Building The Expo

Inclusion Transforms Human Capital to Innovation at the Expo

kevincarter — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 16:35:06 +0000

This is a companion to Inclusion Innovates the Conference Board: A Look at 2012 CEO Challenges. The post discusses the The Conference Board CEO Challenge 2012® Study: Risky Business Focusing on Innovation and Talent in a Volatile World — (There, we discuss how the study clarifies the role of Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) within efforts such as Building the Expo and Inclusion Innovates. Disruptive Inclusion, a theory defined in the post and explored on the Inclusion Innovates website, is that role).

In this Building the Expo post, let’s explore the role that Inclusion, or Intercultural competence, plays in transforming Human Capital to Innovation.

We know that diverse “idea” networks, particularly Business Resource Affinity Networks, or BRANs, spur innovation (Diversity and organizational innovation: The role of employee involvement, Yang Yang, Alison M. Konrad, 2011⁾. BRANs are employee led, company supported, volunteer groups that assist the organization with successfully on-boarding, engaging and developing members representing demographic difference. Organizations support BRANs because these idea networks improve the performance and retention of their members and they connect a company to its consumers, both outcomes ultimately delivering business results.

These organizational benefits that lead to innovation can be categorized as: connection, competence, and business development (Leveraging women’s networks for strategic value, Anne Donnellon, Nan Langowitz, 2009)

Specifically:

BRANs provide members with opportunities to connect with others who share common identities, to compare their experiences, and to support one another;
BRANs provide channels where members can acquire career advice and enhance their professional or leadership competencies; and
BRANs also initiate relationships with organizations outside the company to generate insights, affinity and business development.

Intercultural Competence aids leaders in “seeing” the possibility that the diverse Human Capital of BRANs can foster Innovation. Intercultural Competence is possessing the appropriate attitude, skills and knowledge to “think, feel and behave” in a manner that successfully integrates and leverages cultural differences.

The ATTITUDE is one of respect of and openness to others — the SKILLS are being able to patiently observe and listen to others — and the KNOWLEDGE is one of self and other cultures. If one possesses these attributes, they have the capacity to “think, feel and behave” in a manner that fully integrates the individual uniqueness that people bring to the work environment.

Getting people to bring “what’s inside out” for collective growth is the vital fuel of innovation. Disruptive Inclusion is an approach that not only brings “what’s inside out” from employees but also “what’s outside in” from external stakeholders to generate business practice, process and product innovation.

Disruptive Inclusion theory stresses the following components to transform Human Capital to Innovation:

Raise the organizational focus on employee engagement and participation in decision-making
Increase the Intercultural expertise (attitude, knowledge and skills) of leaders
Create Business Resource Affinity Networks
Guide BRANs towards cross-collaborative projects that are aligned with business objectives
Introduce social media technologies to accelerate this collaboration — inside and outside the organization — and
Focus BRANs collaboration on business product, process and practice innovation.

Disruptive Inclusion theory suggests that through the additional application of these elements, the speed, scope and duration of BRANs positive affect on members and the organization is accelerated.

In fact, when the introduction of BRANs is matched with organizational efforts to raise overall employee engagement, Intercultural expertise, cross-collaboration and social media technologies, a “super-additive” effect will emerge (Beyond Individual Creativity: The Superadditive Benefits of Multicultural Experience for Collective Creativity in Culturally Diverse Teams, Carmit Tadmor, Patricia Satterstrom, Sujin Jang, Jeffrey Polzer, 2012)

What are your thoughts ?

Riding the Inclusive Wave of the Innovator’s DNA

kevincarter — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 19:21:47 +0000

As I mentioned in my first post, my input to “Building the Expo” is based on the notion that diversity in people can foster a diversity of ideas and that inclusion of diverse ideas promotes innovation. This is an updated post that originally appeared in Inclusion to Innovation.

I have been reading several books and articles lately on innovation to refresh a workshop entitled “From Diversity to Innovation”.

