Data Collection and the Modern Battlefields of Business

Dr. John Snow's Map

In 1854 Cholera broke out in the Soho neighborhood of London.  Hundreds of people were struck down and died within days.  No one, at the time understood where the disease came from, how to treat it or how it was transmitted.

A local physician, Dr. John Snow spent every possible moment of his day studying the victims and data in an attempt to understand the disease.  His biggest challenge was a lack of data.  He had only the list of the dead and a blank map of the neighborhood.  What he needed was more data.  This was solved when he met the local priest, Henry Whitehouse.  Whitehouse had recorded the time of death, and the location where all the families lived and died.  When these sources of data where combined, and then overlaid on a map, visual patterns emerged which ultimately led the two to see the common denominator for all the victims was drinking contaminated water from the Broad Street water pump.

The pump handle was removed, people stopped drinking its water, and the disease burned out.  Dr. John Snow is now recognized as one of the fathers of modern epidemiology.  The data that led to his discoveries were:

• Victims
• Relationships
• Locations
• Time of illness
• Time of death
• Behaviors and patterns of life

Adding all of these data sources to a map, for visual reference and clarity, enabled the insight that ultimately revealed the source and means of transmission of the disease.  Minus key data sources, the disease would have remained a mystery and many more people would have died.

In business, many challenges and obstacles today can also be solved with better data collection strategies and enhanced analytics.  We have all heard the phrase, "knowledge is power."  Knowledge comes from data, so data is power.

I sincerely believe that the battlefields of business today are around data.  The winners of today and tomorrow will be those better able to collect, analyze, understand and apply data to the customization and personalization of digital interactions.  My colleagues Malcolm Frank, Paul Roehrig and Ben Pring wrote the book "Code Halos" last year to dive deep into these ideas.

Last week I published a new thought leadership whitepaper on the application of real-time data strategies and analytics to mobile commerce and consumer facing mobile applications.  The paper is titled, "Cutting Through Chaos in the Age of Mobile Me."  You can download the whitepaper here http://www.cognizant.com/InsightsWhitepapers/Cutting-Through-Chaos-in-the-Age-of-Mobile-Me-codex1579.pdf.

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Kevin Benedict

Writer, Speaker, Analyst 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.

Mobile and Digital Expert Interviews: Ashutosh Didwania

Last week I was honored to speak at the Maritz Innovates event in St. Louis, MO. The topic was my new report titled, Cutting Through Chaos in the Age of Mobile Me.  It will be out in two weeks.  This report is big!  We worked with RIS to survey 5,000 consumers on their mobile shopping habits - stay tuned.  While at this event, I met digital transformation and mobility expert Ashutosh Didwania with Digital Works at Cognizant.  In this interview we discuss the role of mobility in digital transformation.  Enjoy!

Video Link: https://youtu.be/volb9SH9n-U


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Kevin Benedict

Writer, Speaker, Senior Analyst

The Center for the Future of Work, Cognizant

View my profile on LinkedIn

Read more at Future of Work

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

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Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

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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.

Mobile Commerce, Speed, Operational Tempos and the Real-Time Enterprise, Part 2

This article is part 2 in a series I wrote and published in an intelligence and defense industry trade journal.  You can read Part 1 and Part 3 here.

Operational Tempos and Mobility

Supporting real-time mobility is more than just a technology issue. It also requires companies to support real-time operational tempos. An operational tempo, in the context of this article, is defined as the speed or pace of business operations. Achieving a satisfactory operational tempo in order to support real-time mobility is a significant challenge and extends far beyond the IT environment and deep into decision-making and business processes.

Changing an enterprise’s operational tempo requires strong leadership that can transform the entire organization. It often requires significant IT updates and upgrades, organizational changes, and reengineering business processes and decision-making matrixes to align with real-time demands.
The military strategist and U.S. Air Force Colonel John Boyd taught that in order to win or gain superiority over an opponent, one should operate at a faster tempo than the opponent. Today competition is increasingly around the quality of mobile users’ experiences, data management, integrated IT systems, and the speed with which data can be collected, analyzed, and utilized. Robert Leonhard in the book The Art of Maneuver writes on the role of tempo and speed, “If I can develop and pursue my plan to defeat you faster than you can execute your plan to defeat me, then your plan is unimportant.” The words “faster than you can execute” in Leonhard’s context refer to the tempo of operations.

In a fast changing world, mobile applications are competing for users and acceptance against the
status quo (traditional paper or desktop processes) and competitors’ apps. In order for organizations to be successful, they must deliver mobile applications that will meet the expectations of mobile users. A key component of a good mobile user experience, as we previously identified, is the speed with which it can load and respond to clicks, swipes, taps, commands, and queries. When asked in a survey how significant speed is to a user’s overall mobile application experience, 80 percent answered “very important."

