ANZ Bank Retains Most Valuable Banking Brand for 2014

Gavin Heaton

Founder
Disruptors Co

Gavin is the Founder of Disruptors Co, one of Australia’s leading independent strategy and innovation companies. Gavin advises firms on strategy, marketing, product development and innovation. He is also a member of the Orbits program, the influencer network of award winning analyst and advisory firm, Constellation Research. Gavin advises boards and leadership on innovation strategy, marketing, data-driven product development and corporate venturing. Gavin is on the board of Vibewire, a youth-led social enterprise based in Sydney, Australia and on the Technology Advisory Group for Good2Give – the workplace giving platform. ...

Read more

1

But Brand Directory’s evaluation of banking brands for 2014, in association with The Banker, does an interesting job of placing a monetary value on the intangible asset that is an organisation’s brand. And this year, as shown below, ANZ pips CommBank at the post, to take out first place in the Australian rankings.

In simple terms, brand valuation calculates the difference between book value and market capitalisation. But Brand Directory use a range of calculations in an attempt to get a handle on what a brand may actually be worth. Their methodology is called the Royalty Relief Method.

Now, I prefer more straight up calculations – less opinion and more fact – but there is something quite appealing in the brand strength index. The use of a balanced scorecard across a range of business indicators sounds great. But I digress.

The real reason these kinds of rankings are useful is that they allow those within the business to get a sense of whether the brand is resonating in the marketplace. Not with analysts, but with potential and existing customers. It marks you out as a player or a stayer. And because leaderboards shift and change over time, it helps to determine, relative to your peers, whether your brand/marketing efforts are shifting the dial.

And if I was on the brand side trying to go deeper with these statistics – I’d bring my own, internal knowledge into play. I’d look to assess, year over year, what my spend and resourcing commitment was – so that I had an even better insight into what works or doesn’t. And then maybe, just maybe, there’d be an ROI figure that I could apply to my efforts. But this would be my own little secret. Another intangible that I’d add to my brand value.

Marketing Transformation Revenue & Growth Effectiveness Next-Generation Customer Experience Chief Executive Officer Chief Marketing Officer Chief People Officer Chief Revenue Officer

Quips: Dachis Group Acquired by Sprinklr

R "Ray" Wang

Principal Analyst and Founder
Constellation Research

R “Ray” Wang is the CEO of Silicon Valley-based Constellation Research Inc. He co-hosts DisrupTV, a weekly enterprise tech and leadership webcast that averages 50,000 views per episode and blogs at www.raywang.org. His ground-breaking best-selling book on digital transformation, Disrupting Digital Business, was published by Harvard Business Review Press in 2015. Ray's new book about Digital Giants and the future of business, titled, Everybody Wants to Rule The World was released in July 2021. Wang is well-quoted and frequently interviewed by media outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, Fox Business, CNBC, Yahoo Finance, Cheddar, and Bloomberg. Short Bio R “Ray” Wang (pronounced WAHNG) is the Founder, Chairman, and Principal Analyst of Silicon Valley-based Constellation Research Inc. He…...

Read more

Deal Is First Of Many As Digital Business Providers Consolidates

On February 19th, Sprinklr announced the acquisition of Dachis Group.  The acquisition will make Sprinklr the largest independent end-to-end Social Relationship platform in the market. While many will see this deal as a services play, the acquisition is significant in the for a few key reasons:

• Dachis brings key product sets to the Sprinklr portfolio. While known for pioneering social business consulting, over the past 24 months, Dachis Group had built out a portfolio of products from brand analytics via the Social Business Index, Content Optimization (which supports the push to native advertising), and employee advocacy (which can be seen on the Sprinklr Content Creator).
• Sprinklr augments its services capabilities. Partnerships with Accenture and Deloitte have given Sprinklr the range and reach to deliver on global deployments.  The services arm of Dachis will add to this capability and augment existing partnerships.  Customers should not expect Dachis Group service folks to compete with Accenture and Deloitte.

The Bottom Line: Spinklr and Dachis Group Customers Gain a Win Win

In this rapidly consolidating market, mergers and acquisitions provide the scale and critical mass to compete in the market. As the market shifts away from social business and more towards digital, expect new models to emerge among the social leaders who see the vision to move forward.  Services and software will be key to competing in a world of networks and mass personalization at scale.

 

Marketing Transformation Next-Generation Customer Experience New C-Suite Revenue & Growth Effectiveness Innovation & Product-led Growth Data to Decisions Tech Optimization Future of Work SoftwareInsider ML Machine Learning LLMs Agentic AI Generative AI Robotics AI Analytics Automation B2B B2C CX EX Employee Experience HR HCM business Marketing Metaverse developer SaaS PaaS IaaS Supply Chain Quantum Computing Growth Cloud Digital Transformation Disruptive Technology eCommerce Enterprise IT Enterprise Acceleration Enterprise Software Next Gen Apps IoT Blockchain CRM ERP Leadership finance Social Healthcare VR CCaaS UCaaS Customer Service Content Management Collaboration M&A Enterprise Service Chief Customer Officer Chief Marketing Officer Chief People Officer Chief Revenue Officer Chief Executive Officer Chief Information Officer Chief Technology Officer Chief Data Officer Chief Digital Officer Chief Analytics Officer Chief Financial Officer Chief Operating Officer Chief Information Security Officer Chief Experience Officer

Chinese Tier 2 and 3 cities need to do a much better job to promote foreign investment

Founder, capioIT
calitolIT

Phil is the founder of capioIT, a research analyst firm focussed on driving change in the analyst and research market through innovation and collaboration, with a strong focus on IT services and BPO strategies in the Asia/Pacific region. He has 17 years' experience in corporate strategy, consulting and market intelligence, gained in a diverse range of organisations and industries. Prior to founding capioIT, he established the Australian and Services business units at Springboard Research. Prior to Springboard Research, Phil was responsible for driving analyst firm IDC's research in the services marketplace across the Asia/Pacific region. During his 6 years at IDC, Phil led a large multi-national team of analysts across a range of IT related services with a particular focus on IT…...

Read more

1

I have visited China for business repeatedly over the last 15 years. As most would be more than aware, the growth on any econometric variable has been sustained and typically staggering. As someone who studied economic and regional development as an undergrad student the demographics of China is equally of interest and impressive.

The size and scale of cities and metropolitan areas in China is staggering. It has 15 cities with over five million residents and approximately 140 more with over a million residents. It is a market and level of potential consumers that any other country (particularly one like my home country of Australia) can only dream of.

