DataGrok

Vice President & Principal Analyst
Test

Joseph is Vice President and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research, Inc.  Covering all things related to Data Management and Analytics, he focuses on making better decisions through using new sources of data, innovative ways of interweaving the volumetric flow of data of increasing compexity, and disruptive techniques for drawing inferences and making predictions from that data. Sensor networks Mobile devices Machine-to-machine interchanges Machine-to-human interactiions Sensor Analytics Internet of Things Sustainability Self-quantification Since 1978, Joseph has been involved with renewable energy research, developing advanced statistical methods for complex system analysis, and creating analytical techniques and management methodologies for solving business,…...

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For all the silliness surrounding Big Data and Data Science, all the hype and all the controversy, there are actually very innovative and disruptive technologies coming from this area, this new approach to data management and analytics [DMA]. How do we categorize the vendors or the technologies that have never existed before?

Predictives

One new area is Predictive Analytics, also called Predictive Intelligence. Since predictions are not analytics, as the term is used in BI, and certainly not the Intelligence used in BI, I don't like either, but prefer the simpler "Predictives". Four companies with which I've had briefings, fall into the Predictives category, but each of these companies have very different approaches and technologies for performing predictives. These companies are Opera Solutions, Alpine Data Labs, INRIX and Zementis. There are other companies that I'll include in a full report after receiving briefings, such as KXEN, Soft10 and Numenta. By the way, Numenta's product is named "Grok". Given their differences, do they really all belong in the same category?

Opera Solutions: Acting on petabytes of data, Opera Solutions provides a signal hub stack starting with data management, going through pattern matching in the signal layer, and, enhanced by their own Data Science teams, resulting in predictions and inferences for better decisions for enterprise advantage, understanding the "signal" is more important than the underlying technology, to actually create front line productivity through signals manifesting and adjusting "gut feel" where machines don't direct humans but do the heavy lifting.

Alpine Data Labs: Alpine Data Labs brings mathematical, statistical and machine learning predictive methods to the data in situ, no matter how small nor how big the data sets, within a variety of RDBMS technologies and Hadoop distributions. Alpine Data Labs helps data science teams address the data where it lays, across data types and functional areas, working with all the data to bring insight to bear on better decisions.

INRIX: INRIX data science teams and technology provides unique predictives using connected cars, connected devices and connected people.

Zementis: Zementis brings predictive modeling into decision management through their data science teams, Adapa product and strong commitment to the predictive markup modeling language [PMML]. Through partners and customers Zementis works with traditional and innovative data sources to provide decision management from predictives, data mining and machine learning for marketing solutions, financial services, predictive maintenance and energy/water sustainability.

DataGrok

One of the more interesting things to come out of data science is how do you really understand the data that is being gathered and presented. Two of the companies with which I've recently have had briefings, challenge the categories of Data Discovery or Data Exploration. However, each of these companies have different technologies, and different approaches to fully, deeply understanding your data, and to being able to draw conclusions from the data before doing other, more formal analytics. Over the past month, I've had the good fortune of having very in-depth, in-person briefings by both of these companies. Both of these companies are helping those who need it most to truly, fully, deeply, easily understand their data. These approaches, while very, very different, both constitute an entirely new category. Beyond data discovery, beyond data exploration, I call this new category Data Grokking.

"Grok" as I wrote in 2007, means to

"to fully and deeply understand"; [but to you need some background on the word's origins]. It's Martian and not from any Terran language at all. It comes from the fertile mind of Robert A. Heinlein, and was brought to Earth by Valentine Michael Smith in Heinlein's wonderful 1961 novel Stranger in a Strange Land.

One of these companies is still in stealth mode, and I won't mention their name here. The other is Ayasdi, and Ayasdi takes a very, very interesting approach to grokking your data.

These two very different technologies, based upon very different science and mathematics, do indeed allow us to fully and deeply understand our data. Much like the Martian ceremony, the DataGrok allows us to mentally ingest our data, to realize creative insights from our data sets, and to recognize the fundamental interweaving among the data, that, prior to these two innovative firms, could only come about through a long, arduous struggle with the data sets.

