Smart Machines, Code Halos and Digital Transformation

I am excited to share a guest blog article today from my colleague Rob Brown who works at The Center for the Future of Work at Cognizant.  In this article he shares his insights on the future of smart machines, analytics and code halos.

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Gartner’s Tom Austin presented a webinar titled “The Emerging Era of Smart Machines Changes Everything” recently (www.gartner.com).  The scenario he paints canvasses where automation and robotics will be taking business processes – not to mention society and employment – in relatively short order.  

As we've been saying – seemingly forever – in this industry, efficiency gains through automation are fundamental to the future of Business Process Services (where “the platform becomes the process”, etc.).  But the explosive information yield against complex algorithms (“Analytics”) that comes from automation are where the REAL action and value lie; as a result, analytics is now the biggest buzzword in the IT services industry, for better or worse.

In so many respects, Gartner’s Smart Machines scenario harmonizes perfectly with our Cognizant Code Halos thinking, and I especially like its exploration of the marriage of automation and analytics (“Smart Machines”: can be platforms, devices, and literally anthropomorphic, C3PO-type robots).    Collectively, Gartner’s work segments flavors of automation into “Movers” (autonomous vehicles, like the Google Car), “Sages” (information-based helpers), and “Doers” (machine-focused helpers).  Cutting edge endeavors like Google Deep Neural Net, IBM’s Watson, and Microsoft’s Research Elevator showcase where the confluence of automation/ analytics are headed.

Why is this happening now?  Gartner notes these forces are accelerating due to better hardware and algorithms.  As an example, Gartner cites the thinking of Ted Horvitz’s work in Artificial Intelligence here, in aerospace, healthcare, and learning (via TedTalks) here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpoVh9xwdD4.

In our Code Halos work, we’re also emphasizing both these attributes (automation to “make processes cheaper, make processes smarter”), but also highlighting UX and interfaces, e.g., “make processes beautiful”.    It is in the mix of these forces that makes Code Halos (and “Smart Machines”) resonate so powerfully.  Layering analytics and “meaning making” on top of the resulting data is where the future lies.

What are the consequences?  What really struck a chord for me was some of the data that Tom presented on the impact on employment as business processes and functions are disrupted.  The “dark side” view is presented in the form of Frey and Osborne’s work at Oxford (Per Frey and Osborne: “About 47% of total U.S. employment is at risk over the next decade or two”).

Arresting to be sure – but is it time to prepare for the Human Zoo just yet?

Per Gartner, what Frey and Osborne’s work doesn’t take into account is that net-new jobs will be created as a result of these trends, and also that current jobs of today will actually be enhanced by the transformation automation through technology brings (in keeping with the “Song of Hope” theme we see in work on Code Halos).   While Gartner’s models DO see a scenario of ~17 percent of “routine”, repeatable tasks being truly disrupted by 2020, they also show that 49% of jobs are patently unaffected, and the remainder actually being ENHANCED by the confluence of automation and analytics.   So, lots to think about there – especially how routine, repeatable business processes will be transformed.

So what’s next? In the short-term, Tom advises keeping on the lookout/engaging with Digital Personal Assistants in the next 2-3 years.  In doing so, he also recommended reviewing a rather compelling video from Apple on the subject, circa early 1990s, showing just how far we’ve come, and still have to go... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bjve67p33E

Robert H. Brown
Global Director, BPS Strategy
Cognizant Center for the Future of Work

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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

***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.

Mindset - Strategic Enterprise Mobility and Code Halos

Mindset  - a set of assumptions, methods, or notations held by groups of people that is so established that it creates a powerful incentive within these people or groups to continue to accept prior behaviors, choices, or tools. ~ Wikipedia

More photos are being taken than ever before, but Kodak went bankrupt.  More movies are being watched than ever before but Blockbuster went bankrupt.  More books are being purchased than ever before, but Borders went bankrupt.  Why is Pandora and Spotify so popular?  Why are Google Search Advertising, LinkedIn and Facebook making so much money on advertising when the traditional media and publishing companies struggle?

