Kevin Benedict Ponders the Future: cloud computing

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Forces Driving the Digital Transformation Era

The words “digital transformation” appear everywhere today. I use them in discussions daily. They describe the era we live in - an era where the rules of business, strategies and the pace of business have changed. In this era the manner in which we operate our businesses, and interact with our customers, suppliers, employees, partners and even physical objects have changed. This new era is different. We feel urgency for more information, deeper insights, faster operational tempos and business agility. We recognize a need for change, but to what?

I propose that it is important to understand how we got to the era of digital transformation. What path led us here? What are the contributing factors? For that purpose, let’s begin by considering how we moved over the past decade from a commercial environment full of disconnected unknowns, to the world of connected knowns. How we evolved from mass markets of faceless customers to precision markets of one. How did we get here today? I posit that rapid advances in six areas have converged to create the era of digital transformation:

I propose that it is important to understand how we got to the era of digital transformation. What path led us here? What are the contributing factors? For that purpose, let’s begin by considering how we moved over the past decade from a commercial environment full of disconnected unknowns, to the world of connected knowns today. How did we get here? I posit that rapid advances in six areas have converged to create the era of digital transformation:

Hardware
Software
Networks (cables, wireless and human)
Societal and industry comprehension
Democratization of technology at scale (low costs & mass adoption)
Moving beyond human time to digital time

The evolutionary path to digital transformation followed a timeline that included the invention and development of the following[1]:

Computers & Moore’s Law
Memory and data storage
Mass adoption of PCs and laptops
Local Networks
ERPs
The internet
Mobile networks and mobile phones
GPS
Mass global adoption of wireless devices (laptops, mobile phones, tablets, smartphones, wearables, sensors)
Proliferation of websites and online activity
Rapid adoption and expansion of online and mobile databases and search
Rapid adoption and expansion of online marketplaces and reviews
Rapid adoption of online and now mobile payments
The transformation from physical to digital (think retail stores to e-commerce, and now m-commerce)
Move from paper documents to digits
Rapid expansion of embedded computers
Rapid adoption and proliferation of mobile apps and the mobile web
Online gaming
Rapid transformation from traditional marketing to digital and mobile marketing
Rapid addition of smartphone enabled sensors
Rapid evolution and adoption of online social networks, social media sites and content sharing
Online classified sites (e.g. Craig’s List)
Rapid emergence of the sharing economy (e.g. Airbnb, Uber, etc.)
Rapid adoption of online education services
Rapid adoption and expansion of online entertainment movies, TV programs and streaming music
Wearables
Cloud computing
Rapid emergence of cloud based platforms for everything
Internet of Things
Industrial Internet (telematics, smart grids)
Proliferation of analytics and reporting
Mobile wallets
Development of advanced algorithms
Artificial intelligence and machine learning
Augmented reality
Robotic process automation

All of these innovations and advances, and our adoption of them, changed us. We are different consumers. We are different employers and employees. Our expectations increased. We became impatient and mobile. We became global. We demand immediate, accurate and real-time responses. We want personalized and contextually relevant experiences. We want digital experiences that are beautiful, simple and elegant. We want instant access to all products, services, news, information and friends’ status. We want to share our lives instantly and globally. We want to find things, buy things, move money and complete transactions from anywhere at anytime.

All of these innovations and our resulting behavioral changes – changed commercial marketplaces and brought us to the tipping point. Definition of tipping point: the point at which a series of small changes or incidents becomes significant enough to cause a larger, more drastic change. That drastic change today is – digital transformation.

Read more on digital transformation strategies here:

[1] Not a definitive list

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Kevin Benedict

Senior Analyst, Center for the Future of Work, Cognizant Writer, Speaker and World Traveler

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

Digital Transformation Expert Interview: Cognizant's Adithya Sastry

In 2014 consumer behaviors and preferences are changing at a speed never before seen. In large part the speed of change is the result of innovations in mobile technology, cloud computing, Code Halos and ubiquitous access to high speed wireless broadband Internet. Add to these innovations the process of digital transformation happening in most industries and markets and you have a powerful argument for agility, change management and innovative new business models.

In this interview with Cognizant's GM and Venture Leader for Cloud360, Adithya Sastry, we discuss mobility, digital transformation, cloud computing and the need for new agile business models supported by the cloud. Enjoy!

