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
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.

Managing Mobility in the Workplace: Best Practices with 451 Research, HP and Kevin Benedict

Join me at 9 AM PDST, Thursday, July 24th for a lively discussion with 451 Research and HP on the topics of enterprise mobility, mobile printing, mobile strategies and trends.

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

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

Mobile 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
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
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
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.

Apple iOS and the Enterprise - Latest Developments

My friend and mobile expert Dave Akka shares his insights on the latest Apple strategies and developments to support the enterprise in this guest article.

Following the recent Apple WWDC developer conference, it’s worth looking at what they are doing to make their products more attractive to the enterprise?

iOS: The accidental leader?

As NetApp’s Mike Elgan noted recently, iOS became the leading operating system for enterprise mobility almost by accident, although it might be more accurate to say that it wasn't originally designed for the enterprise or expected to be such a hit.  The iPhone was released as a consumer device like the iPod into a world of feature phones with a small smartphone market dominated by Nokia’s Symbian, while the Blackberry was the fully-locked-down enterprise mobility device of choice.  No one expected that the consumers who bought the iPhone would consider it to be so much better than their work devices that they would break every policy imaginable to use them at work, and kickstart the BYOD or Bring Your Own Device phenomenon.

The iPhone became the dominant enterprise mobile platform for several reasons, including the ease of developing corporate apps, the iPhone’s popularity as a status symbol that made it the choice for senior managers who were able to insist on using it, and a few enterprise-friendly features that were added to iOS over time.  However the biggest reason is that it has a large, loyal customer base that love the device and feel it makes them more productive.

In the pre-BYOD world, it was assumed that consumers wanted usability, photo quality and a wide choice of applications (or the ability to do anything with the device), whereas enterprise users weren't important because it was all about management tools and easy integration into corporate systems. BYOD showed that enterprise users are also consumers, and want the same things from a work phone that they do from a personal one.

A good demonstration of this is that the first time I saw BYOD in action was at the end of a meeting when one participant took out his iPhone, took a photo of the whiteboard we had covered in notes, and sent it to everyone in the meeting.  The reaction around the table was “what a useful device; what else can we do with it?” That team had woken up to the potential of BYOD and enterprise mobility.

The iPad took off in a similar way: originally sold as a media consumption device, it has become the enterprise mobility device to take to business meetings with an array of apps that let you present, collaborate, take notes and network far more effectively than was previously possible, and you can even catch up with that latest TV series on the train on the way home.

Possibly as important as any enterprise functionality is the way that Apple sells and supports iOS devices for business in its retail stores.  I recently had a problem with my iPhone and while it was being repaired (which happened easily and seamlessly, by the way) the store staff were keen to discuss whether I used it for business, what apps and functionality I liked, what requirements it filled and so on. This showed a real commitment to making iOS devices easy for business users to get started with.  iOS devices in the enterprise also lead to Mac sales as you need to use a Mac in order to deploy enterprise apps and settings to iOS.

Apple Adding Enterprise Features

The recent preview of iOS8 shows that Apple is now very deliberately targeting the enterprise mobility market both by reinforcing the user experience that got it this far but also by providing features that make it a more attractive choice for IT.

The newly-announced Device Enrollment Program allows corporate-issued iOS devices to automatically configure and access corporate apps, reducing the time and support needed to get a new device working; and LDAP is a key component as it brings auditability to the iOS deployment with account control and authentication.

Meanwhile, the ability to passcode-protect corporate data on the device, by protecting access to the calendar, contacts, mail, third-party apps and more mean greater security for the enterprise while fingerprint unlocking means the user doesn’t have a headache accessing that data.  VIP messages allow users to keep track of important conversations more easily and even small things like automatic VPN connectivity could make a big difference to the user.

Overall, iOS8 brings advances with:

  • Simplified IT administration and security, between MDM tools; enterprise grade security including encryption, per app iCloud controls and certificate-based single sign-on; and managed book and PDFs to easily deliver content
  • Improved application development, with the TouchID API, document provider APIs, content filtering and extensibility, not to mention the new Swift language
  • Greater ease of use and productivity with improved mail, seamless working between iOS and Mac, improved calendar and peer-to-peer AirPlay

I don't want to go into too much technical detail here, but if you are interested you can find a more detailed breakdown here.

