Category Archives: Communication

Communication, Mobile

Customer Driven Digital Transformation the Mastermind for Business Development

Companies seeking to achieve digital transformation success must place the customer back at the center of their strategic efforts.

Digital transformation is no longer an option. Over the next three decades, digitization will reshape every industry and will have a direct impact on every global enterprise.   

Today, enterprises view digital transformation as an indisputable imperative that is constantly disrupting existing business models in noticeable ways. In order to achieve digital success, the enterprise must harmoniously orchestrate their various technologies to work together and further drive innovation. Digital innovation has become an essential catalyst and a driving force of economic growth.

Digital transformation requires a massive undertaking, especially for larger, established companies. When executed properly, it has the potential for any business to be more aligned to meet its customer demands and increase the overall resilience of the enterprise. Embracing digital transformation at the enterprise level demands a strategic approach that factors in all of the goals, people, technologies and required integration to form a proper strategy.

Shifting the Digital Transformation Journey Back to the Customer

As enterprises are constantly striving to attain new business value, the speed of innovation is crucial.

Companies need to be swift, agile and leverage all aspects of technological innovation. A truly digital enterprise integrates emerging technologies as part of an overall strategic plan to be agile and enhance the business analytics of the enterprise. A digital enterprise relentlessly searches out, identifies and develops new digital business models, always ensuring that positive customer experiences are the foundation of digital innovation.  

Designing a digital transformation framework for success is focused on innovation and attaining new business value, aimed at a creating an optimal user experience. To the point that the needs of the end-user need to be integrated into the service model. Consumers today, demand a faster, simpler, and enhanced digital experience that provides the best product and combines it with stellar service and most advanced technology.

Customers seek a deep experience far beyond the most basic product. They are eager to forge a connection with the brand, well before they even commit to buying anything. With the dynamics of businesses shifting back to customer experiences, it is imperative that brands identify every aspect of the consumer journey to meet customer’s expectations before enhancing their technological repertoire.  

The Digital Mastermind: A Holistic Framework for Navigating the Digital Transformation Journey

For several years, Huawei has been at the forefront of digital transformation. In fact, 197 of the top Fortune 500 companies and 45 of the top 100 companies have chosen Huawei as their digital transformation partner. This list includes SAP, Accenture, Deutsche Telekom, Volkswagen, Oracle, Honeywell, GM, ABB, Intel, Sony, the Russian Federal Savings Bank and more.

How can a brand discover the customer’s expectations in order to adopt the correct technology?  How can a company or enterprise plan their digital transformation strategy to ensure a positive customer experience?

In order to answer these questions, I reached out to Jonathan Hopkinson, Head of Analytics Solutions for Huawei’s Digital Transformation Practice Development, to answer several questions about the company’s new Digital Mastermind Playbook.
Briefly, the playbook outlines and provides a logical framework that brings the best practices from different industries into one cohesive customer centric model.

When it comes to putting together a plan, the best method of planning out a successful digital transformation is to view it through customer journeys—that is, the sum of an individual’s interactions with a brand across all channels to accomplish a task.

How can a brand, enterprise stay focused and ground their transformation process to ensure that their efforts are effective?

A key component of the Digital Mastermind framework is to use Design Thinking techniques to unearth the true needs of the enterprise’s customers, and then construct customer journeys and supporting value streams to meet those needs or “Jobs to be done”. This process will reveal which customer journeys are the most important to address – there is not a one-size-fits-all answer. Transformation investments can then be targeted at delivering the higher priority customer journeys, which should then deliver value to the customer and hence to the enterprise – thereby delivering  a quick and positive ROI. A quick return on investment is a key part of helping leadership keep faith in the transformation activity.

 

How important is the data of various tests and trials in the mapping out of a successful digital transformation? If so, what can of data sets should an enterprise be seeking?

Data is crucial to track transformation progress. Digital Mastermind recommends that for each customer journey (and internal value stream) to be delivered, the key outcome and operational KPIs are determined, defined and tracked. “Outcome” KPIs are selected which show the business impact – these are items which have direct linkage to improved business performance. Operational KPIs may be less directly  linked to business value, but nevertheless can track the operational improvements delivered by the transformation.


