Mobile Commerce News Weekly – Week of November 23, 2014

The Mobile Commerce News Weekly is an online newsletter made up of the most interesting news, articles and links related to mobile commerce and marketing, mobile payments, mobile money, e-wallets, mobile banking, mobile ads and mobile security that I run across each week.  I am specifically targeting market size and market trend information.

Also read Connected Globe News Weekly
Also read Field Mobility News Weekly
Also read Mobile Cyber Security News Weekly
Also read Mobile Health News Weekly
Also read Mobility News Weekly

Looking for an enterprise mobility solution?  Read the Mobile Solution Directory Here!

Shoppers are going mobile in larger and larger numbers, according to on-line retail data leader comScore. Mobile digital commerce is expected to have grown by 25 percent over the last season, almost twice the growth of desktop E-commerce.  Overall digital commerce is expected to grow by 16 percent, reaching $61 billion.  Read Original Content

Powa, a commerce specialist operating primarily in the United Kingdom, will be bringing its mobile commerce service to the United States. New funding will allow the company to launch its digital payments system in the U.S., expanding the mobile commerce options that are available in the country.  Read Original Content

Smartphone traffic to e-commerce sites grew by more than 62 percent and revenue grew 141 percent, according to MarketLive. Tablet revenue and traffic grew by a more modest 20 percent. Though still dominant, PC-based commerce growth “continued its decline.”  Read Original Content

The cost and time to mobilize enterprise applications can actually meet or exceed the original cost and time to implement those systems. In their new report, “StarMobile Transforms Enterprise Apps into Mobile Apps”, 451 Research details the advantages of StarMobile’s app development tool and how it can drastically reduce the cost and time to mobilize enterprise applications. Download report here: http://starmobileinc.com/report-451research-starmobile-transforms-mobile-apps-into-enterprise-apps/

A recently unveiled report from Juniper Research has found the total number of users who plan to engage in mobile transactions is going to grow considerably over the coming years. They predict just over two billion mobile phone or tablet users will make mobile commerce transactions by the end of 2017, up from 1.6 billion during this calendar year.  Read Original Content

Mobile payments may experience lackluster growth in Canada. A new study from GfK, a global market research firm, shows Canadians are somewhat apprehensive when it comes to using a smartphone to make a payment.  Read Original Content

Target Corp. has now taken another step that reveals the retailer is getting very serious about mobile commerce, as it has purchased Powered Analytics, which is said to have “an Amazon-like shopping experience,” that can be provided to shoppers while they are within a brick and mortar store location.  Read Original Content

In Contact Solutions' recently completed retail mobile shopping survey, one major issue with mobile buying behavior–customer care was found. Altogether, 16 percent of consumers said they struggle with mobile shopping apps at least half the time, and 38 percent of respondents said they are disappointed with the inability to get help within a mobile app.  Read Original Content

Smartphone and tablet based commerce is expected to account for 49 percent of all online sales in Europe by 2018, according to new research published by Forrester.  Read Original Content

According to the 2014 holiday shopping study conducted by Deloitte, which included the participation of 5,000 American consumers, the average holiday spending this year will be $1,299, which represents an increase of 13 percent over last year. Among all U.S. consumers 72 percent will be using their smartphones for shopping purposes.  Read Original Content

Realex Payments, Europe's leading payment solution provider, announced a new partnership with Shopgate, the world's leading software-as-a-service m-commerce platform.  Read Original Content

Nearly three-quarters (73 percent) of consumers surveyed said they trusted their bank in providing a mobile digital wallet service, a Deloitte report found.  Read Original Content

Mobile-based payments in the United States are expected to reach $142 billion in volume in 2019, according to a report from the research firm Forrester, from about $50 billion currently.  Read Original Content

In the three weeks since the company released Apple Pay, Whole Foods has processed more than 150,000 Apple Pay transactions. McDonald’s, which accepts Apple Pay at its 14,000 restaurants in the United States, said Apple Pay accounted for 50 percent of its tap-to-pay transactions.  Read Original Content

A new study by Retale found consumers are ready for mobile.  Thirty-six percent of respondents have previously used a mobile device to pay for something in a brick-and-mortar retail store, while the majority (64 percent) has not. However, mobile pay use has more than doubled over a two-year period.  Read Original Content

