Thursday, December 27, 2012

Showrooming

A new phenomenon, driven by technology, specifically smartphones, is causing retailers to change their marketing and selling  strategies. It's being called Showrooming, and relates to the practice of a growing number of shoppers to go to stores, and compare the process to online prices and buy at cheaper prices online rather than in the store.

Check out this post.

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Where are those damn keys!

You know those things you sometimes waste time trying to find? Like the car keys you left in the pocket of a rarely used jacket. Or the remote. Or the cat.

Help is at hand. It's called StickNFind. it's a small sticker that is bluetooth enabled. You just stick it on whatever you have a habit of losing and as long as it is within 100 feet, you can find it using your smartphone. All you do is place the sticker on the item you have a habit of misplacing. Great idea! Here's a better description.Great stocking gift!

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Why Amazon had to Cannibalize its own e-Reader


Amazon was first off the mark with its e-Reader, the Kindle. Then it had to produce a new tablet, the Fire, to meet competition. Tablets of course are very good for reading books and magazines. So tablet sales are taking off and Kindle sales are dropping. The graph in this article shows dramatically the effect of these trends.

Monday, December 17, 2012

The Future of Outsourcing

This year has seen a large decrease in outsourcing, as companies like General Motors and Apple move some of their operations in house and back to the US. Thee are several reasons for this, one of them being that costs in some of the major venues for outsourcing, like India, have been increasing such that some activities are not as economical for outsourcing as they were a few years ago.

Adam Smith predicted this in 1776, in his classical economic study, The Wealth of Nations. In that tome, he described in great detail how companies would take their production activities to the place where labour is cheapest.and that over time those wages would rise until some sort of equilibrium is reached and and then they would seek out other venues for their activities.This is happening with outsourcing now, and we will see further change over the next year. However, there is no way that outsourcing will end, as there will always be opportunities for it with different products and services. Check out this view on the subject.

Sunday, December 16, 2012

Internet Addiction Disorder

IAD is a disorder that may get formal recognition next May. It's a potentially destructive disorder, stealing time and ruining relationships. Here's an article on the subject.

Friday, December 07, 2012

How Indigo is Rebuilding its Supply Chain

Indigo Books and Music is Canada's largest book retailer and therefore has been facing major challenges as the popularity of e-books grows. Since e-books are generally bought online, less space is needed for physical stock in stores, and yet that space needs to be fully utilized. Diversification is key to success in this situation.

This article by David Trites shows how Indigo has achieved success in its efforts to remain relevant in today's changing world..

Friday, November 30, 2012

IBM 's Workforce in India Now Exceeds Their US Workforce

It is well known that IBM, like most other large IT companies, has been outsourcing it's jobs to India and other countries for years, And it was just a matter of time before the Indian workforce exceeded that in the US.

Well, now it's happened. Exact numbers are hard to come by, because IBM stopped reporting them a few years ago. However, several sources indicate that IBM has about 90,000 US workers and about 110,000 workers in India.

In the grand scheme of things, this is not necessarily a bad thing. Adam Smith, in his great work "The Wealth of Nations" wrote eloquently that in a free enterprise global economy, jobs would migrate to the areas with the lowest wages. Recent stats show that the average wage in the IT industry in India is $17,000 per year, very low by US standards, or Canadian standards for that matter.

Over time, Smith said, the wages in the low wage country will rise, until some sort of parity is achieved. Then the outflow will stop and perhaps reverse. In the meantime, consumers will have benefited from lower cost goods and services, giving them higher discretionary income, which means higher levels of savings, higher levels of investment, growth in business and the rise of home grown employment in, say, service industries, where wage rates are more comparable globally or in industries that cannot be outsourced. The outsourcing country will benefit from higher exports, because the other countries have more money to import with, creating jobs in export industries and helping to offset the lower employment from outsourcing..

What that means is that everyone benefits. Win-win. That's the theory.

You can read more about the IBM employment situation in this article.

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Google Planning to Extend Their Search Capability

Google has been conducting a study intended to tell them what information people need that they are not using Google for. In other words, they want to extend their search capabilities to cover that additional information.

One of the avenues for them to follow is context specific, location based searches. It is directed to the use of mobile devices and recognizes that people are often travelling or just in transit from home to work and want particular information along the way. For example, they might get to a bus stop and want to know when the next bus is coming. Or they might want to go to a particular night spot and want to know the wait time.

The system of course depends on using GPS chips to track peoples' movements and pinpoint their location at any time, raising privacy issues. If people don't want to be tracked, they can turn the GPS function off in their phone.

For a summary of the research Google is doing, follow this link.

Monday, November 26, 2012

Customize Those Websites for Good Marketing

More companies are starting to customize their websites to respond to the particular needs and desires of their customers. This can be done by tracking some basic data, like what they have searched for before, where they are from, what the weather is like where they are from, their demographic, even the device they are using to connect to your website.

The challenge then is to incorporate the data into the actual style and content of the website they see. That means if they are using a tablet, then the website should be specifically designed for a tablet. Same for a smartphone. There is web development software to accomplish this.

Some of the other information can be linked directly to content, such that if, for example, they searched for hand made kitchen furniture previously, then when they log in, they can be presented with ads, say, on a new line of locally made kitchen chairs. Or if they are from North Bay and it is January, they might be presented with a line of heavy sweaters.

Specific customer oriented marketing is the wave of the future in online marketing. Check out this link for more.

Friday, November 16, 2012

Location Based Marketing Moves Ahead

Cisco announced last week a new technology that can be used to track customers in or near their stores. It uses the customers' cell phone signals, transforming them into WiFi signals, which can then be transmitted back to the store WiFi and analyzed. The technology can track their location quite accurately. In addition, if the customer has previously purchased at that store and agreed to a store promotional campaign, the technology can bring up their past history of shopping and their preferences. All of this big data is then analyzed and used to offer the shoppers special deals on the spot. It's a classic location-based marketing exercise using big data analysis techniques. It's a technology that has a very bright future, since smart phones are holding more and more information and are about to be used for payments, adding additional information to the mix. See this article on Cisco's announcement.

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Given Tablets but No Teachers, Ethiopian Children Teach Themselves

The One Laptop Per Child Organization is starting to show some very positive results. Self-learning works! Check out this article.

MOOCs, an Approach to the High Cost of Post-Secondary Education

While not a panacea (none of those actually exist) MOOCs point the way to a way to bring about radical change in the educational system. Check this article.

Monday, November 12, 2012

Strategic Social Business

The use of social networking in business is something that. like other business applications requires a good deal of planning and coordination. It isn't enough to just set everyone loose on conventional social networks and think that it will somehow lead to something good. It might not. Social networking is a potential game changer and can significantly alter relationships within the organization, It can lead to the development of new influencers and result in the decline of managerial authority. That's not necessarily a bad thing because we know that the effect of social networking is to turn the organization upside down in a hierarchical sense and generally level the organization out. But if its going to be beneficial to the organization in terms of productivity and doing a better job of serving customers, then that requires enough planning to ensure that the set up of the networking is consistent with corporate goals and strategies. In fact, it should be considered a key part of the strategic planning. Check out this article on the subject.