From the enterprise mobility perspective, features like Continuity, which allows users to pick up work where they left off across multiple Apple devices and the ability to create purpose-built keyboards for specific task-related apps could help increase productivity.

iOS is unlikely to completely own the enterprise mobility space in a BYOD world, but it is certainly set to continue its strong performance.

In addition, Apple and IBM announced a partnership yesterday, to aggressively go after the enterprise market.  Here is an excerpt from The New York Times, "In a deal that could deepen Apple’s sales to corporations and strengthen IBM’s position in business software, the two companies announced a wide-ranging partnership intended to spread advanced mobile and data analysis technology in the corporate world."

David Akka, MBA, M.Sc.
Managing Director, Magic Software Enterprises UK  Ltd.
dave_akka@magicsoftware.com

Thanks for sharing Dave!

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

IT Infrastructures and Architectures are Impacting Mobile Experiences - Early Survey Results

Have you taken this year's The State of Enterprise Mobility Report survey yet?  If not, please do as your insights are very important to us.  All participants will receive the final report free.  Here are some early results:

  • 73% of survey participants report their mobile strategies and plans are inhibited by limitations in their current IT infrastructure, design and/or architecture.
  • 83% of survey participants report the demand for mobile apps will force enterprises to make major investments in their IT environment to better support real-time interactions with mobile apps.
  • 80% of survey participants report that less than half of their back-office systems are optimized to support mobile applications.
  • 86% of survey participants report they have back-office systems that are too slow or incapable of supporting real-time interactions with mobile applications.
  • 33% of survey participants report their IT environment prevents them from delivering an optimized mobile application experience.
  • 36% of survey participants report they are dedicating budget to replace or upgrade back-office systems for the specific purpose of enhancing mobile app performances.
  • 65% of survey participants report the changes needed to optimize their IT environment for current and future mobile application requirements will significantly impact their IT budget?
  • 83% of survey participants report they expect business processes will need to change due to the impact of mobile applications on the business.
Please share your views, opinions and insights by taking this short survey and receive the final report free.


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

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

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

Mobile Expert Interview: AnyPresence's Founder Rich Mendis

In this segment, I had the privilege of interviewing the founder of AnyPresence, Rich Mendis on his views of the enterprise mobility market, mobile strategies and his predictions for the future.  Enjoy!

Video Link: http://youtu.be/GvvGl652Q9k?list=UUGizQCw2Zbs3eTLwp7icoqw



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

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

Code Halos - Tracking the Mobile Workforce, Equipment and Other Variables for Optimal Performance

I write and speak often on the need to have a thoughtful Code Halo strategy in addition to your mobile and digital strategies.  Code Halos is the term for the information that surrounds people, organizations, and devices.  Many companies consider Code Halo strategies only for marketing, sales and customer service, but a well thought out Code Halo strategy for work done in the field like maintenance, repairs, asset management, construction and engineering is also important.  Let me try to make the case here.

There are many different objects and variables that can impact the performance of a mobile workforce, especially in the services industry.  In my enterprise mobility workshops I call these things PIOs (performance impact objects), and PIVs (performance impact variables).

Examples of PIOs:
  • People
  • Parts/Supplies/Materials
  • Tools
  • Job locations
  • Equipment (and availability)
  • Transportation (and availability)
  • Vendor (and availability)
  • Subcontractor (and availability)
  • Jobsite access
  • Permits/Approvals
Examples of PIVs:
  • Schedules (dependencies)
  • Qualifications
  • Skills
  • Experience
  • Weather
  • Traffic
  • Condition of equipment repair/maintenance
  • Sickness/Health
  • Funding
Each of these items must come together at the right time and right place to optimize the performance of a field service technician.  I think of PIOs and PIVs in the context of building the first transcontinental railroad in 1869.  In order to be completed and functioning, all the PIOs/PIVs had to come together at the right physical place and time.  If pieces were missing, or misaligned the entire system was delayed or fails.

In an ideal world, we would have full situational awareness.  All of the data from each PIO and PIV would be instantly available to our management system so predictive analytics and artificial intelligence could align all the variables for optimized service delivery.  Full situational awareness does not happen by accident.  It requires a great deal of strategy, planning and execution.

