A New way to CrowdSource?
Posted by: Steve Wakefield on: May 3, 2011
If you are an Innovator you are probably aware that getting ideas is never an issue it’s the quality and the implementation which are. I was recently looking through the App store and came across the iPhone App “Funded Apps” which allows you to submit your own app ideas, for £1.19 a pop, to the FundedApps creators who will analyse your idea before dumping it or creating it. If your idea is accepted they will pay £250 plus 25% of any net profit the app makes when it is published.
We have all used Innovation Tools before however is this the “lite” way forward for enterprises once they have a remuneration package in place (The £1.19 per suggestion may put people off but at least you attract serious ideas)
http://www.fundedapps.com/taf/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2011/apr/15/fundedapps-consumer-app-of-week
Social Media – Whats your angle
Posted by: Steve Wakefield on: April 15, 2011
In our connected society a day doesn’t seem to pass without a mention of social media as everyone climbs onto the bandwagon, however does active Social media participation actually increase your reputation or damage it?
Over the years many Social Sites have come and gone and I am sure everyone can remember the plethora of invitations from friends you have received. However what is the point of it all? To some people it seems to be a game where they must be a member of every type of social media platform to prove them as a social evangelist, although sometimes all this does is show them as a fraud (See my previous post). Like most things in life there are two things you must consider
1) Who is your audience i.e. Is it business or pleasure and can you comments be separated
2) What is you Angle i.e. are you a creator of content, a participant, a reader or do you feel the necessity to point out everyone else’s information
Social Media is connecting the world at a tremendous pace and should be embraced however if you want to enhance your own reputation and make it an enjoyable experience for everyone else remember that we can all search the web quite happily on our own.
Will 2011 be the year of creation?
Posted by: Steve Wakefield on: March 7, 2011
Unless you have been on another planet you could not have missed that Apple launched their third post-PC blockbuster the iPad 2 last week (2001 the iPod, 2007 the iPhone, 2010 the iPad). The original iPad was a huge success and in its first 9 months of being 15 million iPads were sold in 2010 from April through December, with $9.5 billion dollars in revenue. 65000 apps are also available in the App Store which have been rendered for use on the iPad.
So you may ask yourself how can Apple improve this product so that it can be even more successful than the first…..well they have and I want one.
The iPad 2 has an all new design (in black and white) with a A5 dual core processor which makes the CPU x2 as fast and x9 as fast for graphics. It has x2 video cameras which we alll wanted to see, a 5 mega pixel for video on the outside (still no camera for stills so this may be an iPad 3 feature?) It is also 33% thinner than the original iPad (8.8 mm apposed to the original 13.4mm) and also lighter (1.3 pounds apposed to 1.5 pounds). It will be available in the US on 11 March and 25 March in the UK.
You may however be asking yourself so what? I know not everyone is impressed with new gadgets, however this one is going to be a game changer. The first iPad was fantastic however when running some files it was not that fast (It still is however better than anything out there, apart from the iPad 2) and without a camera you could not Skype so would never replace a Laptop or a Netbook. With the increased power and cameras this takes the iPad to a new place. This may soon be able to replace your laptop (not yet however).
When the iPad first came out there were many reviews and it was branded a consumption device rather than a creator due to it’s power and the applications available. With the iPad 2 Apple is launching a version of iMovie which for the first time will allow you to shoot video and edit it on the iPad. This will enhance some of the original Apple business apps and start to turn the tablet into a creation device. In addition to the Apple apps you can also create documents using the many online creation apps like Google Docs and Evernote. 2011 therefore may actually be the year where the iPad turns into a creation device and becomes a valuable addition to the Enterprise rather than another toy to increase the cost of IT.
Before you all rush to your IT departments to say you have lost your old iPad, apart from the camera the old one is still good enough unless you need video editing and the business enhancements will be in the app world rather than the hardware. Naturally there will be apps the require the new high spec hardware but not yet.
When all is said and done Customer Experience is king
Posted by: Steve Wakefield on: February 27, 2011
If you follow blogs on Innovation everyone always seems to aim for breakthrough Innovations. however are these really enough?
I recently visited Dubai and was amazed at the remarkable lengths mankind has been able to achieve to overcome problems. They have been able to reclaim the sea and build hotels on manmade islands (The Palms), Build the tallest building in the world (Burj Khalifa) and create a whole city from the desert including the worlds largest indoor ski slope.