As I mentioned, the one company is still in stealth mode, so I'll write about Ayasdi here.

Ayasdi

Ayasdi comes out of the intersection of Topology and Computer Science, as brought together by two Stanford Professors, Gurjeet Singh and Gunnar Carlsson. The project started as a DARPA contract that has spanned more than four years, comptop. The CompTop project included Duke, Rutgers & Stanford nodes. Topological methods discover the structure of the data - this is somewhat analogous to, but not the same as the probabilistic or cummulative distribution or density functions [pdf, PDF, cdf or CDF].

Ayasdi is focused on four markets:

1. Pharmaceuticals, Healthcare and Biotech
2. Oil & gas
3. Government
4. Financial Services

From this, you can see that Ayasdi customers go after expensive data, i.e. expensive to collect, expensive to use. Iris is the front end to the Ayasdi Platform, and while available as a private cloud, their offering is primarily SaaS.

The analyst community is trying to figure out where to put Ayasdi, thus my category of DataGrok. Another area of confusion is "What is the right tool of each step of the process from DataGrok to inferences and predictions?" Some of this stems from mistrust of machines, but we need machines that do more than count and sort, we need machines that help us to find insight and improve performance.

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Trends: Seven Priorities In The Shift From CMO to Chief Digital Officer

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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Shift From CMO to CDO Is In Progress

Today’s marketing strategies increasingly depend more on digital and on data than in the past.  With more data, marketers can measure against a new set of metrics that matter including:

• calculating return on promotional investment (ROPI),
• performing multivariable testing (beyond A/b)
• driving conversion rates and optimizing efforts,
• fine tuning customer segmentation, and
• managing omni-channel diversity

Unfortunately the shift to digital requires a greater reliance on technology.  Historically, CMOs relied on IT for help on the database or CRM system or even the website.   However consumerization of technology and the cloud have now given marketers more control on their technology destiny.  In fact, a recent post by fellow analyst Gavin Heaton on “CMO to CIO, It’s time we talked” highlights many of these new challenges.

Expect Seven Strategies To Emerge In The Shift To CDO

Consequently, many marketing leaders are making the shift from CMO type roles to Chief Digital Officers as marketing leaders align technology closer with strategy. This shift from analog marketer to a Chief Digital Officer role will result in seven trends for 2013 (see Figure 1.)

Figure 1.  2013 Trends Signal Shift From Classical CMO to Digital CMOs or Chief Digital Officers

1. Drive relevancy with context no content. Context trumps content as relevancy required to break channel fatigue.  Relevancy will improves engagement metrics.
2. Move mobile strategies from campaign to commerce. With engagement moving to mobile first around the world, campaigns without commerce will result in wasted marketing efforts. Point of sale must be part of the strategy as we shift to a world of matrix commerce.
3. Focus on conversion rate optimization. Conversion rate optimization takes center stage.  How catalysts are built to create the right offer should be tested, measured, and optimized.  This is the 8th C in the 9C’s of engagement.
4. Design for people to people interaction models. B2B and B2C are dead.  With context, individuals play different roles. This move to engagement and experience will require design thinking in crafting the P2P models of the future.
5. Use marketing automation to gain efficiencies. Repetitive processes should be rapidly automated and even given to the CIO for maintenance.  Scaling up with marketing automation is a key requirement for success.
6. Address big and small data. Social and mobile provide great signals that can be used to make the shift from data to information.  Finding patterns in the information helps marketers identify insights and then make the appropriate decisions.  Marketers should focus on the business outcomes not the data.
7. Expect more accountability in marketing budgets. With so much money flowing into marketing and digital efforts, expect a higher degree of scrutiny.  Marketers must be prepared to talk financial speak. Moving to digital will improve accountability and lead to data driven marketing that many have sought in the past.

The Bottom Line: Business and IT Must Stay Aligned But Not Tethered

The pace of business remains fierce.  Marketers must move quickly while IT teams have to provide the scale and standardization to keep costs in line.  Organizations should assess the persona or penchant for adopting disruptive technology before determining governance, organizational structure, and objectives as the CDO role emerges.  Market Leaders should choose to create a new role of CDO by bringing the best of CMO and CIO into a new area.  Fast Followers should bring IT and CMO closer together before creating this new role.  Cautious adopters and laggards should wait and see if there is a need for this position.

