Updates On Customer Experience Management
January 21, 2013
Pulling from Customer Think, the article “Predictions For Customer Experience Management In 2013” discusses how the customer experience management have made great strides in the past three years. CEM used to solely focus on information fathering and finding insights in customer data (sounds like Big Data, right?). CEM now has more technology and methods at its fingertips to connect CEM users to its customers for real experiences. Two thousand thirteen will bring even more changes and the article predicts that solicited and social feedback will merge. CEM users must figure out how to take it, advantage of the two and possibly build a platform to manage it. Also immediate and real time feedback through mobile devices will be worth their weight in gold to gain consumer insights.
Here is the biggest change:
“Action at the Frontline Will Become Standard: While first-generation CEM software focused on capturing feedback, today’s CEM solutions go beyond understanding the customer experience. Now enterprises want CEM platforms that allow the frontline to connect feedback to action. In 2013, organizations will measure their CEM programs not just on response rates, but also on the closed loop and the business impact of closing the loop. The CEM solution of 2013 will directly (and not through complicated integration and years of IT projects) trigger, capture, and manage the action associated with feedback all the way to the frontline. CEOs need to make it their company’s mission to focus on the customer and even create a culture and the appropriate business measures and incentives to make it happen. But the people, who directly impact the customer’s experience, each and every day, are frontline employees. In 2013, the actions and influence of the frontline will grow, and consumers will feel the benefits.”
CEM makes sense when it comes to clothing, personal products, sport-related products, technology, etc., but what does it mean for software? Cheaper customer support systems? The article, applies more to physical products than digital.
Whitney Grace, January 21, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
Innovation No Longer Driven by Big IT
January 18, 2013
Microsoft, Oracle, and IBM – these companies spend big bucks on research and development every quarter. Microsoft spends $10 billion a year. But none of these companies have made significant contributions to the enterprise in the last ten years. So who’s making the impact? Open source. ReadWrite Enterprise covers the story in, “Trickle-Down Web Innovation Breathes New Life Into Enterprise IT.”
The author gets to the crux of the issue:
“Cloud computing, Big Data, mobile… they’re all being invented elsewhere, not by the enterprise behemoths . . . these tools were open sourced, not put out for sale. That’s how innovation seems to happen in the 21st Century. In large part innovation comes with an open-source license because it’s a by-product of businesses that heavily rely on technology, but don’t actually sell technology. It’s ‘trickle-down innovation’ from the web business community.”
Web giants like Yahoo!, Google, and Facebook are making great strides in large scale applications on low cost infrastructure. The sheer volume of data dealt with is striking. But there are other smaller companies who focus their effort on precise open source enterprise search software, and they are making a big impact in their own way. LucidWorks is one such company, proving that open source can provider better service at a better price point and maintain just as high a level of reliability.
Emily Rae Aldridge, January 18, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Google Pushes into Enterprise Market
January 9, 2013
Google is about to tackle the enterprise market head on, particularly targeting the areas of the cloud, social media, and mobile software. Could this have anything to do with softening ad revenues? Not sure; that is one topic not mentioned in the informative interview from Computer Business Review, “Q&A with Thomas Davies, Head of Google Enterprise UK and Ireland.”
Journalist Steve Evans spoke to Davies about Google’s enterprise push. Davies names three trends, cloud, social, and mobile, that his division focuses on, and specifies mobile as the most influential. Because smartphones and tablets are becoming important tools to many businesses, Google plans to seize the day with Android for the enterprise.
There are those who question whether the security and management capabilities of Android are up to the task. Davies assures us, though, that his team has been communicating with business leaders and is tailoring the OS to meet their specifications. Furthermore, he says, Android is now pushing out updates the way Chrome does, so companies won’t have to contend with different stages. The chaotic way Android versions have historically been distributed, though, suggests that every worker would have to have the same iteration of the same device for that to work; not ideal.
As for social media, Google anticipates that it will soon melt into collaboration tools, rather than remain a standalone destination application. Oh, but make no mistake– Google+ will remain a destination app. They have a lot invested in that project, Davies says. Evans presses that point, asking why Google + is different from failed attempts like Wave and Buzz. Because Google learns from mistakes, of course. Well, that’s good.
Regarding the cloud, Evans notes that it’s a big step for companies. Davies replies that it’s all about the money. Businesses have now been hard pressed for years- years!- to reduce costs, and there’s only so much you can cut. According to him, porting to the cloud can save on operational costs by 30 to 50 percent—a reduction many companies find well worth the bother.
So, it seems that now is the time for Google to aggressively push into the enterprise market. Financial pressure and technical advancement have come together to create the perfect opportunity, and they are not about to let the moment escape them. Davies concludes:
“People want to change. I think the time for personal productivity – going to the office, filling in your spreadsheets and sending them to someone else – is going. There was a standard, monolithic build; SAP in the background, Office and IE on the desktop and BlackBerry. That’s changing and I think the speed of that change has caught IT departments by surprise.