In fact, the Open ROADS Community has defined several hundred operational KPIs with a core of 20-30 most significant operational and Outcome KPIs. The specific KPIs to be tracked will vary with the digital maturity of the enterprise. For example, an enterprise which is just starting, may track the number of information elements which are digitised, rather than paper-based. A more developed enterprise may focus much more on time-to-market for new services.

With digital transformation being a buzzword today, how can companies strive to achieve such a critical milestone avoid the often siloed and compartmentalized corporate structure?

When constructing the “value streams” required to deliver the desired customer journeys, part of the process is to define the responsible functions/departments for each stage in the value stream, together with customer-centric outside-in KPIs which measure the performance of the overall journey. Having cross-domain KPIs, and tying employee and leadership incentives to these KPIs, is an effective way to remove silo’s, since co-operation becomes essential to achieving a healthy bonus.

Legacy Technologies vs Agile and Digitally Minded Disruption

Traditional industrial sectors continue to sustain their current business efforts by using existing legacy technologies embedded in their enterprise, it’s these sectors that are standing idle as new, agile, and digitally minded companies disrupt the entire industry.  

With enterprises striving towards digital transformation, there is often a challenge that the brand’s legacy tech is operating in a methodical process, while the newer innovative model is to be agile and quick in response. How can an enterprise merge these two approaches to keep the transformation on course?

The burden of legacy is usually the key item which prevents Digital Transformation from being successful, and often from even beginning. For example, The MIT Sloan Center for Information Systems Research (CISR) has identified a number of different strategies to handle this.

Appropriate credit and copyright on the slide: Copyright © Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2017. This work was created by MIT’s Sloan Center for Systems Research (CISR)

In the extreme case, with a large legacy burden, it is often better to establish a completely new business using green-field operations, then gradually move customers over to the new business. A less-radical approach, where feasible, is to encapsulate legacy systems within APIs, and then gradually replace such systems with typically cloud-based, virtual, replacement functions. Again, there is not a one-size fits all approach, but the frameworks exist to guide the best approach.

Digital transformation is clearly not achievable if a company isn’t equipped with a guide or map. Understanding the customer experiences will drive the digital transformation efforts for any enterprise.

Digital transformation can be defined differently by stakeholders. Developing a new mobile app might fit one group’s definition, but an enterprise-wide effort to rebuild competitive advantages might also apply. While the presentation offers a detailed assessment of each brand, what do you think the core factors that make a successful digital transformation actually work? 

I would not consider that a new mobile app in isolation constitutes a digital transformation. In fact, a piecemeal approach like that is primarily why such transformation efforts fail. The approach advocated by the Open ROADS Community is that Digital Transformation should be holistic, driven by a realistic business ambition which the enterprise is seeking to achieve.

This ambition should answer such questions as:- What business do you want to be in? What customers do you want to serve? and What are you going to offer them? There are many frameworks and consultancies out there to help companies determine this strategy and ambition. This can then determine the target for the Digital Transformation activity. Without a well-considered target, transformation investments risk becoming ad hoc, based on wishful thinking.   

Because technology is so integrated in today’s business landscape, almost every business is a digital business to some extent. Old systems and processes have to be rethought, and new technologies have to be put in place in order for businesses to stay competitive within their industry. Companies are faced with many challenges as they navigate their way through this digital transformation. These hurdles can range from limited budgets for new technology to lack of the expertise or know-how required to roll out new digital initiatives. But the one challenge that is crucial to overcome is creating an effective digital strategy.

Strategy is what gives businesses the framework they need to effectively utilize the digital tools they have on hand. And without it, efforts and funds can go wasted.

With customers driving enterprises towards digital innovation, positive digital experiences become the foundation for successful transformation.

It is customer experiences that serves as the impetus for businesses to innovate, create and measure its overall digital strategy. Regardless of industry or business, the Digital Mastermind enables any enterprise to plan their customized transformation pathway and identify the required business capabilities that are predicated on consumer satisfaction and positive customer experiences.

