Kevin Benedict is a TCS futurist and lecturer focused on the signals and foresight that emerge as society, geopolitics, economies, science, technology, environment, and philosophy converge.
Showing posts with label cognizant technology services. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cognizant technology services. Show all posts
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!
***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.
I have been involved in enterprise mobility for many years, and have watched enthusiastically as mobility has evolved into a massive technological, societal and cultural force. I have witnessed mobility changing entire industries and driving growth. I have studied the impact of mobility on companies and productivity. I now wonder at what point are mobile solutions so important to a business that companies cannot afford to support a BYOD strategy.
This morning I was reading a new detailed whitepaper on BYOD titled "Making BYOD Work for Your Organization." The paper is very thorough and identifies what companies should be considering, but I can't help thinking BYOD is complex, difficult to management and expensive to support. I wonder if BYOD is really as beneficial as many claim. I wonder if all the added complexity, governance and risk is actually factored into ROIs around BYOD. I read one report last year that claimed BYOD was much more expensive to support than company liable devices.
What do you think? Have you tried both and tracked the costs? If so, I would love to hear from you.
I have also been pondering the changing role of mobile solutions in companies. Mobile solutions have evolved into mission critical solutions. Solutions that businesses require to complete day to day tasks. Are businesses OK with letting these mission critical processes and solutions be run on a device of their employees' choosing? What if the mobile device breaks and the employee has not budgeted to replace it, so they don't? Can companies require their employees to replace a BYOD device so they can continue to be productive? At what point do employees' decisions negatively impact customer service and productivity?
It seems to me that as mobile devices become required tools for productivity, the business must take more steps to ensure the process and solutions work. There are also considerations around achieving economies of scale in the app development process and support of mobile devices. There need to be standards of some sort to maximize efficiencies.
Here is a silly scenario I would invite you to consider. An automobile manufacture decides to allow employees to bring their own tools to the assembly line. The manufacture argues their employees would be happier to bring their favorite tools from home. As a result there are thousands of different tools on the factory floor, some of better quality than others. Some tools work well, others don't. Soon tools are breaking, getting lost and needing replaced. Each time a tool has a problem it impacts the production of automobiles. Sometimes an employee does not have the money to replace their tools when they break. The assembly line stops.
At some point, perhaps now, mobile solutions are as important to a business as the right tools on an assembly line. When must a business step in to ensure maximum productivity around mobile devices?
I think BYOD is often promoted by MDM/MAM (mobile device management or mobile application management) vendors as a justification for buying their solutions. Not a bad approach, but again I wonder if the BYOD trend is actually in the best interest of most businesses.
I think if a company embraces a BYOD strategy, then they should look to simplify mobile apps and standardize on HTML5, so they can easily support the maximum number of mobile devices. If a company chooses both native app development and a BYOD strategy, they risk being buried in an avalanche of complexity.
Mobility is powerful and supports efficiencies and productivity gains. Mobile solutions support social and collaborative business processes in real time. These benefits are massive. I would encourage companies not to delay receiving these benefits by making the support of mobility more difficult that it needs to be.
I want to hear your opinions on BYOD. What do you think? Please comment!!!
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Kevin Benedict,
Head Analyst for Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC)
Cognizant
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.
In this interview from my Mobile World Congress 2013 Interview series with SAP's Vishy Gopalakrishnan, Vice President, Global Center of Excellence - Mobile Solutions, we discuss the integration of social with mobile, enterprise systems and processes. Grab some popcorn!
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.
This mobile expert interview recorded in Barcelona at the Mobile World Congress 2013 is particularly insightful. SAP's VP Global Center of Excellence - Mobile Solutions, Vishy Gopalakrishnan shares his views on enterprise mobility trends in this segment. There will be several more segments with Vishy to follow. Grab some popcorn!
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.
In Part 2 of this segment I have the privilege of interviewing mobility expert Florian Ganz on enterprise mobility trends and developments around the SAP Mobile Platform.. I have known Florian for many years and he has implemented many large enterprise mobility solutions, and as a result, has much wisdom to share. Grab some popcorn!
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.
M2M and the Internet of Things were central topics at the Mobile World Congress 2013. SAP was showing off several demonstrations on how machine data, wirelessly sent to SAP, could be analyzed in real-time using SAP Hana. In this interview, M2M expert and ILS Technology CEO Fred Yentz discusses the concept of "Sensor-to-CIO." Grab some popcorn!
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.
Have you ever wished that you didn't get so many emails? If email wasn't used, then how would you communicate? In this interview with mobility expert Florian Ganz, he describes how his company transitioned to an email-less company. Grab some popcorn!
