is quite interesting to me, that a clothing/shoe company, Nike in this case, is so involved in high tech sensors, mobile hardware, cloud based solutions, social and gaming platforms and analytics.  It is the beginnings of the digitization of clothing.  I know Under Armor is also deeply involved in these digital transformations.

These clothing companies understand that their brands are increasingly going to be judged by the quality of their digital presence, rather than just the quality of their physical designs and materials.  It is a different world that we live in today.   One that we should all be pondering.

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

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.

Banks, Mobile Technologies and SMAC, Part 2

This article is Part 2 in a three part series (read Part 1 and Part 3)

For those that missed Part 1, Peter Abatan, my colleague at Cognizant and a banking industry and mobility expert, has been sharing his thoughts on trends in the banking industry.  The following points come mostly from his email messages to me and his blog articles.  He believes Internet and mobile banks will create increasing competition for traditional banks for the following reasons:

• Checks are quickly becoming obsolete.  In fact, the UK plans to phase out checks by 2018.
• Internet and mobile only banks will not issue or process checks; instead they will offer alternatives by which you can make payments. This reduces their operation costs.
• People are carrying less cash than they did 5 ago.  That makes ATMs less important. According to the Financial Times (FT), UK consumers did nearly 10% less shopping with cash in terms of monetary value, in 2012 than in the previous year. FT goes on to say that the use of debit cards and newer methods such as PayPal are making gains compared to the use of cash. If ATMs are needed, Internet and mobile only banks can always join existing ATM networks so that members can withdraw cash.
• Internet and mobile only banks will be able to pay more attractive interest rates because they have few or no branches and fewer employees to support.  This is a significant competitive advantage.
• P2P banking (peer-to-peer), NFC (near field communications) and contactless payment adoptions are on the rise: The number of retail outlets that receive small payments through contactless technology is on the rise, at the same time P2P payments, using mobile apps like Barclays Pingit, are increasing in popularity and enabling users to transfer a limited amount of money to another person or business without going through a traditional bank.
• P2P lending may become the killer app in the banking industry. This is where Internet and mobile only banks can excel. These technology-focused banks can provide P2P lending services, by matching lenders, borrowers and satisfactory interest rates, then charging a fee that will enable them to provide higher ROIs for their customers.  

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

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.

Banks, Mobile Technologies and SMAC, Part 1

The mega-trends of SMAC (social, mobile, analytics and cloud) plus IoT (Internet of Things/Connected devices/M2M) are changing entire industries.  I am being asked frequently now to meet with IT and business teams to review how SMAC and related trends are impacting various industries so companies can better plan to meet these transformations.

My colleague at Cognizant, Peter Abatan, is both a banking expert and a mobile technologies expert.  Recently Peter has been sharing his thoughts with me on the topic of how SMAC (social, mobile analytics and cloud) trends are impacting the banking industry.  Here are some excerpts from our exchanges:

• Bank branches are predicted to see diminishing foot traffic (visits per branch) at a rate of 8-10% each year for the next 8 years.  People are using mobile apps in increasing numbers rather than visiting branches for routine banking tasks.
• Given the popularity of mobile banking apps, the banks with the smartest and most responsive mobile banking infrastructure will have a competitive advantage.
• If banks do not quickly evolve and educate their customer base on the advantages of mobile banking and digital transformation, other competing banks will, and they will use it to their advantage.
• Traditional banks are feeling an increasing pressure to transform because their current size, structure and legacy IT environments prevent them from adapting rapidly enough to meet new challenges and to address the changing behaviors in the marketplace.  Many banks will become smaller and more nimble as a result of these pressures.
• Social media impacts the way banks sell and market their products.  People talk about their banks, the service levels they receive and the price of service fees. If a bank tries to sell a customer the wrong product, provide poor service or charge a higher than appropriate service fee, then the customer’s network of contacts will learn about it quickly.
• Crowd-funding platforms like Crowdcube and KickStarter are offering higher returns on investments than traditional banks.  This is an emerging threat to traditional banks.  These crowd-funding platforms have far lower cost structures to maintain than a traditional bank with branches and labor intensive sales and marketing channels.

Read Part 2 of this article series here.

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

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.

SMAC Ready Enterprise - Changing Tides in Enterprise Mobility

Over the past few months I have noticed a change in the enterprise mobility space.  Cloud mobility, once a distant vision, now seems to be a mainstream topic.  I have seen a shift from companies believing it necessary to set-up their own internal mobile platforms, mobile infrastructure and mobile security, to looking first to cloud based mobile environments, and then secondly, if not finding their requirements met, moving to the traditional on-premise solutions.  I have seen a great deal more flexibility from MADP (mobile application development platform) vendors with their tools and business models.

