On criticism of Frank Gehry

Steve Wilson

Former Vice President and Principal Analyst
Constellation Research

Steve Wilson is former VP and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research, leading the business theme Digital Safety and Privacy. His coverage includes digital identity, data protection, data privacy, cryptography, and trust. His advisory services to CIOs, CISOs, CPOs and IT architects include identity product strategy, security practice benchmarking, Privacy by Design (PbD), privacy engineering and Privacy [or Data Protection] Impact Assessments (PIA, DPIA). Coverage Areas: -  Identity management, frameworks & governance-  Digital identity technologies-  Privacy by Design -  Big Data; “Big Privacy”-  Identity & privacy innovation Previous experience: Wilson has worked in ICT innovation, research, development and analysis for over 25 years. With double…...

Read more

A letter to the editor, Sydney Morning Herald, January 14, 2011.

The ABC screened a nice documentary last night about Frank Gehry's UTS Business School building. The only thing spoiling the show was Sydney's rusted-on architecture critic Elizabeth Farrelly having another self conscious whinge. And I remembered that I wrote a letter to the Herald after she had a go at Gehry in 2011 after the design was unveiled. Where would sad little damp squib critics be without the 'starchitects' they love to hate?

Letter as published

Ironically, Elizabeth Farrelly's diatribe against Frank Gehry and his UTS design is really all about her. She spends 12 flabby paragraphs defending criticism (please! Aren't Australians OK by now with the idea of critics?) and bravely mocking Gehry as "starchitect".

Eventually Farrelly lets go her best shots: mild rhetorical questions about the proposal's still unseen interior, daft literalism about buildings being unable to move, and a "quibble" about harmony. I guess she likewise dismisses Gaudi and his famous fluid masonry.

Farrelly's contempt for the university's ''boot licking'' engagement with this celebrated architect is simply myopic. The thing about geniuses like Gehry and Utzon is that brave clients can trust that the results will prevail.

 

Embeddable Functions Are (Finally) Coming to Customer Service

1

In December of 2014 something weird began to happen: we were introduced (or rather, re-introduced since the concept has been around for some time) to embeddable apps and uses.

Zendesk announced their embeddable API as a way to bring specific components from the application (like tickets and channel management) via  widget into other applications.

At the same time, Actuate introduced a platform for embeddable analytics, providing a similar approach – you can bring analytics and visualization in real-time into any other app or application via their API and widgets.

There were others, still under development, that are going in the same direction and I cannot disclose – yet.

Mind you, embedded value inserted in other apps or applications is not new.  It has been at least 15 years since we started promoting the value of in-app knowledge bases for field service and remote workers (can you imagine an airline technician trying to fix and engine that has to go back to a desktop computer to look at pictures and instructions? used to be that way).

But this is different.  This is not about just one function (highly customized and heavily bloated to be honest – that is what we used to have) being created specifically to be used independently.  This time we are talking about leveraging the power of the cloud – not just technology.

You likely heard me before talk about the ability of cloud-based platforms (middle layer in a proper three-tier open cloud architecture) to deliver value anywhere.  Leveraging the services made available by the platform the SaaS layer (the interface, also the software layer proper) can deliver anything that is entitled to access.

This is what is making apps and applications far more flexible (and way smaller) than ever.  If i can just bring the small functionality i need to complete my job into my screen easy and effortless then I (the individual user) can build apps that fit my need for that specific model (not to mention IT can do whatever they want as well).  This takes the burden of developing away from IT and away from complex sessions of requirements and so forth and gives the citizen programmer access to more power and flexibility.

It seems that December of 2014 was not that long ago – yet we are starting to see the second generation of embedded technology emerge already.  Indeed, the newer vendors (more cloud savvy, more flexible and dynamic, smaller and more nimble) are starting to offer what they call in-app functionality.

Whether its HelpShift (one of the early vendors to offer in-app support for gaming platforms), or SparkCentral (who just released their in-app messaging for customer service last week – and what prompted me to write this) we are seeing far smaller, more powerful, and easier to use in-app functionality that allows any user (still today being used via IT – but the product can easily allow any user to embed the functionality in their own-grown apps) to use what they need where they need.

 

The next step is to take IT out of the equation (sorry, like you guys – but you have too much going on to deliver apps quickly and effectively… need to let the citizen programmer take over) and where we are seeing Salesforce start down that road with the Lighting set of tools they announced last year at Dreamforce and greatly expanded two weeks ago with the introduction of The Lighting Experience (or whatever marketing deemed it to be – I am sorry, I am not that good at slogans).

There is an immense amount of value in creating small (atomized, applications as I used to call them 10 years ago — simply apps as they are called today) apps that perform very specific functionality.  In addition to delivering on the true value of cloud computing (yeah, who needs a browser? we just leverage the internet as a transport network and be done with it!) it also empowers the user to be more mobile, connected, and effective.

I expect to see the next generation of in-app empowered apps and applications begin to hit contact centers in the next few months and better adoption over the next 18-24 months until we reach mainstream adoption sometime in the 2017-2018 timeframe.  Although I always say my timeframes are short (and optimistic) and you should always add something to them – i am starting to get the feeling that this time is different… this time, I think i am long.

What do you think?