Two books that had have the most profound impact on me are: The Innovator’s DNA, by authors Jeff Dyer, Hal Gregersen, and Clayton Christensen and Riding the Waves of Innovation by authors Fons Trompenaars and Charles Hampden-Turner.

The Inclusion to Innovation Intersection points shown brightly in the respective books.

In the Innovator’s DNA, the point of intersection was in Chapter 5: Discovery Skill #4: Networking. The central theme of this chapter was that “innovator’s go out of their way to meet people with different backgrounds and perspectives to extend their own knowledge.” What was most inspiring about the chapter was its encouragement for innovators to actively seek out cultural, ethnic, racial and gender diversity. To spur innovation, the authors encouraged “others to make a conscious effort to meet people with different education backgrounds; who hail from different countries, industries, and business functions; and who are of different ages, ethnic backgrounds,… socioeconomic groups, political groups, and religions, etc. … Diversity of networks breeds diversity of ideas.”

In Riding the Waves of Innovation, the point of intersection began in Chapter 4: Elements and Processes in Successful Creative Teams. The authors state, “… research consistently shows that, for a team to be innovative, diversity is crucial. Unfortunately, for many reasons, team leaders often don’t start with an innate belief in the importance of this diversity. “ The authors also cite the high level rationale for Disruptive Inclusion, “diversity in teams creates a positive environment of constructive conflict – an environment in which ideas synergistically resolve into higher-level outcomes than would be achievable in more homogeneous teams.”

So, if diverse people, bring diverse ideas that can lead to innovation, why isn’t diversity and inclusion a key tenet of Innovation? A study conducted at Cornell University suggests an answer.

In The Bias Against Creativity: Why People Desire But Reject Creative Ideas, the authors offer that, “people [even innovators] often reject creative ideas even when espousing creativity as a desired goal” if it arises from a source that they are unfamiliar, uncomfortable or have no experience. So, an unconstructive circle can develop … if one’s idea network is not diverse and one does not believe diversity is innately important, a wealth of innovative ideas will either a) not make into the innovation funnel or b) be devalued as too unconventional.

In “Building the Expo,” we break this unconstructive circle by advocating Inclusion Innovation. Inclusion Innovation intertwines diversity, “idea networks,” Intercultural expertise and collaborative technology to generate a “super-addictive” affect.

We will discuss the process in more detail next week. What are your thoughts so far?

Inclusion Innovates the Expo

kevincarter — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 10:00:01 +0000

“‘Building the Expo’ is about technology, strategy, and the things it takes to make companies work.” People, their unique perspectives, expertise and experiences, and the work culture their behaviors create, impact technology adoption, strategy execution and business success. My input to “building the expo” is based on the notion that diversity in people can foster a diversity of ideas and that inclusion of diverse ideas promotes innovation. This innovation happens through increased engagement with people throughout the World, improved insights into their needs and wants and “co-creation” with them on visions we would not have individually seen.

My participation, hopefully, will make you think, not only about business and how it operates, but also about the behavioral change and competences that must be nurtured to acknowledge, value and leverage your uniqueness and the uniqueness in others. “Whether you’re a corporate executive, entrepreneur, or simply someone interested in the work that makes up strategies and the technologies and changes that affect the horizon,” this site – and my posts – are for you. I hope you will gain a heightened appreciation of technology as you explore and learn about the uniqueness of the people, cultures and values that sparked that technology

I encourage dialogue, self-reflection and “co-creation” so please share your opinions, describe your experiences and clarify your values. Challenge my thinking, as we explore what’s around the corner in technology and gain some insight into the self-awareness, knowledge and expertise to adapt, adopt and leverage this future a little more successfully.

“Innovators go out of their way to meet people with different backgrounds and perspectives to extend their own knowledge.”
- Clayton M. Christensen, Jeff Dyer, Hal Gregerse

Thanks,

Kevin

What is Mobile? A Definition for Today’s Business World

dmaycock — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 18:06:06 +0000

When meeting with executives in Fortune 500 companies, I’m always presented with the question “I know you’re here to talk about Mobile, but what exactly does that mean?”.

