Quips: What the Google Motorola & Lenovo Deal Is Really About

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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Google Enters China Via Lenovo While Counter Balancing Samsung

On January 29th, 2014, Mountain View based Google announced it would sell it’s Motorola Mobility unit to Chinese based Lenovo for $2.91 in cash and stock.  The deal cuts across many spectrum including mobile OS, computing wars, and search.  Here’s 12 talking points:

Source: Not sure, but not mine

1. Google keeps most of the 17,000 patents which it purchased for $12.5B.  This patent trove allows it to compete on Internet of Things (IoT), sensor analytical ecosystems, and other key mobile technologies.
2. Google needs a counterweight to Samsung who’s been looking at swapping OS.
3. Google now gains a China strategy.
4. Google takes a 5.94% stake with a $750M investment in Lenovo
5. Google has a less than 2% search market share in China as they pulled out in protest, but with Lenovo, they gain an ability to enter mobile search through Lenovo as a back door.
6. Lenovo is a perfect mid and long-term competitor to Samsung
7. Lenovo now has the key technology to launch into mobile and cut down the time to market by 3 to 5 years.
8. Lenovo can build the end to end hardware platforms required for a full line of servers, laptops, tablets, and mobile devices.
9. Lenovo gains a trusted partner on OS in Google Android and can plug into the ecosystem
10. Microsoft continues to be isolated in market share and ecosystem and faces a distribution problem.
11. Apple faces more pressure from Google through Lenovo and Samsung for OS operating share and from multiple price points.
12. Dell faces more competition from Lenovo across all product lines given the acquisition of IBM’s mid range business.

The Bottom Line: Google Gains A Key Partner With Sale Of Motorola To Lenovo

While many would argue that the $12.5B spent on Motorola was over kill for a patent trove, the sale to Lenovo is pure brilliance. Lenovo represents a key distribution partner who can open up the China market, provide a counter balance to Samsung, and allow Google to keep focused on the OS ecosystem.  The deal also puts long term pressure on Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft as the race to build out the Cloud to personal device network heats up.  Expect the next battle grounds to show up around wearables, content, payments, identity, quantified self, and commerce.

Your POV.

Are you looking at a mobile strategy? Do you see the link between mobility and digital business?  Do you see VMware succeeding in this shift to mobility? Add your comments to the blog or reach me via email: R (at) ConstellationR (dot) com or R (at) SoftwareInsider (dot) com.

Please let us know if you need help with your mobility and Digital Business transformation efforts.  Here’s how we can assist:

• Assessing mobile readiness
• Developing your digital business strategy
• Vendor selection
• Implementation partner selection
• Connecting with other pioneers
• Sharing best practices
• Designing a next gen apps strategy
• Providing contract negotiations and software licensing support
• Demystifying software licensing

Related Resources

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• Monday’s Musings: The Chief Digital Officer In The Age Of Digital Business
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• Monday’s Musings: Four Elements for A #SharingEconomy Biz Model In #MatrixCommerce
• Tuesday’s Tip: Why Context Matters – Forget Real-Time, Achieve Right-Time
• Monday’s Musings: Balancing The Six S’s In Consumerization Of IT
• Monday’s Musings: A Working Vendor Landscape For Social Business
• Research Report: The Upcoming Battle For The Largest Share Of The Technology Budget Part 1
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• Best Practices: Five Simple Rules For Social Business

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 – 2014 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!

 

 

New C-Suite Revenue & Growth Effectiveness Innovation & Product-led Growth Data to Decisions Tech Optimization Future of Work dell SoftwareInsider IBM amazon Microsoft ML Machine Learning LLMs Agentic AI Generative AI Robotics AI Analytics Automation B2B B2C CX EX Employee Experience HR HCM business Marketing Metaverse developer SaaS PaaS IaaS Supply Chain Quantum Computing Growth Cloud Digital Transformation Disruptive Technology eCommerce Enterprise IT Enterprise Acceleration Enterprise Software Next Gen Apps IoT Blockchain CRM ERP Leadership finance Social Healthcare VR CCaaS UCaaS Customer Service Content Management Collaboration M&A Enterprise Service Chief Executive Officer Chief Financial Officer Chief Information Officer Chief Technology Officer Chief Data Officer Chief Digital Officer Chief Analytics Officer Chief Operating Officer Chief Marketing Officer Chief Revenue Officer Chief Information Security Officer Chief Experience Officer