Apple’s new mobile payment system Apple Pay already has support from major banks, credit card companies and also some major retailers.  Now it would appear smaller independent retailers will also be able to support Apple Pay in the future as Square’s Jack Dorsey has confirmed the company is working on bringing Apple Pay to Square.  Read Original Content

Latest Articles on http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com

Gamification Strategies and Mobile Applications - The Way it Should Be
2015 Enterprise Mobility Events Announced
Insights into the Impact of Big Data, Mobile Apps and Code Halos Strategies on Retail
Transforming Web Content for Enterprise Mobility
Mobile Expert Interviews: Snappii's CEO Alex Bakman
Mobile Expert Interviews: Red Hat's Mike Piech
Big Data Business Models and Code Halo Strategies with SmartStory's CEO Michael Boerner
Digital Transformation Expert Interviews: SmartStory's Lloyd Mahaffey

Webinars of Note (recorded)

Virtualization ≠ Mobilization

Whitepapers of Note

A Comparison of the StarMobile MORPH Protocol vs. Traditional Remote Computing Protocols
Don't Get SMACked - How Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud are Reshaping the Enterprise
Making BYOD Work for Your Organization

StarMobile Transforms Enterprise Apps into Mobile Apps
Test Automation to Boost Velocity without Compromising Quality
Why Apps Fail - Find Out the Top 3 Reasons

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

Kevin Benedict

Writer, Speaker, Senior Analyst

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

View my profile on LinkedIn

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Browse the Mobile Solution Directory

Subscribe to Kevin'sYouTube Channel

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies

Recommended Strategy Book Code Halos

Recommended iPad App Code Halos for iPads

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

Connected Globe News Weekly – Week of November 23, 2014

Welcome to Connected Globe News Weekly, an online newsletter that consists of the most interesting news and articles related to M2M (machine to machine) and embedded mobile devices.  I aggregate the information, include the original links and add a synopsis of each article.  I also search for the latest market numbers such as market size, growth and trends in and around the M2M market.

Also read Field Mobility News Weekly
Also read Mobile Commerce News Weekly
Also read Mobile Cyber Security News Weekly
Also read Mobile Health News Weekly
Also read Mobility News Weekly

Looking for an enterprise mobility solution?  Read the Mobile Solution Directory Here!

Machine-to-machine connections in Latin America are expected to reach 20 million by the end of this year, according to Ericsson's latest mobility report. Read Original Content

Machine-to-machine provider Kore Wireless Group, fueled by a majority interest purchase by investment firm Abry Partners, has announced an all-cash acquisition of M2M and “Internet of Things” services company Raco Wireless. Read Original Content

The M2M and IoT market under transport and mass transit sector is expected to grow from US $10.4 billion in 2014 to US $29.4 billion by 2017 and further to US $76.1 billion by 2020. Read Original Content

The cost and time to mobilize enterprise applications can actually meet or exceed the original cost and time to implement those systems. In their new report, “StarMobile Transforms Enterprise Apps into Mobile Apps”, 451 Research details the advantages of StarMobile’s app development tool and how it can drastically reduce the cost and time to mobilize enterprise applications. Download report here: http://starmobileinc.com/report-451research-starmobile-transforms-mobile-apps-into-enterprise-apps/

Despite significant growth in terrestrial M2M and IoT communications, satellite is expected to hold a significant niche, according to NSR. In the research group’s “M2M and IoT via Satellite, 5th Edition” report, revenues are expected to more than double from $1.1 billion in 2013 to more than $2.4 billion by 2023. Read Original Content

Dell Inc. has debuted its first lab devoted to researching the Internet of Things at the company's Santa Clara offices, reports the Silicon Valley Business Journal. Read Original Content

According to Gartner the processing, sensing and communications semiconductor device arenas are set to grow at a rapid pace over the coming years, growing 36.2 percent in 2015, compared with overall semiconductor market growth of 5.7 percent. Read Original Content

Analysts at IDC estimate the worldwide Internet of Things, or IoT, market will grow from $1.3 trillion last year to more than $3 trillion in 2020. Read Original Content

According to a new market research report published by MarketsandMarkets, the Industrial IoT Market size was worth $181.29 billion in 2013 that is expected to reach $319.62 billion at a combined annual growth rate of 8.15 percent from 2014 to 2020. Read Original Content