Disclosure: The author is a Huawei Key Opinion Leader and has benefited from their products and services. The opinions of this article, however, are completely his own based on experience.

Communication

Current Trends in Business Communication [Infographic]

 

Time does not stand still, and business communication certainly doesn’t, either. New ways of improving the effectiveness, efficiency, speed and quality of communication are constantly evolving, with the methods in which we do business with clients and customers differing significantly from even 10 years ago. For businesses, keeping on top of changes in communication trends is not an option; it’s a necessity.

This infographic by Irish Telecom (www.irishtelecom.com) outlines some of the most prominent current trends in business communication, with interesting facts dotted throughout. For example, web-based tools such as Skype and VoIP are abundant across most businesses in 2016. In its first 10 years of operation, there were 1.4 trillion minutes of Skype calls made. Another growing trend is the Internet of Things, the market share of which is projected to exceed that of PCs, mobile phones and tablets combined within the next year.

These, and other business communication trends, are explored in the infographic. The rate at which telecommunications are expanding can make it challenging to keep up to speed with its evolution, but if businesses fail to get a grip on technological innovations, it could have a damning impact on sales, marketing and customer satisfaction. That is why businesses spent an estimated total of $165.5 billion on IT support in 2015 – spending which reflects another of the current trends explored in the infographic.

business-communication-trends-infographic

Communication, Mobile, Operating Systems, Phones

iOS 4.0.1 Now Available For iPhones

As more and more people keep talking about Cupertino’s iphone 4 mobile device and this all antenna reception issues, it seems that Apple, the mother company, is finally realizing the time has come to start doing something about it – the sooner the better. And one of the steps the company has just taken in order to try and extinguish the flames is the new iOS 4.0.1 that Steve Jobs and the rest of his fellows has officially released to the pond (updating iOS4) and that apparently “improves the formula to determine how many bars of signal strength to display.” The platform itself is already available for a download via iTunes and supports only iPhone 3G, 3GS, and iPhone 4 machines.

Update: So Apple has urgently called a press conference to speak about the “Antennagate” reception issues and the good news is that everyone, I mean EVERYONE is going to get free bumpers (case) when buying a new iphone device. If you already bought one, just go straight into one of Apple stores next to your house and get a full refund. Here’s what Steve Jobs had to say about it:

“You know, we’re not perfect. We know that, you know that. And phones aren’t perfect either.”

Antenna reception problems are well known in the smartphones world and make a “challenge for the entire industry”

“.. the iPhone 4 drops less than one additional call per 100 than the 3GS. Less than one.”

“A free case for every iPhone 4 buyer.”

Applications, Communication, Internet, Mobile, News

Google Buzz Gets More Updates And Improvements, Reaching Over 9 Million Posts and Comments

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Only two days after turning the Buzz official within Gmail accounts, Google seems to roll out more tweaks and improvements, based on feedbacks and user requests, sent directly or to its help desk account. First and foremost, Google has closed security breach where people could actually see lists of friends and followers which automatically appeared on new Google Pages that people initially created to post their Buzz feeds. Those lists created based on interaction with people you email and chat with the most, could literally expose to the world details no one wanted to unveil. There for, from now on the first time you create a post or comment in Buzz, you will be asked to initiate a limited public profile with minimal info released outside. In addition, you can easily choose whether to turn on publicly the lists of people you follow or that follow you back and which of these species can appear publicly on your profile or not. Furthermore, Google adds the ability to block followers or unfollow them with a simple click of a button. Stay tuned.

Update1: Google says that since launched, tens of millions of people have checked Buzz out, creating over 9 million posts and comments, overwhelmingly added to the growing 200+ posts per minute, initiated from mobile phones around the world.

Update2: So you’re already involved with the Buzz, posting your stuff and following others, but you’re not exactly familiar with all those tricks and tweaks the service offers and wonder where you could have learned them all in a matter of minutes. For that reason specifically, we’ve added a Google Buzz cheat sheet where you can find all the keys and shortcuts that would make it easier for you to use the Buzz. Check it out after the break.

