Moving Outside the Box of Enterprise IT

President, Computer Economics and Strativa, Inc.
Computer Economics and Strativa, Inc.

Frank Scavo is skilled at formulating and communicating IT strategy, developing the business case for new systems, and facilitating the selection of enterprise systems, such as ERP, CRM, and supply chain management. He is also an expert in benchmarking IT spending and staffing levels for end-user IT organizations. Frank was one of the first tech bloggers, beginning in 2002 with his launch of the Enterprise System Spectator providing independent analysis of issues and trends in enterprise applications software and the strengths, weaknesses, advantages, and disadvantages of the vendors that provide them. Frank has been quoted as an IT expert in numerous business and industry publications such as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Computerworld, CIO Magazine, ZDnet, eWeek, Datamation,…...

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Information technology goes far beyond the realm of enterprise IT.  New technologies, such as big data, mobile applications, and cloud computing hold promise in addressing many of the world's great problems, while at the same time offering strategic advantage for businesses. Corporate IT leaders, therefore, need to reach outside their narrow focus on ongoing support to incorporate these new technologies to deliver business value. 

This was my main takeaway from the Future in Review 2013 (FiRe2013) conference down the road last month in Laguna Beach, CA. FiRe bills itself as "the leading global conference on the intersection of technology and the economy." It is an annual conference of the Strategic News Service, which publishes research under this broad theme.  

Beyond Enterprise IT

Although FiRe is focused on technology, it is largely outside the boundaries of what is typically considered "enterprise IT," or even "consumer IT." It even goes beyond "line of business IT." It is about future-oriented issues involving the impact of technology on economic and societal interests. Under this year's theme, Digitizing the Planet, the agenda covered a wide range of focus channels, including computing and communications, economics and finance, education, energy, healthcare, environment, global initiatives, and pure science. Presenters included big names, such as Vint Cert, the "father of the Internet," who is now Chief Evangelist at Google, as well as a host of visionary thinkers from a variety of disciplines in the private and public sectors.

For me, it was a chance to get outside my usual track of user and vendor conferences in the enterprise software market. It was also a great opportunity during the breaks to speak one-on-one with professionals outside of my usual circle, for example, David Engle, Superintendent of the Port Townsend public school district and a panelist in the education channel, Nick Vitalari, author of the book, The Elastic Enterprise, and Greg Ness, who moderated a panel on hybrid cloud.

Here are some of the big ideas that caught my attention and what they mean for enterprise IT.  

1. Move from Data Analysis to Data Visualization. One eye-opener was the session on data visualization with Chris Johnson, University of Utah, and Bob Bishop, Founder of the International Centre for Earth Simulation (ICES) Foundation. The aim of ICES is to integrate all the sciences that pertain to planet Earth. The panelists showed one such visualization: a huge simulation of earth's thermohaline conveyor belt: a single worldwide ocean current that has a large impact on Earth's climate. Another showed the earth's magnetosphere.
   
   How does this apply to enterprise IT? Organizations are swimming in data, both internal and externally sourced data, both structured and unstructured. To go from analyzing the data, to discovery of useful information, to decision support requires some sort of visualization. If data analysis is on your IT strategic roadmap, data visualization should be there also.
    
2. Social Collaboration around Data.  There was more on the big data theme. Stanford and NASA engineers have come together to form Intelesense Technologies, with its collaborate.org website. The site provides an interactive 3-D globe, dubbed InteleView, with over two million layers of geospatial data (which users can supplement with their own data) along with forums, blogs, shared calendars, video conferencing, and other tools to facilitate group collaboration worldwide around data. To provide a hands-on experience, Intelesense gave trial system access to all FiRe attendees. 
   

   How does this apply to enterprise IT? It's not enough just for one person to visualize large data sets. We also need tools that promote collaboration around data. Collaborators may include individuals within and outside the enterprise, and they often include participants worldwide. Many so-called "social business" tools today only provide the mechanism for collaboration (e.g. threaded discussion) but do not include the content (i.e. data) for collaboration. The real need is to combine big data with social collaboration.  The collaborate.org website is an excellent case-study in what this looks like.

3. Business Opportunities and Threats in Big Data. John Hagel and Eric Openshaw from Deloitte posed the question: will massive increases in data lead to increased fragmentation of industries, or will it lead to consolidation of businesses in the hands of a few who can support these massive data platforms? Their answer: it depends on the industry and the business function. Fragmentation will occur mostly in product innovation and commercialization businesses, such as digital media, media businesses, and even in physical products that can be disrupted by 3D printing. On the other hand, consolidation may take place with infrastructure providers, such as digital platform providers. With big oil, the question was always, who owns the resource? But with big data, the question is, who can create the value from it?
   

   How does this apply to enterprise IT? In the view of Hagel and Openshaw, most large companies are vulnerable, because they are largely focused on their products, which is the part of their business that is threatened by fragmentation.  CIOs, need to look beyond systems to support their organizations' current business to capabilities and business models that can allow their organizations to compete in the era of big data platforms. It may not even be your data, but if you can create value from it, your organization will succeed in the marketplace.