Planning to use in-app functionality in your apps and applications? Have already something under way? let me know below in the comments… would love to know more about what’s happening.

disclaimer: where to start? let’s see… Salesforce is a client (and, btw, I am presenting the latest and greatest Evolution of Customer Service at Dreamforce next week – come see me!).  SparkCentral was a client (inactive now) and likely going to be a client again – yeah, they like me that much.  HelpShift was a client and I sit on their board of advisors and I hold equity (should go without saying, but — i am nothing if not honest).  Moxie was a client (inactive now, but likely going back to active).  Actuate (acquired by OpenText) was a client (inactive right now, but we are working on something soon) and a good friend of mine Allen Bonde is there.  Zendesk is not a client per-se, but I have some involvement with them in Latin America via one of the many commercials endeavors I have in Latin America (read it with an accent, sounds much better).  There are many more clients (both active and inactive) and I pretty certain that I could’ve used (and missed) others that are doing things around this area.  I am not using vendor names as a way of endorsement but as examples. If I missed you, feel free to drop the info in the comments – only time I won’t delete your spammy comment :).  Otherwise, as you likely know, I am all about trends and not about endorsing vendors or technologies.  I am highlighting a trend and not promoting a vendor.  If any of the vendors mentioned here expected or would like preferential treatment because of their mention — ha! yeah, right… reputation above compensation, my friends.

Next-Generation Customer Experience Chief Customer Officer

How Productivity Drives Customer Engagement

Vice President and Principal Analyst, Constellation Research
Constellation Research

Role: Vice President and Principal Analyst focusing on the IOT of Customer Experience and how the cloud is driving more flexible, agile, and robust customer service and customer experiences. In-app or in device customer service is the future. Coverage Areas: Next Generation Customer, Digital Marketing Transformation Bio: As a Vice President and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research, Inc, Petouhoff works with Fortune 100 and 500’s Senior Leadership teams to create strategic customer experience (marketing, sales and service) solutions which engage customers, build brands and grow businesses. Combining her experience as a former Forrester software analyst, PWC systems integrator and change management consultant, Petouhoff leads executive workshops to discuss to not only…...

Read more

Wondering how to get the ROI out of your CRM software? There’s many things that will affect it. One is productivity and it’s affect on customer engagement. According to the Journal of Experimental Psychology,1 every time a user switches programs or applications, there is a 40 percent reduction in productivity. (1) What brands need is a design principle that allows organizations to manage their customer-facing activities in a single experience, with no need to export or switch, drastically reducing the time to completion and saving time by automating fundamental tasks.

How to Solve The Issues Related to Productivity and Customer Engagement: One way to solve these issues is with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016, which is their latest customer engagement solution. It has announced a comprehensive upgrade which includes:

• Advancements in intelligence
• Mobility and
• Service, with significant productivity enhancements to help businesses and workers achieve more.

The new enhancements are designed to increase productivity for organizations by providing a simple and seamless experience across their Dynamics CRM application and their employee productivity applications like email, Excel, OneDrive for Business for easier task management, an enhanced mobile experience for the worker on the go, and enriched data and analytics, all of which will be available later this calendar year.

How Does Productivity Affect Customer Engagement? Through an enhanced Excel experience within Dynamics CRM, complete with new Excel templates for various tasks, functions and scenarios, users can now efficiently toggle between functions as opposed to time-consuming and complex exporting, enabling them to augment their customer processes with simple, familiar analysis within their CRM experience.

Organizations will also have access to their documents within Dynamics CRM via integration with OneDrive for Business and new document generation capabilities. The Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016 release also introduces Delve functionality into the application. Powered by Office Graph, Delve helps users increase productivity by surfacing key content — enabling salespeople to discover information that may help them with their opportunity or account, such as popular sales presentations and proposals.

What Needs to Be Done with Date to Turn It Into Actionable Insights? Turning data into intelligent action is a cornerstone of business transformation and productivity, and the new Dynamics CRM release includes data management and advanced analytics capabilities powered by Cortana Analytics Suite. This includes Azure Machine Learning that can enable business insights so that sales reps are able to predict their customers’ needs.

How Mobility Affects the Customer Experience Mobility is core to productivity, and the next version of Dynamics CRM will provide full offline capabilities for sales and service professionals on phones and tablets and across all major mobile platforms (Android, iOS and Windows). The release also introduces the ability to create task-centered mobile apps to streamline the completion of sales-related activities on the go and next-generation Cortana integration to surface core deals, accounts and activities within the personal assistant.

My POV: While we don’t always remember to connect the dots between what employees are doing and how that affects the customer experience, it’s probably one of the most important things to consider. Happy employees make happy customers. Grumpy employees turn customers off and increase attrition. And attrition is expensive in an age where products are commoditized and prices are leveled. The differeiantor? Customer Experience. Something we’ve been talking about for over 20 years. Guess I will just keep talking about it till the whole world “gets” it.

@DrNatalie, VP and Principal Analyst, Constellation Research

 

(1)  Rubinstein, Joshua S.; Meyer, David E.; Evans, Jeffrey E. (2001). “Executive Control of Cognitive Processes in Task Switching. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance,” 27(4), 763–797

(2) http://news.microsoft.com/2015/09/08/microsoft-reinvents-productivity-with-upcoming-release-of-customer-engagement-solution/

 

Next-Generation Customer Experience Chief Customer Officer

IoT – don’t focus on the hype, keep the use cases in mind.

pending

Guy Courtin was formerly Vice President and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research covering Matrix Commerce and how the Internet of Things drives the evolution of commerce.  Guy has over 15 years experience in the technology space and specifically in the supply chain space. Most recently he was the Vice President of Research at SCM World. Where he focused on the service providers that empowered supply chains. Prior to SCM World, Guy held numerous senior positions. He was responsible for product marketing at RSi, a retail supply chain solution provider. There managed RSi’s go to market strategy around their leading cloud based supply chain solutions. He also spear headed Progress Software’s supply chain group. Where he was responsible for driving revenue and market share as well…...

Read more

An interesting article came out end of August that looked at some “gadgets” that should have just stayed dumb. A good read that highlights some everyday items that probably should have stayed out of the IoT spot light. Click here for the article.