Reduce Support Costs With A Customer Community: Increase Agent Efficiency (Final part)

Vice President and Principal Analyst, Constellation Research
Constellation Research

Role: Vice President and Principal Analyst focusing on the IOT of Customer Experience and how the cloud is driving more flexible, agile, and robust customer service and customer experiences. In-app or in device customer service is the future. Coverage Areas: Next Generation Customer, Digital Marketing Transformation Bio: As a Vice President and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research, Inc, Petouhoff works with Fortune 100 and 500’s Senior Leadership teams to create strategic customer experience (marketing, sales and service) solutions which engage customers, build brands and grow businesses. Combining her experience as a former Forrester software analyst, PWC systems integrator and change management consultant, Petouhoff leads executive workshops to discuss to not only…...

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Community-Based Support Compliments the Contact Center

Community-based, social support doesn’t have to exist in a bubble—it’s a great way to complement and complete agent-based support strategies. Let’s say, for example, that your software product is acting a little buggy when it’s used with a certain operating system.

A customer can’t figure out what to do, so he calls in and gets an answer. A couple weeks later, someone else has the same issue, but they post in the community instead. This might be a younger or more tech-savvy customer who prefers to reach support online, or maybe they just did a quick Google search and were brought to the community that way. The customer who called support originally sees the post and reports what the phone agent told them as a response to the community topic.

Now the answer exists in the community as a resource for everyone in the future who has this problem. They can discover it through search or by going there directly. Each person who sees the answer is equal to one fewer call to an agent.

Community as the Canary in the Coal Mine

Until recently, support was strictly reactionary. With the adoption of community as a key support tool, we’re seeing entire support organizations evolve from reactionary “fixers,” to agents working collaboratively with community members to identify bugs and issues before they come become widespread problems.

When your agents are on the front lines, getting real-time feedback about the things that aren’t working, they can be prepared to address them fully and effectively with others who are likely to be experiencing the same issue. This saves the agents time and stress, as they have deeper, more immediate insight into where things are breaking down before they get on the phone with an angry customer.

And the fact that the agent is already aware of issues and possible solutions before they take that call means the customer is more likely to get off the phone feeling like they’re in good, capable hands.

Close the Loop

As any good support agent knows, it’s not just important to provide customers with immediate assistance, but also to close the loop and keep them updated about new developments as well. This may be when a bug has been fixed, a new feature has been released or rolled back, or a work-around has been uncovered.

A customer community makes it fast and easy to provide your customers with the most up-to-date information. What previously would have required individual emails, Tweets, or status updates, now can be accomplished with one simple community update.

You can post a company update for big notifications, or just post an “official reply” to a topic, so everyone who has expressed interest in that topic will get an email notification of the update. That also means that when the next person who experiences that issue comes to your community, they will find the answer waiting for them there. How’s that for efficiency?

Dr. Natalie: voted Top 20 In Social Media HuffPo
Dr. Natalie’s ebook: voted as one of the Top Ten Most downloaded Social Media ebooks- On smROI

 

Marketing Transformation Next-Generation Customer Experience Data to Decisions Future of Work Innovation & Product-led Growth New C-Suite Digital Safety, Privacy & Cybersecurity B2C CX Chief Customer Officer Chief Marketing Officer Chief People Officer Chief Human Resources Officer

Meet the Constellation Orbits Influencers - Dr. Janice Presser and Dr. Terri Griffith

Yesterday we launched the Constellation Orbits influencer network. Constellation Orbits extends our coverage of digital disruption, and establishes Constellation Research as the authoritative source for analysis of the latest developments in disruptive technology. These twenty Orbits members were hand-picked for Constellation Orbits based on their expertise, influence, and fearlessness in identifying trends, cutting through marketing hype, and informing their early adopter audience of significant developments in disruptive technology. You can find analyses from these thought leaders (along with analyses from Constellation Analysts) on the Constellation blog--the enterprise's authoritative source for disruptive technology analysis.

Today I'll introduce you to two of these Constellation Orbits thought leaders: Dr. Janice Presser and Dr. Terri Griffith.

Dr. Presser and Dr. Griffith's research focuses on The Future of Work -- the people, processes, and technologies influencing the 'modern' work paradigm.