Latest Articles on http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com

Gamification Strategies and Mobile Applications - The Way it Should Be
2015 Enterprise Mobility Events Announced
Insights into the Impact of Big Data, Mobile Apps and Code Halos Strategies on Retail
Transforming Web Content for Enterprise Mobility
Mobile Expert Interviews: Snappii's CEO Alex Bakman
Mobile Expert Interviews: Red Hat's Mike Piech
Big Data Business Models and Code Halo Strategies with SmartStory's CEO Michael Boerner
Digital Transformation Expert Interviews: SmartStory's Lloyd Mahaffey

Webinars of Note (recorded)

Virtualization ≠ Mobilization

Whitepapers of Note

A Comparison of the StarMobile MORPH Protocol vs. Traditional Remote Computing Protocols
Don't Get SMACked - How Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud are Reshaping the Enterprise
Making BYOD Work for Your Organization

StarMobile Transforms Enterprise Apps into Mobile Apps
Test Automation to Boost Velocity without Compromising Quality
Why Apps Fail - Find Out the Top 3 Reasons

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

Kevin Benedict

Writer, Speaker, Senior Analyst

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

View my profile on LinkedIn

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Browse the Mobile Solution Directory

Subscribe to Kevin'sYouTube Channel

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies

Recommended Strategy Book Code Halos

Recommended iPad App Code Halos for iPads

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

Mobile Expert Interviews: Citrix's Brian Dye

What are the mobile security vulnerabilities that enterprises are missing? How is the mobile security industry changing in 2014? How is securing mobile solutions in the cloud different than on-premise? What do you do when you can't patch stupid?  These are a few of the topics I discuss in this interview with Citrix's Group VP, GM of Mobile Platforms group, Brian Dye. Enjoy!

Video Link: http://youtu.be/cXR21m-ox3E?list=UUGizQCw2Zbs3eTLwp7icoqw



The cost and time to mobilize enterprise applications can actually meet or exceed the original cost and time to implement those systems. In their new report, “StarMobile Transforms Enterprise Apps into Mobile Apps”, 451 Research details the advantages of StarMobile’s app development tool and how it can drastically reduce the cost and time to mobilize enterprise applications.

Download report here: http://starmobileinc.com/report-451research-starmobile-transforms-mobile-apps-into-enterprise-apps/
************************************************************************

Kevin Benedict

Writer, Speaker, Senior Analyst

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

View my profile on LinkedIn

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Browse the Mobile Solution Directory

Subscribe to Kevin'sYouTube Channel

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies

Recommended Strategy Book Code Halos

Recommended iPad App Code Halos for iPads

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

Mobile Expert Interviews: StarMobile's CEO Todd Fryburger

In this interview, recorded at Oracle Open World 2014, StarMobile's CEO Todd Fryburger stops by the Cognizant booth to share his insights and strategies on how they are approaching the enterprise mobility market.  Enjoy!

Video Link: http://youtu.be/cHyBfDEW7u8


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

Kevin Benedict

Writer, Speaker, Senior Analyst

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

View my profile on LinkedIn

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Browse the Mobile Solution Directory

Subscribe to Kevin'sYouTube Channel

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies

Recommended Strategy Book Code Halos

Recommended iPad App Code Halos for iPads

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

10 Steps to Implementing Big Data and Code Halo Strategies

Tactics without strategy are dangerous. ~ Robert Leonhard

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Kevin Benedict

Writer, Speaker, Senior Analyst

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

View my profile on LinkedIn

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Browse the Mobile Solution Directory

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies

Recommended Strategy Book Code Halos

Recommended iPad App Code Halos for iPads

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

The Real Challenge of Mobile Apps is Real-Time

Can you imagine a scenario where you ask Apple’s Siri a question, and she says, “Can I get back to you in 5 minutes?”  Wouldn't that be irritating?  Information and requests for information have a shelf life. The information is requested at a specific time for a reason.  If you send me the information in 5 minutes I have probably moved on to something else.

In a recent survey I conducted with 79 participants involved in mobile technologies and projects, 83.7% said they or their clients' have IT systems that are too slow or incapable of supporting real-time mobile application requirements. That is a problem.

Many organizations are facing a challenging time supporting the real-time data requirements of mobile applications.  They are recognizing that significant work needs to be done inside their complex IT environment to ensure that data queries and reports can be produced instantly for use on mobile applications.  In many organizations upgrading and enhancing their IT ecosystem for mobile applications represents a major investment.  This is driving increased interest in cloud based solutions that often use newer and faster processes, designs and architectures.

