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Connected business A 16-page The power behind decisions december 2013 report on how to keep ahead of the pack The power behind decisions december 2013

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So how many mobile devices can you see?

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INSIDE: Dave Baxter on bringing your device to work | Pages 6-7

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Business Technology December 2013

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Opening shots Shane Richmond As a technology writer, I’ve been relatively lucky to have had a lengthy exemption from the computers provided by corporate IT departments. I was able to get a new loan machine every year, while my jealous colleagues struggled on with a creaking PC, underspecified even when it was bought years earlier.

It wouldn’t be practical for them all to bring their own computers in from home back then, even if the IT department would let them, so they were pretty much stuck with what they were given.

The situation is different when it comes to mobile devices. Employees have their own smartphones and tablets these days, and they expect to use them. The concept of Bring Your Own Device – or BYOD – is a well-established policy and one with which most managers will be familiar.

I still see some people who carry two phones with them: the one they want to use, and the one their company makes them use. The former is typically an Apple iPhone or Google Android phone, while the latter is usually a BlackBerry.

But recently the situation has been steadily changing, and the declining fortunes of BlackBerry are hastening that change.

The handset manufacturer, which enjoyed 37 per cent of the market at its peak in 2010, had slumped to less than 6 per cent at the beginning of this year.

Here in Washington DC, where 38 per cent of workers are said to be employed by the government, the Department of Defense (DoD)

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In Washington DC

If the US Defense Dept can deal with mobile working, so can we all is preparing for a future without the 470,000 BlackBerry handsets it currently has in use.

The DoD situation is certainly more complex than for a typical company because of the strict security requirements for any device used by its personnel. However, the department is working on a security system for mobile devices that will work regardless of the manufacturer.

The new system will begin testing before the end of the year.

The BYOD landscape will get more complicated with the rise of wearable technology.

Over the next few years, employees will start buying their own fitness trackers that measure how much they move and how well they sleep, connected watches that relay messages from their smartphone to their wrist, and even smart glasses that overlay computer displays into their field of vision. They will expect to use those devices to help them at work too and companies will need to accommodate them if they are to get the best from their employees.

Shane Richmond is joining Business Technology as its regular technology commentator.

Shane travels the world advising businesses on changing technologies, and was head of technology (editorial) at Telegraph Media Group Twitter: @ shanerichmond

That means less emphasis on the hardware used by staff and more focus on cross-platform cloud computing services that allow teams to work together despite technological differences.

Increasingly, those services might be ones that employees use on a personal basis as well, such as online storage service Dropbox or collaborative notebook Evernote, but if they are custom-built corporate solutions, then the important thing is that they allow teams to work efficiently with the kind of ease that they are used to seeing from consumer apps and services.

And if the conservative and bureaucracy-laden Pentagon can deal with that challenge, then any organisation can.

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The mobile bandwagon is on the move – are you on it?

By Dave Baxter

Using personal devices was once a static affair. Home was the place to make phone calls and later use the internet. Surfing the web was something to be done from a solitary desktop upstairs.

And in their earlier days large, clunky and unwieldy mobile phones were an eyesore which struggled to achieve major popularity.

A few decades later, the tide has turned dramatically. The internet connects the world. Shiny tablets and smartphones are flooding into homes and even offices, soon to be followed by newer technology. As a result, consumer behaviour is evolving.

Those who relied on static devices now demand much more. They seek information on the go, increasingly shop and bank on their mobiles and use social media to share moments from their lives.

For businesses this means greater challenges. While many companies work well online, tailoring services to consumers who want them on the go, and at their convenience, is proving difficult.

This could all be worthwhile though.

Ved Sen, mobility practice head for the UK and Europe at Cognizant, a technology services firm, says that though companies may find it hard to adapt to mobile demands, the rewards are large.

“The mobile user is going to be more valuable than, for example, the desktop user,” he says. “Most businesses have a website, but if your website’s not mobileready, you are missing out. Some companies have got that and some haven’t.

“With mobile, people tend to think you just need to shrink something down (on the screen). But it’s not just a smaller version.

“The importance of the user experience is now huge. Traditionally, IT experts used to look at the technical aspects and work towards the user experience. Now you start with the experience.”

Providing or enabling mobile services, for workers as well as consumers, means keeping up with the rapid pace of technological change. As Sen argues, this may be easier for smaller firms than those in the heavily structured corporate world.

“This technology is moving very quickly and changing very quickly,” he says. “It’s

a space full of disruption and full of new technology. Large companies have technical practices that move at a certain speed. They aren’t used to dealing with that velocity, and they are having to rethink how those practices work and be much more agile.”

For smaller firms, times may look rosier.

With mobile innovation there is little need for costly infrastructure and barriers to entry are low. But small, creative firms, including those behind the mobile apps transforming different services, could face their own pitfalls.

Shireen Smith, founder of Azrights Solicitors, an intellectual property law firm, argues that mobile app developers could encounter damaging legal issues even after finding success.

“There can be huge problems around the names that people give their app,” she says. “With names, they need to check that it’s not somebody else’s trademark if they have a similar name. That can often cause huge disruption, because you might have to pull the app, recode it and put it up again.

“Trademark registers do exist, but it’s about how they are interpreted. Unless you understand the issue, it can wipe you out once you are successful, because you can’t tell people if you have changed your name or redirect them, no matter how popular your app was.”

Adapting to mobile involves difficulties.

But getting to grips with the technology, and how modern businesses and consumers operate, would be dangerous to avoid.

With thanks to...

Publisher Bradley Scheffer.......................info@lyonsdown.co.uk Editor Daniel Evans.....................................dan@lyonsdown.co.uk Production Editor Dan Geary.............d.geary@lyonsdown.co.uk Reporters...................................Dave Baxter and Joanne Frearson Client Manager Alexis Trinh...................alexis@lyonsdown.co.uk Project Manager Danny Dunn.............danny@lyonsdown.co.uk Syndication .....................syndication@theinterviewpeople.com

+49 (0) 8161 80 74 977

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…how many mobile devices did you see?

Cartoonist Anton Emdin says he has drawn 27 mobile devices on the cover (the baby is burying three…)

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Business Technology December 2013

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How the mobile revolution changed 2 email design If you want to get ahead of the game, it’s time to make changes to your marketing INDUSTRY VIEW

M

obile domination is a fact. The number of handheld devices is increasing dramatically every single day, giving you access to applications, videos, pictures and the internet. Ever more frequently, busy people like to open emails while on the go but often delete emails that do not display correctly on mobile devices. So why do only 25 per cent of marketers optimise their emails for mobile?

Let’s take a look at why it is more important than ever to optimise for mobile. By the end of 2013, there will be more mobile devices on earth than people (Cisco 2013).

In the US, 59 per cent of adults now own a smartphone. Compare this with 40 per cent in December 2012 — an astonishing 47.5 per cent increase,

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astonishing $25billion for the year.

ComScore suggests that one out of every ten consumer e-commerce dollars is now spent using either a smartphone or a tablet, and that growth in this market segment is outpacing that of traditional e-commerce by a factor of two (e-commerce itself is growing at rates in the mid-teens).

Despite the importance of the mobile revolution to marketers, consumers often complain about the difficulty of shopping, reading or surfing on a small screen. In fact, 42 per cent delete emails that do not display correctly on their smartphone or tablet, and 74 per cent leave after waiting only five seconds for a mobile site or email to load [Fig.3].

The optimisation of websites and landing pages for mobile viewing seems to have happened rather quickly. But up until now, optimisation of mobile emails has turned out to be more challenging.