But are we missing the bigger picture with IoT? I agree with Christopher Mims from the Wall Street Journal about the over smartening of banal items – plates, pans, drinking cup to name a few. Click here for the piece. Not every object in our every day lives need to be connected. However, as prices come down, use cases for some of these gadgets might become more appealing. Let’s look at some that @internetofshit called out:

• The connected bottle of wine – yes tracking my $5 bottle of wine is a little silly. But think about the importance of track and trace for items such as your cough syrup or baby formula. Ensuring they have not been tampered with or counterfeited. How about monitoring perishables such dairy. From a distributor stand point, being able to track and trace a bottle of Coke or Pepsi could have long reaching impacts on the supply chain, being much more precise with regards to stocking and inventory management. Read a recent case study I wrote about how Free Flow Wines tracks their time/temp sensitive inventory. 
• Smart water fountain for pets – do you really need to monitor your pets’ water intake? Probably not. But having access to controlling the dispensing of water and food? There are already plenty of products on the market that have timers to dispense these items. Why not make that smarter? The pet business is a $55b + annual market in the United States alone, with over 3% growth annually. Providing customers with a smart pet food/water dispenser where the pets’ intake could offer an alternative for those who are not always home but still want to ensure their loved pets get the necessary food and water. Consumers spend money on their pets, as if they were their children. In many ways they are. That $55b market doesn’t seem too silly, that seems like real money.
• Connected socks – Wow, $199 socks…yikes. Even someone like me who loves their socks (just check my instagram page – @gcourtin – for my sock selection) that is a high price tag. But let’s imagine that price tag comes down. At $20 – $50 consumers might start purchasing these items. Why? Companies like Adidas are already putting connected devices in their soccer boots to provide players and coaches with a large amount of data to craft better training regimes. Think it is silly? Click here to read a great piece on how the German national soccer team used this to win the World Cup. Runners, soccer players, basketball players, football teams and the list goes on, of athletes that could gravitate to this type of performance data. Granted this might already become available via the shoes, but if the socks are less expensive they might get to that market first.
• Smart jars and water bottles – These could fall under the connected kitchen/home category. Do I need to know exactly how much water I drink a day? Or exactly what the nutrition content of the items in my jars? It might sound like a little overkill. What about a use case of tying in your water intake with your Fitbit or Apple Watch or smart phone? Does anyone not believe that personal health tracking devices are not firmly entrenched? Extending this into our consumption does not seem like a big stretch. The smart jar might one day be connected to a larger food supply chain. Large CPG companies such as P&G and Unilever are always interested in getting better data on the actual usage of their products. Even players such as Amazon and Google might want to find a way to have customers use these smart containers so they can better replenish items at the home.

I agree that sometimes these devices appear to be technology looking for a problem to solve. But with some aspects of IoT it might be just that at some level. We are still in the early stages of IoT. And with that there remains many skeptics, issues that still need resolution (privacy and security being two of them) and at times too many things being made “smart” for the sake of it. What we need to focus on is not the devices and gadgets that are being connected, rather the use cases that these connected devices might open up.

Now where are my connected socks?

 

Matrix Commerce Data to Decisions Future of Work Innovation & Product-led Growth New C-Suite Tech Optimization Chief Customer Officer Chief Information Officer Chief Supply Chain Officer

10 Ways Big Data Is Revolutionizing Supply Chain Management

1

Bottom line: Big data is providing supplier networks with greater data accuracy, clarity, and insights, leading to more contextual intelligence shared across supply chains.

Forward-thinking manufacturers are orchestrating 80% or more of their supplier network activity outside their four walls, using big data and cloud-based technologies to get beyond the constraints of legacy Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Supply Chain Management (SCM) systems. For manufacturers whose business models are based on rapid product lifecycles and speed, legacy ERP systems are a bottleneck.  Designed for delivering order, shipment and transactional data, these systems aren’t capable of scaling to meet the challenges supply chains face today.

Choosing to compete on accuracy, speed and quality forces supplier networks to get to a level of contextual intelligence not possible with legacy ERP and SCM systems. While many companies today haven’t yet adopted big data into their supply chain operations, these ten factors taken together will be the catalyst that get many moving on their journey.

The ten ways big data is revolutionizing supply chain management include:

• The scale, scope and depth of data supply chains are generating today is accelerating, providing ample data sets to drive contextual intelligence. The following graphic provides an overview of 52 different sources of big data that are generated in supply chains Plotting the data sources by variety, volume and velocity by the relative level of structured/unstructured data, it’s clear that the majority of supply chain data is generated outside an enterprise. Forward-thinking manufacturers are looking at big data as a catalyst for greater collaboration. Source: Big Data Analytics in Supply Chain Management: Trends and Related Research. Presented at 6th International Conference on Operations and Supply Chain Management, Bali, 2014

• Enabling more complex supplier networks that focus on knowledge sharing and collaboration as the value-add over just completing transactions.  Big data is revolutionizing how supplier networks form, grow, proliferate into new markets and mature over time. Transactions aren’t the only goal, creating knowledge-sharing networks is, based on the insights gained from big data analytics. The following graphic from Business Ecosystems Come Of Age (Deloitte University Press) (free, no opt-in) illustrates the progression of supply chains from networks or webs, where knowledge sharing becomes a priority.

• Big data and advanced analytics are being integrated into optimization tools, demand forecasting, integrated business planning and supplier collaboration & risk analytics at a quickening pace. These are the top four supply chain capabilities that Delotte found are currently in use form their recent study, Supply Chain Talent of the Future Findings from the 3^rd Annual Supply Chain Survey (free, no opt-in). Control tower analytics and visualization are also on the roadmaps of supply chain teams currently running big data pilots.