However even though mankind is able to overcome these obstacles, what actually encourages people to visits these places? In the first instance it is salience and brand reputation, however as more and more people continually Innovate and copy each other what are the defining factors? How long do you have the tallest building, the biggest hotel, and the newest shopping mall? In this fast paced world even the most lavish Innovation will only have advantage for a number of months.
So in the end, Innovation may get you noticed however if you want to retain your custom its all about the Customer experience.
Social Networking Exposes Real Talent
Posted by: Steve Wakefield on: February 13, 2011
As social networking matures and becomes more mainstream one of the nice byproducts is that it is far easier to identify true visionaries apposed to the plagiarists.
In the past it was easy to increase your Brand by updating your blogs with poignant information for your readership to follow without anyone knowing whether it was your work or not and more importantly whether you had any experience in the field to which you were commenting.
Thankfully with the creation of Twitter it is easy to see the original source of news and then the numerous re-tweets (RT) disseminating the information. Also with the likes of Google Alerts you can get updates on specific search terms daily which also exposes people who are into recycling.
Therefore if you want to seek out true visionaries ignore the people who only Re-Tweet and pass on second hand information in their blogs and follow the ones who have a real view on the world which they wish to share.
Will Social Networks become part of tomorrow’s CRM systems?
Posted by: Steve Wakefield on: January 29, 2011
- In: CRM | Social Networking
- 2 Comments
For years Businesses have tried to implement systems which finally showed a single view of the customer, however as quick as CRM systems are implemented new feeds and platforms are introduced which made the problem worse and quickly the customer records became out of date.
This problem is also true in everyday life; first our contacts were stored in filofaxes, then our outlook contacts and now mobile phones. However due to the transient nature of employment it has become harder to keep these records up to date as we try to map our contacts details.
However with the advent of Social Networks this situation has been reversed. Where in the past we concerned ourselves with keeping our contacts details up to date and in one place, now we are plugging into the actual data kept up to date by the owner. In fact not only is the data now accurate, far more information is being revealed by the owner than ever before.
Therefore I predict that in the future CRM systems will store the Business Relationship Data and the entire customer data will be extracted from the Social Networks to ensure this data is always up to date.
iPads in the enterprise
Posted by: Steve Wakefield on: January 24, 2011
- In: iPad | Mobile Technology | Wifi
- Leave a Comment
Even though iPads are becoming more visible in the enterprise they are still more of a luxury than an essential tool as they have two issues. The first is that they, like all tablets are a media device focused on media consumption rather than a creation with currently lower processing power than traditional PCs and notebooks and secondly if you wish to be connected 24×7 a further 3G card is required to run the device which increases the ROI of the desktop to the enterprise.
However one of these issues may soon resolved with the next release of Apples IOS 4.3 which is currently in Beta. One of the new features being offered is tethering which means that any Apple device with a 3G card can be converted into a WIFI hotspot and connect upto 5 devices.
This could mean where users currently have a 3G card in their laptop, one in their iPhone and one in the iPad, you would be able to surrender two of them and just have one in the iPhone and connect the other two devices via tethering.
http://www.iphonefaq.org/archives/tethering
This cost saving could certainly accelerate Gartner’s prediction that “by 2013 Gartner predicts that 80% of businesses will support a workforce using tablets and the adoption of tablets is estimated to grow from 19 million units sold in 2010 to 208 million by 2014”.
The Move to the Cloud – Consumerisation of IT Part 3
Posted by: Steve Wakefield on: January 17, 2011
Even though the consumerisation of IT will necessitate that the enterprise adopt a cloud model, the other interesting outcome is that to be fully efficient so will we all. Over the years a lot of time has been spent investigating the differences between Baby Boomers, Gen X, Gen Y and the Millennials, however in this instance there is a different dynamic, pre and post Broadband Users.
Interestingly anyone who became interested in technology post the mainstream rollout of Broadband would have already adopted a cloud model with webmail, pictures stored on the web and books, CDs and DVDs either purchased or streamed from the web.
However should you been using technology either in the dial up age or before there is an interesting transition which confronts us all, what do you do with decades of hoarding?? Most people in this category will have drawers upon drawers of CDs, DVDs, Pictures (Which are never played or viewed) and probably a number of external hard drives backing up our data over the years. So the big question will be whether people will either spend the time and convert their libraries to digital formats as the players become obsolete or resist the move to the cloud where IT will become ubiquitous and you can access your files for anywhere in the world on any device.
