Merchants of Ideas and Innovation

Chennai, India
I work in the Center for the Future of Work at Cognizant.  We conduct original research, analyze the results and share it with the world.  We also study trends from all sources and ponder their implications across many industries.  My focus is most often on mobile computing technologies and systems, and IoT (Internet of Things).  When we meet with large multinational companies, the most valuable thing they seek from us are ideas.  Although we fancy ourselves to be analyst, writers and lecturers, we are in fact - merchants of ideas.

I have been pondering this notion all week.  Yesterday, while working with our IoT (Internet of Things) lab, I asked the question, "Are companies bringing their ideas to us for implementation, or are they coming to us for ideas.  The majority of companies today are coming to us for the ideas on how to take advantage of IoT in their industry. That doesn't mean they don't have ideas, it means they want more ideas and to validate the ones they already have.

No company budgets for projects before there is an idea.  The idea is what starts the process. Companies do not innovate before there is an idea.  Innovation comes as the result of an idea.  Start-ups do not form, angel investors and VCs don't fund and customers don't buy before there is an idea.

Cognizant's IoT Lab
Ideas are golden.  They are the foundation of every successful business.  Ideas change the world, and the competitive field in any industry.

The english once wore thick broadcloth clothing.  Here is how Wikipedia describes it.
"Broadcloth is a dense, plain woven cloth, historically made of wool...it is a dense, blind, face cloth with a stiff drape which is highly weatherproof, hard wearing and capable of taking a cut edge without the need for being hemmed."
For all broadcloth's hot scratchy utility, the english immediately fell in love with silk once they experienced it next to their skin.  Silk clothing was a good idea.  Silk changed the competitive landscape in the clothing industry which impacted global trade, politics, colonial ambitions, wars and economies.  Fort St. George in Chennai, India was built to establish and protect trade including silk cloth.  See this video I recorded earlier this week on it - http://youtu.be/uZC5KZGkDKM?list=UUGizQCw2Zbs3eTLwp7icoqw.

Ideas have enormous impacts.  Many despots have and still do go to great lengths to prevent the spread of ideas.  They can cause revolutions!

I helped lead a large discussion at a global retailer on how to better encourage employees to contribute ideas for innovation, and then how the company could best manage the selection and incubation of them.  They recognized that ideas are critical for success and that they have a shelf-life. Ideas lose value over time.

More and more companies are recognizing that ideas are everything, and that ideas are necessary to be successful.  It is exciting to see how companies are realizing they need formal systems and processes in place to collect and manage ideas.



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Kevin Benedict
Writer, Speaker, Senior Analyst
Digital Transformation, EBA, Center for the Future of Work Cognizant
View my profile on LinkedIn
Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Subscribe to Kevin'sYouTube Channel
Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility
Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies

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

The Economic Winner's Column - Talking Digital Transformation from Chennai India

I have the pleasure of working in Chennai, India this week.  In advance of this trip I did some homework and prepared this discussion on digital transformation, globalization, future job opportunities, and what we can learn from the history of Chennai, India and early America.  Enjoy!

Video Link: http://youtu.be/uZC5KZGkDKM

More awkward technology and travel videos by me (watch out Rick Steves):
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Kevin Benedict
Writer, Speaker, Senior Analyst
Digital Transformation, EBA, Center for the Future of Work Cognizant
View my profile on LinkedIn
Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Subscribe to Kevin'sYouTube Channel
Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility
Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies

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

Real Time Mobile Infrastructure Report - The Challenge

As companies grow in their maturity with enterprise mobility, and gain experience implementing customer facing mobile applications, they quickly begin to recognize the enormity of the task ahead. Legacy systems and architectures struggle supporting a real-time mobile environment.  How big is this challenge?  I just finished a report titled, Real-Time Mobile Infrastructure and have documented many of the key findings in the images below:

Real-Time Mobile Infrastructure [Part 1 of a two-part infographic]


Real-Time Mobility [Part 2 of a two-part infographic]


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Kevin Benedict
Writer, Speaker, Senior Analyst
Digital Transformation, EBA, Center for the Future of Work Cognizant
View my profile on LinkedIn
Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Subscribe to Kevin'sYouTube Channel
Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility
Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies

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

Mobile Expert Interviews: Learning about 3D Modeling Software for Smartphones and Tablets

Complex 3D modeling tools designed for smartphones and tablets are a new and exciting development. In the past 3D modeling tools were too large and required too much memory to work on mobile devices but that is now changing.  In this interview recorded last week in Kista, Sweden, with Michael Beversdorf, Product Director, of SVS Innovations, we learn how 3D modeling technologies, integrated with real-time sensor data, can help you visualize operations remotely.  Enjoy!