Your POV

Will you create a CDO position? Do you have a CDO position and how does it work. We’d love your feedback!  Add your comments to the blog or send us a comment at R (at) SoftwareInsider (dot) org or R (at) ConstellationRG (dot) com

Please let us know if you need help with your digital marketing efforts.  Sign up for a Constellation Academy Workshop or let us assist with:

• Assessing readiness
• Designing digital transformation strategy
• Developing your transformation from CMO to CDO
• Vendor selection
• Connecting with other pioneers

Related Research

• Tuesday’s Tip: Why Context Matters – Forget Real-Time, Achieve Right-Time
• Monday’s Musing: Avoiding Social Media Fatigue Through Engagement
• Friday’s Features: Using Attensity Analyze 6.0 To Compare Customer Sentiment For @united @southwestair @virginamerica
• Event Report: Lithium Network Conference 2012 #LiNC
• Best Practices: From First To Worst – Continental In A Post United World, Lessons In Next Gen Customer Experience
• Monday’s Musings: Seven Basic Privacy Rights Users Should Demand For Social Business
• News Analysis: Lithium Technologies Adds $53M in Financing
• Monday’s Musings: Balancing The Six S’s In Consumerization Of IT
• Monday’s Musings: A Working Vendor Landscape For Social Business
• Product Review: Google+, Consumerization of IT, and Crossing The Chasm For Enterprise Social Business
• Monday’s Musings: Using MDM To Build A Complete Customer View In A Social Era
• Monday’s Musings: Mastering When and How High End Brands Should Use Daily Deal Sites Such As Groupon
• News Analysis: Salesforce.com Acquires Radian6 For $316M
• Monday’s Musings: Q1 2011 State of Social CRM and CRM From An EMEA Point Of View
• Best Practices: Applying Social Business Challenges To Social Business Maturity Models
• Research Summary: Software Insider’s Top 25 Posts For 2010
• Best Practices: Five Simple Rules For Social Business
• Research Report: Constellation’s Research Outlook For 2011
• Research Report: How The Five Pillars Of Consumer Tech Influence Enterprise Innovation
• Research Report: Next Gen B2B and B2C E-Commerce Priorities Reflect Macro Level Trends
• News Analysis: Jive Fills Warchest, Ready to Battle Enterprise Software Giants And IPO?
• Tuesday’s Tip: Applying The Five Stages Of Adoption Towards SCRM Projects
• News Analysis: Lithium’s Acquisition of Scout Labs Ups The Ante in Social CRM
• News Analysis: Biz360 Acquisition Signals Attensity Group’s Move Into Social CRM
• Monday’s Musings: Avoiding Failure In Social CRM Projects Requires Ecosystem Coordination
• Research Report: The 18 Use Cases of Social CRM – The New Rules of Relationship Management
• News Analysis: Siperian Acquisition Vaults Informatica Into An MDM Leadership Position
• News Analysis: Jive and Radian6 Partner – Great For Business, But Could Fragment IT Systems
• Event Report: Salesforce.com Pushes Social CRM Technology — But Don’t Expect Companies To Be Successful With Tools Alone
• Monday’s Musings: Why Every Social CRM Initiative Needs An MDM Backbone
• Personal Log: Altimeter Group – Helping Organizations Bridge The Technology Obsolescence Gap
• Monday’s Musings: 10 Essential Elements For Social Enterprise Apps

Reprints

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

Disclosure

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

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

Copyright © 2001 – 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!

MWC2013: Mobile carriers and others self-delude – chasing the ever seductive OS siren call

Constellation Alumni

"I am fascinated by understanding technologies, then explaining how to apply these within enterprises -- while still retaining common sense." Charles Brett is VP and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research, Inc..  His primary focus is on all aspect of mobility and the use of mobile technology in the enterprise.  For 25+ years Charles Brett has focused on delivering common sense to the application of technologies, especially software ones, in organizations of all sizes around the world. While concentrating at Constellation Research on mobility and its management in the enterprise (sometimes known as MDM or Mobile Device Management) he also addresses: mobile app development and deployment mobile apps and associated data management BYOD (Bring or Buy Your Own Device…...