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.
In this interview recorded in Barcelona, Spain, I ask about SAP's answer to Dropbox - SAP Mobile Documents. James Naftel, Director of Product Management, Mobile Security, explains how it works and why it is an interesting new development. Grab the popcorn!
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.
In this interview I ask Antenna Software's Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer Jim Somers about the trends he is seeing around enterprise mobility in 2013. Grab the popcorn!
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.
It was interesting how much of the Mobile World Congress this year was about M2M and the Internet of Things. I guess it makes sense from a teleco perspective, mobile data is mobile data, whether it comes from a mobile app on a smartphone or a piece of heavy equipment wirelessly reporting its maintenance needs.
I have often written over the years that M2M and enterprise mobility would eventually converge. This year they certainly did at the MWC 2013 event. Mobile data coming in from remote workers and assets is all valuable to the enterprise. With the right business analytics solution your managers can use this real-time data to make good data driven decisions.
At the show, SAP connected their M2M initiative with their Hana platform to deliver real-time analytics to the Port of Hamburg in Germany. The demonstration was in the Connected City at the show. The solution was used to track incoming cargo containers, truck parking spaces and truck locations. The M2M data coming in wirelessly from these three areas was analyzed in seconds and used to improve efficiencies in the logistical processes.
In this short video, I interview SAP partner ILS Technology about where they see growth in the M2M industry. Grab some popcorn!
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.
Yesterday was the first day of the Mobile World Congress 2013 in Barcelona. It is reported there are 70,000 people here. I counted 69,901. I explored miles of aisles filled with mobile and wireless software vendors, equipment, accessories and devices manufacturers over 8 massive halls.
I have been tracking down mobility experts to interview. I tried to upload some of the interviews yesterday, but my hotel wireless appeared just enough to tease me before disappearing again.
Today I will be speaking at the Power of Enterprise Mobility session in Hall 8. There are seats for 250, but over 2,000 registered for it. Yikes!
Here is the first of many interviews I recorded with experts in mobility and M2M. This interview is with M2M / Internet of Things guru and Fred Yentz, CEO of ILS Technology.
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.
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.
I came across this quote from Thomas Jefferson recently that I found interesting, "He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessoning mine; as he who lights his candle at mine, receives light without darkening me. Ideas should freely spread from one to another over the globe, for the moral and mutual instruction of man, and improvement of his condition...this [capability] seems to have been peculiarly and benevolently designed by nature, when she made them."
Thomas Jefferson was ruminating about collaboration - mobile and global collaboration. He was sharing his belief that good ideas should be shared widely for the benefit of all. Allowing your best and brightest minds, no matter their geographical location, to contribute their good ideas using mobile and collaboration technologies is a system, as Jefferson worded it, "benevolently designed by nature."
If you are the software designer of the collaboration platform, you may desire more credit than Jefferson bestowed, but you are in fact, part of nature:-)
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.
In this short video I review the findings and predictions from Gartner and comScore for 2013 mobility and other digital trends. Enjoy! Video Link: http://youtu.be/YYmKYkQwWnw
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.
Next week I will be speaking at the Mobile World Congress 2013 in Barcelona and also interviewing all the mobility experts I can track down. I recognize that many of you reading this post may not have the opportunity to attend, but have questions you would like me to ask some of the mobility experts. If so, please post your questions in the comment field below and I will do my best to track down the answers on your behalf.
Wow! Eight halls full of mobile experts!!! See image below.
OK, I am almost ready to get off of my soap box about how enterprise mobility and collaboration platforms, working together as part of SMAC (social, mobile, analytics and cloud), are creating a huge sea change in how businesses are run. In this short video I share some additional areas that will be impacted by these changes. Enjoy!
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.
Last week while speaking with CIOs and IT strategists in Europe the topic of enterprise collaboration came up often. Of course, I was usually the one to raise it, but it is a natural extension of enterprise mobility so I am justified! You can now have real-time communications with all of your brightest minds via mobile devices. Why not use it! Why not provide real-time collaboration apps that enable you to have full situational awareness within your company? You can keep updated and contribute to all the important discussions and debates no matter your geographical location.
In this short video, I discuss the impact mobility and collaboration platforms are having and will continue to have on many different aspects of your business. Enjoy!
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.
This week I had the pleasure of teaching a SMAC (social, mobile, analytics and cloud) strategies workshop in Brussels for a very large insurance and banking company. Following the workshop, my colleague in the mobility practice, Hugo Taborda, took me to see a visiting display of the Terra Cotta Army from China.