Video Link: http://youtu.be/T4fMqAd9364?list=UUGizQCw2Zbs3eTLwp7icoqw

"Why Apps Fail" Report:
http://info.perfectomobile.com/wpr-why-apps-fail.html?utm_source=mes&utm_sfdcid=701D0000000zR1C

Sept 30. Webinar - 5-Star Wars: 3 Mobile Testing Strategies to Ensure a 5-Star App and Prevent “Users From Striking Back!”
http://info.perfectomobile.com/2014-09-30-5Star-Wars-Registration.html?utm_source=mes&utm_sfdcid=701D0000000zPte

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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

Information Dominance as a Company's Mobile Strategy

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

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

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

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

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Kevin Benedict

Writer, Speaker, Editor

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

View my profile on LinkedIn

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Browse the Mobile Solution Directory

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies

Recommended Strategy Book Code Halos

Recommended iPad App Code Halos for iPads

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

The Latest on Microsoft's Windows Phone 8.1 for Enterprise Mobility and IoT

By Guest Blogger and Cognizant Mobile Expert Peter Rogers

A lot of attention lately has been given to Android and iOS, but let's not forget developments from Microsoft. Microsoft made some exciting announcements at Build 2014 that we should consider.

The Windows 8.1 update was given an imminent release date (April 8th) and Windows Phone 8.1 Dev Preview Program is just starting. There was a nice quote reflecting their intentions with Windows Phone 8.1, “We believe Windows Phone is the world's most personal smartphone”. Microsoft is bringing Windows Phone 8.1 to all Lumia devices running WP8 and the next generation of Lumia devices were shown with ridiculously good cameras and a Snapdragon 400/800 chip inside (1.2/2.2 GHz).

Cortana is Microsoft’s version of Siri (with a husky voice), that is powered by Bing, and has been fully integrated into the phone experience. Windows Phone 8.1 also comes with an enterprise VPN and Internet Explorer 11. The desktop version of Internet Explorer now has an enterprise mode for improved compatibility (white listing of sites) and finally supports WebGL (3D).

The first announcements that was of keen interest to me was the new Universal Apps. These are based on the Windows runtime environment and are portable across the following: PCs; tablets and even Xbox. There is an update to Visual Studio 2013 that allows you to build such Universal Apps. A demo showed the same App running on both Xbox and Windows Phone; and there was also a demo showing the improvements in DirectX 12.

The second thing of interest for me was that ‘The Internet of Things’ got a lot of air time and Microsoft were very keen to talk about Intel and their new Quark chip. It's the smallest SoC the company has ever built, with processor cores one-fifth the size of Atom's, and is built upon an open architecture. Quark is positioned to put Intel in wearables and they even showed off a prototype smartwatch platform Intel constructed to help drive wearable development. Intel President Renee James pointed out that Quark's designed for use in integrated systems, so we'll be seeing Quark in healthcare too. The link for Microsoft was of course their Azure Cloud platform and the shock announcement that Windows will be available for free for Internet of Things-type devices - and indeed for phones and tablets with screens smaller than 9 inches.

The third thing that sparked my interest was from one of the questions in the Q&A, “What's the vision for Microsoft? The vision twenty some-odd years ago was ‘a computer on every desk’. But that's basically been achieved.” Microsoft's answer, “Mobile First, Cloud First, and a world based on concepts like machine learning.”

I like “Mobile First, Cloud First” as a concept because it stresses the important relationship between the two. Microsoft may not see the success they desire with Windows 8.1 (even when the start menu returns) but it is clear that they are still a force to be reckoned with, and Windows 9 will have all the necessary learning in place to succeed.

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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

IoT and M2M Cloud Controlled Programmable Hardware

My friend and Cognizant colleague the ever opinionated Peter Rogers shares more of insights into the world of IoT (Internet of Things) geekdom and how it really works under-the-covers.
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Facebook invested more cash this week when they acquired one of my favourite Kickstarter projects Oculus VR for a seemingly ridiculous $2b. The VR (virtual reality) headset was the best in class technology (in its price range) and had just added a head-tracking software solution to reduce motion sickness. Of course it wasn't just the VR headset that Facebook acquired, but the CTO of Oculus VR, who is no other than the legendary game creator John Carmack.

There is every indication that Facebook will let Oculus VR do their own thing but I do worry about the lack of support from game developers, so John Carmack needs to rally the forces. We all agree there is money in wearable technologies in 2014, right? I actually classed virtual reality headsets as my favourite form of wearable technology, but I am a gamer at heart and spent a lot of time playing VR games in the local arcades as a teenager/adult. With the problems of motion sickness being alleviated and fast refresh rates then we can all look forward to recreating scenes from Disclosure very soon and it proves this is happening now.