Video Link: http://youtu.be/F2LldyKMMS4?list=UUGizQCw2Zbs3eTLwp7icoqw



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Kevin Benedict
Writer, Speaker, Senior Analyst
Digital Transformation, EBA, Center for the Future of Work Cognizant
View my profile on LinkedIn
Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Subscribe to Kevin'sYouTube Channel
Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility
Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies

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

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

I spent last week in Stockholm, Sweden where I spoke and was the Chairman of the EMM (Enterprise Mobility Management) World conference.  Also attending was the CTO of Feedhenry, Dr. Micheal O' Foghlu', and I was able to corner him for an interview.   In this interview we discuss the recent acquisition of Feedhenry by Redhat, and what that means for both Redhat and Feedhenry customers.  Enjoy!

Video Link: http://youtu.be/pTw_a7Fr-Eo?list=UUGizQCw2Zbs3eTLwp7icoqw


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Kevin Benedict
Writer, Speaker, Senior Analyst
Digital Transformation, EBA, Center for the Future of Work Cognizant
View my profile on LinkedIn
Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Subscribe to Kevin'sYouTube Channel
Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility
Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies

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

Human Strategies for Digital Transformation: Views from Stockholm

In this video commentary filmed in Stockholm, Sweden, I walk the streets pondering globalization, competition, the human impact of digital strategies, and then propose some winning strategies. Enjoy!

Video Link: http://youtu.be/BJab7lKr2jM?list=UUGizQCw2Zbs3eTLwp7icoqw


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Kevin Benedict
Writer, Speaker, Senior Analyst
Digital Transformation, EBA, Center for the Future of Work Cognizant
View my profile on LinkedIn
Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Subscribe to Kevin'sYouTube Channel
Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility
Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies
***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and digital transformation analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Kevin Benedict Interviews CCS Insight's Nick Mcquire on 2015 Enterprise Mobility Trends

I had the honor of meeting up with my friend Nick Mcquire this week in Stockholm, Sweden at the EMM World conference.  This enterprise mobility management conference located in the high tech capital of Sweden, Kista, featured many speakers including Google at Work, Intel, Pega Systems, Cognizant, CCS Insights, Red Hat's Feedhenry and many more.  In this interview we discuss what we learned at the conference and the trends we see in 2015.  Enjoy!

Video Link: http://youtu.be/XnvBy8wtMjE?list=UUGizQCw2Zbs3eTLwp7icoqw

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Kevin Benedict
Writer, Speaker, Senior Analyst
Digital Transformation, EBA, Center for the Future of Work Cognizant
View my profile on LinkedIn
Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Subscribe to Kevin'sYouTube Channel
Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility
Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies
***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and digital transformation analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

IoT Sensors Extend Our Physical Senses Beyond Our Physical Reach

IoT sensors extend our physical senses beyond our physical reach and communicate the results  from afar.  3D modeling, 3D printers, and sounds, vibrations and colors on your smartphones can then provide tactile experiences augmented by real-time status data to bring a digital version of reality to you, anywhere in the world via a standard smartphone. 
Wireless M2M or IoT sensors and 3D modeling and visualization tools enable you to see and monitor conditions at distance - in real-time.  Visualization tools like those from SVS Innovations make it possible to digitally model in 3D, with great accuracy, an object or a building and to see the sensor data in real-time.  Visualization and tactile feedback tools can then be used to quickly inform you of changing conditions, alerts, patterns or variations in activity or data patterns.  Sensor data, visualization and tactile feedback tools can truly augment your reality all on your smartphone or tablet.  

Combining sensor data and 3D visualization tools can even take you beyond 3D (longitude, latitude and altitude).  With the addition of time/date, tactile feedback and real-time sensor data,  you can begin adding more dimensions.  Instead of simply viewing a static 3D model of an object, changing colors and other means of visualization can begin communicating actual real-time events, activities and behaviors on the 3D model.  This is powerful and all real today.

Digitally modeled realities enable experts, from anywhere in the world, to work and manage factories, farms and other kinds of operations from distant locations.  The obstacles of the past, lack of information and monitoring capabilities, that resulted in operational blind spots are quickly going away as more sensors are put in place.

I can image near-term scenarios where entire factory floors are digitally replicated and real-time operations can be viewed and managed from great distance.  Every component of the operation can be monitored via sensor data.  Aberrations, out of compliance data, and other faults would instantly cause alerts, notifications and remedies to be implemented.

In the military space, acoustical sensors can now pin-point the location of incoming bullets, rockets, missiles, etc., in real-time and activate various instantaneous countermeasures.

We live in crazy times.