The challenge for these 15 cities with over 5 million people, let alone the 140 with over one million is standing out in a competitive environment. The largest cities (Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen et al) clearly stand out and have defined roles and investment attractiveness with which to differentiate themselves.

For the remaining 150 or so cities the differentiation is difficult. From my experience city or provincial level executives and officials regularly make the rounds of global cities to promote their city as being the optimum place to invest in China. To be frank they do a poor job. I do not think that they realize the level of competition that each city has for investment. When the competition internally (let alone from Indian, Vietnam etc) is so tight everything needs to be beyond reproach. Too often it isn’t. Marketing is poor, presenters can be tangled up in hyperbole and as a result, loose with facts, language skills need to be improved (if you are selling to a foreign entity, English or other language proficiency is a core requirement).

To highlight the challenge, the following are “must have” attributes, not differentiators. Too many cities believe that naming these attributes gives them instant access and street credibility.

• Population over 2,000,000
• Access to a new International airport
• Access to high speed rail
• Provincial level political support (overt or covert) –this is a post on its own!!!!
• Development of business centers (occupied or otherwise).
• A university (of some description)

To put it into context, if you have the attributes mentioned above, you are not differentiated. You have only reached the starting gates. Attributes such as network and telco connectivity are often overlooked (alongside power supply consistency, and other utilities).

Exceptional performance in the “must have” attributes alongside exceptional performance for connectivity et al is essential if Chinese cities want to successfully compete. Failing to do this will mean that cities will fall back to the pack and not have any differentiation. If you are looking to invest in China, you need to understand the real capabilities of the city, get through the hype and ensure that you have the opportunity to maximize your investment in a city or province that stands out. It is not easy, but it is also not impossible.

New C-Suite Innovation & Product-led Growth Chief Executive Officer

When Big and Data got together, it was love at first Like

Gavin Heaton

Founder
Disruptors Co

Gavin is the Founder of Disruptors Co, one of Australia’s leading independent strategy and innovation companies. Gavin advises firms on strategy, marketing, product development and innovation. He is also a member of the Orbits program, the influencer network of award winning analyst and advisory firm, Constellation Research. Gavin advises boards and leadership on innovation strategy, marketing, data-driven product development and corporate venturing. Gavin is on the board of Vibewire, a youth-led social enterprise based in Sydney, Australia and on the Technology Advisory Group for Good2Give – the workplace giving platform. ...

Read more

1

Breathless. Heart beating. We all know the feeling. It’s all heart, feeling, emotion. We’re waiting for the brain to kick in – but there is no relief. It’s really a sign of madness.

Love is merely a madness: and, I tell you, deserves as
as well a dark house and a whip, as madmen do: and the
reason why they are not so punished and cured, is, that
the lunacy is so ordinary, that the whippers are in love too.
– Shakespeare, As You Like It, 3.2

But these days, meeting and falling in love is not just a physical thing. It’s virtual … and played out on social networks.

The Facebook data science team has been digging through the mountains of interactions that take place between people before, during and after they fall in love. They looked in detail at the number of posts exchanged going back to 100 days before the “couple” changed their relationship status from “single”. What they found was that social media interaction plays an important role in the formation of the relationship:

When the relationship starts (“day 0?), posts begin to decrease. We observe a peak of 1.67 posts per day 12 days before the relationship begins, and a lowest point of 1.53 posts per day 85 days into the relationship. Presumably, couples decide to spend more time together, courtship is off, and online interactions give way to more interactions in the physical world.

And this is where big data gets interesting. We are now starting to see digital traces of behaviours that have real world impacts. The things that we do and say online can be correlated across thousands of data points to reveal actions that take place in our so-called “real lives”. But where does it go from here?

• Social lifestyle mapping: Facebook (and other collectors of big data) can map and improve personas, track shifts and changes in community trends and lifestyles over time
• Predictive targeting: With social lifestyle mapping in place, algorithms can be used to predictively target individuals and groups with relevant information. This could take the form of advertising, public health messaging/recommendations, career suggestions and so on. In fact, the possibilities are endless
• Location awareness: As a large number of Facebook interactions take place on mobile devices, location awareness can add a greater degree of relevance to any of these predictive or realtime offers.

High level barriers:

There are some immediate barriers to usefulness that spring to mind:

• Brands are slow to catch and embrace technology innovation: Facebook (and indeed Google) have a great deal of work ahead to prepare brands and governments for the power and opportunity that this presents. Thus far we’ve seen precious little in the way of focused education and leadership in this area and without it, organisations simply won’t be prepared (or interested) in this
• Organisations lag in digital transformation: For these opportunities to be embraced, most organisations have to undertake digital transformation activities. Ranging from change management and education to strategy, business system overhauls and process improvement, digital transformation is the only way to unlock organisation-wide value – but few are seriously committed to such a program
• Privacy is shaping up as a contested business battleground: Many governments, corporations and individuals fervently hang on to notions of pre-internet era privacy. Laws and regulations have struggled to keep pace with the changes taking place in our online behaviours. Meanwhile public and private organisations are conflicted in their use of, protection and interest in privacy. We’ll need to work through this to understand whether privacy really is dead.

Marketing Transformation New C-Suite Next-Generation Customer Experience Tech Optimization Data to Decisions AI ML Machine Learning LLMs Agentic AI Generative AI Robotics Analytics Automation Cloud SaaS PaaS IaaS Quantum Computing Digital Transformation Disruptive Technology Enterprise IT Enterprise Acceleration Enterprise Software Next Gen Apps IoT Blockchain CRM ERP CCaaS UCaaS Collaboration Enterprise Service developer Metaverse VR Healthcare Supply Chain Leadership Chief Customer Officer Chief Executive Officer Chief Information Officer Chief Marketing Officer Chief Technology Officer Chief Information Security Officer Chief Data Officer

Every worker is a knowledge worker, yes, but they are mostly bored, what’s next?

1

1. How many employees are on your P&L that are titled knowledge workers but are modern manual workers performing repeated mundane tasks optimal for automation?
2. How many mistakes/errors are occurring, and what security and privacy risks are being introduce daily to your organization by humans conducting tasks that should be conducted my marginally intelligent machines?
3. What happened to the euphoria we were all sold as a promise of knowledge workers, where we would all be visionaries?

In 2011 Business Week ran an article suggesting every worker is a knowledge worker. While this may be true standing on the body of knowledge surrounding “knowledge workers” gifted to the world by Peter Drucker, when we look past the runway of Drucker’s foresight the term “knowledge worker” starts to fall short on its promise to enterprises.