Speed of response is important to the mobile user experience.  The speed in which your IT environment can support mobile applications is a competitive differentiator.  As more applications incorporate location, predictive and context aware elements, the speed of supporting IT systems will become even more important to the end user.  No one wants a turn-by-turn navigation system giving driving instructions that are delayed by 30 seconds, “You should have turned back there,” is not an acceptable response for most of us.

Retailers are also increasingly interested in interacting with onsite shoppers via mobile devices.  They want to recognize you, your shopping habits, past purchases and preferences and today’s shopping needs all while you are browsing their aisles.  This requires the ability to collect appropriate data, query databases and share relevant information with both the shoppers and the staff in the store so the customer’s experience is enhanced and the sales optimized.

None of this happens by accident.

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

Kevin Benedict

Writer, Speaker, Editor

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

View my profile on LinkedIn

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Browse the Mobile Solution Directory

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies

Recommended Strategy Book Code Halos

Recommended iPad App Code Halos for iPads

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

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

Tactics without strategy are dangerous. ~ Robert Leonhard

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Stay tuned for Part 2.

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

Kevin Benedict

Writer, Speaker, Editor

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

View my profile on LinkedIn

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Browse the Mobile Solution Directory

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies

Recommended Strategy Book Code Halos

Recommended iPad App Code Halos for iPads

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

Mobile Apps, Code Halos, the Sharing Economy and Trustonomics

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Kevin Benedict

Writer, Speaker, Editor

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

View my profile on LinkedIn

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Browse the Mobile Solution Directory

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies

Recommended Strategy Book Code Halos

Recommended iPad App Code Halos for iPads

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

Mobile Expert Interviews: Mocana's John Aisien

Mobile security is a big deal.  The internet of things security is a big deal.  Internet security in general is a big deal.  In this interview we have the privilege of learning from mobility and security expert John Aisien, VP of Marketing and Corporate Development with Mocana.  Enjoy!

Video Link: http://youtu.be/fJmzK5_bCRo?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

Browse the Mobile Solution Directory

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies

Recommended Strategy Book Code Halos

Recommended iPad App Code Halos for iPads

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

Mobile 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

Browse the Mobile Solution Directory

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies

Recommended Strategy Book Code Halos

Recommended iPad App Code Halos for iPads

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

Information Dominance as a Company's Mobile Strategy

In many industries today the competitive battleground is quickly shifting to the effective use of data to drive marketing, sales, customer support, R&D, and to deliver hyper-personalized user experiences and digital products.  These changes are most readily seen in companies that engage customers on the web and through mobile apps.  As more and more of customer interactions and engagements move to mobile apps and websites these changes will be all the more pronounced.  Just think about mobile banking, mobile commerce, mobile search, mobile media, mobile news/content and mobile travel apps.  These apps and the companies behind them are now offering incredible levels of near instant personalization based upon their knowledge of your preferences, location, shopping history, loyalty status, etc.  The more effective companies are at using their knowledge of you to personalize your experience, the more attractive, convenient, productive and sticky their apps become.  We at Cognizant call the effective use of data, "Code Halos" strategies.  Code Halos are the data that surround you, your activities and preferences.  It is the combination of personal and enterprise data used to provide the optimal experience.

Companies that will win in this competitive battlefield will understand that data collection, processing speed, analysis, situational awareness and the hyper-personalization of the users' experiences are the keys. They will recognize it is about speed.  It is a race to collect, analyze, and personalize.  The late US Air Force Colonel and great military strategist John Boyd coined the acronym OODA for observe, orient, decide and act.  He identified the fact that decision-making could be a competitive advantage.  If you can make good decisions faster than an opponent you have a powerful advantage.  Think about this in terms of a boxer in the ring, or a fighter pilot in the sky.  If you can understand the situation, make good decisions and act faster than your opponent you will likely win.  The same is true when the effective use of data is involved in user experiences and commerce.

Code Halo strategies is a way to think about and structure your information logistics in a manner that will give you information dominance.  Information dominance means you have an information logistics infrastructure in place for collecting data, analyzing and personalizing experiences better and faster than your competition.  This information, with the right IT infrastructure and architecture, can be used to instantly provide hyper-personalized experiences on the web and on mobile apps for customers, prospects, partners and employees.

Your information logistics systems must be fast enough to keep pace.  If your information logistics systems lag due to legacy systems that cannot support a "real-time" environment that is required for mobile apps and websites, then you have some hard choices to make that will impact your company's ability to succeed in this new world dominated by information.