I am seeing an increasing reluctance by enterprises to purchase million dollar MADPs even before there are apps to use.  Companies are happy to pay based on realized ROI, but hesitate to invest upfront.

I am seeing an increasing awareness of mobile security needs, but again, companies are now seeking first cloud based mobile security solutions to see if their needs are met there, if not, they look at on-premise options.

I am meeting with companies that have completely moved to cloud based Google Apps, Android and Google Enterprise solutions.  They feel they can better centrally manage and secure their company communications and data through Google Enterprise.

It seems to me as the enterprise mobility market matures, it is also rationalizing.  Early adopters were willing to navigate difficult business and licensing environments, implement expensive POCs and experimental solutions, but today they want a rational, logical, flexible and easy solution that mitigates the risk.

Competition in the enterprise mobility space has now matured to the point that there are many reasonable alternatives, business models and deployment scenarios.  These alternatives, i.e. HTML5, native, hybrid, cloud, on-premise, yearly subscriptions, monthly subscriptions, licenses, etc., motivates all competitors to become better and more business friendly vendors.

All of these rapid changes should encourage enterprises to jump into mobility with both feet, but to implement solutions that do not lock them into a particular mobile device, mobile OS or MADP.

For decades the goal of nearly all software vendors was to entice the end user into using a particular tool, OS or development environment long enough so that the accumulated investment made it very difficult to abandon.  The business model of software vendors was based on creating a large maintenance fee based business.  Although this model offered stability for the software vendor and often the customer as well, it is not suited to the fast paced world of enterprise mobility that requires flexibility and agility.

Today companies should be focused less on a particular mobile devices, mobile OSs and mobile vendor solutions, and more on creating a SMAC (social, mobile, analytic and cloud) READY enterprise.  This is very important!  A SMAC READY enterprise means their enterprise is capable of supporting and thriving in a "real-time" world that is driven by SMAC requirements.  A world rich in data, that requires the ability to analyze it in real-time, and to get the resulting business-ready information into the hands of their mobile works in real-time in order to optimize productivity, decision making, sales and services.

For many enterprises developing a SMAC READY enterprise is a big challenge. The mobile apps are the easy part! Their IT systems, processes and business models were not designed to support the unimagined speed and volume of data that floods over us today (see Code Halos article). This challenge, however, is worth pursuing.  Today a company's success and I would dare say very survivability is dependent upon it.

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

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.

Infonomics and Using Information as a Competitive Advantage

Do you value and treat your enterprise information like it is a strategic asset?  Do you view your information logistics system (including your enterprise mobility system) as a competitive differentiator?  Enterprise mobility is more than just a convenience for people on the move.  It is about how to use information to optimize productivity and achieve competitive advantages.  How can the effective use of mobilized information change and improve your business?

I have shared some of this article before, but I believe it is important enough to review.  In an insightful article by Gartner Inc.'s Douglas Laney, titled Infonomics: The Practice of Information Economics, the value of company information is explored.  I read this article with great interest and interpreted it in the context of enterprise mobility.

Here is Laney's description of Infonomics, "When considering how to put information to work for your organization, it’s important to go beyond thinking and talking about information as an asset, to actually valuing and treating it as one. This is the basis of the new theory and emerging discipline of Infonomics which provides organizations a foundation and methods for quantifying information asset value and formal information asset management practices."

In my mobile strategy workshops, I spend time with my clients exploring the value of "real-time" information to a company and the role enterprise mobility plays in it.  Laney's article takes it to the next level by treating it as a discipline.

Here is another excerpt from Laney, "Infonomics posits that information should be considered a new asset class in that it has measurable economic value and other properties that qualify it to be accounted for and administered as any other recognized type of asset—and that there are significant strategic, operational and financial reasons for doing so."

If the right information can be available to a mobile worker, on the right device, at the right time, in the right amount so that "right" decisions and actions can be made, then that is a huge benefit!

Let me add some context, if you have a mobile workforce in the field and you know the following real-time information:

• Location
• Job status
• Next job site
• Skills and qualifications
• Inventory
• Equipment
• Costs (hourly wage)

...then you can make many important decisions as to how you can optimally schedule and utilize your workforce.  Much of this can be automated using business analytics, and artificial machine learning as well.  In contrast, if you don't have real-time knowledge of the points listed above, you cannot.  There are significant competitive values to this real-time information.  Laney's article explores how you can measure that value.