4. Protecting IP More Important Now than Ever. Although so much of FiRe was visionary, there was a significant focus on security, with four tracks on "Achieving Zero Loss of Crown-Jewell Intellectual Property." Vint Cerf, now Chief Evangelist at Google, used his time to talk about network security. Cerf and other presenters offered a number of potential solutions. Some are technical, such as increased use of two-factor authentication and software security measures integrated with hardware at the chip level. Others go beyond technology, such as the use of economic sanctions and import tariffs against companies that are found to have stolen intellectual property.

   How does this apply to enterprise IT?  As the world becomes increasingly connected and much of the organization's IP is digitized, the opportunities and rewards for IP theft increase. As CIOs facilitate new technology-enabled business models, they must also increase their focus on security.

5. Simplification of IT Environments Key to Big Data Challenges. The conference was not without an enterprise IT focus. Mark Hurd, Oracle's co-President and a regular speaker at FiRe, was on hand for a wide-ranging conversation. He pointed out that twice as much data will be created worldwide this year than has been created in the entire history of the planet. Much of this is machine- or sensor-generated data, such as data coming from sensors positioned on deep sea drilling rigs. Drilling companies collect all of this data--much of which is uninteresting--so that they have access to that one piece of information that turns out to be critical when there is a failure deep beneath the sea floor. Storing, managing, and analyzing that much data is a challenge, and technologies such as virtualization and data compression are key to success. Yet many businesses are shackled by legacy systems and infrastructure that do not scale to meet the demand. Simplification of the IT environment, including use of public and private clouds, is essential to meet these challenges.
   

   How does this aply to enterprise IT? CIOs have two responsibilities that are somewhat in conflict. They must maintain current systems while investing for the future. With limited IT budgets, IT organizations must simplify and optimize their existing systems and infrastructure so that they have the bandwidth to make these strategic investments.

A Challenge to Enterprise IT Vendors

The expanding role of technology is not only a challenge for enterprise IT leaders, it is also a challenge for IT vendors. Nearly every major enterprise IT vendor has its visionary initiatives. SAP has HANA, Oracle has its Exa-boxes, IBM has Watson and its Smarter Planet initiatives, and so forth. At the same time, these vendors have enormous revenues in legacy technologies: SAP in its Business Suite, Oracle in its collection of acquired software and hardware technologies, IBM in its legacy hardware and systems integration business lines, and so forth. If IT organizations are challenged to rise above their legacy system support requirements, so too are IT product and services providers. Can the major IT vendors meet the challenge, or will a new generation of big data and cloud providers take their place?

One note on the conference format itself. In contrast to most technology conferences, which feature highly scripted keynotes and breakout sessions with single speakers, the format of at FiRe is nearly all panel discussions or one-on-one interviews. This format promotes a much more conversational and spontaneous style. The moderators or interviewers take a minimalist approach, guiding the discussion where needed but not becoming a center of attention themselves. Mark Anderson, the FiRe conference chair, and Ed Butler from the BBC hosted a number of sessions in this style. Other conferences could learn from FiRe's format.

The registration page for the FiRe 2014 conference, May 20-23, 2014 in Laguna Beach, CA, is now open.

Note to Brands: Make Things People Want

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. ...

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Have you ever wondered why marketing and advertising is such hard work?

We are constantly trying to change the way that people behave and think – positioning brands and businesses in the centre of a relationship that is only ever on the peripheral of our customers’ worlds. And while for us – for the business owner, brand manager or agency – there is a real centrality to our relationship with the brand, it is simply not the case for the vast majority of the people that we want to talk to.

As Hugh MacLeod explained back in 2006, “if you talked to people the way advertising talked to people, they’d punch you in the face”.

And while social media awareness has become widespread, many businesses still struggle with it. Where’s the ROI they ask. Where’s the relevance? How will it drive sales? And while these are important questions, they are important questions for a mature channel. Very few businesses have the knowledge, expertise and capability to determine the answers – let alone the capacity to integrate these answers into a comprehensive brand and engagement framework. The channel has matured but our organisational understanding of it continues to lag.

But there is another way.

Rather than making people want things – spending our precious resources creating awareness, inspiring interest and stimulating desire in our customer base, what if we just made things that people want?

What of we went further – and understood our customer’s journey from the outside-in? So, rather than pushing messages out designed to interrupt and stimulate – what if we could participate and engage? What if we provided so much incentive, surprise and delight that this engagement prompted purchase, created a business relationship or turned a “detractor” into an advocate?

What if what we did made someone’s life better?

John Willshare argues exactly this – that brands are fracking the social web – and missing the real opportunity presented by digital and social media.

But what can you do? Practically? Why don’t you start:

• Small: Rather than thinking of the vision that will change the world, what is your vision that will change one person’s experience of what you do. Have the big vision in your back pocket, but start as small as you can bear.
• Quick: Stop thinking about doing and start acting. Raid the petty cash tin and think about what you can do with a budget you can hold in one hand.
• Inclusive: Don’t sit in a room planning – go talk to your customers. Engage with them on social media. Bring them into your process

And I bet that within a week you’ll have a deeper understanding of the problems your customers want you to solve than you have resources to deliver. And that’s the whole point, surely.

News Analysis: Mr. N R Narayana Murthy Returns To Infosys As Executive Chairman of the Board

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…...

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Will There Be A Come Back For NRN and Infosys?