• 64% of supply chain executives consider big data analytics a disruptive and important technology, setting the foundation for long-term change management in their organizations.  SCM World’s latest Chief Supply Chain Officer Report provides a prioritization of the most disruptive technologies for supply chains as defined by the organizations’ members.  The following graphic from the report provides insights into how senior supply chain executives are prioritizing big data analytics over other technologies.

• Using geoanalytics based on big data to merge and optimize delivery networks.  The Boston Consulting Group provides insights into how big data is being put to use in supply chain management in the article Making Big Data Work: Supply Chain Management (free, opt-in). One of the examples provided is how the merger of two delivery networks was orchestrated and optimized using geoanalytics. The following graphic is from the article. Combining geoanalytics and big data sets could drastically reduce cable TV tech wait times and driving up service accuracy, fixing one of the most well-known service challenges of companies in that business.

• Big data is having an impact on organizations’ reaction time to supply chain issues (41%), increased supply chain efficiency of 10% or greater (36%), and greater integration across the supply chain (36%). The Big Data Analytics in Supply Chain: Hype or Here to Stay? Accenture Global Operations Megatrends Study found that companies are achieving significant results using big data analytics to improve supply chain performance and gain greater contextual intelligence.

 

• Embedding big data analytics in operations leads to a 4.25x improvement in order-to-cycle delivery times, and a 2.6x improvement in supply chain efficiency of 10% or greater. Accenture found that embedding big data into supply chain operations accelerates supply chain processes a minimum of 1.3x over using big data on an ad hoc basis. Source:   Big Data Analytics in Supply Chain: Hype or Here to Stay? Accenture Global Operations Megatrends Study

• Greater contextual intelligence of how supply chain tactics, strategies and operations are influencing financial objectives.  Supply chain visibility often refers to being able to see multiple supplier layers deep into a supply network.  It’s been my experience that being able to track financial outcomes of supply chain decisions back to financial objectives is attainable, and with big data app integration to financial systems, very effective in industries with rapid inventory turns. Source: Turn Big Data Into Big Visibility.

• Traceability and recalls are by nature data-intensive, making big data’s contribution potentially significant. Big data has the potential to provide improved traceability performance and reduce the thousands of hours lost just trying to access, integrate and manage product databases that provide data on where products are in the field needing to be recalled or retrofitted.
• Increasing supplier quality from supplier audit to inbound inspection and final assembly with big data. IBM has developed a quality early-warning system that detects and then defines a prioritization framework that isolates quality problem faster than more traditional methods, including Statistical Process Control (SPC). The early-warning system is deployed upstream of suppliers and extends out to products in the field.

 

Data to Decisions Tech Optimization Chief Information Officer

IBM and ARM Collaborate to Accelerate Delivery of IoT

Holger Mueller

Vice President and Principal Analyst
Constellation Research

Holger Mueller is VP and Principal Analyst for Constellation Research for the fundamental enablers of the cloud, IaaS, PaaS and next generation Applications, with forays up the tech stack into BigData and Analytics, HR Tech, and sometimes SaaS. Holger provides strategy and counsel to key clients, including Chief Information Officers, Chief Technology Officers, Chief Product Officers, Chief HR Officers, investment analysts, venture capitalists, sell-side firms, and technology buyers.  Coverage Areas: Future of Work Tech Optimization & Innovation  Background: Before joining Constellation Research, Mueller was VP of Products for NorthgateArinso, a KKR company. There, he led the transformation of products to the cloud and laid the foundation for new Business Process as a…...

Read more

The IBM NextGenApps Stack emerges

Earlier this week IBM and ARM announced a partnership in the fast growing next generation application use case of IoT. The announcement caught my attention as it is one of the first processor and stack partnerships happening in the market. And it is pretty obvious that bringing low level device information and architectures with higher level software constructs is going to be key for future winners in the IoT market. 

 

So let’s dissect the press release in our customary style, it can be found here:

ARMONK, NY - 03 Sep 2015: IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced an expansion of its Internet of Things (IoT) platform – called IBM IoT Foundation - through an integration with ARM (LSE: ARM, NASDAQ: ARMH.US), providing out of the box connectivity with ARM® mbedTM-enabled devices to analytics services. This fusion will allow huge quantities of data from devices such as industrial appliances, weather sensors and wearable monitoring devices to be gathered, analyzed and acted upon.

MyPOV – IBM is not losing time on the IoT front, it was only in late March the vendor unveiled its initiative for IoT (see here). ARM announced the mbed IoT platform in October 2014 (see here), so it is early times for IoT partnerships, but good to see that important aspect of analytics services being the core of the partnership. IBM has done a lot of work on the BigData / next generation Database side to store all the IoT information and equally on the Watson front to make sense of data. And then there are SoftLayer (to run it all) and BlueMix to build the next generation Applications. On the ARM side the long tradition of low power devices positions the vendor very well as core infrastructure for IoT Power consumption remains one of the key challenges for IoT devices – as we all know firsthand from our power hungry smartphones (yes I know the ‘things’ are very different to smartphones, but it illustrates the power challenge).

IBM also announced the first in a series of IBM Cloud-based, industry-specific IoT services with IoT for Electronics. The service will enable electronics manufacturers to gather data from individual sensors that can be combined with other data for real-time analysis.

MyPOV – Good to see IBM tackling vertical aspects of IoT use cases in an early phase. IoT best practices are only evolving, and it is clear they will have a vertical flavor early, due to the different nature of things. The connected car will work different than connected TVs than connected cows (a serious use case as I learnt from another player in the IoT / Analytics space recently).

