Healthcare, Mobility and Digital Transformations

Healthcare is one of those industries that will be most impacted by SMAC (social, mobile, analytics and cloud) developments.  It is information based.  Information, as we all know, is easily digitized, analyzed, stored in the cloud, and shared via mobile devices.

Here is a personal example.  Yesterday, I was experiencing stomach ailments and jumped on the website, WebMD.  I then added some reminders on my iPhone regarding health practices that I want to follow.  Ideally, I would engage with my doctor on non-serious issues via a mobile app.  I could record my symptoms and have her review and advise me no matter where in the world I am at the moment.  Our crazy healthcare system in the USA, however, would not know how to handle this simple mobile services or the payment for them.  I can only hope that someday logic will prevail.

Here are some of the key reasons mHealth is being transformed today:

  • The recognized need by providers, insurers, and governments to improve services and reduce the costs of caring for those with chronic illnesses.
  • The emergence, and proliferation of smartphones, broadband internet access, dedicated remote patient monitoring devices, and patient-centric applications
  • Patients increasingly understand how mHealth technologies can help them better communicate with providers and manage their health.
  • The rapid movement toward standards that will form the backbone for interoperability within the health industry.

If you are a healthcare industry software vendor or systems integrator with some clever and cool healthcare related solutions please share them with us in the comments section of this article, or email me at kevin.benedict@cognizant.com.  I would love to learn and write about them.


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

Read the whitepaper on mobile, social, analytics and cloud strategies Don't Get SMACked
Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

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

Mobile Expert Video Series: Eugene Signorini

I was able to spend time with and interview mobility expert and former Yankee Group enterprise mobility analyst, Eugene Signorini, this week in Miami, FL at the Enterprise Mobility Exchange.  He is a brilliant guy with a wealth of knowledge and experience.  Enjoy!

Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=022KZ6sdHLs&feature=share&list=UUGizQCw2Zbs3eTLwp7icoqw


*************************************************************
Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) Cognizant
View Linkedin Profile

Read the whitepaper on mobile, social, analytics and cloud strategies Don't Get SMACked
Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

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

Mobile Expert Video Series: Bill Moylan

I was in Miami this week at the Enterprise Mobility Exchange 2013.  While there I met up with mobile expert Bill Moylan, Global VP of Alliances for ClickSoftware, and interviewed him about new "context aware" mobile apps.  Enjoy!

Video Links: http://youtu.be/ztoL-CqTaXE



*************************************************************
Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) Cognizant
View Linkedin Profile

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

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

Mobile Expert Video Series: Bob Egan

This week I had the privilege of meeting and interviewing renown mobility expert and industry analyst Bob Egan.  In this interview we focus on failure.  How can a company guarantee their mobility project will fail!  Enjoy!

Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iq1mw77GOhI&feature=share&list=UUGizQCw2Zbs3eTLwp7icoqw


*************************************************************
Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) Cognizant
View Linkedin Profile

Read the whitepaper on mobile, social, analytics and cloud strategies Don't Get SMACked
Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

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

Mobile Data as a Competitive Advantage

The success of companies today is less dependent on their physical assets, and more dependent on their ability to competitively utilize data.  Just think of companies like Kodak, Borders, Blockbuster, etc., that had great physical assets but could not effectively make the transition into the data driven digital era.  In the new whitepaper Code Rules: A Playbook for Managing at the Crossroads, the authors Malcolm Frank, Ben Pring and Paul Roehrig provide examples of this theory and recommendations for supporting it.  

This theory resonates with me.  I speak weekly with service companies that want to support a real-time environment that will provide situational awareness of all field operations, but their IT infrastructures are not capable of supporting a real-time environment.  This is a problem as it prevents effective use of data which limits their competitiveness.

Let's image a scenario as follows - two service companies are competing for a large industrial HVAC (heating, ventilation, air, condition) contract.  Company A can commit to an eight hour SLA (service level agreement) to be onsite for repairs.  Company B can commit to a two hour SLA.  Which company has a competitive advantage?

Company B has full and real-time situational awareness of the location, job status and qualifications of all of their employees and resources and can quickly and dynamically change their assignments and schedules and get them to the point of need.  Company B has a better "logistics of information" system which results in a competitive advantage.

Think about what it takes to support a real-time environment.  It requires a different kind of IT architecture and infrastructure than many companies have today.  It would be a mistake to think this is an enterprise mobility problem.  It is a company problem.  Today, real-time data is everything.  It is not enough to only review end of quarter numbers.  If there are problems in your processes or operations, they should be recognized and fixed as they happen.


