CTO Blog
Microsoft has announced, and I quote, ‘the World’s first stay at home server’, together with a free 120 day trial. I haven’t done a detailed specification analysis against the Apple ‘Time Capsule’, but superficially both units seem to offer similar capabilities to, and this is the point, the home. And the definition of that home is a multi user, multi device environment, requiring wireless managed access and a lot, and I do mean a lot, of storage.
In short both devices make the multi media life style, as opposed to what I would call the home use of a PC a reality. If you are using one of these devices with in excess of 100Gb of storage, always on Internet and wireless connectivity will it change what you do on the over the Internet and in using the Web? The only possible answer is yes, as you will no longer think about many of the current constraints that cover the use of digital media.
PWC have an interesting video interview with their head of Media in which he talks about the expected massive growth, but a few moments into the interview he makes the remark; ‘it used to about survival of the fittest, it will be come more about the need to collaborate’. It’s not too clear in the remainder of the interview exactly what he means, but I will surmise this in the context of my interest.
Exactly what will be the impact on the internal enterprise provision of ‘technology’, (meaning traditional IT systems and the new wave of Internet Web based technologies), driven by the expectations of users comparing things with their home systems? Stephen Abram on his Stephen’s Lighthouse blog reckons that expectations are being driven by what users see, and get, when they visit the top web sites. As he says it’s a pretty good argument and he then goes on to publish what are the top 50 sites.
The topic gets a little more scientifically examined by the centre for User Interface Engineering, and I really recommend you to take a look at their work when considering how you are constructing any screen interface. What all this is building up to is that all of us industry professionals with our views on the provisioning of business supporting technology are still thinking inwardly and around the way that we have delivered applications. The people who are going to be using our solutions, are not thinking the same way, and therefore we can expect them to not be too impressed with our views of what they want.
Just think on the storage issue for a moment, why at home can you have so much, why is your e mail account effectively unlimited, and then why is it all such an issue at work? When we can answer that we get to first base, but in looking at the way user expectations are growing and changing second base is a long way further on. Most significantly of all they will be blurring our part of the solution with the other businesses that they are collaborating with.
And, in this piece, I haven’t even touched on building business solutions to win business competitively from customers. There it’s going to be a case of exceeding the user expectations in comparison with competitors or losing the business. Finally don’t lose sight of that comment its not a simple case of survival of the fittest but the most able collaborator in the market being the most likely to win.
About the author
Capgemini Global Chief Technology Officer, Andy is a member of the Capgemini Group management board and advises on all aspects of technology-driven market changes, together with being a member of the Policy Board for the British Computer Society. Andy is the author of many white papers, and the co-author three books that have charted the current changes in technology and its use by business starting in 2006 with ‘Mashup Corporations’ detailing how enterprises could make use of Web 2.0 to develop new go to market propositions. This was followed in May 2008 by Mesh Collaboration focussing on the impact of Web 2.0 on the enterprise front office and its working techniques, then in 2010 “Enterprise Cloud Computing: A Strategy Guide for Business and Technology leaders” co-authored with well-known academic Peter Fingar and one of the leading authorities on business process, John Pyke. The book describes the wider business implications of Cloud Computing with the promise of on-demand business innovation. It looks at how businesses trade differently on the web using mash-ups but also the challenges in managing more frequent change through social tools, and what happens when cloud comes into play in fully fledged operations. Andy was voted one of the top 25 most influential CTOs in the world in 2009 by InfoWorld and is grateful to readers of Computing Weekly who voted the Capgemini CTOblog the best Blog for Business Managers and CIOs each year for the last three years.
Good points Andy. Usability of services rendered to customers goes a lot farther then the user interface. An important aspect such as reliability for example, goes all the way down the supply chain. I think that by collaborating smartly, that whole chain can stay fit. The survival of the fittest flogs then?
Correcting a typo in my comment earlier: I meant “fittest flocks”
Hi Mark
glad it was a typo – you had me scratching my head there!
i suspect that it might take the whole game to anothyer level of service. this is where the ‘intimacy’ peice comes in. i will return to restaraunts where i am greated by name, shown to a ‘usual’ table and offered my ‘usual’ drink etc because it makes the whole interaction distinctly personalised and about ‘me’, or perhaps i should say the ‘you experience’ to be consistent in my comments. I think we will move beyond just ‘good’ service into ‘personalised’ or intimate service, and at the high end for high value customers this will be the key differentator
makes me think to do a blog post on intimacy! thanks for making me think about this Mark!!
You are most welcome. Actually, in my first entry for our technology blog I also fantasized about distinctly personalized services and what “you-experience” means to me: http://www.capgemini.com/technology-blog/2008/01/the_personalized_context_aware.php
yes i remember this peice – the context awareness is the key to me, definately worth looking at for an idea of what we should be looking for in my humble opinion.