Dr. Janice Presser, CEO of The Gabriel Institute, is a behavioral scientist and the architect of Teamability® – a new technology that measures how people perform in teams. Dr. Presser has been engaged in the research and development of talent science and team analytics for over 25 years.  A recognized thought leader in qualitative assessment and human infrastructure management methods, she is the author of six books, including the new @DrJanice: Thoughts and Tweets on Leadership, Teamwork & Teamability®. Her forthcoming book, A Person is a ‘Who’, Not a ‘What’: Teamability and the Future of Work, will explore the theoretical and physical foundations of teaming, and the profound impact of teaming metrics on the structure, development, and leadership of teams.

Coordinates:
Constellation Profile: https://www.constellationr.com/users/jpresser
Twitter: @DrJanice
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/drjanice
 

Prof. Terri Griffith, Ph.D., is Chair of the Management Department at Santa Clara University. Terri’s goal is for organizations to find the sweet spot given available people, technology, and organizational practices. Some of these ideas are outlined in her award-winning book, The Plugged-In Manager: Get in Tune with Your People, Technology, and Organization to Thrive. Terri is one of the 100 honored members of the 2012 Silicon Valley Women of Influence. She is a regular contributor to her own blog, Technology and Organizations, and has written for the Wall Street Journal, the Harvard Business Review Blog, Women 2.0, and GigaOM's WebWorkerDaily. Her latest project is Lead by Letting Go, a model for slowly letting go of jobs and organizational boundaries and focusing more on work and performance.

Coordinates:
Constellation Profile: https://www.constellationr.com/users/terrigriffith
Twitter: @terrigriffith
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/terrigriffith

Catch the latest Future of Work analyses from  Dr. Janice Presser and Dr. Terri Griffith's Constellation Blog https://www.constellationr.com/blog-news
 

Future of Work Innovation & Product-led Growth Chief People Officer

Review: Scaling Up Excellence by Sutton & Rao

Terri Griffith

Professor/Author/Speaker
Simon Fraser University

Terri Griffith holds the Keith Beedie Chair in Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Simon Fraser University’s Beedie School of Business. She spent two decades in the Silicon Valley and, in 2012 was honored as a Woman of Influence by the Silicon Valley Business Journal. Terri helps her students and their organizations accelerate performance and prepare for the futures of work. Through her speaking, writing, teaching, and research, she brings evidence-based leadership and innovation to high-tech, education, and global agribusiness organizations. She inspires and coaches groups on negotiating change and uniquely mixing existing and new capabilities. Her most recent work uses a “bottom-up” approach to automation, including artificial intelligence. Her award-winning book, The Plugged-In Manager:…...

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I often reference Bob Sutton’s work here and in class, and Huggy Rao’s work on enthusiast organizations and innovation is a classic. When I heard that their book, Scaling Up Excellence: Getting to More Without Settling for Less, was due out I was thrilled, and rightly so. It’s wonderful.

Sutton and Rao offer a comprehensive guide to management in a package of enticing stories, subtly supported by references to high-end research. Their personal history in the Silicon Valley and their global access to interesting organizations provides the backdrop.

Main Theme & Who Should Read

The main theme is that, while many good practices exist in organizations, they either get lost or there are difficulties when attempts are made to spread them (scale them) across the organization. The breadth of this theme means that this book will provide value to anyone who would like to see organizations improve. The benefits are not limited by industry, functional area, or organizational size.

Key Ideas: The Seven Mantras

Sutton and Rao are far more direct than most academics; it often takes a lot to get a professor away from an “it depends” answer. In this instance they have enough background to be confident with the following:

We’ve identified reliable signs that scaling is going well or badly, and we’ve distilled these signals into seven mantras. If you are embarking on a scaling effort [I’ll add if you are doing anything to make your organization better], memorize them, teach them to others, and invent ways to keep them firmly in focus -- especially when the going gets rough.