For those not familiar with the Terra Cotta Army, it is a collection of over 7,000 terra cotta statutes found by a Chinese farmer in 1974. Seven thousand soldiers and horses in long lines, standing silently, ready to escort their king into the afterlife.
Yesterday on my return flight to Boise, Idaho I had ample time to meditate on terra cotta statues. They were buried around 210 BC. They have stood silent, ready for duty, for over 2,000 years. Whether their king journeyed into an afterlife or not, they remained buried in Lintong district, Xi'an, Shaanix province, China. They were immobile. They have withstood the ravages of time (most of them), but cannot share their experiences or witness to the events of history. I know, as I tried to interview one.
How does a Terra Cotta army relate to social engagement platforms and enterprise mobility? Well here it goes! Many companies are blessed with large numbers of brilliant employees that bring with them in-depth industry experience, vast amounts of knowledge, skills, innovative ideas, and problem solving capabilities, but they are never effectively utilized. They are a modern day Terra Cotta Army, ready and willing, but immobile and silent, there is no effective engagement platform in place.
We have done a good job of automating business processes with ERPs and other systems, but when there are exceptions, problems, disagreements and opportunities, we almost completely fail at providing effective platforms of engagement. ERPs and other tools that capture, standardize and automate the routine, usually operate in silence and with minimal social interaction, however, the real-world operates in a noisy, chaotic, and non-standard place called reality. It is here, where innovation, negotiation, new products, new businesses, brain-storming and problem solving happens. It is here where profits are made or lost.
It is time for companies to research and learn about social engagement platforms. How can you better utilize and benefit from the brilliance lying dormant, silent and waiting to be discovered. I recently read an article where the author predicted the next big productivity wave will come from effectively utilizing existing resources through social engagement and enterprise collaboration platforms. I agree!
As in our personal lives, social engagement is enabled by social networking platforms and tools. Likewise, in our companies, social engagement platforms, purpose built to support effective business engagement and collaboration can provide huge benefits. These platforms will have a mobile first approach. Mobile apps will be the primary means by which participants engage. Apps that enable your best and brightest minds, no matter their physical location, to be able to contribute.
The world already has seven-thousand terra cotta soldiers. We don't need more. Today, we need an army of bright minds, engaged and contributing.
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.
This week I was in four different countries in four days teaching mobile and social strategies for the enterprise. While in London, I was able to corner mobility expert and my friend, Ved Sen, and film a quick interview. In this segment, I ask him about the latest trends he is seeing and hearing about in Europe in 2013. If you would like to contact Ved Sen and ask his advice on anything enterprise mobility related click here.
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.
This week I am teaching mobile and social strategies and will be visiting four countries in four days. This type of schedule is a blur of airports, meeting new people and learning more about how mobile and social solutions are being used in the real world. While on these trips I have a lot of time to ponder on flights.
I have been thinking a lot lately about the the word conduit - a means by which something is received and/or transmitted, as a useful way of describing mobile devices. Mobile devices are a conduit for voice communications. Mobile devices are a conduit for social networks. Mobile devices are a conduit for email, news, data collection, photos/videos, and now as e-wallets and mobile payments. So much of our lives are now run through this conduit.
In the last couple of weeks I have spent time with over a dozen companies keenly interested in the impact of mobility and social trends on their business. In each case, the impact will be different, but significant. In many cases the impact of these trends will be monumental.
Let's talk about retail financial services for a moment. In the book Bank 3.0 by Brett King, he states, "Retail financial service brands today are a collection of experiences, increasingly defined by multichannel interactions and customer discussions and debates in the social media space." The term multichannel interactions means communicating with a bank or other retail financial services company through a variety of different means including online, call centers, mobile, ATM (machines), physical offices, etc. Increasingly, however, these interactions are via mobile devices.
King uses the phrase a "collection of experiences" to describe a financial services company's interactions with customers and prospects. These experiences, often via online and mobile, are now the discussion of the blogosphere and social networks. As a result, it is critically important that companies invest time and money to ensuring these experiences are the best they can be.
Social networks are accelerators for good or bad. If something good happens, the world can know about it in seconds. Likewise, if something bad happens the world can know about it in seconds. The rules of the PR game have changed. Increasingly people go to their networks for recommendations rather than to the manufacturer of the product or the provider of a service. They trust their networks more than the companies providing the product.
Companies need to operate their businesses and invest in their businesses to meet their customers via the channels their customers are using. If customers are moving away from visiting physical buildings and preferring to interact with a company via a mobile app, then companies need that mobile app to be the very best possible. Companies that resist supporting the interaction channels preferred by their markets are in trouble. If you work for one of these companies - right the ship.
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.