Friday, November 09, 2012


Secure Web Data under PCI Requirements

The Payment Card Industry's requirements for protecting credit card data can be challenging and confusing for those who must comply. Many hire consultants or Public Accountants to help them..

All retailers need to understand how to protect the credit card and other customer data that comes from online transactions. According to Verizon's 2012 Data Breach Investigations Report, retailers are the second leading source of leaked data (after the hospitality industry), accounting for 20% of total breaches.

For an interesting report on this topic by the staff of InformationWeek, click this link.

Monday, November 05, 2012

Movement Tracking Software - The Next Big Thing

As our devices become more and more powerful and more of them contain cameras, the time may be ripe for some useful movement tracking software. For example, if you get up an leave a room, such software could ensure that your TV is turned off, the lights are softened or turned off, and appliances, like the oven are off.

Tracking software could also learn your gender and study your facial expressions to determine whether you are about to make a decision. It could track your movements in a store, for example, and note your hesitation in looking at a new car and offer you a discount on the spot.

Speaking of cars, your car could keep an eye on you and determine if you are falling asleep and then warn you or even pull over to the side of the road.

These are only some of the technologies under development as we speak (read?). IT promises to be a game changer in many areas. For some more on the developments in one company check this link.

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Gartner's Top Ten Trends for 2013

Gartner Group has come out with their annual publication of the top ten trends in technolgy for 2013. For the most part, the list is predictable. The growing importance of mobile devices is featured, for example. But they won't replace PCs any time soon. PCs are deeply embedded in the work world, and in fact most of the applications used in business cannot be used effectively on mobile devices. Maybe eventually, but not yet. On the other hand, the number of devices in use to access the internet, and the sheer volume of usage might outstrip PCs at any time.

Other predictions feature the growing use of the cloud for personal purposes. This makes sense in a multi-device world, where people on the move will want to have access to their data without always having to synchronize their various devices.

And the growth of big data and data analytics is an important trend that cannot be denied.

For an article on the Gartner Trends, check out this link.

Monday, October 29, 2012

Big Data for Government

A new Study released last week for the purposes of advising on policy in the US government provides a cogent analysis of the opportunities available to government through big data.

Big data has evolved as a term denoting the vast quantities of structured and unstructured data now available on the Internet and on various Information Systems. There has been a growing interest in the data from businesses and governments over the past year. Tools to analyze the data are being implemented in a wide number of organizations.


"The report pointed to possible values of Big Data analysis for the federal government, including determining the most effective medical outcomes across large populations, analysis of health anomalies in the hospital or home through sensors, new levels of real-time traffic information, a better understanding of the most effective online learning techniques, better fraud detection, or improved weather predictions."

The analysis of big data was incorporated in a significant big data initiative launched by the Obama administration earlier in the year. This new report marks a significant contribution to the policy issues that are now being addressed.

For more, check out this article.

Friday, October 12, 2012

The Perils of Giving Out Your Private Information

Check out this article on this important topic. Something we need to keep reminding ourselves of.

Thursday, October 11, 2012

Mobile Phones - A Revolution

IT may be an understatement to say that mobile phones have changed the way we communicate with each other. IT goes much deeper than that. They are changing the way we as humans interact with each other in profound and revolutionary ways. never in the history of humanity have we been in such close contact with each other. And never have so many events been so transparent to so many people. Pictures and videos of significant events can circle the globe in seconds, and change the way people perceive them and their implications. This has already led to the downfall of governments.

CNN is recognizing this with a new series "Our Mobile Society" recognizing the profound effect of mobile technology on our society.  

Friday, October 05, 2012

Mobile Marketing

The shift from traditional PC's and laptops to mobile devices such as smart phones and tablets has had numerous implications. One that has been particularly under scrutiny lately is that of marketing. Not too long ago, internet marketing was something new and the world of marketing was severely shaken up. Marketing strategies were forced to embrace the internet and to find ways to reach customers without aggravating them by slowing down their browsing. 

The old traditional marketing in pre-internet days saw ads transmitted to a very passive audience on TV or in the print media. On the internet, however, the audience is far from passive - one click and they're gone. So marketing had to be less intrusive, quicker and more instantly engaging. It also had to combine internet and non-internet marketing in a way that the two complemented each other. Marketing has fully adapted to this scenario. The advent of social media and the consequent social marketing has extended that paradigm.

Now users are moving in large numbers to mobile devices, and their tolerance for advertising and interruptions is even more limited. Mobile users are often on the run, and want to do things very fast. For example, they may be on the street and want to find a particular restaurant and make a reservation. The last thing they want is to wait through an advertisement on a clothing store sale.

It presents a real dilemma for advertisers.Just how quick can they make their advertisements and still get their message across. One answer, of course, is to shorten the message. Make it not more than 5 or 6 words. For example, "Hillside Buick sells buicks and pontiacs" or "Big sale at Hillside Buick"

Those may not be the best examples, but the point should be clear. Even flash ads may come into vogue - where Hillside Buick is flashed on the screen for a half second, creating a subliminal impression. 

With people using Facebook more now on mobile units than on computers, that company now faces these problems in spades. Read about it in this article.


Tuesday, October 02, 2012

F-Commerce -How Useful is it?

Facebook's stock price will only improve when investors see that businesses are finding it a useful tool for marketing. That's the only way that Facebook will be a commercial success.

Indeed, Facebook seems a natural. it has many millions of users who are engaged and active. The users represent all demographics except the very young.With a little ingenuity, a demographic can be targeted. Customer feedback can be obtained very quickly. Product endorsements by customers can be provided to other customers and potential customers. In short, all the ingredients are there.

And yet, businesses are often not too sure what to do and how to proceed with Facebook They set up Facebook pages, try to get content into it and generate "likes". But the result is often desultory,

F-Commerce needs to be approached with a strategic plan, one fueled by research and qualified social media experts. It needs to be consistent with corporate strategic plans and executed accordingly. It must be managed as the significant initiative that it is, not as a sidelight. That doesn't mean it will work out, but it will give it a better chance.

Check out this case study.

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Security Threats No Bigger for the Cloud but Different

Alert Logic, a company that provides Security-as-a Service, has released a study they did exploring the types of security threats faced by Service providers handling outsourced systems as opposed to in-house IT operations. They found that the level of security threats is about the same, but the types of threats differ.

The difference comes from the profile of the two types of operation. Cloud providers tend to have a suite of applications along with a single or controlled number of operating systems. In house providers tend to have many different systems knit together. Also they are dealing with the many issues presented by Bring Your own Device (BYOD) trends, which mean the opening of new points of vulnerability.

For a report on the study, check out this article.
Crowdfunding - A Useful Tool for Business Startups

Check out this article.

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

The Importance of Structured Data

The availability of structured data is increasing and is extremely important to the effectiveness and fairness of the capital markets. In this article, some current trends in the development of structured data are outlined.

Thursday, September 06, 2012

Social Marketing - Attract, Interact and Transact

Marketing through social media has become an essential part of most corporate marketing strategies. But not all companies have incorporated the differences in strategy that are called for by social media. Too many of them approach social media as just another advertising channel.