Only recently, 25 per cent of marketers have begun to adjust for mobile devices.

If you want to get ahead of the game and generate sales, it is time to look at your business and make the appropriate changes to your email marketing programme. Here is a quick look at three popular methods of optimising emails. But be warned – all

Source: GetResponse Infographic, 2013

First, while mobile phones are frequently used at wake-up time and while commuting, laptops and PCs are still commonly used throughout the day. And subscribers often switch between laptop and mobile phone when surfing the web or reading emails, depending on whether they are at their desk or on the sofa.

Second, subscribers often reopen emails on a laptop or desktop after previewing them on a mobile device. If you capture reader attention then lose it because of bad newsletter design, your brand image and sales could be adversely affected.

3. Responsive email design

Source: GetResponse Infographic, 2013

with no signs of hitting a plateau [Fig.1].

And it is not just the quantity of devices that is changing the communications landscape but, more important, how consumers use them [Fig.2].

A recent study by eConsultancy found that checking email is the second-mostfrequent task by smartphone users, just after making phone calls.

Mobile also drives a significant percentage of e-commerce. According to recent studies, mobile-commerce spending reached $4.7billion in Q2 2013, a growth rate of 24 per cent over the previous year. With the expected seasonal surge in Q4 spending, it is believed m-commerce will reach an

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methods are not created equal.

1. URL link to “Open this email on a mobile device” One widely used method is to place an “Open this email on a mobile device” URL in the newsletter – a link taking the reader to a separate web page that displays a mobile-optimised version of the email.

This approach has a couple of pitfalls.

First, the above-the-fold part of your email looks bad and requires an extra step (or more) for subscribers to read it. This certainly would have a negative effect on conversions.

Second, the email experience should be effortless and pleasant. Now that you have got your subscribers to open your email in the browser, why punish them by redirecting them back to the email client to read the rest of the message?

2. Segmentation based on history of opens

Source: GetResponse Infographic, 2013

Another popular method is to segment your subscribers based on their history of email opens. Unfortunately, this is not ideal either.

The best approach appears to be responsive email design.

It allows you to send your emails to various devices with no worries about rendering problems. You create a great first impression for all your readers with an attractive, eyecatching, appealing header section. Then you make it easy to continue reading and respond to calls to action – inside the email.

Since responsive emails display well on all devices, subscribers can reopen them on a laptop or desktop if they are more comfortable making a purchase there. Not only does that improve your chances of closing the sale, it also lowers frustration caused by bad email design.

Finally, no additional browser tabs are needed and CTAs are adjusted for the size of the reader’s fingers. This makes the experience enjoyable rather than

troublesome – no need to pinch or resize the email, just scroll down.

The benefits of responsive email design can be summarised as: 1 Improved user experience 2 Better conversion metrics 3 Bigger sales 4 Lower unsubscribe and complaint rates

Measuring the effectiveness of responsive emails Ideally, email design should be tested and measured for proper formatting prior to distribution. If there is no apparent overall improvement in metrics, you can focus on subscribers that open your emails on mobile devices. Their experience should be vastly improved (especially on Android OS devices).

Despite the fact that responsive email design is essential for effective email marketing, it may generate additional costs. The good news is that responsive design has a positive influence on email marketing ROI to offset those costs. In fact, some email service providers now offer tools that make your emails responsive automatically.

So start searching for a better way to optimise your emails with responsive email design. It will put you a step ahead of your competition.

Michael Leszczynski is education expert at GetResponse +44 (0)20 8123 3670 www.getresponse.com

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IBM dips its toe in digital marketing

The inner geek

Moz & Bradders

Social networks feel the heat from fast-growing mobile apps Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg – the social network is improving its mobile compatibility after competitors have gained ground

Some of the best-known social media networks are attempting to become more mobile-friendly as they face competition from a number of new apps.

Facebook and Twitter, which have enjoyed huge success in recent years, need to see off competition from a range of popular apps offering messaging and related services. They are also making greater efforts to tap into the large market of mobile users they command.

Many of the apps allow users to send messages online for free rather than paying to send texts, and helping users to avoid roaming charges abroad. In some cases, users need a mobile number in order to communicate with someone through the apps.

The market for these apps is already extremely crowded, with success stories including Skype, WhatsApp, Snapchat and Google Hangouts.

The messaging services have some clear advantages. They are not only free, but are easy to use and offer people privacy when they communicate. In contrast to this, Facebook walls can be seen by users’ friends, and tweets can be seen by people’s followers.

But big social media names such as Facebook are taking action to compete with the apps.

Facebook recently extended its contact via phone number feature, which was tested on a

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sample group of Android users in October, to all Android and Apple users.

The feature is quicker and has a cleaner layout than before. The intention is for users to stay on Facebook without resorting to texting if they want to contact someone whose phone number they know.

The network is also trying to wrestle back users who have become used to using apps such as WhatsApp on their mobile.

Twitter may also try to make its messaging services more attractive.

In the past, users have had to follow each other in order to exchange private messages, known as DMs. But Twitter has experimented with the idea of anyone being able to message each other using these.

The company is also trying to

capitalise on the fact that the majority of its users access Twitter via mobile, by allowing advertisers to get deeper analysis of this use.

A recent post on the firm’s blog read: “Twitter was born mobile: people reach for Twitter on the couch, on the move, and in the moment. There are 230 million users globally, and 76 per cent access Twitter on a mobile device.

“Previously, we offered advertisers the ability to reach our highly mobile users by targeting only their operating system. Today we’re announcing greater flexibility to this targeting capability: now all advertisers can segment audiences on iOS and Android by operating system version, specific device, and WiFi connectivity.” These changes mean that companies could target advertising and market campaigns at more specific demographics, and better understand how different groups use the network.

Twitter also recently changed the look of its home page, adding a picture of a smartphone to emphasise its main focus. Similarly, Facebook has changed the layout of its mobile pages to make it more interactive, making “Like” buttons and profile pictures more prominent.

These changes might make a difference. But with so many successful messaging services available, it could be difficult for Facebook and Twitter to compete.

The apps already cover a wide range of possible interactions. WhatsApp allows private messages, either within a group or between two individuals.

Skype can allow both messages and webcam conversations. And Snapchat, which launched in 2011, lets people send their friends pictures which delete themselves shortly afterwards.

A number of the apps combine different services. Google Hangouts, for example, offers users the chance to send photos and messages or hold video calls.

Alternatively, these companies could remove the competition by buying out their smaller rivals.

It was recently reported that Facebook offered $3billion to acquire SnapChat, but the owners of the photo messaging app turned it down. Facebook and Twitter play big roles in the world of social media. But they may need to fight to keep their users.

IBM has been buying up companies in an effort to enhance the digital and mobile marketing services it can offer customers.

In October the tech giant announced that it had bought Xtify Inc, which offers cloudbased mobile messaging tools.

IBM is using these services to e x p a n d it s Sm a r te r Commerce initiative, which focuses on how businesses can develop relationships with customers. This involves creating campaigns but also personalising content and using data analytics to measure how businesses are engaging customers.

A release announcing IBM’s acquisition of the company reads: “Xtify’s cloud-based campaign management platform notifies mobile consumers when new content and promotions are available – helping businesses deepen connections with their customers.

“Mobile communications are completely transforming the way organisations interact with their customers. Consumers expect personalised messages and promotional offers based on expressed interests and shopping and browsing habits.”

IBM now hopes to use its data analytics capabilities and cloud infrastructure together with Xtify’s mobile messaging services. Xtify boss Josh Rochlin said: “The premise is simple: mobile content and promotional offers are far more useful when delivered directly to consumers at the right time.

