I had a deja-vu experience the other day, nothing like seeing a cat cross my path twice or similar, but suddenly realizing I am now in my parents shoes from some 15 years ago. Put simply, the education I gave to my parents on how to use their mobile phone was being given to me by my kids on the use of my Tablet. My daughter comes to me and says “Dad, I can’t access YouTube on your tablet.” I reply that well sometimes it doesn’t work over the Internet. Her response: “That’s ok Dad, if you download the YouTube application onto your tablet over the Wi-Fi you will find it works better and then I can always access my favourites!” To this, I respond: “Yes I know, when I have time I will set it up for you”. She then highlighted to me, “It’s ok Dad, just give me your password. I know how to set it up for you and then I can even save your favourites for you too!” Well that clearly wasn’t going to happen; she is only four by the way. Then you also have my son who somehow knows how to access the Nintendo Wii that we have and reset all of the high-scores except his to ensure his character is shown at the beginning of each game that he plays in front of his family and friends.
Now I remember as a kid the most high tech device I had was a computer console that let you play tennis, hockey and squash in black and white. I was amazed by how cool it was with all the sophistication of a single button and a dial to move your bat up and down the screen. In contrast, I now get asked by my eldest daughter to help her load music from a CD onto her iPod because it’s a bit old and she wants to listen to some of her parents music which she can’t get as mp3 tracks from her friends. When did the digital era end? The technology market has clearly changed!
The key dynamic in all of these technology changes is the user experience and what I find interesting is the growing gap in terms of the market demands by end users. For Generation Alpha it is clearly all about immediacy and own preferred technology, whereas for the Baby Boomers it is all about ease of use. These are two very contrasting views and the challenges for technology companies and integrators alike is to find a way to manage this balance, enable personalization but retain core components which are intuitive and don’t require the ability to reconfigure a device or platform to interface with their own technology. At this point I expect there are two groups pausing here and contemplating one of two things:
1) Well of course you integrate a new technology with what you have - that is how you maximize the new widget whilst at the same time retaining your own preference in platforms.
2) Why am I integrating something, it just works right?
Or perhaps there is a third group – you want to connect what to what?
You should be able to identify with one of these scenarios and interestingly, the third group is actually the oldest technology engaging generation and at the same time, the youngest. We may understand the reasons for the former, but it is the next generation that simply expect it to work, it’s all about immediacy and me, the simple expectation being I connect a new technology to my existing devices or technology and it just works because the interfaces are already designed to speak to each other. For this generation the Android vs. Apple debate isn’t even a topic - they are focused on the application and service layer.
At the point it might sound like I am referring to the obvious and also provide businesses with peace of mind that they don’t need to worry as this is why their technology is targeted at a specific market segment and if it does not reach all users, this isn’t a concern due to the size of each of these addressable markets. However this is where the slap in the face comes in. If you are trying to introduce technology into a business environment where there is a mix of users, it must be viewed as usable by all. I had one experience where what one person thought was a great conferencing platform that could integrate with all of their devices, another person felt that this required a science degree to have it work on more than one configuration.
Technology is definitely an enabler for businesses but any technology firm seeking to introduce new offerings into a business environment needs to adhere to three clear guidelines:
1. User Experience: The technology must be able to shape to individual preferences.
2. Adoption: It is not enough that one group in a business adopts the technology, it must be used by all otherwise it will ultimately fail to see sustained use.
3. Relevance: Every user must be able to translate how a new technology will improve their working environment.
Now these might sound straight forward but look at your own development teams. Can you see a mix of generations being engaged in developing and introducing a new technology to market? If yes, then your teams should be able to answer the above questions for the different generations with ease. If they look at you quizzically then be afraid, as without bridging the diversifying generation gap, your great technology or business idea will ultimately fail and you will be recognized as having developed a great technology or platform but a technology/platform that could not be used within a business environment. Businesses are often challenged with adapting to the markets they seek to operate in - it is time technology providers started to consider the same for the growing diversity of technology users within a business as well. There is a simple analogy here for technology firms, as far as survival in an Enterprise environment for technology. It is a case of adapt or die.