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Kevin Benedict
Writer, Speaker, Senior Analyst
Digital Transformation, EBA, Center for the Future of Work Cognizant
View my profile on LinkedIn
Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Subscribe to Kevin'sYouTube Channel
Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility
Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies
***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and digital transformation analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Kevin Benedict Walks Around Rome Talking about Digital Transformation and Mobility

Again I embarrass my friends and family by walking around cool places talking to myself about digital transformation and mobility.  Enjoy! #JustHavingFun #DadIsEmbarrassingMe #GetThePopCorn

Video Link: http://youtu.be/qQXghyxnEH4?list=UUGizQCw2Zbs3eTLwp7icoqw



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Kevin Benedict
Writer, Speaker, Senior Analyst
Digital Transformation, EBA, Center for the Future of Work Cognizant
View my profile on LinkedIn
Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Subscribe to Kevin'sYouTube Channel
Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility
Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies
***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and digital transformation analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Information, Analytics and Speed are the New Mandates

The reality of information is entirely contained in the speed of its dissemination. ~ Paul Virilio

Information has a shelf life.  Its value diminishes quickly with the passing of time.  In a world of moving customers, employees, vehicles, subcontractors, materials, suppliers, etc., knowing what is happening at a precise time is critical for decision-making, scheduling and planning.  If some information is 90 minutes old, others 45 minutes old, and more available in real-time - you are going to have a real challenge integrating that information and forming an accurate and clear picture of reality!

Optimal efficiency and accuracy, in the scenario above, can only be achieved when the speed of information collection and dissemination is coordinated and real-time.  This means having mobile data communications and sensor technologies in place and integrating it to present an accurate impression of reality in real-time.

For many industries the quality of their information logistics systems is the new competitive playing field.  In history many of the greatest battles were won or lost based on the accuracy and timeliness of the information used to decide how best to maneuver armies, navies and air forces.  Enterprises today are in a similar position.

Legacy IT systems that are incapable of supporting a real-time information collection, communication, processing, analyzing and disseminating environment will be the reason many companies will no longer remain competitive in 2015.

In the past long-term planning was the ticket to success.  As the tempo of business increased, short-term planning became more important.  Today, nothing short of real-term is good enough to compete in a hyper-competitive global market.

Today the efficient and real-time coordination of multiple moving parts is mandatory in many industries.  That means mobile communications and sensor technologies have become an absolute requirement on the front-end, and IT systems that can support real-time on the back-end.  What needs to change in your IT environment in 2015 to support real-term planning and real-time decision-making?

For more on this subject read: http://web.stanford.edu/dept/HPS/Virilio/Virilio_ArtoftheMotor2.html.



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Kevin Benedict
Writer, Speaker, Senior Analyst
Digital Transformation, EBA, Center for the Future of Work Cognizant
View my profile on LinkedIn
Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Subscribe to Kevin'sYouTube Channel
Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility
Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies
***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and digital transformation analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Kevin Benedict's Connected Globe News Weekly – Week of January 11, 2015

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!

Earlier this year, GSMA in its Intelligence Study Cellular M2M report said there will be more than 1 billion M2M connections by 2020. Read Original Content

According to a new report from the research firm Berg Insight, shipments of connected wearables reached 19 million in 2014, up from 5.9 million devices in the previous year. Read Original Content

Over the next few years, Samsung will ramp up its already aggressive efforts in the booming Internet of things, ensuring that within five years all of its hardware will be able to connect to the Internet and investing $100 million this year in its developer program. Read Original Content

B2M Solutions’ mobile software delivers valuable insight and actionable analytics for enterprise customers. Business leaders and managers within the mission critical, rugged mobile enterprise now have operational views of key business and technology analytics affecting performance and productivity. B2M software is developed with specific functionality to help organizations identify and unblock mobility problems as soon as, or even before, they occur, allowing customers to sustain critical business processes and gain competitive advantages. To Lean more visit www.B2M-Solutions.com.  This newsletter is sponsored in part by B2M Solutions

Market watcher 451 Research reported on January 6 that IoT-related mergers and acquisitions were north of $14 billion in 2014 as more than 60 companies were snapped up by Google, Samsung, Intel, Cisco, Qualcomm and others. The spending spree represented an eight-fold increase in IoT-related mergers and acquisitions over the previous year, 451 Research estimates. Read Original Content

By 2017 Samsung Electronics co-CEO Boo-Keun Yoon has said 90 percent of Samsung products will be IoT devices, and the company will hit 100 percent within five years, according to GigaOM. Read Original Content


The China Smart Meter Industry Report says the advancing smart grid construction in China spurred the constant growth of smart meter demand. By the end of 2013, 370 million smart meters had been accumulatively installed in China, and the figure is expected to hit 500 million in 2015. Read Original Content

