Showing posts with label mobile platforms. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mobile platforms. Show all posts

Chatbots Rising - Learning from Oracle's Suhas Uliyar



    Kevin Benedict
    Senior Analyst, Center for the Future of Work, Cognizant
    View my profile on LinkedIn
    Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
    Subscribe to Kevin's YouTube 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.

    The 18 Laws for Winning with Data, Speed and Mobility

    I have given nine presentations in the past 10 days on mobile and data strategies.  I have met with companies in the energy, media, insurance and banking industries.  I have brainstormed and discussed these laws for winning with data, speed and mobility, and they have held up.  In the age of mobile me, where information is the prize, a new set of laws and strategies are required to win.  In my new report, "Cutting Through Chaos in the Age of Mobile Me," I discuss many of these laws and how they are applied in mobile apps and mobile commerce.
    1. Data is the modern commercial battlefield.
    2. Information dominance is the strategic goal.
    3. Real-time operations and tempos are the targets.
    4. Advantages in speed, analytics, business operational tempos determine the winners.
    5. Real-time business speed is enabled by advances in mobile information, sensors and wireless communications.
    6. Competition is now focused on optimizing information logistics systems (the systems involved in maximizing information advantages).
    7. Businesses that can “understand and act with speed” dominate those which are slower. 
    8. In order to win or gain superiority over competitors in the age of information, you must operate  information logistics systems at a faster tempo, and get inside your competitor's decision curves. (Adapted from John Boyd)
    9. Situational awareness enables insights, innovations and operations to be conducted faster and at lower cost .
    10. Principle of Acceleration & Mobility – As demand for mobile apps increases, an even greater demand for changes will occur across business processes, operations and IT.
    11. The more data that is collected and analyzed, the greater the economic value and innovation opportunity it has in aggregate.
    12. Data has a shelf-life, and the economic value of data diminishes quickly over time.
    13. The economic value of information multiplies when combined with context and right time delivery.
    14. Mobile apps provide only as much value as the systems behind them.
    15. Full Spectrum Information: Winners will dominate by collecting, transmitting, analyzing, reporting and automating decision making faster and better.
    16. The size of opponents and their systems and platforms are less representative of power today, than the quality of their sensor systems, mobile communication links and their ability to use information to their advantage.
    17. Information is a new asset class, in that it has measurable economic value.  There are significant strategic, operational and financial reasons for investing in it, and optimizing it. (Douglas Laney, Gartner)
    18. If I can develop and pursue my plan to defeat you faster than you can execute your plan to defeat me, then your plan in unimportant. ~ Robert Leonard
    These laws need to be known, and their relevance intimately understood and applied to every aspect of business and IT today.

    Download the new report "Cutting Through Chaos in the Age of Mobile Me" - 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
    View my profile on LinkedIn
    Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
    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 Expert Interviews: Apperian's CEO Brian Day

    The enterprise mobility marketplace is changing rapidly as companies consolidate and transform.  While some enterprise mobility vendors disappear and leave the market, Apperian continues to grow and take on additional investment.  This week they announced a C level round of investment for $12 million.  I wanted to learn more about their strategies and why VCs continue to bet on them.  Enjoy!

    Video link: https://youtu.be/0CBf-qwnbVc


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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
    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.

    Top 11 Articles on IoT, Mobility, Code Halos and Digital Transformation Strategies

    Most of the stuff I write is rubbish, but these 11 articles beat the odds and are actually worth reading. You can find my complete Top 40 list here. Enjoy!

    1. Mobile Apps, Blind Spots, Tomatoes and IoT Sensors
    2. IoT Sensors, Nerves for Robots and the Industrial Internet
    3. Sensors - Sensing and Sharing the Physical World
    4. IoT Sensors, Tactile Feedback, iPhones and Digital Transformation
    5. IoT, Software Robots, Mobile Apps and Network Centric Operations
    6. Networked Field Services and Real-Time Decision Making
    7. Thinking About Enterprise Mobility, Digital Transformation and Doctrine
    8. GEOINT, GIS, Google Field Trip and Digital Transformation
    9. Connecting the Dots Between Enterprise Mobility and IoT
    10. Merging the Physical with the Digital for Optimized Productivity
    11. IoT Sensors Extend Our Physical Senses Beyond Our Physical Reach
    You can find my Top 75 articles on Mobile Strategies here.

