Forces Driving the Digital Transformation Era

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

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

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

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

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

1. Computers & Moore’s Law
2. Memory and data storage
3. Mass adoption of PCs and laptops
4. Local Networks
5. ERPs
6. The internet
7. Mobile networks and mobile phones
8. GPS
9. Mass global adoption of wireless devices (laptops, mobile phones, tablets, smartphones, wearables, sensors)
10. Proliferation of websites and online activity
11. Rapid adoption and expansion of online and mobile databases and search
12. Rapid adoption and expansion of online marketplaces and reviews
13. Rapid adoption of online and now mobile payments
14. The transformation from physical to digital (think retail stores to e-commerce, and now m-commerce)
15. Move from paper documents to digits
16. Rapid expansion of embedded computers
17. Rapid adoption and proliferation of mobile apps and the mobile web
18. Online gaming
19. Rapid transformation from traditional marketing to digital and mobile marketing
20. Rapid addition of smartphone enabled sensors
21. Rapid evolution and adoption of online social networks, social media sites and content sharing
22. Online classified sites (e.g. Craig’s List)
23. Rapid emergence of the sharing economy (e.g. Airbnb, Uber, etc.)
24. Rapid adoption of online education services
25. Rapid adoption and expansion of online entertainment movies, TV programs and streaming music
26. Wearables
27. Cloud computing
28. Rapid emergence of cloud based platforms for everything
29. Internet of Things
30. Industrial Internet (telematics, smart grids)
31. Proliferation of analytics and reporting
32. Mobile wallets
33. Development of advanced algorithms
34. Artificial intelligence and machine learning
35. Augmented reality
36. Robotic process automation

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

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

Read more on digital transformation strategies here:

1. Digital Transformation Requires Agility and Energy Measurement
2. A Doctrine for Digital Transformation is Required
3. The Advantages of Advantage in Digital Transformation
4. Digital Transformation and Its Role in Mobility and Competition
5. Digital Transformation - A Revolution in Precision Through IoT, Analytics and Mobility
6. Competing in Digital Transformation and Mobility
7. Ambiguity and Digital Transformation
8. Digital Transformation and Mobility - Macro-Forces and Timing
9. Mobile and IoT Technologies are Inside the Curve of Human Time

 [1] Not a definitive list

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Kevin Benedict

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

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

Satellites, GPS Tracking, Artificial Intelligence and Mobile Technologies

My good friend J.D. Axford, a civil engineer and hero of all ducks for his wetlands work, sent me a very interesting (if you are into GPS tracking, GIS, mobile technology, artificial intelligence, accelerometers, etc.) article he wrote on how the physical is meeting the digital in the world of construction and engineering today.  I am including it here for your pleasure and education.

Compaction, in heavy construction, is the application of energy to soil, crushed rock, or asphalt to increase density by driving out air, which enables the finished, compacted material to support buildings, roadways, and other structures. Compaction is specified as a percentage of the maximum dry density determined in the lab.

During construction, compaction is most often measured using a nuclear densitometer. Other reliable methods include the use of sand cone (ASTM D-1556) and rubber balloon (ASTM D-2167) methodologies; less formal tests used in the field include soil probes (a pointed steel rod pushed into the ground to gage penetration resistance and therefore estimate compaction), proof-rolling with loaded dump trucks while observing deflection, and even boot-heels. These all are necessarily spot-checks; consistency is sought by controlling the compaction process.  This requires the roller operator’s ability to track speed and passes over each section while estimating compaction, leading to both over- and under-compaction. Near-constant inspection is usually needed, and even so, compaction is a frequent source of job site disagreement.

Intelligent compaction (IC) is a system growing in use which combines on-board GPS, computers, and axle-mounted accelerometers to provide continuously-controlled compaction. The accelerometers measure stiffness, and indirect measurement of density, and feed that information to the computer, which uses GPS to produce a color-coded map of the working area; the colors are used to provide an intuitive depiction of areas already meeting specifications, and those needing more compaction. For asphalt work, IC systems (there are approximately eight US equipment vendors developing and selling IC), infrared sensors measure (and the computer maps) the asphalt temperature, a critical data set in ensuring timely compaction as the material cools.