That approach badly misses the point. In the attached article, the authors use the phrase "attract, interact, transact" which aptly captures the essential elements of a social marketing strategy. In particular the interact part says a lot about what is often missing in corporate strategies. The advertising must reach out to the audience and invite participation. For example, instead of saying "Acme widgets have something for everybody", ask the question "Which Acme widgets do you use the most?" or "Which Acme Widgets are most useful to you?"

When the questions and answers appear on the media, people not only feel a part of the action, they can read the answers and get some honest feedback about the product from customers which may help them in using it.  Everyone benefits.

Finding ways to initiate interaction with customers and potential customers takes a lot of creativity, but it's the only to make best use of social media in marketing

Check out this article for some good examples.

Wednesday, September 05, 2012


GETTING PERSONAL CANADA: Investors Hunt Clues in Online Corporate Reports
7 August 2012
Dow Jones News Service
(c) 2012 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

   By Evelyn Juan
Digging through pages of corporate financial reports can be confusing and intimidating.
But for investors looking to buy stock, there are some new ways to navigate through companies' financial reports to gain insight on trends and risks--crucial information that can make or break investment decisions.
Jerry Trites, lead judge for electronic disclosure with The Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants' Corporate Reporting Awards program, said some companies have been moving away from the standard presentation of information, which is non-interactive. Instead, these companies are giving active investors a wide variety of online tools to help them construct their own analysis of the companies' metrics.
Empowering potential investors is part of an effort by some companies to be best-practice leaders. Better informed investors--knowing where a company stands, where it's going andits plan to get there--will make smarter investment choices.
Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. (POT, POT.T), for instance, has a so-called DataTool program in the investors section of its website that allows users to slice and dice several types of data for their own research. Investors can cull historical data on income, cash flow, andeven compensation details of executives. The DataTool also allows users to pull out market figures and track historical data on fertilizer consumption, supply and demand, or world population trends.
Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd. (AEM, AEM.T) has a similar tool called the Interactive Analyst Center that helps investors collect financial and operating data in aggregate form or in charts and ratio diagrams.
"Investors can analyze and create their own indicators out of all that," said Mr. Trites. "A lot of active investors are doing that."
Typically, a company's investor relations portal on its website serves as a database for information about quarterly financials, annual reports, regulatory filings, news and other information that would be of interest to shareholders or potential investors. However, the data are rarely interactive and investors are left on their own to connect the dots when looking for data that could help them see historic or market trends.
For the novice investor looking for clues through the financial reports, Mr. Trites said a good start would be to examine quarterly profitability trends, revenues, and current assets and liabilities.
But beyond looking at financial statistics, Mr. Trites urged investors not to overlook notes that pertain to recent events affecting the company. In assessing risks, for instance, investors should closely look at the management discussion and analysis portion of financial reports, then tie down risk discussions into the chief executive and president's report that both give highlights of the company.
Telus Corp. (TU), which won CICA's overall award for excellence in corporate reporting last year, has a separate section on its website showing how its mergers and acquisition activities affect investors' stock holdings.
Some companies, like Bank of Montreal BMO), also provide the transcript of conference calls with investorsandanalysts, where risks and other issues are more thoroughly discussed by management with analysts.
"Risk has been very difficult to predict," said Mr. Trites. "In the last few years, particularly since 2008, investors want to try to find companies that present best risk profile and still give them some kind of risk return."
(Evelyn Juan writes about financial advisers and their jobs, with a particular focus on news, trends, business strategies, organizational changes, and regulatory issues relevant to the retail brokerage sector in Canada. She also writes about wealth management practice and personal finance issues. Evelyncan be reached at 416-306-2025; evelyn.juan@dowjones.com andis on Twitter @evelynjuan.)
(TALK BACK: We invite readers to send us comments on this or other financial news topics. Please e-mail us at TalkbackAmericas@dowjones.com. Readers should include their full names, work or home addressesandtelephone numbers for verification purposes. We reserve the right to edit and publish your comments along with your name; we reserve the right not to publish reader comments.)
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Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Document DJ00000020120807e887000fq

Data Quality - It's Important to All of Us

Check out this article at this link.

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Six Steps to a Big Data Plan

Managing big data is a big project requiring planning and control. In this article, the author sets out six steps to making a big data plan a reality. They include:

1.Identify missing pieces, whether they be tools or data.

2. Understand the data you have and the data you need.
3. Know what you're trying to accomplish.
4. Find and hire data scientists .
5. Understand speed, manage expectations.
6. Check with end users.


Check it out.

Thursday, August 09, 2012

Financial Applications in the Cloud

Although the cloud has swept the wave of IT systems in recent years, the core financial applications that companies depend on for their meat and potatoes reports and that contain a lot of their most sensitive data from a competitive viewpoint have been slow to move to the cloud. The reason seems to be heavily based on security concerns. The fact is, sometimes security in the cloud can be better than security in conventional corporate systems, but top management is not always aware of this. In fairness, the quality of security does vary.

Another main reason companies cite for not moving their core financial applications to the cloud is the compliance burden, which is related to the security issue but broader.

Large vendors like Oracle and SAP are not deterred by the reluctance shown to date. Both have introduced cloud ready offerings recently, including Oracle Fusion Financials and SAP Financials on Demand. They obviously feel that the concerns can be met. This article explains.

Friday, August 03, 2012

Cell Phones Tell More Than You Think

A study recently released at the University of California in Berkeley, CA has drawn attention to how little people know about their privacy on cell phones. Many people don't know that the police can seize and search them without warrant and even use them to emulate you, that location based advertising is already being used, which means that your location is being tracked, and that some apps use your address book to contact your friends. The study points to a need for greater public awareness as well as a need to review some of the applicable legislation and update it to reflect today's realities. For a summary of the study and a link to the study itself, check out this link.

Monday, July 30, 2012

Mainstream Mobility

Since tablets and smartphones came into existence only a relatively few years ago, they have grown quickly to become part of the formal information systems of organizations. But there have been gaps, one of which has been the difficulty of integrating those mobile devices with the core parts of the information system - the ERP, CRM and BI elements of the system.

But that lack of integration is changing quickly. Now the major large scale vendors, like SAP, offer some integration with mobile units. Generally the difficulty has centered around security issues and differing and incompatible operating systems of the mobile units. These issues are being addressed.

One way to approach the issues is to build apps in the cloud where security can be more closely controlled. Rogers has announced plans along these lines with its new SAP Mobile Apps. Developed in partnership with SAP AG, the new apps act as interfaces with cloud based SAP systems, enabling the users to make use of the power of the SAP functionality while having the freedom of mobility.

Here is an article announcing the new apps and also providing some background.

 

Friday, July 27, 2012

Inplementing Social CRM

Social media. Big data. data analytics. All terms that we keep hearing and that are becoming more and more important to all businesses. Social media makes available all kinds of data in large volumes. These data can be very useful to corporate CRM and often BI systems as well. Most companies have come to realize that, and in fact, the use of big data from social media has run the traditional gamut, from bestowing competitive advantage in the beginning to just remaining competitive. Everyone is now into it.