All of the PIOs and PIVs need to be tracked and monitored.  Sensors (IoT), GPS vehicle tracking and smartphones all play an important role here.  The data that is needed to make right decisions, either by a human decision maker or an artificial intelligence system needs to be collected, and as data has a shelf-life, it needs to be timely.  Those on the Titanic knew they were in trouble, but only when it was too late to prevent the trouble.  They would have appreciated good information a few minutes earlier.

Let me provide a scenario for consideration.  A customer calls in and requires repairs to a specialized, expensive piece of equipment.  The repair requires specialized training and skills, certifications, special parts, special tools and experience.  Knowing just the schedules and locations of your field service technicians is not good enough.  You need to know information concerning each PIO and PIV.  In order to optimally provide service to your customer, you need to know and monitor all relevant information, and since most field services teams are mobile, that means mobile technology and wireless sensors must be integrated with as many PIOs and PIVs systems as possible in order to provide the necessary data and visibility to maximize productivity.

When PIOs and PIVs are all connected via a shared network that provides visibility to network members it is called a Network Centric Operation.  A full network centric operational environment may not be economically feasible for 25 service technicians, but for 2,5000 service technicians yes.

If you have an available field service technician without the right experience or qualifications, then that doesn't help.  If you have a qualified, experienced and available field services technician, but without the right tools, equipment, parts or their location is too distant to be of service, then that also doesn't help.

PIOs/PIVs are most often not in one location for easy management.  They are located in many different locations and accessed via many different systems.  Enterprise mobility, sensors, connectivity, integration, dashboards, dynamic scheduling, HCM (human capital management), GPS tracking and event/project management, predictive analytics and artificial intelligence are all required to bring all of these pieces, data and variables together to provide optimal productivity.  Ideally these would be brought together under a considered Code Halo strategy for collecting, analyzing and using data to optimize productivity.



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

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

Speed, Agility, Enterprise Mobility and Better Thinking

Dromology - the science (or logic) of speed.  This is the definition developed by Urbanist and Professor Dr. Paul Virilio's.  He believed that, "a thing that acts with speed quickly comes to dominate that which is slower."  I highlighted this statement in his paper when I read, Speed and Politics recently.  I have observed this phenomena when analyzing businesses and their digital transformation efforts.

In today's business world speed and agility, or the lack thereof, can mean the difference between success and failure.  IT systems of yesteryear are today's anchors dragging down companies.  Business strategies and ways of thinking that brought successes in the past, today prolong their inevitable demise. It is not just the investments of the past that weigh down a business, but old thinking.

Agility is not just a programming and project management methodology, but a business requirement.  I recently attended a talk by Todd Lutwak, a Partner at the VC firm Andreessen Horowitz.  He said the cost of forming and running a startup company is down 100Xs that which it once cost.  Why?  It is due to things like open source technologies, cloud computing, SaaS business models, globalization and LinkedIn.  LinkedIn?  Indeed! He said LinkedIn enables startups to quickly, efficiently and cost effectively find the experts they need in ways never before possible.

All of the innovations and efficiencies Lutwak identified as helping startups, contribute to efficiencies, speed and agility.  No longer does a startup need to invest much of their investor funds into business systems just to start operating.  They can subscribe to SaaS solutions and be operating in 24 hours without significant upfront investments.  This speed enables the startup to focus on the innovative products and services, getting them to market, solving customer problems and making money.  Their focus can be on that which makes the business successful.

I believe the trend in enterprise mobility away from expensive on-premise MADP (mobile application development platforms) to MbaaS (mobile backend as a service) business models and solutions align with Lutwak's observations.  Companies don't want to make massive budget, time and resource commitments to platforms that may restrict their future agility and speed to market.

Many companies today believe the only way they can be successful in the future is to buy startups, or spin-off their own startups and build up from there.  They have concluded that the fossilized thinking, processes and systems of the traditional business are not conducive to future success.  That is sad, but often an all too accurate conclusion.

Let's just make sure that we build the next phase of our businesses with speed, agility, innovation and creative thinking at the core.



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

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

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