Here is the answer I most often give, to help clarify how you can define “Mobile” as well as the world it fits within.

Production – This is the ability to create new content, publish papers or Power points, and build new digital media for others to consume. Traditional production devices are screens, mice, and keyboards all working with components like hard drives and processors, assembled in both desktop & laptop form. Can you turn an iPad into a production device? Sure, add a keyboard and turn your iPad into a screen – though you have the ability to produce content on tablets, without a physical keyboard, that’s not what it’s ideally built for, which is…..

Consumption – This the ability to view content, movies, power points, etc which is what Tablets were primarily designed to do. Can you write e-mails on it? Sure you can, but it’s typically not a doctoral thesis. Tablets, and devices with just a screen are primarily geared around viewing – reading – watching. What, then, is a mobile device for?

Interaction – This is the ability to interact with content, people, data, etc and is done best on a small pocket-sized device you carry around with you. Blackberry made e-mail an interactive medium, and enhanced it with blackberry messenger, Apple followed with iMessage, and text messaging even before that – and to this day – remains the #1 way in which people worldwide interact with each other without talking. Outside of communication though, we are starting to see people interacting in new ways – mobile payments, RFID, accelerometer-enabled data transactions for information like contact information. Yet, this world is not nearly as well explored as production and consumption, so where does the future belong to? Smart homes give us a small preview into this world, where you use your phone to interact with everything around you – but where do businesses take this? We’re already seeing an example of this at Starbucks, where people are paying with their phones and interacting with the cash register using a bar code generated through Starbuck’s loyalty card program. This I think, is just the beginning, with close to 10% of the world now using smartphones (http://bit.ly/ttrJHq) we will see companies using these personality-rich devices driving more of the end user experience, and using the data to get smarter on how consumers think.

Though technology will continue to evolve, and devices continue to proliferate – we will see production, consumption, and interaction becoming more advanced (and complimentary) with new interaction methods, like Siri, driving the experience to become more seamless and mature as technology becomes less of an aid and more of a companion. What’s to come is anyone’s guess, but it’s evident that technology is going to continue to surprise – and hopefully enhance – the way we look at mobile.

Guest Post — Copyleft, Copyright. Navigating Open Source license issues, Part I

kevinking — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 23:28:46 +0000

The Software Freedom Law Center makes a passing comment in their legal primer that reads as follows: “Law cannot yield attainable certainty because it is dynamic, inconsistent, and incapable of mastery by pure rote memorization.” Their statement was in support of their admonition NOT to use the primer as a substitute for legal advice, but the foundation (intentionally or not) succinctly summarized the challenges facing industries or fields that are emerging, dynamic and for the most part, unsettled.

Software licensing law is one of those areas. The nature of the industry – everything from the design, creation, implementation and delivery of its assets, (not to mention the intended audience), is disruptive. Where law’s intention is to gain clarity over time so that users (business owners, clients, citizens, etc) gain confidence in their actions, the software industry is one in which every business is exposed to the risk of irrelevance in an extremely short amount of time.

Marrying the two presents many challenges. Just because the industry is fast does not mean creators have no right to protect, manage, or profit from their work. Conversely, the creator of a useful idea should also not be allowed to deny the public domain of its usefulness at all costs. For every Facebook (at the time of this writing), there is a Myspace – or Friendster, for that matter – that is the nature of the game. A counter-example would be when the European Commission announced, as a result of a case that began in 1993 by Novell, declared to the legal world that ” Microsoft’s tying of Internet Explorer to the Windows operating system harms competition between web browsers, undermines product innovation and ultimately reduces consumer choice.” – in 2009. This must have been compelling news to users reading the news on their iPad who probably wondered “what is the Windows operating system this court speaks of?”

The fields do not move at the same rate, but their fates are inextricably intertwined.