There is a saying I read the other day that I really like, "If your customers are adopting technology at a faster rate than you are supporting it, you are opening up an opportunity for your competitors."

Service companies need to recognize there are important sources of data (code halos) around at least five specific areas that should be properly managed and utilized:
  • Customers
  • Products/materials/supplies
  • Employees
  • Partners
  • Enterprises/Organizations
This data needs to be captured, processed, analyzed, reported and acted upon in real-time.  Although mobility is a key component of this, the IT infrastructure of most companies needs to be updated to support it, and management must have a business strategy in place that prioritizes the recognition and exploitation of "code halos" in all of their plans.
*************************************************************
Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) Cognizant
View Linkedin Profile

Read the whitepaper on mobile, social, analytics and cloud strategies Don't Get SMACked
Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

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

Mobile Apps for Short-term Projects

I had the privilege of speaking before a group of service sector leaders this week in Chicago, Ilinois on the 95th floor of the John Hancock building.  During this event I had the opportunity to speak with many field services professionals about their operations and strategies.  Many of the challenges these folks face are the typical ones around change management, process re-engineering, mobile device selection and connectivity.  However, I also heard about the need to quickly develop mobile apps for short-term projects, a recurring issue in many construction, inspection and engineering related projects.

There is a significant segment of the "hard hat" market that needs project based mobile apps.  These apps must be quick and easy to develop as they may only be used for three months on a particular project.  The ROI needs to be a matter of days, not years.  During those three months, however, project management and the profitability of the project could realize great benefits from having real-time data collection, reporting and collaboration via mobile devices.

I think a project-based mobile app may need to include a quick data collection and reporting template that is pre-integrated with a database and reporting tool. Otherwise, the integration and report generation work might take longer than the project.
*************************************************************
Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) Cognizant
View Linkedin Profile

Read the whitepaper on mobile, social, analytics and cloud strategies Don't Get SMACked
Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

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

Mobile Marketing, Business Analytics and Code Halos

In an article I published earlier this week, Digital Transformation, Code Halos, Analytics and Mobility, I provided an overview of the concept of Code Halo™.  The idea is that nearly all organizations, brands, products and people are surrounded by a halo of data.  Companies that recognize the value of code halos will develop new business models and IT systems to utilize these code halos to better engage with customers and prospects, deliver more relevant content and employ precision marketing and support campaigns based upon known interests and desires.

Today I want to explore the role of mobile marketing and how it relates to code halos.  First, let's review the four basic elements of a "logistics of information" system that can derive value from code halos:
  1. There must be effective data collection strategies - Often in the form of mobile apps, loyalty programs and online commerce sites that enable a customer to opt-in to various programs, campaigns and deals and share their personal preferences.  This is how you begin to collect and harvest useful data from your customers' code halos.
  2. The system must uniquely identify and recognize a user.  This identification is associated with a code halo.  This recognition enables the IT and e-commerce systems to customize and personalize content, which provides a more relevant and positive experience for the customer.
  3. The ability to recognize patterns, find meanings, and to spark new ideas and innovation by analyzing, comparing and combining multiple code halos is another important development.  Here is an example - Store number 2 recognizes that a sub-set of their customers all share similar code halos - which includes product preferences, lifestyles, demographics and buying habits.  Store number 2 also closely analyzes the code halos of their suppliers' products, brands and target customer profiles.  As a result, Store number 2 can introduce new marketing campaigns and products that very closely align with the preferences and tastes of their individual customers and sub-sets of customers.
  4. Each campaign or program roll-out is continually analyzed and optimized to improve precision and future results.
Point number one above is effective data collection strategies.  In an age of digital transformation, data collection can often be facilitated via mobile apps, social networking analysis and e-commerce/shopping sites.  Mobile apps have the added luxury of being location aware.  Location, preferences, searches, shared opinions, buying history, time of day, etc., can all be collected via mobile app interaction and added to your code halo.

Analyzing a code halo, however, does not drive value or provide a competitive advantage.  The analysis should result in personalized content being sent to the mobile app of the customer or prospect.  This precision marketing, based on analyzed code halo data, will as a result, drive an increase in sales and company value.  

The three biggest challenges now for companies are:
  1. Recognize code halos and implement business strategies to utilize them.
  2. Implement a logistics of information system to manage and utilize code halo processes.
  3. Spark innovation by comparing and combining various code halos and the resulting insights.
  4. Utilize the analysis of code halos in ways that add value to your company.