IFTTT

I was recently looking into IFTTT (if this then that) which is a service that lets you create powerful connections of Internet services. Channels are the basic representation of online services (Facebook, LinkedIn, Evernote, etc.). Triggers are actions that place on a channel, such as “I check in on Foursquare” or “I am tagged in a ridiculous picture of the office party on Facebook”. Actions are the tasks to perform such as ‘send me a text message to warm me of photos I am tagged in on Facebook”. Recipes are therefore the final ‘if this than that’ statement which combines triggers on channels with actions to perform. You can have personal recipes, one example of such being a text message warning system for photos that you are tagged in on Facebook within days of an office party.

I didn’t realise until recently that some of the non-enterprise MBaaS (mobile backend as a service) systems offer a similar IFTTT construct. If we look at Firebase which is probably more of a real-time connectivity platform than a MBaaS, but has come into the spotlight after a strong partnership with Famo.us. Firebase offers hooks to inject conflict resolution logic into the proceedings. Likewise, Telerik allows you to inject custom JavaScript code to be executed before/after CRUD (create/read/update/delete) operations on data items. This offers a simpler alternative than a Node/GAE service tier and with the merging of API Gateways and Enterprise MBaaS on the horizon (a topic for a later Blog) then I have a strong feeling we will see this level of configuration-programmatic control in the near future, especially in the wearable space.

Tessel

Tessel start with asking a great question, “How do you teach web developers about hardware?” and it is a question I have long been pondering from a resourcing perspective. The answer they give is fantastic, “You don’t. You teach hardware about web developers”. You use familiar web development language such as JavaScript and Node to make programming hardware a much higher level construct.

Tessel is a micro-controller that runs Embedded JavaScript. The guys at Tessel seem to think that JavaScript is the perfect embedded language and I am inclined to agree. Tessel are targeting the affordable embedded processor range of Cortex-M0 to Cortex-M4 which are the lower end of the performance spectrum but come in at the $4@1k range. The options are to either run a JavaScript VM (which comes in at around 10Mb of memory) or run a Lua VM (which is highly portable and comes in at around 30K). I was curious what Embedded JavaScript actually was and I guess we will see quite a few definitions of cut down versions of the ECMAScript but Tessel have a unique take on all this. Originally on a local computer there would be a JavaScript file and a g-zipped Lua file which was then sent to a Tessel micro-controller which ran a Lua interpreter. To improve performance they have now moved to having a JavaScript file on the local computer and then on the actual Tessel they will compile JavaScript to Lua bytecode and run this through a LuaJIT (just in time compiler) based custom RTOS.

I remember all of the MEAPs (mobile enterprise application platforms) used to support Lua and soon everyone quickly moved away to the more familiar JavaScript language. Corona was the first to see an exodus of game developers due to the closed nature of the solution. Now in the MCAP space everyone is moving away from JavaScript VMs to cross-transpiled / cross-compiled JavaScript solutions (Hyperloop, Cocoon, Intel XDK). This means you get to write in JavaScript but you end up with native code which is a win-win – unless you hate JavaScript. The future is that it will become feasible to embed in every product a micro-controller powerful enough to run a high level language but for now JavaScript (or Embedded JavaScript as it will be called) seems to be the language of choice.

Firmata

I later discovered trailr which allows you to build and deploy Arduino ‘environment-aware’ sketches over WebSockets. This basically means that you can effectively reprogram the hardware by sending an environment configuration over the air. This led me onto Firmata, which is a generic protocol for communicating with microcontrollers from software on a host computer. It is intended to work with any host computer software package. Basically, this firmware establishes a protocol for talking to the Arduino from the host software. The aim is to allow people to completely control the Arduino from software on the host computer. Firmata is therefore a simple Arduino sketch that allows you to control all of the pins on the micro-controller dynamically without loading a new program on the board every time you want to do something.

SkyNet and Cloud Programmable Hardware

I have to mention SkyNet once again after they amazed me by lighting up their office with Phillips Hue light bulbs that change colour (red or green) as their stock price fluctuates (using the Yahoo Stock Market API). You can see the video here at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNiHQXmawys. SkyNet have firmware that allows an Arduino to automatically connect to SkyNet and await Firmata instructions. SkyNet then becomes the compute cloud for controlling devices and collecting sensor data without CPUs or custom device apps.

