Elephants and Enterprise Mobility

Blind Men and The Elephant

Remember the fable about the blind men and the elephant? No? Do enjoy the poetic version by John Godfrey Saxe at the end of this post.  For now, it is sufficient to remember that each of the six blind men describe an elephant differently because none of them are able to see/feel the elephant in its entirety.

Ask a few separate people about Enterprise Mobility (EM) and its impact, and you are likely to hear differing views from each of them. All of them partly correct, but not the full picture. There is a general understanding that EM covers everything that allows mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, to be used for business purposes. But beyond that, the details start getting fuzzier. The Enterprise Mobility “elephant” is emerging and taking shape as it evolves to transform the way business is conducted in the near future. A quick look at five factors that are converging to make this transformation happen;

1. The BYOD is upon us: Smartphones are already the majority of new phones sold in the US. Globally as well, the growth in mobile phones sold is fuelled by a strong surge in the numbers of Smartphones. Tablet devices, specifically the iPad, have taken off. This in turn has led to the BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) world, wherein employees/customers/partners bring smart phones and tablets into the enterprise and look for ways to use them for business purposes.
2. Mobile Broadband is here: The speeds at which mobiles access data has grown exponentially from GPRS to 3G, and beyond to LTE. With 3G deployments now widespread and LTE already deployed in several western countries, the availability of Mobile Broadband is unleashing a wave of data access from mobile devices.
3. Cloud Computing: The “Cloud” can take care of both processing and storage requirements thereby reducing such demands of the client devices. Mobile devices, relatively constrained for processing power and storage, are uniquely positioned to leverage the “Cloud”. This convergence bodes well for usage of mobile devices.
4. Digital Interaction is increasing: In today’s world, one of the first interactions a customer has with a company is usually through its website, increasingly via a mobile device. An order can be placed (with a mobile app), transaction status checked and even post-sale processes such as service, resale and replacement performed entirely digitally with minimal human intervention. Digital Interaction is replacing human interaction, and this interaction is reaching directly into internal IT systems that were traditionally tightly controlled by an enterprise.
5. The Ecosystem is falling into place: Rapid technological evolution in consumer devices and the adoption of these into enterprises present many challenges to IT departments. Mobile devices run on heterogeneous and frequently updated operating systems, transmit data on public networks, and are used for personal and well as professional purposes. There are challenges of managing these devices and securing sensitive corporate data. This is now being addressed by a range of software platform providers who offer solutions for Security and Manageability concerns. An Ecosystem, consisting of mobility platform providers, specialized product vendors, mobility experts that can support adoption of Enterprise Mobility is in place.

The Desktop Computing era is drawing to a close, and Mobile Computing is well and truly on its way. It will have far greater impact because of the ubiquity, convenience, and price points associated with mobile devices. This “elephant” is still shaping up, and the impact will be far-reaching and positive. It is imperative therefore for every forward looking enterprise to consider the changes underway and put a strategy in place to address the use of mobile devices in business.

And now, what you have been waiting for. Enjoy the poem below, written in 1872 but as relevant today as it was then!

THE BLIND MEN AND THE ELEPHANT.

A HINDOO FABLE.

i.

IT was six men of Indostan To learning much inclined, Who went to see the Elephant (Though all of them were blind), That each by observation Might satisfy his mind. ii. The First approached the Elephant, And happening to fall Against his broad and sturdy side, At once began to bawl: “God bless me!—but the Elephant Is very like a wall!” iii. The Second, feeling of the tusk, Cried:”Ho!—what have we here So very round and smooth and sharp? To me ‘t is mighty clear This wonder of an Elephant Is very like a spear!” iv. The Third approached the animal, And happening to take The squirming trunk within his hands, Thus boldly up and spake: “I see,” quoth he, “the Elephant Is very like a snake!” v. The Fourth reached out his eager hand, And felt about the knee. “What most this wondrous beast is like Is mighty plain,” quoth he; “‘T is clear enough the Elephant Is very like a tree!” vi. The Fifth, who chanced to touch the ear, Said: “E’en the blindest man Can tell what this resembles most; Deny the fact who can, This marvel of an Elephant Is very like a fan!” vii. The Sixth no sooner had begun About the beast to grope, Than, seizing on the swinging tail That fell within his scope, “I see,” quoth he, “the Elephant Is very like a rope!” viii. And so these men of Indostan Disputed loud and long, Each in his own opinion Exceeding stiff and strong, Though each was partly in the right, And all were in the wrong! moral. So, oft in theologic wars The disputants, I ween, Rail on in utter ignorance Of what each other mean, And prate about an Elephant Not one of them has seen!