So the question becomes how to maximise the benefits of mining social media derived data.

One thing is clear, it requires new and probably different tools. Tools that have the capability to handle large amounts of data, that have complex and sophisticated functionality and that can be used to generate customized analytical routines. Now the only way to generate competitive advantage is to be innovative in the way in which your company uses social media data. and, of course, the tools need to be able to interface with your social media connections as well as your CRM system, and possibly your BI system. This is a big challenge.

The article referenced here outlines this challenge and also points to a few tools worth looking at. We will feature other similar articles as they come available.

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Digg and Reddit

Over the past few years, Digg has fallen from one of the top rated online success stories to the status of a relative loser. It's estimated value dropping from over 150 million to a "mere" half million. At the same time, Reddit has continued apace, and is passing Digg as a competitor. Of course, both are competing with Facebook, which also allows posting of articles and news items by users.

It was probably Facebook that did in Digg. But in a recent article, there are some other points that all online business should note. One of them is particularly interesting. The observation is that Digg attempted to improve the experience of its users, adding new functionality and eventually departing from its original simple vision. As a result, the site got more and more complicated and also opened up a greater exposure to bugs, which did occur. So the users got turned off. By contrast, Reddit stayed simple and true to its original concept.

One of the essential elements of any online business is that the website be clean, navigable, simple and useful. Users can get turned off very quickly if it is not all of these things. So when improving your site, be careful of the unintended consequences.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Analyzing Big Data

Big data is a more common occurrence, largely triggered by the growing usefulness of social media for business purposes. There is a vast amount of information on Social media sites about customers, competitors and others that a company can make use of in policy formulation. But they need to analyze the data carefully and rigorously. This requires a lot of computing power.

Normally such computing has been done on large computers in the cloud. PCs would be nice, but they don't have enough RAM capacity to hold the data being analyzed, especially if it is in graphical form.

A logical answer is to create virtual RAM using a PC’s hard drive, which are being made in very large sizes. New software is beginning to use this technique, as evidenced by this article about GraphChi, which is designed for this very purpose. Software like this will give companies an advantage of being able to do their own analysis on their own computers on a secure basis, which should appeal to a number of companies.

Monday, July 16, 2012

The Evolution of PCs and Tablets

With tablets continuing to grow in the marketplace, there is much prognostication about the future of computing and in particular the future of PCs. Laptops or notebooks seem to dominate at present, when it comes to serious computing, but for really heavy duty computing, you still nee a desktop or higher.We often forget that many of the apps we see on tablets and smartphones depend on banks of very powerful servers and networks. Many of Google's offerings are examples of this. So predictions of the demise of PCs and their replacement by Tablets, such as this article, are somewhat premature and likely off base. It may be that for personal use computing,, smartphones and tablet-like devices will gradually replace the laptops we carry around, but that's only a part of the computer technology scene.

It is interesting to speculate on the future of computing, particularly on the business implications of computer technology trends. Clearly we have already reached a world where mobility is a major factor. There is also a good deal of evidence that people are not completely happy with the size of the tablet, which is why Apple is coming out with a smaller one. Also, a lot of people still carry around three devices - a smartphone, a tablet and a laptop. This is not an optimum situation.

For personal use computing, a logical evolution is one where the smartphones and tablets are combined into a single device of current smartphone size, so it can be slipped into a shirt pocket. That does not resolve the problems of screen size, but that can be handled through virtual technology, in which screens are created virtually when needed at any size that might be needed at the time. So people doing presentations shouldn't have to worry about having a projector. They just go to the podium with their smartphone type device, create a large virtual screen that anyone can see, create a large keyboard or other input device for ease of use, and start their presentation. This is the logical direction of our technology development. The famous Corning video A Day Made of Glass, captures the spirit of all this, if not the exact technology.

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Mobile Marketing on the Rise

The idea that mobile phones can reveal the location of potential customers as well as something about what they are doing has long been a dream of marketers. But we are edging closer and closer to such techniques as location based marketing and context aware marketing. The former identifies the location of an individual who perhaps may be walking by a boutique having a sale on certain items. A text message is sent to that person;s phone about the sale. In context aware marketing, the phone may pick up some sounds indicating that the person is at a trade show on technology. They could then get a message about a special offering at that show. Check out Facebook's initiative here.

The question, is whether this is a positive development in marketing or whether it is an intrusion on privacy. What do you think?

Friday, July 06, 2012

Automation  The Economic Game Changer

At first glance, the title of this article seems old hat. Companies have been automating for years. However, business is now going through a wave of automation that is making a major change in the way many businesses operate and is radically changing the nature of the work force.

Amazon,(of course) is one of the leaders. Several years ago, when the company started, it wanted to automate book sales and started by not even having warehouses. However, it found that warehouses were essential in order to fill orders on a timely basis. So it began to build and maintain warehouses for its books. The was somewhat of an unhappy development, since it raised the operating costs of Amazon and helped to trigger the need for a new business model to cover those costs. After several years of floundering, it did find a business model that worked - one that involved a lot more than selling books.

Now, however, Amazon is employing robots in their warehouses -  robots that move shelves of books around as needed, essentially taking the product to the humans rather than having the humans lug it around. This is more efficient and marks part of the nature of the change taking place. Workers walking the warehouse being replaced by workers at electronic workstations.

There is nothing new about workers being replaced by machines. It's been happening since the early days of the industrial revolution, such as, for example, the introduction of tractors into farming. Generally its been a good thing, with new jobs (such as building and repairing tractors) coming along to replace the old ones (plowing fields by horse drawn plows).

What is new is the growth in the number of cases where hitherto human controlled functions are totally automated, requiring little or no human intervention, through the use of automated processes to take over human paper shuffling and robots to take over physical tasks..

The use of robots is growing radically with even general purpose robots being developed that will be able to do a variety of tasks. Move over R2D2!

Check out this article.

Tuesday, July 03, 2012

Shifting Ground for Spam

The good news is that spam through email is on the decline. Apparently all the work that has been put into spam detection and destruction has had some effect. The bad news is that there may be an increased emphasis by spammers on doing their work through social media.

Of course, anyone using tools like Facebook has to be aware of the phony apps that drift through and the occasional suspicious messages. But that may be just the tip of the iceberg and increasingly so. The popularity of social media and its growing use for business certainly makes it an attractive target, so be aware. Check out this article on the subject.

Friday, June 29, 2012


Massive Online Open Courses

Online education just won't go away, despite the frequent failure of several models and its marginalization by conventional institutions. That suggest there is a real demand out there, and that eventually a model will be found that strikes it big.

The latest trend is Massive online open courses or MOOCs. These generally are free, and can attract large numbers of students. In the attached article one university is mentioned that has had as many as 100,000 students in one class. Obviously this coverage would not be possible in a conventional physical setting.
Online education has the advantage of being affordable, something that conventional education is increasingly not. Student loans are growing to unsustainable levels, and the dearth of starting jobs means that repayment of those loans is growing more difficult if not impossible. And who really wants to start their life with $50,000 or more in debt?