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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
    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, Blind Spots, Tomatoes and IoT Sensors

    Master Tomato Gardener
    A lot is written on mobile technologies, the Internet of Things, social media and analytics, but little is written on how all these might work together in a retail environment.  I think best by writing, so let's think this through together.

    Blind spots are defined as, “Areas where a person's view is obstructed.” Many business decisions today are still made based on conjecture (unsubstantiated assumptions), because the data needed to make a data-driven decision lies in an operational “blind spot.”

    Smart companies when designing mobile applications consider how they can personalize the user experience.  They ask themselves how they can utilize all the accumulated data they have collected on their customers or prospects, plus third-party data sources, to make the experience as beautiful and pleasurable as possible.  To start, they can often access the following kinds of data from their own and/or purchased databases to personalize the experience:
    • Name
    • Age
    • Gender
    • Address
    • Demographic data
    • Income estimate
    • Credit history
    • Education level
    • Marital status
    • Children
    • Lifestyle
    • Social media profile and sentiment
    • Job title
    • Purchase history
    • Locations of purchases
    • Preferences, tastes and style
    • Browsing/Shopping history
    This data, however, is basic.  It is merely a digital profile. It has many blind spots.  It is often not based on real-time data.  As competition stiffens, the above profile data will not be enough to deliver a competitive advantage.  Companies will need to find ways to reduce blind spots in their data so they can increase the degree of personalization.

    Sensors connected to the IoT (Internet of Things) will play an important role in reducing blind spots. Sensors, often cost only a few dollars, and can be set-up to detect or measure physical properties, and then wirelessly communicate the results to a designated server.  Also as smartphones (aka sensor platforms) increase the number of sensors they include, and then make these sensors available to mobile application developers through APIs, the competitive playing field will shift to how these sensors can be used to increase the level of personalization.

    Let’s imagine a garden supply company, GardenHelpers, developing a mobile application.  The goal of the application is to provide competitive differentiation in the market by offering personalized garden advice and solutions.  The GardenHelpers use the following smartphone sensors in their design to provide more personalized gardening advice:
    • GPS sensor (location data)
    • Cell Tower signal strength (location data)
    • Magnetometer sensor (location of sun)
    • Ambient light sensor (available sunlight)
    • Barometer sensor (altitude)
    GardenHelpers combine the sensor data with date and time, plus third-party information such as:
    • GIS (geospatial information system on terrain, slopes, angles, watershed, etc.) data
    • Historic weather information
    • Government soil quality information
    • Government crop data, recommendations and advice
    GardenHelpers also encourages the user to capture the GPS coordinates, via their smartphone, on each corner of their garden to input the estimated garden size, and to capture the amount of sunlight at various times of the day through the ambient light sensor.  This information is compared with area weather data and the amount of shade and sunlight on their garden is estimated.

    GardenHelpers now understands a great deal about the gardener (mobile app user), the garden location, size, lay of the land and sunlight at various times.  However, there remain “blind spots.”  GardenHelpers doesn't know the exact temperature, wind speeds, humidity levels, or the amount of water in the soil of the garden.  How do they remedy these blind spots?  They offer to sell the gardeners a kit of wireless IoT sensors to measure these.

    With all of this information now the blind spots are now greatly reduced, but some remain.  What about local pests, soil issues and advice?  GardenHelpers adds a social and analytics element to their solution.  This enables gardeners to share advice with other local gardeners with similar garden sizes and crops.

    GardenHelpers can now deliver a mobile app that is hyper-personalized for their customers and prospects.  The products they offer and recommend are not selected randomly, but are now based on precise smartphone and sensor data. The mobile app combined with the IoT sensors become an indispensable tool for their customers which leads to increased brand loyalty and sales.