As Chris from SkyNet says, “You could literally duct-tape an Arduino, MicroArduino (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/microduino/microduino-arduino-in-your-pocket-small-stackable), Spark device (https://www.spark.io/), or RFduino (http://www.rfduino.com/) to a light pole with a small rechargeable battery and solar cell. It connects to SkyNet allowing you to stream sensor data from connected sensors or you could turn on pins for lights, relays, motors, etc. via SkyNet messages. SkyNet messages could be sent from people all around the world.”

I must admit that I find the whole concept of Cloud controlled programmable hardware very exciting.

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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

Mobile Expert Interview: Catavolt's CEO George Mashini

I had the privilege today of interviewing Catavolt's CEO George Mashini. In this interview he shares his insights and opinions on enterprise mobility, cloud based services, trends and strategies. Enjoy!

Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rG_G6WO9H24&list=UUGizQCw2Zbs3eTLwp7icoqw&feature=share

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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

Mobile Expert Interview: VMware's Sanjay Poonen on Their Acquisition of AirWatch

I had the privilege of interviewing VMware's EVP and GM of End User Computing, Sanjay Poonen today on the strategy behind their recent acquisition of mobile device management and security vendor AirWatch. In this interview we talk about enterprise mobility strategy, the future of mobility, cloud, social platforms and content. Enjoy!

Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iC7pchre3sE&list=UUGizQCw2Zbs3eTLwp7icoqw&feature=share

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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

Bracing for Change with Enterprise Mobility

I spent last week working with four brilliant technology analysts in Chicago. It was -40 degrees Fahrenheit with the windchill. Who would schedule a meeting in Chicago mid-winter? Even in the conference room it was cold, and we were all wearing coats and scarves! It made for a great adventure and after a brief 36 hour delay in my flight, I am back in the home office.

What did I learn last week? For starters, more words to add to my vocabulary. I learned how to use words like gravitas and nascent. Two words rarely used in Boise, Idaho. "That potato farmer has both expertise and gravitas, and he is always looking for nascent varieties of spuds." Sorry, can't say I have ever heard that said. I did, however, learn a great deal about how real analysts work and organize their research projects. They taught me much about where technology is today, and where it is rapidly going over the next two years.

Three of my colleagues at Cognizant have just finished a book that will be in all the bookstores in a few weeks. I had the chance to read much of it, and it provides brilliant insight into digital transformation across industries and markets and explains how to transform business models and IT infrastructures to be successful.

As a result of everything I learned last week, I am impressed that IT infrastructures must be rapidly upgraded to support "real-time everything." Mobile computing, the IoT (internet of things) and the advent of broadband Internet have transformed how we think, work, play, communicate and engage in commerce. If we are going to host our memory, analytics, turn-by-turn navigation, business processes and business solutions in the cloud and access them through mobile devices, we have major work to do in backend infrastructures. I believe the companies that will be successful in the next five years are those that can guide their organizations best through this age of digital transformation.

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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

Mobile Expert Video Series: Romeo Elias

I had the privilege of interviewing mobility and BPM expert and the CEO/President of Interneer, Romeo Elias on their company's products and strategies for providing a cloud based enterprise mobility solution. Enjoy!

Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cwygz5F80nI&feature=share&list=UUGizQCw2Zbs3eTLwp7icoqw

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

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Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

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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.

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

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Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

Personal and Enterprise Clouds, HTML5 and Mobile Devices

Click to Enlarge

In the recent survey "State of Enterprise Mobility 2013" I asked the question, "How many wireless devices do you use daily?" An incredible 69 percent use three or more wireless devices daily. I myself use three - my MacBook Pro, iPad mini and iPhone.

I use my iPad mostly for reading email, notes, news, ebooks and social media, plus I watch videos and listen to music on it. I use my iPhone for the same purposes when I am on the go, plus texting, phone calls, the camera, fitness apps and maps. I use my laptop to do many of the same things, but specifically to write, use Microsoft Office apps, participate in video conferences and conduct research and store photos.

There are a lot of overlaps in what I do on the devices, which is the reason the whole concept of the "personal cloud" is so valuable to me. Rather than store all content on devices and worry about synchronizing updated versions of my content across other devices, much of my personal content is stored in personalized clouds. My Blogger and Facebook accounts are personal clouds where I store and share my content. LinkedIn, Twitter, iCloud, EverNote, Box.net, DropBox, Instagram, Pinterest, etc., are also personal cloud services where you can store and share content. The value, of course, is that you can access all of your content from any of your wireless devices with minimal effort and maximin convenience.