The IBM IoT Foundation is a platform upon which a family of fully managed, cloud-hosted offerings on the SoftLayer Infrastructure is built. IoT Foundation makes it simple to derive value from Internet of Things (IoT) devices. It includes:

Analytics tools capable of dealing with large quantities of fast-moving data,
Access to IBM Bluemix, IBM’s Platform-as-a-Service, that is capable of handling the immense flow of data and provide anytime access for decision makers; and
Security systems capable of helping organizations protect IoT data as rigorously as they do their own confidential financial, IP and strategy information.

MyPOV – So no surprise – SoftLayer is the foundation on the IBM side, surprised no specific mention of Hadoop / Spark offerings that IBM has – but aren’t mentioned here. I am also surprised that Watson is not mentioned, a product IBM usually errs more on the side of mentioning than not. No surprise on Bluemix which is the core platform for all next generation Applications at IBM. And also no surprise of the security aspect – though that will take a backseat in early IoT deployments – unless we talk about very sensitive or vital infrastructure.

“Deploying IoT technology has to be easy, secure and scalable for it to feel like a natural extension of a company’s business,” said Krisztian Flautner, General Manager, IoT Business, ARM. “By collaborating with IBM, we will deliver the first unified chip-to-cloud, enterprise-class IoT platform. This will empower companies of any size with a productivity tool that can readily transform how they operate, and the services they can offer.”

MyPOV – Good quote of Flautner. ‘Chip to cloud’ is a buzzword combo we probably will have to get used to of hearing more often in the future. But it describes the essence of what this partnership is about.

The integration between IBM and ARM will allow products powered by ARM mbed-enabled chips to automatically register with the IBM IoT Foundation, and connect with IBM analytics services. This unifies the ARM mbed IoT Device Platform and the IBM IoT Foundation at the point where information gathered from deployed sensors in any connected device is delivered to the cloud for analysis. The IoT connection also enables delivery of actionable events to control equipment or provide users with alerts or other information. For example, the triggering of an alarm message on a washing machine to ask the owner to confirm a breakdown engineer appointment if a fault is detected.

MyPOV – Partnerships are supposed to deliver synergies, and here we learn what this one is about: ARM mbed devices can automatically be managed from the IBM IoT Foundation. This is very powerful as it solves a low level connectivity nightmare for future common customers. Low powered device connectivity can be a tricky affair, and the skills to achieve it are not as abundant as higher level stack skills – so a good synergetic move by both vendors.

This integration can help clients improve engagement, accelerate innovation and enhance operations through connected devices and analysis of the data. Custom hardware built around ARM’s flexible and efficient chip technology and IBM’s leading IoT services for predictive maintenance, better asset performance, operational risk management and managed continuous engineering, can help provide organizations with enterprise-grade tools designed to help them build value from their IoT devices. Original design manufacturers and OEMs – such as Ionics – are already seeing value in the IBM and ARM integration as it assimilates the IBM IoT Foundation at the chip architecture level.

MyPOV – And we come to the higher level use cases – which are all attractive for enterprises building IoT applications. I miss the customer / consumer perspective in the example use cases. It will be interesting to see how much out of the box automation IBM can offer for all these use cases. We will have to see if these will be IoT applications in its own right or more code examples and templates that IBM Global Services will implement.

"We're excited to work with IBM because we believe that an effective IoT solution should be built from the ground up – from chipset through services – and is by far the best choice to have a complete end-to-end solution,” said Earl Qua, Vice President of Ionics. “Working with IBM we have tapped into our respective company's expertise to create a platform that is built and customized for the unique nature in which companies are utilizing IoT.”
Electronics manufacturers are already adopting IBM’s cloud services to connect everything from dishwashers to Smart TVs to pro audio equipment:

-- “By using IBM IoT services, we are able to real-time manage and control Smart TV content in over 30 countries. This provides us the opportunity to continuously balance costs with increased customer experience. Lastly, we have eliminated the need to set up hardware within traditional IT infrastructure - allowing a drastic reduction in provisioning time.” - Marc Harmsen - Global Marketing Lead and Product Manager EMEA Philips Television at TP Vision.
-- “At Gibson Innovations, design and quality lead the way. IBM's service capabilities - leveraging cloud, IoT and analytics – allow us to provide unique user experiences for connected devices. Additionally, the advanced analytics enables the development of new applications and services as well as device management and monitoring in a security-rich infrastructure. This is extremely valuable in maintaining and increasing loyalty among our customers,” said Henry Chiarelli, Executive Vice President of Gibson Brands.

MyPOV – Always good to have customer quotes in press releases, giving reference to the value of the partnership. We will try to check in with the mentioned customers for some more validation and better understanding of their plans.

“Since 2008, IBM has helped thousands of customers embrace the Internet of Things -- to help cities become smarter, hospitals to transform patient care and financial institutions to improve risk management," said Pat Toole, General Manager, Internet of Things, IBM. "The IoT is now at an inflection point and it needs the big data expertise of IBM and little data expertise of ARM to ensure it reaches its global potential."

MyPOV – Nice quote by Toole – big data meets small data for IoT. Ironical that IBM has not been specific on what BigData platforms it will use. There are many available – no question. But it is notable how specific IBM has been in all other aspects of the announcement – and vague to not mention on the BigData side.

Overall MyPOV

A good move by both vendors creating tangible value for joint customers. Automatically seeing ARM mbed devices in the IBM IoT platform is very powerful and takes away a substantial headache for both building and operation of IoT applications.

On the concern side it is clear that both vendors need to be open to more partnerships (I am sure they are), pricing is not mentioned and there is no roadmap. And IBM needs to be clearer on the BigData storage and analysis options. But it is early days and I am sure both vendors will address these concerns. It is good to see real customer interest from the quotes.