Kodak had the opportunity to compete in digital photography, digital photo apps and Instagram type social networking sites - but they didn't.  Why?  It's a mindset thing.

Blockbuster had the opportunity to compete in video rentals online, streaming movies/TV shows and setting up social sharing sites like Vimeo, Vine, YouTube, etc. - but they didn't.  Why?  It's a mindset thing.

Blackberry couldn't imagine that users would prefer a larger screen to a physical keyboard.  They thought mobile devices should be reserved for work.  They couldn't imagine a mobile device as a computer or as an entertainment center.  They couldn't wrap their heads around the idea that people would want to browse the Internet using a mobile device.  Why?  It's a mindset thing.

The term Code Halos refers to another mindset.  Here is a definition from my colleagues at The Center for the Future of Work, "Today’s outliers in revenue growth and value creation are winning with a new set of rules. They are dominating by managing the information that surrounds people, organizations, processes and products — what we call Code Halos™."  Did you catch that?  They are dominating by "managing the information that surrounds people, organizations, processes and products."  This is the revenge of the data scientists!

Let's talk about Google.  Google has a very simple UI (user interface), but behind the scenes they are geniuses when it comes to managing the information that surrounds people, organizations, processes and products.  Pandora gives us great music, that we want to listen to, based on information that surrounds us.  Amazon recommends books and movies based upon information that surrounds us and products we have chosen in the past.  They give us an amazingly simple one-click purchasing processes and free shipping based on membership and account information about us.  This experience is addicting.

Google also treats by blog articles differently.  A person new to blogging could copy a blog article of mine and post it on their site.  It would not, however, be treated the same by Google.  Google knows I started blogging in 2006, have over 2,700 articles published mostly on the topics of enterprise mobility and digital transformation and close to 4 million page views in the past 5 years.  They give me a higher "Author Ranking" than a new blogger.  They use all of their collected information to build algorithms to find meaning-making through all the noise on the Internet.  They want to provide the best search results possible for their users.

I get treated differently by Delta, Hertz and Marriott based upon my loyalty, frequent use and past business with them.  I am spoiled and will do silly things to maintain this treatment.  They treat me different, not because of me, but because of the information about me.

In today's world, successful companies will use mobile apps, websites, big data analysis, the Internet of Things and other kinds of GPS tracking solutions, videos, photos, historic preferences and social networking information as sensors to collect information, analyze and find meaning.  Meaning-making is how companies learn how to attract you, keep you and treat you right.

I read an article yesterday, http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/02/when-you-fall-in-love-this-is-what-facebook-sees/283865/, that describes how Facebook can recognize relationship patterns of people falling in love and entering a serious relationship.  It was an article capitalizing on Valentine's Day sensitivities.  They can then target particular ads that align with these patterns.  That might seem a big creepy, but when companies do this in the right manner, it just seems thoughtful.  For example, when I land at a connecting airport and turn my iPhone on, I appreciate the Delta app telling me the terminal and gate location of my next flight.  It understands I am traveling, my location, my scheduled flights and gives me context aware information.  It uses the sensors (GPS), my activities, my schedule and my reservation to assist me.  That is a winning formula.

Is your company adopting a "Code Halo" mindset?

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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

***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: Jitin Agarwal on Managing Digital Assets and Code Halos

Mobility is forcing companies to rethink just about every part of their business.  Product catalogs are becoming mobile apps.  Marketing brochures are becoming videos, PDFs, email messages or mobile apps.  Maps now are apps. Books, music, videos and paper envelopes with letters in them are all digital today! Much of the physical is being transformed into digital, and then sent to mobile devices these days.  How effective is your company at keeping up with these transformations?  How do you effectively manage the massive amount of digital assets that are being created by your company monthly?  How do you ensure digital brand integrity?  How do you update your marketing and informational collateral worldwide in a digital world?