A new report forecasts global revenue from smart meters will increase over the next decade from $5.1 billion in 2014 to $6.6 billion in 2023. The data from Navigant Research examined the worldwide market opportunities for smart electric meters. Read Original Content

By 2024 there will be an installed base of nearly 1.1 billion smart residential meters worldwide, or 57 percent market penetration according to a new dataset published by Northeast Group, LLC. Read Original Content

In Europe where a European Union directive requires 80 percent of households to have smart meters installed by 2020, penetration stood at 22 percent at end-2013 and is expected to rise to 60 percent by 2019, according to a Berg Insight report. Read Original Content

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Kevin Benedict
Writer, Speaker, Senior Analyst
Digital Transformation, EBA, Center for the Future of Work Cognizant
View my profile on LinkedIn
Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Subscribe to Kevin'sYouTube Channel
Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility
Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies
***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and digital transformation analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Code Halos, Hyper-Personalization and LinkedIn

I write often here about "Code Halos" trends today in mobile apps, websites and across many other channels.  Code Halos are the data that surrounds each of us that includes all the data collected about our clicks, swipes, preferences, transactions, etc., and then used to provide a better and more personalized experience on websites, mobile apps and across many other channels.  In this short video we discuss how Code Halos strategies can be embedded into websites to provide personalized experiences.  Enjoy!

Video Link: http://youtu.be/3Bc-xs_nuRw




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Kevin Benedict
Writer, Speaker, Senior Analyst
Digital Transformation, EBA, Center for the Future of Work Cognizant
View my profile on LinkedIn
Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Subscribe to Kevin'sYouTube Channel
Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility
Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies
***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and digital transformation analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

The Future of Work and You

I have the unique opportunity to work alongside some very smart people where we conduct research, collect data, analyze and write about it.  Our focus tends to be on technology and its impact on people, businesses, societies and economies.

As a result of many discussions with technology and industry leaders, it is my firm belief that it has never been more important to engage in a lifelong pursuit of education and skills development. Education is not something you complete, rather it is a lifelong activity - a lifestyle.  Technology innovations, fast changing business models, transforming economies and evolving markets mean it is highly likely you will have multiple careers, with different companies and in different industries during your working life.  In order to enter and remain in the economic winners' column you will need to constantly prepare and train to compete for new career and emerging business opportunities.

I understand that many people don't like change, and many more would rather not invest in continual education.  Change is often uncomfortable, stressful and distracts from more pleasant pursuits.  I share many of those feelings, but those feelings don't change reality.  The blustery winds of change are  in the air, and they forewarn of global economic transformation and turmoil.  Transformations that can open up many doors to opportunities for those prepared, but pummel those that are not.  There will always be winners and losers in a competition, and the global economy is most definitely a competition.  In a global economy with finite resources and jobs, the winners will be those prepared and with the best playbook to compete at the highest level.

Today entire industries are emerging, while others are disappearing.  Everything is in motion.  Workers must recognize this as the new norm, not an exception.  Jobs, markets, companies and careers are temporary.  Competition for jobs is not a local competition, but a global competition.  Factories, service companies, retail stores, call centers and businesses of all kinds are competing for business against companies in the Philippines, Malaysia, China, India and in many other regions.  Your skills, work ethics and education, and those of your peers, are constantly being considered and compared with other competitors in the global work force.

It is important to think globally today.  Jobs, careers, opportunities and competition are global.  This is great news for those educated, trained and mobile, but a real challenge for those that are not.  In a relatively free and capitalistic global economy you are able to compete for business and jobs globally. Your skills can now be marketed, sold and utilized in a far bigger market.  Your opportunities to make money are greatly expanded. There are far more employment and business opportunities to consider, but the numbers of competitors are also greater.  This is welcome news if you are prepared to compete, but discouraging if you are not.

College graduates must recognize this new reality and plan accordingly. The financial plans and career strategies of your parents are no longer applicable.  Careers and incomes will likely be far more volatile thus requiring one to save more and spend less.  Workers need to constantly monitor industry trends and job markets and be prepared to move and retrain to remain competitive.

In the past your employer managed your career, in the new reality you must "own" the management and development of your career.  You must hone your skills, share your knowledge, and build your personal and career networks.  Never before in history has the ability to write and communicate been more important.  In a digital age, your reputation and presence will be framed by your ability to effectively represent your knowledge, skills and character using digital ink.

Many have scoffed at social networking as a waste of time, or even worse a narcissistic pursuit, but your ability to both discover, and compete for emerging employment and business opportunities in the future may be directly determined by your skills, proficiencies and investments in these areas.