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MWC 2013 saw many OS announcements and commitments, but not from the usual culprits –  Microsoft (Windows 8, various forms), Apple (iOS, various forms) or Google (Android, with all its multiple bifurcations).  Instead a motley collection of desperate telephone carriers took the principle biscuit (committing to the Firefox OS); then there were Samsung (with Tizen), Canonical (with Ubuntu/Linux) and Jolla (with Sailfish, ex MeeGo). The only clear indicator amongst so muchOS enthusiasm was that these companies seem lured by the ever present siren call of owning your own OS, and to have forgotten the past.

Since the arrival of Windows back in the 1980s many have tried to build operating systems (with varying degrees of lack of success – think OS2) and then tried to establish a what is now referred to as an ecosystem– that collection of applications and developers and content platforms that combine to attract users (whether enterprise or consumer) who want to buy.  Arguably only two OSs have emerged since Windows that have attained widespread adoption:

• iOS, a scaled down  derivative from OS X (which in turn still comes with a BSD open source UNIX licence)
• Linux and with this its scaled-down protégé — Android.

In one case, iOS, the OS is tightly controlled and is almost an incidental in Apple’s successes of the past 10 years.  In the other, Linux succeeded and continues to succeeds because it is open and without overt licence fees.  When Google bought Andy Rubin’s Android Inc. it (Google) made a shrewd bet that an open OS for mobile devices could attract success — because it was not closed (like iOS) and yet was not punitively expensive (and elderly) like Windows Mobile and before this Windows CE.  Both Apple and Google have progressed, not least because of their huge investment in both OSs but also because they brought applicable marketing and an acute sense of what an ecosystem means to developers, content providers and users alike.

What MWC2013 saw was a group of largely second rate mobile voice carriers (Telefónica, KDD, Deutsche Telekom, Etisalat, Smart, Sprint Telcom Italia, Telenor, Qtel, Singtel, VimpelCom and more)  along with a miscellany of device manufacturers (Alcatel, Sony, ZTE and Huawei — placing bets every each way in the hope of winning some market share ) bellowing in envy at what Apple and Google commercially have achieved.  Not fair they cry: we want a slice of the monies Apple and Google are obtaining because of our networks.

Their answer they decided (or so it would seem from MWC013) is to try to replay the OS game yet again — quite failing to remember three fundamental factors:

• OS development is hugely expensive and almost always requires more than anticipated
• designing anything by committee invariably produces a multi-humped camel of dubious attraction
• it is not just the OS which matters; equally important is attracting an ecosystem –  and that neither happens overnight nor without serious investment nor without patiience and good fortune.

For  enterprise’s interested in mobility Firefox OS should represents little more than a minor distraction.  That is emphasized by (say)  Telefónica’s avowed attitude — that the Firefoc OS is intended for low cost smartphones for Southern American markets.  It seems far more probable that low cost Android, and even WindowsPhone 8, devices will appeal more, because of their existing app base.

So what of the others:

• Tizen is an open source system which seeks to provide a consistent user experience acrossmultipe  device types; it is based on Linux kernel and the WebKitruntime and may have Samsung’s Bada added to it; why the world needs another Linux-dervied OS is unclear, unless (perhaps) there is specific optimization (both technical and marketing) for oriental markets (which exceed N American and Europe combined by a long way).
• Jolla’s Sailfish was formally launched at MWC 2013 and is the reinvention of Meego (ex-Nokia, Intel and the Linux Foundation) with a target of smartphones (no mention of tablets); it is, again a Linux derivative — so what is its appeal to an enterprise?
• finally there is the Canonical approach to bring Ubuntu to smartphones and tablets and personal computers; Ubuntu is proven and the concept of a fully fledged Linux implementation consistent across all three form factors could have strong enterprise appeal — if the UI is good enough; the downside is that the timeframes for even seeing anything worthwhile are so long (into 2014 and beyond) that it may simply be left behind.