Relevant and actionable offers are key to mobile marketing success.

“Xtify’s mobile messaging capability combined with IBM’s analytics and cloud infrastructure will provide marketers with global reach and an arsenal of rich content to inf luence and infor m increasingly mobile consumers.”

Xtify is one of the most recent in a string of IBM investments. The company has now put more than $6billion into cloud-related acquisitions, as part of a larger strategy of growing by buying other firms.

In the past 18 months, IBM has acquired eight companies, recently acquiring Fiberlink Communications, a mobile device management company which helps companies cope with employees bringing in their own gadgets.

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In a world filled with smart devices, you may as well bring your own…

By Dave Baxter Companies must prepare for a new generation of connected devices about to hit the work place, an expert has warned.

The practice of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), where employees use personal gadgets both at home and in the office, has become common as tablets and smartphones proliferate.

This has enabled more flexible working conditions for employees and, in some cases, a more motivated workforce. But it creates a headache for IT specialists, who must make sure the devices can access company networks where necessary.

It also heightens the risk of security problems. Employees can put company data onto unsecure devices, or run the risk of losing passwords and commercially sensitive files when they use the same device to browse unsafe websites.

In future, more connected devices will hit the market and enter the office environment. The Pebble smart

watch, for example, now has an iOS app giving users Gmail and IMAP email notifications at work.

Amazon recently announced that the latest version of its Kindle Fire operating system would make some of its Kindles compatible with secure Wi-Fi networks, as well as allowing the distribution of documents across devices using its Whispercast system, in moves which would make the reading devices much more BYOD-friendly.

Even cars could become part of the BYOD world. American company Abalta Technologies claims its new system, Weblink, allows drivers to connect a smartphone to a computer and safely use the phone’s capabilities, such as accessing apps.

Ojas Rege, vice president for strategy at MobileIron, a firm which deals with “mobile enterprise” issues, says the expansion of BYOD means companies must support all the systems used on these devices. This means allowing them to interact with company networks such as internal email systems, and potentially access work-related files and information.

But Rege says the situation is less complicated than some

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fear, as the operating systems running on smart devices are becoming more standardised than just a few years ago.

“BYOD is something that’s evolving quite rapidly,” he says. “When the plumber comes to my house to fix my pipes, I never offer him my toolbox.

He uses his own tools.

“That’s what we are starting to see in the workplace with devices. They help employees do their jobs better.

“There used to be a theory that the world would converge to one device and that an employee would only have one device. I think that’s false.

“The number of devices will proliferate. There will be 50 devices that connect to the internet, and more and more of those will start to make their way to the office.”

Employees could increasingly use different gadgets to connect to the internet and access company networks, in their free time or while at work. But Rege argues that the specific device being used is less important than the operating system running on it. He says: “Smart watches and smart cars

will absolutely make their way to the enterprise world. How does your employer support them?

“There’s not that much of a difference between smart watches and smart cars, because they are operated using a smart phone.

“But the support is easier if the company is running consistent operating

“When the plumber comes to my house to fix my pipes, I never offer him my toolbox. He uses his own tools” – Ojas Rege systems. There is a key trend, where if you turned back the clock five years, every device had a different operating system, whether it was Nokia or something else.

“What we are seeing now is a convergence on the operational side.

The world seems to be taking up two or three systems.

“If you turn the clock forward two years, which in technology is a lifetime, there will be three systems which 99

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Chinese search engine to invest heavily in mobile tech

per cent of devices will run: Apple iOS, Google Android and Microsoft’s system.”

He believes that this makes enabling BYOD simpler for firms.

“This will make it much easier for the enterprise to support people. If they have a method to support Android or iOS, they can use that across all devices,” he says.

“Security is another issue, but is also related to the systems. There’s a set of apps on a device, such as email, a document reader, a sales force app and so on. Each of those apps has enterprise data.

“I need to make sure the app can work on the device and also be secure.

I may also need to make sure the data on that device is protected, and when an app connects to your business server, you need to make sure any transfers are secure.” Security will also be an issue

with shared devices – whether this means iPads with a number of different users, or connected cars which are later sold on to a new owner. But Rege believes that, as with BYOD, the issues are not specific to the devices.

“When an employee leaves or the device falls out of compliance if the user does something to make it insecure, you have to pull that data off the device,” he says.

“With connected cars or your iPad, other people can end up using it. You might have an iPad in a hospital, where different people are doing shift work.

“In these cases, identification is really key. What I mean is that the business services on the device should only work if you are the right person and you have the password.

“All these shared devices will work in a similar way. You need to be able to log in and then log out.”

As connected cars and other technologies begin to enter the workplace, enabling BYOD without risking security is essential.

But this will start with the systems already in place.

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Baidu, the company behind the most popular internet search engine in China, has been aggressively investing in mobile development to capitalise on a growing market.

The firm wants to move quickly into the area of mobile search, as an increasing number of Chinese people use smartphones and tablets to look things up online.

This strategy has involved a number of acquisitions. Earlier this year Baidu completed the acquisition of TrustGo Mobile, a firm based in America which focuses on protecting the privacy and data of mobile users. It also bought 91 Wireless, an app store, this year.

Baidu dominates the online search market in China, but has done less well in the area of mobile, where it has a number of rivals. These include messaging company Tencent Holdings and software firm Qihoo 360 Technology, which have been working to attract mobile users with games and other kinds of apps.

Baidu is now trying to catch up with the competition by buying up other firms.

This strategy may take time to pay off, but it has managed to impress some.

In August, Fitch Ratings praised the company for beginning work on creating a “competitive mobile strategy”.

In an announcement of the company’s third-quarter results for 2013, Baidu’s chairman and chief executive Robin Li said: “We were pleased to see strong results in the third quarter as revenue remained on a solid growth trajectory.

Mobile search revenues in particular continued to grow at an exciting pace as more of our customers recognise the benefits of mobile marketing on the Baidu platform.

“Our flagship mobile products such as Search and Maps continue to gain momentum. We solidified our mobile native app distribution capabilities with the 91 Wireless acquisition.”

Baidu CEO Robin Li

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Smartphone games have never been more popular. But are they a viable form of brand promotion, or a flash-in-the-pan marketing gimmick? Special report by Dave Baxter

s your bus pulls in to the station, the man opposite is still frowning heavily, swiping furiously at the virtual fruit as it cascades endlessly across his screen. The woman in front of you is equally preoccupied, this time by an imminent zombie invasion she has to fight using nothing but plants.

In cases like these, books and magazines are being slid onto the seats and into bags, and ignored. In offices, on public transport and in homes, they are being challenged by Angry Birds and Candy Crush. The mobile gaming app, one of the more addictive developments of recent times, has arrived.

As people glare into their tablets and smartphones, companies are attempting to capitalise on this interest by developing

games as a marketing tool. These can vary in their complexity, but they all focus on promoting a brand or recently launched product, and spreading the word as widely as possible.

But the form, and success, of a gaming app as a marketing tool can vary wildly.

Wieden + Kennedy, an advertising agency, claims to have created one of the success stories. Its game, Gumulon, launched earlier this year with the hope of fighting an apparent decline in people chewing gum.

Ace, an alien and the bravest miner from his home planet Gumulon, has to run, swing and jump for his life after disturbing a prehistoric cave beast during a dig. Ace’s mission is to warn his fellow miners, collect valuable goodies on the way, and survive for as long as possible.

Gumulon looks similar to many of the scrolling games which enjoyed a significant presence on early gaming consoles and are seeing a revival on mobile devices. Running

and jumping against a changing background is nothing new.