John Godfrey Saxe (1872)

Ref: http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Blindmen_and_the_Elephant

Image source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e1/Blind.JPG/300px-Blind.JPG

About Eagles, Turkeys, Penguins, Apples and Berries

The Nokia-Microsoft strategic alliance has generated a lot of buzz. The alliance, while undoubtedly newsworthy, was made all the more interesting by the colourful phrases that jumped out in headlines over the last few days. With gems such as  Nokia CEO Steven Elop’s, “burning platform”  from a leaked memo, or Google VP’s Vic Gundotra’s tweet “two turkeys do not make an eagle” and “neither will the penguin soar” at regular intervals,  the scene is set for an exciting period of what should probably be called the “Ecosystem” wars.

A look at some data  tells a story. Check out the table below;

Store	No. of Apps	Download Count	Installed Base	Download/Installed Base	Established
Android – Google	2,50,000	3.3B	77M	42.86	October 22, 2008
AppStore – Apple	3,50,000	10 B	160M	62.50	July 10, 2008
Ovi – Nokia	45,535	710M	610M	1.16	May 26, 2009
Windows Phone Marketplace- Microsoft	8,033	-	2M	-	October 21, 2010

Notes :

1.        B- indicates billion, M is Million

2.        Numbers for Android, Apple and Microsoft are based on Jan 2011 figures; the numbers for Nokia are based on figures released in October and Dec 2010

There is no disputing the fact that a thriving and active ecosystem of developers and partners is behind the success of Apple and Google. The numbers prove that. They have done a better job of attracting developers than Nokia or Microsoft have done so far.

The numbers also show that Nokia-Microsoft have a mountain to climb. On the positive side, there are a lot of strengths both parties bring to the relationship; Microsoft’s deep pockets, developer relationships, Nokia’s large installed base and relationships with carriers and more. But the trick lies in the ability of both these market leaders to bring their individual strengths to the alliance in a manner that result in true synergy. Otherwise an anecdote featuring George Bernard Shaw comes to mind;

A beautiful movie star is reported to have asked Mr Shaw,  “…what a wonderful thing it would be for us to get married. Think of the children we could have. Why with my beauty and your brains they would conquer the world.”
“Yes, Madam,”  Mr Shaw replied, “But what if they had my beauty and YOUR brains?”

References;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_digital_distribution_platforms_for_mobile_devices

It Is Raining Clouds!!

Cloud computing as a concept has been around for many years, even before Amazon gave it a definitive push in 2006 with the launch of  Amazon Web Services. Since then, it has been making steady progress addressing and removing the concerns of sceptics who are largely within the IT departments of organizations. Over the past few weeks, Cloud computing, has been popping up on my radar almost as much as tablets have been in the news lately. Are they related? Yes, but that is another topic.  This one is about a change, a change that has crept into the interactions between cloud solution providers and customers.

There is a qualitative shift in the dialogue between Cloud solution providers and IT decision makers that heralds the beginning of a new phase of engagement. In the past, TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) reduction was the major attraction for many companies, some of whom became early adopters, while many stayed away because of concerns such as security, reliability and availability. The dialogue revolved around reducing TCO, converting CAPEX to OPEX, while addressing the above concerns. The emphasis was on cutting costs, economics was driving the decision.

But the game changing shift, is that now the emphasis is also on business agility, time-to-market, innovative applications, remote access etc rather than costs alone. What makes this significant is that it allows the IT departments to participate within the mainstream, to play a key role in furthering specific business objectives of the company. That is the key change that will change many sceptics into believers.