Enterprises will find the same kinds of benefits that I do but on a much larger scale. Companies that recognize a permanent requirement to support an increasing number of enterprise mobility apps on ever-changing devices, must seek a model of design, development, deployment, maintenance and support that maximizes efficiency, productivity and minimizes TCO (total cost of ownership). In today's world - that model looks like HTML5 apps managed and deployed using enterprise cloud services.

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

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Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

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SMAC Expert Series: Cloud Services and Enterprise Mobility Risks and Vulnerabilities

I had the privilege of recording a Google+ Hangout On Air with cloud services and mobile security expert Rajiv Gupta, CEO/Founder of SkyHigh Networks this week. In this interview we discuss the risks and vulnerabilities of letting your mobile and enterprise users access cloud services. This is a very interesting area that I had not spent much time considering. Enjoy!

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

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

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Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

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Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

Power Projection on a Global Scale and Enterprise Mobility

Power Projection

Hillsong United, is a global musical powerhouse headquartered in Sydney, Australia. While I was in Sydney recently I was able to attend a musical program led by Hillsong's Taya Smith. Taya Smith is the singer of the popular christian worship song Oceans. Last week, our daughter sang this song at Whitworth Univeristy in Spokane, Washington, and we heard this same song again in Austin, Texas over the weekend. That is "talent and influence projection." A musical group from thousands of miles away can project their talent into musical programs worldwide within days thanks to digital technology.

The term "Power or Capabilities Projection" is the ability to influence events and act from afar. This is what enterprise mobility is all about. It's the ability to provide better customer service over vast distances because you know where your 5,000 service technicians are located and the status of the jobs they are working on. You can provide more accurate estimates of their arrival, more efficiently assign jobs and route them to the next location all from hundreds or thousands of miles away.

Companies that recognize the importance of "power or capabilities projection" and the role enterprise mobility plays in it, can develop economies of scale previously unimagined. Today a company's SMEs (subject matter experts) can be brought to a job site "virtually" using mobile technologies. The SME can view a job site via live video, ask questions, analyze data collected on mobile devices and assist in solving solutions remotely. Rather than hire an SME for every location, one SME can now project their expertise globally, thus enabling better service and reducing costs.

In addition, mobile enterprise collaboration apps connected to cloud platforms can enable leaders and SMEs globally to work together to quickly and efficiently solve problems in distant lands. This is a big deal. Many countries may have a strong military able to defend their own borders, but few have the ability to "project" their power outside of their region which limits their influence and power. Companies able to project their capabilities have nearly unlimited potential for growth.

Cloud-based solutions can also offer incredibly powerful capabilities to project your company, brand, products and services. Today, a competitor's team can land in your market, connect to the Internet and have access to complete ERPs, CRMs, logistic systems and social/mobile marketing platforms in seconds. That is a different level of competition and speed to market than many of us are accustomed to dealing with. It takes a different game plan.

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

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The Eight Rs of Enterprise Mobility, Opportunity Costs and Strategic Investments

It is true that enterprise mobility is about the eight Rs - getting the right information, to the right person, at the right time, in the right place, in the right amount, on the right device, in the right format so they can make right decisions, but there are even more benefits. Enterprise mobility can also be about saving money that can be invested more profitably in other places. Let me share a real-life scenario:

A large distributor of consumer package goods and fresh food, with many delivery trucks would often run out of inventory that customers along their routes would request when the drivers arrived. These requests represented potential sales that could not be captured because the products were not available in the trucks. The end result was sales were not being maximized.

What were some possible ways to solve this problem?

The distributor could reroute the delivery trucks back to the warehouse to load more product, but that would delay deliveries to other customers, potentially reducing both service quality and sales while increasing costs (time, labor, fuel, maintenance).
The distributor could open more warehouses so inventory would be available closer to routes and customers. The challenge would be increased costs.
A process of delivering (with more trucks and drivers) unscheduled orders could be developed. The problem, however, would be the additional expense to set-up and operate it.
The distributor could ignore their customers' request for last-minute product sales, and open up an opportunity for competitors to capture this business.

How did enterprise mobility solutions help solve this challenge? We helped the distributor by implementing real-time communications and inventory systems on their mobile devices, GPS tracking and real-time scheduling solutions that enabled a few roving trucks full of commonly needed inventory to meet-up with multiple delivery drivers and top-off their inventories (JIT, just-in-time) along their routes without delaying them from their scheduled deliveries.