While today’s knowledge workers chug away using more knowledge and cognition than manual workers from factories a century ago resulting from the industrial revolution, the move from manual workers to knowledge workers was not a single event in history, instead it is the beginning of a trajectory that will likely continue forever. Every wave of knowledge work will forever become a series of repeatable manual steps commoditized and optimized for automation constantly beckoning mankind to use more cognition in work, and less muscle.

The first manual workers were termed “skilled workers” … modern manual workers were termed knowledge workers.

Knowledge workers initially used new knowledge to do work while the industrial revolution automated manual tasks. But, today most knowledge workers are conducting several repeatable manual tasks that beg for automation as we enable the Internet revolution. Think about a systems administrator, or a platform architect, or better yet a production and deployment manager in a large enterprise technology department.

Most of these “knowledge” worker roles described as examples above are barely using knowledge and rarely using cognition. The tasks are manual and repeatable such as install, test, configure, deploy, apply load, measure, tweak, freeze, replicate, and repair etc etc. More and more knowledge workers use less knowledge and more manual effort, less cognition and more muscle.

The big question is what new revolution will automate the manual tasks of today’s knowledge workers freeing them from the broken promise?

Lets make this personal, hundreds of million of young students globally study for four years to earn college degrees with the hope of creating, innovating, disrupting and contributing awesome sauce with their brilliant and divergent cognition as visionaries. Sadly, the lion’s share of these young minds end up being modern manual workers labeled knowledge workers. Slowly, their dreams disappear into a mundane reality of conducting repeatable tasks over and over. Very few use cognition, and become visionaries; but they all wanted to.

Sadly, the lion’s share of these young minds end up being modern manual workers labeled knowledge workers.

I believe we have today the knowledge, science and technology to welcome a new global labor defining revolution to follow the Internet revolution and Industrial revolution. This new revolution will unchain billions of new correctly termed modern manual workers once called knowledge workers from the mundane tasks of today’s offices to a world where cognition can be used as the rule instead of the exception.

GE does a brilliant job calling for the Industrial Internet, a merging of the Industrial revolution and the Internet revolution. I believe strongly in the value and velocity of the Industrial Internet and will spend significant time delivering thought leadership here in the months to come.

However.

What I think we have not considered as yet is Artificial Intelligence. AI is the knowledge, science and technology we have creating the AI revolution and enabling the ability for us to automate billions of modern manual workers once termed knowledge workers. As an example the AI Revolution will automate the tasks such as install, test, configure, deploy, apply load, measure, tweak, freeze, replicate, and repair etc. from roles such as system administrators, platform architects, or production and deployment managers in large enterprise technology department discussed above.

Artificial Intelligence will go beyond the reactive automations tools we have into predictive automation tools, creating/replacing the “knowledge” needed.

I know what you are probably thinking, how many folks will loose their jobs to Artificial Intelligence? The answer is simple, none permanently. This was the exact fear we had at the beginning of the Industrial revolution, and what happened was pure beauty. Trillions of dollars of Global GDP were reallocated away from paying men and women to use axes and hammers to use buttons and levers.

Manual jobs lost were replaced with upgraded knowledge jobs.

This macro allocation of GDP redefined humanity, as we knew it. Public education delivered at scale to the masses became a reality and innovation grew exponentially as evolution went supersonic, literally. We used more knowledge and less muscle and accelerated evolution.

The Artificial Intelligence revolution will reallocate trillions of dollars away from modern manual workers once termed knowledge workers to continue the momentum going away from axes and hammers to buttons and lever eventually to simply thinking. When artificial intelligence automates the manual tasks left in the world, we will welcome a new class of workers called visionary workers.

Visionary workers will be paid to think, and innovation will grow more exponentially, enabling evolution at supersonic speed to become just the tact of existence.
There is a lot of detail, history, science and mathematical crunching embedded in this somewhat cheeky piece of writing, but if you concur, what are your thoughts on the questions below?

1. How many employees work for you that are termed knowledge workers but are really modern manual workers?
2. How many of those jobs can Artificial Intelligence automate freeing those humans to finally go chase their dreams?
3. How many people did you hire hoping they were visionaries, and probably still can be?

Welcome to the Artificial Intelligence Revolution and a workforce of visionary workers. In the next decade I estimate 500 Billion of global annual GDP paid to modern manual workers (knowledge workers) will be automated by Artificial Intelligence.

How much of these savings are you going to take advantage of?

New C-Suite Future of Work Chief Executive Officer Chief People Officer

Research Summary: Sneak Peeks From Constellation's Futurist Framework And 2014 Outlook On Digital Disruption

R "Ray" Wang

Principal Analyst and Founder
Constellation Research

R “Ray” Wang is the CEO of Silicon Valley-based Constellation Research Inc. He co-hosts DisrupTV, a weekly enterprise tech and leadership webcast that averages 50,000 views per episode and blogs at www.raywang.org. His ground-breaking best-selling book on digital transformation, Disrupting Digital Business, was published by Harvard Business Review Press in 2015. Ray's new book about Digital Giants and the future of business, titled, Everybody Wants to Rule The World was released in July 2021. Wang is well-quoted and frequently interviewed by media outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, Fox Business, CNBC, Yahoo Finance, Cheddar, and Bloomberg. Short Bio R “Ray” Wang (pronounced WAHNG) is the Founder, Chairman, and Principal Analyst of Silicon Valley-based Constellation Research Inc. He…...

Read more

Accelerated Pace of Change Creates the Perfect Storm for Dominating Digital Disruption

The 2014 trends are out. The big predictions have been made.  Yet what does it all mean as most organizations anticipate another unpredictable year?  Since 2000, 52 percent of the companies in the Fortune 500 have either gone bankrupt, been acquired or ceased to exist (Figure 1).  The pace of change has increased, competition has intensified and business models have been disrupted.  The only certainty is that change will accelerate.

Figure 1. Digital Disruption Has Demolished 52% of the Fortune 500 Since 2000

In fact, the digitalization of business is a key factor in this accelerated pace of change.  Information flows faster.  Most parties enjoy greater transparency, yet the digital divide makes transparency patchy.  Every node reacts more quickly.  The speed of execution as a differentiator has resulted in agility in delivering disrupting business models. Market leaders shift from selling products and services to promising outcomes and experiences.

Market leaders and fast followers want to know what trends will affect customer demand. How will these trends affect hiring decisions?  Are there new and emerging technologies that will power disruptive business models?  What factors will help organizations dominate digital disruption?  How does one stay safe in a world of digital exhaust?  What networks matter?  Who are my competitors, collaborators and co-innovators? How does one make sense of the disparate and often contradictory trends pointed out by experts, pundits and analysts?