*************************************************************
Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) Cognizant
View Linkedin Profile

Read the whitepaper on mobile, social, analytics and cloud strategies Don't Get SMACked
Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

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

Digital Transformation, Code Halos, Analytics and Mobility

A retailers' mantra throughout history has been location, location location.  This is always important, but perhaps of less value than other innovations caused by digital transformations today. The ongoing digital transformation of many industries has created new competitive playing fields that are increasingly related to data.  The winners are those that can more quickly collect, analyze, report, make data driven decisions and capture value from the data.

The data that surrounds customers, partners, companies and individuals is called "code halos™" by my colleagues at the Center for the Future of Work in their new whitepaper Code Rules.  It is their analysis that companies that understand and manage code halos most effectively will be the winners in their industries.

Let me paint two scenes for you.

1) A brick and mortar retail operation is located on Main street, advertises in the local newspaper and via the Yellow Pages.  Greets their anonymous customers at the door with a cheerful "hello" and waves goodbye when they purchase their products from the store.  The store does not know or track their customers' names, preferences or the products they purchase.

2) A brick and mortar retail operation recognizes the value of being on Main street, but also in having a strong web and mobile presence, tracking their customers via loyalty and opt-in online/mobile marketing campaigns and providing customized experiences and marketing that meet the preferences of each individual customer based on collected and analyzed data.  As a result, they have mobile apps, websites and enable customers to document their preferences, likes and favorites.  Each customer has an account that enables the retail store to see their personal details and track their purchases, interests and buying habits, etc.  The retailer analyzes the data, and then provides a customized and personal buying and marketing experience for them.

This is a simple illustration of the differences in how retail companies may engage their customers before and after they recognize the value of code halos.  Store number 2 recognizes that each customer has a code halo of data about their demographics, buying habits, history, preferences, neighborhoods, lifestyles, etc.  Store number 2 collects the data and uses the data to improve their marketing and customer engagements, while store number 1 does not.  Which store do you think is going to be more competitive?  I believe store number 2.

In most military organizations today, they believe the effective use of data or the "Fifth Dimension" of warfare is critical.  The first four dimensions are land, sea, air and space.  Recently the fifth dimension has been added to emphasize that organizations and nations must now learn to effectively use data defensively and offensively in times of conflict.  Military organizations, much like companies in the commercial sector, must now compete in the fifth dimension and the management of code halos.

Recognizing the importance of code halos and the fifth dimension of warfare is not enough, however.  Organizations must employ what is called a "logistics of information" systems capable of supporting a competitive environment.  This is not easy.  Store number 1 mentioned earlier does not have a code halo strategy or the logistics of information system in place to be competitive.  They are not even capable of putting a team on the field.

What must be included in order to successfully employ an effective "logistics of information" system that can process and utilize code halos?  Let me list a few:
  1. Effective data collection strategies - often in the form of mobile apps, loyalty programs and online commerce sites that enable a customer to opt-in to various programs, campaigns, preferences and deals.  This is how you begin to add to and harvest useful data from your customers' code halos.
  2. The ability to recognize a unique customer, their code halos and to cater to their preferences and customize their marketing and buying experiences based on analyzed data.
  3. The ability to recognize patterns, find meaning and to spark new ideas and innovation by analyzing multiple code halos is valuable.  Here is an example - Store number 2 recognizes that a sub-set of their customers' all share similar code halos - product preferences, lifestyles, demographics and buying habits.  Store number 2 also has visibility into the code halos of their suppliers' products, brands and target customer profiles.  As a result, Store number 2 can introduce new marketing campaigns and products that very closely align with the preferences and tastes of their individual customers and sub-sets of customers.
  4. Following each marketing campaign or program roll-out, the data is analyzed and optimized to improve precision and future results. 
These four steps require an effective "information logistics" system.  Do you have it?

*************************************************************
Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) Cognizant
View Linkedin Profile

Read the whitepaper on mobile, social, analytics and cloud strategies Don't Get SMACked
Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

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

What Does Research Say is the Competitive Advantage of Data?

The explosion of mobile devices, e-commerce and "The Internet of Things" is introducing massive amounts of new data into our ecosystem.  Some companies ignore this data for all but the most tactical explorations, but others are revolutionizing entire industries by recognizing the value of this data and taking advantage of it.