Throughout this series, several major issues will be covered. There are several general categories of law that are subject to different interpretations based on individual circumstances, but for the most part, are well-developed and relatively stable. Copyright and Copyleft will be discussed first, mostly because of their almost universal applicability in software development.

In the meantime, we can all collectively hold our breath and await the outcome of the EU’s investigation to see if Microsoft’s support of the Open Document Format leads to better consumer choice – they’ve only been investigating since 2008.

Guest Post — Reading, Actually: The Lost Art of Reading in 21st Century Culture

jeffrubingh — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 22:08:05 +0000

“The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can’t read them.” – Mark Twain

We live in the most amazing time in history for knowledge availability. With the advent of the Internet, opportunities for learning have skyrocketed. Many of the most respected universities have made courses available free online. [1] Amazon offers tens of thousands of books for free online just by downloading them to your Kindle or to a Kindle application that runs on almost any platform. The Internet Archive (archive.org) has 2.5 million free books.

You would think that as a society we would be advancing now more than ever in terms of knowledge, creativity and educational excellence. In fact, the opposite is true. We live in perhaps the least educated time in recent history. While many people seem to know high school Math, English, and Science, a basic level knowledge of facts that would have once been considered essential is now scarce. For example, in a recent survey by Newsweek magazine, 29 percent of respondents couldn’t even name the vice president. [2]

The secret is that the solution lies right at our fingertips. It’s not about improving the public school system. While a laudable goal and certainly worth continuing to attempt, it’s been tried repeatedly for generations with marginal results. The decline of people’s intellect is often blamed on the rise of cable television and the Internet, but it began long before that. While as a society we have learned the skill of reading, we have no longer acquired the practice. Sure, people read, but usually as a last resort — on the plane, when you’re sick, “to fall asleep.” Most people abandon all attempts at reading as soon as some alternative media is even remotely available.

Have you met people that seem larger than life? There is something different about them that you can’t put your finger on. Perhaps, just perhaps, it has to do with something that we all have access to. It’s been posited all over the Internet (but I can’t find a source) that the average CEO reads 4-5 books a month. People like Richard Anderson, the CEO of Delta Airlines who always asks people in interviews, “what are the last three or four books you’ve read, and what did you enjoy about those?” [3] Consider this then: boosting your career path and changing your own world (and our world) may be as simple as making a commitment to lead a literary life.

The thing about literary people is, their life and perspective is far expanded beyond the small reach of their immediate borders. They see things through others eyes and in other times and places. If you want to go beyond a limited view of the world, your own immediate experiences, your own restrictive cognitive reality, the experiences of your very own last year or two, reading will do this for you. Here are some suggestions:

Read across a wide spectrum: Don’t stick to one subject area, one author, one time period or one genre. Of course you have limited time. But don’t just read tech books or business books. Human endeavor and the practice of it has been recorded faithfully for generations and you have ready access to the real words of these very real people. Have you ever wondered how Benjamin Franklin could be so productive and how he balanced his time between politics, religion, science, writing, diplomacy and music? You can read about it in his own words – the book is free on the Amazon Kindle. [4]

Dig deep: Consider picking a subject area you want to excel in and go for it. Don’t expect instant results. Developing respectable expertise may well take several months. The great thing is there are so many ways to do it. Download, buy, go to book sales, use the library, browse the Internet, follow the “1-3-5” method (below), read articles, listen to podcasts, dig deeply in one focus area and allow your brain, your experience and your unique perspective to be combined into your own special zone of competence.

Write: As Thackeray said “There are a thousand thoughts lying within a man that he does not know till he takes up a pen to write.” As you read, write. This could be your own reflections or simply repeating what you’re reading. If you want your thoughts to coalesce into something more than just repeating trivial tidbits that everyone already says or knows, you will allow your brain to come up with something unique that only you can contribute through writing.