Early adopters are now communicating their positive experiences to other IT decision makers who have remained sceptical thus far. Cloud solution providers are squarely addressing the old concerns as well as taking on new ones such as cloud-to-cloud integration, SAAS silos, and access from a variety of mobile devices. This augurs well for adoption trends in the future.

In the Indian context, given that economy and business continue to grow at a brisk rate, the cloud model provides many businesses the ability to rapidly deploy solutions that scale with anticipated growth. Moreover, with data connectivity in Tier 3/4 cities and rural India becoming a reality, the Indian scenario will throw up even more innovative and interesting possibilities around the cloud computing model that can improve the lot of a big section of population. It is important for cloud solution providers to continue to address the standard concerns mentioned earlier as well as newer ones that the Indian scenario will throw up. There is immense potential for innovative solutions that can address segments as diverse as education, agriculture, healthcare, retail etc by leveraging the reach of cloud computing and newer interaction points such as mobile devices and low-cost tablets.

The Monsoon is coming; time to plant the right crop now!

The p-book is dead! Long live the e-book!

• In the first five months of 2009, e-books were 2.9 percent of trade book sales. Same period this year, they are up to 8.5 percent of book sales according to the Association of American Publishers.
• E-paper displays, used in dedicated e-book readers, sales are up to 10 million units (estimated for 2010) from 4 million in 2009. And this excludes the LCD displays used for the iPad, other tablet PCs and cellphones.
• “Enriched” books or multimedia books with embedded audio and video have started to appear, backed by leading publishers such as Penguin and Simon & Schuster.
• The physical book is going to die within 5 years, says Nicholas Negroponte. Just think about what happened to physical film and music, he says.
• People with Kindles buy 3 times more books as they did before they owned the device, says Amazon.

This is the future…

NO stopping over at the airport bookstore before catching the flight. NO going around bookstore aisles spending a pleasant afternoon browsing what is on offer. NO more protests over wall space taken over by an increasing collection of books. NO dog eared musty smelling books discovered by accident and re-read with pleasure.

So be it. The change will be for the better, as in the case of photographs and music. It will without doubt be disruptive for all players in the ecosystem – authors, publishers, distributors, bookstores etc but will take consumer convenience and benefits to a new level. What else will happen?

• Any book, Any time: Remember the old classic that you wanted to buy for your kids but couldn’t find in any book-store. Well, you will soon be able to find an e-book version. Conventional book stores have constrained shelf space which is why you usually find only “hot” selling new books that occupy costly real estate in the store. The digital world has vast storage space, and it should be possible to buy any book so long as a digital version exists somewhere in the world. Verdict

• Self Published Success Stories: Production and distribution of books will become democratized. Anyone with a PC can write, self-publish a book, and distribute it on the internet. As Chris Anderson explains, with examples from the music industry, in his book  “The Long Tail”, three powerful forces will come into play; (i) democratized production, (ii) democratized distribution and (iii) Connection between supply and demand. A self-published book can become a run-away success with demand connecting to supply through a combination of word-of-mouth and digital world influencers such as blogs, online reviews and recommendation lists. Verdict

• “Enriched” or Multimedia books: Now this is something I would like to reserve my verdict on for some more time. To create a book with audio and video embedded into it, while retaining the “reading” experience is a delicate balancing act. “Pure” books, with only text, encourage creative and original thinking in the mind of both the creator (author) and the consumer (reader). The ability to convey a scene or a situation, a feeling or emotion, using only words is a skill that distinguishes the good writer from the ordinary. The reader in turn, is drawn into the author’s world but still has the freedom to create his own rendition of the world and build upon the original thought/experience/idea. It allows the reader to exercise his intellect in a fashion no visual representation would be able to.  A good book that is “enriched” might actually become a dumbed down version of a great book and lose its impact altogether. Verdict

Is the physical book really going to die ? Well, I don’t think that it is going to die altogether anytime in the near future.  However e-books will emerge as the preferred choice of the average consumer and become the dominant form in a relatively short period of time. After a period during which the business models and ecosystem stabilizes, consumers will embrace the convenience and benefits of the new paradigm. Long live the e-book!