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Kevin Benedict
Writer, Speaker, Senior Analyst
Digital Transformation, EBA, Center for the Future of Work Cognizant
View my profile on LinkedIn
Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Subscribe to Kevin'sYouTube Channel
Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility
Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies
***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and digital transformation analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Kevin Benedict Interviews Corning Inc.'s Digital Transformation Expert Grace Alcivar

When most of us think about digital transformation, it is in the context of how mobile devices, mobile apps, big data, Code Halos, the Internet and the IoT (Internet of Things) are impacting businesses, markets, industries and economies.  Seldom do we think about the communication infrastructure that also needs to be transformed in order to support all of these changes and innovations.  In this interview, Corning Inc.'s digital transformation expert Grace Alcivar, discusses specific technology transformations and upgrades required to support these changes, and shares the details of a digital transformation project at Texas A&M's football stadium.  Enjoy!

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


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Kevin Benedict
Writer, Speaker, Senior Analyst
Digital Transformation, EBA, Center for the Future of Work Cognizant
View my profile on LinkedIn
Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Subscribe to Kevin'sYouTube Channel
Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility
Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies
***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and digital transformation analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Misusing Mobile Apps in the Enterprise

Thinking-Time
As the definition of productive work-time evolves from physically being on a production line or in an office, to anywhere and anytime you are contributing to the goals of your employer, there also needs to be an evolution into new ways of valuing and managing time.

I recently watched, with great interest, a passenger sitting next to me on a plane answering dozens of emails in the course of a few minutes. At the rate of the responses flying off of the laptop next to me, I suspected the emails were not on topics like complex legal briefs, new government policies, innovative business plans or scientific experiments.  I genuinely felt sorry for this person.  It seemed a shame to me, a waste of brainpower to have some very capable communicator (typist at least) answering mass volumes of simple emails when there are great-unsolved issues begging for mental energy and committed time like great public works, innovations, inventions, health and scientific breakthroughs.  These accomplishments require thinking-time, not mindless busy work.

If the passenger’s massive digital stack of messages were the accumulation of days worth of communications and then efficiently dispatched during travel thus freeing up quality thinking-time, then I am a fan of the process I witnessed.  However, if that digital stack represented a typical day, then something is wrong.  We are wasting thinking-time, and that is a travesty.

The human brain has a great capacity to love, inspire, invent, improve, design and solve.  Why would we insert this amazing organ into a mindless process?  We can develop code for that.

Today, mobile devices and apps are NOT being used effectively.  We are using them to reduce and restrict thinking time - thinking that could be dedicated to solving problems, improving humanity, developing relationships and advancing the good.  An effective and efficient use of mobile devices and apps would be to use them to expand thinking-time, by reducing outside interferences and mindless busy work.

Just about anything of substance and value requires thinking-time.  Are companies valuing thinking-time as they should, or are they reducing thinking-time by packing more mindless busy work, data collection and reporting into a day via mobile apps?  I think it is time for each of us to be a bit more critical of the way technologies are being applied.  Are we thinking too small, or not at all?



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Kevin Benedict
Writer, Speaker, Senior Analyst
Digital Transformation, EBA, Center for the Future of Work Cognizant
View my profile on LinkedIn
Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Subscribe to Kevin'sYouTube Channel
Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility
Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies
***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and digital transformation analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

An Interview with World Traveler and BI Expert Mico Yuk

I was thrilled to catch business intelligence expert Mico Yuk at her home office in Atlanta, GA., as she travels so frequently.  She is the founder of BI Dashboard Formula.  In this interview we discuss the state of business intelligence and the impact of real-time and SMAC (social, mobile, analytics and cloud) on BI.  Enjoy!

Video Link: http://youtu.be/Fa_jX4-zMSo?list=UUGizQCw2Zbs3eTLwp7icoqw

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Kevin Benedict
Writer, Speaker, Senior Analyst
Digital Transformation, EBA, Center for the Future of Work Cognizant
View my profile on LinkedIn
Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Subscribe to Kevin'sYouTube Channel
Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility
Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies
***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and digital transformation analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Robotics and Business Process Services - The Interview

Last week I learned much and will share some of it here today.  Although I have worked with Cognizant for over 2 years, I have not had many opportunities to actually meet large numbers of my colleagues.  I have been traveling the world speaking at conferences, teaching and writing.  That was solved last week, however, in Orlando where I was able to meet many colleagues that I had previously only communicated with over conference calls and video chats.