• Spread a mindset, not just a footprint. This first one is their, and your, protection against being labeled a fad.
• Engage all the senses. From my perspective, this is where you consider how to weave together human, technical, and organizational practices such that they work together, not against your goals. It’s also where I realize that my presentation of these ideas is much less colorful, and perhaps less likely to scale.
• Link short-term realities to long-term dreams. Organizations that can do this have mastered ambidexterity -- the ability to both get work done now, and not let that get in the way of great things in the future. (In my mind, this is a precursor to solving the The Innovator's Dilemma.)
• Accelerate accountability. This one sings to me as a focus on transparency. I’ve asked in the past, “What evidence, tools, and techniques do people in mainstream organizations think they need to move in this direction?” The examples provided here may move us closer to my ideal.
• Fear the clusterfug. Yes, they are using a euphemism, but it gets across that we can't allow even mundane bad things to get worse. Speak up. For those wanting to use their business research background: Don’t escalate commitments to bad situations. Think about the Denver baggage-handling fiasco and fear a similar outcome on your watch.
• Scaling requires both addition and subtraction. This ties directly to the idea of managing for now and for the future. Sometimes activities that have worked to create excellence stop working as you scale. As Sutton and Rao note, having an all-hands meeting every week makes great sense for a small organization, but you are likely to have to shift the form of this activity as you grow. Information flow and commitment are still important, but you need to be willing to find new ways that fit your growth.
• Slow down to scale faster--and better-- down the road. I completely agree. I am wondering why, in my writing, I start with this one (in the form of “Stop-Look-Listen”), and yet they end with it. Perhaps thinking of this as a list is the problem. It’s not a list, it’s a cycle or a weaving, which also goes along with their borrowing Michael Dearing’s image of whether this is Buddhism versus Catholicism (see Chapter 2).

Apply These Ideas

My goal with this review is to get you to read the book. You will benefit. Your organization will benefit. The next time I teach a general graduate management class, Scaling Up Excellence will be a required reading.

I’m still trying to decide how much experience in organizations you need to have to gain value from their ideas -- and I’d love your opinion. Is this a book to help undergraduates trying to understand the complexities of organizations? If you are a mentor, is this a book you would suggest to a person in their first full-time job? Without a doubt it’s a book I’d give to someone taking on a new leadership role at any level.

Disclosure: My review copy was provided by the publisher. I’ve also purchased a copy to gift to a colleague.

Future of Work Innovation & Product-led Growth Chief Executive Officer Chief People Officer

WeatherTech Ad in Super Bowl 48 Tells Americans More About Redefining Work than Just Jobs

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Two things stood out last night as I watched the Denver Broncos sleep through an entire game.

(1) Freelancer.com surpassed 10 Million registered freelancers during Super Bowl 48, and (2) WeatherTech spent millions to simply tell America their weather protecting rubber mats made for automobiles are only manufactured by Americans workers.

Combining the message from the WeatherTech Ad above, and thinking about what is means to have 10 Million freelancers ready to work converges on a notion suggesting there is more going on with what it means to work in America than just having more jobs. Over the last decade, we have seen a redefinition of work itself. 

I put them in the following five categories.

1. Back from Bangalore to Boston.

Outsourcing means something different that it did five years ago. CIO.com suggests in 2014 20% to 30% of IT jobs will be coming back to American shores in models where it is more cost effective to hire American workers than hiring workers in other nations. Deloitte reported in 2012 of the 48% of US employment survey respondents that decided to sever offshoring contracts, 34% of said 48% are bringing work back either in house, or "insourcing" enabling catchy phrases such as "from Bangalore to Boston" to exist describing the move back to American shores. This means more Americans with jobs.

2. Pajamas instead of Pinned Stripes

Work is starting to mean something completely different; work is a thing that I do not longer a place that I go. This means the increase in remote workers, irrespective of the work of Marissa Mayer from Yahoo reprimanding Yahoo's employees taking advantage of work the from home policies to pull up their socks, more and more American can work remotely. The Wall Street Journal reported over 40% of management business and financial workers worked from home in 2010, and almost 10% of all U.S. workers work from home in Pajamas at least one day per week and this number is constantly rising. This means more American's can move to low cost of living areas flattening the supply and demand of American jobs, and we can work in our living rooms in pajamas instead of conference rooms in pinned striped suits.

3. Fancy jobs are in Factories

Manufacturing jobs are sexy again. As the Industrial Internet starts to take shape lead by GE and Cisco's Internet of Everything, we are seeing sexy returned to American manufacturing jobs. The New York Times reported in 2013, more than 50% of executives of manufacturing companies with more than 1 Billion in sales plan to return some production back to American from China and install modernization into the factories. This means that every aspect of the workforce will have a knowledge or (smart) component to it, and ergo educated and trained Americans can earn at their highest market rates in these "smart" jobs.

4. From Two Jobs, to a Thousand Tasks

Work itself is becoming insanely "taskified" - meaning more and more work is being broken up into small tasks, and the hyper connectivity that we enjoy is enabling a marketplace of buyers and sellers of tasks to be completed and completed tasks on sites like odesk.com, topcoder.com, taskrabbit.com, and freelancer.com. Just last night during Super Bowl 48, Freelancer.com surpassed the 10 Million registered freelancer mark. While all of the 10 million freelancers are not Americans, the lion's share of work is done by American freelancers "moon lighting" in the work world of tasks. This means more and more Americans can augment earnings on a global marketplace of tasks enabled by hyper connectivity and "taskification" choosing thousands of tasks over what was traditionally a second job.