Information based industries like financial services, banks, education, healthcare and many others are finding their worlds are being turned upside down as a result of digital transformation.  Because of this chaos (and fun), I reached out to a colleague of mine Jitin Agarwal, Venture Leader at Cognizant to learn his thoughts on these changes and what his venture is doing to help manage this digital transformation.  Enjoy!

Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnnG0ktnEAY&feature=share&list=UUGizQCw2Zbs3eTLwp7icoqw

ATTENTION!  Jitin Agarwal (the Venture Leader I interviewed above) is hosting a lunch and learn in Santa Clara, CA on February 27th from 12-2 PM on the subject of Beyond Digital Asset Management: An IT Roadmap for Next Generation Digital Marketing.  Forrester Analyst Anjali Yakkundi will be sharing from her research there as well. If you would like to attend, here are more details - http://app.certain.com/profile/web/index.cfm?PKWebId=0x5873675f2e.

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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

***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.

My Themes in 2014 are Real-Time, Speed and Insight

I spend most of my time researching, writing and speaking on enterprise mobility, the IoT and digital transformation.  All of these discussions are related to the concept of Code Halos.  Code Halos (see video) are digital profiles of people, places, things, organizations, etc.  They are all the digital data about something that can be collected, and analyzed together with time and place to provide insight. Insight into more effective customer engagement models, more effective business processes, more effective product development strategies, etc.

Code Halos can effectively support predictive analytics.  The Code Halo around an account helps you make predictions about future engagements and interactions.  When particular events happen (customer requests a service ticket) and you reach a certain step in a business process (service tech scheduled), plus your location and calendar data all suggest you are going to a particular customer that owns a particular piece of equipment then the context of your actions can accurately be determined and this information can be used to predict your future needs.

Once the context of an action is known, all kinds of things can be programmed to happen automatically.  Warranty information and product manuals can be downloaded to a mobile device.  The location of the customer and the equipment needed to be serviced can be identified.  The customer can be automatically notified as the service tech nears.  This is just the start.

Some of the themes I am focused on in 2014 are real-time, speed and insight.  If you are busy, multi-tasking and mobile - you will benefit from predictive business apps that are context aware, programmed to take advantage of Code Halos and offer you enormous value.  Here lies the challenge.  In order to capture this value, you need both mobile and back-office IT infrastructure capable of supporting the speeds of a moving, mobile user.  Time, location, actions and events are ever-changing and happening all around you.  How do you capture this information, analyze it and predict next steps and future needs?  That is not easy and will, for many companies, involve a lot of updating and replacing of slow, siloed systems.

For more on this subject register for the upcoming Forrester and ClickSoftware webinar here http://go.clicksoftware.com/Forrester-ClickSoftware-Webinar-Registration.html.

Webinar: Beyond Big Buzzwords - Predictive Business Apps
Date: February 11th
Time: 11:00am EST/16.00pm GMT
Speakers: Michael Gualtieri, Principal Analyst at Forrester Research and Katelyn Burrill, Product Marketing Manager at ClickSoftware

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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

***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, 3D Laser Scanning of Assets, Mobile Devices and Field Services

It this short video I share more on the merging of the physical world with the digital and how that is impacting industries, markets and businesses in many different areas.  Learn about 3D Laser Scanning to create digital representations of physical objects to improve field services and asset management.  Enjoy!

Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFKfsE28Lms&feature=share&list=UUGizQCw2Zbs3eTLwp7icoqw

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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

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

Merging the Physical with the Digital for Optimized Productivity

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

Figure 1

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

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

Figure 2

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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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

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

Thinking about Enterprise Mobility, Digital Transformation and Doctrine

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

An enterprise doctrine may include clear statements like:

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

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

View my profile on LinkedIn

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Browse the Mobile Solution Directory

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

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

The Race for Sensors to Supply Big Data and Enterprise Mobility

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

View Linkedin Profile

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

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

Code Halos, Big Data and SMAC

In this short video you can quickly learn how companies use collected data (code halos) to provide you with a customized version of your mobile or Internet experience.