Contextually Relevant Mobile Apps

It is well known that the more personalized and contextually relevant a mobile application or website is to the user, the more successful it will be at delivering a good user experience. Mobile apps and websites by their very nature are used on the move. That means the context in which a mobile device is being used changes rapidly. This data can be about locations, time, activities, history, and behaviors. This important data must quickly be collected, analyzed, and consumed by the mobile application fast enough to personalize the user’s experience before the context changes. Cognizant’s Center for the Future of Work calls this Code Halos.  This refers to all the data about a person, object, or organization that can be used to personalize and contextualize a mobile and digital experience.

The data required to personalize and contextualize an experience takes time to process and utilize. It often requires many different integrated IT systems. It needs to be captured, transmitted, analyzed, and shared in real time with the mobile application and used to personalize the user experience. The speed with which all of these steps can be executed is important. No matter how great a mobile application’s design, delays in retrieving or interacting with back-office business or IT systems equate to negative user experiences. This is true for business-to-business, business-to-employee, or business-to-consumer mobile applications. In order to be successful, IT systems must operate at speeds quick enough to satisfy all of these different categories of mobile users. This requires a serious review of every IT, operational, and business process component that ultimately impacts the speed of mobile applications.

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Kevin Benedict

Writer, Speaker, Senior Analyst

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

View my profile on LinkedIn

Read more at Future of Work

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Browse the Mobile Solution Directory

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Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

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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.

Speed, Personalization, Analytics and Enterprise Information Systems

Ninety percent of 18-34 years old strongly value a personalized mobile and web experience, and eighty-two percent of of those over 45 years old value personalization.  What kind of personalization?  Forty-seven percent of shoppers prefer location or time-based personalization in mobile applications or websites.  In other words, don't show me things that are not available for me to purchase in Boise at this time, or that I don't like!  Given this survey data we all know what needs to be done and are taking the necessary steps to be able to offer personalization, right?  Wrong it seems.  Many companies are not using available data to understand their customers better so they can provide them with contextually relevant and personalized mobile application experiences.

My colleague, Benjamin Pring, at Cognizant's Center for the Future of Work recently published a research paper titled Putting the Experience in Digital Customer Experience.  In his research he found fewer than 20% of respondents use analytics generated by application programming interface (API) traffic to understand their customers’ online and offline purchase journeys.  Just 41% of respondents in the retail industry say they will be effective at analyzing customer metadata by 2017.  A mere 42% of respondents say they have adequate tools and skills to analyze digitally generated data.  Only one-third of respondents have made adjustments to their business model to pursue strategies driven by digital information about their customers.

An additional challenge, is that personalizing mobile user experiences takes speed, speed many do not have available in their current IT environments.  As organizations begin developing mobile strategies and implementing mobile apps, they quickly realize simply developing and deploying basic mobile apps, infrastructure and frameworks is not enough.  They must push further and implement a real-time enterprise to remain competitive.  This real-time requirement is at the root of many problems.  Eighty-four percent of survey participants reported they have IT systems too slow or incapable of supporting real-time mobility, which negatively impacts mobile app performance and the user’s experience.

We have some more work to do.

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Kevin Benedict

Writer, Speaker, Senior Analyst

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

View my profile on LinkedIn

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Browse the Mobile Solution Directory

Subscribe to Kevin'sYouTube Channel

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies

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

Mobile Apps, Analytics, Code Halos and Mass Personalization

Kevin Benedict, moderates this panel of digital experience and mobility experts including Benjamin Pring, Ted Shelton and Jack C. Crawford as they review and discuss the findings of Ben Pring's recent study Putting the Experience in Digital Customer Experience.

Video Link: https://youtu.be/xsPDWReccF4?list=UUGizQCw2Zbs3eTLwp7icoqw

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Kevin Benedict

Writer, Speaker, Senior Analyst

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

View my profile on LinkedIn

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Browse the Mobile Solution Directory

Subscribe to Kevin'sYouTube Channel

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies

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

Real-Time Mobile Infrastructure and Digital Transformation Discussion with Expert Ved Sen

In this Google+ Hangout OnAir, I have the privilege of discussing the findings of my recent report, Real-Time Mobile Infrastructure, with UK based mobile and digital transformation expert Ved Sen. We discuss the challenges identified and possible solutions.  Enjoy!

Real-Time Mobile Infrastructure Report, Introduction
Real-Time Mobile Infrastructure Report, Part 1
Real-Time Mobile Infrastructure Report, Part 2
Real-Time Mobile Infrastructure Report, Part 3

Video Link: https://youtu.be/IMYHORGxMYY?list=UUGizQCw2Zbs3eTLwp7icoqw


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Kevin Benedict

Writer, Speaker, Senior Analyst

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

View my profile on LinkedIn

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Browse the Mobile Solution Directory

Subscribe to Kevin'sYouTube Channel

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies

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

Starbuck's Code Halos and Mobile App Strategies

Starbuck's

Starbuck's is expanding the roll-out of their mobile ordering, loyalty and payment app.   This is one of the most interesting mobile apps from a major retailer that I have seen.  Before I summarize the key features and benefits, let me share the purpose of Starbuck's latest roll-out according to The Seattle Times' Angel Gonzauez,"...to draw more customers into a digital ecosystem that is closely entwined with its rewards program, whose users tend to buy more, and more often."  This is part of their plan to double revenue to $30 billion by 2019.