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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
    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.

    Enterprise Mobility - Adventures and Lessons from the Mobile World Congress with Jon Reed

    Diginomica's Jon Reed interviews Cognizant's Senior Analyst for Digital Transformation and Mobility, Kevin Benedict on what he learned this year at the annual Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.  This year 93,000 people came together to learn and review the newest mobile, wireless and connected smart technologies at this event.  Much has changed in the past 12 months and this interview covers many of these trends.

    Video Link: https://youtu.be/8jwkhZgck1U

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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
    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.

    IoT and Sensors from AMS at MWC15

    Last week, at the Mobile World Congress 2015 in Barcelona, I had the opportunity to learn some very interesting details about IoT sensors.  In this short video interview I ask AMS to demonstrate and explain how their IoT sensors work.  Enjoy!

    Video Link: http://youtu.be/JWY7UGOjWMU?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
    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.

    The Internet of My Things and How It Works

    IoT MyThings
    In this article, my ever brilliant friend and colleague, Ved Sen, shares what the IoT (Internet of Things) is really about and the processes, technologies, systems and strategies behind it.
    ***

    So there’s been all this talk about the Internet of Things. What the heck is it? You may well be cautious. Especially since it’s currently perched at the peak of the Gartner Hype curve for 2014.

    So I started thinking about this by listing all the ‘things’ I interact with. From my house & home to the trains I take and from the clothes I wear to the hotel room I might live in on my travel. Obviously you can get many levels in the hierarchy. The home is a complex construct, and comprises many sub-things. Example – rooms, walls, plumbing. Some of these, such as ‘heating’ may have further sub-components – radiators, boilers, etc.  The resultant picture looks something like this, at a very high level. Of course, this is hugely inadequate for detail, but you get the conceptual model.

    Then I started thinking about an appropriately benign and traditionally less intelligent ‘thing’ – like a window. Everybody has windows at home and they affect our everyday lives.  They have states (open/ shut), based on the environment and conditions. For example we associate safety, air-conditioning and sunlight with windows being open or closed, and based on the weather, time of day, etc.  So I drew this table of the different emotions and feelings we derive, the specific benefits they deliver, the activity or state associated with this and the conditions under which these states need to be enabled.

    IoT State and Benefits
    At this point, I came to an important realisation. Products can be smart and controllable, they can even react to the environment, all without the help of the internet. For example, we have some Velux(TM) windows on the skylights. These windows come with a remote control, they can be opened and closed and they can also react to weather conditions and close if left open when it starts to rain. So they are actually smart, in some way, and possess the capability to communicate. They’re just not on the internet. The challenge of this model is that my ability to control these outcomes is limited to the pre-set automations and my being in close proximity – i.e. at home. (Disclaimer: I’m obviously referring to the specific models we have installed. Velux does not have any IOT proclamations on it’s website, but this is not to say that they don’t have or are planning to launch models that come with their own smartphone apps, which allow control of windows from anywhere.)

    This excellent article by Michael Porter & James Heppelman posits that all products in future should have:
    1. Mechanical/ electrical components
    2. Software components
    3. Communication components 
    These three collectively make products smarter and ultimately evolve to product systems (e.g. home security) and then to a ‘system of systems’ model (e.g. connected homes) – which spans an entire problem domain, according to the authors.

    The kind of activities that we can perform on smart products evolves from monitoring, to control, optimisation and then to autonomy. Ultimately this leads, according to the authors, to improved competitive performance via operational efficiencies and strategic positioning choices. Often, forcing the question ‘What business are we in?’

    So for example the Velux windows we have installed, have a rain sensor, which allows them to automatically close if it starts to rain, they don’t have a sun-sensor, which allows them to re-open when the sun comes out again. Of course, I may not want them to open just because the sun is out. So it needs my intervention. I can only do this from home, currently, which is a constraint. Putting the Velux windows to one side, for all my windows, I would also like to be reminded if ground floor windows are left open at night or when I’m away. If I had pollen allergies, I would probably like to be alerted if the pollen count is too high, or have the windows close. I would like to be able to open all multiple windows or close them, even if I’m not at home, based on weather conditions.