Update3: Google has wisely decided to remove the Buzz auto-follow model in which you automatically follow the people you email and chat with most, whenever initiate a new Google profile page. Instead of this auto-suggest model you will be taken into a welcome page, where you will be reviewing the people in your lists that you’re interested outing to the public and others, you prefer keeping them hidden (third image after the break). In addition, your Buzz will not connect with your Google Reader and Picasa shared items automatically, so your “Unlisted” albums or “Protected” reading sources won’t be revealed, unless you decide to. And last but not least, Google has confirmed it will soon add a Buzz tab to the Gmail account that would create a clear distinction between your day-to-day mailing content and your Googlr Buzz feeds (fourth image). Stay tuned.

[Google]

Continue reading Google Buzz Gets More Updates And Improvements, Reaching Over 9 Million Posts and Comments →

Applications, Communication, Internet, Mobile, News

Google Buzz Announced, Turns Your Web Mail Socialized And Your Mobile Device Localized

Google officially released the Buzz. What is it, you’re asking? It’s Mountain View’s new platform that integrates into your Gmail account and turns it into a social community center (sort of), where you can share things like updates, photos, videos and a lot more with people you email and chat with the most. Additionally, the Buzz allows you to start interacting with those people and make in-mail conversations about anything you’d like in a simple and attractive way. The purpose, according to Bradley Horowitz, Google’s vice president for product management, is to simplify things and help people …”to find signal in the noise”. The target, in our humble opinion, is to launch a successful email product that would make people stick around all day long, and by that, create their own personal streaming platform that would eventually attract potential web users to follow their buzz and turn their voice even louder. Is it a war declaration against popular services like Twitter and Facebook? Time would tell. Google’s buzz  integrates with existing social networks and people can easily add their Flickr, Picasa, Twitter, Yahoo or Facebook accounts, and even Google Reader feeds, into the Buzz while creating  a new social networking interface/aggregator that would gather both mailing usage and media streaming in one accessible place. So, direct war? not sure, but challenging Facebook’s social media domination? definitely yes.

Basically, no special setup is needed and Gmail users should expect seeing the Buzz in their mail accounts immediately, or later on this week, as Google rolls out its new platform across the web, at these very moments . Once receiving it you will automatically start seeing lists of people, who you have emailed on Gmail, added to your Buzz. At that point you can start sharing with them whatever you want, including pictures, messages, videos, articles, news feeds and more, either publicly or in private. It’s a dual direction platform, so in that case you will see their updates as well, but also a few “Recommended Buzz” from friends of your friends, adjusted to your personal feedback.

As for mobile phones, Google also announced mobile integration for Buzz with dedicated apps and maps and an updated homepage you can log into at google.com/buzz. Buzz for mobile makes your sharing a lot easier than expected, it ” brings location to the forefront and makes it easy to have conversations about places”. To start, just type buzz.google.com in your mobile browser address line and begin posting buzz from your phone. You can tag your location or use the suggested tag if correct and later on, search all the public buzz created by your friends or nearby strangers around you in any given location you’ve personally tagged. This way you get yourself a personal location and recommendation platform, based on people’s most basic and common opinions, carried by their smartphones. As mentioned, you can use Google Maps and create public buzz directly from the layer, and attach photos into it from your mobile phone. You can create Textual Buzz shortcuts which appear as a small conversation bubble that everyone can see and read, or go even cooler by creating Voice Buzz shortcuts which let you post buzz without typing a word – Neat! Hit the break to watch the videos.

Update1: Looks like Google Maps 4.0 with Buzz support now available in the Android Market for those who own Android-based smartphones like G1, Droid or Nexus One. Feel free to download it right away and share the Buzz with your friends!