“That plays nicely into our hands. I think where we will win, and where we are winning, is when it comes to the three main benefits: business benefits, technical benefits and cultural transformation. That’s how you change an entire company.”
Cocky, isn’t he? But the man has a point. I predict the company will succeed spectacularly in this venture.
Cynthia Murrell, January 09, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Android Boom in China Means Little to Google
January 1, 2013
Android is booming on mobile devices, and finding a huge new market in Asia, particularly China. More than 75% of all new Android devices run Google’s operating system, but not in China. The business side, or downside, of open source is explored in the ExtremeTech.com article, “Android is Failing by Succeeding in China.”
The article explains the pickle that Google found itself in regarding China:
“Google’s business decisions over the last few years could be coming back to bite Android as China becomes the world’s largest mobile market. Even though Android is big in China, its benefit to Google is minimal. Google’s Chinese Android problem is multifaceted, but most of the concerns stem from the search giant’s avoidance of mainland China. It was three years ago that Google surprised everyone by closing down its Beijing offices and discontinuing its .cn search domain. This was seen as a principled stand — Google didn’t like the way China filtered content and regularly interfered with its services.”
Very few from the West would fault Google for its stand against Chinese filtering and regulating. However, this is an example of how technology, and specifically open source, can be quite political. Open source creators or committers put out their technology, not knowing how exactly it will be interpreted or adapted. Other companies, like LucidWorks, count on open source software as their structure, and build a business around offering specific solutions as well as support and training, hoping to gain an international appeal. LucidWorks has succeeded in this regard. There is always a political side to technology, as Google is currently learning.
Emily Rae Aldridge, January 01, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
EasyAsk Embraces SAP to Deliver Enterprise Voice Technology
December 20, 2012
iPhone users have rejoiced because of the ease and efficiency Siri technology has brought to their personal lives and ability to access information in an agile manner. Now, the workplace wants a similar version. Easy Ask sent out the press release, “EasyAsk Teams with SAP HANA to Deliver Quiri for SAP CRM, The World’s First Siri-Like Mobile Solution for CRM” discussing the partnership making it possible.
EasyAsk provides natural language technologies and solutions and with their new offering called Quiri, enterprise employees will be able to access CRM data using voice technology similar to that of Siri.
Craig Bassin, CEO of EasyAsk was quoted saying:
“The premise behind Quiri is to significantly increase adoption of CRM by mobile field sales forces that today don’t benefit from CRM solutions. Most are cumbersome, at best, in their deployment on a smartphone. Guiding, navigating, inputting data is frustrating on a 3 by 2 inch screen. Quiri works similar to Siri, but is optimized for your CRM system and far more accurate.”
This is clearly another case where consumer technology succeeds in its sector and has now been picked up by the enterprise world. This time, the basic voice technology was boxed up by a different company, EasyAsk.
Megan Feil, December 20, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Mobile Enterprise Traffic Needs a Reliable Knowledge Road Map
December 7, 2012
Big Data and mobile devices are having a profound impact on the way today’s businesses function. This increase in mobility over the past decade has brought about a major transition for the IT industry, and there is no question that the mobile revolution will continue into the future.
The Mobile Enterprise’s article “IT’s “Third Platform”: Mobile, Cloud, Social and Big Data” talks about how IT that remains stationary and refuses to embrace the mobile movement will end up becoming stagnant within the next year:
“The IT industry as a whole is moving toward the mobile/social/cloud/big data world of the third platform much more quickly than many realize: from 2013 through 2020, these technologies will drive around 90% of all the growth in the IT market. Companies that are not putting 80% or more of their competitive energy into this new market will be trapped in the legacy portion of the market, growing even slower than global GDP. IDC expects predictive analytics will be a particular hot spot in the months to come.”
Mobile, cloud and social along with a grain or so of Big Data means an ever increasingly complex enterprise information environment. Companies wishing to keep up with the ‘enterprise mobility’ traffic will need a reliable knowledge road map. Working with solution providers like Intrafind that understand the full scope of enterprise information access needs can take a bit of the pain out of finding the right solutions.
Jennifer Shockley, December 7, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Real Journalists and the Daily iPad App
December 3, 2012
Short honk: Publishing companies are good at selling ads, working distribution systems, and creating content for a known audience. I want to ad that these three capabilities work best in the world of paper, educated readers, and business processes set up around the time of Gutenberg.
Creating online success stories is a different kettle of fish. One can’t even wrap the old fish in newsprint any longer. That tells me something.