From the enterprise mobility viewpoint, MWC2013 offered four different Linux-based initiatives to add to Andoid.  Of these only one, that from Canonical, seems to have a real IT as well as consumer logic behind.  The other three are, at least for 2013 and 2014 and probably 2015, almost irrelevant — however much their proponents trumpet.  The killer, in each case is likely to be a mix of enterprise dissatisfaction combined with apathy as well as minimal app developer and content provider ecosystems.  But that does not stop the siren song of owning an OS attracting the foolish (which is why Odysseus had himself tied to the mast — something that many mobile carrier and device mnufacturer executices should have also copied).

Tuesday's Tip: Time To Consolidate Social Business Platforms

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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Greater Adoption In Social Business Signifies A Move To Consolidate Platforms

Constellation’s buy-side clients tend to fit in the market leader or fast follower categories when it comes to organizational personas of disruptive technology adoption.  Since 2010, respondents have progressed through the DEEPR framework and the latest results from 2012 indicate that most survey respondents have moved to Level 3 (see Figure 1).  Changes between 2010 and 2012 show the following top three priority shifts as users move from Level 2 (Experimentation) to Level 3 (Evangelization):

• The top challenge among respondents is choosing the right platform (63.8%) among the many inside an organization.
• Over half (56.8%) of the respondents have incorporated social into business models.
• Respondents fostering internal collaboration (53.5%) now must worry about adoption challenges.

Figure 1. Respondents Shift to Level 3 in DEEPR Framework for Social Business Adoption

The Bottom Line.  Its Time To Scale The Technology While Pushing Ahead On Innovation

The era of best of breed disparate platforms purchased by siloed departments is over.  It’s time to consolidate different platforms and scale.  This natural evolution in the DEEPR framework means IT must scale while line of business focuses on innovation (see Figure 2).

Figure 2. IT Must Scale As Line of Business Pushes The Limit On New Platforms

Catch the relevant research report “Disruptive Technology Adoption: An Executive Primer”

Your POV.

Ready to fight change management and adoption head on? Have a story on how you’ve achieved engagement? Add your comments to the blog or send us a comment at R (at) SoftwareInsider (dot) org or R (at) ConstellationRG (dot) com

Please let us know if you need help with your Social Business efforts.  Sign up for a Constellation Academy Workshop or let us assist with:

• Assessing readiness
• Developing your social business strategy
• Vendor selection
• Implementation partner selection
• Connecting with other pioneers

Related Research:

• Monday’s Musings: Understand the 4 Organizational Personas of Disruptive Technology Adoption
• Monday’s Musing: Avoiding Social Media Fatigue Through Engagement
• Friday’s Features: Using Attensity Analyze 6.0 To Compare Customer Sentiment For @united @southwestair @virginamerica
• Event Report: Lithium Network Conference 2012 #LiNC
• Best Practices: From First To Worst – Continental In A Post United World, Lessons In Next Gen Customer Experience
• Monday’s Musings: Seven Basic Privacy Rights Users Should Demand For Social Business
• News Analysis: Lithium Technologies Adds $53M in Financing
• Monday’s Musings: Balancing The Six S’s In Consumerization Of IT
• Monday’s Musings: A Working Vendor Landscape For Social Business
• Product Review: Google+, Consumerization of IT, and Crossing The Chasm For Enterprise Social Business
• Monday’s Musings: Using MDM To Build A Complete Customer View In A Social Era
• Monday’s Musings: Mastering When and How High End Brands Should Use Daily Deal Sites Such As Groupon
• News Analysis: Salesforce.com Acquires Radian6 For $316M
• Monday’s Musings: Q1 2011 State of Social CRM and CRM From An EMEA Point Of View
• Best Practices: Applying Social Business Challenges To Social Business Maturity Models
• Research Summary: Software Insider’s Top 25 Posts For 2010
• Best Practices: Five Simple Rules For Social Business
• Research Report: Constellation’s Research Outlook For 2011
• Research Report: How The Five Pillars Of Consumer Tech Influence Enterprise Innovation
• Research Report: Next Gen B2B and B2C E-Commerce Priorities Reflect Macro Level Trends
• News Analysis: Jive Fills Warchest, Ready to Battle Enterprise Software Giants And IPO?
• Tuesday’s Tip: Applying The Five Stages Of Adoption Towards SCRM Projects
• News Analysis: Lithium’s Acquisition of Scout Labs Ups The Ante in Social CRM
• News Analysis: Biz360 Acquisition Signals Attensity Group’s Move Into Social CRM
• Monday’s Musings: Avoiding Failure In Social CRM Projects Requires Ecosystem Coordination
• Research Report: The 18 Use Cases of Social CRM – The New Rules of Relationship Management
• News Analysis: Siperian Acquisition Vaults Informatica Into An MDM Leadership Position
• News Analysis: Jive and Radian6 Partner – Great For Business, But Could Fragment IT Systems
• Event Report: Salesforce.com Pushes Social CRM Technology — But Don’t Expect Companies To Be Successful With Tools Alone
• Monday’s Musings: Why Every Social CRM Initiative Needs An MDM Backbone
• Personal Log: Altimeter Group – Helping Organizations Bridge The Technology Obsolescence Gap
• Monday’s Musings: 10 Essential Elements For Social Enterprise Apps