Once you have placed a value on real-time information, then you can determine an ROI for developing and implementing a system that supports the use of real-time information (and mobilizing it).  I see this a lot when discussing mobile workforce scheduling solutions.  Many organizations simply do not have the IT systems in place that can support real-time scheduling based on real-time information (location, job status, etc.).  This is a limitation.  This prevents them from transforming their company into a real-time enterprise and effectively competing with companies that are.

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

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

View Linkedin Profile

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

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

Mobile Expert Video Series: Bridget Bradley

In this interview with mobile expert Bridget Bradley from AnyPresence, we discuss cloud mobility, pricing models and mobile platforms.  Enjoy!

Video Link: http://youtu.be/GMc4guRJM44


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

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

View Linkedin Profile

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

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

Mobile Expert Video Series: Tathagata Nandy on Healthcare

In this video I interview mobility and healthcare expert Tathagata Nandy on the trends he is seeing around enterprise mobility in the healthcare industry in 2013.  Enjoy!

Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sar9h73k940&feature=share&list=UUGizQCw2Zbs3eTLwp7icoqw

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

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.

Revisiting Enterprise Mobility and 4D Strategies

In this article I want to revisit the subject of the 4th dimension as it relates to enterprise mobility and and its importance to many industries and business processes.

First, let's review our definition of 3D and 4D.  Three dimensional is made up of length, width and height in one context, or latitude, longitude and altitude in a geographic context.  With GPS coordinates you can find and identify a location on the earth or map.  The challenge, however, is that in the real-world, people and resources aren't stationary.  They move all over the place.  Knowing their location is only useful if you know the "time" they were at that location.  Time is the fourth dimension.  Latitude, longitude, altitude and time are the 4 dimensions we will be reviewing.

Knowing locations and times are critical to managing real-time operations.  The power of real-time business analytics is best realized when you have the capabilities of reporting and planning in a 4D environment. Here are some examples of how time added to location data can offer business value:

• Predict travel times
• Monitor actual travel times by capturing departure and arrival times.
• Adjust schedules based upon the difference between the predictive and real-life travel times
• Predict job completion times
• Monitor actual job completion times
• Adjust schedules based upon the difference between the predictive and real-life times
• Dispatch service technicians based upon location, schedules, qualifications, costs, etc.
• Capture KPIs and analyze them.

Most companies recognize the importance of using 4D in their strategies, however, it has only recently become possible to exploit 4D data in real-time.  Exploiting 4D data in real-time takes a real-time strategy.  You need IT infrastructure, databases, analytics and enterprise mobility solutions all finely tuned for real-time operations.

As many of you know my mantra is, "Mobile technologies without mobile strategies is wasted."  There are a lot of interesting things that can be done using 4D strategies and mobile technologies to provide a company with competitive advantages.

A while back I read a book titled, Stray Voltage, War in the Information Age, by Wayne Michael Hall.  In this book he takes the concept of 4D, and adds two more, cyberspace and cerebral to make 6D. Here is a quote from Hall, "Information superiority is firmly connected to making decisions that are superior to an adversary's and combines information technology and intellectual power to create conditions with which to make better decisions."

Hall is making the point that with mass volumes of data collected in real-time using remote sensors, data collection technologies and mobile solutions we need to improve our operational strategies and ways of thinking.  The data can provide us with real-time "situational awareness," but can we understand it and use it to make better real-time tactical decisions for our businesses?

More from Hall, "Human beings will need to improve their thinking capabilities to cope with the increasing complexities of the world...people will depend more on visualization to help understand complexity quickly.  Visualization will fuse data and information and display the result in a multimedia format.  Visualization will allow the integration of data, information and knowledge from all sources and will allow for the integration of numerous contributors."

There is power in taking all of the real-time 4D data inputs that you have, integrating them, analyzing and displaying it visually on a map with powerful infographs in real-time.  This can help us quickly understand what is happening in the field.

In my mind I see a field services manager using an iPad.  He can look down at his iPad at anytime and see the location of all his assets, resources, work crews, jobs (past, present and future) and equipment.  He can see bright yellow circles for all job status that are running over their estimated times, he can see work crews in transit and he can see all locations of upcoming jobs on a map.  In one quick glance the manager can understand where there are challenges, trouble spots and customer issues.

The visualization of 4D information allows for rapid and good decision making.  This is a true competitive advantage.

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

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.