Video Links: http://youtu.be/Kr_Q8rtSGic


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

View Linkedin Profile

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

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

The Industrial Internet and SMAC - Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud

The Industrial Internet refers to the world of connected sensors on people, equipment, machines, parts, assets, vehicles, inventory, etc.  These items are connected by embedded wireless chips that monitor sensors and wirelessly send data to a server somewhere in the world.  Here is an example of how one of the largest companies in the world is utilizing the industrial Internet.

Every major part of a GE jet engine, locomotive or turbine is equipped with wireless sensors that continuously measure and wirelessly send every aspect of performance to a central server that is often in the cloud. As the data is received by the server, it is analyzed by big data analytical solutions and the results are used to improve everything from the flight path to energy efficiency.

This same kind of Industrial Internet platform could also be used to monitor and improve the health of large populations of people as well.  I think immediately of the elderly, those with chronic diseases, those recuperating from any kind of health issue.  If they can be monitored and cared for while staying at home, that is a far more comfortable and less expensive place to stay for many.  I can foresee a time when we will subscribe our elderly parents to a full time health monitoring plan.  Our elderly parents will wear a bracelet that contains a large number of sensors that monitor a spectrum of things from location to activity levels, temperature, pulse, heart rate, etc.

The industrial Internet will result in massive amounts of new data being added to wireless networks.  MNOs (mobile network operators) make less money supporting a small embedded wireless chip in a piece of equipment than adding a new iPhone customer, but the embedded wireless sensor chip is unlikely to change carriers, call a support center, or dispute an international call; so although the embedded wireless chip is not as profitable as a smartphone customer, the cost of sales and support are far lower.  This area is considered one of the major growth areas for mobile network operators and is currently being heavily promoted by MNOs.

In the enterprise, the ability to know about your operational area is critical.  If you are managing a fleet, it is important to know where they are, which vehicles need new tires, oil changes and other maintenance.  It is important to know and plan for how much money you need to spend each month/year on maintenance and replacement costs.  If you know the location of your fleet, you are better able to provide least cost routing, improve scheduling, avoid traffic and weather hazards and improve overall profitability.  The industrial Internet connects managers with real data, in real-time.  The Industrial Internet proves that knowledge is power.

What is the connection of the Industrial Internet to SMAC (social, mobile, analytics and cloud)?  Let's consider the description above of how GE is using the Industrial Internet.  Every major part of a GE manufactured jet engine has a wireless sensor.  These sensors are continuously sending data to a server.  Many of those major parts are manufactured by third parties - contract manufacturers.  When strange data starts coming in from several parts - I can image there is an immediate need to analyze, communicate and collaborate among many different teams.  As many of your smartest key people are mobile and traveling, you will need mobile communications and the ability to review shared data (a good use case for a cloud-based collaboration environment).

The Industrial Internet has the ability to transform working environments, strategies, industries, processes and methodologies in big ways, just like mobile devices have changed entire businesses, industries and processes.  These two trends are not separate. They build off each other, and because of this the changes and transformations introduced will not be linear.  They will introduce exponential change at a pace most are not equipped to handle.

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

View Linkedin Profile

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

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

What Do All these SMAC Developments Mean?

The research team at Cognizant has come up with some interesting numbers related to SMAC (social, mobile, analytics and cloud) for us all to ponder:

• 37% of all media consumption in the U.S. in 2012 was via a mobile device
• 3 out of 5 searches are done through mobile devices
• Data production will be 44 times greater in 2020 than it was in 2009

What do you think these numbers mean for enterprises today and tomorrow?

Opinion:

I see digital transformation spinning off many different business trends and technology waves.  Consumers want to consume media on mobile devices. This in turn drives tablet sales, as most media is easier to view on tablets.  Tablets and other mobile devices encourage and promote the digitization of customer engagements and produce more data (code halos) that enables new business models to emerge based on a strategic use of big data analytics tied to marketing and commerce platforms.