Key points:

• Users of the app will be able to order and pay remotely - without being in the store.  No lines to stand in.
• The mobile app user can see, in real-time, how busy each store is (based on real-time POS data and mobile order volumes), and an estimate as to how long each store would take to deliver the order, and how long it would take you to walk or drive there.  The user can then select a store to fulfill their order based on all this real-time data.
• Your order will be waiting for you and labeled correctly (matching mobile app order and your name as spelled in your loyalty program account) when you arrive.
• The mobile app is integrated with the loyalty program and free drinks are accumulated.
• Orders will be waiting for the user when they arrive and packaged for travel.
• Starbuck's has found that consumers order more products when they have more time to review menus and research the offers (and look at the delicious pictures).
• Starbucks anticipates this will benefit their expanding menus and lunch offerings.

Starbuck's Chief Digital Officer Adam Brotman said the results from early pilots of this program in Portland, Oregon surpassed all expectations for efficiency and customer satisfaction.

Embedded Sensors and Real Time POS

I love their use and analysis of real-time POS and online ordering levels, time, location and distance to deliver the optimal value to the mobile user.  They combine the use of sensors (IoT) embedded in the iPhone, plus the real-time ordering and system data, and loyalty program data to deliver the very best user experience personalized for each individual customer.  At Cognizant we call this kind of implementation Code Halos strategies.  This is where I am spending most of my research time in 2015.

This is an example of the future.  We must ask ourselves if our current IT environment can support this level of real-time customer interaction and hyper-personalization of the user experience.  If not, then we had better start working because this is where the competitive landscape of the future will be located.

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Kevin Benedict

Writer, Speaker, Senior Analyst

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

View my profile on LinkedIn

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Browse the Mobile Solution Directory

Subscribe to Kevin'sYouTube Channel

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies

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

Code Halos, Hyper-Personalization and LinkedIn

I write often here about "Code Halos" trends today in mobile apps, websites and across many other channels.  Code Halos are the data that surrounds each of us that includes all the data collected about our clicks, swipes, preferences, transactions, etc., and then used to provide a better and more personalized experience on websites, mobile apps and across many other channels.  In this short video we discuss how Code Halos strategies can be embedded into websites to provide personalized experiences.  Enjoy!

Video Link: http://youtu.be/3Bc-xs_nuRw

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Kevin Benedict

Writer, Speaker, Senior Analyst

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

View my profile on LinkedIn

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Browse the Mobile Solution Directory

Subscribe to Kevin'sYouTube Channel

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies

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

Kevin Benedict Interviews Corning Inc.'s Digital Transformation Expert Grace Alcivar

When most of us think about digital transformation, it is in the context of how mobile devices, mobile apps, big data, Code Halos, the Internet and the IoT (Internet of Things) are impacting businesses, markets, industries and economies.  Seldom do we think about the communication infrastructure that also needs to be transformed in order to support all of these changes and innovations.  In this interview, Corning Inc.'s digital transformation expert Grace Alcivar, discusses specific technology transformations and upgrades required to support these changes, and shares the details of a digital transformation project at Texas A&M's football stadium.  Enjoy!

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

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Kevin Benedict

Writer, Speaker, Senior Analyst

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

View my profile on LinkedIn

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Browse the Mobile Solution Directory

Subscribe to Kevin'sYouTube Channel

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies

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

Kevin Benedict Interviews Digital Transformation Expert Ved Sen

This week I am in Orlando, Florida meeting many of the smartest folks in Cognizant and planning our 2015. While at this event I am taking the time to interview some of our global experts on digital trends and strategies.  This interview is with Ved Sen, Global Head, Advisory Services, Social, Mobile and Sensors at Cognizant.  Enjoy!

Video Link: http://youtu.be/1u5gzIQN-us?list=UUGizQCw2Zbs3eTLwp7icoqw

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Kevin Benedict

Writer, Speaker, Senior Analyst

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

View my profile on LinkedIn

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Browse the Mobile Solution Directory

Subscribe to Kevin'sYouTube Channel

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies

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

Telling the Brand Story with Mobile Applications and Code Halos

Click to Enlarge

"48% of eBay’s transactions globally are now touched by mobile at some point in the transaction." ~ Jonathan Gabbai, Head of International Mobile at eBay

The pace of change in retail today is crazy!  Consumer behaviors are changing as fast as new mobile applications are being released.  I don't envy the role of the IT strategy team or the marketing team in a retail operation today.  The shopping experience is changing monthly.  The way consumers research products and pricing is changing.  Customer expectations are increasing, and customer loyalty is a fleeting goal.  On top of all this, we (the consumer) are quickly finding ways to ignore mobile advertisements.