One of those colleagues from the Center for the Future of Work at Cognizant, Rob Brown, is an expert in business process services.  He shared with me the advances robotics are making in the area of business processes.  Not the kind of metal, walking and talking robots we see in movies, but robots that assist humans in their jobs every day.  In this interview Rob Brown explains it.  Enjoy!

Video Link: http://youtu.be/18Iy0eOe_pQ?list=UUGizQCw2Zbs3eTLwp7icoqw




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Kevin Benedict
Writer, Speaker, Senior Analyst
Digital Transformation, EBA, Center for the Future of Work Cognizant
View my profile on LinkedIn
Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Subscribe to Kevin'sYouTube Channel
Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility
Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies
***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and digital transformation analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

The State of Mobile Enterprise Collaboration: Challenges and Opportunities

Today we are honored with a guest post from mobile expert Yaacov Cohen, the CEO of harmon.ie.  In this article Yaacov reviews the findings of a recent report titled State of Mobile Enterprise Collaboration and shares his thoughts on what the findings mean to businesses. I have interviewed him in the past and you can watch that interview here.  Enjoy!

Analyst firm Strategy Analytics predicts that the mobile enterprise business application market will nearly double from $31B in 2012 to $61B by 2018. As we invest more time and energy in mobile, the question remains: are enterprises ready to take on the challenge of providing workers with true mobile collaboration capabilities? To answer this question, we commissioned the first extensive mobile collaboration study engaging over 1,400 Business and IT users. The results demonstrate why merely giving workers the ability to send emails, share files or exchange instant messages no longer cuts it, and what barriers we must overcome to enable enterprise-wide mobile collaboration and productivity.

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In short, our research shows that mobile workers are still struggling to access critical business information as it has become distributed across cloud services and enterprise applications. There is an immediate need for alignment between IT and Business to determine a joint approach to overcome challenges and unlock the mobile opportunities in front of us. With that in mind, I’ve compiled key report takeaways across departments that reveal some of the gains and apparent shortcomings in the quest to realize a truly mobile enterprise.

The Focus is Still on Personal Productivity

The first challenge is that right now, companies are still working towards supporting personal mobile productivity rather than true team collaboration and productivity.

Today’s companies mostly enable their employees to conduct the basics of personal productivity: accessing email, company calendars and contact directories via mobile devices. 96 percent of IT and 80 percent of Business respondents state that employees in their company are able to access email from a mobile device. Business applications affording true enterprise-wide mobile collaboration saw significantly lower numbers, such as 53 percent of IT and 40 percent of Business respondents claiming to have access to Office applications on the go. While these numbers will improve, they show a major discrepancy between employees’ access to tools that boost their own productivity versus tools that aid the team as a whole.

Awareness and Adoption Not Yet Seeing Eye-to-Eye

The need for alignment between IT and Business comes starkly into focus based on our findings about awareness of mobile device policies within an organization. 83 percent of IT respondents claimed they had a policy in place, while only 46 percent of Business users reported knowledge of any mobile policy.
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When coupled with the findings from the previous takeaway about ubiquitous personal productivity tools (mobile email, calendar and contact directory access), the conclusion is clear: if you build it, they won’t necessarily come. If this awareness problem is to be overcome, IT must take on the role of a strategic advisor who enables mobile enterprise collaboration and supports the business to onboard and train employees on critical mobile collaboration capabilities.

Maturity Still Lacking, Outlook Positive

In comparison to the high number of companies providing personal productivity tools to workers, only one-third of companies are currently giving employees access to external collaboration tools that support key business activities like financial forecasting and reporting, project management and real-time collaboration on documents. Furthermore, the results show availability of mobile collaboration tools doesn’t necessarily translate into actual awareness or usage as there is consistently about a 20+ percent gap in what collaboration tools IT claims to offer versus what Business has knowledge of.

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Despite this immaturity, half of IT respondents feel that 2015 will be the “Year of Mobile Enterprise Productivity” which is many more than those predicting a “Year of Enterprise Disappointment.” This positive outlook tells us that while the current state of mobile enterprise collaboration is still immature, those keyed into the space are optimistic about its year on year growth.

SharePoint and Office 365 Lead the Platform Pack, But Other Microsoft Tools Fall Behind

Microsoft SharePoint and Office 365 are the leading enterprise collaboration platforms on desktop and mobile devices, with 44 percent of all respondents reporting access. However, other Microsoft collaboration tools like Lync and Yammer fell much further down the rankings to #4 and #8 respectively. From this we can draw that while some of Microsoft’s products lead the pack, the company as a whole does not yet offer a universal collaboration platform.