Continue reading Google Buzz Announced, Turns Your Web Mail Socialized And Your Mobile Device Localized →

Audio, Communication, Internet, Mobile, Music, Phones

iTunes DRM-Free Songs Available In May For $1.29

Good news from Cupertino, as apple announces that EMI Music’s digital catalog (and some other major labels like Virgin, Sony BMG, American Recording) will be available for purchase DRM-free from the iTunes Store in May. The tracks will be offered at higher quality 256 kbps AAC encoding for just $1.29 per song with an option for second tier songs for only $0.69. The meaning is that you will be able to transfer your non-protected songs to other computers freely, as we are talking about 8 million DRM-Free songs to be available for a purchase from now on. Additionaly, iTunes users, will be able to upgrade their entire previously purchased EMI content to the higher quality DRM-free versions for just 30 cents ($0.30) a song. The rest of the songs will be offered in the same versions as today, 128 kbps AAC encoding with DRM at the same price of 99 cents ($0.99) per song. If that’s not enough, Apple has also announced that music store downloads are available over 3G connectivity (without the need for a WiFi around)with the same price and sound quality, which means your new iPhone is capable of downloading iTunes tracks directly – Kudos !

[Apple]

Audio, Communication, Media Players, Mobile, Music, News, Phones, Video

Nokia Introduces The New N97 Flagship Smartphone

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Nokia unveils the N97 3G Quad-Band HSDPA phone, that is considered to be the next flagship device, coming from the Finn giant. The new N97 packs, a 3.5-inch, 640 x 360 touchscreen (16:9 ratio), a sliding QWERTY keyboard, a microSD slot and 32GB of memory inside. This top-notch handheld, which carries the title “world’s most advanced mobile computer”, has WiFi and Bluetooth connectivities, along with 3.5-mm headjack, A-GPS, and a strong battery that can provide up to 1.5 days of continuous playback or 4.5-hours of high-quality video. Naturally, there’s a 5MP built-in camera with Carl Zeiss glass and Symbian S60 5th Edition OS, to handle all those advanced features. It is scheduled to go live somewhere in the first half of 2009, for €550 ($693), excluding taxes. Meanwhile, checkout the videos after the break.

[Nokia]

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Communication, Internet, Media Players, Mobile, Music, News

Lenovo IdeaPad U8 MID Goes Live at The Olympics

The new Lenovo IdeaPad U8 MID makes a debut right on time, as the Beijing Olympic games take place these days and new world records are getting smashed. Official specs include a 4.8-inch touchscreen, Intel Atom Z500 800MHz processor, GPS navigation system, front/rear cameras, 802.11 b/g WiFi, Bluetooth, EDGE, 3G and even Wimax support (wow!). In addition it has 1GB of RAM, 6GB flash storage and a place for a dongle, to receive China Multimedia Mobile Broadcasting signals, in order to watch the Olympics for free, if you happened to be in China, all for the size of 21 x 173 x 84mm and 350 grams. No word on price, but you should expect a smartphone costing, so start saving.

Update: Price is set to be around $730 (4,999 yuan) which is not that cheap, considering you can get a laptop, but sometimes you have to pay for light portability.

[Via Pocketables]

Applications, Communication, Games

Nintendo DS Gets Into Twitterland

Twitter users, if you happen to own a Nintendo DS device, you might be interested knowing you can use them both as your microblogging tool, thanks to DSTwitter, a cool twitter application with multilanguage support, that lets you easily twit your friends after ending another Mario Kart game playing. Actually, you can use it whenever you like but before doing so, you will have to make an effort installing the application by setting up the WiFi connection on your DS, Register to Scene Beta website, download the DSTwitter 1.3 version file, extract the contents of the RAR in the root of the memory card and run the program. Complicated but definately worth a try!

[via techdigest]

Applications, Communication, Phones

Sirius Satellite Radio Comes To Your iPhone

If you’re a proud owner of a jailbroken iphone device and want to take your favorite radio stations everywhere you go, uSirius will make it possible, free of charge for three days before registration. To start streaming, just find yourself a Wifi hotspot, log into the Installer.app, download the application, install it and get your tunes on the go.

iphone-usirius

 [via gizmodo]

Applications, Communication, Media Players

Sony Mylo 2 Gets a New Developement Kit For Widgets

Sony has finally learned the new global marketing rules, by deciding to follow the growing trend of third party widgets development for multimedia devices. The company announces, for the first time, a new online platform for all of you, enthusiastic developers, who want to contribute to the Mylo 2 widgets evolvement. Sony plans to give full access to technical data resources, in order to let developers build their own widgets and to expand the Mylo community, worldwide. The company expects to launch the platform around March, but we have already spotted some widgets on Sony’s website.