Interestingly even though you need to be careful how you complete this task to ensure your data is safe and backed up, it is far more secure and safe than a single copy in your house. This will not be an easy transition however once complete the efficiencies will only multiply in years to come and your floor boards will certainly thank you.
New Technology in 2011 – Consumerisation of IT Part 2
Posted by: Steve Wakefield on: January 9, 2011
Have you ever wondered why upon your return from the Christmas holidays there always seems to be a plethora of new technology being discussed in the press and online? The answer is the CES. For those who have not heard of this, it is the Consumer Electronics show, which this year was held in Las Vegas from 6-9 January. This show has been running now for more than four decades and already has the future dates published until 2022. To also give you an indication of the size of the event, in 2010 it attracted 126,641 visitors.
As you can imagine the amount of technology and gadgets showcased is immense and this year had all the usual suspects from tablets to Smartphones etc. However following on from my last blog looking at the consumerisation of IT one particular Innovation caught my eye.
Motorola has released a new Smartphone called the Atrix 4G, its most powerful to date, which comes with a laptop docking station that gives a full size keyboard and screen plus a HD Multimedia Dock for use at work. This new handset will launch in the US in the first quarter of the year and is expected to be available worldwide by the end of the year.
The reason this particular device caught my eye is that over the last few years enterprises have been struggling to allow staff to use the latest technology as it pushes up the cost of IT as multiple devices are needed to be supported. Some staff are now carrying a Smartphone, a laptop and even a Tablet which of course necessitates that each device requires a 3G card and contract.
If over time all Smartphone manufacturers were to offer phones that could be docked into a plethora of devices wouldn’t it be great to think that our computer was replaced by our phone and this was the only piece of IT we needed to carry? When this happens over the next few years the consumerisation of IT will really of happened and I would certainly trade all my devices for a single Smartphone.
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http://www.v3.co.uk/v3/video/2274127/ces-introducing-motorola-atrix
Specifications
The Atrix 4G which is a dual core Tegra 2 handset, with each core running at 1GHz, and 1GB of RAM, as well as Wi-Fi and 16GB of storage and microSD support.
The docking station has an 11.6-inch screen and three USB ports, as well as HDMI out for presentations or home entertainment. It has stereo speakers and a three-cell battery that will give around five hours of battery life the company said.
Once in place the laptop screen displays an image of the phone’s main screen, and allows full access to all applications, as well as opening a Firefox browser for internet and cloud application use. The docking station uses a Linux operating system but can coexist with the handset’s Android operating system.
Will cloud adoption encourage the consumerisation of IT?
Posted by: Steve Wakefield on: December 31, 2010
As we move through 2011 more and more of us will be choosing to use cloud services in our personal lives rather than opting for applications loaded onto our PC’s. The benefit of this is that your data is backed up, can be accessed from any device anywhere and you can even sync this to all of your devices i.e. Notebook, iPhone, iPad etc. This offering has completely changed the way we connect with each other and consume data. The ability to read part of a book on one device, bookmark it and then continue on another device is truly a timesaver.
As this trend continues; which of course was only made possible through the advent of our new “App” culture you can now see this moving into the enterprise.
More and more vendors are now offering a managed cloud service which is accessed via the internet and is a “win win” for everyone. This new model prevents the enterprise from butchering their applications beyond recognition which increases running costs and prevents any further upgrades and enables the vendor to migrate all customers to the latest version of the code at the same time and reduces costs by there never needing to be support for previous levels.
As more enterprise applications go this way, especially with the advent of Microsoft’s Office in the cloud (Office 365) slowly our Business world will start to un-tether itself from the office hardware and we will slowly be able to access various applications from our own PCs.
Over the last few years the talk of the consumerisation of IT has always arisen but there has never been a credible solution. Now it appears that it may happen all on its own. By enterprises making considered decisions in their application choices not only will future IT costs reduce but for once the staff will have a choice to continue with company standard hardware or use their own devices, be they Smartphone’s, Tablets or Notebooks.
The consumerisation of IT will not only save companies money it will also in the short term be an excellent differentiator in the marketplace to attract talent and retain staff.
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- Steve Wakefield: I completly agree, Innovation is only bound by your imagination, however an ROI should always be sought. No ideas are bad ideas, they may just be imp
- Bob: Steve, couple of thoughts 1. Serious innovations are few and far between. The iPad is just an improvement in a well defined area. Digital music inste
- innovationtoday: I am still considering, i have the iPad 1 and although the camera and speed enhancements are interesting until there are more enterprise grade applica
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