My colleague, Ben Pring, has been conducting a lot of research this year on the impact of business analytics, big data and other fast emerging business strategies on a company's ability to compete.  In this guest post Ben shares his latest findings.

What one key characteristic separates today’s high-flying outperformers – such as Apple, Google, Amazon, Netflix and Pandora – from fast-followers, wannabes, and laggards? It’s a precision focus on the information that surrounds people, organizations, products and processes – what we call Code Halos ™ – to build new business and commercial models. These leading companies have realized that the data – or Code Halo – that accompanies people, organizations and devices contains a richness of business insight that far outstrips the value of physical assets that have historically underpinned market leadership. Conversely, companies that have missed or misunderstood the Code Halo phenomena are now struggling to cope in markets that are moving at warp speed; some, in fact, have already succumbed.

We are in the early stages of an exciting and important new era in which Code Halos radically reshape the rules of business competition. Built on the SMAC Stack ™ (social + mobile + analytics + cloud technologies), Code Halos are being harnessed to help enterprises advance from old-world industrial models (premised on physical assets) to new structures informed by by digits.  Our study of Code Halos, in fact, reveals a new “crossroads” that businesses across industry must navigate to achieve sustained market prosperity and avoid what we call an “extinction event.”

From Personal to Business Code Halos

Each one of us is creating our Code Halo with every click or swipe of our phone, tablet, laptop, Glass, Nest, FuelBand, dashboard, or other smart device. Every transaction we make, every “like” we record, every preference we note, is building a digital fingerprint of who we are and what makes us tick. Our Code Halos, which have been building and deepening as more and more of our lives have become digitized, contain a multiplicity of attributes that reveal our likes, dislikes and behaviors, from recommendations of  great new books to  personalized radio stations that play our favorite  songs, many of which haven’t left their CD cases for a million years.

The Code Halos that exist around individuals are unlocking incredible new value for all of us and for the companies that we do business with.  But the Code Halo story doesn’t end in the consumer world. More and more smart companies are realizing that the concept of Code Halos isn’t confined to (relatively) simple B2C activities, such as book selling or online music. Instead, they’re recognizing that their very organizations have a Code Halo and that within their organizations they have hundreds, thousands, millions of Code Halos, made up of every digital interaction with every smart device they touch across “the Internet of Things”  (all of which of course have their own Code Halos).

This realization is sending profound shock waves through board rooms, as forward-thinking business and technology leaders begin to see the impact that the management – or mismanagement of Code Halos – has on corporate fates. In fact, many are now coming to grips with Code Halo intersections and how they can impact every meaningful aspect of their business operations, from design, to production, to selling, to talent management.

Winning in the New Code Rush

Whether it be the hipster in San Francisco using Square Wallet on his morning latte run or the engineering conglomerate getting its turbines to Tweet or the Singaporean government establishing its homeland as a “living analytics” test bed, the leverage of Code Halo thinking is making businesses big and small think about how the code they generate can collide with the code generated by other people, devices, and organizations. And, perhaps more importantly, how this data can be mined to create new products and services that are genuinely innovative.

To learn more about Code Halos, download our white paper at unevenlydistributed.com.

Ben Pring co-leads Cognizant’s Center for the Future of Work. He joined Cognizant after spending 15 years with Gartner as a senior industry analyst researching and advising on areas such as cloud computing and global sourcing. Prior to Gartner, Ben worked for a number of consulting companies including Coopers & Lybrand. His expertise in helping clients see around corners, think the unthinkable and calculate the compound annual growth rate of unintended consequences has brought him to Cognizant, where his charter is to research and analyze how organizations can leverage the incredibly powerful new opportunities that are being created as new technologies make computing power more pervasive, more affordable and more important than ever before. Ben graduated with a degree in philosophy from Manchester University in the UK. He can be reached at Ben.Pring@cognizant.com.
*************************************************************
Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) Cognizant
View Linkedin Profile

Read the whitepaper on mobile, social, analytics and cloud strategies Don't Get SMACked
Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

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

SMAC Expert Series: Paul Roehrig and Ben Pring

How does big data impact companies today?  How are companies competing on the use of business intelligence?  What business transformations and business model changes are taking place due to these capabilities?  Watch this interview that I recorded with Cognizant's Co-Directors of the Center for The Future of Work, Paul Roehrig and Ben Pring as they share their latest research with us.  Enjoy!

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


*************************************************************
Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) Cognizant
View Linkedin Profile

Read the whitepaper on mobile, social, analytics and cloud strategies Don't Get SMACked
Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

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

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