Links To Articles:

http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/06/physical-book-dead/?utm_source=TweetMeme&utm_medium=widget&utm_campaign=retweetbutton

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/29/books/29ebook.html

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/infotech/hardware/Indias-first-e-reader-Wink-unveiled-supporting-15-languages/articleshow/6338272.cms

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/infotech/internet/E-reading-Revolution-in-the-making-or-fading-fad/articleshow/6373407.cms

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/12/business/media/12bookstore.html?pagewanted=2&ref=e-book-readers

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/21/technology/21books.html?_r=2

Swiss Army Knife 2.0?

Or is it the Taiwanese Army Knife? Mobile phones are now entering the battlefield, with social networking capabilities!

Raytheon is developing software that can help soldiers identify enemies in a battle zone.  And  this software is being developed for mobile phones (HTC,  Motorola) running Google  Android. The system, codenamed  RATS (Yes, short for Raytheon Android Tactical System), will allow soldiers to interact as ‘buddies’ on the battlefield and also help them identify potential  enemies in a manner similar to Facebook, the Reuters article goes on to say.

Wait a Minute! Facebook!? Does it help identify potential enemies? Hmm, maybe it does…

Read the article at http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE66K1NE20100721

Wake Up, Smell The Coffee!

John C McCarthy, of Forrester Research, had some plain talking to do about mid-tier IT companies in India. Here is an extract from his interview;

“Not all of them are going to get acquired, a lot of them are owned by conglomerates like L&T and they think they can still have a go at it.
So, whether they are acquired or not, they will definitely try and focus better on their value proposition than they have done in the past.
You need to look at the ownership structures of some of these companies, and the financial situation.
Some of these guys are struggling mightily.
Their numbers have gone backwards — 20% — because they weren’t differentiated, they had no focus, they were playing ‘a mini TCS thing. When consolidation happened, many customers got rid of them. Yet, there are some vendors like KPIT Cummins, ITC Infotech which have focus and have established themselves as premier specialists in particular domains and verticals.
You can’t be waiting for customers to leave TCS and Infosys — when was the last time you saw an article in the Harvard Business Review that said ‘second-hand’ clients are a viable business strategy?
And this is what these guys are talking about. They can’t just go on saying that we are a smaller version of bigger firms. The clients are not going to be looking at them for generic skills anymore.”

End Quote

It’s worth noting that two of the major issues for the industry, continuing pressure on margins and increasing employee attrition, are both issues that can be handled better by the big guys who have volume and scale. The message is definitely clear for the  mid-tier companies, and it has been clear for a while now.  To be fair, many have already woken up, smelled the coffee and started on a path that is clearly focused on differentiation. But there are still quite a few aspiring “mini-TCS’s” out there, and worse there are some companies who have acknowledged the new paradigm but still have a “mini-TCS” mentality that prevents them from making a wholehearted change in approach.

This change of approach can manifest in a number of significant changes from the “business as usual”. It can be seen in initiatives for non-linear investments, or a drive towards building domain expertise  and strengthening product/ solution capability, an emphasis on strategy and innovation,  or more investments in front-end marketing and in understanding end-user behavior and needs. One can perhaps say that it is a very different way of looking at two of the most important stakeholders in a business; the customer and employee. One can also say that it is a new game, distinct from the generic outsourcing one, that mid-tier companies need to play now.

The game is similar but different skills are needed, the rules are also different. Can Saina (not Sania) play tennis?  Can Sachin play baseball?  Can the field hockey team play Soccer? Yes, they/it can. But for it to be successful, it needs wholehearted commitment to play the new game and stamina for the long haul.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/itslideshow/6082519.cms

Chance Favors The Prepared Mind..