I read “News Corp. Shutters The Daily iPad App.” Launched with much fanfare a couple of years ago, another “real” journalism outfit has steered its high-tech digital speedboat into a reef. I learned from the article:
The app was initially hampered by technical problems, but the Daily’s key issue was a conceptual one. While the app boasted lots of digital bells and whistles, in the end it was very much a general interest newspaper that seemed to be geared toward people who didn’t really like newspapers. You can’t make that work no matter what kind of platform it uses. The real surprise would have been if News Corp. had found a way to keep the Daily around, since the tablet newspaper’s fate was essentially sealed this summer, when the corporate split was announced.
I think this is a gentle description of another real journalist goof. I am 68 and have worked at a couple of pretty good publishing outfits when paper was king. The ability to use an app and to talk about an app are different from delivering a winner. Paper is one world. Digital is another world. Different in my opinion. Dinosaurs don’t like snow but think the thaw is coming. Did not happen based on what I read.
Stephen E Arnold, December 3, 2012
The Importance of Wireframe Expertise
November 27, 2012
Employing a home-building metaphor, mobile software firm Zeus River laments about clients who insist, “‘I Already Have Wireframes, I Just Need You to Code It’.” Making that demand of a software engineer, writer Milan Gokhale says, is akin to a non-architect drawing up their own blueprints and telling the contractor, “I just need someone to lay the bricks.” The article explains:
“A house isn’t constructed until it has gone through a lengthy, rigorous architecture process. High-quality software operates the same way. If you want to maximize the value of your investment, you need an engineer to think through many long-term considerations. . . .
“Wireframes are sort of like interior design; they describe what the colour of the couch is, and where the couch should be located. These are not the concerns of your architect when you’re building a home, and they are not the concerns of your software developer when he/she is trying to build your app. If you didn’t involve a developer in your wire-framing process, you’re setting yourself up for a situation in which the couch looks gorgeous in a house that will crumble at any minute.”
Oh, you say, but picking colors is much more fun! That may be, but at least fork up the dough to bring your developer in on the party. Doing so is sure to save time, money, and frustration in the long run. The frustration, by the way, is also felt by developers; Gokhale says he and his partner now decline any projects with pre-drawn wireframes. It just isn’t worth the hassle.
Launched in September of 2011, Zeus River is located in Toronto, Ontario. The founding partners, both experienced enterprise software engineers, formed their own company in order to work in the more exciting, innovative arena of mobile technology. Good luck, guys.
Cynthia Murrell, November 27, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Hello Siri Google is Coming for You
November 14, 2012
Google has been trying to come out with a rival to Apple’s Siri for months now. While those who have new Android products are able to utilize Google Now, until now, there has not been a Google app to bring instant information to non-Google smartphones. LifeHacker.com recently published the article, “Chat with Google Guru to Get Google Now Style Answers on Any Device.”
According to the article, for those who want Google Now style data but do not have an Android product, there is now an easy solution. All you have to do is add guru@googlelabs.comto your contact list on your smartphone. Then ask Google Guru what you want to know and receive instant replies.
The article explains:
“Granted, this works best with Android devices, since Android has a built-in GTalk client. iOS users will have to use a third party app, like our favorite, Imo, to get the same features. Once Guru is in your contacts list, commands like “weather: city” will give you the current conditions in that location, and “score: team” will help you find the score of a game you’re interested in, or the last game your favorite team played. Here are all of the commands guru understands as far as we can tell:
- Score: team
- Weather: city
- Define: word
- Translate: word
- Web: query (performs a Google web search)
- Calculate: formula”
While it doesn’t have all of the features of Siri or Google Now, Google Guru could lead to some potential competition for Apple if more non-Android smartphones begin using it.
Jasmine Ashton, November 14, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
How Phone Records Correlate to Pace of Life
November 6, 2012
It has often been said that those who dwell in cities live a faster paced life than their country-living counterparts, the MIT Technology Review article, “Phone Call Data Reveals How Pace of Life Accelerates in Cities” is now able to prove it.
According to the article, Markus Schläpfer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge has figured out a way to prove that humans in cities interact more often and with a greater number of other people than those who live in smaller conurbations.
The study is based on 440 million anonymous mobile phone calls made in Portugal over a period of 15 months and almost 8 billion landline calls made in Britain during a single month. What they discovered was, people who live in larger cities not only have more contacts but they also accumulate them faster.
The article states:
“Schläpfer and colleagues say the results imply that during the 15-month observation period an average urban dweller in the Portuguese capital, Lisbon, accumulated about twice as many reciprocated contacts as an average resident of Lixa, a rural town.
‘The results presented here constitute the first extensive empirical evidence of the acceleration of human interactions in cities,’ they say.”
While this is not the first study to argue that people who live in larger cities have a more fast paced life, it is one of the first to have such a large sample size and connect data sets to human interactions. This could very well be the first of many studies.
Jasmine Ashton, November 06, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
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