Have a plan: Don’t expect to become literate without effort. Make a plan. Decide When. Choose a place and time to devote to reading. Make it regular. It could mean getting up a half hour earlier before the house wakes up, setting aside your lunch, or staying late at work. Stay devoted to it. Consider it just as critical as your other endeavors. If you’re interrupted, don’t write it off: “well, I was only reading.” Make it a priority. Decide What. If you have a goal for educating yourself on a topic, make a plan and stick to it but be willing to adjust your plan as you discover new sources of knowledge.

The “1-3-5” method: Do these three at the same time and you will get maximum exposure to a subject area. Your cognitive integration of the subject matter will surprise you.

Pick 1 respected tome about the subject and absorb every word digging very deeply, write down your thoughts as you go through it, perhaps even rewrite parts of it, write chapter summaries, blog and tweet about it.
Pick 3 related shorter books about the same topic and read them cover to cover but as quickly as possible while you’re reading the first book. Don’t pause to reflect, just fire-hose them down.
Find 5 other books that are related tangentially and skim them, reading some parts in detail but simply skimming other parts. Your brain’s ability to integrate all of the subject matter in new, fresh and interesting ways will surprise you. Your ability to discuss the subject at hand at close to an expert level will position you as that expert in your colleague’s minds.

Follow the path: If the author you’re reading makes you jump out of your seat in excitement, find out what else that author has written and find out who were the big influences on that author. Don’t blow off footnotes or bibliographies, especially now that much of your reading can be done while online. They are there to help you develop a unique and integrated view of what you’re reading, connecting different subjects and explaining cross-cultural references. If you love Tom Clancy, don’t stop there. With a little digging you will find that Freddie Forsyth was a major influence on him and now you’ll have a whole new world to enjoy.

Use all the tools: Don’t miss out on the tools available to you. For example, you don’t need a Kindle to read Kindle books. There are apps to let you read Kindle books on any PC or device or using a browser. This means you can read anywhere. On the bus, at the dentist, waiting in line, at Starbucks, waiting for the wife to try on seventeen outfits, at the symphony, in a boring meeting, at the company quarterly. Skimming through books works especially well during these times.

We live in an age of vast accessibility that even our parents and grandparents could only dream of. Take advantage of it. Now more than ever you can expand your borders beyond the prison of a non-literary life.

[1] “400 Free Online Courses from Top Universities,” Open Culture OpenCulture.org (November 26, 2011), http://www.openculture.com/freeonlinecourses

[2] Andrew Romano, “How Dumb Are We?” Newsweek (March 20, 2011), http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2011/03/20/how-dumb-are-we.html

[3] Adam Bryant, “He Wants Subjects, Verbs and Objects”, The New York Times (April 25, 2009), http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/26/business/26corner.html

[4] Franklin, Benjamin. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. [Lexington, Ky.]: SoHo, 2010. Digital.

Guest Post — Ten Things I Look For In a Software Developer

jeffrubingh — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 15:24:48 +0000

“When I hire someone, that’s when I go to work for them.” — John DiJulius

I have interviewed hundreds of developers over the last twenty years and it’s either fascinating and exciting and a ton of fun OR it’s the dregs and you wish it was over a minute into it. I have roughly an hour to determine your depth, breadth, character and skills.

That’s no easy task so here are ten things I hope for:

Get my attention: This is your time. I don’t want to be bored. Dig right in. Let’s do some work. Show me how we’d engage if you were on my team. Chit chat is fine. For about 30 seconds. Now I want to know that you’ll take the floor and show some thought leadership.

Don’t try to impress me with jargon: I’m not really impressed with acronyms and jargon and so-called impressive sounding system names and technologies. I’d be much more excited if you did the opposite: take a complex system, break it down for me and tell me in minutes how it functions and the role you played in implementing it.

Make it simple: You’ll be working with a variety of people, both technical and non-technical. Can you make a complex technical system understandable? Will people be intimidated by your technical prowess and be afraid to look stupid and engage you with questions? Or are you inviting and encouraging, making sure that all variety of people enjoy seeking you out because you make them feel valued and supported?