The more data and commerce that flows through mobile devices, the more companies focus on mobile marketing and sales channels.  I see no end to the popularity of mobile devices, so this trend is guaranteed to continue.  The question for us now is how this will impact traditional sales and marketing channels and strategies.

Real-time communications and data exchanges on mobile devices, drives the desire for all kinds of additional real-time interactions including collaboration, and commerce.  This in turn requires businesses to transform themselves and re-engineer their businesses to support real-time interactions and engagements.

The competition will quickly move beyond just supporting mobile devices, and re-engineering for real-time commerce and services, to personalizing engagements and enabling context-aware applications and devices (think health and fitness) and Pandora's, Netflix's and Amazon.com's ability to recommend items based on the data they have collected on you.  This same context aware capability will quickly spread into the enterprise where mobile applications will understand you, your role, your task, your location and support your needs without being asked.  There is a lot of work to be done here.  ClickSoftware, as an example, has created context aware mobile applications for field services.  You can read and watch a short video on their ClickButler here.

Another emerging trend is the convergence of mobile and wireless data whether it is from a mobile device or an embedded wireless sensor in your car, home appliance, home security system, oil pipeline, city bus or manufacturing assembly line.  These sensors will quickly be in everything, producing massive quantities of data begging to be used in clever applications for both personal and enterprise purposes.

Recommendation:

I am not reporting anything new here.  This is all happening now. We all see it. Enterprises need to be evaluating their entire "information logistics" systems today to understand where they have problems supporting mobile and real-time environments.  They need to replace any systems that cannot support this quickly emerging world.  They also need to secure this new wireless world and their data from bad guys.

Real-time environments require different management practices.  Companies will need to re-train managers and executives on how to work with real-time data and business intelligence so as not to suffer from decision-making paralysis.  New decision-making tools and methods will need to be employed.  In addition, new business strategies, business models, management techniques, customer service and engagement paradigms all need to be re-thought in this fast moving, mobile and real-time age.

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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

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

SMAC, Code Halos and the Good, Bad and Ugly of Tracking Data

As a SMAC (social, mobile, analytics and cloud) Analyst, I spend my days researching, writing and presenting ideas to companies and audiences.  One of the most important subjects these days is how to develop and implement the best possible information logistics systems.  That means utilizing and processing collected data in the most advantageous and efficient manner possible to further the ambitions of the business.  That goal is perfectly understandable for a business - collecting business data and transactional data is expected, but when it is your personal data (Code Halos) that is being collected we often feel differently.  For example, I love having my TripIt, Marriott and Delta mobile apps know about me, my preferences and my past, present and future travels, but I don't want that information shared with other vendors (or home burglars) without my permission.

In this article, my colleague Ben Pring, Co-Director of the Center for the Future of Work at Cognizant is kind enough to address the good and bad of having your data (Code Halos) aggregated and tracked online.  I have included two embedded videos - first, a video interview that I filmed with Paul Roehrig and Ben Pring on the concepts of Code Halos, and a second far more professional clip on the role of Code Halos in our everyday life.

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The response to our articles around Code Halo-thinking is overwhelmingly positive.   I and my co-authors, Malcolm Frank and Paul Roehrig, have spoken at dozens of client and industry events and engaged in numerous post-presentation discussions with a wide array of  senior IT and business leaders who when presented with  the Code Halo idea and follow us through our Crossroads Model tell us of  the opportunities Code Halo-thinking offers (including the risks of “extinction events”) are very real in their industry or market.  For  example, the narrative resonated with a major soft drink manufacturer that saw a new way to think about the social network around its soft drink; with an international airline which is beginning to socialize and internalize the new metaphor of a Code Halo to rethink how it moves customers from point A to point B; and with a leading financial services institution that admitted it was  only too aware of the “ionization” happening all around it as new ideas from start-ups begin to change the competitive dynamics the company faces.