As is normal, a test zone is compacted at the start of the overall compaction effort to determine the number of passes and speed the material requires to meet specifications. That information is entered into the on-board IC system as the baseline against which future work areas are compared and mapped. This eliminates guesswork, eliminates overwork, and improves the homogeneity of the finished product, saving money for the contractor and improving the service life of the compacted product.

Intelligent compaction, requires mobile technologies, GPS tracking and artificial intelligence to calculate all kinds of accelerometer and speed data, location and project requirements.  This is another example of how the physical is meeting the digital and improving processes.  You can learn more about how artificial intelligence is being integrated into field services by ClickSoftware here.

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

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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.

Mobile Technologies, Delights and Family Life

The Benedicts

Mobile technologies are having a massive impact on our economy, society and culture.  Much is written both here and in many other places about these impacts and changes.  In this article, however, I am going to share some personal ways mobile technologies are having a significant impact on our family.

I publish articles, videos and newsletters daily about mobile and SMAC technologies and trends.  I can continue writing and publishing uninterrupted no matter my location in the world as long as there is Internet connectivity.  This was not possible even a decade ago.  I am still amazed by it.  Today, I can and do publish content from airplanes via WiFi!

Our son graduated last year from Boise State University and went immediately into training and schooling in preparation to serve as a military officer.  While going through training his class had a social media team that would post updated pictures of their training and exercises to Facebook nearly every day.  This simple act, was incredibly important to us and his friends.  We experienced his life, in a small way, through near real-time pictures and social media.  Every day we would search the faces of sweating soldiers for our son and study the photos intently to understand what he was doing and experiencing.

On most weekends, we were able to catch up briefly with our son via his iPhone.  Sometimes for only two or three minutes, but those minutes were precious and highly anticipated.

As his graduation neared, we visited the Facebook page of his organization to learn the details of graduation, schedules, how to dress, where to stay, rules and advice.  It was extremely helpful!

Now as an officer, with a more regular schedule, he can communicate with us and his friends regularly through texts, emails, Facetime and even voice!  He can easily pay his bills, complete his banking and conduct business in Boise, Idaho while he is located elsewhere.  Nearly all of his finances can be managed via his iPhone.

The distance that separates us is minimized by mobile communications and social media.  In fact, last week he uploaded a photo of some materials in Boise that he wanted to sell and posted it on Craig's List.  He is not currently located in Boise, but that is not a limitation these days.  I love it!

A few months ago our daughter graduated from high school.  This summer, as she was preparing to enter the university, her freshman class developed a Facebook page and everyone starting introducing themselves, their class schedules and their dormitories.  She quickly met her classmates, her roommate, and started developing relationships and preparing according to the advice others were sharing online.  We, as parents, will still feel the pain of separation, but also be comforted by the ability to communicate and witness our daughter's experiences via social media and mobile technologies.

Here is another example of how digital and mobile technologies are enhancing our lives.  This week my lovely wife asked her online community about problems with our dishwashing machine.  She received over a dozen responses full of great advice and recommendations within hours.  Some of the advice actually worked!  Problem solved at no cost!

In another example, a small group of us are very active in helping refugee families integrate and adjust to Boise upon their arrival from overseas.  It takes a surprising amount of organization, planning, scheduling and coordination to help new refugees.  They have a massive amount of paper work, appointments and meetings to attend.  They have language classes, schools, medical appointments and case managers to communicate with.  They are all on a timeline with pressure to get integrated, working and sufficient ASAP.