This also shows that a one-size-fits-all approach to mobile enterprise collaboration either doesn’t exist yet or is not the answer to most companies’ problems. Vendor lock-in often frightens companies away from going all in on one ecosystem. True mobile collaboration and productivity may not be possible until we see more services that aggregate cloud solutions or notifications together to give workers a useful and important contextual snapshot of what is going on in their company be it in Salesforce, SharePoint, Yammer, SAP or whatever collaboration tools are in place.
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Not Yet Mature, But Gaining Ground

In the end, to realize the true value of a mobile enterprise, collaboration needs to move substantially beyond where we are today. Enterprises must design collaboration initiatives to incorporate multi-modal, real-time collaboration in order to streamline projects that directly aid the completion of critical business processes. This collaboration experience must not only be seamless, but also must consistently surface the most relevant information at the right time, whichever service it comes from. If these major hurdles can be overcome, enterprise productivity will see significant gains because employees and teams will be able to work together efficiently to ‘get the job done,’ – which at the end of the day is what really matters.

For more in-depth information, please see the full State of Mobile Enterprise Collaboration Report. I’d like to hear your thoughts on how you view the current state of collaboration in the mobile enterprise, and how you’re tackling mobile collaboration in your company. Connect with me at on Twitter at @YaacovC.

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Kevin Benedict
Writer, Speaker, Senior Analyst
Digital Transformation, EBA, Center for the Future of Work Cognizant
View my profile on LinkedIn
Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Subscribe to Kevin'sYouTube Channel
Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility
Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies
***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and digital transformation analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Is Email Destroying Productivity? Hear from Expert Jack C. Crawford

"You can't scale, in a digital economy, without enterprise collaboration." ~ Jack C. Crawford
This week I had the chance to meet with and interview Cognizant's Senior Director of Customer Experience Jack C. Crawford.  In this interview we talk about all the ways digital transformation is impacting the way people and businesses interact and communicate with each other.  Enjoy!

Video Link: http://youtu.be/vhe1iiyjz7s?list=UUGizQCw2Zbs3eTLwp7icoqw


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Kevin Benedict
Writer, Speaker, Senior Analyst
Digital Transformation, EBA, Center for the Future of Work Cognizant
View my profile on LinkedIn
Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Subscribe to Kevin'sYouTube Channel
Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility
Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies
***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and digital transformation analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Kevin Benedict Interviews Social Media Expert Gerry Moran

In this interview we learn from Cognizant's social media expert Gerry Moran on how companies can effectively leverage LinkedIn to reach, engage and connect with their markets.  Enjoy!

Video Link: http://youtu.be/HcXF-r73Nk0




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Kevin Benedict
Writer, Speaker, Senior Analyst
Digital Transformation, EBA, Center for the Future of Work Cognizant
View my profile on LinkedIn
Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Subscribe to Kevin'sYouTube Channel
Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility
Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies
***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and digital transformation analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Kevin Benedict Interviews Digital Transformation Expert Ved Sen

This week I am in Orlando, Florida meeting many of the smartest folks in Cognizant and planning our 2015. While at this event I am taking the time to interview some of our global experts on digital trends and strategies.  This interview is with Ved Sen, Global Head, Advisory Services, Social, Mobile and Sensors at Cognizant.  Enjoy!

Video Link: http://youtu.be/1u5gzIQN-us?list=UUGizQCw2Zbs3eTLwp7icoqw


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Kevin Benedict
Writer, Speaker, Senior Analyst
Digital Transformation, EBA, Center for the Future of Work Cognizant
View my profile on LinkedIn
Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Subscribe to Kevin'sYouTube Channel
Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility
Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies
***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and digital transformation analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

IT and Data Security and the Risk to Christmas and the Global Economy

Come let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves. ~ Genesis
I have a sizable collection of books in my library, in fact I have a tower of books in my office that is a danger to small children.  Many of the books in my collection are on the topic of technology strategies for businesses.  This collection represents a passion I have for connecting business strategies and new technologies together to improve business performance.  I have, however, learned over the years that with new technologies comes new vulnerabilities that must be considered as part of the adoption strategy.

Today, 27 missiles can destroy our entire commercial global GPS system, and another 2,465 missiles or laser attacks could destroy every active satellite we have in orbit.  That represents a new and emerging vulnerability to our digital economy.