Healthcare, Mobility and Digital Transformations

Healthcare is one of those industries that will be most impacted by SMAC (social, mobile, analytics and cloud) developments.  It is information based.  Information, as we all know, is easily digitized, analyzed, stored in the cloud, and shared via mobile devices.

Here is a personal example.  Yesterday, I was experiencing stomach ailments and jumped on the website, WebMD.  I then added some reminders on my iPhone regarding health practices that I want to follow.  Ideally, I would engage with my doctor on non-serious issues via a mobile app.  I could record my symptoms and have her review and advise me no matter where in the world I am at the moment.  Our crazy healthcare system in the USA, however, would not know how to handle this simple mobile services or the payment for them.  I can only hope that someday logic will prevail.

Here are some of the key reasons mHealth is being transformed today:

• The recognized need by providers, insurers, and governments to improve services and reduce the costs of caring for those with chronic illnesses.
• The emergence, and proliferation of smartphones, broadband internet access, dedicated remote patient monitoring devices, and patient-centric applications
• Patients increasingly understand how mHealth technologies can help them better communicate with providers and manage their health.
• The rapid movement toward standards that will form the backbone for interoperability within the health industry.

If you are a healthcare industry software vendor or systems integrator with some clever and cool healthcare related solutions please share them with us in the comments section of this article, or email me at kevin.benedict@cognizant.com.  I would love to learn and write about them.

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

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

View Linkedin Profile

Read the whitepaper on mobile, social, analytics and cloud strategies Don't Get SMACked

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

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

Mobile Expert Video Series: Bill Moylan

I was in Miami this week at the Enterprise Mobility Exchange 2013.  While there I met up with mobile expert Bill Moylan, Global VP of Alliances for ClickSoftware, and interviewed him about new "context aware" mobile apps.  Enjoy!

Video Links: http://youtu.be/ztoL-CqTaXE

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

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

View Linkedin Profile

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

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

Digital Transformation, Code Halos, Analytics and Mobility

A retailers' mantra throughout history has been location, location location.  This is always important, but perhaps of less value than other innovations caused by digital transformations today. The ongoing digital transformation of many industries has created new competitive playing fields that are increasingly related to data.  The winners are those that can more quickly collect, analyze, report, make data driven decisions and capture value from the data.

The data that surrounds customers, partners, companies and individuals is called "code halos™" by my colleagues at the Center for the Future of Work in their new whitepaper Code Rules.  It is their analysis that companies that understand and manage code halos most effectively will be the winners in their industries.

Let me paint two scenes for you.

1) A brick and mortar retail operation is located on Main street, advertises in the local newspaper and via the Yellow Pages.  Greets their anonymous customers at the door with a cheerful "hello" and waves goodbye when they purchase their products from the store.  The store does not know or track their customers' names, preferences or the products they purchase.

2) A brick and mortar retail operation recognizes the value of being on Main street, but also in having a strong web and mobile presence, tracking their customers via loyalty and opt-in online/mobile marketing campaigns and providing customized experiences and marketing that meet the preferences of each individual customer based on collected and analyzed data.  As a result, they have mobile apps, websites and enable customers to document their preferences, likes and favorites.  Each customer has an account that enables the retail store to see their personal details and track their purchases, interests and buying habits, etc.  The retailer analyzes the data, and then provides a customized and personal buying and marketing experience for them.

This is a simple illustration of the differences in how retail companies may engage their customers before and after they recognize the value of code halos.  Store number 2 recognizes that each customer has a code halo of data about their demographics, buying habits, history, preferences, neighborhoods, lifestyles, etc.  Store number 2 collects the data and uses the data to improve their marketing and customer engagements, while store number 1 does not.  Which store do you think is going to be more competitive?  I believe store number 2.

In most military organizations today, they believe the effective use of data or the "Fifth Dimension" of warfare is critical.  The first four dimensions are land, sea, air and space.  Recently the fifth dimension has been added to emphasize that organizations and nations must now learn to effectively use data defensively and offensively in times of conflict.  Military organizations, much like companies in the commercial sector, must now compete in the fifth dimension and the management of code halos.

Recognizing the importance of code halos and the fifth dimension of warfare is not enough, however.  Organizations must employ what is called a "logistics of information" systems capable of supporting a competitive environment.  This is not easy.  Store number 1 mentioned earlier does not have a code halo strategy or the logistics of information system in place to be competitive.  They are not even capable of putting a team on the field.