As with other marketing campaigns, the game is linked to a product. Gumulon fans have been urged to add upgrades to the game by scanning packs of Stride gum.

But the most original aspect of the game, which launched earlier this year, is how it can be played. Users can opt to control Ace by touching the screen of their phone or tablet, but they are encouraged to instead do so by chewing. The front-facing camera of a device can monitor the user’s mouth. Every time they chew, Ace jumps.

Matt Simpson, an interactive strategist at Wieden + Kennedy, who was involved in Gumulon’s development, says the game was an attempt to reinvigorate the industry.

“Chewing gum as a whole is on the decline,” he says. “People aren’t chewing as much gum

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This Game of Phones is not personal, it’s a matter of survival VIEW

By Keil Hubert

as they used to. There are lots of theories about this. One is that teens have mobile phones to entertain them now instead.

“People in the 18 to 25 age category spend a lot of time on their phone. When they have a second of free time, they pull their phone out and they are texting and gaming. So we were challenged to create a game for this, and wanted to integrate chewing into it.”

The app has been downloaded around 200,000 times, which Simpson describes as a success. But he says there were challenges, both in developing and then promoting the game.

“We have a couple of people who are creatives but can code, which was important,” he says. “Rather than using a huge amount of resources or time, the people working on the game need to know what they are doing.

“It’s also difficult to market the apps. It’s one thing making a game, but it’s another thing getting it into the App Store. You can get one download a day for a million days and you won’t make it, but if you get a million in a day, it will be number one in the store.

“You have to have your own tactics for promoting the game and get all your ducks in a row. We had a PR story but were also promoting it on all channels, and had quite high rankings in some categories.”

Despite any problems, Simpson now believes gaming apps could become a new marketing tool, targeting consumers looking to be entertained in their spare time.

He says: “Something that’s happening more in the marketing world is less, how can you

Main image: Stride Gum’s Gumulon is proving a popular download; Insets, above: Games such as Plants Vs Zombies and Angry Birds still dominate the landscape, however

push this, but more, how can you genuinely entertain people? That’s why people try to make viral videos.”

When it comes to the future of games as marketing, some are less optimistic. Marc Blinder, EMEA director for social media strategy at Adobe, believes gaming will only ever play a small part in the industry.

“To me it’s been a steady part of the marketing mix for a while now but not a major part, and I don’t think it ever will be that core to how companies do marketing,” he says.

“I see some really big successes but tons of failures, and I don’t think it makes sense (to use a game).

“If you are doing a major product launch campaign and you had a large, many millions of pounds budget, then you could take a few hundred pounds to throw at a game. But it’s not the case with smaller budgets.”

Blinder argues that designing gaming apps involves high risks.

“In gaming, you have a crowded space in terms of social or mobile gaming. You have competition from names such as Angry Birds and Farmville. You are outside of your comfort zone as a marketer,” he says.

“It’s one thing for Electronic Arts to say it has a new game. But if you are Marks and Spencer, it doesn’t sound like it’s going to be fun. There’s also the problem of why people are going to come back again and again being balanced with your marketing. That’s a really tough balancing act.”

Like Simpson, he also warns hopeful games developers from the marketing world about the challenges of promoting their app.

“I think part of the problem is a successful game launch strategy doesn’t fit will with most large entities’ marketing strategies.

“What you really need is a larger budget to promote it than you used to build it.”

Angry Birds and other names will continue to captivate mobile users around the world.

But it may be some time until brands are as enthusiastic about them.

I attended a seminar on enterprise mobility management the other week.

During one of the breakout sessions, the speaker presented a slide on market fragmentation that showed the percentage of iOS and Android devices on his network, subdivided by OS version. The presenter slyly asked us which player was missing. There were nervous chuckles across the crowd as people thought about RIM’s latest financial troubles. When the presenter advanced his slide and clarified that he actually meant Windows Phone 8, people seemed genuinely surprised.

I heard one fellow in the back row mutter incredulously, “Wait, Microsoft is still in the phone business?”

Oh, good grief! Yes, Microsoft is still engaged in the smartphone and tablet market. To give it its due, the company’s latest smartphone OS is probably the best edition they’ve ever done. No matter what its market share is today, it’s likely that Microsoft will continue to grow steadily and will need to be seriously considered by third-party application developers as its player gains traction.

device types and OS versions demands a small army of highly trained support techs. For all but the largest of IT departments, that means some devices will have to be declared ineligible for technical support because it’s simply not cost-effective to keep small numbers of obscure or obsolete devices running.

Ironically, in my last outfit that meant BlackBerry received premium support, yet there was no support at all for Android users when they rang the helpdesk.

In the end, it’s consumers like us who are making this a headache for developers and IT support teams: it’s so easy and cheap for us to buy the latest mobile technologies on a whim that we can’t help ourselves.

Then, once we have the newest, shiniest toys, we demand our employers indulge our insatiable device appetites.

This problem affects BYOD initiatives too. Unless you’re willing to commit a significant quantity of resources, you can’t commit to supporting every possible flavour of guest device. At some point, you’ll have to declare some visitors’ devices persona non grata. That may inspire some

“Unless you’re willing to commit a significant quantity of resources, you can’t commit to supporting every possible flavour of guest device” That represents a major problem, though: there are too many OS versions to develop for. When you’re a small developer, where do you focus your efforts? I ran a small dev project for two years, trying to bring a pair of casual games to market for iOS 6 and Samsung’s version of Android 4. Earlier this year, I shut down the project because it was no longer cost-effective to continue. I was disappointed, but not terribly surprised.

From what I’ve observed, the situation is just as bad for businesses that need to maintain feature parity for their apps between all the mainstream smartphone and tablet operating systems. Just getting web-delivered content to behave consistently between platforms can be darned tricky; keeping compiled apps up-to-date on the different platforms and editions can be maddening.

If you have a sufficiently large team of programmers and testers, you can probably just barely keep up. If you don’t, one or more of your efforts will have to be sidelined. Right now, that probably means BlackBerry. Next to drop might be Windows Phone 8 or older versions of the (currently) dominant OSs. The same problem plagues IT support teams. Troubleshooting wildly different

anger from the Android 2 die-hards, but they’ll live. You have to draw a line in the sand based on the break-even point; one side reflects the commitment you’re willing to make to the majority of your customers.

The other side includes all of the customers you simply cannot afford to support. It’s not personal; it’s a matter of survival.

This isn’t likely to change soon. No matter what the OS zealots preach, no one OS or platform is likely to “win” the market.

Google, Apple, and Microsoft have too many compelling features lined up for any one device or version to conquer hearts for more than a few weeks. That will be great for consumers in the long run… even as it’ll likely remain a living hell for developers and support staff. keil.hubert@gmail.com

an independent report from lyonsdown, distributed with the daily telegraph

Business Technology December 2013

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Can’t see the wood for the trees?

Why it’s important that businesses build the right customer data sets INDUSTRY VIEW

F

or businesses to continue communicating effectively with their customers and to get a step ahead of the competition, they need to have a marketing strategy that effectively integrates all aspects of a consumer’s buying behaviour on and offline.

As ever, technology is the catalyst for this – one in seven website searches are now carried out on mobile phones, more than double the number last year. It is important for businesses to adapt to this rapid change by bringing offline customer insight to bear within online domains. We are now in a world where consumers are becoming more independent, self-aware and in control.

They increasingly understand the importance of safeguarding personal information, are more conscious of the impact of their online behaviour and where to obtain the best deal.