The distributor improved customer service and sales with limited investment. They also prevented their competition from making inroads. They used a limited investment in technologies (enterprise mobility solutions) to get products to the right customers at the right time without spending all of their investment funds. The mobile solutions enabled them to NOT have to make massive investments in more warehouses, trucks, labor and infrastructure so they could make smarter investments in other places.

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

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Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

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Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

Renegade Business Execs, SMAC and Things are Out of Control!

Cloud based Google Enterprise Apps

This morning Cognizant, the company where I work as an analyst, reported their earnings. In the earnings call Cognizant CEO Francisco D'Souza stated, "This year we expect to deliver about $500 million in SMAC (social, mobile, analytics, cloud) related services." That is a significant number in Boise, Idaho where I live.

I study SMAC related topics daily and teach SMAC (social, mobile, analytics and cloud) workshops globally. No one is arguing against these mega-trends in 2013. The questions I get are related to how to embrace and exploit these trends for the good of the company given their unique position, market, industry and region.

On another topic - I read an article today titled, "Renegade Business Execs Drive IT Strategy" that I found intriguing. Here is an excerpt, "Business executives are increasingly bypassing the IT department and spending their own budgets on technology as "it's too important for their business to leave to IT", says analyst house Forrester."

I believe we are witnessing the beginnings of the "consumerization of enterprise apps. When powerful and useful enterprise apps are available in the cloud for the choosing, business executives can often select and implement them with minimal IT department involvement. If the business believes it will help their bottom line, they pull the trigger and use their own budgets. This of course has implications on how the IT department is viewed and their future missions.

Here is another excerpt from the article, "CIOs now have to pivot and act more as a consultant to the business. The days of a centralized controlled IT world are over. Vendor management can no longer be the central management point for IT departments." Things are out of control!

The cat is out of the bag! The horse is out of the barn! Who let the dogs out? All odd sayings, but they seem strangely relevant to what is happening in IT. The business is more and more about technology, and thus business execs are becoming experts themselves in the use of technology to hit their business objectives. They are no longer depending upon the IT department to recommend and select innovative solutions. If you are selling technology to companies, you should be paying attention to this trend!

The IT department today is often viewed as the maintenance arm of the company. The keepers of the systems of record, the ERPs, databases, security systems and IT policies and licenses. More and more of the innovation seems to be happening in the cloud and on mobile devices.

One last excerpt, "IT will become much less of a blue-collar run and built organization and much more of a white-collar shop focused on design, orchestration and integration, with more of the integration focused on external business partners and public cloud services."

This is the future. This is why Cognizant is studying and sharing our research on SMAC (social, mobile, analytics and cloud) with the world. This is why we have a SMAC practice. This is why we are working closely with Google Enterprise to demonstrate what a fully enabled SMAC platform looks like.

If you live in the UK, you may be interested in an upcoming exclusive breakfast discussion on ‘Private, Public and Hybrid Cloud’ the morning of 12th June in Thistle Hotel in Marble Arch. Moderating the session will be Paul Simmonds, ex-CISO of AstraZeneca and of ICI and a panel of experts from Microsoft, Savvis and Interxion. There are limited seats, but email me if you are interested in attending and I will see what I can do.

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

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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 Ponders the Future

Forces Driving the Digital Transformation Era

Digital Transformation Expert Interview: Cognizant's Adithya Sastry

Information Dominance as a Company's Mobile Strategy

Mating Calls, Bird Watchers, Enterprise Mobility and Mobile Apps

The Latest on Microsoft's Windows Phone 8.1 for Enterprise Mobility and IoT

IoT and M2M Cloud Controlled Programmable Hardware

Mobile Expert Interview: Catavolt's CEO George Mashini

Mobile Expert Interview: VMware's Sanjay Poonen on Their Acquisition of AirWatch

Bracing for Change with Enterprise Mobility

Mobile Expert Video Series: Romeo Elias

Digital Millennials and The Real Reason Employees Want BYOD

Personal and Enterprise Clouds, HTML5 and Mobile Devices

SMAC Expert Series: Cloud Services and Enterprise Mobility Risks and Vulnerabilities

Power Projection on a Global Scale and Enterprise Mobility

The Eight Rs of Enterprise Mobility, Opportunity Costs and Strategic Investments

Renegade Business Execs, SMAC and Things are Out of Control!

Interviews with Kevin Benedict

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