What must be included in order to successfully employ an effective "logistics of information" system that can process and utilize code halos?  Let me list a few:

1. Effective data collection strategies - often in the form of mobile apps, loyalty programs and online commerce sites that enable a customer to opt-in to various programs, campaigns, preferences and deals.  This is how you begin to add to and harvest useful data from your customers' code halos.
2. The ability to recognize a unique customer, their code halos and to cater to their preferences and customize their marketing and buying experiences based on analyzed data.
3. The ability to recognize patterns, find meaning and to spark new ideas and innovation by analyzing multiple code halos is valuable.  Here is an example - Store number 2 recognizes that a sub-set of their customers' all share similar code halos - product preferences, lifestyles, demographics and buying habits.  Store number 2 also has visibility into the code halos of their suppliers' products, brands and target customer profiles.  As a result, Store number 2 can introduce new marketing campaigns and products that very closely align with the preferences and tastes of their individual customers and sub-sets of customers.
4. Following each marketing campaign or program roll-out, the data is analyzed and optimized to improve precision and future results. 

These four steps require an effective "information logistics" system.  Do you have it?

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

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

View Linkedin Profile

Read the whitepaper on mobile, social, analytics and cloud strategies Don't Get SMACked

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

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

Mobile Expert Video Series: Florian Ganz

In this short video interview with mobility expert Florian Ganz, recorded in Lisbon, Portugal last week, I ask his opinions on how to select the most appropriate mobility platforms, cloud mobility and when to use HTML5.  Enjoy!

Video Link: http://youtu.be/6DKgCoHX_bA

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

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

View Linkedin Profile

Read the whitepaper on mobile, social, analytics and cloud strategies Don't Get SMACked

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

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

Gartner's Latest Thoughts on Enterprise Mobility and SMAC

ClickConnect Europe 2013

I had the good fortune to attend a session this morning at ClickSoftware's ClickConnect Europe 2013 with Gartner's Research Director Dr. Richard M. Marshall.  Here are some of the notes I took from the session:

• By 2017 Microsoft will sell as many mobile operating systems as Apple.  This is a bold prediction, but Gartner insists their projections are on track.
• Enterprise collaboration tools will be the source of "huge" productivity gains.
• By 2017 82% of handsets shipped will be smartphones
• Mobile security, mobile device management and mobile app management are only going to get more complex.  Recognize how each additional app adds to the complexity and develop a strategy now that will keep the TOC manageable.  No wonder the MDM (mobile device management), MAM (mobile application management) and EMMP (enterprise mobile management platform) vendors are getting all the investor attention this year.
• The Internet of Things (IoT) is a big deal.  Smartphones will be the end-points of choice for the connected device data.  Smartphones will enable you to view the meaning of connected device data and to act on it.
• Gartner is using a new phrase at this conference - The Nexus of Disruptive Forces (social, mobile, information and cloud).  They added the term "disruptive" for added emphasis.  I agree.
• The more people that work virtually or are remote and mobile, the more important it is to have social bonding between employees through collaboration tools.
• Gartner is also talking about different technology layers in an IT environment moving at different "paces" of change.  The system of record may have a very slow pace of change, but the top "Innovation" layer may evolve and change at a very fast pace.  This "Innovation" layer is well suited for mobile solutions and cloud based apps.  Having different paces, however, requires each layer to be abstracted from the other to permit different paces of change.  This is a good way to think about technology stacks and how to design and develop your IT infrastructure.

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

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

View Linkedin Profile

Read the whitepaper on mobile, social, analytics and cloud strategies Don't Get SMACked

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

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

Kevin Benedict’s What’s New in HTML5 – Week of December 9, 2012

According to FaveQuest CEO Allan Isfan, HTML5 didn’t revolutionize the mobile business as expected, but instead it “over promised and under delivered”.  Read Original Content

The QNX CAR HMI framework for the automotive environment features HTML5-based technology and a direct development path from mobile to automotive.  Read Original Content

According to a post on the Codiqa blog, HTML5 is a “revolution for the open web” and more companies and developers stand to gain through the greater adoption of HTML5 than with proprietary platforms such as iOS.  “Looking into the future, we strongly believe that HTML5 and open web technologies will increasingly become the standard for mobile and desktop development.”  Read Original Content

App47 announced it has added HTML5 support to its enterprise mobile application management platform, stating “more and more enterprise clients are choosing HTML5 over native when looking to get out the door faster and deliver mobile apps to employees in less time and for less money”.  Read Original Content

Firefox for Android has expanded its HTML5 video capabilities to include H.264 video playback.  Read Original Content