    So you see, we have a need for state information (monitoring) as well as control. I might even have settings for ‘sunny day’ which applies a set of commands to all windows. This is the optimisation that the article above refers to. These control should extend to blinds (effectively these are a part of my window settings). This is where we consider windows as a product system, whereas currently, we tend to have completely different suppliers for these 2 products (windows and curtains/blinds). Any maker of smart windows must therefore consider blinds and curtains as a part of their product system.
    Now, considering any smart and connected product, we could argue that they have sensors, which generate data, which are used by apps, which enable access and control of the product, and provide additional functions that ultimately deliver a benefit. The sensors are obviously on-board the device/ product. But the data generated could be anywhere, typically on a cloud, so that the apps and the access can take place through any connected control point (such as a mobile phone).
    IoT Data Access Function Layers

    This is where the internet of things really kicks in. In my previous example of the Velux window models which we have installed, the data, access, applications and controls all sit within a closed system involving the window and the remote control. You could argue therefore that a true IoT model requires a cloud based data and access model and an ability to use the data and control/ monitor the product from any device and application that is authorised.

    Of course, everybody looking at the Internet of things should bear in mind Bruce Sterling’s SPIME model (derived from space + time). According to Sterling, the SPIME object has 6 facets:
    1. identification
    2. location
    3. data mining
    4. computer aided design & construction
    5. prototyping
    6. lifecycle management
    Using these, we can track the history of any object from concept to grave.

    Stepping back a bit, the Internet of Things seems like a catch-all neologism to encapsulate a number of related concepts. It involves:
    • smart and connected products
    • multiple types of open and closed networks
    • robotics
    • cloud based access
    • decision analytics
    • functions ranging from monitoring, control and optimisation
    It can also involve single products or groups of products. Many smart products today are autonomously capable of performing advanced functions which have nothing to do with the internet of anything. The Roomba vacuum cleaner is a great example of an exceptional product that doesn’t really need to connect to the Internet.

    Most individual products also tend to ignore or be indifferent to the network effect, which kicks in when we consider multiple elements in the same network. For example, my windows may be rain-sensitive, but I might have other devices, products and appliances at home which may be influenced by the occurrence of rain. Does each product need to have it’s own rain sensor? In my IOT wish list, my smart windows can communicate to other appliances at home. So for example, the washing machine can run an extra spin cycle when it rains, so clothes dry in the same time, and conversely when it’s sunny, it can reduce the spin cycle to conserve energy. For this to happen, I need a network standard for my connected home network that multiple devices can connect to (i.e. my window can ‘talk’ to my washing machine). A problem that the DLNA among many others, has been seeking to solve for years.

    The true value of the IoT thus seems to become clearer when we step into the details and away from buzzwords. Much like anything else really!  And the winners as always will be those businesses which are able to truly focus on:
    • design thinking
    • benefits
    • elegance of use
    • great experiences
    • excellent engineering
    Companies who will be bold enough to rethink their business models and honestly answer the question ‘what business are we in?’ – allowing them to move from selling a product to delivering a composite service which may include a physical product. It might even mean changing the commercial model where the product is only ‘leased’ to the consumer who actually buys the service rather than acquires an asset.

    Meanwhile I will dream about smart, connected windows which can deliver safety, sunshine, comfort to my home. As far as consumers are concerned, the I in IoT should really stand for ‘invisible technology’.

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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
    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.

    Amplified Influence and Mobile Apps

    Businesses, and let's be honest most of us, are interested in amplifying our influence.  I remember reading adventure books as a child about pioneers and woodsman that craved isolation, and that would move whenever neighbors settled close enough to hear, but that's not an effective strategy for influencing people.