Tell me what you’re all about: What is your passion, what’s the theme I can recognize that you’ll bring to the table on my team. Are you a systems guy? Can you take anything apart and put it back together? Are languages your thing? Are you über passionate about the difference between static and dynamic typing, between functional and OO languages? Are you super-excited about HTML5 and can explain why it will change the world?

Make me trust you: If you’re going to be on my team, I’m going to have to trust you to represent me (and my boss, and his boss). Can I do that? Can you tell me of a time where you came through for your team because you were the trustworthy one? If I promote you to a position of leadership, will people follow you? Do you know how to be hard to soft people and soft to hard people?

Tell me where you’re going: Although I’m curious about where you’ve been, of much greater interest to me is where you’re going. Hook me on your vision. Clearly you’re ambitious (right?). Show me that your ambitions will be something our team can rally around and prosper from. Do you have a vision for where Big Data and High Performance Computing will converge to change the world? Bring me into that vision. Excite me. Turn the tables on me. Instead of you trying to hook me into hiring you, make me scared to let you out of the room before I give you an offer.

Look like you belong: We’re a consulting company. It’s not about jeans and t-shirts and stacks of Mountain Dew cans. We speak very often directly with the CTOs of Fortune 500 companies. Will I be eager to bring you to a client site? Do you have the social maturity to represent my team well? Show me that you have the depth to do more than just crank out code. Let me see in my mind’s eye how you’ll be engaging with clients or other teams in the company.

I want to hire YOU: I don’t want to see the Wizard. I want to get to know the person behind the curtain. So let’s get real. Don’t try to convince me you’re someone you’re not. Don’t embellish all the great things that you did if in fact you really didn’t. That’s not who I want to hire. If I hire you, I want to hire YOU. Our relationship has to start off with integrity. I’m not going to embellish the position I’m hiring for. Equivalently, I want to know exactly what you’re all about.

Have fun: I want thoughtful people on my team. But not dull people. Show up with confidence and engage me. Show me that your teammates will enjoy working with you and that clients will genuinely like paying for your time. If you stumble or lose your train of thought, crack a joke. I care far more about you as a person than you being perfect.

Know when to listen: All of the above are action items. Almost the most important of all though is, can you listen? Will you take direction? During our time together, I love it if you take the floor and show me something. I want to not want the time to end. I want to leave our time excited to get you on board because you did all of the above. But key to that is, did you take the time to listen as well?

Pro’s & Con’s of Mobile Messaging – An Industry Perspective

dmaycock — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 23:20:39 +0000

Introduction

With multiple technologies to chose from in the Mobile applications space, it’s hard to clearly determine what tool is best for the job. One particular technology that’s growing to meet the needs of enterprise users worldwide is SMS / MMS. With the growing popularity worldwide of text messaging, many companies have begun to look at the possibilities of the use of plain & multimedia text messages for both internal and external communication purposes, as well as alternatives to mobile applications to either provide a method to interact with end users in a device-agnostic fashion or gather / provide information such as promotions, or account information. This paper helps explore some of the pro’s and con’s of this medium as well as some potential use cases for where SMS / MMS has proven to be useful

Introduction to SMS / MMS

SMS (or short message system) was developed in the mid-1980s as a method to exchange short 160 character messages between different GSM handsets worldwide. The technology used was based on a diagnostic method cell tower operators used to communicate tower status between operators and the towers themselves, but was later repurposed for commerical use, with the first text message occuring in 1992, on Vodafone’s GSM network in the United Kingdom. The message was “Merry Christmas”.

In 2008, 4.1 trillion SMS text messages were sent, making a SMS a massive global industry worth several billion dollars. It’s grown in a number of different directions, including the ability to contact emergency services via text message in some countries, such as the United Kingdom and some parts of the US. With it’s popularity, it’s also grown to include multimedia through the development of MMS. MMS was originally designed as a captive technology that would allow carriers to charge end users every time a photo was taken. However, in 2004, most carriers admitted that it wasn’t making them a tremendous amount of money. China eventually led the revolution, in part due to the fact that there weren’t many high powered computers owned, but MMS-capable phones spread rapidly. Since then, MMS has exploded, leading to 1.3 billion active users and 50 billion MMS messages being sent as of 2008.