This insight helps them decide how and with whom they want to spend their money.

But how much do businesses in general really know about their customers, and what are they doing to better understand and retain them more effectively? With online and mobile now truly ingrained in the purchasing experience, it is vital for businesses to keep up with the realities of today’s consumer and truly know their customers.

There is increasing hype at the moment about big data, and buzzwords such as multi-channel or omni-channel marketing. But what does this all mean if businesses aren’t making the most of this big data they already have to help better understand their customers? Not much, is the answer!

Businesses need to take advantage of the invaluable information they have at their fingertips, to better target and engage with customers. Data without commercial context and proper application, big or otherwise, is just data.

Every day, a vast amount of data is generated as consumers search for and buy the things they need from their preferred brands. There is more data now than ever before, with more digitised data created in the last two years than existed up to that point. While it’s fantastic to have access to all of the “digital exhaust” coming off the back of those activities, many businesses run the risk of drowning in the sheer volume of it. Estimates suggest that 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are generated every day.

Actually, the thought that there’s more data than we can process (which has probably always been true) is dressed up as the latest trend, with associated technology must-haves. It’s not size that matters, but rather having the right data to address business objectives. Businesses need to concentrate on the intelligence and insight that proper data management can offer. Over the next few years we will

see the rise of componentised small data – creating and integrating small data packages or intelligence into business processes, not just building big data monoliths.

At present many businesses are unable to see the wood for the trees and are getting too immersed in the concept of big data in its own right rather than how it can help their business, or indeed their customers. While “digital exhaust” presents new commercial opportunities, it also presents challenges. How should all of these consumer actions, behaviours and insights be interpreted and used to help brands engage with consumers and promote their offerings? What aspects of a customer’s buying behaviours are being enacted offline, online and face-to-face, and what actual data is needed to make these interactions work better?

From the consumer point of view, the lines between offline, online and face-to-face experience are blurring. But the greatest challenge for businesses to understand today is that a customer’s experience is now an aggregate of online and offline events, mobile and home computers, store and device, marketing and service – an all-channel perspective.

Callcredit recently commissioned research (as part of the fastMap marketing gap analysis) to look at the changing path to buying. What new gaps are emerging between the channel people use when they are looking for goods and services and their preferences for how marketers and businesses communicate with them? For example, the research highlights that there is a hardcore of people who don’t buy insurance or utilities, or research credit card or loan deals online and have no plans to do so, with only 5 per cent of them having any intention to start to do so in the future. Of the seven in 10 who buy over the internet, nearly a quarter are recent converts.

There was a marked difference in perception

from marketers of what is actually happening.

When marketers were asked what their view was of a consumer’s buying behaviour, they expected just over a quarter of consumers not to have bought services by post or mail order. In truth almost three in five have never done so. Almost four out of five have not, nor have no plan to, buy via their mobile.

Surprisingly, marketers expected that more than half of consumers would be buying on the move.

They also overestimated the rate of adoption.

Clearly there is a discord between how consumers chose to purchase goods and services and what the marketers’ perception is, with the suggestion that marketers should not lose sight of traditional channels.

Consequently, it’s important that businesses collect and build the right customer data sets to create a joined-up customer lifecycle programme.

To work effectively, this needs to take account of the various touch-points as they discover, explore, buy and revisit: face-to-face, in the home or on the move. Businesses need to get a grip on the right data, whether it is big data or insightful, relevant smaller data – identifying the right channels and the right time to engage with a customer. This will drive value in the short and long term.

In 2014 the companies that work out more complex customer journeys have a chance of becoming truly “omni-channel”. But there is still plenty of room for improvement, as anyone who’s been the subject of an aggressive or misdirected sales and marketing campaign knows.

Nowadays, big isn’t always better – the winners are the ones that derive the insight and, from it, make the smarter decisions.

Chris Savage (left) is managing director, Callcredit Marketing Solutions 0113 388 4300 christopher.savage@callcreditgroup.com

an independent report from lyonsdown, distributed with the daily telegraph

Like us: facebook.com/biztech

Even fearless reporters get anxious about certain things. For the Inspector, who has a funny relationship with heights and sometimes feels sick in a moving car, tumbling around in a rollercoaster sounds like hell.

But in the name of research Dogberry might brave The Smiler, an Alton Towers ride with no less than 14 gutchurning loops.

The ride, likely to test the most hardened theme park aficionados, stands out because of its use of mobile

cloud. Workers can do much more outside of the office than a few years ago.

As sophisticated as smart devices are becoming, though, none of this is possible without adequate infrastructure and reliable internet. The days of dial-up and slow connections are a distant memory for many. But what is the future of internet connectivity? 4G, which was very publicly rolled out by telecoms company EE last year and is also being introduced by rivals,

technology. In a sign of how widespread these applications are, the ride is being promoted through a mobile game.

Users can simulate The Smiler and achieve upgrades by scanning certain images, with the last one coming after the ride. Dogberry might feel queasy, but he’s also intrigued.

ExpertInsight

Twitter: @dogberryTweets

is turning heads. Is it possible for everywhere to have a fast, 4G connection? EE, at least, sees this as a possibility. Just recently it introduced 4G in a remote part of Cumbria, a rather idyllic but isolated area of England.

As devices are refined, there will be more ways for businesses and consumers to use the internet.

Meeting that need will spark many future debates.

In America, busy executives may heave a sigh of relief at the news that the Federal Aviation Administration is relaxing its rules on the use of electronic gadgets in planes.

The changes will mean passengers can keep most devices switched on during take-offs and landings.

But companies are also wondering whether this will herald the widespread use of Wi-Fi provided on planes.

What would this mean for travellers? Possibly more noise and annoyance, and less of a chance to relax and forget work. But it also means greater productivity.

As on trains, people flying could be greeted by the sight of men in suits tapping at phones and laptops.

The Glass is half full Mobile devices, from phones to tablets, have been doing a fairly good job of selling themselves. But it doesn’t hurt to have a few stars on board. So the people behind Google Glass will be pleased with their new video, which tracks music producer Young Guru (right) as he takes a stroll through town while wearing the glasses.

In a moment that may inspire music fans, Young Guru uses a Google Glass app to pick up sounds around him and later creates a beat by mixing together the sounds detected on the device.

Google Glass may still seem like a novel concept. But if different uses like this prove popular, the device could quickly catch on.

Business Technology

Connected business | 11

Find us online: business-technology.co.uk

Inspector Dogberry Mobile phones are decades old and their impact has only grown over time.

But much of this is owed to connectivity.

Smartphones are handy for calls and texts. But they really gain value when they can be used for work, whether this involves responding to important emails on the go or accessing files stored in the

December 2013

By Matt Smith, web editor

u Editor’s pick Econsultancy http://econsultancy.com/uk/ blog/tags/mobile Digital marketing research publisher Econsultancy is excellent for advice on getting the most from your online business, and its mobile section is no exception. Browse the archives for advice on marketing on smartphones and tablets along with examples of firms offering the best customer experiences.

Canvas Mobile Business Apps Blog

Mobile Business Insights http://asmarterplanet.com/ mobile-enterprise

www.gocanvas.com/ content/blog

Mobile Business Insights – a part of IBM MobileFirst – offers great advice on bringing mobile to your business, from best practice for mobile payments and finding your BYOD sweet spot to busting security myths and implementing stable infrastructure.

Canvas’ Mobile Business Apps Blog presents a mix of the best apps for businesses and examples of how companies have employed them to save time and money, along with best practices for doing the same at your firm.