The strategic assumptions from Constellation’s 2014 PESTEL framework form the basis for the business theme-led research.  Over the next 36 months, research from each business theme will factor these trends into the overall research agenda.  The goal in 2014 is to help clients not only navigate, but also dominate digital disruption.

Watch the Webinar 

Figure 2. PESTEL Approach Provides a Futurist Framework For Business Themes and Planning

Three Technological Trends Boost Digital Business Disruption in 2014 and Beyond

Important pillars of digital disruption begin with social, mobile, cloud, big data and analytics, and unified communications.  The convergence of these pillars provides the key to future innovations.  The technology shifts that present opportunities to create new business models are also the same opportunities that disrupt existing systems.  While advanced materials, clean energy and personal genomics are key disruptive areas, Constellation identifies three technological shifts powering digital business disruption (see Figure 3):

Figure 3.  Technology Trends Move Beyond Social, Mobile, Analytics (Big Data), Cloud, And Unified Communications

1. Mass personalization at scale drives relevancy and context. Systems of engagement shift to systems of mass personalization at scale that deliver relevancy. The shift from analog to transactional systems led to a wave of automation-driven efficiencies in the past century. Today, engagement systems move toward experiential systems that deliver massive contextual relevancy at scale, create role-tailored communication styles, deliver bionic user experiences, and move at the right time and scale.  The shift to systems that deliver mass personalization at scale is now underway (see Figure 7).  These systems start with an outcome-driven design point, solve delivery of massive individual scale, craft personalized conversations, interface with human APIs and enable people-to-people networks.  Key technologies include 3D printers, ad technologies, augmented reality, context engines, crypto currencies, identity systems, facial recognition, payment technologies, digital wallets and personal clouds.
2. Big data business models built around sensor and analytical ecosystem. Isolated networks shift to a connected world of sensor-based and analytical ecosystems that harness Big Data. In both the consumer and enterprise worlds, smart machines and wearables provide new types of sensors and add to the mix of Big Data available to create new insights.  Constellation estimates that as many as 200 million smart wearables will ship by 2017.  These include bracelets, watches, eyewear and other devices with sensors.  Data from equipment such as automobiles and trucks, medical devices, household appliances as well as power generators and building management systems can provide opportunities to improve operational efficiencies, create new business models and identify new usage patterns. These systems will not only communicate with each other, but also interface with people – overtly and covertly.The Internet of Things moves from abstract concept to a living and breathing machine-to-machine mesh network interfaced with humanity.  By 2020, a global market for a few billion cellphone Subscribe ID Modules (SIMs) swells to 100 billion Machine ID Modules (MIMs).  Technologies include 100 gigabyte optical networks, advanced robotics and manufacturing, building management systems, MIMS, geo-location drones, self-driving cars, smart grids and software-defined networks.  There is a quantum jump in the quantity and quality of information coursing through the digital economy. Big Data business models lie before us.
3. Augmented humanity changes the future of work and customer experience. Powerful yet static systems shift to cognitive systems that augment humanity. Cognitive computing is more than a new category.  Cognitive systems represent a convergence of artificial intelligence, natural language processing, dynamic learning, and hypothesis generation to render vast quantities of data intelligible to help humans make better decisions. The ability to self-learn enables continuously reprogramming.  These advancements represent a new class of technology to enable human and machine-guided decisions.  Cognitive computing drives augmented humanity, where the sum of our collective insights and data can be served up at the right time in the right context.  Technologies include facial recognition, human APIs, machine learning, natural language processing and self-learning algorithms.

The Bottom Line: Technology Trends Alone Are Not Enough To Consider In Dominating Digital Disruption

The premise behind the Constellation Futurist Framework requires the broader perspective of five other areas: political, economic, societal, environment, and legislative. When taken in concert, boards, CEOs, management teams, and strategic advisors will have a set of trends that provide context to the digital disruption ahead.  The framework is just the beginning.  A successful strategy will build on this futurist framework to map out the next 24 to 36 months of business model disruption.

Watch the Webinar 

 

 

Data to Decisions Future of Work Marketing Transformation Matrix Commerce New C-Suite Next-Generation Customer Experience Tech Optimization Innovation & Product-led Growth Revenue & Growth Effectiveness SoftwareInsider Digital Transformation Marketing B2B B2C CX Customer Experience EX Employee Experience AI ML Generative AI Analytics Automation Cloud Disruptive Technology Growth eCommerce Enterprise Software Next Gen Apps Social Customer Service Content Management Collaboration Leadership Machine Learning LLMs Agentic AI Robotics SaaS PaaS IaaS Quantum Computing Enterprise IT Enterprise Acceleration IoT Blockchain CRM ERP CCaaS UCaaS Enterprise Service developer Metaverse VR Healthcare Supply Chain HR HCM business finance M&A Chief Customer Officer Chief Digital Officer Chief Executive Officer Chief Financial Officer Chief Information Officer Chief Marketing Officer Chief People Officer Chief Procurement Officer Chief Supply Chain Officer Chief Data Officer Chief Experience Officer Chief Technology Officer Chief Information Security Officer Chief Analytics Officer Chief Operating Officer Chief Revenue Officer Chief Human Resources Officer

Quips: Good Technology Data Validates That Apple iOS Is Still King of Enterprise Class Mobile In The US

R "Ray" Wang

Principal Analyst and Founder
Constellation Research

R “Ray” Wang is the CEO of Silicon Valley-based Constellation Research Inc. He co-hosts DisrupTV, a weekly enterprise tech and leadership webcast that averages 50,000 views per episode and blogs at www.raywang.org. His ground-breaking best-selling book on digital transformation, Disrupting Digital Business, was published by Harvard Business Review Press in 2015. Ray's new book about Digital Giants and the future of business, titled, Everybody Wants to Rule The World was released in July 2021. Wang is well-quoted and frequently interviewed by media outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, Fox Business, CNBC, Yahoo Finance, Cheddar, and Bloomberg. Short Bio R “Ray” Wang (pronounced WAHNG) is the Founder, Chairman, and Principal Analyst of Silicon Valley-based Constellation Research Inc. He…...