Wednesday, 26 September 2012
Tuesday, 11 September 2012
Business Augmentation – Back to Basic
I was asked a couple of weeks ago what is this augmentation
I keep talking about, and why does it apply to businesses? Augmentation is not
new, if you think about augmented reality, augment glasses, augmented amusement
park rides – yes they exist!
The reason I apply it to businesses today is simply that
like the other examples above they are seeking to maximize existing components and
add additional capability and or scale to it that can adapt to their current
market environment. Anyone familiar with augmented reality knows this is a
powerful tool which can understand the current context of what you see and add
additional information to it such as where a bus is headed to, availability of
properties and reviews of your favourite restaurants. Now in the context of
these examples you would say well of course it has to use the current
capability we would be blind otherwise (literally!), fair enough, but why not
use the same concepts for business? The current platforms work, it is not a
case of them being no longer fit for purpose, more likely they are functionally
or scale limited by the platforms they were built on and if a business knew
that by adding to their existing capability they could actually extend the life
of their assets and as such turn a depreciating item into a value creation item
they might change their views on them.
Woah … what? Ok let’s go through an example. A business has
an existing telephony system they would look to replace it or upgrade to a new
platform when it is either end of life (financially), has reached maximum
capacity or last but not least is no longer able to meet the functionality
needs of the business. In any of these circumstances you might think a business
needs to request quotations for new platforms, and previously this is most
likely what a business would do. Consider equally businesses looking to grow
through acquisition in a market where just about everyone has some form of
video conferencing, yet there is always that concern on integration cost of
communication platforms. In both of these examples any vendor would love you to
rip and replace the old assets and convert to a new platform, but this only
adds cost to your business which would be better spent on systems and tools upgrades/integration
which tend to be more customized. Hence having access to a virtual “bridge”
that allows you to leverage the assets of the existing business that can be integrated
whilst using cloud based IP Telephony or video for new or temporary users/sites
provides an alternative avenue and drives a philosophy of business led
outcomes. i.e. decide what your business needs to do first and assume the technology
is there to make it viable second.
Equally the current economic environment with its rapid
changes of growth and decline across multiple markets at different times has
resulted in concerns on making the right decision and timing of business decisions.
Particularly when it relates to ICT investments where businesses are struggling
to understand how they can find a balance between driving business improvement
or growth goals against managing cost and mitigating risk. The Business
Augmentation approach here creates a fundamental shift in defining the business
outcome first, knowing that technology will adapt to your requirements rather
than being limited by your current ICT capabilities both in terms of
functionality and cost. Think about it
for a moment – how often have you considered that accelerating the growth of
your business through expanded ICT and other resources could derive your next
wave of growth, yet at the same time being concerns on managing risk. What if
the market changes? What if competitors flood the market? What if my supply chain
can’t keep up? Business Augmentation is about removing this risk, leveraging
existing assets, adding new functionality – preferably through the cloud – with
the confidence to unwind that functionality at a moment’s notice should market
dynamics require it.
I am a big advocate of Business Augmentation mainly because
it directs the discussion between people and technology where it belongs –
Technology as an enabler to business and consumers and that through reducing (or
even better, removing!) the risk businesses can create, innovate and drive
growth with greater confidence. Technology change is increasingly regarded as a
disabler as “rip and replace” or full transformation of platforms offers little
or highly complex roll back to legacy platform options. Imagine for moment that
your ICT architecture was linked to cloud based platforms which were used to
facilitate your growth, and as you continued to grow you realized your business
had established a new baseline, this could then justify longer term investment
and encourage the business to stretch further with the confidence that it was
suddenly in a stronger position to adapt to change.
Now this is all great in principle but we need to be able to
realize these ideas, the great news is these platforms are out there today,
whether it be around Collaboration, Cloud Computing, Networking and Security,
we simply need to drive Service Providers, vendors and SI’s to be more
disruptive and challenge the norms of upfront payments linked to capex towards
a more sustainable and elastic business model which will deliver self
fulfilling growth as risks become more manageable and businesses in turn take
increasingly creative steps forward.
Challenge yourself, your business and your ICT relationships
to change the way we work by leveraging Augment capabilities and you will
quickly find there are a growing number of opportunities to create, innovate
and grow your business! Hence get back to basics define your need and challenge
your ecosystem to deliver!
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