Domosphere www.domo.com/blog/tag/ mobile

ThinkFree Document Viewer (Free – Android)

Business Card Reader HD (£4.99 – iOS)

Access your MS Office docs on the move with this viewer, which also supports email attachments and Google Drive.

Wish there was a way to digitise the piles of business cards you’ve accumulated? This automatically scans and sorts them for you.

How can you get the best results from mobile business intelligence? What’s the best platform to build your business’ systems on? How do you go about designing the user experience? Find answers to these questions and more by reading Domo’s informative mobile business blog.

Supporting the new style of IT Testing and releasing applications faster enables agile business INDUSTRY VIEW

T

echnology disruption, globalisation and demographic shifts are opening up opportunities to create new business models. Emerging economies have leapfrogged “land-line” communications to go directly to mobile, and increasingly pioneering innovative computing systems such as mobile payments.

Industry analyst group Gartner has predicted that by 2015 mobile application development projects targeting smartphones and tablets will outnumber

native PC projects by a ratio of four to one.

In this new style of IT, business agility is more than ever dependent on its IT. Today’s businesses can only change to address new opportunities and fight off competition as quickly as its IT systems and projects allow. This agility puts businesses at the forefront of delivering IT success. Both IT and business managers have to rethink their whole approach to planning, developing, deploying and maintaining their critical business applications.

Moreover, using traditional testing methods will not enable the modern business to compete or deliver. Therefore the ability to cut testing cycles and improve quality is a major consideration for businesses, driven by this pace of change and the competitive advantage gained by quality and speed to market.

Infuse Consulting, a global provider of quality assurance and software testing services, has been working with its partners and customers in delivering testing projects at up to 66

per cent less cost, in 50 per cent less time, while improving quality compared with traditional testing approaches.

Infuse Consulting’s service expertise is enabled by useMango™ – an innovative advanced test automation tool and framework, which integrates into industry-leading ALM (application lifecycle management) tools to deliver more consistent, better documented and reliable results from testing.

Software failures impact on application delivery time, costs and ultimately business reputations. White paper The Business Need For Agile Software And How You Can Achieve It is available for download from http://usemango. co.uk/technology/white-papers/.

020 7025 8714 www.infuse.it

an independent report from lyonsdown, distributed with the daily telegraph

12 Business Technology December 2013

Business

NEWS...VIEWS...INSIGHTS...OPINION...REPORTS...NEWS...VIEWS...INSIGHTS...OPINION...REPORTS...NEWS...VIEWS Connected business

Video bonus

Mobile applications for business http://youtu.be/suPb_hjoTUE Bringing business goals and IT together to reach mobile customers.

Nigeria

Russia

ExpertInsight

A retailer has been using “shopping walls” to increase m-commerce.

Media Markt used posters designed to look like shelves containing products with price tags, which contain Near Field Communication (NFC) tags and QR codes, in Moscow’s subway from September to November.

Consumers who scanned the posters, designed to look like Media Markt shelves containing products

and price tags, were redirected to the retailer’s mobile website, allowing them to place orders and then choose whether to have it delivered to their home or pick it up from a store.

But the possibilities within the trial were limited. Customers who had go o d s de l ive r e d h ad to pay a courier in cash, and those who collected in-store had to pay using a c a rd. But t he t r ia l i s b ei ng reviewed. If it were rolled out more widely, mobile payments could be viable.

Mobile money is becoming more widespread in Nigeria, after Western Union launched a mobile transfer service there.

The bank has been working with payment processing company eTranzact International, and now lets its customers in Nigeria receive money transfers on their phones using a system called PocketMoni.

The move comes after the vast expansion of the mobile payments market in various parts of Africa over the last decade.

In recent years Kenya has seen its banking revolutionised by M-Pesa, which allows users to transfer money via mobile.

It means that many people living in rural areas without banks are now able to transfer money to relatives or make payments despite not having an account.

It also meant that in dangerous areas, people could transfer money without having to carry it around and risk being mugged.

The system launched in 2007, and required users to register with a local vendor by showing them their mobile number and some form of identification.

Users could then deposit cash with an authorised vendor, or “agent”, and control e-cash stored on their phone.

It has grabbed attention around the world, and inspired similar systems both in Africa and other parts of the world.

The new Western Union platform in Nigeria will allow users to pay utility bills, top up their phone credit, pay merchants and make other transfers.

In a release earlier this year, Western Union Digital’s general manager Khalid Fellahi said: “We are very pleased to launch our new relationship with eTranzact to increase the number of access points for consumers to use our services worldwide, and provide convenient mobile solutions for those who want new methods for money transfer transactions.”

Valentine Obi, the managing director and chief executive

officer at eTranzact, said: “PocketMoni, the eTranzact mobile money service, is specifically designed to transform a user’s phone into a highly interactive, feature-rich payment device, and our relationship with Western Union will allow for 24/7 access to money transfer transactions.”

Right place, right time: unlocking the secrets to digital advertising INDUSTRY VIEW

W

ith more and more people turning to social media and mobile applications for their business needs, getting the right message to the right person, at the right place and at the right time is essential.

Creating ads on Facebook and getting the traffic you want on mobile applications can unlock the digital potential of your business.

Adknowledge uses predictive technology to forecast the online location of a company’s audience and delivers the message which best targets them based on consumers’ previous behaviour. It has been so successful at increasing companies brand-awareness, the firm has grown by around 50 per cent this year, achieving revenue results of $300million.

British-born Ben Legg (right), chief executive at Adknowledge, says: “The aim is to get into the head of the consumer.

Campaigns are worked out by trial and error – if an image or keywords are not producing results they are quickly dumped and replaced with ones that work.

“All campaigns are tested live in the market rather than via testing programmes which take months to get directly to the end consumer. Companies

can see what works immediately in their campaigns and get the results they want instantaneously.”

Legg has an army background and spent 10 years travelling around the world “building things and blowing things up” before applying his engineering background to the corporate world.

Legg had previously held positions as chief operation officer at Google Europe and chief operation officer at European Directories, but was lured to Kansas City to spearhead Adknowledge after discovering it was the next Silicon Valley.

The company has 10 offices globally and its international influence can also be seen in the London office, with Italian Fabio Pigo leading the team.

Adknowledge has a database of 400 million consumers, which can be used to predict people’s buying habits and behaviours. The database draws upon years of long-tail research, initially created from the firm’s email business, and is now used within its social media and mobile application products. All information is held within privacy laws and is not personally identifiable, and algorithms help predict people’s behaviour from their past choices.

AdParlor, Adknowedge’s main social media product, has been used

by companies such as Ford, Groupon, Amazon, Netflix and Coca-Cola to target audiences on Facebook. Thousands of ads can be created at once to target potential audiences so companies get the most return on investment.

Companies define what they want to achieve through the campaign and payment is only for these results.

Groupon’s use of AdParlour has made it one of the largest campaigns in Facebook’s history. The campaign delivered tens of billions of impressions and millions of new user sign-ups.

Adknowledge also specialises in delivering effective campaigns for mobile apps and promoting free apps. After only launching the mobile app eight months ago, it now achieves three million downloads a month.

For Adknowledge, the satisfaction is not only in providing millions of app downloads or putting an advertisement in front of the right person at the right time. The company prides itself on delivering value and staying as focused on ROI as its clients. +44 (0)20 7212 9030 benlegg@adknowledge .com

an independent report from lyonsdown, distributed with the daily telegraph

December 2013 Business Technology 13

S...INSIGHTS...OPINION...REPORTS...NEWS...VIEWS...INSIGHTS...OPINION...REPORTS...NEWS...VIEWS...INSIGHTS...