MOOCs offer an alternative. They also offer certification when completed, and some employers will accept these as valid entry qualifications. The difference with MOOCs from previous online courses is that they make much better use of technology, and technology has of course improved. So students are treated with much more interactive styles of teaching – short recorded lectures, real time discussion forums, self administered exams and tests, flexible scheduling.

Despite the criticisms of online education, particularly by the more traditional conventional learning institutions, online education continues to flourish. Some say it may even revolutionize the educational system eventually, because of the cost of education and the growing power of technology.

Here’s a good article on MOOCs.



Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Facebook's Business Model at a Crossroads

Since the now legendary snafu of Facebook's IPO, the company has been facing a damaged image and reputation. Focus has shifted to the question of long term profitablility and sustainability, which is an open question with Facebook. Recent stats suggest that growth in traditional markets has topped out but there is still immense growth happening in markets like Brazil. Also, there appear to be opportunities in the mobile markets, as with so many online services.

So Facebook faces some serious strategic decisions over the next year. And they need to move fast. Now that the company has gone public, people are watching more closely and expecting more.

Check out this take on the current situation.

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Is Cash Obsolete?

The popularity of debit cards has substantially reduced the need for cash. And credit cards are still being used, albeit at a somewhat reduced rate since the recession started. Credit cards are still the most common means of payment for online transactions. Along with Paypal. Smart phones are starting to be used for payments, and applications to enable this are becoming more common. And prepaid cards are gaining ground as well, because of fears over identity theft and other fraud.

All of these means of payment have substantially reduced the need for cash. And yet, cash remains in widespread use. Why?

For one thing, there are still transactions that require cash. A tip for a bellhop. Or payment to a neighborhood kid for mowing your lawn. Small transactions often call for cash. And one irony - means of payment like debit cards are often touted because they are convenient. However, cash is actually more convenient for smaller transactions, provided you draw some out of the bank and keep it on your person. All you have to do is pull it out of your pocket and hand it over and get your change. No entering of numbers into a machine and waiting for a response. And cash is free, while most other means cost a fee - small but a fee that can add up. Many older folk like their cash and will keep using it. Also using cash doesn't leave a trail, while other means do. So cash is popular with drug dealers and the like.

All of this means that the role of cash is diminishing. But is it disappearing? Not for a very long time to come. Maybe not in our lifetime. Here's a good article on the subject.

Monday, June 18, 2012

Big Data Preparedness

ATT points out that 85% of big business will be unable to exploit its data in coming years. That means a significant competitive disadvantage for them. Data available to business and in fact needed for competitiveness is growing exponentially. It's coming from variety of sources, but notable among them is social networking. And a prime vehicle is found in mobile devices. Social networks make available huge amounts of data about customers, competitors, suppliers, collaborators, employees, and anyone else that the company deals with. All of this information needs to be organized and placed in a form that it can be analyzed through direct M2M connections. There is just too much for people to deal with. To handle the data, companies need to changes some of their key strategies - strategies about mobility, social networking, use of important M2M protocols, like XBRL and enhanced CRM, SCM, eProcurement and HR Systems, among others. For some interesting background on this whole important area, check out the ATT pages on the topic. Time is running short to plan the appropriate strategies.

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Text Marketing
Texting has a bit of a bad reputation; often seen as a trivial means of communication between teens and tweens, or a dangerous pastime while driving. However, texting is an effective means of communication and can be used for marketing quite effectively.As a current article points out, text messages are short and to the point, and are more likely to be read than email messages.They can also be used for marketing to people within a particular vicinity, and techniques like bluetooth marketing and contextual marketing. They can be targeted to particular customers or groups. Texting is often overlooked as a vehicle of advertising, but its time is overdue.

Thursday, June 07, 2012

Online vs Physical Store Shopping

A recent Neilsen survey shows that online shopping is now the favourite (59%) shopping method for consumers. This has been trending upwards for several years. Generally, the approach favoured by shoppers has been using the online sites for research and then buying at the store. There is some indication in this survey that this is now changing. It indicates that shoppers are checking goods out in the store and then buying online in order to get a better price. An interesting development that retailers have noticed. No doubt they will watch their online pricing more closely to minimize the cannibalization of their store sales by online shoppers. On the other hand, the pricing differences may be viable because online selling carries less overhead with it - less need for staffing costs, for example. So there are issues for the retailers to consider before making drastic changes. In any event, it's an area of policy that warrants close attention. Here is a write-up on the Neilsen survey.

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Advertising for Mobile Unit Users

Smartphones and tablets have become major forces in the use of internet based technology. And yet, advertisers are still struggling to adapt their ads to the unique needs and orientation of mobile unit users. Many of those ads are still offshoots of the old PC platforms, but the mobile users expect touch sensitivity. When they touch a mobile ad on their tablet and nothing happens, there is a let-down.

Also, those users are often in a different frame of mind when they are browsing. That's because, so far at least, mobile users are more likely to be off work and on leisure time. That;s the reality, despite the fact that mobile units' usage in the workplace is growing. So the ads are more likely to be watched or read and more likely to lead to a purchase.

These are just a couple of the changes that are needed in advertising because of the advent of mobile units. For more, check out this reference.

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Facebook Needs a Better Business Model

After all the hype of recent weeks around the Facebook offering, the actual day was a disappointment for investors. Fixed at a release price of $38 per share, it fell substantially below that on the next day. Estimates were that Mark Zuckerberg lost $2.2 Billion that day. But then, he can afford it.

One cannot guage an investment in the rush of its first couple of days on the market. There is just too much speculation going on and it will take some time for the investors to settle down to a more normal frame of mind. Then they will look more closely at two things - earnings and cash flow, and decide whether they will be able to get a reasonable return on investment, through dividends and growth. That's the investors, not the speculators and gamblers.

To gain earnings and cash flow, a company needs a good business model At this point, Facebook has a business model, but it is almost entirely based on advertising, which has gotten to be a tough market on the internet. It's difficult to get the attention of people, and ads have been expensive. One can expect internet ads to drop in price as the number of players continues to grow. Simple economics.

In order to excel in the earnings game, Facebook probably needs a stronger and more diverse business model. Something unique and maybe completely different than what it has done so far. Amazon and Google faced similar issues, when they started out. Both had to change their original business model in order to survive. Both succeeded quite well. Both got into products and services that were very different and unique compared to their original concept.

There seems little doubt that Facebook will make some changes. All that wealth can draw in a lot of creative resources and talent to design and implement those changes. So analyses like this recent article, which argue that the Facebook model is so bad it will fail and also bring down the rest of the Web are one-sided extrapolations of existing weaknesses, which surely will be addressed in some fashion. And others seeking out comparative metrics to support the value of Facebook also fail to take innovation into account.

For investors with a taste for risk, or for speculators, Facebook offers up a lot of potential. For more conservative, long term investors, it's a good time to wait it out and see what innovation takes place - what kind of business model Facebook builds for the long term.