Overall a good move by both vendors, now it comes to execution and deliver the first common live customers. Latching on to the buzz word combo – we should see more chip to cloud partnerships soon. We will be watch and analyzing, stay tuned.

 

More on IBM :

 

• Progress Report - IBM Cloud makes good progress - but needs to attract more load - read here
• Market Move - IBM gets into private cloud (services) with Blue Box acqusition - read here
• Event Report - IBM InterConnect - IBM makes bets for the hybrid cloud - read here
• First Take - IBM InterConnect Day #1 Keynote - BlueMix, SoftLayer and Watson - read here
• News Analysis - IBM had a very good year in the cloud - 2015 will be key - read here
• Event Report - IBM Insight 2014 - Is it all coming together for IBM in 2015? Or not? 
• First Take - Top 3 Takeaways from IBM Insight Day 1 Keynote - read here
• IBM and SAP partner for cloud - good move - read here
• Event Report - IBM Enterprise - A lot of value for existing customers, but can IBM attract net new customers? Read here
• Progress Report - The Mainframe is alive and kicking - but there is more in IBM STG - read here
• News Analysis - IBM and Intel partner to make the cloud more secure - read here
• Progress Report - IBM BigData an Analytics have a lot of potential - time to show it - read here
• Event Report - What a difference a year makes - and off to a good start - read here
• First Take - 3 Key Takeaways from IBM's Impact Conference - Day 1 Keynote - read here
• Another week and another Billion - this week it's a BlueMix Paas - read here
• First take - IBM makes Connection - introduces the TalentSuite at IBM Connect - read here
• IBM kicks of cloud data center race in 2014 - read here
• First Take - IBM Software Group's Analyst Insights - read here
• Are we witnessing one of the largest cloud moves - so far? Read here
• Why IBM acquired Softlayer - read here

Find more coverage on the Constellation Research website here and checkout my magazine on Flipboard. 

2012, 2013, 2014 & 2015 (C) Holger Mueller - All Rights Reserved

Tech Optimization Data to Decisions Digital Safety, Privacy & Cybersecurity Innovation & Product-led Growth Future of Work New C-Suite Next-Generation Customer Experience IBM ML Machine Learning LLMs Agentic AI Generative AI AI Analytics Automation business Marketing SaaS PaaS IaaS Digital Transformation Disruptive Technology Enterprise IT Enterprise Acceleration Enterprise Software Next Gen Apps IoT Blockchain CRM ERP finance Healthcare Customer Service Content Management Collaboration Chief Information Officer Chief Technology Officer Chief Information Security Officer Chief Data Officer

#Socbiz #FutureOfWork News - Week Ending Sep 4, 2015

Alan Lepofsky

Vice President & Principal Analyst
Constellation Research

Alan Lepofsky - VP and Principal Analyst, Constellation Research. With almost two decades of experience in the collaboration software industry, Lepofsky helps organizations improve the way their employees work together to get their jobs done. Lepofsky’s primary research area The Future of Work, focuses on: integrating collaboration and business processes (Purposeful Collaboration), structuring work via Social Task Management, leveraging analytics and digital assistants to work more productively, the strategic impact of mobile computing on business transformation, and measuring workforce culture based on Digital Proficiency instead of age. Twitter: @alanlepoLinkedIn: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/alanlepo     , Title: Big IdeasIntelligent Collaboration: The Intersection of…...

Read more

Here is a recap of some of the key news of the last week in the Social Business / Employee Collaboration / Future of Work world.

 

Did I miss something big? Please post a link in the comments.

 

Reference Links:

Google Apps Marketplace gets a fresh new look

New ways to get work done with Google Docs

Guru, With $2.7 Million In Funding, Simplifies Internal Knowledge Sharing

Microsoft to acquire VoloMetrix to empower individuals and drive organizational productivity

Microsoft Acquires VoloMetrix to Help Improve Employee Productivity

Matter Center for Office 365, solution for legal industry

Vera Enables VMware to Provide Military-Grade Security Across All IT Environments

LiquidPlanner Adds Aashish Dhamdhere as VP of Marketing, Expands Enterprise Feature Set

Egnyte announces New Microsoft Office 365 Integrations

Flow · Introducing Chat

Socialcast unveils Chat for secure instant messaging and collaboration

Podio adds custom reference badges, Alan Lepofsky's video review: Podio Custom Reference Fields

Apple and Cisco Partner to Deliver Fast Lane for iOS Enterprise Users, more on Cisco Spark — Team communication to go

New messaging experience comes to LinkedIn, finally!

 

Future of Work Chief Customer Officer

Good, better, BlackBerry

Steve Wilson

Former Vice President and Principal Analyst
Constellation Research

Steve Wilson is former VP and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research, leading the business theme Digital Safety and Privacy. His coverage includes digital identity, data protection, data privacy, cryptography, and trust. His advisory services to CIOs, CISOs, CPOs and IT architects include identity product strategy, security practice benchmarking, Privacy by Design (PbD), privacy engineering and Privacy [or Data Protection] Impact Assessments (PIA, DPIA). Coverage Areas: -  Identity management, frameworks & governance-  Digital identity technologies-  Privacy by Design -  Big Data; “Big Privacy”-  Identity & privacy innovation Previous experience: Wilson has worked in ICT innovation, research, development and analysis for over 25 years. With double…...

Read more

In the latest course of a 15 month security feast, BlackBerry has announced it is acquiring mobile device management (MDM) provider Good Technology. The deal is said to be definitive, for US$425 million in cash.

As BlackBerry boldly re-positions itself as a managed service play in the Internet of Things, adding an established MDM capability to its portfolio will bolster its claim -- which still surprises many -- to be handset neutral. But the Good buy is much more than that. It has to be seen in the context of John Chen's drive for cross-sector security and privacy infrastructure for the IoT.

