CTO Blog
The Kindle is the Amazon eBook reader, it’s not the only eBook reader around, so the product, or perhaps I should say technology, is neither unique, nor even new. I could justifiably express my amazement at the clarity of the screen, nobody who has seen my Kindle has not been absolutely amazed by this feature. The ergonomics are great too, makes a real book seem heavy and clumsy, but what makes it so important is it’s a living breathing example of ‘intimacy’ or CRM 2.0, and an Enterprise 2.0 business model.
Let me start of by explaining what I understand ‘intimacy’ and CRM 2.0 to be, then its relationship to technology and finally why Amazon Kindle is such a great example of this and the concept of an Enterprise 2.0 business model innovation. Oh and by the way I just love my Kindle and the way it works for me too.
‘Intimacy’ is one of those new terms that you hear around, and I am never sure how well it is understood, so let me try to explain it my way. If you have a contractor doing a job for you, could be some building work at your house, or Capgemini doing an IT project at work, and there needs to be an extension to the project you would almost certainly give it to the existing contractor. (This does assume that they are doing a reasonable job and living up to your expectations etc). The reason for this is ‘intimacy’. Quite simply everyone is intimate with all the mass of small details involved so it makes no sense to try to bring in a new contractor with all the time and difficulties it would involve to get them started and up the learning curve.
The whole CRM 2.0 angle is explored by various experts in detail, but again I will give my simple take on it. Intimacy tends to imply that people are involved and if we can improve the ways that people can collaborate together to make complex things work better with Web 2.0 technology, then we will all learn more, become more intimate and better able to get the details right. Now this is not strictly accurate, or a complete as an explanation, so for a full scale picture of CRM 2.O, and its role in helping an enterprise to manage its relationships with customers better then you really should go to an influential source.
For now you get the picture, and I will add one last comment by pointing out that the objectivity of Purchasing Departments is to remove the subjectivity of ‘Intimacy’. Some thing that is going to have to get addressed as we go forward with the actual act of the first purchase, on which they tend to be measured, becoming less and less a percentage of full cost of running the ongoing ‘services’ that will persist for several years to come.
My Kindle is always connected to Amazon, (well if in the US anyway, outside the US then my PC has to act as an intermediary). When I want to choose a book I can browse Amazon using all the customary tools that they provide to help me zone in on various selections that should be of interest given by past purchases. Amazon is intimately familiar with my reading choices, and its help is welcome to guide me through the thousands of books that would not be of interest towards the selection that is. Once I know which book I want then I do what they call a ‘one click’ purchase. Just one press of a button and the book is on my reader ready for me. If I want a news paper, or a magazine, or some music, its all there for one click that will charge it to my pre set up subscription account which debits it from my credit card.
Now that’s real CRM 2.0 to me! I am happily providing the information to the supplier in return for personalised service! Actually it’s more than that; it’s an Enterprise 2.0 style business model too. The whole process and ‘go to market’ has been changed by using technology. The impact of the new generation of Technology on a business, or a market, like this is profound, take a look at my colleague Pierre Hessler talking about this topic and the need for understanding the vision of how technology can, and will, impact your business, thorough what we at Capgemini call a ‘TechnoVision 2012’ process.
Its not just that Amazon can sell me more, though correctly I think it’s more a case I would choose to buy more if I can find and get what I want so easily, it’s also the fact that I am no longer around to be a potential customer to their competitors either. Will I bother to stop the car and get a newspaper? Go to a bookshop, on or off line, and mess around when it’s so quick? If I see a book I like at an airport shop will I buy it and carry it, or walk outside, and ‘Kindle’ it?
Nice one Amazon! Whether we call it ‘intimacy’ or ‘CRM 2.0’ it’s a real ‘win-win’ for both of us!
Note – Kindle is currently designed for use in the USA and many of its features are built round this market, but for those of you elsewhere it must be coming into your market soon!!
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.
You know, I have been thinking on more or less the same lines when I heard about a similar device: the iLiad. I believe it is even a Dutch products. It is not yet as big as the Kindle, but compared to the Kindle, the iLiad is absolutely superior. Its high price still prevents me from buying one even knowing that I can get it for a rebate of 200 Euros with a certain newspaper subscription.
As I said, I was fantazizing about the use of such devices myself. They have incredible battery performance and provide a really good user experience. With the device, you basically have a personalized library that you can carry with you. The smooth integration with the processes for delivering the books, papers, et cetera is what makes the experience complete: no fuss, easy access. Yes, intimacy is what makes such devices succesful. Apple understands this very well too (think about the iPod and the iPhone).
Hi Mark
Walmart’s founder Sam Walton had a great slogan; ‘we buy on behalf of our customers’ and if you read the book ‘extreme competition’ by peter fingar in 2006 he makes the same point by saying that devices such as these are about how Amazon or whoever works on our behalf to seperate from the mass market what will be of specific interest.
Tom Peters is around on a video clip saying he buys four times as much from Amazon through his Kindle but is happy with the arrangement as he gets what he wants, and its at the expense of other providers that he no longer buys from.
yes i do think that Apple understand this and the Apple App store and iTunes are just early examples for where this could go!
andy
The Customer Intimacy choices for enterprises increase with Mobile Devices especially the smartphones. Several applications like “Mobile Advertising”, “Paperless Mobile Coupons”, “Media download” etc have already been atracting several consumers to the “Mobile – Interactive Web” as a channel. Apart from this “collaboration platforms” offered by companies like Cisco also play an increasing role for Customer Intimacy thru’ large number of devices. The era of “Contextual Computing” is here and it would be interesting to see how Consumer adoption takes shape globally.
Of course the issue with ‘contextual computing’ or any other name for it, may be just the digital age will cover it, is what is the role and the position of the IT department in the face of this. Its certainly not what we currently define as IT, but on the other hand the management of the companies’ use of ‘technology’ to be cohesive, secure and compliant means that they ought to have a role.
Forrester have just added to this debate with a report just out suggesting that the IT department should not be charged with implementing social computing internally as there judgement on what is required and why will not be business like but cost/utility based.
Add tougher trading conditions to this and the pressure for change in terms of roles and responsibilities in companies which are having to change their own behavoiur and models …….
Andy,
sorry, checked this late. I agree that Kindle is yet another case of end-to-end integrated product like the ipod, Blackberry. But this brings back the debate of multiple vs. single device. I know that the ideal case of one device for all services may not be realistic and it is inevitable to have niche products serving specific pruposes effectively and efficiently with excellent ergonomics.
However, the question is whether an end user is willing to carry one device for email, one device for book reading and another one for his communication needs. Why do we need to restrict such an application to a particular device?
Apple was pushing its core business of devices by coupling itunes with ipod, and therefore made perfect sense. But its difficult to understand what Amazon can gain by introducing niche devices, when their core business is in selling books, unless they have plans to enter the device market.
By offering it as an application across all devices, they could have greatly benefited from the network effect. By offering this application as a hosted service, they could still have gathered customer intelligence.
Renjish
Funnily enough i met a reporter for the tech press yesterday who typified the challenge. he had an iPhone ‘for my own use’ and a traditional smart phone ‘ for my business use from my employer’.
may be the answer is virtualisation so one device will alllow us to have multiple personaliites, or relationships? i saw VMware have launched a virtualisation layer for smart phone manufacturers.
Yes, virtualisation is the answer. We need to reduce our dependence on the hardware functionality by migrating them to software and taking a step further, hosting them in a cloud/web. Today, we have most of the technology and tools to do that.
Renjish
its one of the attractions of a touch screen phone that you can completely remap and change the functionality on the screen with no limitations such as you would normally have with hardware and ‘buttons’.