World

China

ExpertInsight

E-commerce has been boosted by a Chinese anti-tradition which encourages its single population to have a retail binge.

China’s Singles Day, which falls on November 11 and is seen as a twist on Valentine’s Day, gives singletons in the country an excuse to splash out on themselves and celebrate being unattached.

The occasion prompts online retailers to offer significant discounts to customers, and is giving a huge annual boost to both e-commerce and mobile sales.

It originally began as a protest against Valentine’s Day, but its reach and the money spent each year has been on the rise.

In China, online retailers are seen to compete with physical stores by offering a greater variety of goods. Those celebrating Singles Day can buy themed products such as

“boyfriend body pillows”, designed to mimic the shape of a man, as well as other goods, such as a pair of boots.

Taobao, part of China’s e-commerce giant, Alibaba Group, launched a shopping festival on its site Tmall.com, highlighting major discounts for the day.

The country has more than 200 million online shoppers.

Apart from offering retail

therapy for consumers, the day has major benefits for the Chinese economy.

Banks and credit card providers will benefit from the use of their services, as well as logistics companies who often deliver the goods.

Western brands have been trying to capitalise on the opportunity by taking part.

Microsoft decided to get involved online for the first time this year.

United States Starbucks mobile retail services have been proving a success with customers in the USA. The US has seen some big mobile payment innovations and has worked towards developing an infrastructure for these, but consumers have nevertheless been slow to start using the technology.

But Starbucks has recently seen robust sales, in part because of its mobile applications.

Earlier this year the quarter ending on June 30, 2013 brought the chain an impressive 9 per cent increase in same-store sales, which it in part attributed to its mobile capabilities.

This includes the Starbucks smartphone app, which works as a loyalty card, letting customers check transactions, track how many loyalty stars they have and manage a Starbucks card balance.

But it also has a number of additional functions, including a store locator, a food menu offering nutritional information and a drinkbuilding feature encouraging people to put together their own beverage.

At the time of the sales results in summer, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz was keen to emphasise that such strong results weren’t likely to happen on a regular basis.

Starbucks is one success story in mobile payments. But other American systems, such as Google Wallet and Square, have failed to achieve widespread up-take from retailers.

Unlocking the potential of open-source software and agile development INDUSTRY VIEW

O

rganisations in both the public and private sector are discovering that, thanks to advances in open-source software and agile delivery techniques, enterprise-scale software projects need not be as resource-intensive or unpredictable as they used to be.

Household names such as Facebook, Spotify and Netflix all make extensive use of such technologies, demonstrating confidence in opensource as a robust foundation for enterprise-scale development.

Open-source offers a range of viable alternatives to commercial packages that span the IT landscape, from operating systems to databases and developer tools. Their ready availability makes evaluation straightforward and they offer potential for significant capital and operational cost savings.

Other benefits include the opportunity for customisation and better support for open standards, both of which help improve interoperability with other systems. Openness can also lead to better security thanks to more responsive support from active developer communities when new security

concerns are discovered. However, open-source also comes with hidden risks for the unwary: • Choose carefully. There are many options with a broad spectrum of quality and varying levels of community support.

• Open-source can lack the warranties of traditional commercial products.

Consider how you will ensure support across the lifetime of the system.

• Understand the licensing and IPR implications. There are many different open-source licensing schemes – be aware of the differences and your obligations.

• Offerings that appeal to the development team might not be right for the job.

Ensure strong technical governance to prevent the introduction of unnecessary complexity and inconsistency.

With better documentation, enhanced support options and cloud deployments bringing greater flexibility and efficiency, open-source continues to improve. But how do you ensure a predictable and

reliable enterprise deployment?

Agile techniques are sometimes criticised as unfit for enterprise-scale development. In reality, while not a universal panacea for IT delivery problems, an agile approach tailored to the project and the organisation can deliver business value, more quickly and at a higher quality.

Many organisations are successfully delivering robust enterprise-scale solutions by combining open-source components with an agile delivery approach. They achieve efficient, predictable delivery by applying some key principles: • Encourage collaborative working – engage business experts, decision makers and operations people early and regularly throughout the project.

• Avoid surprises at the end of the project by evaluating technical and functional risk and proving architecturally

and functionally complex areas as early as possible.

• Test early and continuously using automated tools where possible. Take real data from production for testing as soon as it is available and refresh it regularly.

•M ission-critical projects require an appropriate project structure and level of formality to support incremental acceptance. Tailor the approach and tools to the project, environment and people.

IT is renowned for failing to live up to its hype – however, when carefully undertaken by skilled practitioners, implementations based upon open-source components and delivered using an appropriate set of agile techniques can provide real cost and efficiency benefits.

Mark Pullan (left) is chief software engineer at BJSS 0113 2979797 www.bjss.com

an independent report from lyonsdown, distributed with the daily telegraph

Business Technology December 2013

BizTech Zone

14 | Connected business – Industry view

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The future

Getting the right partner for innovation T he history of IT outsourcing reflects, in many ways, the history of computing itself. Computer systems were written to add automation efficiency to existing business processes and thereby eliminate cost.

Only later did new companies and operating divisions emerge which were truly software-enabled in as much as they were introducing new products, business processes and services, uniquely defined by the software itself.

Much of today’s IT outsourcing remains firmly rooted in the cost-reduction model. But if we examine the process and technology decisions being made by business leaders today it is clear that something more is needed. Cost reduction may suffice for business support systems but not for core revenue generating platforms.

What are the processes and platforms which define my business?

Everything other than your core services can and should be provided by specialist external agencies providing what are, to you, commodity services such as customer management, e-commerce, content distribution, social conversation or HR services.

The CIO/CTO of today is

truly a systems integrator of many separate solutions rather than a systems builder.

How does my customer interact with my product or service?

Access from mobile devices is now the norm and tolerance for a poor experience is minimal, so how do I leverage the range of delivery devices yet ensure consistency and vitality in a delightful experience?

How do I keep up with change?

The lifecycle of my products must be measured in weeks and months, with changes to both the external service and core underlying technologies being seamlessly accommodated in an always-on world.

How does my product or service interact with those of my partners, competitors, aggregators and social media platforms?

As traditional business intermediaries are eliminated new ones emerge.

How can I maintain the knowledge of the history and core vision of my products and services?

Talent is scarce, mobile and fashion-conscious, and so is always looking for the next big thing – in your company or elsewhere, so you need to

somehow preserve systems knowledge.

How do I free up time for key staff to be able to think about my business?

Lack of a subject matter expert’s time is frequently a major inhibitor for releasing new functionality of the right quality.

These demands have seen the growth of nimble, product-centric software engineering companies.

They allow their clients to focus on sales and fulfilment of their product or solution together with driving the ongoing product roadmap from a business and overall architectural perspective.

The engineering

partner then focuses on supporting the product lifecycle through best-practice software development and operations engineering services using resources gathered from the global talent pool. Talent can be based anywhere to take advantage of, for example, Israeli innovation, Eastern European engineering excellence matched with the sheer scale and depth offered by India.

Pete Rogers is vice president and UK general manager for Ness Technologies 07730 981 750 pete.rogers@ness.com

In focus: People dictate the technology

W Isaac Asimov, science fiction author

“

I do not fear computers. I fear the lack of them

ith an increasingly agile workforce choosing to work in their preferred location, mobile devices are often becoming the first point of contact between businesses and customers, suppliers and employees.

Ovum reveals that 56.8 per cent of full-time employees access corporate information from their personal devices, highlighting the transformation between employees and the IT department. Consumers have gained more influence through social media, the popularisation of flat business structures and increased buying power.