Infosys announced on June 1st, 2013, that Mr. N R Narayana Murthy (NRN), the legendary co-founder of Infosys who retired in August 2011 as Chairman Emeritus, has been appointed by the board as Executive Chairman and a director.  From the press release:

Mr. N R Narayana Murthy said, “This calling was sudden, unexpected, and most unusual. But, then, Infosys is my middle child. Therefore, I have put aside my plans-in-progress and accepted this responsibility. I am grateful to Mr. K V Kamath – the Chairman, the Board, and every Infoscion for giving me this opportunity. I intend to do my best to add value to the Company in this challenging situation.”

Mr. K V Kamath said, “The Board has taken this step keeping in mind the challenges that the technology industry and the Company faces and in the interest of all stakeholders, particularly shareholders large and small, who have asked for strengthening of the executive leadership during this challenging time. Murthy’s entrepreneurial and leadership record and the long experience he has had as a technology pioneer makes him eminently qualified to lead the company and provide strategic direction at this point in time.”

Key points from the announcement include:

• Board seeks shareholder approval for five year term. Company shareholders must approve the appointment of Mr. Murthy as a director and Executive Chairman at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) on June 15, 2013.  The current Chairman of the Board, Mr. K V Kamath would step down and remain on the board as a Lead Independent Director effective June 1, 2013.  Mr. Murthy will take a token annual compensation of one rupee.
  
  Point of View (POV): Most expect the confirmation to be swift and non-controversial.  Infosys seeks a stronger leadership team to address challenges in both its business model as well as direct competitors.  With Cognizant and TCS overtaking Infosys on many fronts, the selection of NRN comes at a very critical juncture.

• New Chairman’s office group to be created. The new team is designed to provide a central war room to assess the situation, propose solutions, and drive impact on strategy.  At Mr. Murthy’s request, his son Dr. Rohan Murthy will serve as his executive assistant.
  
  (POV): Sensing the magnitude of the challenge, Mr. Murthy approach to put a tiger team together indicates a realization that Infosys must solve their predicament as a multi-disciplinary problem.  The appointment of his son, Dr. Rohan Murthy, as executive assistant provides Rohan with an interesting front row seat.

Bottom Line: Infosys Needs To Shake It Up For Transformational Change

Much excitement exists when a legendary founder/ cofounder comes back to “save” a company.  On one hand NRN left his mark on many of his key disciples who have been in charge. On the other hand, the conditions have changed so much in the industry that one may wonder if one man can make a difference in making the harsh business model changes required to turn the tide.  Infosys shareholders hope for a Steve Jobs-esque miracle.  Yet, the odds are low based on history.

The good news – should NRN come back to implement change and shake up the company, he’s one of a few individuals with the acumen and authority to accomplish this challenge. However, he must rethink the business model as product companies have become services companies. Services companies have become information based companies and information companies are selling experiences.  The original formula for success no longer exists.  In fact, the future of the global IT services business requires firms to build IP, consider big data business models, and lead in creating new ecosystems.

If NRN sees this shift and can imagine that future for INFY, then the company has a decent shot at transformational innovation.  After all, what’s the point of becoming another Infosys or Infosys competitor when Infosys has the potential to be so much more in its next iteration?

Your POV.

What are you thoughts on a founder’s come back?  Do you think NRN can turn the tide at Infosys?  Let us know your experiences.  Add your comments to the blog or reach me via email: R (at) ConstellationRG (dot) com or R (at) SoftwareInsider (dot) com.

Related Constellation Research

Research Report: Buyers Want Outcomes. Are Indian IT Services Firms Ready?

News Analysis: Infosys Buys Lodestone for $350M

Wang, R. “Best Practices – Three Simple Software Maintenance Strategies That Can Save You Millions” Constellation Research, Inc. March 8, 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.

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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 – 2013 R Wang and Insider Associates, LLC All rights reserved.
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Pitch the Future–Young Social Innovators in Action

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. ...

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You know what it’s like when inspiration hits … an idea galvanises in your mind like a bolt of electricity, sending your pulse racing. And the more you think on it, the more you feel your nerve fibres tingling.

But what happens when you tell someone about your idea? Your mouth dries. The words tumble out one on top of the other … you get tongue tied, excited and afraid. What happens if someone steals your brilliance? What if your idea is no good?

Now imagine, that you are taking your idea and pitching it to a room of strangers. Imagine that this idea is a deep seated passion and could have a real social impact if successful. And then imagine pitching your idea against four other people just as passionate about their idea as you are about yours.

Pitch the Future event at the Vivid Ideas Festival last night. Check out the story as it unfolded below. And who won? You’ll have to follow along to find out!

Could the paycheck re-invent HCM? Yes it can!

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…...

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My recent post on how payroll matters again both for vendors and practitioners got a lot of uptake and even discussion - which was much more than I expected on this supposedly boring subject of enterprise automation.  

The Disconnect of HR 

Many posts and articles have been written on how the HR function is somehow at a disconnect with the rest of the business. A perennial leitmotiv has been the question on how HR affects the business in a positive way - versus just trying to avoid that managers or the company do not get sued. So it all comes back to creating more value out of the HR function for the rest of the enterprise.
 