We have seen demonstrated this year that private and government sponsored hackers can bring down markets, transportation systems, communication networks, financial systems and utility grids.  We have seen this month how cyber-attacks, suspected to originate from North Korea, can dramatically impact an entire industry (Entertainment). Cyber-attacks are fast becoming the weapon of choice for countries and organizations with limited funds and military capabilities.  It is a way to maximize the damage they cause for the investment - a kind of bad guy ROI.
Experts believe that for impoverished North Korea, expanding its warfare into cyberspace is an attractive choice because it is cheaper and faster to develop malicious computer codes than to build nuclear bombs or other weapons of mass destruction. Online attacks can be performed anonymously, another upside for the infiltrators. - AP By: YOUKYUNG LEE, December 18, 2014
For all the benefits technology enables, it also makes us more vulnerable to computer and software failures and cyber-attacks (See Flights Disrupted After Computer Failure at UK Control Center).
Philosopher and Urbanist Dr. Paul Virilio said, "To invent something is to invent an accident. To invent the ship is to invent the shipwreck; the space shuttle, the explosion. And to invent the electronic superhighway or the Internet is to invent a major risk which is not easily spotted because it does not produce fatalities like a shipwreck or a mid-air explosion." ~ An Interview with Paul Virilio." in: Apres Coup Psychoanalytic Association. January 2005.
Today, however, fatalities can result from problems with the Internet and associated systems because they touch so many important systems including healthcare systems (see http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/us/2014/12/12/nr-dnt-feyerick-cyber-security.cnn.html). We have placed nearly all of our systems of importance on the Internet and into the cloud.  Our military runs on a network centric strategy and our economy as well.  Cyber-attacks today are a most serious threat.

Dr. Virilio identified the fact that all new technologies include new and guaranteed accidents or vulnerabilities.  It doesn't mean we don't pursue them, it just means we need to acknowledge the associated risks, prepare for and manage them.

We are hearing a constant drum beat of the successes hackers and cyber-attackers are having in their attacks on our financial and payment systems, and the theft of our personal data.  When will this become a true priority for "C Level" folks?  It is not just their own companies CEOs are risking today, every interaction and transaction connects businesses to individuals.  Our personal data is now intimately tied to the companies we do business with, and as recent events have proven our data is now in real jeopardy.

Shouldn't we, as customers, be looking to penalize businesses with poor IT security practices and systems?  In a world where our data is currency, the protection of our data is vital.  It is a personal and national security issue.  We need a understand the importance of IT security and data to global economies, and then take the necessary steps to protect them.
The original industrial accidents as, for instance, the derailment of a train or the crash of an airplane, were all specific, localized, and particular accidents. They were taking place at a certain place and at a certain moment in time. Now, however, the revolution of instantaneous transmissions brought about by telecommunications makes the accident global." ~ Virilio Paul and Andreas Ruby (Interviewer). "Surfing the Accident. in: Institute for the Unstable Media. Publication "The Art of the Accident." 1998. (English).
I have seen steps in the right direction.  In 2011, the United States military designated certain kinds of cyber-attacks as "acts of war" that would be treated as such.
WASHINGTON—The Pentagon has concluded that computer sabotage coming from another country can constitute an act of war, a finding that for the first time opens the door for the U.S. to respond using traditional military force.  "If you shut down our power grid, maybe we will put a missile down one of your smokestacks," said a military official.  SIOBHAN GORMAN And JULIAN E. BARNES, May 31, 2011
I am no fan of war, as I have a son in the military, but we must recognized the seriousness of attacks that cripple our country's infrastructures, economy and security.

As a passionate mobile industry analyst and enthusiast, I am eager for us to solve these cyber-attack and data security issues. We clearly have a massive global problem that needs solved, and the solution is not just a series of small start-ups with clever technologies.  It is bigger than that.  It is a global economic and security issue.  It needs the highest levels of emphasis and collaboration.

We need to be the vanguards of IT security and data protection.  What are the steps needed?  Here are some ideas to consider:
  • Elevate defense against cyber-attacks to a corporate, IT, economic and national security priority.
  • Recognize cyber-attacks are not just an individual company's IT problem or inconvenience, it is a national economic and security issue.
  • Measure executive's on their company's IT and data security practices and performance and base their compensation packages at least in part on these measurements.
  • Encourage all companies to prioritize IT and data security, and to educate IT staff on how to best respond to cyber-attacks.
  • Develop standards for IT and data security practices.
  • Motivate companies to meet these IT and data security standards by certifying them and publishing the results.
  • Encourage consumers to support certified businesses.
  • Organize independent IT and data security auditors that certify businesses against these standards.
  • Enforce stiff penalties against countries protecting organizations involved in cyber-attacks. 
The digital economy is growing exponentially, but cyber-attacks, left unchecked, will halt the digital economy like the Grinch Who Stole Christmas [data].

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Kevin Benedict
Writer, Speaker, Senior Analyst
Digital Transformation, EBA, Center for the Future of Work Cognizant
View my profile on LinkedIn
Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Subscribe to Kevin'sYouTube Channel
Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility
Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies
***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and digital transformation analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Interviews with Kevin Benedict