Integrating our refugee friends
into Boise (State) society

When we started working with refugees, we quickly realized that outfitting the refugees with mobile phones was an absolute priority.  It was critical to be able to find people, ask and answer questions, respond to emergencies and arrange transportation to various appointments.  This became quickly apparent after searching the streets of Boise many times over several days for various families and family members that had missed appointments and transportation arrangements, and experiencing deaths and births among the refugee community.

Today, the refugee families we work with are all organized and outfitted with mobile technologies.  Many of the families are now also communicating via SKYPE and Google+ with family members in their home countries preparing them for the journey to Boise.  Mobile and online technologies enable families to maintain and foster relationships with friends and relatives separated by thousands of miles.

I am not one of those people to pine about days gone by.  I love mobile and social media technologies!  It can and will be abused, but that cannot diminish the benefits and delights these technologies bring to the lives of my family and millions of others.

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

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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.

What Do Mobility Consultants Really Think?

Earlier this week I wrote an article titled, "What Do Mobile Technology Vendors Really Think?", which covered technology vendors' responses to my "2012 Mid-Year Enterprise Mobility Survey."  This article is reviewing the answers from enterprise mobility consultants and comparing and contrasting them with the mobile software vendors' answers.

Q: What are your biggest challenges to implementing enterprise mobility today?
A: #1 answer - Developing an enterprise-wide mobile strategy, #2 - Determining anticipated ROIs, and #3 - Finding qualified mobility experts to assist with implementations.

The first two rankings were the same between mobile technology vendors and mobile consultants, but finding qualified mobility experts was a bigger problem for mobility consultants.

Q: Where do you expect to find the biggest ROIs as a result of implementing mobile solutions?
A: #1 answer - Increased productivity of mobile workers, #2 - Real-time data collection and reporting from mobile workers, #3 - Improve decision making by receiving real-time data.

Mobility consultants share the same answer #1 as mobile technology vendors, but consultants placed "Real-time data collection and reporting from mobile workers" as their 2nd highest ROI and it was #4 for mobile technology vendors.  Improved customer service was #3 with mobile technology vendors, but ranked #5 for mobility consultants.

Q: How important is it to select a standard MADP (mobile application development platform) before developing mobile solutions for your company?
A: Mobility consultants ranked it #3 - Very Important

Mobility consultants ranked it 3 - very important, and mobile technology vendors ranked it similar at 2.9.

Q: How important is mobile security to your company's mobile strategy?
A: Mobility consultants gave it a 2.7 score which is between "Somewhat Important" and "Very Important"

Mobility consultants and mobile technology vendors rated it nearly the same.  Mobile technology vendors gave it a 2.8.

Q: How important is HTML5 or HTML5 hybrid apps to your company's enterprise mobility plans?
A: The answer was 2.6 out of a 4 - with 1 being "Not Important" and 4 being "Critical." The 2.6 weighted average is between "Somewhat Important" and "Very Important" on the scale.

Mobile technology vendors gave it a 2.8 rating, slightly higher in importance than mobility consultants.

Q: How difficult is it to find third-party consulting talent with the right expertise in enterprise mobility?
A: The answer was a weighted average of 2.3 out of 3 - with 1 being "Not difficult" and 3 being "Very difficult."

Mobility consultants rated it slightly higher (2.3) in difficulty that did mobile technology vendors (2.2).

Q: How important do you believe tablets will be to your enterprise mobility plans?
A: The weighted answer was 2.8 out of 3 - with 1 being "Not important" and 3 being "Very important."

Mobility consultants rated it slightly lower than mobile technology vendors (2.9).

Q: How important is enterprise mobility to your company's future success?
A: The answer was a weighted average of 3.2 out of 4 - with 1 being "Not Important" and 4 being "Critical."

Mobile technology vendors rated it higher in importance at 3.5, than did the mobility consultants.

In summary, the answers were very close between mobility consultants and mobile technology vendors with the exception of where they anticipated finding the biggest ROIs.

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Kevin Benedict, Mobile Industry Analyst, Mobile Strategy Consultant and SAP Mentor Alumnus

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Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility analyst, consultant and blogger. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.