Value & Connect

So what is a good vehicle for the HR function to connect with the rest of the enterprise and demonstrate value? The classic path has been to implement yet another talent management function. And the thinking seems plausible at first - as employees are an enterprises key asset and managing their talent can move the needle in the right direction significantly. 

But I don't want to bore you again with attrition, flight risk etc. Enough written and said about that. The problem with the talent management implementations is, that they require the enterprise (like with any other enterprise wide automation roll out) to adopt a certain way of doing things around talent management. And that's what professionals often do not like, so significant change management is involved in a successful talent management roll out. And the enterprises who get this right - do well - the rest - well never mind, another HR technology project with a questionable return of investment.

The other aspect - is the connect factor. It's impossible to connect, if you do not have any chances to interact. And the problem with talent management and the connect aspect is, that the talent management functions are sporadic and not of enough frequency to create the connection. 

Recruitment happens seldom for the single manager, and though sometimes in larger amounts, not on a regular level. Compensation gets usually manged yearly and with the current economic downturn, unfortunately even less frequently for many enterprises. Performance management should be an ongoing discipline, but if you are honest 99% of enterprises keep this to the performance review intervals. And e-learning is great, but again sporadic, and mostly compliance triggered - so no frequency and the business questions the value. Last but not least succession management - which is soo strategic for most companies, that they ... totally neglect it. To be fair - while practicing good performance management is hard, say like running a 25 minute 5k, practicing succession management is more like a 4 hour marathon achievement. For the whole enterprise. So a lot of discipline, no couch potatoe to 5k tricks - but a lot of commitment - and professionals are too often too busy to even start practicing.
 

The paycheck has frequency

If you think about it - the most frequent thing that reaches the enterprises coming from the HR department is... the paycheck. Ironically business automation has made it disappear, and in my opinion thus aiding the disconnect and value perception deficit of HR. Most employees today only look for their paycheck when something is wrong or they need it for a credit event in their private lives. The culprit is the existing payroll system -- which is so efficient - it doesn't even bother to present its output to the receiving end, the payee. How many enterprises today push employees to see their paycheck once they have been generated - or even notify them? From my experience very few.

The main reason is - there is little value in the paycheck today. It just does what its support to do and since the gold standard of payroll is to just run, the paycheck needs to be accurate in its boringness. Only if something is missing or wrong it becomes interesting...

So if HR departments want to connect again - they need to think of ways to make the paycheck more... interesting.
 

Interesting paychecks - from payroll perspective

In the previous post on the subject I provided some suggestions on how the paycheck and payroll should be re-thought - just with the means of a payroll perspective. To spare you the click - here is the list of suggestions again:

Twitter + TV Goes Beyond the 30 Second Spot

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. ...

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Many companies spend a great deal of time, money and effort getting people to do something. Like switching brands. Trying a new product. Or watching a TV show. And to do this, they use advertising. TV has been the great transformer of the 20th Century – it has educated us, engaged us and even amazed us. And the thing it transformed was not the world, but our behaviour. But it has always been a one-way street – broadcasting its message from a single point to the masses.

And then along came the internet and provided a whole new way to be educated, engaged and amazed.

We have always known that there was an abundance of awe inspiring activity taking place in the world but it was often hard to find. Realising that fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) tapped our primal urge to fight or fly, in the war for ratings, broadcast media prioritised the sensational over the substantive. But in a multi-dimensional communications world, where the means of production (ie creating content) and distribution are readily and widely available, new forms and types of content are emerging – and with them, new behaviours.

Anyone interested in human behaviour knows how difficult it can be to change a personal habit. But trying to change habits within a culture add layers of complexity that can boggle the mind.

Which is why this latest move from Twitter has me intrigued.

Much of the innovation that we have seen emerge from Twitter has been invented and driven by its community of users. It’s one of the benefits of having a large and active, participating user base – ideas, trends and opportunities magically appear out of the interactions of the crowd. But the businesses behind social networks have an advantage over other types of businesses – they can observe real time and emergent behaviour and adjust accordingly.

When people started using Twitter and hashtags to collaboratively consume television programs it marked a new line in the sand for a struggling TV industry. The dominance of the single screen was well and truly over – and the rise of the connected, multi-screen experience was underway. Now, we can all collectively watch TV shows like #QandA, contribute to the fast flowing conversation online and compete to see our names flash upon the screen. Twitter, in many respects, has given us a reason to tune in at a set time on a set day. Despite our timeshifted life, it’s made TV relevant again.

And this new Twitter + TV offering is taking this a step further. Take a look.

What I like:

• It taps into existing behaviours: we are already using Twitter to collaboratively consume content on TV. It’s a no brainer that this could be monetised or extended
• Creative opportunities for extending the customer experience: smart brands (and I would include TV broadcasters in this) have the potential to radically transform the relationship they have with “viewers”
• Encouraging participation: for all the energy and noise, we are still in the infancy of social media adoption. It’s one thing to have a billion users across the world, but getting that billion people to do something other than login and post once a month is the next great challenge

Some of the problems I can see arising:

• Broadcasting more broadly: when you are a hammer, everything looks like a nail, right. Twitter has never (and I repeat NEVER) understood its role as a community platform. The fact that it facilitates amazing conversations doesn’t mean that it is a “conversation company” as we have seen with various ham-fisted changes to functionality, and its short-sighted limiting of its own ecosystem etc. There is the potential for this new offering to generate more noise and simply broadcast more broadly. This would be a great missed opportunity
• Most brands lack comprehensive multi-channel strategy: while we see some substantial and innovative approaches to multi-channel strategy and execution, most brands (and their agencies) lack the level of strategic understanding required to make this work. We can’t all be Red Bull – but we could be more successful if we invested in these channels and strategies
• Digital skills are thin on the ground: a key to making this work will be deep digital skills and a collaborative approach to storytelling. Brands need to up their investment in digital skilling not just in marketing but across the enterprise. When social becomes the #1 channel for engagement across your business ecosystem (ie not just sales and marketing), then you’ll have the kind of competitive advantage you’ve been dreaming of.