Read more

Apple Grows In Net Activations In Q4 As Well As Overall

The February 12th, 2014 Good Technology Mobility Index report validates what many North American based enterprises know - Apple iOS is dominating Google Android inside the enterprise in the US markets.   While this data is limited to the Good Technology customer base, which has a strong US following, anecdotal inquires and formal polling by Constellation Research, Inc. validate that this data is directionally accurate.  Here are three graphics that illustrate the point:

1. Net Activations By Type of Device Show iOS up in Smart Phone and Tablets While Android Drops
2. Net Activation by Platform Shows iOS Continues To Grow While Android Activations Slightly Fall
3. Apple Dominates Tablet Activations At 91.4% vs Google Android’s 8.6%

Source: Good Technology 2013 Q4 Mobility Index

The Bottom Line: Google Android May Be Falling Out Of Favor In The Enterprise

Despite a higher cost of device, Constellation Research sees organizations choosing Apple iOS vs Google Android.  Further, the BYOD movement still shows that enterprise users sees Apple as the enterprise class option despite the consumer traction in Android.  Constellation identifies three trends why iOS is preferred over Android in the US:

1. Memories of BlackBerry haunt enterprise mobility. Leaders have no tolerance for the ever proliferating Android code fragmentation and device support requirements.  As with Research In Motion, the need to certify by carrier, device, and flavor of OS is seen as too big a hassle.
2. Restrictions on customization may be a good thing. While one would find this to be a negative factor, the overall out of the box capabilities meet the 80/20 rule.  The wide variety in Android has many organizations confused and the ability to side load bad apps has the powers at be worried.
3. Perceptions of enterprise class user experience remains with Apple. Despite increasing sales on the consumer side for Android devices, the enterprise treats Apple as the professional grade iOS.  The bugginess of Android apps and the OS in general outweigh the gimicky features found in many Android tablets and phones.

Your POV.

Are you looking at a mobile strategy? Do you see the link between mobility and digital business?  Are you an Android or Windows shop?  Will you stay or switch?  Do you disagree with the Apple iOS analysis?  Add your comments to the blog or reach me via email: R (at) ConstellationR (dot) com or R (at) SoftwareInsider (dot) com.

Please let us know if you need help with your mobility and Digital Business transformation efforts.  Here’s how we can assist:

• Assessing mobile readiness
• Developing your digital business strategy
• Vendor selection
• Implementation partner selection
• Connecting with other pioneers
• Sharing best practices
• Designing a next gen apps strategy
• Providing contract negotiations and software licensing support
• Demystifying software licensing

Related Resources

• Quips: What the Google Motorola – Lenovo Deal Is Really About
• News Analysis: VMware Signals Commitment To Mobility With $1.54B Intent To Acquire Airwatch
• News Analysis: Acquisition Of Fiberlink Fills Key Gap In IBM’s One-Stop Mobile First Strategy
• Tuesday’s Tip: Understand The Five Generation Of Digital Workers and Customers
• Monday’s Musings: The Chief Digital Officer In The Age Of Digital Business
• Slide Share: The CMO vs CIO – Pathways To Collaboration
• Event Report: Metaio’s #InsideAR Conference Hails The Future Of An Always On, Always Augmented Reality
• News Analysis: Avangate Acquired By Francisco Partners For Matrix Commerce Capabilities
• Event Report: CRM Evolution 2013 – Seven Trends In The Return To Digital Business And Customer Centricity
• Research Summary And Speaker Notes: The Identity Manifesto – Why Identity Is At The Heart of Digital Business
• News Analysis: Kana Express 13 Addresses Omni-Channel Customer Service for Mid-Market
• News Analysis: Zuora Raises $50M Series E Round, Rides #MatrixCommerce Wave
• Event Report: CRM Evolution 2013 – Seven Trends In The Return To Digital Business And Customer Centricity
• Monday’s Musings: Four Elements for A #SharingEconomy Biz Model In #MatrixCommerce
• Tuesday’s Tip: Why Context Matters – Forget Real-Time, Achieve Right-Time
• Monday’s Musings: Balancing The Six S’s In Consumerization Of IT
• Monday’s Musings: A Working Vendor Landscape For Social Business
• Research Report: The Upcoming Battle For The Largest Share Of The Technology Budget Part 1
• Research Report: How The Five Pillars Of Consumer Tech Influence Enterprise Innovation
• Best Practices: Five Simple Rules For Social Business

Reprints

Reprints can be purchased through Constellation Research, Inc. To request official reprints in PDF format, please contact Sales .

Disclosure

Although we work closely with many mega software vendors, we want you to trust us. For the full disclosure policy, stay tuned for the full client list on the Constellation Research website.

* Not responsible for any factual errors or omissions.  However, happy to correct any errors upon email receipt.

Copyright © 2001 – 2014 R Wang and Insider Associates, LLC All rights reserved.
Contact the Sales team to purchase this report on a a la carte basis or join the Constellation Customer Experience!

 

New C-Suite Future of Work Next-Generation Customer Experience Innovation & Product-led Growth Tech Optimization Data to Decisions android apple SoftwareInsider Microsoft ML Machine Learning LLMs Agentic AI Generative AI Robotics AI Analytics Automation B2B B2C CX EX Employee Experience HR HCM business Marketing Metaverse developer SaaS PaaS IaaS Supply Chain Quantum Computing Growth Cloud Digital Transformation Disruptive Technology eCommerce Enterprise IT Enterprise Acceleration Enterprise Software Next Gen Apps IoT Blockchain CRM ERP Leadership finance Social Healthcare VR CCaaS UCaaS Customer Service Content Management Collaboration M&A Enterprise Service Chief Customer Officer Chief Executive Officer Chief Financial Officer Chief Information Officer Chief Marketing Officer Chief People Officer Chief Procurement Officer Chief Technology Officer Chief Information Security Officer Chief Data Officer Chief Digital Officer Chief Analytics Officer Chief Operating Officer Chief Revenue Officer Chief Experience Officer

News Analysis: Rimini Street Vs Oracle Ruling Has No Negative Impact on Third Party Maintenance Rights

R "Ray" Wang

Principal Analyst and Founder
Constellation Research

R “Ray” Wang is the CEO of Silicon Valley-based Constellation Research Inc. He co-hosts DisrupTV, a weekly enterprise tech and leadership webcast that averages 50,000 views per episode and blogs at www.raywang.org. His ground-breaking best-selling book on digital transformation, Disrupting Digital Business, was published by Harvard Business Review Press in 2015. Ray's new book about Digital Giants and the future of business, titled, Everybody Wants to Rule The World was released in July 2021. Wang is well-quoted and frequently interviewed by media outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, Fox Business, CNBC, Yahoo Finance, Cheddar, and Bloomberg. Short Bio R “Ray” Wang (pronounced WAHNG) is the Founder, Chairman, and Principal Analyst of Silicon Valley-based Constellation Research Inc. He…...

Read more

Recent Oracle vs Rimini Street Ruling Is About Customer Software License Rights Not Third Party Maintenance

On February 13th, 2014, the United States District Court , District of Nevada Judge Larry Hicks issued a partial summary judgment in the Oracle vs Rimini Street Case. Here's the executive summary to key questions about the ruling*:

Is Third Party Maintenance still valid for Oracle products or anyone else? Yes.  Users should make sure this right is explicit in all future software deals.