Reprints

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

Disclosure

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

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

Copyright © 2001 – 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!

MWC2013: Sensors need not drain your mobile’s battery and yet can give you greater accuracy as well as real-life context

Constellation Alumni

"I am fascinated by understanding technologies, then explaining how to apply these within enterprises -- while still retaining common sense." Charles Brett is VP and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research, Inc..  His primary focus is on all aspect of mobility and the use of mobile technology in the enterprise.  For 25+ years Charles Brett has focused on delivering common sense to the application of technologies, especially software ones, in organizations of all sizes around the world. While concentrating at Constellation Research on mobility and its management in the enterprise (sometimes known as MDM or Mobile Device Management) he also addresses: mobile app development and deployment mobile apps and associated data management BYOD (Bring or Buy Your Own Device…...

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Steve Jobs did a wonderful thing when he put sensors (GPS, accelerometers, gyroscopes, compasses, etc.) into the iPhone and the the iPad family.  Others have followed, adding barometers, light sensors and more besides.  But there is a downside —  battery usage — as well as an upside — the potential to save that battery usage by making  more intelligent use of these sensors, and not only to maximize power utilization.

These points were brought home at MWC by Kevin Shaw, the CTO at Sensor Platforms (of San Jose, CA).  Sensor Platforms specializes in producing platform-agnostic software to enable SOC manufacturers and device manufacturers to make best use of the sensors on mobile devices.  One objective is not to disable sensors and even the main power-hog, the CPU, when they are not needed.

For example, consider GPS.  When you go into a building you lose GPS signals.  But on most mobile devices that does not mean the GPS function switches itself off, until you go outside again.  Rather the opposite is true: the GPS tries and tries to find satellites and in so doing greedily consumes the battery.  In different ways this is true for all sensors: if they are running when they are not in use they use up that valuable battery resource.

In the mobile world — especially in the enterprise mobile world where battery performance is at a premium, to last at minimum a long work day — battery performance matters.  With each new device release, whether laptop or smartphone or tablet, the reviewers crawl over of the mAh ratings to forecast longevity in use.  Yet the irony is that the quickest and least expensive way to lengthen battery life is to use less electricity.  If one can turn off parts of the system that are not being used,  this reduces consumption.

At MWC Kevin went further and produced  two Samsung SIIIs, one with Sensor Platform’s Sensor Fusion/Context Aware platform and one without.  The Context Aware software uses that mobile’s sensors even when those users are not directly interacting with their devices, so that apps can know the users’ context (what he or she is doing).   He argues that “This empowers a new generation of smart devices that will improve people’s lives without intruding on their activities”.

Sensor Platforms optimizes by:

• providing a layer of basic user contexts: device motion, carry, posture and transport
• implementing a Resource Manager which directs computing sources when contexts change, while  minimizing power consumption when contexts remain unchanged
• enabling contexts to do system power management — for instance knowing when a user has not moved and thus can skip GPS refreshes, or knowing that the device is in a pocket and turn off the backlight
• presenting app developers with an API that treats contexts as virtual sensors.