Enterprise Software Takeaways from Meeker's 2013 Internet Report

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…...

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One of the presentations I look most forward to on a yearly level are KPCB's Mary Meeker's 'State of the Internet' presentations. These days she releases them as the 1st speaker of the AllThingsD conference - and thankfully they are available on slideshare immediately afterwards. Somehow Mary manages to always have some interesting trends up the sleeve, that at least I have not seen at all seen or not seen with that relevance... so why not check out what this year's presentation held for the enterprise?

The Internet is the platform

Remember the times when professionals were even saying, that in the emerging countries to a certain point and in the third world for sure - there would be internet access problems? Well Google will take care of some of that now - but already today the internet coverage and usage is such that a global enterprise app needs to be not only browser based, but make sure that it understands the nuances of internet access in key markets. And there lies the challenge - though the hope lies on the shoulders of HTML5 - different bandwidth considerations have to be taken care of. 

BigData getting bigger

A lot has been written on the data explosion, but it's clear that any enterprise vendor needs to have a bigdata strategy. Too much relevant information is available now that it can be ignored in enterprise processes. And while the externally facing processes have been in the driver seat in the past, bigdata is relevant for internal processes, too. Think of the explosion of picture, voice and video data - this will not stop at the enterprise gates, enterprise apps will enable relevant usage of media for business processes and the resulting data needs to be stored, accessed and analyzed later.

The sharing economy

One of the emerging trends is the sharing economy - and it manifests itself in consumer apps like snapchat.com - but when consumers start to share resources, it will not be or long until this trend will be a differentiator for the back-end processes of enterprises. At the end of the day it's the apps at these enterprises that enable the economy, so if sharing starts as a business trend, it will raise all kind of issues towards a more rigid, purchase-only minded business automation app. 

Mobile First is not a choice but a Must

No surprise that mobile internet access is booming, but interesting to see inflection points of mobile internet usage ecclipsing all other usage in countries like China and South Korea. And with tablet shipments surpassing desktop and notebook PC shipments, it's key to design for flexible form factors. 

The unfortunate state of enterprise applications at this point is, that there has not been an enterprise application architected and designed from the ground up for all processes to be mobile first. There will be first-mover gains in this area - if a vendor gets this right.

The xx-able revolution

With miniaturization of devices progressing, it's clear that smart devices will permeate form and become wearable, driveable, flyable, scanable etc. It's early days, and enterprises are still figuring out how to eg track high value equipment via RFID, but the whole social and collaborative aspect of business work will change with wearable devices. Why even go to a video conference room, or skype, if your communicator device can be with you all the time. Why spend time on expensive printing, if a simple QR code can suffice? And QR codes solve a problem that isn't solved on most wearable and smart devices, information retrival. The QR code avoids that, brings the user to the wanted information - and avoids distractions as served by a search engine or other means of information retrival. 

Look at China

There have been a lot of concerns around a market that is tough to enter, copy cat competitors, IP issues etc have been raised in the past - but Meeker's presentation makes clear that China is a modern market, and innovation really happens there. If China wouldn't be such a huge market - we would see much more of the innovation in the US. 
Just think of the Chinese innovations presented coming from a small market like e.g. Belgium - they all would be exported and available in the US already. But given some degree of North American xenophobia vs China and the attractiveness of the home market for Chinese startups - we haven't seen much of them yet here. For instance I knew Alibaba, but that Alibaba merchandise shipments have passed the combined Amazon and eBay volumen - was a surprise. Same day delivery, taxi apps, the social site Weibo - are all key trends that any enterprise vendor has to look into. And China will soon pass Europe in its share of the world's GDP - an impressive chart:

Enterprise Freemium Model?

We have seen a lot of Freemium apps in the B2C space - but not in the enterprise apps space. Somehow the thinking is - as you pay for the license - you don't get any advertisement / promotion coming your way. But seeing Meeker's slides on the market - why not offer a mild form of advertisement in a enterprise app? Especially for the occasional user of self services apps - the advertisement may not even be noticed - but may lead to a free usage of the enterprise app. It will take some B2C entrepreneurs to experiment here - but I think there is an opportunity here.

Other notables

High tech stands on immigrants shoulders, 60% of the Top 25 tech companies were founded by 1st and 2nd generation Americans - and immigration is needed to close the talent gap - as e.g. IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Oracle and Qualcomm have over 10000 openings in the US. With a lot of innovation still coming form the US, e.g. Meeker pointed out that 80+% of in top internet properties come from the US, but 80+% of traffic comes from outside the US - it remains key for enterprise software vendors to recruit talent from across the world. It's cheaper having two Brazilians working for you in e.g. Sunnyvale and getting the Brazilian verison done right, than opening an operation in Brazil. 