Juniper Research predicts smartphone and tablet users will make 195 billion mobile commerce transactions by 2019, up from 72 billion in 2014.  That massive increase, represents fewer visits to expensive big box stores for most customers. This trend will most definitely impact retailers' strategies and business models.

In our house, most of our Christmas shopping is completed online! Our dogs (Molli and Nelli) no longer even bark when the delivery man arrives as he is like family now. They only get off their beds long enough to eat the dog biscuits he brings.

Dr. Windsor Holden of Juniper Research predicts a huge jump in the number of transactions made on smartphones and tablets this holiday season alone. “Last year, about 18% of all e-transactions in the U.S. were on mobile phones and tablets. I expect to see a very, very sharp increase … around 30% to 35% of all e-commerce transactions,” he said.

With fewer opportunities to impress customers in their stores, retailers will need to impress through their mobile applications, user experiences and digital storytelling capabilities.   This will elevate the role of mobile application developers as the app is the brand.  This is reminiscent of the transformation in marketing where spending on traditional media moved to online and mobile. The sea-change is upon us.

A recent survey titled B2X Customer Care  (see  attached image) found participants in all countries would rather give up their TVs before their phones. Why?  The phone and tablet are becoming our TVs of choice.  Another data point that shows us how smartphones and tablets are changing our behaviors.

Given the increasing importance of mobile devices, marketers need to quickly understand how to tell their brand and product stories via mobile devices.  The good news is these mobile devices today have incredible story telling abilities.  Donald Miller, the author of multiple New York Times bestsellers (and 212,000 Twitter followers), has recently founded a new consulting firm called StoryBrand  whose purpose is to teach businesses how to combine storytelling skills and processes with emerging technologies.  Let's think about the storytelling tools available on an average smartphone:

1. Customized and hyper-personalized mobile applications that know you and your preferences.
2. Embedded video and music to add dramatic flair, coolness and romance.
3. Mobile apps and embedded sensors to understand your health and physical activity level.
4. Interactive mobile apps that answer questions, provide advice and help you solve problems.
5. Maps and turn-by-turn navigation to lead you to the nearest stores with your brand and style preferences.
6. Mobile apps that know your location and history of activities at particular locations.
7. Mobile payment systems and retail apps that know your transaction histories and buying habits.
8. Mobile apps like Starbucks that know the location of stores you most frequent, your travel history, favorite drinks, volume of drinks, if you order multiple or single drinks (they know if you often order as a single, couple or family), where you likely work (location where you order during business hours).
9. Mobile apps combined with MNO (Mobile Network Operator) data and big data analytics can quickly understand the demographics of where you live, travel and work - your patterns of life.  They can quickly make assumptions of your age, income, educational level, preferences and family size and season of life.

These technologies and the data collected (Code Halos), once analyzed, are golden in the hands of a digital storyteller.  Businesses now need to tell a better digital story, while making the technology disappear into the background.

For more information on Donald Miller's StoryBrand workshops visit http://storybrand.com/.

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Kevin Benedict

Writer, Speaker, Senior Analyst

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

View my profile on LinkedIn

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Browse the Mobile Solution Directory

Subscribe to Kevin'sYouTube Channel

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies

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

Feeling Thankful - Is there an App for That?

Happy Thanksgiving!

I am thankful for mobile apps and social media that let me connect, and stay connected with so many kind people and friends.  Just yesterday my wife and I met up with a high school friend, Marti, we had not seen in 25 years.  I was in a business meeting in downtown Portland, Oregon for several hours, but was able to track their location and meet up with them later in the day via SMS and Google maps on my smartphone. This friendship was reestablished via Facebook.

Today we are meeting another high school friend, Candy, that we had lost contact with for decades, but we are now the closest of friends after connecting again via Facebook.

I record corny video commentaries and interviews with experts that many of you have started watching, but few have finished. This year I have recorded 67 videos (don't view them if you are allergic to corny).  My friends, when trying to bolster my ego call them "authentic," but they are most often corny. When traveling I use my iPhone to film them.  I can record, edit and upload my videos to a YouTube channel all from my iPhone that fits in my pocket.  I can bring you with me on my travels and into discusses with leading mobility experts around the globe.

Social media and mobile technologies has enabled a redneck, Boise, Idaho based, mobility obsessed former dairy farmer to travel to the corners of the earth on a regular basis sharing mobile and digital transformation strategies and research with companies.  This is just crazy to me, and for that I THANK YOU!!!!