Friday, May 18, 2012

It's a Mobile, Social, Cloudy, Collaborative World

SAPs Sapphire Now annual conference took place this week in Orlando. While the conference is of course product specific, it nevertheless always offers an up-to-date snapshot of the state of IT in business and society. This year, the emphasis is on mobility, social media, the cloud and collaboration. Of particular interest, since SAP has its roots in large ERP systems, is the emphasis on big data. Big data is the recognition that data are being made available from a variety of sources, including social media, in vast quantities and there is a real need to be able to analyze it for strategic and management purposes. So the big vendors are moving into this space. SAPs entry is a product called Hanna and that is drawing a lot of interest at this conference. Products like Hanna must be able to work in the cloud and on handhelds, maximizing data mobility and data analytics. It's where we are these days. Here's one article on Sapphire Now.

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Social Media Use in Online Retailing is Growing

While many Canadian companies have been slow to adopt social media in their marketing activities, some of the majors are coming around to a new and more embracing view. Social media can be an extremely effective way to get the message out and to interact with customers. Both are important in today's world. it may be that social media has become an essential element of any marketing strategy. That includes Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and any other more specialized communities that might be useful for reaching the intended audience. This G&M article sets out the experience of some companies and the media they are using. Very informative.

Monday, May 14, 2012

E-Payments - A Changing Field

The banking industry in Canada is finally acting on the idea of using mobile units like smartphones to make payments. Canada has been lagging in this area for several years now. Details are expected to be announced very soon, possibly even today. This new initiative, having the backing of the banks and telecom companies, is likely to take off quickly. This article summarizes the initiative, which will change the business model of the telecom companies into pseudo banking operations. Rogers has already applied for a banking licence.

Traditional credit cards are still the most common form of payment for e-commerce transactions, although Paypal is running a close second, at least in North America. Worldwide, the payment systems vary, and that needs to be taken into account when venturing into foreign markets. Recently, BMO introduced a new payment system for smartphones and perhaps tablets. Just touch your phone to a cash register add-on device and the payment will be made. It's been slow to develop, but chances are it will be popular. Also, some organizations, including some of the banks, are developing mobile wallets, which will be useful for payments.

This referenced article provides a summary of the forms of payment used in some key foreign markets, It's worth some research if that's where your business is going.

Friday, May 11, 2012

ERP in the Cloud

One of the major issues with ERP systems since they came in has been the fact that many large companies have numerous ERP systems in place. The whole point of ERP systems in the first place was to give the company a common platform for its major business functions and therefore have all its users working on the same page. However., ERP systems are very large and complex applications, and their implementation is famously expensive and rife with downside risk. So companies have been hesitant to implement ERP systems just to replace one ERP system with another, in order to get their companies all on the same system.

Of course, the existence of various ERP systems within a single company poses operational challenges for companies. Many of them are going to ERP systems in the cloud. This enables them to gain the benefits of ERP while snot having to go through the treacherous process of in-house implementation. Then the company can be on a single platform, and users can get used to having similar processes across the company.

"The latest BriefingsDirect podcast, from the 2012 Ariba (Nasdaq: ARBA) LIVE Conference in Las Vegas, explores the latest in cloud-based collaborative commerce with Cox Enterprises, a US$15 billion communications, media, and automotive services company." This article summarizes some of the key points made about the Cox implementation and shows clearly the advantages of cloud based ERP implementation. Check it out.

Tuesday, May 08, 2012

Let's Integrate These Devices

One clear result of the proliferation of portable devices in the past couple of years has been that people end up with more devices to carry around and to store their files on. Many people now have a smartphone, a tablet, a laptop and sometimes a PC at home. All for good reasons. A smartphone is good for quick access on the move. A tablet for easy acccess and partial functionality, a laptop for generally full functionality and a PC for premium functionality and storage, where such is needed.

In many cases, if not most, these are not completely coordinated. Apple owners have a better chance than most, as long as they stick to apple products and only buy a iPhone, and iPad and a big Mac. But the rest of the world is in trouble. There are some techniques for synchronizing. Most of the portable products have synch capabilities, but they often are crude and cumbersome. Then there is the cloud, where files could be stored and accessed by some if not all of the products, but then working in the cloud can be slow and difficult, and in some cases costly, when you don't have a high end data plan.

The bottom line is that there is a real need for more user friendly and effective means of establishing synchronization between these different devices. For one rumination on this general topic, check this article.

Friday, May 04, 2012

Digital Wallets Are Coming -But Slowly

They are something most people seem to want. Surveys support that. Also a majority of people own smartphones, which can handle payments easily, but they just haven't taken off yet. The main reason appears to be the lack of coordination between the various parties who can make it work. That includes mainly the banks, terminal providers and retailers. When using your smartphones to pay for things you buy becomes common, it will likely happen quickly. All the elements are there. They just haven't come together very well. Here's one take on it.

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Social Marketing a Social Force

The use of social media for marketing purposes has become a standard part of many companies' marketing strategies. This goes well beyond simply using social media like Facebook, LinkedIn and the others into a scene where sales automation software is incorporating social media characteristics and linkages. It has also extended into the incorporation of social media into CRM systems. So the whole corporate interface with customers and potential customers is taking on social media-like characteristics and methods. It's a massive change under way and one that will have an enduring impact on the whole field. For an article showing how specific recent mergers and acquisitions have revealed the nature of this movement, check out this link.

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Social CRM - The Unstructured Data Problem

Customer Relationship Management has taken a new turn with the advent of social Media. There has been an increased awareness of the value of the extensive data being made available through Social Media in Managing Customer Relationships. The issue is that there needs to be a means of analyzing the data. Traditional CRM systems have been developed to enable the analysis of structured data. Tools for analyzing unstructured data have been scarce. But they are coming on to the market.

The firm Customer Relationship Metrics recently announced a new tool Text BI, which is designed to enable the advanced analysis of unstructured data. Essentially it incorporates a method for adding a structure to the data and then feeding it into its analytics tools. Analytics of this type are increasingly important for CRM and BI systems and we can expect to see more of them coming out. For a brief rundown on Text BI, check out this article.

Monday, April 09, 2012

Mobility and Corporate Internet Strategy

The advent of mobile units like tablets and smartphones is obvious to most people and widely heralded. Many companies, however, still don't get the full implications of this massive wave of innovation. The fact is, mobility is changing everything. While internet use has historically been primarily restricted to access through browsers, access through mobile units has been growing rapidly. Business has been aware of this and many have developed websites that can be adapted to the small screens of those mobile units. However, the mobility phenomenon goes a lot further than just the size and type of browser. The difference is in the apps.

Users love their apps, and seek them out for many things they do. Smart companies are developing apps that their customers can use to interact with their brand. Travel companies are making travel planning apps, gas companies are creating gas station finder apps, retail stores are creating product discount apps. There are apps for almost everything, and the list is growing.

Companies need to include in their internet strategy the idea of which apps they are going to have to help customers interact with their brand. The competition is doing it and eventually it will be a competitive necessity - eventually being not too far into the future.

To develop the strategy, the company needs to think of the ways they want their customers to interact with them and their product. This means stepping back and considering the whole situation with objectivity and creativity. Then a range of apps need to be developed and put into the hands of the customers, through web sites, blogs and social media. It's a diffferent approach, but one in tune with the times. Here's a good article on the subject.