5. Human as a Service over Stuck in a Role

The way human resource is looked at is changing. Now that we have clouded the capacity for computers to compute and store information creating liquid technology capacity, and we are on our way to software-defined networks. Infrastructure and Platform as a Service are starting to use resource liquidity in the design of a company where human capacity can be consumed as a service. Forbes covered Human as Service in 2012 suggesting teams in organizations will be built and dismantled based on the demand of individual projects. Meaning, no longer will the same 20 employees be stuck working for the same manager for years doing different projects. The design of a team will be specific to a project, and when the project is over the team of human resources (employees) will go back into a pool. This means the hierarchy and power relationships of work will change to one where human capacity will be seen more as a service and liquid than as a stateful and fixed resource unchaining employees from being stuck in a job.

I know, its going to be difficult to resist the memes of the Broncos that will ensue in the next few days can we get out from under Super Bowl 48.

But one this is for sure, we have gotten out from under offshoring and outsourcing realities in the last decade, and the promise of what it means to work in America is well on its way back to becoming awesome sauce.

Future of Work Data to Decisions Innovation & Product-led Growth New C-Suite Tech Optimization Chief People Officer Chief Experience Officer

Facebook Lookback Provides A Personal Touch To Social Networking

Alan Lepofsky

Vice President & Principal Analyst
Constellation Research

Alan Lepofsky - VP and Principal Analyst, Constellation Research. With almost two decades of experience in the collaboration software industry, Lepofsky helps organizations improve the way their employees work together to get their jobs done. Lepofsky’s primary research area The Future of Work, focuses on: integrating collaboration and business processes (Purposeful Collaboration), structuring work via Social Task Management, leveraging analytics and digital assistants to work more productively, the strategic impact of mobile computing on business transformation, and measuring workforce culture based on Digital Proficiency instead of age. Twitter: @alanlepoLinkedIn: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/alanlepo     , Title: Big IdeasIntelligent Collaboration: The Intersection of…...

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A few years ago I started to get frustrated with the way the market (vendors, press, analysts) was focusing primarily on how "social" could help teams and communities. While of course there are great benefits to this, I believe it leaves out the most important target, the individual. That's why I started my "Don't forget the ME in social MEdia" campaign.

 

I strongly believe that in order for people to learn to openly share and help their colleagues, they have to first come to grips with how they themselves can benefit from "being social". Once a person understands this, and more importantly appreciates it, they are then much more willing to "pay it forward" and help others. This is often referred to as the "What's In It For Me" (WIIFM) test.

This week in celebration of their 10th anniversary, Facebook launched a new feature called Lookback. Lookback creates a minute long video that showcases some of the highlights of the things you've shared on Facebook since you joined. While many people have become annoyed that their Facebook timeline is now filled with people sharing their Lookback videos, I think they're missing the point. While it may be nice to watch a few your friends and family's videos, the main benefit is that your own video should provide you with 60 seconds of joy. Almost every one I've spoken to said their video made them smile, sometimes even cry.

One of the areas I've been working with several enterprise software vendors on is how to help employees know which of their content is most effective and where they should (and should not) be spending their time. This is a topic I refer to as Personal Analytics. While Lookback isn't actually an analytics tool, it does highlight a few of your most popular posts. This is a good first step, and I'd love to see more enterprise software vendors provide a similar snapshot feature.

Kudos to you Facebook on not forgetting the ME in social MEdia.

 

 

Futher reading:

Don’t Like Your Facebook “Look Back”? You’ll Be Able To Edit It Soon on TechCrunch

How to download your Facebook Look Back by Willington Vega

Future of Work Marketing Transformation Data to Decisions Innovation & Product-led Growth New C-Suite Tech Optimization meta Marketing B2B B2C CX Customer Experience EX Employee Experience AI ML Generative AI Analytics Automation Cloud Digital Transformation Disruptive Technology Growth eCommerce Enterprise Software Next Gen Apps Social Customer Service Content Management Collaboration Chief Experience Officer

IT is in the Experience Business

Brian Katz

fill

Brian Katz is a director at pharmaceutical company Sanofi, where he manages mobile initiatives, including mobilizing the salesforce, building best practices for developing apps, handling BYOD initiatives, enabling new devices and form factors for success, and looking at ways to innovate in the mobile space for Sanofi. He started his career working with a multi-national New York financial company as an email architect, designing and maintaining their email and communications systems, which also involved supporting their mobile computing platforms. ...