App Studio is a new cloud-based HTML5 solution from Quark that “turns print into interactive digital experiences”, offering developers the flexibility to use tools familiar to them to create app content for smartphones and tablets.  Read Original Content

Nokia’s new site was built with HTML5 as the company feels HTML5 is more accommodating, with the different components of the web page making it easier to add video, social media and other content.  Read Original Content

Andrew Gazdecki, founder and CEO of Bizness Apps, feels startups should develop both mobile apps and HTML5 mobile websites, and should consider developing for the mobile web first, rather than developing an app on each platform at the beginning.  Read Original Content

UK footwear company Schuh has launched a new mobile site completely built in HTML5.  Read Original Content

A chart featured in Ciklum’s blog shows over 80 percent of developers are not satisfied with HTML5 monetization and over 70 percent are dissatisfied with performance and fragmentation.  Read Original Content

Sesame Workshop’s Noah Broadwater points out that while enterprises don’t want to build the same thing over and over again, they don’t have much choice right now as HTML5 remains comparatively weak for rich interactivity, video and other features, and there is still no HTML5 standard.  Read Original Content

UpSync has added HTML5 support to its Intelligently Integrated Selling platform enabling administrators to upload HTML5 apps as well as other multimedia content audio, video and documents.  Read Original Content

Web jeweler Ice.com has launched an HTML5-based m-commerce site that resembles an app in appearance, navigation and functionality.  “An HTML5 mobile web site cannot do everything an app can, but Ice shows it can provide a convincing replication.”  Read Original Content

In the first in a series of HTML5 tutorials designed for developers, WP Engine co-founder Aaron Brazell covers “Working with HTML5 Forms”.  Read Original Content

Webinar distributor BrightTalk now features an HTML5 player, enabling mobile users to watch videos that weren’t previously accessible.  Read Original Content

ServiceMax, creator of cloud-based, mobile and social field service applications, has released the HTML5-based ServiceMax Winter ’13.  Read Original Content

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

Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for SMAC, Cognizant

Read The Future of Work

Visit MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

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

Kevin Benedict’s What’s New in HTML5 – Week of December 4, 2012

Max Katz of Tiggzi brings his perspective to the native vs. web apps topic, stating there are advantages to each, and hybrid apps offer many of the advantages of both approaches.  Read Original Content

NonStop Games' Henric Suuronen feels some of the recent criticisms of HTML5 were deserved and some were not, and states that despite its bad publicity, HTML5 is still a viable platform for games.  Read Original Content

Microsoft has been working with a number of companies to optimize select HTML5-based sites to function better on Internet Explorer 10 and Windows Phone 8.  Read Original Content

Men’s magazine GQ has given their British site a new look – the new gq-magazine.co.uk is built in HTML5 and includes new features and updated sections.  Read Original Content

In dotMobi’s “Ten Questions to Answer Before Developing Mobile Web Tactics”, marketing manager Martin Clancy addresses whether businesses should just concentrate on native apps by stating that a mobile app is not a full mobile strategy.  “Right now, the mobile web is the only way to reach your entire audience in one fell swoop and updating your site is seamless.”  Read Original Content

With an estimated 60 percent of corporations implementing BYOD strategies, multiple types of mobile devices may be in use within one corporation. As it may be too expensive to build native apps for all devices, HTML5 and jQuery Mobile technologies enable developers to build mobile cloud apps once for use on many different devices.  Read Original Content

Knitd, an HTML5-based web app planned for launch in the U.K. in 2013, will offer readers the chance to buy individual articles via a micropayment system.  Read Original Content

Online music streaming service Grooveshark has launched a mobile website  coded in HTML5 that offers its music library online for free.  Read Original Content

Ben Savage, founder of Spaceport.io, explains why he feels HTML5 didn’t meet the high expectations set in 2011 in “Why HTML5 Provided More Tricks than Treats in 2012” featured in VentureBeat.  Read Original Content

California-based startup Famo.us has developed a new approach to developing HTML5 apps to work on varied devices including tablets, cars, televisions and smartphones.  Read Original Content and Read More Original Content

Notes from the Enterprise Mobility in Defense Conference

I spoke at my first military oriented mobility conference today.  It was located in Washington DC, and while attending the other sessions I was able to fill seven pages of notes.  I will refrain from posting all seven pages and just give you the highlights here.

