Monday, June 20, 2011

Data Analytics and Custom Reporting

There has been a trend for several years now for data consumers (for lack of a better term0 to develop their own reports. In years past, this was not always the way it worked. Reports, especially financial reports, were carefully crafted by the reporters and sent out to the consumers for consumption. Some forward looking companies have made data available in data tools (see Potash Corp's Investor Relations website, for example), which make it possible for consumers to retrieve data elements and then massage them into custom reports.

Generally, however, good tools for consumers have been hard to come by. But this is changing. Data analytics tools, specifically designed for data consumers without necessarily high end IT skills, have been coming onto the market, and changing the way consumers use their data. One writer recently characterized this movement as a move towards information democracy. Others have forecast a trend towards information democracy, indeed since the spread of low cost computing. But it has been slow in coming, until the tools started to become available, some of them open source and cloud based.

Examples of the new consumer oriented analytics include Qlik Tech and Tableau.

Information democracy will have a huge impact on the field of reporting to investors, something that has been slow to evolve and is still centered on tightly formatted reports. More openness of the data will be good for all involved.

Friday, June 17, 2011

Android and The Future

One of Blackberry's strengths for its Playbook is that the device is designed to accommodate the Android system. Google's Android has become the most widely used operating system for smart phones. One aspect of Android is that its plans extend well beyond the applications that have traditionally been used in North America. In Europe and Asia, the use of smart phones for such apps as payments is old hat. In North America, these apps are in their infancy.

That is soon to change. Numerous organizations are gearing themselves for payment systems using smart phones, and the Android system will be front and center in these apps.

But Android is going beyond that into the control of a number of devices, such as home appliances, stereos, wireless speakers, cars, alarm systems, etc. The possibilities are endless. Smart phones will become the ultimate remote, connecting the virtual world with the non-virtual world, as one writer puts it.

The implications for eBusiness are huge. Easy methods of payment are just one area that will streamline transactions. The access to outside devices will have the potential to streamline building security, and a variety of home services. Whole new lines of products will ensue.

Thursday, June 09, 2011

The Personal Cloud

When Steve Jobs introduced the iCloud last week, he brought new attention to the idea of the personal cloud. Apple is not the first to introduce a personal cloud system, and certainly won;t be the last. Google has been in the space for a couple of years. But people are waiting to see what Microsoft is going to do, and it will take another year to find that out.

The iCloud fills a need that is growing and that most people by now are familiar with. We have more than one computing device. They all create and store content. As smart phones in particular have grown in capability, more duplication of content has occurred. Tablets also lead to the same thing. In addition, when people are using one of their devices, they often want to access some content that is on one of the other devices. If it is handy, they can do that with through a USB port, although that is a bit bothersome. But the other device may not be handy, meaning they simply cannot access the content they want.

The answer is often has been to synchronize the devices, but that can also be a bother, since it has usually required a periodic manual process, so the devices are not always synchronized.

The cloud offers a solution to all this. Have some key apps on the cloud and store the data there. Then it can be accessed from anywhere there is internet access and on any device capable of accessing the internet. Then the users can gain access to their apps and data more easily. In addition, the cloud is more secure because if the device is lost, the related data is not - or need not be.

The personal cloud is a technique that has legs.

Monday, June 06, 2011

Mobile CRM

While mobile CRM has been slow in coming, there are very strong reasons why it should be expected now, as explained in a recent article in E-Commerce News. For one, mobile units are now ubiquitous. They outnumber laptops and the like. In addition, people are getting more used to living in a mobile wireless world and younger people have grown up in and thrive in it. Also, going mobile with CRM takes the application closer to the customer, the purpose of it all. There seems little doubt that the climate is ripe for implementation of mobile CRM. Look for a serious growth in it over the next year or two.

Friday, June 03, 2011

E-Reading Grows; Paper Declines

The amount of time people spend reading on screen has now grown to be equal to the amount of time spent reading on paper. That's milestone that surely marks the way to the future. Ultimately we can rest assured that the reading of anything on paper will become a curiosity.

E-readers like Kindle really got the ball rolling, when it introduced the use of e-Ink, which replicates the paper experience - or attempts to. It is still a hard and inflexible tool, and the industry recognizes that newer flexible media are needed to advance the replication. Prototypes of such devices are being developed.

The advent of tablet computers is probably the biggest event to advance e-reading. These small devices are ideally suited to reading  not just books, but any kind of document. That makes them ideal for containing meeting agendas, course materials and innumerable other documents that people need to read while not necessarily having access to a traditional computer.

For an article on this new trend, check this link.