Gold in the Appendix

Some more interesting findings from an enterprise perspective were in the appendix. E.g. the IBM survey see technology factors rising to the #2 concerns for CEOs, they were #3 in 2008 and 2006, and #4 in 2004. This is a huge opprtunity for enterprise vendors to address and leverage for their future offerings - but they need to keep the reduction of risk and the focus on a positive business impact in mind. 

Re-Imagination is live and well according to Meeker, but note that most examples come from the B2C area - with the exception of MakerBits 3D printing and eLance and oDesk flexible employment (did you know WaaS is Workforce as a Service?). The question is - where is re-imagination of enterprise apps? 

What I missed

I can only immagine what compromise Meeker's must have undergone to take her 90 slide presentation into 60 minutes presentation - but here are a few trends I would have liked to see make the deck:

• Analytics
  We are seeing more software that predicts what we want to do and see than ever before. If you haven't played e.g. with Google Now - fairly simple analytics apps - take a look.
   
• Social meets Business
  It may not have been the scope of Meeker's presentation, but the whole CxO discussion and how enterprises have to figure out their social presence and actions was missing.
   
• Cloud
  And while you can say it's remarkable that it wasn't mentioned and cloud is a given - Meeker only touched the edges, e.g. it's easier and cheaper today to get 1 Million users on your product than eve. But the changes and implications the cloud's elasticity brings to markets would have been something I expected. 

MyPOV

As an enterprise vendor today you need to build for the larger, more global internet, going mobile (and tablet) first, source your talent globally, have a big data architecture and think through your China strategy. Make sure your user interfaces are highly transportable and independent of form factors, as we do not know where the xx-able revolution will lead us for the consumption of enterprise services. 

And look at the consumer space, where newer trends like project based work, sharing resources etc will soon have an impact on the future enterprise apps. 

Lead Your Life the Right Way, the Dreams Will Come to You

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. ...

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One of the amazing things about the web is that we are constantly in a state of renewal. We read, consume, engage and move on. Great ideas, applications, innovations – and even people – come into our sphere of attention and leave. Sometimes without a trace. Or sometimes with only a line or two in our memory. A feeling. A sense of pride or loss.

I remember watching Carnegie Mellon University professor, Randy Pausch deliver his “last lecture” and being gobsmacked. I felt like this piece of content – this lecture from 2007 – would become “internet history”. I felt that it would somehow be automatically consumed by people as they engaged more deeply with the web, its abundant content and the bone achingly powerful stories that many share.

But I recently mentioned Randy Pausch’s last lecture and was met with a stony silence. I explained a little – to provide some context – about the world leading computer science professor famous for his work in human computer interaction. Still nothing.

In a world with an abundance of information, we continue to struggle to prioritise what comes into our sphere of attention. And in the rush to sort, file and proceed, we often – mistakenly in my view – prioritise the new in favour of the great. So today, I’d like to momentarily reverse that and suggest you spend an hour – yes a full hour – with Randy Pausch. It may just change your life.

wil p via Compfight

Tuesday’s Tip: Putting the Kibosh On ERP Vendor Sales Reps Who Troll For Indirect Access

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…...

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Constellation Sees An Alarming Increase In Inquiries

Constellation has received an alarming increase in inquiries about an unethical vendor sales practice coined as “trolling for indirect access”. Indirect access is when a vendor claims that a client is accessing their perpetually licensed software in an unintentional manner or inappropriately licensed manner.

One vendor uses a definition of, “any individual or machine that accesses the computing capabilities of the software must be a licensed user”.

Another vendor sees it as “any time a system is accessed by a non-vendor system, a license is required to access that data”

In fact, a rash of inquiries over the past two quarters has raised the alarm bells among software customers.

Unethical Sales Leaders Endorse This Practice To Make Their Numbers

While this practice is nothing new, the pickup by vendors raises serious issues as to why this practice remains in their sales play books. Constellation identifies five reasons why vendors continue this practice:

1. Open up dormant accounts. After pleasant introductions, new sales reps will use this technique to further deals.  Former sales reps agree this is a shake down for cash technique.
2. Drive sales through fear of audits. Audits are used to start the discussion.  Unsuspecting customers who no longer have context about the original contract may fear breach of contract.
3. Scare customers into making additional purchases. Threats are used to set expectations.  The vendorsoften waives the issue if the customer buys additional licenses as a “compromise”
4. Force compliance into new licensing policies. Vendors use this as a way to drive conformity to new license models.  The move from concurrent usage to named users was one example.
5. Meet territory sales goals. Unscrupulous sales managers suggest this technique to meet their numbers.  Sales reps are told they are defending the vendors license rights.

It All Starts With An Innocent Sales Call From A New Sales Rep

The approach often begins when a new and often greener sales rep is assigned to a dormant account or accounts that have stopped paying maintenance. The sales rep appears to be quite friendly and initiates the call with lots of “getting to know you” questions.