sony-mylo-2-widgets

[Sony via gmp3]

Audio, Communication, Mobile, Video

Sony Mylo 2 Is Getting Unboxed

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Remember the Mylo 2, unveiled by Sony at the last CES show in Vegas? Turns out the $299.99 device is here, live and kicking. To refresh your memory, we are talking about a mini portable PMP with wireless connectivity and instant messaging support. Main parameters include 1 GB storage capacity, USB2.0 interface, video playback MPEG-4, MPEG-4 AVC/H.264, video encoding, audio player supports MP3, WMA, ACC, ATRAC, etc, photo supports JPEG, PNG, BMP, and more. Other parameters feature a 3.5-inch touchscreen with 800 x480 screen resolution and a 1.3MP camera. As i mentioned before, i really like this device, though it is a little bulky to carry on the go.

sony-mylo2-unbox-1

[via pmptoday]

Check out the video and the pictures after the break.

Continue reading Sony Mylo 2 Is Getting Unboxed →

Communication, Computers

Dell XPS M1330 Offers Wireless USB Connectivity

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If you have visited Dell’s website recently, trying to build your next dreamlike laptop, you could have seen some new extended components added to the XPS M1330 “Build Your Computer” section. One of these add-ons is the Build-in Wireless USB capability with Belkin 4 port hub, offered for extra 150$. Sounds exciting to me.

Update: also available in XPS M1530, XPS M1730, M2010, Inspiron 1525 and Inspiron 1720 models.

dell-xps-m1330-wireless-usb

[via engadget]

Audio, Communication, General, Mobile, Phones, Video

Garmin Nuvifone Gets Two Video Commercials

A week after we’ve reported the announcement of the Nuvifone by Garmin, the company released two commercial videos that gives you a glimpse to what they call the new revolution. Though the following promo videos ain’t the greatest we have seen, they expose us to some of the applications the Nuvifone features but it’s not enough and we expect some improved presentations to be released.

Check out the video.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/YtD4USzpoLI" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

[via navigadget]

Another video after the break.

Continue reading Garmin Nuvifone Gets Two Video Commercials →

Applications, Communication, Games, Internet

PSP Firmware Update 3.90 Features Skype

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As mentioned earlier, Sony announced the availability of Skype on PSP and despite a small delay, it is here, included in the latest firmware update 3.90 . For the time being, it is only available through network update for PSP-2000 models, but the new firmware expands the Playstation Network support to all models – Rock on.

Update: The M33 team has released a custom version of the 3.90 firmware update, available through Network Update.

psp-skype-390-update

[via gizmodo]

CES, Communication, Games

PSP Officialy Skyped – Is This The Mic?

psp-mic-skype

Recent speculations, concerning Skype application on the PSP console are becoming reality. Sony announced the availability of Skype on PSP, at the end of this month. Once the new firmware is released and installed into the device, a small Skype icon will pop up in the network section and users will be able to login with their Skype account or create a new one. As other Skype users, PSP owners will have the privilege to talk freely with their Skype friends, make calls to any regular phone or receive calls on their PSP device. Mind you, this will work only on a PSP Slim devices.

This new formation requires a designated microphone, to enable users make or receive calls on their PSP. A Japanese website, Famitsu, unveiled a designed PSP mic, together with some presumably pictures of the new interface.

[via engadget]

Applications, Communication, Games, Internet

Sony PSP Might Get Skype Support

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Recent speculations about Skype, coming to the PSP console, have just confirmed with this 1 frame shot, revealed in an easter egg PSP promo video that Sony released for the CES show, next week. In the picture frame, we spot 2 boys, holding their PSP devices and communicating with each other. In the middle, a sneaky image reads “Make calls with Skype”.

This news, coming out as a teaser from Sony, are going to catch a lot of attention at the CES. After all, it is a cool thing to have wireless communication in your portable game console.

skype-psp

[via engadget]