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Kevin Benedict

Writer, Speaker, Editor

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

View my profile on LinkedIn

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Browse the Mobile Solution Directory

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies

Recommended Strategy Book Code Halos

Recommended iPad App Code Halos for iPads

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

Mobile Expert Interview: Mobile Labs' Dan McFall

In all my years of researching and writing about enterprise mobility, I have not taken the time to learn about automated testing solutions for mobile apps.  These are important solutions as mobile applications are often your brand and primary point of interaction with customers and even employees.  They had better work!  In this interview, we discuss mobile app testing processes and strategies.  Enjoy!

Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_LB7wff_S8&list=UUGizQCw2Zbs3eTLwp7icoqw&feature=share

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Kevin Benedict

Writer, Speaker, Editor

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

View my profile on LinkedIn

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Browse the Mobile Solution Directory

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies

Recommended Strategy Book Code Halos

Recommended iPad App Code Halos for iPads

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

Mobile Expert Interview: Carlo Cadet, Perfecto Mobile

On Fire
M6 Mobility Xchange 2014

Last week I spent three days at the M6 Mobility Xchange conference surrounded by wildfires.  The smoke filtered sunsets and glowing skylines at night made for a memorable event.

I like this intimate event.  There were a couple of hundred attendees and excellent content on emerging trends and use cases around enterprise mobility.  There was plenty of time to network and many of my mobility industry analyst peers were there to share insights.

In this interview recorded at the M6 Mobility Xchange, Carlo Cadet, mobile testing automation expert with Perfecto Mobile, shares the details of automated testing strategies for large scale mobile app deployments.  Enjoy!

Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tO2SE3nj1go&feature=share&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

Browse the Mobile Solution Directory

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies

Recommended Strategy Book Code Halos

Recommended iPad App Code Halos for iPads

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

Notes on the Location Based Services Market

By Caleb Benedict, Research Analyst, GIS/IoT, Netcentric Strategies

IBM has recently invested $1.1 billion USD into Location Based Services (LBS) and Application Programming Interface (APIs).  The investment was in the development of BlueMix, a cloud-based service, that when combined with Pitney Bowes' API programs, allow businesses to collect data on consumers based on their location and geography.

GPS enabled smartphones are introducing a whole new precision to LBS.  No longer are companies needing to triangulate between cellular towers to get a general location, when GPS data can identify the exact business location.  This enables location, business type, company name and more to be added to time and date.  Patterns of life can start to be recognized and marketing and promotional campaigns created based upon these findings.

In addition to smartphones, the IoT (Internet of Things) enables equipment, supplies, materials, vehicles, trailers etc., to all be located on a map in real-time.  We will talk more about this in another article.

It is my analysis that investments into business intelligence and meaning-making based on LBS is a requirement going forward for many industries. When user locations are recorded and studied by a cloud-based business intelligence system and strategies adjusted based upon the meaning-making of this data, then you can start delivering competitive advantages.

Benefits of Location-Based Services for companies…

·      Companies are able to study consumer habits based on geography

·      Companies can adjust business practices based on consumer locations

·      Marketers can advertise based on precise locations

·      Consumers can participate in location-based coupons and daily deals

           

Some additional notes from my recent research on the LBS market:

Facebook and Google dominate the market share of LBS - controlling 46% according to a recent Berg Insight report. As long as Facebook and Google continue to purchase companies like Instagram they will continue to dominate.

According to the same report the LBS market will grow at a 16% CAGR through 2018 and Facebook and Google will continue to control roughly half the market share throughout those years.

Heineken has been using Foursquare to allow beer drinkers to check-in when purchasing Heineken beverages. This mobile campaign is aimed at engaging consumers and building brand loyalty by offering the chance to win sports memorabilia as incentives for checking-in when drinking Heineken products.

Facebook’s Instagram is threatening the future of Foursquare by experimenting with a new, in-house location-based check-in function in place of Foursequare’s service.  Foursquare’s major clients are currently Flicker, Vine, Instagram, Pinterest, and Path. If Instagram and their 200 million users switch to an in-house check-in service and replace Foursquare this would dramatically reduce Foursquare’s market share in the location-services market.

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Kevin Benedict

Senior Analyst, Digital Transformation Cognizant

View my profile on LinkedIn

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Browse the Mobile Solution Directory

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

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.