Can a customer give a copy to a third party?  Yes if you have this in your license agreement.   Users should negotiate this in  contracts to ensure this right exists and remains as part of the ownership experience.

Do you have to read every contract detail before a third party maintenance provider can host the software? Yes. If there are site restrictions  and if you want to host it in a vendor's own data center.  Make sure you have the right to a site change or site license change.

Can copies of software from customers that are loaded onto the server that are identical to what another customer's rights be used or reloaded. Yes, the software license goes to intellectual property not to the media.  Third party maintenance vendors can use the same instance in setting up their clients and this will drive down the cost.

Does this ruling impact other businesses? Yes.  If you have no site specific rights, you can't have a third party outsource or host.  This could have major legal ramifications for Oracle and other vendor's existing hosting and outsourcing businesses.

Four Customer Cases End In A Draw For Oracle and Rimini Street Based On Contract Law Technicalities

The ruling includes cases from four customers each with unique contract language:

• City of Flint - US District Court rules In Oracle's favor. "Based on the court’s ruling s above, none of Rimini’s asserted license provisions (Sections 1.2(b), 1.2( c), or 14.2) expressly authorize Rimini ’s copying of Oracle’ s copy righted PeopleSoft branded software a s a matter of law. Therefore, the court finds that Oracle is entitled to summary judgment on Rimini’s express license affirmative defense as it relates to the City of Flint, and the court shall grant Oracle ’s motion accordingly".
  
  Point of View (POV): The City of Flint's PeopleSoft contracts were pre-Internet and did not allow for third parties to copy licenses onto other servers on their behalf.  In fact, the licenses only allowed for the City of Flint to provide “access to and use of the Software" to a third party.  The ruling makes sense and is based on how the license contract is written.

• Pittsburgh Public Schools - US District Court rules In Oracle's favor. "Based on the rulings above, the court finds that none of Rimini’s asserted license provisions (Sections 1.1, 1.2, or 10.2) expressly authorize Rimini’s copying of Oracle’s copy righted PeopleSoft branded software as a matter of law. Therefore, the court finds that Oracle is entitled to summary judgment on Rimini’s express license affirmative defense as it relates to the Pittsburgh Public Schools, and the court shall grant Oracle’s motion accordingly".
  
  (POV): Despite Oracle granting the Pittsburgh Public Schools “a nonexclusive, nontransferable license to make and run copies of the Software, "the right to access and use the Software is a separate right from the right to copy or reproduce software".  The ruling makes sense as with City of Flint based on the language in the original PeopleSoft contract.

• Giant Cement - US District Court Denies Oracle's request for summary judgment. Based on this record, the court finds that there are disputed issues of material fact as to whether Rimini’s use of the development environment associated with Giant Cement was for archival purposes or whether Rimini accessed the software’s source code. Accordingly, the court shall deny Oracle’s motion for summary judgment on Rimini’s express license affirmative defense as it relates to Giant Cement".
  
  (POV): Rimini Street did show how the JD Edwards development environments were used only for archival purposes and not for software development and testing.  According to the JD Edwards licensing agreement, the court ruling to deny request makes sense as the usage was in compliance with the licensing language .

• Novell - US District Court Denies Oracle's request for summary judgment. "First, the court finds that the plain language of Section 2.1(iv) authorizes Novell to make archival, emergency backup, or disaster-recovery testing copies. Further, the court finds that the plain language of Section 2.1(viii) permits Novell to allow Rimini, or another third-party, to install the software for archival, emergency back-up, or disaster recovery purposes. Therefore the court finds that Novell’s license allows for archival and/or back-up copies of the software on a third-party system. Accordingly, the court shall deny Oracle’s motion for summary judgment on Rimini’s express license affirmative defense as it relates to Novell.".
  
  (POV): The Novell specific Siebel contract language allows Novell to have any third party to make the back-up copies it needs. The court ruling makes sense.

 

The Bottom Line: Third Party Maintenance Is Alive and Well

Rimini Street currently has 120 total contracts out of 700 clients in the data center.  In conversations with Rimini Street CEO Seth Ravin mentioned that, “Rimini Street has been in the process of moving its customers out of their data center operations since 2012 “.  The action to move away from a data center operation makes sense as half the 120 total contracts may have similar language while the other half have contracts with varying wording and terms, with some even having no site restriction language at all.   In addition, Constellation has spoken to recent customers who  are managed via remote access for JD Edwards, Oracle EBS, PeopleSoft, SAP, and Siebel.  These clients have experienced few problems other than additional setup work and have taken advantage of the benefits of third party maintenance.

Recommendations: Customers Should Ensure Their Rights Span The Software Ownership Lifecycle

 

While the initial reaction would cause users and vendors to think this ruling is a draw, the devil is most certainly in the details.   The underlying issues stem from how customers negotiated their original JD Edwards, PeopleSoft, and Siebel contract rights.  These contracts had poorly defined site license rights.  Constellation recommends that every software license include clearly worded third party maintenance and outsourcing rights.  In fact, a poorly negotiated contract can have cascading ramifications across the software ownership lifecycle:

1. Selection
2. Implementation
3. Utliization
4. Maintenance
5. Renewal or replacement

Constellation has put together an Enterprise Software Licensee Bill of Rights and An Enterprise Cloud Bill of Rights and checklist that clients can use to protect themselves. This is pertinent especially for cloud contracts which now resemble long term BPO deals and because the majority of enterprise software is nowsold  via SaaS or cloud deployments. Despite a perception of simplicity in software acquisition, many cloud contracts require all the rigor and due diligence of contracts for on-premises licensed software.

Client–vendor relationships in the cloud are seemingly perpetual. When converting from an on-premises arrangement, it is imperative that these agreements provide a chance for a new slate. Thus, chief information officers (CIOs), chief marketing officers (CMOs), line-of-business (LOB) executives, procurement managers and other organizational leaders should ensure that the mistakes they made with on- premises licensed software aren't blindly carried over.  The Enterprise Cloud Buyer’s Bill of Rights provides a tool for clients and vendors to change the tenor of contract negotiations from user subservience to an equal and collaborative long-term partnership

Disclaimers.

* R "Ray" Wang; Insider Associates, LLC; and Constellation Research, Inc.; provide software contract negotiations support and advice.  We are not legal professionals or procurement professionals.   Please check with your legal and procurement teams for the specific advice pertinent to your organization.

Your POV.