Product Engineering Services will be worth over $40 billion dollars for India by the year 2020, says a leading industry body. It goes on to say that the growth rate of outsourced product engineering and R&D services was among the highest before a dip caused by the global recession. Any surprises? None, absolutely. Just take a look around. Tier 1 outsourcing service providers, mid-sized specialized companies,  and an increasing number of small and savvy start-ups; all providing a varied mix of services and/or intellectual property to global product companies. Now include the captive development centers, and India is already an important part of the global Product Engineering Ecosystem.

The opportunity is there and the projected numbers are achievable. Especially if we fast forward to a time, hopefully not too distant, when discretionary spend is available in plenty and new products are  frequently launched across the world.  Indian IT industry has a real “chance” to turn the $40 billion dollar opportunity into reality. Louis Pasteur, chemist and microbiologist, once famously said that “Chance favors the prepared mind”.  Are we prepared for the chance?

The short and simple answer is, YES! Just look at the large and growing talent pool of engineers in the Product Engineering area. Just consider the fact that everyone, from the wireless start-up in Israel to the numero uno in handsets, is using Indian talent already. Just feel the buzz when you walk into any of the relevant exhibitions/conferences that are happening more frequently nowadays. Product engineering talent and experience is becoming available,  and the industry is showing a hunger and the desire to build world-class products.

But when and how will it happen? It will happen when it happens! The Indian “elephant” will trudge along picking up whatever is necessary along the way. Can things be speeded up? Can the Indian elephant move more like the Indian Tiger?

Yes it can! But it will need some departure from the old and acceptance of a new way of doing things.  Product Engineering is essentially driven by Intellectual Property (IP),  the IP being created under a services model for the customer or developed independently and licensed to the customer.  This in turn places a  a different emphasis on  aspects such as innovation, strategy, marketing, product/portfolio management, investment models, intellectual property management, and commercial models.  Companies that aspire to become strategic partners of high value to their customers will need to devote attention and resources to the above and understand not just their customer but also the customers market and the ecosystem it operates in.

It is time to wrap up with a quote from another French gentleman. “Nothing can stop an idea whose time has come”, said Victor Hugo. The circumstances are conspiring. The next big thing, the next “ipod” like success, can emerge entirely from India. Let us be prepared for the chance.

Hey! That wasn’t in the plan!

Stuff happens.

The good folks who invented the cell phone surely had their moment of epiphany. A sudden realization of the cell phone’s powerful impact on society. A premonition of some not so obvious scenarios that made them exclaim ; “My God! This thing can change the world!”. And change it did, in more ways than could possibly have been imagined. It is that kind of change, change that the inventors did not think about in their wildest dreams that the cell phone is driving in many fascinating ways.

The “Swiss Army” cell phone that can play music, take photos, surf the internet, navigate, fry an omelette [sic], etc. etc. is not what is fascinating in itself. People were doing all that, without the cell phone and before phone manufacturers started to lump it all into one device. What is interesting are the imaginative uses that some innovative folks have come up with, stuff that makes one exclaim “Hey! That surely wasn’t in the plan!”.

Recently at a casual conversation over coffee, I started to list such examples as I could think of….coffee got over, so did the discussion. However I thought it interesting enough to continue that thought process and share some of those examples.

1. The cell-phone novel, Japanese Style: Cell phone novels, called Keitai Shousetsu in Japanese, are novels that started out being authored by young Japanese women primarily around romantic subjects. The novels have gained in popularity to the extent that 5 of the top 10 selling novels in Japan in 2007 were originally cell phone novels. Starting from Japan, the phenomenon spread to China and there is now even a Malayalam cell phone novel. Hey! That wasn’t in the plan!
2. Collective Behavior: Particularly in emerging economies, the cell phone has become a powerful weapon to generate a mob or to generate similar behavior patterns amongst large parts of society. Wikipedia lists the example of a protest against the president of Philippines, organized mainly through text messages that led to removal of the president from office.  Closer home, I like the example of what was called the “Hindu Milk Miracle”. This was when word spread like wildfire, largely through text messages in the year 2006 (when in happened for the second time), about idols of Lord Ganesh drinking milk. This in turn led to large sections of people attempting to replicate the same at temples and homes across India, traffic gridlock around Ganesh temples and eventual shortage of milk!
3. Emergency Response, Cell Phones and Twitter:  Included this primarily due to the way Twitter became an important part of the emergency response during the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks. Twitter users with cell phones on the scene helped compile list of dead and injured, and provided information on hospitals needing blood donations. Television networks even used Twitter to gather news as the attacks were unfolding in Mumbai. CNN went to the extent of terming it as “the day social media appeared to come of age”.