He then showed how intelligent application of the sensors enables greater context awareness.  The SIII with the software could detect when he sat down or stood up (the other could not).  It could also detect when he put the equipped SIII in his pocket and when he took it out.  He even showed that the increased sensitivity could detect when one went up 1 floor or down 3 floors (using the barometric change in pressure). Indeed this ability to measure vertical changes was accurate already to about 30cm, and constantly improving.  And all of this was accomplished while reducing power consumption (switching off unnecessary power consumers on a device when it is in a pocket or briefcase, for instance or reducing main CPU usage when less power hungry components of a mobile device can do the same for less).

What might this mean for an enterprise?

The first, and possibly the most important,  is that devices which have “sensor control”, like that provided by Sensor Platforms,  incorporated by vendors will have longer usage times. Unfortunately, this not an easy capability to establish before you buy — and will not be until SOC manufacturers and device vendors publicize what is possible.

The second is more interestingfor the enterprise.  With increased context awareness new capabilities can be added to not only the device but potentially to apps.  For example, in a medical application you may want to know from the combination of sensors that someone has fallen over, which might in turn trigger an alarm. Similarly, if you know where you are located (from GPS) before you go into a building, the use of accelerometers, compasses, barometers and other sensors will enable accurate positioning within that building, and even on what floor.  This sort of capability could open up mew types of accurate indoor solutions that are not amenable to solving by GPS today.

There is a caveat.  Sensor Platforms basically sells only to manufacturers.  To this analyst an opportunity may be begging — to provide the software tools (or platform) to assist app developers to build more intelligent apps that used sensors better — even when the device manufacturer has not integrated Sensor Platforms-like capabilities in to a device.  While doing it this way might not be an energy efficient as embedding the capabilities at the SoC or device level, the opportunities enabled might be all the more startling for enterprises.

News Analysis: Infor Adds SaaS LMS with Acquisition of CERTPOINT

Alumni: Constellation Research
Constellation Research

Yvette Cameron was VP and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research, Inc. focusing on next generation HCM processes and technologies, and is founder of NextGen Insights. Yvette is now a Constellation Research alumna. , Title: Big Ideas CRM concepts will transform HCM processes for new levels of Employee Engagement and Business Results Companies are investing heavily to understand and optimize their customer relationships, but less so with their employee relationships. We must apply the tenets of CRM to HCM processes to understand, engage and align the workforce, because customer success begins with employee success. From “Command and Control” to “Engage and Inspire” Traditional work practices and business structures are evolving at an unparalleled rate. New thinking and disruptive…...

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Proving it has not lost its appetite for acquisitions, on March 4th, 2013, Infor announced its planned acquisition of New York based CERTPOINT Systems, Inc., a SaaS provider of global learning management software (LMS) and learning content management software (LCMS).

CERTPOINT background

Founded in 1996, CERTPOINT (formerly Vuepoint) offers comprehensive learning solutions including LMS, LCMS, content authoring, competency management, integrated web conferencing, mobile access and social learning to more than 1300 clients across more than 80 countries.  Marquis customers include Toyota, Honda, Motorola, Ralph Lauren, LANCOME and Weightwatchers. Like Infor, it boasts a hybrid offering, delivering on-premises, hosted and SaaS-based offerings; the majority of its clients, however, utilize the SaaS applications, consistent with adoption trends in the human capital management (HCM) market.  CERTPOINT also provides consulting services including content development, implementation and strategic consulting.  It currently employs approximately 50 staff, most based in New York.