    I started writing my blog on enterprise mobility, www.MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com in 2006.  At the time I was the CEO of a mobile platform company and intimately involved in dozens of custom mobile software projects at any given time.  Daily I shared experiences, mistakes, lessons learned, strategies, etc.  Over the next few years thousands of people subscribed to my blog (I now have over 5.7 million page views since 2009).

    I remember two emails in particular, both arrived on Mondays.  One from a fortune 500 company in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, saying they had read my articles, downloaded my trial software, and were ready to purchase it. Another email came from Christchurch, New Zealand.  Seems the folks in a large engineering and utility firm regularly read my articles, understood the capabilities of our software and wanted to submit an order.  Both of these emails reflected an amplified influence.

    These days when I attend conferences on enterprise mobility it is not unusual for people to shake my hand and say they have read my articles, or if less fortunate, watched my videos for many years.  I still find that notion crazy!  I live in Boise, Idaho, which is not exactly main street America!

    SMAC (social, mobile, analytics and cloud) solutions are giving, aware businesses, capabilities far beyond what was possible only a few years ago.  The two examples I listed above were from countries far from mine.  I was able to generate sales and close deals on the other side of the world with very little investment.

    Is your company effectively taking advantage of these influence amplifiers?  Are you using SMAC solutions for this purpose?

    In addition to sharing content from thought leaders - you need a strategy.  Mobile content and mobile apps are an important part of that.  I use Google's Blogger platform to blog. It has a mobile app.  It sends out my content optimized to be read on either a mobile device or a bigger screen.  I record interviews with the camera app on my iPhone.  I edit it on the mobile iMovie app.  I upload it to YouTube where it can be viewed on the mobile YouTube app.  I tweet about the video on a mobile app, and upload it to the mobile LinkedIn app.  All of these actions are part of a strategy to amplify influence.  It works.

    In the past 36 months, I have taught digital transformation and mobile strategies workshops in 17 different countries.  In the past few months I have received invitations to speak in South Korea, Belgium, New Zealand and Portugal.  I live in Boise, the most isolated state capital in the United States.  The next nearest big town is 300 miles away.  What if your giant multinational company were employing these kinds of strategies hourly?

    If you haven't already, I would encourage you to develop a full strategy on how to use these mobile and social media tools to amplify your influence, marketing and sales.  Digital transformation is happening all around us at a breathtaking speed.  It is making the once impossible, possible today and your competition is learning fast.

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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
    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.

    Mobile Expert Interviews: Red Hat's Mike Piech

    On September 18, 2014 Red Hat announced their acquisition of mobile platform vendor Feedhenry. Red Hat was an unexpected, but intriguing company to reach out and snag one of the most popular up and coming startups in the enterprise mobility market.  I immediately reached out to Red Hat to learn the strategy behind the acquisition and this interview is the results.  Enjoy!

    Video Link: http://youtu.be/wSa0NUqfPYk?list=UUGizQCw2Zbs3eTLwp7icoqw



    ************************************************************************
    Kevin Benedict
    Writer, Speaker, Senior Analyst
    Digital Transformation, EBA, Center for the Future of Work Cognizant
    View my profile on LinkedIn
    Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com
    Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
    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.

    How Portugal's Age of Discovery is Related to Enterprise Mobility

    Lisbon, Portugal
    This week I had the good fortune of spending time in Lisbon, Portugal.  I met with several hundred business men and women at a mobility event in Microsoft's auditorium in Lisbon, at banks and with mobile network operators where we discussed digital transformation, enterprise mobility, IoT and mobile strategies.  In preparation for these discussions I did some homework.  Here is what I learned about Portuguese history and how it relates to digital transformation and enterprise mobility.

    The Portuguese developed innovative sailing technologies and navigational skills in the 15th-century that enabled ocean-going ventures, where before most ships stayed within sight of land or took very short excursions. Portugal's Vasco da Gama (among others), using these innovations and skills, sailed south and east and ultimately reached India in 1498.