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Bringing Social Media into Online Education

When you think about it, most traditional online education is modeled after the old classroom lecture style of learning, a style that has been largely abandoned inmost progressive educational institutions for some time. They do employ discussion boards, but again, that is modeled after the old classroom style.

We also know that most learning takes place outside of the classroom, usually when the students collaborate with friends, classmates and others. People learn best by studying on their own, clearing up their weak points  and pursuing the areas of particular interest through collaboration.

It's a prime situation for the use of social media, so educators have been experimenting with this type of tool. Strangely, the online courses that are offered most often tend to stress the old classroom style of learning, which is something of an irony.

Not all, however. Telus is a case in point where social media, including blogs, social networking tools and YouTube videos are used in its training programs. They have constructed an approach that should be looked at by everyone interested in online learning. Check out this article.

Friday, March 23, 2012

Big Data Analytics

Many businesses have twigged to the fact that a vast amount of data about their markets and potential markets is available on the internet (in the cloud) and have started to incorporate it into their business systems. The problem is they have been having trouble analyzing it so as to be able to make best use of it. The vast quantities of sometimes disparate data just makes analysis difficult.

It's true there are tools out there, but they haven't always been what was needed.

Google has announced its entry into big data analytics - called Big Query. It has the advantage that it is a Google product, which should mean it can take advantage of Google's impressive data analytics capability. Also, Google is one of the largest providers of big cloud data, and therefore close to the source.

Big Query should be a big success. but we shall see. Check out this summary of the tool.

Monday, March 19, 2012

Cloud Computing is Bigger Than IT

Going into a cloud environment, which is happening very quickly, involves a lot more than It issues. IT is often a very large outsourcing exercise, one that requires a lot of thought about compatibility, scalability, privacy, data protection, legal responsibilities, management responsibilities, and so on. For a larger company, moving to the cloud can be a major initiative.For that reason, the federal CIO Council and the federal Chief Acquisitions Officers Council (CAO) recently released a guide to cloud contracting dealing basically with the kinds of issues that should be included in a Cloud outsourcing agreement.. It's worth a look.

Friday, March 16, 2012

Encyclopaedia Britannica vs Wikipedia

EB has finally decided to discontinue its expensive print version of the Encyclopaedia. It's a decision that has been a long time in coming, despite the obvious signs for the past ten years or so that expensive print books are no longer a viable way to disseminate information. EB has been grappling with this reality for many years, while continuing to lose money on its print version and experimenting with its website. The website version has been charging fees for several years, but has run directly up against Wikipedia, which offers its contents for free.

The Britannica dilemma typifies the difficulty that information providers have been running into since the advent of the Web. There is so much information available on the web for free that people are not willing to pay for information at all. Users have in fact come to expect information to be free.

This expectation appears to ignore two basic facts of life. One is that if information is only provided for free, professionals who are best able to provide that information will not do so. They will not be willing to work for nothing. That puts information provision into the hands of the amateurs, who for the most part produce an inferior product. We see this on the web regularly. There is a lot of information there - you can Google anything - but a lot of that information is misinformation or otherwise wrong or incomplete. To some extent, users can distinguish the good from the bad, but often they can't. Or don't.

A major difference between EB and Wikipedia is that EB has traditionally been written by acknowledged global experts on a particular subject while Wikipedia can be written by anyone, with some cursory editorial oversight. However the fact that EB is likely to be the most knowledgable source, it is not enough of a difference to convince people to pay for it. EB's challenge is to come up with a competitive advantage that will actually be convincing to people. It simply hasn't been able to do that yet.

On the other hand, the Wikipedia model is not a viable business model either. Even though the content is written by anyone - some professionals and some amateurs -  for free, there are still costs to maintaining the site. Since there have been no revenues to cover these costs, the site has been relying on donations to keep going. Which means someone is out there who is willing to pay for information. But reliance on donations is almost by definition not a viable business model and it stands to reason that sooner or later, Wikipedia will need to come up with a viable model. They are in the same boat as Encyclopaedia Britannica, just at the other end of the spectrum.

The bottom line is that there needs to be a system to compensate information providers for their efforts. Otherwise, while information will continue to proliferate, quality information will become harder and harder to find. And probably more expensive. Here's an article on the announcement by EB.
 

Thursday, March 15, 2012

E-Discovery in the Cloud

The cloud is a pretty broad concept and to talk about anything in the cloud means a lot of different things. This applies to e-discovery as with other areas. In e-discovery, the question is gaining access to key data in the event of a legal action.

A host of issues arises, however. Storage in the cloud can mean storage with a number of different hosts. You may not know where the data is stored by those hosts and need to go through them to find it. Also, the agreement with the host may or may not contain procedures in the event of discovery hearings. Can you retain control over the data if it is subpoenaed? Also, does the data remain in your possession and control under the terms of the agreement?

These may not be crucial issues in the normal conduct of business, but they may become very important quickly in the event of a legal action. Check for more here.

Thursday, March 01, 2012

Groupon - Doin' Good

Groupon, the consumer deal maker, is doing well. Its IPO was a big hit. But the business in which it is engaged still raises concerns among investors. It isn't so much the business model of Groupon itself, but rather the state of the industry and the consolidation it is going through. Also, a natural for Groupon is to venture into the mobile market, which it is trying to do. However, mobile payment systems using mobile units are needed for this and they are just not here yet. So Groupon has some issues, but it looks like a viable business both for consumers and for investors. Check out this article for more.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012


Social Analytics

The past year has seen a tremendous increase interest by companies in the vast array of data made available in social media. Data about markets, customers, buyers, competitors, suppliers, almost any aspect of a business. The analysis of those data is being incorporated into the mainstream information systems and put to use for strategic and other purposes. In this series published by InformationWeek, the burgeoning field of Social Analytics is examined in some depth. Worth investigating. Check it out.

Friday, February 10, 2012

How E-Books are changing the Publishing Industry

The publication of e-books has grown to the point that it is now an established and important part of the overall industry. New publishing vehicles are emerging which enable authors to publish their books without the need to find an agent or jump the hoops with a publisher. The new vehicles, like Createspace and Lulu enable authors to offer their wares for download or in paper on a print-on-demand basis. The real winner is the consumer, who can chose how they do their reading and will have a wider choice of authors to choose from. Also, they can get their books online for a much lower price  in many cases as little as 99 cents.

As one who has published books in both ways, using traditional publishers and the new vehicles (in my case, Createspace), I can say that I much prefer the new scene. I can get my books out there in a form that I like, set the price and find ways to seek out readers for them (the hard part). With traditional publishers, you can't do that. You are at the mercy of the publishers., your book goes on the market for a short period of time on book shelves and than is taken off to make room for the new ones. The result is that most authors do not make any money on their books, even though it might be a very good one. With the new system, authors can leave their books for download on sites such as Amazon indefinitely, can have their books made available in print indefinitely and can devise their own marketing schemes, making use of the many emerging e-marketing specialists out there.

The new world of publishing gives consumers of books a better choice and gives the authors more control over their product. A win-win. For another writer's view, check out this article.