Video Link: http://youtu.be/ctycYs18dyk

The second major reaction though – which may or may not surprise you, if you’ve read any of the previous pieces here, is that many people immediately internalize the Code Halo story and find “the dark side of the Halo.” Rather than focusing on the positive transformational commercial opportunities Code Halos  present, they land on the dystopian, Orwellian world of constant surveillance by Big (and little) Brother that Messer’s Assange, Manning and Snowden have brought to the fore in recent weeks, months and years.

Typically we hear a torrent of worst-case scenarios. “I don’t want to share my information with retailer x”, “I don’t want the government to have even more information on me that they do already”, “this is just going to make hackers’ lives easier”, “I get bombarded by enough advertising already; this is just going to make it even worse”, “I don’t want to live in 1984”, “I am not a number”, “how can I control who knows things about me”, “this is the final nail in the coffin of privacy”, “these ideas will never take off.”

The prism that people have is perfectly understandable.  Their concerns and fears are, of course, entirely valid and understandable. We share many of them. As digital immigrants ourselves we are at times as dazed and confused as any set of middle aged men by the emergent and volatile social mores of the new world and have to fight back the temptation to wallow in nostalgic revelries of how “this wasn’t the way we used to do it back in the day/old country.”

The grand experiment that we are all engaged in – creating a world of unprecedented hyper-connectivity of time, space, and culture - which the Code Halo phenomena is supercharging, is, by its very nature, unknowable and logically contains good things and bad.  Lots of good things are going to happen in a world of Code Halos, as are lots of bad things.

In short, we have no intention to deny that bad things will happen as a result of code meeting code. We fully expect they will. There is a very real dark side of the halo. All of the worst-case scenarios with which we are presented will happen, and are happening now.  People will get hacked. Government intrusion will grow. Advertisers will create new ways to embed advertising into every nook and cranny of our lives through every IP addressable form factor we use. Privacy will recede. The nefarious will have new opportunities to hurt us. Many innovations enabled by Code Halos will have unexpected consequences which will compound over time to produce unanticipated negative outcomes.  And yet we firmly believe these fears, concerns and objections are overblown, irrelevant or moot. Every objection is entirely the same objection that people raised as Al Gore’s Information Superhighway was entering the public consciousness in the middle of the 1990s; “I’ll never put my credit details onto the web,” Average Joe said in 1996; now Joe is routinely spending thousands of dollars online.

Video Link: http://youtu.be/XYwiDJ7UWHo

The Internet has been a crime scene in the last 20 years -- repeatedly. And it still is. And it always will be. But, today the Internet has 634 million websites and 2.4 billion users, according to uptime monitoring company, Royal Pingdom, and is here to stay. Nobody is going to un-invent it.

In 2013 so much of our lives are already online – shared, visible, transparent, open, all proffered voluntarily through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, et al, or less voluntarily via our credit score, phone records, movements, and key strokes that the government can impound without warrant -- that privacy is already an illusion, hackers already hack, advertisers can already advertise within our email, pharmacies already send our 16-year-old daughters coupons for diapers when neither they nor we knew they were pregnant; we are numbers, we are code.

The world that we are describing is already here. The Code Halo era is not imminent. It is now.

Just as the upside of the Internet has won over the downside we believe the upside of a Code Halo world will win over its downsides. The “give to get” ratio of the Code Halo world will be so positive that, in the same way that the cost and convenience of Internet era 1.0 triumphed over its doubters, the new Internet era of Code Halos will similarly see it detractor’s voices diminish and disappear.  

And one last thought; the ultimate value of Code Halos will originate out of the openness of data that is shared and this, of course, will mandate good behavior and accountability.  Just as lousy service that once went unpunished is now broadcast on social media with sometimes devastating impact, individuals or corporations that misuse or exploit information exchanged via Code Halos will struggle to enrich and inflate their Code Halo and to generate commercially material sparks. Bad Code Halo behavior will exist in a world of instant high visibility and will push some towards their extinction event. 