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Kevin Benedict

Writer, Speaker, Senior Analyst

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

View my profile on LinkedIn

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Browse the Mobile Solution Directory

Subscribe to Kevin'sYouTube Channel

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies

Recommended Strategy Book Code Halos

Recommended iPad App Code Halos for iPads

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

Insights into the Impact of Big Data, Mobile Apps and Code Halos Strategies on Retail

In this short video series, I interview SmartStory's CEO/Founder Michael Boerner on how they are combining big data, Code Halos, POS systems and mobile applications with storytelling to dramatically change retail.  This is hyper-personalized selling, customer support and cross-selling at its best.  Enjoy!

Part 1 Video Link: http://youtu.be/5bpL5mk2F4Y?list=UUGizQCw2Zbs3eTLwp7icoqw
Part 2 Video Link: http://youtu.be/XkGozGpoBOY?list=UUGizQCw2Zbs3eTLwp7icoqw
Part 3 Video Link: http://youtu.be/En7scBkHk5E?list=UUGizQCw2Zbs3eTLwp7icoqw

Part 1



Part 2



Part 3

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Kevin Benedict

Writer, Speaker, Senior Analyst

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

View my profile on LinkedIn

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Browse the Mobile Solution Directory

Subscribe to Kevin'sYouTube Channel

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies

Recommended Strategy Book Code Halos

Recommended iPad App Code Halos for iPads

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

Big Data Business Models and Code Halo Strategies with SmartStory's CEO Michael Boerner

While many companies talk about someday implementing strategies that will provide competitive advantages and change the world, SmartStory Technologies is delivering.  They combine the use of big data, POS (point of sale) systems, Code Halos strategies, mobile apps and hyper-personalization to deliver customized short-form videos to mobile devices that are specific to the user's needs, at the right time and on the right device.  This technology will change retail.  Especially when complex products and services are involved.

Digital transformation is about recognizing the impact of innovation in your industry, market and business.  It is about understanding how new technologies will transform your business plans and budget priorities.  It is about being bold enough to act and change direction mid-year, or budget cycle.

In this interview with SmartStory's CEO Michael Boerner, we dig deep into how digital transformations are already changing the way retailers interact and support their customers in completely new and innovative ways that will change the competitive landscape forever.

If you sell complex products and services - I strongly suggest you study this video segment and discuss what you are seeing with your strategy team.  Your industry and market will be impacted. Stay tuned for parts 2 and 3 in this series.

Video Link: http://youtu.be/rLlNmW-VmXw?list=UUGizQCw2Zbs3eTLwp7icoqw



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Kevin Benedict

Writer, Speaker, Senior Analyst

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

View my profile on LinkedIn

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Browse the Mobile Solution Directory

Subscribe to Kevin'sYouTube Channel

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies

Recommended Strategy Book Code Halos

Recommended iPad App Code Halos for iPads

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

A Walk Through Boston - Talking about Digital Transformation, Code Halos and Mobility

If there are ever awards given out for people that take shaky, corny and unrehearsed videos of themselves talking about digital transformation, Code Halos and enterprise mobility while walking around Boston - I should be considered.  Grab some popcorn!

Video Link: http://youtu.be/w2ZrHnd0L2o?list=UUGizQCw2Zbs3eTLwp7icoqw

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Kevin Benedict

Writer, Speaker, Senior Analyst

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

View my profile on LinkedIn

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Browse the Mobile Solution Directory

Subscribe to Kevin'sYouTube Channel

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies

Recommended Strategy Book Code Halos

Recommended iPad App Code Halos for iPads

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

10 Steps to Implementing Big Data and Code Halo Strategies

Tactics without strategy are dangerous. ~ Robert Leonhard

In the new book titled Code Halos the authors and Cognizant thought leaders, Malcolm Frank, Paul Roehrig and Benjamin Pring, propose that data is the new competitive arena for businesses.  Winners in this competition are those that can collect, aggregate, analyze and react in real-time to data in a manner that drives improved customer interactions and engagements.

In another recent book titled, Digital Disruption: Unleashing the Next Wave of Innovation, author James McQuivey's writes that competition in business is rapidly moving to a “focus on knowledge of and engagement with customers.” Data is being used to shape and personalize real-time interactions and engagements.  Companies are beginning to understand this.  They understand that "code halos" (people’s digital footprint, the online data about preferences, history, activities, etc.) has great value.  This data is the key to personalizing user experiences across all formats.

Businesses are interacting with their markets in a wide range of new and different formats today including traditional media, websites, mobile apps, call centers and in brick and mortar establishments.  The concept of omni-channel is widely used to mean the ability to interact and engage in real-time with customers and prospects across all of these formats.  The capability to effectively support omni-channel requires a lot of thinking, planning and purposeful design.

Businesses today are responding by developing comprehensive data-driven strategies.  These strategies acknowledge the requirement to better understand the needs, preferences and histories of their prospects and customers, so they can provide personalized and optimized user experiences that lead to more sales and happier and more loyal customers.