• Companies don't own brands any longer, their consumers do.  Their consumers can do whatever they want with your brand in the social media space - freedom of speech.  Companies need their consumers to protect and promote their brands since companies can't control the message any longer.  That means a completely different brand strategy.  I credit Fred McClimans, Managing Director, McClimans Group for this insight.
• Generals today must learn about mobile technologies and social networking from their young enlisted men and women.  The younger generation has a more complete understanding of these technologies.
• Americans, unlike many countries, raise soldiers accustomed to independent thought and action.  In many countries and cultures people won't think or act independently. They only follow commands.  This is a cultural and environmental competitive advantage for Americans.  Even in disconnected environments, the US Military can expect their warfighters to continue to act and follow through on a mission without additional communications or commands.
• Our mobile capabilities and our country's competitive advantages are limited by the amount of frequency spectrum available.  We need to eliminate congestion and open up more spectrum to maintain our competitive advantages.  This is a long term problem and will take time to solve.
• Military pilots are using more and more tablets.  These tablets must be small enough to be worn without injury during emergency ejections.  If the tablet is too big, it can break the pilot's leg during ejection (they are strapped to a pilot's right leg).
• The army is currently using the following categories of mobile apps: training, inventory, medical, mapping, command and control and language translation.
• Modern warfare, as conducted in Afghanistan, is more like gang warfare than wars of the past.  Mobile apps that help intelligence personnel diagram and understand human networks are important today.
• The army divides mobility into four areas, 1) governance, 2) centralized app library, 3) development frameworks and 4) app certification.
• Social networking on mobile devices causes problems for the military.  Facebook wants to use geo-location to reveal the location of soldiers in the field.  Military commanders might click a "Thumbs-Up" symbol to like a comment and suddenly they are being publicly quoted as supporting political parties and views that cause problems.
• The Pentagon wants to support a BYOD strategy, however, this means the Pentagon can tell BYOD users when they must buy a new device to stay compliant.  Yikes!  There is still much work to be done before this becomes a reality.
• The DoD (department of defense) believes they will save tens of millions of dollars by moving toward a BYOD strategy for non-classified use cases.
• The DoD today has secure smartphones but they cost $8,000 USD each.  Ouch!  I see their motivation for wanting to support a secured BYOD environment.
• Random information - the Pentagon receives 8 million emails per day, but only sends 1 million.  I am sure there is some sort of interesting insight here, but not from me.
• The Pentagon believes Big Data is the next big wave.  As you can image, the volume of data coming into the Pentagon is mind boggling.  Only about one percent is analyzed today, and the other 99 percent is quickly scanned and archived.  However, Big Data promises to be able to help find additional trends and patterns in the 99 percent fast enough to be useful in the near future.
• The Pentagon believes Big Data will force companies to re-engineer and rearchitect many of their systems in order to take advantage of it.
• The Pentagon really only started to get serious with enterprise mobility in 2012.  Now many pilot projects are underway.
• Securing the data is really the object not securing the mobile device.  This may require some kind of data tagging so the data can be protected for its entire life cycle.  Data may be tagged with different levels of security in the data properties so only the appropriate users can view it and apps integrate it.
• The biggest enterprise mobility challenge in the military today is how to respond to the "consumerization of IT" trend in a secure environment.
• There are two high level areas of mobility in the military, 1) garrison mobility (non-classifed, not warfighter oriented apps), and 2) tactical warfighter apps for the battlefield environment.
• The Marines are wanting to drop BlackBerry support in favor of BYOD strategies for non-classified users and apps to reduce costs.
• The Marines, for legal reasons, want a smartphone that has separate partitions for personal and military use.  The Marines want to control and own the apps and data in their portion, but not in the personal partition.  They are still looking for an ideal smartphone that meets these requirements.

There you go!  I saved you a trip and a long day listening to mobile secure lecture after security lecture.  You are welcome :-)

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

Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for SMAC, Cognizant

Read The Future of Work

Visit MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

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

Kevin Benedict’s What’s New in HTML5 – Week of November 25, 2012

In this update on "What's New in HTML5" the debate around the merits of HTML5 continues as Brightcove's CEO Jeremy Allaire says Mark Zuckerberg was "dead wrong" about HTML5.

Now for the news...