Tuesday, February 07, 2012

The Wireless Spectrum Shortage

The amazing growth of mobile units like smartphones and tablets is having an enormous impact on the way people communicate and on business generally. As those units become steadily more powerful, they transmit ever increasing volumes of data. Something that is often forgotten, except by people in the communications industry, is that this uses up available spectrum, and that there are limits on the spectrum available.

The ability to transmit over the air waves is a controlled function. It has been so for many years because if it were not controlled and organized, the transmissions would get mixed up, interfere with each other and become very unreliable and unsafe. So government agencies administer spectrum and data carriers buy it.

So the amount of spectrum available is limited. To complicate the situation, most of the spectrum is not owned by the mobile operators, making the availability even tighter.

All of this means that the cost of using mobile devices is bound to go up. Unlimited data plans will be a thing of the past, which they already are in some quarters now. And tiered plans that charge heavy users higher fees will continue to grow. For more on this, check this link.  

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

SunLife Makes Good use of Tablets

In this case study, SunLife sets out how they gained a clear advantage by using the Blackberry Playbook Tablet. In collaboration with RIM, SunLife, one of the world's larger insurance companies, addressed an issue with their training programs they were offering their customers' staff on retirement programs. A significant purpose of the training was to have customers fill out forms afterwards for SunLife's marketing purposes. However, they were having difficulty getting the forms actually filled out and after weighing the problem, decided on a novel approach. They made available Blackberry Playbooks to the attendees and asked them to fill in the forms online. It worked very well, and after testing, implemented it with a thousand playbooks being distributed to their trainers. A novel approach for obtaining feedback from customers.

A logical next step might be to implement a more generic app for mobile phones and try asking the customers to fill in the information on their own units if they wish. Might or might not work, though.

For the case study, click this link.

Friday, January 13, 2012

The Big Data Era
by Gerald Trites, FCA

A growing part of business is a focus on data. Companies that have learned how to obtain and create value for data are the companies that will succeed in the modern world. That is why data analytics has become such a big industry. And why the ability to analyze has become such a major part of the search for talent by many organizations. The importance of data is well known. What is not quite as widely appreciated is the magnitude of the change being wrought by data.

In June, 2011, McKinsey Global Institute published their landmark study, "Big data: The next frontier
for innovation, competition, and productivity". Since its publication, the study has gained influence in business, academia and research. Big data has become a major watchword of the 21st century.

When we talk about big data, we mean the vast quantities of data that are created and consumed every day in our world. Not very long ago, we discussed data in terms of megabytes. Then came gigabytes and in larger systems, terabytes. Each exponentially larger than its predecessor. Now we are talking about exabytes.

To get an idea of the meaning of exabytes, one of them is equal to a byte times 10 to the 18th power. That's equal to one quintillion bytes. To put it another way, one exabyte is more than 4000 times the total information stored in the US Library of Congress.

The data is being created at a growing rate through internet traffic, media, research and many other ways. A significant portion is generated through social media, mobile devices, the cloud, etc.

From a business point of view, the data represents a vast resource for defining customer needs, designing new products, determining business trends and developing strategy. The value of data is becoming so important that its presence marks the dawn of a new revolution in business, one in which the success and even the survival of a business depends on its ability to create value from the data, to direct it to the creation of strategic advantage. Companies are beginning to realize this and are ramping up the search for talent that has analytical abilities; something that is becoming a major industry in itself.

But the creation of value from data is subject to a number of constraints. The old ERP and CRM systems, while designed to direct data analysis to strategic decision making, were never designed to cope with the vast volumes of data in the big data world, nor were they designed to cope with the data that comes from social media, although Social CRM has been moving in that direction. The analytical sophistication of these business systems needs to be seriously improved. Also, corporate systems tend often to be segmented into different platforms, thus restricting the mobility of data and the ability to analyze it.Finally, too many managements and their advisors don't get it yet - are not "data-minded" and therefore will miss the strategic advantages that come from big data. And the shortage of people with serious data analytical abilities limits the ability of business to create that value, even if they realize it needs to be done. Absolutely a big challenge for educators and corporate trainers.

We've gone from bytes to exabytes in less than thirty years. In a world of exponential growth, imagine what the next thirty years has in store.

For a copy of the McKinsey report, go to the McKinsey Global site here.

Friday, January 06, 2012

Facebook May be Getting Serious About Privacy

Facebook was roundly criticized by Canada's privacy commissioner in the last few years, and made some changes in its privacy functionality as a result. What they don't seem to get is that most western countries apply similar principles on privacy, and changes need to be made worldwide to accommodate those countries as well, along with the nuanced differences.

Recently, privacy authorities in the US and Ireland have also found Facebook to be lacking in the privacy area, forcing the social network to make some more changes. There is word that they are now beginning to realize that they need to conform to the privacy legislation in the different countries in which they operate, which means most countries in the world.

The Irish feedback came after an extensive audit. Also, Ireland is a headquarters site for Facebook International, meaning changes made their will set the tone for other countries. It's been a long struggle with Facebook and its privacy, but an issue that looms to greater importance with its plans to go public with an IPO.

For an article on this subject, click here.

Tuesday, January 03, 2012

Facebook Marketing - "Like" Us

We've all seen the buttons. They appear on most sites these days. Like us on Facebook. And people are liking like crazy. So much so that the use of Facebook "like" buttons has become a major marketing tool for many companies.

Their objective is to spread their message as far as possible, So if people press the "like" button, it gets announced on their "wall", their friends see it and some will replicate it and so it goes. If only a small percentage of the friends do repeat the like, the size of the Facebook audience is so vast that it amounts to a significant number of potential customers. So companies are jumping in with both feet.

Through search tools, they can also accumulate lists of the people doing the liking and then use those lists for further marketing. Add in contests,m quizzes and games and you have a fully fledged marketing program. All for a modest cost. It's just one visible way that companies are using social media for marketing. For more, check out this article.

Monday, January 02, 2012

Top IT Trends for 2012

Recently Gartner published a summary of the top ten IT trends to expect for 2012. The usual suspect are there, like virtualization and social media. But there are some new ones that are interesting. One in particular is the rapid turnover being exhibited by the young employees in their 20's and 30's. Many of them are not staying in their jobs for more than one year, particularly if they aren't shown clear career progress. They want to be fast-tracked. Also, when they receive training, which of course is the norm in IT, they receive offers from other companies and, not being caught up in the old company loyalty myth, are often gone. It is getting to be a serious problem for IT departments and indeed any functions in the enterprise that require IT expertise, which is a growing number of them.

Another interesting addition to the usual list is that of big data, or data analytics, depending on how you look at it. There has been a trend towards unstructured data for some time, and it continue to grow such that it is now a big industry. How to handle all this data and find business opportunities in it has become a major industry. At first glance, it presents a major opportunity for XBRL, since making good use of unstructured data is what XBRL is all about. However, it could spell its death knell as well, because companies have been slow to adopt XBRL and are being quick to adopt the newer data analytics, which could eventually overrun that window of opportunity for XBRL.

For a summary of the Gartner Top Ten, check out this link.