How do you implement a Code Halos strategy?  The following are some of the key questions that need to be considered when developing a strategy:

1. What data, if we had it, would help us understand and offer our prospects and customers an enhanced user experience on their smartphones or tablets that would lead to more sales, better customer service and an improved user experience?
2. What are the best and least intrusive ways to collect the data?
3. How do we ensure that data is collected in a manner that is acceptable to our market?
4. How can the data be used to trigger an improved user experience?
5. How do we find business meaning in the collected data?
6. How can aggregating seemingly unrelated data sources lead to useful new discoveries? 
7. How can data from sensors (Internet of Things) add value to our analysis and other data sources?
8. How can public and private databases be aggregated with "patterns of life" analysis and demographic data to discover new consumer insights?
9. How can we collect data in real-time, analyze it and respond quickly enough to be useful in a mobile first world?
10. How can these newly discovered business-meanings impact real-time interactions with prospects, customers, partners and employees?

Finding, collecting, integrating and analyzing a person's "code halo" represent a lot of work for an IT organization.  It takes strategy, budgets, resources and planning.   This is the kind of effort that deserves the full attention of the C suite

The following questions and survey answers (Real-Time Mobile Infrastructure, July 2014) from over eighty participants exposes some of the weak areas that hinder or limit Code Halos implementations:

1. Do you (or your clients') have IT systems that are too slow or incapable of supporting real-time mobile app requirements?  83.9% answered YES.
2. Will your (or your clients') IT environment and back-end systems prevent you from delivering an optimized mobile application experience?  43.2% answered YES.
3. Are your (or your clients') mobile strategies and plans inhibited or limited because of the current IT environment, infrastructure and/or design?  77.7% answered YES.
4. Which components of an end-to-end mobile solution cause the most performance problems (involving mobile apps)?  Here are the top three answers in order of how problematic they are: Back-end systems, Internet connectivity, APIs and integration design and performance.
5. How important will having optimized mobile applications and user experiences be to the future success of your business? 72% answered "very important" to "critical."

Legacy IT infrastructure, architecture and design are preventing companies from optimizing Code Halos strategies today.

Mobile and Code Halos’ strategies are pushing companies to review their IT environments and to analyze how they must change in order to support a mobile first and data driven world that thrives on real-time hyper-personalization of mobile experiences.  The competition is fierce.  Legacy and problematic systems must be updated, upgraded or replaced in order to support the real-time requirements of today’s mobile and always connected world.

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Kevin Benedict

Writer, Speaker, Senior Analyst

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

View my profile on LinkedIn

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Browse the Mobile Solution Directory

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies

Recommended Strategy Book Code Halos

Recommended iPad App Code Halos for iPads

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

Reality Computing, Capturing Reality and Code Halos

3D Scanning

I write and study often on the subject of digital transformation - the digital transformation of industries, markets, products, business models, etc.  In brief, digital transformation is about the impact that collected and analyzed data can have when used to enhance business processes and workflows.  If Amazon knows your preferences for particular books and films based upon captured data, then they can apply analytics to predict related books and films that you may like.  This improves sales.  This is a simple example, but let me tell you what I learned yesterday in sunny and warm San Francisco about more complex applications.

"Digitize the physical world" is the slogan of the Reality Computing team at Autodesk that I met with yesterday.  This team focuses on transforming design processes for physical environments and objects by starting with reality.  What does that mean?  Rather than starting with a blank screen in a 3D modeling app when redesigning a manufacturing floor, use a 3D scanner to capture "reality" as a first step and work from there.  This enables you to start your 3D design process from captured data (reality) so you can design in context.  The context is you have an exact 3D model of your design area before you even start the redesign.

Designing from reality (scanned data) enables you to be more productive and accurate. Designing in context is powerful. You start with an immense collection of data that can render a 3D model of your object or working environment and edit, rather than recreate it from a blank screen.  This data becomes the building, landscape or object's "Code Halo."  The collected data about something.

The "Code Halo" data about a floor plan and layout of a store, can be combined with traffic flow data to analyze and understand how shoppers shop. Where do they walk, stop, learn, research and what do they buy at what time of the time, day, week, month and year.

Capturing reality, is what mobile apps and websites can do with online shopping.  They can capture locations, actions, user preferences, shopping habits, etc.  Entire new business models are being created weekly based on capturing data, analyzing it and using the results to offer improved and hyper-personalized services.

If you are interested in the strategies behind Code Halos and related topics I recommend reading about and considering attendance at the upcoming Cognizant Community conference at the Ritz-Carlton Orlando on October 19-22nd in Orlando,  http://www.cognizant.com/community/home.aspx where these subjects will be the focus of a stellar group of analyst, business leaders and futurists. Here are some of the session descriptions:

Delivering Hyper-Personalization: Adding the Next Layer of Engagement with Social, Mobile and Sensors
Get equipped to evaluate, implement or enhance mobile hyper-personalization technologies and strategies that deliver superior experiences to customers, a smarter workplace for employees and a collaborative environment for partners.