    As a result of reaching India and exploring trading opportunities, the Portuguese were able to corner the profitable trade in eastern spices by displacing their competitor, Venice, who had a long established monopoly on a land-route for bringing spices to Europe.  Portugal transformed and optimized supply chains and logistics which gave them a giant competitive advantage!!!  They opened new markets and trading routes, globalized and took advantage of economies of scale.  For over 100 years the Portuguese had no European rivals on these long sea routes round Africa.

    What were these innovations that enabled Portugal to develop such a competitive advantage?
    1. They thought bigger and more strategic
    2. They explored new technologies and invested in the winners
    3. They recognized the value of innovation
    4. They recognized the value of opening new markets
    5. They recognized the value of globalization
    6. They recognized the value of optimizing existing business processes, logistics, supply chains, etc.
    7. They recognized strategic global economic opportunities
    8. They understood the value of navigation technologies and how they could optimize routes and logistics
    9. They developed a navigation school to scale these skills in order to better compete globally
    10. They invested in advanced naval architectures to enhance ocean-going capabilities
    11. They invested in the knowledge of astronomy to enhance navigation skills

    The Portuguese were able to establish sea routes round the Cape of Africa, which enabled Portugal to undercut the Venetian trade with its multiple layers of middlemen, slow and risky deliveries, and costly and inefficient transportation.  Seemingly overnight Portugal had a competitive advantage gained by being able to sail large ships, across oceans, carrying huge loads, great distances, efficiently.  These capabilities transformed markets, globalized, opened new sales channels and displaced competitors.  These transformations sealed the fates of two nations.

    Technology has been shaking things up for millenniums!  Today mobile technologies are transforming markets in much the same way.  Here are some comparisons for your consideration:
    • The ability to use turn-by-turn navigation transformed the GPS device market and helped optimize routes and workforce utilization.
    • Mobile devices and apps transformed field service work. 
    • Smartphones with powerful cameras killed Kodak and most stand alone digital cameras.
    • Mobile apps for banks are quickly reducing the need for branches.
    • Mobile apps and mobile browsing killed Blackberry
    • Mobile apps for insurance claims are reducing the need for claims adjusters and optimizing claims processing.
    • Web and mobile technologies are changing the way education is provided.
    • Mobile apps for research and shopping are impacting retail stores.
    • The ability to read books and watch movies and to listen to music on mobile devices eliminated the need for video stores, record stores and bookstores.
    • Mobile and IoT technologies are in the midst of transforming healthcare 
    What lessons can we learn from the Venetians who lost their businesses to Portuguese innovation? No matter how secure your position in the market seems to be, competitors are innovating and looking for opportunities to jump ahead of you.  Your company should be that innovator!

    ************************************************************************
    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
    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.


    ************************************************************************
    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
    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 App Security, Vulnerabilities and App Development

    I had the privilege of attending a mobile security event this week and speaking with many experts on the matter.  I am not a mobile security expert, so my role was to speak on mobile strategies and trends and to learn as much as I could.

    What did I learn?  I learned the difference between a mobile security containers and mobile app wrapping.  I confess prior confusion in the matter.  Mobile app wrapping is a process of securing an existing app, by injecting code into and around the app that secures it and provides monitoring analytics. Mobile security containers, in contrast, enable mobile app developers to develop new apps inside a security container that protects it and provides a framework for security.  Don't ask me more as I have reached the limit in this subject with those two sentences.

    I also learned there are potential vulnerabilities when you have third-parties develop your mobile apps.  Manageable vulnerabilities, but ones that must be considered and addressed.  Most mobile app security solutions are designed to protect an app from outside attack, but what happens if the app code is designed and developed purposely with nefarious intent?  Mobile security systems are not designed specifically to find or prevent that event.  What if the mobile app has been developed purposely to store credit card data and then to send it off-shore?  The mobile app has not been attacked or hacked, it was developed that way and delivered to an unsuspecting vendor.  Yikes!!!!

    With that vulnerability in mind, companies having third-parties develop apps need ways to test and verify the code and behavior of the mobile app matches the original intent, purpose and design.