Let us know your experiences with SAP or Oracle contract negotiations   Add your comments to the blog or reach me via email: R (at) ConstellationRG (dot) com or R (at) SoftwareInsider (dot) com.

Let Us Help You.

Need help with your software contract or working out the rationale for used software or third party maintenance?  Put the power of experience with over 1500 software contract negotiations to work.  Contact us throughout the vendor selection or negotiation process.  We can help with a quick contract review or even the complete vendor selection.  We provide fix-fee and gain sharing arrangements.

Related Constellation Research

Wang, R. "Best Practices - An Enterprise Cloud Bill of Rights" Constellation Research, Inc. November 2012

Wang, R. “Best Practices – Three Simple Software Maintenance Strategies That Can Save You Millions” Constellation Research, Inc. March 7, 2012

Wang, R. “Best Practices: Why Every CIO Should Consider Third-Party Maintenance.” Constellation Research, Inc. August 7, 2012.

Wang, R. “Market Overview: The Market For SAP Optimization Options.” Constellation Research, Inc. May 11, 2011.

Wang, R. “Best Practices: The Case for Two-Tier ERP Deployments.” Constellation Research, Inc. February 28, 2011.

Related Resources And Links

• Tuesday’s Tip: Putting the Kibosh On ERP Vendor Sales Reps Who Troll For Indirect Access
• Polls and Surveys: Negotiating Software Contracts With Oracle or SAP Part 1.
• News Analysis: New SAP Customers Face Maintenance Hike
• Monday’s Musings: Trends In The Top Software Insider Posts of 2012 (#softwareinsider)
• Tuesday’s Tip: Act Now To Leave The Door Open For SAP Third Party Maintenance Options
• News Analysis: UsedSoft Vs Oracle Ruling Opens Up Monopolistic Practices By Software Vendors
• News Analysis: Spinnaker Expands JD Edwards Support With Versytec Acquisition
• Research Summary: Best Practices – Three Simple Software Maintenance Strategies That Can Save You Millions
• News Analysis: The Implications Of Oracle’s Acquisition Of Taleo
• Tuesday’s Tip: Five Cloud/SaaS Contract Negotiation Tips For 2012
• News Analysis: Microsoft Licensing Update – May/June 2011
• Tuesday’s Tip: Dealing With Pesky Software Licensing Audits
• Monday’s Musings: Putting An End To The Conflict Of Interest Among Some Sourcing Advisors
• Research Summary: Software Insider’s Top 25 Posts For 2010
• Tuesday’s Tip: Dealing With Vendor Offers To Cancel Shelfware And Replace With New Licenses
• Research Report: Constellation’s Research Outlook For 2011
• Event Report: SAP Australian Users Group Summit 2010
• Tuesday’s Tip: Dealing With Vendor Threats For “All Or Nothing” Maintenance Agreements
• News Analysis: Microsoft Licensing Update – May/June 2010
• Tuesday’s Tip: Dealing With Vendor Threats To Charge For Back Maintenance Fees
• Monday’s Musings: Decoupling Support From Maintenance – What Apps Vendors Can Learn From Microsoft Dynamics
• 20090612, Channel Partner, “Used software – SAP suffers defeat”
• 20090612 Channel Partner, “UsedSoft obtains a provisional order against Microsoft”
• 20080602 Federal Judge Approves eBay Auction of Copyrighted Autodesk AutoCAD Design Software”
• 20120318 Research Summary: Best Practices – Three Simple Software Maintenance Strategies That Can Save You Millions
• 20100419 Tuesday’s Tip: Dealing With Pesky Software Licensing Audits
• 20090714 Research Summary: An Enterprise Software Licensee’s Bill of Rights, V2
• 20101214 Tuesday’s Tip: Dealing With Vendor Offers To Cancel Shelfware And Replace With New Licenses
• 20100308 Monday’s Musings: Decoupling Support From Maintenance – What Apps Vendors Can Learn From Microsoft Dynamics
• 20100222 Monday’s Musings: Why Users Should Preserve Their Third Party Maintenance Rights
• 20100104 News Analysis: SAP Revives Two-Tier Maintenance Options
• 20090210 Tuesday’s Tip: Software Licensing and Pricing – Do Not Give Away Your Third Party Maintenance And Access Rights
• 20090709 Tuesday’s Tip: Do Not Bundle Your Support and Maintenance Contracts!
• 20091222 Tuesday’s Tip: 10 Cloud And SaaS Apps Strategies For 2010
• 20091208 Tuesday’s Tip: 2010 Apps Strategies Should Start With Business Value
• 20091102 Best Practices: Lessons Learned In What SMB’s Want From Their ERP Provider
• 20091006 Tuesday’s Tip: Why Free Software Ain’t Really Free
• 20090504 News Analysis: Oracle Waives Fees On Extended Support Offerings
• 20080909 Trends: What Customers Want From Maintenance And Support
• 20080215 Software Licensing and Pricing: Stop the Anti-Competitive Maintenance Fee Madness
• 20090405 Monday’s Musings: Total Account Value, True Cost of Ownership, And Software Vendor Business Models
• 20090324 Tuesday’s Tips: Five Simple Steps To Reduce Your Software Maintenance Costs
• 20090223 Monday’s Musings: Five Programs Some Vendors Have Implemented To Help Clients In An Economic Recession
• 20091012 Research Report: Customer Bill of Rights – Software-as-a Service
• 20090910 Tuesday’s Tip: Note To Self – Start Renegotiating Your Q4 Software Maintenance Contracts Now!
• 20090721 Tuesday’s Tip: 3 Approaches To Return Shelfware
• 20090127 Tuesday’s Tip: Software Licensing and Pricing – Now’s The Time To Remove “Gag Rule” Clauses In Your Software Contracts

Reprints

Reprints can be purchased through Constellation Research, Inc. To request official reprints in PDF format, please contact Sales .

Disclosure

Although we work closely with many mega software vendors, we want you to trust us. For the full disclosure policy, stay tuned for the full client list on the Constellation Research website.

* Not responsible for any factual errors or omissions. However, happy to correct any errors upon email receipt.

Copyright © 2001 – 2014 R Wang and Insider Associates, LLC All rights reserved.
Contact the Sales team to purchase this report on a a la carte basis or join the Constellation Customer Experience!