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MDM is dead and it’s been dead for a long time. It no longer makes sense as a product and businesses have begun to finally realize it and not buy into the hype. The fact that it has become the household name for the technology to manage mobile is just sad. The good news, at least if you like acronyms, is it’s now been replaced with a new acronym, EMM or Enterprise Mobility Management. It’s much simpler to talk about EMM than it is to say you’ve moved from MDM (Mobile Device Management) to MAM (Mobile Application Management). Let’s not leave out the other acronyms that have a place in this alphabet soup of technologies that companies are trying to sell you. MCM, MIM, TEM, DRM, IRM, if it has three letters in it, chances are someone has included it in this unending black hole called EMM.

The problem with black holes though, is there’s no way to know what has been sucked up inside them. They are the black boxes of technology and you start to forget what they really do or how well they might actually do it. They also have this tendency to trap you and no matter how hard you struggle to break free, you’re stuck, both with the product and a mindset. To make matters worse, people still don’t really understand what they’re trying to do in the first place. We started this approach years ago and it was all about devices. How do we handle them and the fallback was to use the legacy thinking that’s been drilled in through years of practice. The organization had to own the device. It’s what they’ve done with PCs forever so why change if the smartphone or tablet is just a computer in your pocket. The heavy handedness of this approach was ignored until users, looking to get stuff done turned to BYOD and refused to have their own devices managed, looking to avoid the big brother of their company.

As easy as it is to talk about all the available solutions out there and where technology is going, yes application management is the next step and then there’s content management and expense management and the list just goes on, we don’t realize that we’re talking about the wrong things. The point of mobile isn’t to be managed; yet that’s where most companies start and then fail.

Mobile is about enablement. It’s enabling your people to get their work done when and where they need to with the right tools so that they can be more flexible and agile. It’s about them moving the business forward and helping the business meet its goals. Notice, we’re talking about executing on a business strategy. We’re not talking about an IT strategy yet. Even though the IT strategy is built from the business strategy to achieve the business goals. We’re also not talking about mobile either. We’re talking about giving people the right tools to get the job done in the best way possible. It could be a PC, a tablet, a smartphone, or even a wearable. We’re using those tools hooked into a back end that could be cloud or just a server, but it helps the people who need to do their job to get it done.

This means that we have to follow the FUN principle, the company has to Focus on the User Needs. We want productive employees who are happy and healthy and can give 110%. This means realizing that it’s not really a work / life balance but rather a work / life integration and one of the things that many of our users need is the ability to achieve that integration by getting their job done in the right place at the right time.

IT isn’t just in the solution business anymore. It can’t be reactive and spend months trying to build the perfect thing the business asked for but needed much sooner than IT could deliver. IT is in the experience business. Users need to have great interactions that lead to fantastic experiences that help them get stuff done and move the business towards its goal. This means developing apps based upon the FUN principle and the only way to do that is to talk to your employees and understand what they want/need to get done. It’s moving way from the monolithic application that has a thousand different features and becomes a crapplication when ported over to a smartphone or tablet and, instead, looking at the information the user needs to complete the experience.

When the focus turns to the user and the experience that you are trying to deliver, the device becomes just a tool, a means to an end. You start by looking at the data that they need to interact with. You construct an app that helps them turn that data into information that they can use and then turn into knowledge, either for them or the business. You build that app to run on the right tool for the right person, which may mean a smartphone for one person, a tablet for another and a desktop for a third. You provide an ecosystem so that the tool can run the app appropriately, it can connect to a network if it needs to, it can be secured properly and priced appropriately. Notice that we are building a hierarchy that starts with the need and works to the experience which is analogous to starting with the data and working through the app, then the device, and finally the connectivity and ecosystem supporting it.

Looked at this way, we aren’t talking about EMM, Enterprise Mobile Management; we’re talking about EM, experience management that incorporates enterprise management (EM)². Mobile is just another set of tools like a laptop or PC. We worry less about securing the device and start with securing the data. After we have secured the data we move up to the app, then the device, and finally the ecosystem. We’re in the business of providing secure right time experiences that allow the user to (in the words of the army) be all they can be.