What’s really going on, the sales rep is probing on usage and a customer’s install base. After a few weeks the sales rep calls to share news on the latest products. In the next call the sales rep gauges a former client’s interest in buying new products. If the customer shows interest, the sales rep continues through the sales process and remains quite friendly. If the customer shows no interest or the deal comes to halt, the conversation quickly moves to a stern tone and the issue of audits and indirect access is introduced.

Let’s Get Real About What’s Not Indirect Access

While the vendors typically have a tough time proving indirect access, they will fight hard with legal threats and wasted cycles.  However, most buyers and users see the following acceptable usage of data with their existing investment at the time they purchased the product.

• Processing batch data
• Aggregating information into a data warehouse or another source system
• Accessing data for use in another system through data integration
• Entering data from a third party system

The danger is that some vendors have rewritten or updated their software license terms in a very vague way to null the above use cases.  Even worse, many unsuspecting customers have signed addendums.

Recommendations: Stop the Madness On Software Vendor Audits And The Lame Excuses About Indirect Access

Constellation has successfully helped many clients navigate this tricky process with vendors.  Usually the issue is a break down in communications.  Here are three secrets to success:

1. Assert the industry definition of indirect access. Hold to your guns on indirect access.  Keep in mind, you own perpetual software and just because the software vendor’s lawyers say so, it doesn’t meant it’s correct.
2. Counter the indirect access issue. Conduct your own audits on usage and take precautions to make sure access meets industry acceptable definitions.  Escalate to top management. Avoid the sales management chain and go to the CEO office or the CMO office.
3. Shame the vendor into submission. Vendors are gun shy when you take the case public.  Prepare to expose the issue to press, media, user groups, and industry analysts.  The threats work but you better be prepared to go all the way.

A third party approach provides the most effective course of action.  Start with a legal counsel, an industry analyst, or other trusted advisor that can assist without breaking any non-disclosure and confidentiality requirements.  One other suggestion is for the user groups to take on this issue and prevent the vendor from extracting any more damage the vendor client relationship.

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 – 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

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.  Keep in mind, we are not lawyers and do not provide legal advice. We suggest you always check with your legal counsel and your procurement teams to remain in compliance.

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

Copyright © 2001 – 2013 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!

Preparing for Disruption with WebRTC

Alumni: Constellation Research
Constellation Research

Dr. Brent Kelly is a Vice President and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research and President of KelCor, Inc. He focuses on the unique intersection of unified communications, social business, cloud services, video and mobility.  Dr. Kelly provides strategy and counsel to key clients including Chief Information Officers, Chief Technology Officers, investment analysts, venture capitalists, technology policy executives, sell-side firms and technology buyers. Prior to joining Constellation, Dr. Kelly served for 10 years as a partner at Wainhouse Research where he was the primary author of most of the firm’s unified communications reports and forecasts. Dr. Kelly is a regular presenter at Enterprise Connect (formerly VoiceCon), the communications industry trade show where his well…...

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It is important to understand what WebRTC can do for you, but it is equally important to understand what WebRTC may do to you.

Introduction
WebRTC is an emerging standard that enables real-time voice, video and data sharing in a Web browser without the need for browser plugins. Potentially billions of devices supporting a browser--PCs, laptops, smartphones, tablets and a host of new devices--from a variety of manufacturers will be real-time communications-enabled. Whereas browsers have typically interacted only with one or more Web servers, WebRTC allows browsers to exchange media and data with one another directly and in a secure manner.

Although third-party programs like Skype have been around for a long time, and some browser-based plugins have been available for limited communications interactions, the implications WebRTC brings to organizations of all types and sizes are enormous. Ubiquitous voice, video, and data for gaming, customer service, communications and personal and group engagement opens a new world of possibilities for innovation and disruption.

The transformative power behind WebRTC is that ordinary Web developers using just JavaScript Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) can craft fully functioning voice, video and data collaboration applications or embed these capabilities within other applications with just a few lines of code.

A WebRTC Primer
WebRTC (Web real-time communications) is an effort to create an open framework for embedding real-time communications capabilities into Web browsers. WebRTC allows HTML5 Web programmers, with no telecommunications skills and using simple Javascript APIs, to surface real-time audio and video functionality in Web servers and in browser-based applications running on computers, laptops, tablets and smartphones without the need for browser plugins or third-party applications.

Two standards bodies involved in creating the WebRTC standards include: the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). The W3C is tasked with creating the Web APIs used in WebRTC while the IETF focuses on the underlying communications and data transfer protocols. Together, both groups collaborate on WebRTC specifications.

Powered by a Triangular P2P Architecture
The WebRTC architecture involves Web servers and browser clients. The Web server "serves up" Web applications with embedded Javascript, and the browser clients (PCs, tablets, smartphones) run the Javascript application. Traditionally, Web browsers have communicated only with Web servers. What is unique about WebRTC is that the Web application can now enable peer-to-peer (P2P) communications between two browser clients (See Figure 1).

Figure 1. WebRTC's Triangle Architecture (Adapted from "WebRTC: APIs and RTCWeb Protocols of the HTML5 Real-Time Web", Johnson, Alan B. and Daniel C. Burnett, First Edition, September 2012, Digital Codex LLC)

While the control data flows between the browser client and the Web server, the audio and video streams flow directly between the browsers. Directly transmitting media between browsers is very useful because voice and video are very sensitive to network latency and jitter, and the direct transmission eliminates additional paths for traffic to travel, on which it could encounter additional impairments.