There must be other examples of the cell phone impacting the behavior of society at large. But if you thought that it was just humans who are affected, think again. It has been reported that some urban song birds have become adept at mimicking ring tones and melodies! The next time a cell phone rings in the city, don’t just pat your pocket and look at people around you. Look up! It could be from up there!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cell_phone_novels

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/12/22/081222fa_fact_goodyear?currentPage=all

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_mob

http://www.milkmiracle.com/

http://journal.fibreculture.org/issue6/issue6_nicholson.html

http://www.w3.org/2008/02/MS4D_WS/papers/joinus_v2.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter

What Lies Between

Things are hotting up in the space between the smartphone and the laptop. Google’s announcement of  Chrome OS for Netbooks, Symbian foundation previous statement that its OS can run on the Intel Atom chipset, Dell’s plans for a pocket sized Android device; these are just some of the evidence popping up on the radar. All this activity should also rejuvenate the forces that will create the next avatar of the mobile personal device.

 It is no surprise that everyone wants a piece of an expanding market, but what is exciting is that this trend has the potential to drive innovation in the fast growing “in-between” segment. This segment has seen innovation in the recent and not so recent past, but with mixed results. The Dell product is reportedly a pocket sized Mobile Internet Device that is slightly larger than the iPod Touch and doesn’t have cellphone capabilities. Sounds like a PDA,  do we need another? Internet centric devices have been around for some time but have either evolved into special purpose appliances (Internet Radio, Internet Phone) or gone the other extreme and tried to mimic the laptop.

 However, if one were to think of a PDA sized product that uses innovative input and display technologies, leverages developments in Cloud computing and availability of bandwidth, it does sound like a product worth carrying around. Worth carrying around, provided bandwidth, internet based services are available at reasonable cost – that will make it an idea whose time has come.

 The cellphone was conceived as a voice-centric product;  its physical form, hardware, software developed for this core functionality. The Personal Computer was conceived as a device to put computing power on the desks of individuals. It is time now for the space in between to be occupied by a mobile personal device, developed ground up, for todays internet.

 http://www.wirelessweek.com/article.aspx?id=170664

http://www.forbes.com/2009/04/23/android-symbian-limo-technology-wireless-android.html

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124630305634469553.html

http://www.wirelessweek.com/article.aspx?id=170574

When Cellphone Met Computer

There was some interesting news from Nokia and Intel last week that connects with my previous post on the “mobile device” of the future.

Nokia (about 40% of the mobile phone market) and Intel (about 80% of the microprocessor market for laptops and desktops), have teamed up to make new mobile computing device and chipset architectures. “It is about creating a new class of devices…” says a quote from Nokia.

Nokia’s “upward” progress on to increasingly powerful smartphones and  internet tablets is well known. And so is Intel’s “downward” foray into Atom chips that are in the growing market for netbooks today. What lies in between? And how will each class of device affect the market of the other?

Here is a quote from the press release;

“We will explore new ideas in designs, materials, and displays that will go far beyond devices and services on the market today. This collaboration will be compelling not only for our companies, but also for our industries, our partners and, of course, for consumers,” Kai Oistamo, executive VP for devices at Nokia, said in a statement.

Finally, some related newslinks;

 http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-10271192-64.html

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124576988211341997.html

http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2009/06/new-intelnokia-partnership-a-huge-win-for-mobile-linux.ars

http://techreport.com/discussions.x/17111

http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/processors/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=218100891