New C-Suite Innovation & Product-led Growth Chief Information Officer

Think Big, Act Big – Exploring the Future of Work

Sholto Macpherson

SME Tech Commentator
Digital First

Sholto Macpherson is a business technology journalist and expert on cloud software and services for SMEs. Since June 2011 he has published http://DigitalFirst.com, which explores how SMEs can use the latest cloud technologies and the impact of digital disruption on the accounting industry.Sholto has 14 years’ experience contributing to magazines and websites, radio and TV segments, webinars and conferences on enterprise and SMB technology and the cloud-led productivity revolution. His stories have appeared in national and regional Australian newspapers and industry websites such as CRN.com.au and iTnews.com.au.Sholto won a national IT Journalism award for Best Columnist in 2012 for his Cloud Channel column in CRN Australia magazine on the transition from server software to cloud software…...

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The cloud revolution has been in full swing for several years now. But there are still plenty of disbelievers out there.

 

One of the most common putdowns is that cloud software is “just an application running on a remote server”. This comment is often made by IT professionals and while true on a very basic level, it misses the bigger picture.

 

Cloud software is transforming how businesses operate because it gives them access to systems and tools normally afforded only by larger companies. Customer relationship management (CRM) software is a classic example of a program that took could take one or more servers to operate.

 

The risk of buying the software and the hardware and paying consultants to put it all together and customise it to operations pushed CRM beyond the grasp of many smaller businesses.

 

Although every business is built on its ability to make sales, mainly mid-size and large companies have invested in software to help them improve the way they sell.

 

But CRMs, like other enterprise technology, are a great fit for smaller businesses that often have the same problems at a reduced scale.

 

SMEs often lack a system for recording and following up on prospects and as a result opportunities fall through the cracks, losing potential revenue. Software can help track opportunities and make sure a salesperson has had a go at converting each one into a sale.

 

CRM software forces a business to put into writing all the steps in its sales process. Once the process has been defined, the business owner can experiment with reducing the number of steps to speed up the sales process, or use it to train new sales staff. A logical and clear list makes it easier to hold sales staff accountable and reveals where potential sales are in the pipeline.

 

And a CRM can win more sales from existing customers in two ways. It uses reports to show which customers have purchased the most or which are due to buy again. A salesperson can run through this list and hope for a high strike rate.

 

A CRM can also help you provide much better service to existing customers by tracking all interactions between your staff and the customer. Happy customers are more likely to be repeat customers.

 

So SMEs have never had the option of professionalising their sales. Now, thanks to pay-by-the-month, cloud-based CRM, they can. But how do you explain the value of this approach?

 

The mechanics of CRM can be broken down into three components vital to business. Many people struggle to control their email, which has become the primary communications medium for prospects and customers. Mastering the inbox is essential to capturing all the opportunities passing through it.

 

Maintaining a solid set of contacts is another challenge which must be overcome in the quest to maximise sales from opportunities. Customers’ details can be spread across several programs, Excel sheets, drawers full of business cards. Creating a single database may be a challenge but it brings greater cohesiveness and rewards.

 

The third area, less understood by SMEs, are workflows. Knowing what is a workflow and how it can improve operations is hugely valuable not just to sales but to every aspect of a business.

Thanks to the cloud revolution, all companies now have the tools to tackle common business problems. The sooner they understand how to use these tools, the faster they can change the way they work.

Future of Work

Going into Orbit with Constellation Research

Chris Morace

Chief Strategy Officer, Jive Software
Chief Strategy Officer, Jive Software

Chris Morace has spent the last 20 years of his career helping large enterprises implement the digital technologies that revolutionize the way we work and communicate. Leading Jive Software’s product strategy and, subsequently, serving as Chief Strategy Officer has given him a front row seat to the transformation unfolding in business today. In addition to serving as a product visionary, he meets on a daily basis with executives from organizations like T-Mobile, Thomson Reuters, UBM, Genentech, the Clinton Global Initiative, Mylan, Avon, and hundreds of others. His work brings him into frequent collaboration with thought leaders across general business and technology domains, from industry analysts to technology visionaries. Chris studied biology, tracked to be a doctor, and only…...