Nokia’s new free cloud-based map service, HERE, will be available on multiple operating systems, including an HTML5 version for Apple’s iOS.  Read Original Content

Mobile social gaming platform GREE is expanding its compatibility with HTML5 and will roll out the enhanced HTML5 functionality worldwide in open beta this month.  Read Original Content

Caplin Systems has launched a Web-trading tool, Caplin Trader 3, built entirely in HTML5 to provide support for all platforms from one codebase.  Read Original Content

The New York Times has redesigned its crosswords page with a new HTML5 version to enable game play within the browser, allowing players to access puzzles without leaving the NYTimes.com website.  Read Original Content

BoosterMedia provides an infographic detailing the world of HTML5 mobile gaming in this article featured in me mobile entertainment.  Read Original Content

Brightcove CEO Jeremy Allaire believes hybrid apps are essential to getting the technical economy highly productive, and states Mark Zuckerberg was “dead wrong” and it was “shameful for him to throw HTML5 under the bus because Facebook had an outdated and poorly written hybrid app”.  Read Original Content

Mobile and digital consultant Michael Nuciforo compares the native vs. HTML5 debate to choosing whether to purchase a Ferrari or a Toyota in this article in Finextra.  Read Original Content

Computer maker Dell has created tablet-optimized catalogs and smartphone mobile commerce sites for Black Friday and Cyber Monday.  The digital catalogs are HTML5-based so consumers can view them on any mobile browser.  Read Original Content

LongTail Video has released a major update to its video player with enhanced HTML5 support leveraging many of the recent advancements in HTML5 browsers, including the HTML5 Fullscreen API.  Read Original Content

Tylted has launched GameDrop Network, a mobile advertising platform that integrates Tylted’s HTML5-based ad server with an app publisher’s existing ad server.  Read Original Content

ViewTube is a userscript compatible with various web browsers that replaces Adobe Flash Player with an HTML5 video player on popular websites, giving users the opportunity to try out HTML5 video.  Read Original Content

HTML5 Web-publishing platform Wix has formed a partnership with e-commerce website solution Shopify to enable Wix’s users to integrate Shopify into their HTML5 websites.  Read Original Content

Gaming site JackpotCity Casino has added two new HTML5 mobile casino games.  Read Original Content

Apex Studio has released the new generation of HTML5 Movie Maker for Windows, enabling users to convert multiple formats video files to HTML5 video to play on browsers and mobile devices.  Read Original Content

Magic Software’s David Akka believes the hype around HTML5 continues to gather momentum, but won’t be ready as a reliable development tool for the enterprise for another 2-4 years.  Read Original Content

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

Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for SMAC, Cognizant

Read The Future of Work

Visit 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.

Time-Space Compression and Enterprise Mobility

There is a time to recognize sea change and to take action.  That time is now for developing an enterprise-wide mobile strategy and to start implementing enterprise mobility.  I think companies in the past couple of years have not been sure the role mobility would play in their specific company, markets and industries, however it should be clearer now.  It is time to act and be bold.

I propose that mobility is just the beginning.  Mobility is part of a historic time-space compression shift that is impacting all people and industries.  It is important for us to understand the impact this shift will have on each of our companies.

Paul Virilio wrote a great deal about time and speed, and time-space compression.  He calls the science of speed dromology, and strategies around time chronostrategy.  He proposed that the speed at which something happens may change its essential nature.  His argument is - that which moves with speed quickly comes to dominate that which is slower.  The bottom line, is companies that can see faster, analyze faster, communicate faster, produce faster, decide faster and act faster will have enormous competitive advantages.  Mobility is an essential element of all of this.

Time-space compression often occurs as a result of technologies that seem to accelerate speed and reduce distances.  These technologies today include the Internet, Skype, mobile communications, SMS, sensors, satellites etc.  In transportation they are things like trains, jets, rockets, overnight delivery systems etc.  In business, they are ultra-fast market trading systems, globalization, online sales, currency markets, faster production cycles, mobile banking and payments, etc.  

All of these components play a role in compressing time and space.  I can operate a global business, across all time zones from my Boise, Idaho backyard patio.  Speed changes things as Virilio proposed.  The very nature of a business or industry is transformed as time-space compression happens.

Is your company researching this topic?  Should it be?  Virilio suggests that there is a shift toward the emergence and dominance of chronostrategies (time strategies).  We can see this reflected in just-in-time manufacturing, overnight shipping, e-Readers, streaming video, mobile marketing, location based services, social networking sites etc.  All of these are about time and space compression.

I see chronostrategies as a key focus in the field services space.  Companies are constantly seeking ways to improve and optimize their scheduling to be more productive.  They are using their knowledge of location to reduce travel times and optimize routing.

The bottom line is the world is changing and so are your industries and markets.  Mobility is a supporting technology that will enable your company to compress time and space.  The debate should shift from whether mobility has value for your company, to whether your company can transform itself to keep up with the time-space compression that is happening all around it.

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

Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for SMAC, Cognizant

Read The Future of Work

Visit 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.