Thursday, February 24, 2011

Cell Phones - Their Changing Role

Once placed into the market as portable telephones, the ubiquitous cell phone has become so much more. From that modest beginning, it has become a tool that can be used for messaging, paying for restaurant meals and bringing down entire governments.

The latter has been seen in recent weeks throughout the Middle East. It appears that cell phones are the new voting poll - the harbinger of democracy.

The power of texting and messaging through social media, such as Twitter and Facebook resident on cell phones, has been demonstrated before, albeit in more modest tones. For example, it was said to have played a large role in Obama's victory in the presidential race. Indeed, Obama was perhaps the first real digital politician.

There now is little doubt that cell phone texting and messaging can capture and motivate the will of the masses. Such has been the cell phone's rise to power.

One of the features of cell phones that was first introduced as a novelty was the camera. The power that this small innovation would assume was foreseen by few people. However, a camera on a phone connected to the internet enables the user to snap a photo quickly, or even take a video, and post it on the internet in seconds for all to see. The power of this phenomenon has recently been seen in the Middle East uprisings, where graphic photos of the violence have been placed for all to see, putting the lie to the carefully scripted pronouncements of the governments currently (and now temporarily) in power.

The world has seldom seen such a powerful propagator of democracy. For a bit more, see this article.

Thursday, February 17, 2011

The Growing Integration of Business and IT

Over the past few years, business, traditionally a reluctant courtesan of IT, has come to recognize that IT is fundamentally critical to corporate strategy. And much has changed. While many of the basic elements, such as desktop solutions, servers, multi-processors, laptops and so on are still being used, they have been enhanced and augmented by the Cloud, mobile units, social networking and the concomitant growth in availability of reams of data - unstructured data - that is useful to the enterprise. And so the concept of data visualization grew into prominence as a means of capturing and using these vast amounts of data.

Much has changed in the technology, which has led to big changes in the management issues and in the way data can be used for strategic purposes. For example, the availability of unstructured data, properly visualized, can be used to enhance BI and CRM systems, among others, leading to better marketing and strategic decisions.

Deloitte has released an excellent white paper reviewing all these changes, and providing expert direction on the strategic implications. Check it out with this link.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Mining Cell Phone Data

Smart phones can leave a trail that can tell others a lot about you. For example, when you make and take calls, how much time you spend on websites, texting, etc. When the phone is on and when it is off. All these facts say something about your habits, relationships, interaction with others, etc.

So an astute analyst of these date can possibly tell you whether you are paying attention to a presentation, whether you are jet lagged, etc.

This kind of information can be valuable for marketing and is probably a coming trend. Read more about it by clicking this link.

Wednesday, February 02, 2011

How Technology Affects the Level of Decision Making

The usual intuitive view about the impact of technology on corporate decision making is that it tends to move that decision making down to lower levels, by empowering the lower level personnel with greater information. A recent study, however, indicates this is not necessarily true.

The study was carried out by professors of Harvard, Stanford and the London School of Economics. The research team evaluated data from some 1000 companies in eight countries. They reviewed various different non-production decisions such as hiring as well as a selection of production decisions, such as scheduling. They also included the impacts of different technology roll-outs which might have factored into the decisions.

Their hypothesis was quite insightful - that large infrastructure IT investments would tend to drive the decisions to a lower level and that an increase in communications technologies would drive the decision making upwards. Research in the past has tended to confirm the first element of the hypothesis in any event. On the other hand, the second element might be counterintuitive to some people. However, both aspects of this hypothesis were confirmed by the research.

The theory is that communications technologies make it easier for personnel to ask their bosses for input on key decisions., They also make it easier for the bosses to communicate their decisions and to monitor events at the lower levels. So the executives end up making  more of the decisions.

For a write up on the research, check out this article.

Tuesday, February 01, 2011

Tablets - The Connection Options

The pending roll-out of RIMs new Playbook brings to the forefront one of the underlying issues with tablets. Do people prefer to use WiFi connectibility or 3G?

There are pros and cons. WiFi is generally less expensive but is not always available. 3G is available in more places but can be very costly. True, there are unlimited data plans offered by some suppliers, but they are going to have a limited life span, and in any event, can be costly to buy.

There are indications that WiFi will get more expensive as well, as suppliers begin to charge high volume users for their data usage. The availability of wireless spectrum to support the explosion in wireless devices like tablets and smart phones is becoming an issue, so more charging is inevitable.

From the user point of view, the ability to use their tablet no matter where they might be has a great deal of appeal. But in the longer term, is the cost worth it?

RIM is taking an interesting approach with their new Playbook. It will have WiFi and 3G but the 3G connection will require a Blackberry 3G connection. The Playbook will connect with their Blackberry using Bluetooth and then on to the internet through the 3G capability of the Blackberry.

They are producing the new device cautiously until they get a feel for the market reaction.

For users who prefer to use WiFi, it will make little difference. For those who like 3G, it will be more cumbersome, and cumbersome is not likely what the consumers want.

The jury is out. For an article on this subject, click this link.