Thoughts?  

For more information on these concepts please visit www.unevenlydistributed.com.

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

View Linkedin Profile

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

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

Mobile Expert Video Series: Damien Moriarty

I am in Sydney, Australia speaking at the Cognizant Community Sydney 2013 conference and meeting with companies and SMAC (social, mobile, analytics and cloud) experts this week.  In this short video, I interview veteran mobility expert and International Delivery Manager for Retriever Communications, Damien Moriarty about how their roots in industrial grade mobility give them a unique approach to mobility.

Keep your ears open for the unique way Australian children's voices can carry throughout an entire hotel.

Video Link: http://youtu.be/jB32iQC9Etc

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

View Linkedin Profile

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

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

Digital Transformations - The Crossroads Model: Winning with Code Halos

Books and Reviews

Three of my colleagues here at Cognizant, Malcolm Frank, Paul Roehrig and Ben Pring, are writing a new book on the subjects of SMAC (social, mobile, analytics and cloud), digital and business transformations, and successful strategies for navigating through them.  The concepts in this book resonate with me.  I see enterprise mobility and B2C mobile app strategies as key components.  In this article, we get a sneak preview from the book.  

Several weeks ago we outlined the concept  of “Code Halos™” – aka our digital fingerprint – and discussed how   “personal” Code Halos are migrating into enterprise computing. We also analyzed the areas in which “organizational” Code Halos are changing what businesses do and how they do it.

In this post we advocate how Code Halos create a repeatable pattern of disruption across a wide range of industries; by studying this pattern we have developed a business model – the Crossroads Model™ – to help business and technology leaders understand the impact Code Halos have on winning and losing in today’s fast digitizing global markets. We also provide a “playbook” for executives to win in the new “code rush” and avoid the “extinction events” that so many once great corporations, from Kodak to Newsweek, have experienced in recent years.

A New Prism for Understanding Digital Disruption Has Emerged 

In studying the rise and impact of Code Halos, we’ve recognize that vast industry transformations – and the resulting violent value migrations – in books, movie rentals, mobile phones, insurance, consumer goods, newspapers and travel services have all followed a similar pattern. This pattern is what we call the Crossroads Model. As companies and industries have experienced events explained by the Crossroads Model, three key events have occurred.

• The winners built Code Halos at an “atomic” level — oriented around people, processes, products and organizations — to create new value and experiences. The losers largely ignored the possibilities of deriving meaning from data, customer intimacy and the value of code, and instead continued to work on creating economic value primarily through the leverage of physical assets.
• Once Code Halos formed and grew in value with more data, they led to industry transformations that followed a very consistent pattern. Each industry shift has particular distinctions — whether in timing or the formation of particular Code Halos — but in each case, roughly 80% of the same model has remained consistent.
• The shift happened quickly. Once these trends were underway, the industry landscape shifted very quickly; there was almost no way back for companies that overlooked opportunities leading up to their particular Crossroads decision.

The Crossroads Model consists of five key stages:

• Ionization: A fertile context for innovation. The combination of changing economic pressures, enhanced customer expecta¬tions and new technologies creates a context and environment for the establishment of Code Halos and related new business models.
• The Spark: Where Code Halos collide and business changes. Once Code Halos emerge, associated algorithms are then developed. New ideas and offerings are then formed, based on the intersection of Code Halos. An innovative “Spark” then quickly reshapes processes inside the enterprise, as well as at the customer interface.
• Enrichment: Turning a Spark into a blaze. This is the period where Code Halos — if created and managed correctly — grow in both the numbers of users and the value of data by orders of magnitude, giving rise to new products, processes and models for value creation.
• The Crossroads: Where markets flip. This is a compressed period of time — often between one and three years — where industry leadership shifts. At the Crossroads, Code Halos have reached critical mass and are creating new customer expectations and economic models. This drives a rapid, sometimes violent, swing in reputation, revenue and market value.
• The New Code Rush (or Extinction Event). No going back. After the Crossroads, companies have two widely divergent paths, with significant momentum (both positive and negative) that is extremely difficult to reverse.