We have reached a turning point where technology is no longer dictated by corporations but by the people working for them. This consumerisation of IT hasn’t just affected operations and technological advancements; it

has even influenced the way traditional organisations look and feel.

Not only have people’s requirements changed, but the way they engaged with each other has changed too. Employees are demanding next-generation collaboration solutions that embrace the changing consumer behaviour.

Unify has carried out extensive research on user requirements to support Project Ansible, which will deliver an enhanced user experience. The proliferation of mobile devices has created new ways to work and businesses need to harness the value from these changing consumer attitudes and work behaviours.

Trevor Connell is managing director, west region, Unify 0800 158 5236 www.unify.co.uk

Finding space in a crowded market Competition in communications has resulted in the creation of stratified layers of the “enabling” (networks and devices used to access communication tools) and “enabled” (new services that run ubiquitously).

Access to the enabling layer is protected by a barricade of IP. Just compare the numbers of European patents* held by the key players: Samsung (21,803); Apple (1,720); Google (913), Microsoft (5,960); and Nokia (13,754).

As such, only those with serious budgets can attempt entering this arena.

Although the enabled layers have some clear winners, they also have low patent numbers* – eBay (103 patents); Facebook (31 patents); LinkedIn (two patents); Amazon (177 patents) – so there is still plenty of room for newcomers.

There are key areas of growth, especially in the fields of mobile platforms (specifically multimedia services to mobile devices), the expansion of cloud computing combined with wearable computing, machine-to-machine communication and the Internet of Things (specifically, tagging and tracking services in the consumer space are very popular).

The commoditisation of ideas across this technical arena, with no barriers to entry and almost instant competition for unprotected technology, is not just on the cards – it has already arrived. *Approximate number of European patents/ patent applications Ilya Kazi (below) is a patent attorney and partner at Mathys & Squire 020 7830 0000 www.mathys-squire.com

an independent report from lyonsdown, distributed with the daily telegraph

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December 2013

Business Technology

Connected business – Industry view | 15

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The debate

Can a mobile business improve effectiveness?

Ben Legg CEO, Adknowledge

Nigel Seddon LANDesk area director, EMEA North Having a connected business can bring many advantages to an organisation, the most notable being cost savings, which in turn leads to profit. But how do businesses turn one into the other?

The workforce is evolving and as a result there are currently hundreds of devices being mismanaged in organisations and even more hours being misspent on device support. This is leaving IT departments oblivious to who has what device and which software needs to be implemented, and severely under-resourced helpdesks trying to solve routine problems.

By implementing a user-oriented IT approach focusing on how users need and benefit from technology, rather than trying to manage each and every device, businesses are not only able to maintain control, but also empower users through the right devices and focus IT support on the right areas of the business. User productivity improves as they move from aging enterprise devices to the right tools which can supercharge their working lives.

+44(0)20 7212 9030 benlegg@adknowledge.com

01344 442100 www.landesk.com

ExpertInsight

Mobile drives all steps in the marketing funnel, from customer acquisition, through awareness, interest, trial, purchase, feedback and loyalty.

For many companies, mobile apps are now the primary ways consumers interact with them. Mobile can also link online and offline by, for example, helping consumers find physical stores or even pay by phone, and provide customer insight and feedback.

Mobile ads can be customised in real time. For example, our social media platform, AdParlor, recently integrated weather data into a Coors Light beer campaign, delivering messages to consumers via Facebook mobile newsfeed. The message appeared only on sunny days when the temperature hit 23°C. Conversion rates grew by 70 per cent compared with non-weather triggered ads.

Often, companies lacking apps lose market share. Adknowledge now delivers more than four million monthly app installs worldwide, up 500 per cent in the past year. That illustrates the importance companies are placing on getting their apps onto their customers’ phones.

Trevor Connell managing director west region, Unify We live in a hyper-connected world, where mobility and collaboration is the norm. Employees are, first and foremost, consumers, so the impact of mobile devices will affect even more businesses as the increasingly mobile workforce engages with more devices and apps. Work is no longer where you go and what you do but how you do it.

Our research reveals that 79 per cent of employees frequently work in distributed teams and therefore need intuitive and preferred tools to get their job done.

Organisations that recognise and support the consumerisation of business will reap the benefits of a productive workforce.

0800 158 5236 www.unify.co.uk

Gil Bouhnick Vice president of mobility, ClickSoftware A mobile business turns employees into super-employees by making them smarter, faster and closer to each other.

Accessing information in real time means users can get quick answers to issues that otherwise would slow them down. Whether it is their own stored data or information from back-end systems, everything is accessible within seconds. That means employees work smarter, become more efficient and are always up-to-date.

Speed is a growing success criterion for individuals and companies. Mobility saves time through automated processes, scanning technologies, digital invoices, and context-aware data capture. It also minimises time-consuming errors. More importantly, managers can free up bottlenecks on the move by replying to urgent emails or requests.

Mobility turned popular social trends into mega-trends and brought knowledge collaboration to the field. Now businesses and employees welcome knowledge collaboration more, which makes organisations closer, more knowledgeable and more efficient.

+972 3765 9476 gil.bouhnick@clicksoftware.com

Taking on the cyber criminals It is important to understand the true cost of ransomware INDUSTRY VIEW

I

t’s become clear over the last few weeks that ransomware is changing.

Unsurprisingly, it’s changing for the worse and it’s becoming more common.

Ransomware is malicious code that enters your computer and either encrypts all your files so that you can no longer access them or downloads some inappropriate content which you can’t remove. You are then asked to pay a ransom to de-encrypt your files so that you can access them again or to remove the inappropriate content.

Developing ransomware was originally labour-intensive but, over time, this cost has reduced and the number of ransomware threats we have seen has risen. The gangs behind it care little if they are attacking a consumer’s PC or a business. Indeed, many personal laptops are connected to work networks, as the lines between personal and work devices continue to blur.

Most recently, we assisted a

joint investigation with the Finnish Police and CERT-FI after a spate of police-themed ransomware hit five million consumers worldwide. When you consider the fee they were asking to de-encrypt the files was €100 (or US$300), the profit mounts up quickly.

Of course, some of those victims may have been sensible enough to back up their content on unconnected devices.

Most probably didn’t, but having access to their files was critical. They could have gone to the police, but this ransomware was designed to isolate victims, giving them only one option, which is to pay up.

The image that appears on the user’s screen to inform them their content has been encrypted may spoof a police message, but it isn’t done convincingly.

Victims often know this is a shakedown, but how many will go to the police when the cybercriminals have told them there is child porn on their computer? Likewise, it’s not a problem you would want to type into a web search engine. So people go ahead and do what they can, which is pay the ransom.

Of course, it’s not just consumers who are at risk now. Back in December of last year, in what is becoming an

increasingly common media report, a medical clinic in Australia was hit with a A$4,000 demand after its patient records were encrypted.

So what do businesses need to do? Close all known security gaps by making sure that all software is updated automatically with the latest security patches and that you have the best security software. This will significantly reduce your attack surface in the face of an exploit kit. And if you are using Java in your organisation, it should be limited to a specific browser which is not used for usual web browsing.

Finally, I would urge your business’ IT security professional to contact a company which recovers hard drives and ask for a quote covering every machine in your organisation. When the budgetholder sees what the potential cost could be to recover from a ransomware attack – including the cost of downtime – it becomes a no-brainer to make sure everything is automatically covered.

Allen Scott (far left) is managing director of F-Secure UK & Ireland 0845 890 3300 www.f-secure.co.uk

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