As I reported from the recent BlackBerry Security Summit in New York, the company has knitted together a comprehensive IoT security fabric. Look at how they paint their security platform:

And see how Good will slip neatly into the Platform Services column.

So this is the latest in what is now a $575 million investment in just over a year in non-organic security growth (following purchases of Secusmart, Watchdox, Movirtu and Athoc).

According to BlackBerry,

Good will bring complementary capabilities and technologies to BlackBerry, including secure applications and containerization that protects end user privacy. With Good, BlackBerry will expand its ability to offer cross-platform EMM solutions that are critical in a world with varying deployment models such as bring-your-own-device (BYOD); corporate owned, personally enabled (COPE); as well as environments with multiple user interfaces and operating systems. Good has expertise in multi-OS management with 64 percent of activations from iOS devices, followed by a broad Android and Windows customer base.(1) This experience combined with BlackBerry's strength in BlackBerry 10 and Android management - including Samsung KNOX-enabled devices - will provide customers with increased choice for securely deploying any leading operating system in their organization.

MyPOV

The strategic acquisition of Good Technology will also give the Identity-as-a-Service sector a big kick. IDaaS is become a crowded space with at least ten vendors (CA, Centrify, IBM, Microsoft, Okta, OneLogin, Ping, Salepoint, Salesforce, VMware) competing strongly around a pretty well settled set of features and functions. BlackBerry themselves launched an IDaaS a few months ago. At the Security Summit, I asked their COO Marty Beard what is going to distinguishe their offering in such a tight market, and he said, simply, mobility. Presto!

But IDaaS is set to pivot. We all know that mobility is now the locus of security , and we've seen VMware parlay its AirWatch investment into a competitive new cloud identity service. This must be more than a catch-up play with so many entrenched IDaaS vendors.

Here's the thing. I foresee identity actually disappearing from the user experience, which more and more will just be about the apps. I discussed this development in a really fun "Identity Innovators" video interview recorded with Ping at the recent Cloud Identity Summit. For identity to become seamless with the mobile application UX, we need two things. Firstly, federation protocols so that different pieces of software can hand over attributes and authentication signals to one another, and these are all in place now. But secondly we also need fully automated mobile device management as a service, and that's where Good truly fits with the growing BlackBerry platform.

Now stay tuned for new research coming soon via Constellation on the Internet of Things, identity, privacy and software reliability.

See also The State of Identity Management in 2015.

New C-Suite Digital Safety, Privacy & Cybersecurity Chief Information Officer Chief Digital Officer

VMware VMworld 2015 - Three Takeaways

Holger Mueller

Vice President and Principal Analyst
Constellation Research

Holger Mueller is VP and Principal Analyst for Constellation Research for the fundamental enablers of the cloud, IaaS, PaaS and next generation Applications, with forays up the tech stack into BigData and Analytics, HR Tech, and sometimes SaaS. Holger provides strategy and counsel to key clients, including Chief Information Officers, Chief Technology Officers, Chief Product Officers, Chief HR Officers, investment analysts, venture capitalists, sell-side firms, and technology buyers.  Coverage Areas: Future of Work Tech Optimization & Innovation  Background: Before joining Constellation Research, Mueller was VP of Products for NorthgateArinso, a KKR company. There, he led the transformation of products to the cloud and laid the foundation for new Business Process as a…...

Read more

VMware stays the course - executes - progresses on fight for long term relevance

VMworlds are always overloaded with new information and announcement, remarkably VMware only released 4 press releases (find them all here) – a welcome change to the floods of the past – but each press releases was like half a dozen normal press releases. So tough to pick my top 3 takeaways – but here you go:

Live VM transfer in the SDDC world - As part of the Day #1 keynote we witnessed a world premiere, and a remarkable technical feat – the live transfer of a VM from one datacenter (or cloud if you will) to another one. Very remarkable and of huge value for VMware customers and the vendor itself – as it gets VM based loads portable, which opens a lot of use cases. VMware itself was not shy to push for HA / DR plans, interesting how all early players to public cloud stress the same use cases – it was the same for Microsoft and IBM – only respectively two and one years ago. It is good to see that VMware has delivered this capability, though for now it’s in tech preview and I did not catch a go live date. But given the importance I am sure we will hear and learn as soon as possible when this capability is generally available. VMware CEO Gelsinger was right to point out that no other cloud provider has been able to demo the same.

On the vCloud Air side, VMware makes progress, too – storage partnerships with EMC (no surprise) and Google (more surprising) are good moves. A database offering for Microsoft SQL Server (more are supposed to come) are another indication that VMware understands it needs to create opportunities for customers to create load on its public cloud. But the road is long here. Adding the capability to run EMC Federation sister Pivotal’s PaaS product CloudFoundry is a key move along the same lines.

And overall VMware makes progress on its SDDC vision from last year, a lot of work on the software defined networking side has been done, it can be combined with software defined storage and of course run well on the VMware Evo hyper converged appliance. Security was stressed at many points and in the Day #2 keynote we even saw a network controlled data access to a GRC application, an interesting perspective and approach to a problem that traditionally is solved as an application security problem.

But make no mistake, the success of these initiatives and products will determine how long enterprise will keep running on premise servers, so they are more than strategic for VMware.

Photon as the path forward – VMware also realized that it needs to play with many of the open source technologies that are out there, always with the view of security and to protect existing investments into VMware products. The whole Photon family is nothing else than that, with a VMware offered Linux at its core, that runs of course – on a VM. Thanks to the popularity of Linux, almost all open source products become available, the most prominent ones are micro services. In the process of that VMware needs to make some bold assumptions (or in new Silicon Valley speak I learnt this week – opinions) – e.g. one VM for one container, but VMware re-assured us that the VM footprint is small and the provisioning is very fast. We will have to see what works faster and more cost effective – running containers natively vs running them through VMware VMs and admin tools. What is clear is that VMware offers a way to run these technologies in a safe and well understood way for IT departments. And as such there is a lot of value for the existing customers in what VMware does with Photon.