The Crossroads Model — Ionization, Spark, Enrichment and the Crossroads — has played out in a dozen-plus major industries, and we believe it will play out in many others in the coming years. . For example, upon Amazon’s IPO in 1997 — in spite of the lofty valuation that the consumer e-commerce pioneer achieved amid the Internet bubble and its resulting over-inflation of value — Borders and Barnes & Noble were collectively eight times the value of the online retail giant, with roughly 50 times the revenue and 100 times the customer base. As Amazon quickly enriched its understanding of Code Halos, consumer e-commerce entered the Crossroads in 2002. By 2005, Amazon was worth twice as much as Borders and Barnes & Noble combined, and had equaled both retailers’ customer count (in similar markets such as book, movie and music retailing) and associated revenues. Just five years later, Amazon was worth 100 times more than Borders and Barnes & Noble combined, and had driven Borders to bankruptcy. Barnes & Nobles’ struggles, meanwhile, recently deepened amid the sudden resignation of its CEO (who championed its underperforming Nook e-book reader) and word that the company is pursuing a radical restructuring.

In this period of generational transformative change more and more leaders concur: They see enormous opportunities for organizations that get Code Halos right (Apple, Google, GE, Disney, etc.); and feel pain for those whose leaders get it wrong (Borders, HMV, Blockbuster, etc.).Organizations that optimize their Code Halos across all dimensions and permutations will more effectively negotiate the Crossroads divide, heading onward and upward toward market prosperity. 

Read more about Code Halos and the rules for successfully managing the Crossroads at www.unevenlydistributed.com.

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

View Linkedin Profile

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

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

Kevin Benedict on Enterprise Collaboration and Business Transformation

I am in Australia this week speaking SMAC (social, mobile, analytics and cloud) and meeting with companies to discuss their strategies.  In this short video, filmed on the beautiful beach in Manly, Australia, I share on enterprise collaboration strategies.

Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fofJ4FhAbMc&feature=share&list=UUGizQCw2Zbs3eTLwp7icoqw

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

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

View Linkedin Profile

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

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

Personal SMAC Strategies in Action!!

I took inventory of my personal SMAC (social, mobile, analytics and cloud) environment this morning while sitting in a coffee shop next to the Boise river.  On Tuesday I recorded and published my first Google+ Hangout On Air.  I interviewed mobility expert Bob Egan using our MacBook Pro video cameras and Hangout On Air, YouTube streamed it live and then automatically posted the recorded version to my YouTube channel.  Wow!  Implementing SMAC strategies, even at the micro-level, is empowering!

Boise foothills

I am reading a book on military strategies now called Maneuver.  In this book it identifies "force projection" as one of the benefits of workforce mobility and maneuvering.  Force projection means the ability to extend one's influence over great distances.  This is often enabled through the strategic use of high tech assets.  I would add to that personal SMAC assets.

While sitting in my office in beautiful Boise, Idaho, I used a social platform, Google+, their social collaboration and web conferencing platform Hangout, plus its integration with YouTube (Hangout On Air) to stream live all around the globe.  The cost of all these capabilities - free!

That is cost effective "force projection" from Boise and Cape Cod.  Bob and I were able to share our experiences worldwide using cloud based tools.  These tools are all connected to Google Analytics, Blogger Analytics, YouTube Analytics, etc.  Google+, Hangout, YouTube and Blogger all have mobile apps.  Our work was all mobilized without any effort on our part.  These kinds of tools allow even the smallest businesses to expand and project their force/influence globally.

I am spending much of my time these days discussing mobile and SMAC strategies with business leaders.  If I, sitting in my little office in Boise, Idaho, can benefit from SMAC strategies, just think how large multinational companies can!

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

View Linkedin Profile

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

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