WebRTC enables point-to-point browser communications as well as multipoint communications sessions. In a multipoint session, each browser sends and receives audio, video and data streams to and from every other browser in the session in a fully meshed configuration (see Figure 2).

Figure 2. Fully Meshed Peer Connections in WebRTC Multi-Point Communications Sessions

Keep in mind, WebRTC will not scale particularly well in many-to-many situations due to the processing power and network bandwidth required for all of the individual peer-to-peer connections that must be established. Consequently, audio and video bridging infrastructure may be required for large meetings with numerous endpoints.

The good news is that the majority of multipoint audio or video meetings typically involve only three or four endpoints. But these have typically been room or group endpoints. WebRTC will enable individuals to meet in multipoint video conferences, and recent data indicates that the number of endpoints participating in such conferences is increasing because people no longer congregate in three to four conference rooms for video meetings.

WebRTC Requires Directory Services
One of the elements WebRTC does not supply is a directory service. A directory is necessary so that WebRTC users can find one another. This capability could be termed a "rendezvous service".

WebRTC directory services must be supplied by the application developer. In many cases, directory services will be provided by interfacing with a website's authentication mechanism or with an existing enterprise directory.

When a browser connects to a website, the application can ask the user for login credentials. As the user is authenticated, the Web server creates a directory that maps authenticated users to active Web browsing sessions. Directory information can then be pushed down to the browser interface, allowing people to communicate with one another.

An alternative scenario would be a customer service web site that interfaces to a contact center. In this scenario, the user browsing the web site does not authenticate; only the contact center agent requires authentication. The Web server can automatically create the linkage between the customer and a contact center agent through the contact center's routing software.

Directories can be simple or complex, but they will be required in order for users to establish communications sessions using WebRTC.

WebRTC Federates Using a Trapezoid Approach
Although WebRTC capabilities may soon be ubiquitous in the browsers most people use, the ability to reach out and connect to others who may not be connected to the same Web server is an essential capability. Consequently, Web servers running WebRTC may ultimately need to be able to federate with one another. Federating between WebRTC domains results in the trapezoid architecture (see Figure 3).

One of the issues Web developers must pay attention to is how the control data will be exchanged. WebRTC specifies the use of a protocol called Session Description Protocol (SDP) to exchange communications parameters, but it does not specify what those parameters are nor the format that should be used to establish and control the communications session. These details are left up to each individual WebRTC application developer. Thus, developers wishing to federate with other WebRTC domains will need to ensure that they use common session initiation and control mechanisms.

Figure 3. The WebRTC Trapezoid for Federation between Server Domains

WebRTC Voice and Video Protocols
The IETF has standardized on the wideband Opus and the narrowband G.711 codecs for audio in WebRTC. If Opus is used in a WebRTC application, then any interoperability with SIP or the PSTN would require a transcoding border element. If G.711 is used, then audio transcoding between WebRTC and SIP would not be required because almost all SIP systems have G.711 as an available codec .

Video in WebRTC is far from finalized. Google has been pushing the VP8 video codec, and it has spent at least $125 million to make it available royalty-free to any WebRTC implementation. However, most of the existing video infrastructure in the world does not use VP8. Existing infrastructure often supports H.264. Mobile devices also have H.264 capability embedded into their hardware chipsets. Consequently, H.264 is the codec preferred by many IETF members; however, it is not royalty-free.

There has been no vote on which video codecs would be mandatory to implement . Google has made VP8 available to developers, and WebRTC developers using Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox can have video interoperability today using VP8.

A straw poll taken at a recent IETF meeting showed 70 members could live with H.264 as a mandatory-to-implement codec. In the same meeting, 50 members could live with VP8 as a mandatory-to-implement codec (people could raise their hands more than once).

Some are suggesting that the WebRTC standard should push forward without specifying a mandatory video codec, leaving it up to the market to decide which, if any video codecs would be included. There are huge implications for both browser and hardware manufacturers, regardless of where this issue ultimately falls. Use of H.264 may not be such a huge licensing issue because most of the current browser and mobile device vendors have already paid the maximum licensing fee; the issue is that future codecs based on H.264 may have higher licensing costs, and choosing H.264 today as a mandatory codec may require much higher licensing fees in the future as H.265/HEVC become available.

Conclusion
WebRTC is already making headway into our everyday lives. Anyone running the latest version of Google Chrome has WebRTC capability already enabled. The automatic update for Mozilla Firefox (Firefox 22) will soon have WebRTC capabilities as well.

I am personally aware of over 70 companies that are either developing WebRTC browsers, toolkits, service platforms, or that have already created solutions in use by end users. New entrants are appearing nearly every week. WebRTC-based video bridging capability is already available in the services offered by VidTel and Blue Jeans Network. Expect to see WebRTC-enabled customer engagement solutions from some of the big contact center companies later this year and in early 2014.

WebRTC has the potential to turn the communications and collaboration industry on its head over the next few years. Executives and product managers would do well to learn what WebRTC is all about. It is important to understand not only what WebRTC can do for you, but it is equally important to understand what WebRTC may do to you.

This article is an excerpt from Dr. Kelly's recently published report titled, "Ten Things CIOs Should Know About WebRTC."