Tech Optimization Revenue & Growth Effectiveness New C-Suite Matrix Commerce Data to Decisions Future of Work Innovation & Product-led Growth Digital Safety, Privacy & Cybersecurity rimini street SoftwareInsider SAP Oracle ML Machine Learning LLMs Agentic AI Generative AI Robotics AI Analytics Automation B2B B2C CX EX Employee Experience HR HCM business Marketing Metaverse developer SaaS PaaS IaaS Supply Chain Quantum Computing Growth Cloud Digital Transformation Disruptive Technology eCommerce Enterprise IT Enterprise Acceleration Enterprise Software Next Gen Apps IoT Blockchain CRM ERP Leadership finance Social Healthcare VR CCaaS UCaaS Customer Service Content Management Collaboration M&A Enterprise Service Chief Information Officer Chief Procurement Officer Chief Product Officer Chief Technology Officer Chief Information Security Officer Chief Data Officer Chief Executive Officer Chief Digital Officer Chief Analytics Officer Chief Financial Officer Chief Operating Officer Chief Marketing Officer Chief Revenue Officer Chief Experience Officer

Whither Bitcoin? Or Wither, Bitcoin?

Chris Meyer

Chris Meyer is a thought leader focusing on the information economy, globalization and business innovation. His latest book is "Standing on the Sun".
Got Nerve

Chris's mission is to anticipate and shape the future of business. He has pursued this goal as an entrepreneur, executive, consultant, author, and the leader of a think tank.

 Based on the ideas in his 2002 book Future Wealth, Chris developed a plan for a business based on a network of thought leaders. He joined The Monitor Group in 2006 to develop this idea as Monitor Networks, where he was Chief Executive from 2004 to 2009. In 2006, he co-founded Monitor Talent, to take these ideas forward operationally. Prior to joining Monitor Group, he was the Director of the Center for Business Innovation at Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, from 1995 until its closing in December 2002. The Center fostered the conversation of leading issues among the business community, developed public conferences,…...

Read more

1

A Beginner’s Guide to Bitcoin  I’m engaged in a fascinating project — interesting both because I started from total ignorance and because the subject is complex and profound. I’m helping the Fondación Innovación Bankinter pull together a colloquium on “The Future of Currencies: Bitcoin, Barter, and the Informal Economy.”

If you’re unaware of Bitcoin, the underlying fact is that it is a cryptography-based method “to establish trust between otherwise unrelated parties over an untrusted network,” quoting Mark Andreessen’s primer in the New York Times. He sees this breakthrough as in the same league with PCs and the Internet. While this capability — establishing trust — could have many applications (passing secret messages, for example), the one that’s attracting public attention now is as a peer-to-peer payment system and digital currency, or “cryptocurrency."

For the past three months, Bitcoin has been in the news constantly. The Winkelvoss Twins, of Facebook fame, were reported to have profited from a $30 million position in Bitcoin, and quoted as saying the price of a Bitcoin, then about $700, would reach $40,000. Whatever the long term may hold, there’s been plenty of room for speculative profits lately, with the price fluctuating between $500 and $1,200 for the past few months (see chart below). This has at least in part been driven by news, good (“Overtstock.com Is Now Accepting Bitcoins”) and bad (“Flaw in Bitcoin, exchange shutdowns, $2.7 million theft: Is the end coming?")

 

 

So we can add Bitcoin as another game in the financial casino. But there are many more interesting aspects to this development. Some of the facets that fuel the debate include:

•  Anonymity. Some people believe that Bitcoin can be traded with complete anonymity, hence the currency will appeal to black marketeers, drug dealers, terrorists, and others with something to hide. But others argue that because the Bitcoin protocol captures every transaction for which the currency is used, it is much more traceable than cash. In fact, Berkman Center’s Jonathan Zittrain reports that some think it’s a ploy by the US government to capture information about illegal activities.

•  Out of Control. Bitcoin is managed by a peer network; it is a currency not under the control of any government. Some argue this means it will be a low risk global currency, not buffeted by the performance of any national economy.

•  Under Control. The definition of Bitcoins establishes for all time the size of the money supply and the rate at which the current supply grows; this is the monetary policy Milton Friedman always urged for the Fed, to maximize certainty of asset holders about inflation.

•  Bad for Economic Management. As a consequence, if Bitcoin were to become prevalent, nations would lose the tools of monetary policy as a way to manage their economies.

•  Good for the Chinese. If a country wanted to reduce the influence of the U.S. Dollar, supporting crypto currencies could help. China, however, has banned Bitcoins, perhaps because the idea of a currency controlled by no one is not acceptable.

•  Friction Free. Because the apparatus for “mining” and trading Bitcoins is not part of the existing payment systems and rests on publicly available internet services, advocates see Bitcoin as putting pressure on the fees, often 5% – collected by banks and credit card companies.

And there’s more.  

I’ve dealt with Bitcoin above, but there is a much richer set of developments occurring in the world of money.  There are many crypto currencies out there — Ripple Labs has created the Ripple Exchange Protocol (RXP) as an open system, and is building not only a currency called Ripple on it but inviting others to find applications. In addition they are developing support businesses, Red Hat to RXP’s Linux. And payment systems such as M-Pesa, Vodaphone’s mobile-based money network developed in Africa, are another source of innovation; recently M-Pesa started transferring Bitcoin, and one third of Kenyans are reported to have Bitcoin “wallets.” And you’ll miss the fun if you don’t check out Dogecoin, responsible for the tip-bot on Reddit.

I’m working on the agenda for the colloquium. Some questions I think we’ll ask include:

•  Why have new payment systems arisen? What needs are the existing systems failing to meet? 

•  How will central banks view currencies existing outside their national monetary systems? 

•  What is the range of applications for a global, secure, peer-to-peer authentication systems not under the control of any central authority? 

•  What developments can we anticipate in the next five years?

Please offer your thoughts on these questions. And what others the discussion should cover.  Please note that the technology of crypto currencies is not the subject here — it is their impact on the world’s economy.

Based on what I’ve learned so far, I think (1) the payment systems available to consumers and businesses today are a rent-seeking oligopoly, ripe for disruption — the profits from these businesses will come down, just as music publishers have; (2) there will be a significant political reaction to contain crypto currencies, regardless of their anonymity or lack of it — see Simon Johnson’s recent post on this; (3) the idea of peer-to-peer verification over the net is a big idea that will have big consequences sooner or later; and (4) we don’t know as much about money and the monetary system as we think we do, and the current institutional framework will be changing, in part because of these developments. The DOJ and Ben Bernanke have already acknowledged that Bitcoin is legal and has some beneficial aspects; and (5) the emerging economies are likely to play a pioneering role in exploring crypto currencies — South Africa’s Standard Bank, South Africa’s largest, is testing integration with Bitcoin.

One scenario is that Bitcoin will be the Napster of money — an approach that perishes in the process of destabilizing the status quo, but leads to massive changes over time. 

What do you think?  – CAM