EUC gets a boost from Microsoft – The EUC group is making good progress on its mission to create additional growth for VMware in an adjacent software category. It’s good to see rationalization that is to be expected like ‘Project A2’ (think AirWatch meets AppVolumes) and Horizon running on Evo farms. VMware using more VMware is something that is good for customer and likely something investors want to see, too. Project Enzo appears to be on track and should give VMware more addressable market by lowering the cost of running virtual desktops. Every year I come to VMworld I ask if the virtual desktop bubble is going to come to a pop – and every year we come closer, but it has not popped. In a ‘and now hell freezes over’ VMware had a Microsoft executive in Poonen’s keynote – thanks to Windows 10 being the same code / platform across PCs, tablets and smart phones, AirWatch has become more than a MDM tool, and can now also manage PCs with Windows 10, making both vendors best friends. Sharing progress of a large university that has virtualized 60k student desktops and plans to go to 70k is encouraging for the division prospects
 

MyPOV

It is good when vendors stay the course, as software is like wine, it takes time to become good. So no disappointment by this analyst that VMware showed execution along the same strategy. The gambit for VMware is, if it can grow new products fast enough as on premise compute virtualization dripples away to the cloud. When I asked CEO Gelsinger on this, he shared the high level VMware equation – with impressive openness: VMware plans to make up the losses from reduced compute virtualization on premise by having widened it addressable market with SDDC (add networking, add storage going from 6B to 30B US$), revenue growth in its EUC portfolio and increased vCloud air revenues. We also learnt that VMware services is a 500M US$ business, growing at 20% YoY. An interesting equation with 4 variables, the speed of servers moving to the public cloud being the key variable – but as no one knows how fast that is happening, we can only plug in the numbers in the VMware ‘formula’.

On the public cloud side I remain concerned that VMware is not pushing vCloudAir harder. CIOs should get emails (or other solicitation) along the lines that VMware knows that load A or B can be run better in … e.g. vCloudAir. I am still not sure what is holding VMware back – capital, business practice, partner relationships, product capability, it remains an area to watch. What we know from VMware customers is that the partner approach to public cloud is not working, contracts, costs and SLAs need to be negotiated separately across geographic regions (as there is no global partner) and that is less attractive than negotiating with the public cloud vendors. But no vendor knows better what enterprises run, leveraging that know how will require (IMHO) more VMware data centers. The ‘capital light’ approach that VMware has been charting the last 12 months is not going succeed. A year ago VMware talked about datacenter rollout and location, this year it was mum on the topic, not encouraging. Thinking in-house load – EUC should generate some substantial load for VMware at some point, so seeing the synergies of running on EVO, Linux with Enzo are all good news. But it cannot be enough load to compete on the scale of the public cloud competitors.

But overall a good VMworld for VMware customers – VMware is doing what they said they will do – key technical breakthroughs like moving VMs are looking like they are getting ready for production soon, SDDC keeps evolving, Project Enzo appears to be on track, new opportunities arise from Photon and Project A2 – so there is a lot that VMware customers need to get their arms around and digest. We will be there to explain, de-cipher and analyze.



More on VMWare

 

• Musings – What will it be this year at VMWorld - read here
• Market Move - EMC to acquire Virtustream - More paths to the cloud - read here
• News Analysis - VMware makes progress towards the (hybrid) cloud - now let's watch the adoption - read here
• Speed Briefings at VMworld - read here
• Event Report - VMware makes a lot of progress - but the holy grail is still missing - read here.
• First Take - VMware's VMworld Day 1 Keynote - Top 3 Takeaways - read here.
• Progress Report - Good start for VMware EUC - time for 2nd inning - read here.
• Speed Briefings at VMworld - inside and outside the VMware ecosystem - read here.
• VMware defies conventional destiny - SDDC to the rescue - read here

Data to Decisions Digital Safety, Privacy & Cybersecurity Innovation & Product-led Growth Tech Optimization Future of Work vmware SaaS PaaS IaaS Cloud Digital Transformation Disruptive Technology Enterprise IT Enterprise Acceleration Enterprise Software Next Gen Apps IoT Blockchain CRM ERP CCaaS UCaaS Collaboration Enterprise Service Chief Information Officer Chief Technology Officer Chief Information Security Officer Chief Data Officer Chief Executive Officer

Microsoft Acquires VoloMetrix to Help Improve Employee Productivity

Alan Lepofsky

Vice President & Principal Analyst
Constellation Research

Alan Lepofsky - VP and Principal Analyst, Constellation Research. With almost two decades of experience in the collaboration software industry, Lepofsky helps organizations improve the way their employees work together to get their jobs done. Lepofsky’s primary research area The Future of Work, focuses on: integrating collaboration and business processes (Purposeful Collaboration), structuring work via Social Task Management, leveraging analytics and digital assistants to work more productively, the strategic impact of mobile computing on business transformation, and measuring workforce culture based on Digital Proficiency instead of age. Twitter: @alanlepoLinkedIn: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/alanlepo     , Title: Big IdeasIntelligent Collaboration: The Intersection of…...

Read more

Below are my thoughts on Microsoft's acquisition of VoloMetrix , and how it can help improve employee productivity. This is an area of research I'm working on which I may term Enhanced Productivity or Assisted Productivity.  Which do you prefer?

sdfdsfds

Future of Work