Generating Value from Signal: A Working Session on the Economics of Meaning Making
Find out how a richer understanding of customers, products, employees and partners is reshaping business processes and changing the nature of competition from Paul Roehrig, managing director of Cognizant’s Center for the Future of Work.

Putting the Experience in “Digital Customer Experience”
Hear the latest research about how companies are working to deeply engage and delight customers by reshaping business processes and adding value to their services from Ben Pring, co-director of Cognizant’s Center for the Future of Work.

A Day in the Digital Life
Experience firsthand the power of the Internet of Things, Google Glass, digital marketing and more in this immersive guided tour that brings to life how digital technology and data are transforming daily interactions at home and work as well as entire industries.

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Kevin Benedict

Writer, Speaker, Senior Analyst

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

View my profile on LinkedIn

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Browse the Mobile Solution Directory

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies

Recommended Strategy Book Code Halos

Recommended iPad App Code Halos for iPads

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

Military Revolutions, Code Halos and Enterprise Mobility

Revolution in Commercial Affairs

In the US Army they have a term called "Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA)."  It is often associated with the use of modern data collecting technologies, communications technologies, information analysis and the use of these technologies to improve strategies, doctrines and organizational structures.  The Army believes that in future warfare, the size of the opponent and their platforms [weapons], will be less reflective of military power than the quality of sensors [data collection] systems and mobile communication links and their ability to utilize information to their advantage.

I see a "Revolution in Commercial Affairs" happening today.  The same concepts and strategies learned  in the military have relevance for the enterprise.  Companies that can more effectively use "Code Halos" - the information that surrounds people, organizations, processes and products will be the winners.

What does this mean for your company strategy in 2014?  It means your enterprise must digitally transform and focus on improving its capabilities to:

• Collect information faster
• Communicate information faster
• Analyze and filter information faster
• Report the analysis faster to decision makers
• Strive for the goals of being a "real-time" and "data-driven" enterprise

Mobile technologies play a critical role in this transformation.  However, it is very important we understand mobility is but an enabler of an overall "Code Halos" strategy.  The success of our enterprises over the next few years will largely be the result of how smart we are with the use of information.

There are at least three components required for digital transformation:

1. Technological innovation
2. Operation concepts and Strategies
3. Organizational adaption

It doesn't help much if one person at the top has a good strategy and buys innovative technologies, but the rest of the organization does not understand the concepts behind it, or the role it plays in being more competitive.  Technological innovation needs to be a part of a strategy.  A strategy that changes the way the business operates in a manner that makes it more competitive in the market place.

Every organization needs to understand the seriousness of the Darwinian theory of survival of the fittest. Every employee should be seeking ways to innovate and contribute to making their company as competitive as possible.

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Kevin Benedict

Writer, Speaker, Editor

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

View my profile on LinkedIn

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Browse the Mobile Solution Directory

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies

Recommended Strategy Book Code Halos

Recommended iPad App Code Halos for iPads

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

Mobile Solutions, the Internet of Things, Code Halos and Enterprise Strategies, Part 1

Tactics without strategy are dangerous. ~ Robert Leonhard

If you believe as the authors of the new book Code Halos do, that data is the new competitive arena for businesses, then you will want to develop a strategy in order to compete.  What might that strategy look like?  It may be as simple as, "We believe the better we understand the needs and preferences of our individual prospects and customers, the more convenient and personalized we can make their experiences which leads to happier and more loyal customers that promote our business and help us grow."

Streaming music stations provide us with a useful example of this kind of strategy.  They enable me to personalize my music stations so I conveniently hear what I want, and as a result I listen to it more often.  Amazon Prime knows my family intimately.  They use this knowledge to enhance our shopping experience daily.  Netflix knows our history and preferences and enhances our experience as a result.

Do you have a Code Halos strategy?  Does your competition?  Do the new digital start-ups in your industry?

Let's assume for today - you are convinced there is a need for a Code Halos strategy.  Now let's consider tactics.

1. What data would help you offer your prospects and customers an enhanced user experience on their smartphones or tablets?
2. How can the data be used to enable a more personalized user experience?
3. What is the best way to collect it?
4. How do you ensure the data is collected in an honest and transparent manner with opt-in?
5. How do you find business meaning in the data?
6. How can new and different business meanings be discovered by aggregating seemingly unrelated data sources together?
7. How can data from machines (M2M or the Internet of Things) add value to your other data sources?
8. How can public and private databases be aggregated with "patterns of life" analysis and demographic data to discover new consumer insights?
9. How can I collect data in real-time, analyze it and respond quick enough to be useful in a mobile first world?
10. How can discovered real-time business meaning impact my real-time business tactics when interacting with prospects, customers, partners and employees?

These are just a few discussion starters for your next internal strategy session.  By the way, we (Cognizant's Center for the Future of Work) lead these workshops all the time.  Contact me if your organization would benefit from this discussion.