The acquisition expands two key areas for Infor:

• With the CERTPOINT acquisition, the Infor Human Capital Management (HCM) suite delivers a comprehensive end-to-end offering. Tarik Taman, the GM of Infor HCM, noted that, “The acquisition of CERTPOINT will enable Infor to offer customers an end-to-end HCM solution, delivered to help maximize access and business insight and achieve breakthrough performance. In addition to complementary functionality, the acquisition of CERTPOINT sends the signal that Infor intends to be atop the leaderboard of SaaS Enterprise Human Capital Management solution providers.”
• Point of View (POV): As Infor continues to move its HCM suite of products fully to the cloud (watch for their announcements in this area in the Summer of 2013), the acquisition of SaaS-based CERTPOINT completes the suite with solid LMS capabilities. And in today’s global, virtual and mobile work environments, CERTPOINT’s delivery of personalized electronic content to mobile devices is precisely the type of capability required for business performance.  Integration via Infor’s technology framework, Infor ION, will focus on the HCM products (Lawson HRM, Talent Management and Service Delivery), but will also extend to other Infor solutions to meet strategic opportunities. WebEx Communications is the current partner to CERTPOINT for delivering integrated web training and conferencing; Infor does not currently have a competing offering but I expect this to be an area of development for the Infor ION team in the future. From an end-to-end perspective, Infor is one of the few providers of HR Service Delivery (having acquired this from Lawson/Enwisen in 2011).  The Infor Enwisen platform has served as a unifying solution across all Infor Lawson HCM products, delivering portal, knowledgebase and multi-tiered support across the suite. Integration with Enwisen will bring rapid value-add to CERTPOINT customers.

• CERTPOINT fortifies Infor Healthcare solutions with critical learning capabilities. Certification and compliance training are mission critical activities in the healthcare industry.  Combined with the verticalized solution for Healthcare from Infor HCM, clients will be able to move beyond certification and compliance to the creation of high performing healthcare organizations.
• Point of View (POV):  Infor gained a major presence in Healthcare with the acquisition of Lawson software in 2011, and so CERTPOINT’s Healthcare industry solution is a natural launch point for showcasing the combined offering. Infor has, in fact has already begun this push, as it positions richer capabilities for the Healthcare industry as well as increased thought leadership with the hiring of a Chief Medical Information Officer (CMIO) to oversee the Infor Healthcare suite. Other industries such as Automotive, Food & Hospitality and Manufacturing  will be early solution targets as well. One of Infor’s points of differentiation is its micro-vertical strategy: beyond the standard 21 or so industry vertical classifications, Infor recognizes the unique needs coming from more than 2000 micro-verticals within these broader industries. CERTPOINT clients will benefit over time from Infor’s micro-vertical focus as this specialized knowledge infuses and expands the capabilities of its nine current vertical offerings.

Bottom Line:  Infor Advances its Move to the Cloud

Today,  Infor is the third largest provider of enterprise applications and services, with a valuation of $16B and five consecutive quarters of double-digit license revenue growth. It doesn’t just compete with Oracle and SAP, however; it increasingly competes with the likes of Workday and Ultimate as clients look to the cloud for Enterprise HCM.  The acquisition of CERTPOINT not only completes the Infor HCM suite, it does so through a SaaS offering that enables rapid, low cost deployment and frequent innovations in a business-critical area.  Additionally, CERTPOINT provides support for the extended enterprise – training for partners, suppliers and customers – including eCommerce capabilities for companies that deliver training for profit. With Infor Mingle, Infor’s social platform still in development, CERTPOINT’s social learning will also be a welcome and timely addition to the Infor HCM suite.

As always, the devil is in the details, but given that CERTPOINT today integrates with many HCM solutions (including its strategic partner, Ultimate Software), the initial phase of the Infor/CERTPOINT integration should come to market quickly, with more strategic points of leverage following in subsequent iterations.  Infor clients will benefit from this acquisition through the additional depth of learning capabilities; CERTPOINT clients will have a new, integrated path to consider as they evaluate the upgrade or replacement of their current HCM infrastructures.

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Filed under: Cloud, ERP, Future of Work, Global HCM, HCM, Hybrid IT, Infor Lawson, Learning and Development, M&A, Mobile/Social, SaaS HCM, Service Delivery, Social Learning, Talent Management Tagged: CERTPOINT, Cloud, Collaboration, constellation research, Enwisen, HCM, HR, HR Tech, Lawson, Mobile device, Next Generation apps, SaaS, Social Learning, Software as a service, Ultimate Software, Workday, Workforce Technologies, yvette cameron