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“Constellation Orbits is comprised of twenty thought leaders dedicated to the analysis of a range of disruptive technologies, thus enabling Constellation to provide its audience with the industry’s most comprehensive analysis of developments in disruptive technology. Constellation Orbits analysis will be available to the public on the Constellation blog.” Constellation Research, Press Release, Feb 5 2014

I’ve known Ray Wang for quite while and he has always been an inspiration. He combines serious substance with tremendous insight and somehow manages to keep it all fun and light. It was no surprise to me when he founded his own research company, Constellation, to provide insight into the technology disruption that was crashing into businesses on a daily basis.  Larger analyst firms typically exploit the fact that their customers are sloooooooow and they can provide predictions using a rear view mirror, but he recognized that there was a real need for guidance by early adopters and fast followers who hoped to make the most of the opportunities and avoid the rocks. So, with that mission he assembled some of the smartest people in the industry and continues to provide the best insights into the future of work.

Knowing that, you can imagine what a tremendous honor it is to be included in Constellation Research’s disruptive technology influencer network, Constellation Orbits. You can read my analyses along with analyses from nineteen other thought leaders on the Constellation blog: https://www.constellationr.com/blog-news The launch of Constellation Orbits establishes the Constellation Blog as the enterprise’s authoritative source for disruptive technology analysis.

I’m excited for the opportunity to contribute alongside and get to know a group who are helping to pull forward an exciting future.  It’s humbling to be in their company, and I have no doubt that I am going to learn a lot.  One thing that becomes clear when you work at the front end of new technologies waves is that some great ideas fail, some horrible ideas stick, but the great people you get to keep and it is awesome to have great people around you on any journey.

Constellation Orbits Members Include:

• Bob Berkman • Louis Columbus • Richie Etwaru • Sam Fiorella

• Terri Griffith • Gavin Heaton • Esteban Kolsky • Brent Leary

• Sholto MacPherson • Chris Meyer • Trevor Miles • Chris Morace

• Dr. Janice Presser • Theo Priestly • Dux Raymond Sy • Paul Van Essche

• Phil Hassey • Brian Katz • Zachary Jeans

See Constellation, Orbits, and the full press release.

Future of Work Next-Generation Customer Experience Innovation & Product-led Growth Chief Customer Officer Chief Executive Officer Chief People Officer

Rahul Sachdev Named CEO of Get Satisfaction

Constellation Research

J. Bruce Daley is a former vice president and principal analyst at Constellation Research, Inc.  , Title: Big Ideas Age Before Beauty Before there can be a wholesale conversion to the Cloud legacy applications must be converted. This will take decades and not every vendor has taken this obstacle into account when projecting growth. Professional Services Firms Need a Recurring Revenue Model The services business has a lot of advantages but one big disadvantage in that you are always going out of business. Some organizations are using the Cloud to offer clients new ways to spend money than just time-and-materials or fixed price projects. ...

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Siebel veteran Rahul Sachdev has been named new chief executive officer and president of Get Satisfaction.  Sachdev succeeds  Siebel alumni Wendy Lea, who will join Get Satisfaction’s board of directors as executive chairman. At Siebel Systems Sachdev was General Manager, Communications, Media & Energy, and Lea was Vice President of eBusiness Consulting.  Most recently, Sachdev served as the head of content sharing and workplace engagement products at LinkedIn. Previously, Sachdev was vice president of product and marketing at Intelliden, a software start-up acquired by IBM in 2010. 

“Without a doubt, we have found a leader in Rahul. His experience creating  software products—along with his track record in building and managing teams—is exactly the one-two punch we need ,” said Lea. 

“I’m excited to build on the company’s incredible foundation of success created under Wendy’s leadership, grow our exceptional team, and make good on our vision," said Sachdev.

On Thursday, February 27th at 10 am pacific Sachdev will be hosting a Fireside Chat to discuss his plans and vision. He has already outlined some of them on the company blog.

Lea will be focusing on customer relationships and building strategic relationships with companies like Oracle, Adobe, Salesforce, and Microsoft. She will also be one of  the company’s evangelists and a key spokesperson.

The company has some current openings for a Director, Product Marketing, Senior Platform Engineer, and Enterprise Account Executive. More information can found on the careers page of the company's web site.

Get Satisfaction helps organizations engage millions of consumers conversations about their products and services. The Get Satisfaction community platform transforms these conversations into customer-generated marketing content and insights. Headquartered in San Francisco, Calif., Get Satisfaction's customers include Citrix, HootSuite, Intuit, and Kellogg’s.

Raul can be reached at 877-339-3997.

Next-Generation Customer Experience Chief Customer Officer Chief Executive Officer