As identified earlier, one of the first questions to ask yourself is, "What data is useful?"  What data, if you had it, would provide insight that would enable you to provide a better and more personalized user experience?  If knowing your prospect is a male or female enables you to provide a better user experience, then how can you collect that data in an open, transparent and appropriate manner? Sometimes insight can be derived, while other times it just needs to be asked.  If customer X shops only for fashionable clothes popular with young ladies, then there is a pretty good chance the buyer fits that description.

Did you know that mobile phone usage patterns differ between males and females?  With a high degree of accuracy usage patterns can identify the sex of the user.  Also, having preferences for particular kinds of music and artists closely correlates with particular political leanings.  These are examples of derived insight.

Different data collection tactics provide different kinds of insights. Insights can be derived from historic data, or real-time GPS tracking for example.  One is historic, the other is NOW!  LBS (Location based services) and geo-fenced apps can trigger real-time product and services notifications, alerts, advertisements, discounts, etc., relevant to your immediate location.

Historic and real-time analysis may involve different systems, or the data can be combined in real-time to provide even greater business insights.  For example, historic data might provide insight into a "pattern-of-life" that reflects a white collar business commuter, getting off of work at 5 PM every day, picking up the kids from daycare, collecting their dry cleaning, grocery shopping, filling up the Tahoe with gas every 10 days, and getting take-out Chinese food 5 days a week.  Add in real-time LBS data and you can start looking for ways to add convenience and enhance this person's life through personalized products and services at just the right time and place.

Once you have identified the data you need to collect in order to derive business meaning, the next thing to consider is how that data can be used to personalize your user's experience.  What does the collected data trigger that enhances the user's experience?

Stay tuned for Part 2.

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Kevin Benedict

Writer, Speaker, Editor

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

View my profile on LinkedIn

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Browse the Mobile Solution Directory

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies

Recommended Strategy Book Code Halos

Recommended iPad App Code Halos for iPads

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

Mobile Apps, Code Halos, the Sharing Economy and Trustonomics

I love receiving gifts in the form of new insights!  It doesn't matter if others received the same gift years ago and I am just getting it now.  If it is new to me, I get excited.  It is like waking up in the morning and discovering a new room in your house.  I read an article by Thomas Friedman in the New York Times this weekend titled, "And Now for a Bit of Good News."  The subject of the article was the new "sharing economy," think Uber, Lyft, Airbnb, etc.  In the article, Friedman calls Airbnb a "Trust Platform."  To me, this weekend, this term was a gift.  He is so right.

I have used Airbnb many times when traveling with my family, and to date have been very pleased with our experiences.  Often the transactions are sizeable as I am reserving a home in a desirable location for a week.  I am engaging in a transaction of some size with a person I don't know, in a home I have never visited, most often in a foreign country using different currency, involving different laws and customs.  Why did I risk it?  I trusted the platform.

The travel and hospitality industry is experiencing an incredible amount of digital transformation already.  Hotels are competing for best mobile app experience, fastest broadband Internet connections, Apple device support in the rooms, and increasingly they are digitizing and mobilizing the check-in and check-out experiences to improve the user's overall experience and convenience.

Competition amongst business class hotels like Marriott, Hilton, Starwood etc., was traditionally focused around a certain quality of environment, convenience and a standardized experience for the business traveler.  Business travelers trusted the brands to provide them with their expected experience. In business and in travel there is enough inherent chaos.  The business traveler does not want additional chaos from their hotels.  They want a trusted experience.  I am speaking from personal experience.

Business class hotels have built their brands on trust.  They have invested heavily for decades in their "trust" level.  This "trustonomics" or the economic value of trust was substantial and represented a barrier to entry for start-ups.  I can imagine incumbents felt pretty secure in their position of trust and the trustonomics it represented.  Today, however, competing digital "trust" platforms are emerging.  The reputations that took incumbents decades and hundreds of millions to establish can be challenged by digital "trust" platforms seemingly overnight.

The trustonomics model in the travel and hospitality industry is changing all around us.  It will be interesting to watch how the incumbents respond.  Will they get defensive and attempt to minimize up-and-coming digital "trust platforms," or attempt to delay them through political lobbying and legal restrictions, or choose to respond with their own digital "trust platforms."

I wonder how much economic value "trust" really represents?  Although Airbnb is not targeting the hardcore business traveler today, the sharing economy and emerging digital "trust" platforms represents a major shift in the economic value of "trust" in this industry.  As both companies and consumers more effectively use data or "Code Halos" to build trust in each other, even more digital transformations will be expected.

Are there other industries where start-up "trust platforms" and effective "Code Halos" strategies will digitally transform the market and introduce a different trustonomics model?

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Kevin Benedict

Writer, Speaker, Editor

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

View my profile on LinkedIn

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Browse the Mobile Solution Directory

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies

Recommended Strategy Book Code Halos

Recommended iPad App Code Halos for iPads

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