    I also learned that MAM (mobile application management), MDM (mobile device management), EMM (enterprise mobility management) with a pinch of mobile application lifecycle management can all be found in the same vendor, or not.  It seems all of the mobile security vendors are both partners and competitors emphasizing different aspects of their solutions and ambitions depending on if their partners are present in the room or not.

    The bottom line, however, is that my weekly newsletter on Mobile Cyber Security is the most read newsletter I publish each week.  This is a very important topic.  It appears from all of the sessions I attended that today it may take a combination of mobile security vendors to cover your full mobile security and application management needs.


    ************************************************************************
    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
    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.

    Video Comments: Kevin Benedict on Real-Time Enterprise Mobility Infrastructure

    In this segment of "Video Comments" I discuss our latest research findings on the challenges companies are facing supporting real-time mobile applications.  Many of us recognize that legacy systems, architectures and infrastructures were not originally designed for real-time mobile application support, but how big of a problem is it?

    Video Link: http://youtu.be/sstz_C1cAcw?list=UUGizQCw2Zbs3eTLwp7icoqw




    ************************************************************************
    Kevin Benedict
    Writer, Speaker, Senior Analyst
    Digital Transformation, EBA, Center for the Future of Work Cognizant
    View my profile on LinkedIn
    Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com
    Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
    Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility
    Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies
    Recommended Strategy Book Code Halos
    Recommended iPad App Code Halos for iPads

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

    Mobile Expert Interviews: Kidozen's Jesus Rodriguez

    MBaaS (mobile backend as a service) and Mobile Data Virtualization strategies are hot topics these days and in this interview with Kidozen's CEO Jesus Rodriguez we discuss them in detail.  Enjoy!

    Video Link: http://youtu.be/-O914Sl9UsI?list=UUGizQCw2Zbs3eTLwp7icoqw

    ************************************************************************
    Kevin Benedict
    Writer, Speaker, Senior Analyst
    Digital Transformation, EBA, Center for the Future of Work Cognizant
    View my profile on LinkedIn
    Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com
    Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
    Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility
    Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies
    Recommended Strategy Book Code Halos
    Recommended iPad App Code Halos for iPads

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

    Mobile Expert Interview: Oracle's Suhas Uliyar

    Oracle took their time jumping into the enterprise mobility market, but in 2014 they have come on strong with an enterprise centric approach focused on scalability, security and enterprise-class performance. In this interview, Oracle's Suhas Uliyar, VP of Mobile Strategy and Product Development shares their views on strategy, trends and developments.  Enjoy!

    Video Link: http://youtu.be/sUIMkM0Uu9c?list=UUGizQCw2Zbs3eTLwp7icoqw


    Watch additional Mobile Expert Interviews here - http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/p/mobile-expert-videos.html.

    ************************************************************************
    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
    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 and Digital Transformation on the Mercy Ships

    Most of the interviews and articles I publish here are on the relatively sterile topic of technologies, industry trends and business strategies. That is not to say they are uninteresting, just absent of a human interest perspective.  This article and interview is not one of those.  I had the privilege of hosting and interviewing Susan Parker, Executive Special Projects with the Mercy Ships (www.MercyShips.org) in Boise this weekend.  She has lived and worked on the Mercy Ship for over 27 years and has volumes of incredible stories to share.  The Mercy ship is a hospital ship with over 400 staff providing special surgical care, at NO cost to the patient, along the Western coast of Africa.

    What follows are two videos.  The first is a brief overview of the work that the Mercy Ships accomplishes and the second is an interview with Susan that I recorded this week on the digital transformations she has witnessed in her 27 years on the ship, and how mobile technologies and digital transformation have changed the way they operate the ship, raise funds and care for more patients. Enjoy!

    Video Link: http://youtu.be/qu73D_VCB1w



    Video Link: http://youtu.be/LBF5SVkpJ5o?list=UUGizQCw2Zbs3eTLwp7icoqw


    ************************************************************************
    Kevin Benedict
    Writer, Speaker, Editor
    Senior Analyst, Digital Transformation, EBA, Center for the Future of Work Cognizant
    View my profile on LinkedIn
    Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com
    Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
    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.

    Oracle Buys Toa Technologies Enhancing Mobile Solutions for Field Services

    So that is why the Toa Technology team canceled my Google+ Hangout interview with them last week.  They were getting purchased!  

    Toa Technologies is a very successful cloud based provider of field service management solutions that is heavily involved in mobile technologies.  They had been accumulating a stellar team and was regularly announcing sales deals with companies that had thousands of service technicians working in the field.  That is precisely why I wanted to interview them!

    I am impressed with Oracle's aggressive launch into mobility in 2014.  They were late to the game, but are really stepping up.  A few months back I wrote an article (http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/2014/05/oracle-mobility-emerges-prepared-for.html) about Oracles latest moves into enterprise mobility.

    Here is the press release on the acquisition: http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/press/2254950

    Oracle today announced that it has signed an agreement to acquire TOA Technologies (TOA), a leading provider of cloud-based field service solutions that manage and optimize the last mile of customer service for enterprises by coordinating activities between dispatchers, mobile employees and their customers.
    TOA’s Field Service SaaS enables modern enterprises to continuously monitor real-time field service requests coming in from contact centers, to schedule the right field service representative to dispatch, and to use sophisticated business analytics to monitor and view current inventories, accurately predict service windows, and optimize field service operations. TOA’s customers have more efficient field service operations, lower costs of delivering field service, and deliver a superior customer experience.
    TOA’s solutions manage over 120 million service events annually in more than 20 countries and include global brands across many industries including DISH Network, E.ON, Home Depot, Ricoh, Telefonica, Virgin Media and Vodafone.
    Oracle Service Cloud, part of Oracle Customer Experience Cloud, is an industry-leading platform for online customer service, cross-channel contact center, knowledge management, and policy automation. Oracle ERP cloud solutions help accelerate productivity, allocate resources, and provide on-demand information access.
    Oracle Service Cloud and Oracle ERP cloud solutions combined with TOA will empower innovative customer service organizations to drive operational efficiencies while bolstering customer satisfaction and exceeding service expectations through personalized service.
    More information on this announcement can be found athttp://www.oracle.com/toatechnologies.
    ************************************************************************
    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
    Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility
    Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies
    Recommended Strategy Book Code Halos
    Recommended iPad App Code Halos for iPads

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

    Mobile Expert Interview: Feedhenry's Dr. Micheal O' Foghlu

    In this segment of the Mobile Expert Interview series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Micheal O' Foghlu (pronounced Meehaul O Fowl Loo), but of course you already knew that.  His name actually has four accents above the letters of his name, but I don't know how to add those.  Sorry!  He is the CTO of the mobile platform company Feedhenry and has a lot of interesting insights to share.  Enjoy!

    Video Link: http://youtu.be/td--FUaeJtc?list=UUGizQCw2Zbs3eTLwp7icoqw


    It's time again for the annual State of Enterprise Mobility report.  A lot has changed in the enterprise mobility world in the past year.  Would you be willing to participate in the survey?  All participants will receive the final report for free.  Here is the survey link - http://survey.constantcontact.com/survey/a07e9hmymorhwv3wle0/start.

    I will be compiling the results and writing the report in the month of August.

    ************************************************************************
    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
    Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility
    Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies
    Recommended Strategy Book Code Halos
    Recommended iPad App Code Halos for iPads

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

    Mobile Expert Interview: VDC's Eric Klein

    I had the pleasure to meet and spend time with VDC Research's Senior Analyst for Enterprise Mobility, Eric Klein this week at the SAPPHIRE conference for SAP users.  In this interview we discuss a wide range of enterprise mobility trends and developments.  Enjoy!

    Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4hRuAsb-Ug&list=UUGizQCw2Zbs3eTLwp7icoqw&feature=share



    ************************************************************************
    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
    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.

    Interviews with Kevin Benedict