Since then, SMS / MMS has been used in every way possible to help communicate and interact with individuals. Though messaging technology has been hugely popular, with growing numbers every day, there are certainly draw backs to the technology as well due to it’s limitations around the type of interactivity a company can get, as well as mixed responses due to the overwhelming amount of messages exchanged by individuals, along with a good number of people that continue to not want to communicate via SMS or MMS.

The Pro’s & Con’s of SMS / MMS

This is a list of Pro’s & Con’s we gathered from our own experience with companies around the topic of SMS / MMS , as well as incorporating information we’ve gathered from enterprise cus-tomers, developers, and industry experts.

PRO) SMS / MMS is device agnostic
Utilizing a simpler IDE without requiring an extensive background in a particular pro-gramming language, clients can build applications with minimal training in much less time than a native application

CON) Texting can be considered intrusive
Though texting is a very popular medium, it’s also a very personal and always present medium that some people find intrusive. Given the level of personalization that goes into texting, having a trusted relationship between you and the customer is important before going down that path, and giving clear direction to opt in & out.

PRO) It’s affordable to set up SMS / MMS campaigns
Due to the relatively simple nature of both SMS & MMS technologies, setting up campaigns are reltatively easy and affordable vs other more costly solutions, such as a MEAP solution, to provide device-agnostic mobile communications to end users. Not only that, but all carriers have very mature practices in helping companies set up campaigns

CON) Messaging campaigns traditionally have mixed results
Based on conversations Slalom has had with companies around the topic of SMS / MMS solutions, there have been very mixed results in terms of the cost / benefit, and total feedback gained from campaigns. This was largely due to the highly qualitative results (ex: boosts level of informed consumer) that companies aimed for, but had a hard time measuring after the fact.

PRO) Development is relatively simple, given limitations of medium
Due to relatively simplicity of texting, the bulk of the work is in gathering end points (i.e. customer phone numbers) and structuring the message for distribution. Given cost considerations for MMS, most companies Slalom has experience with have opted to focus on SMS, making it even simpler to launch the campaign.

CON) Interaction is limited due to limitations of medium
Though the medium is relatively simple to develop and launch, this also means it’s difficult to exchange a great deal of information over SMS / MMS, meaning the interaction you have with your end users will also be limited. This is not only due to the text limit size of an SMS message, or data limitation of an MMS message, but also the need to keep messages to as small a size as possible to not confuse or mislead the end user. To get around this, most heavy texting is done in abbreviations such as “BRB” (be right back) or “LOL” (laughing out loud) but for corporate campaigns, this is never recommended due to large numbers of end users that may not be familiar with certain abbreviations.

PRO) Both MMS & SMS are mature technologies, with many vendors to chose from

Though SMS & MMS have been established technologies for a relatively short period of time, their growth and origins have made both technologies mature, and reliable means to exchange information to end users. So much so that When voice and data aren’t operating on a device, due to coverage issues, text messages will continue to work most times.

Conclusion

Though text messaging certainly has both it’s ups and downs, there’s no denying that messaging is a very popular way to exchange information in a device-agnostic worldwide way. Companies have certainly had mixed success, but the first step is understanding how your business problem, as it relates to utilizing mobile devices, needs to be solved through better understanding the logistics and outcomes of both successful and unsuccessful SMS/MMS campaigns for previous companies.

Mobile Trends To Watch for 2012

dmaycock — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 05:29:40 +0000

This was a big year for mobile technology, in both professional and consumer arenas. Looking back, and looking forward, what was big and what will be big?

Download the whitepaper here

Guest Post — Why Organizations Struggle To Deliver Software

jeffrubingh — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 04:16:58 +0000

There are five underlying variables that deeply affect an organization’s ability to deliver substantive, high quality software solutions effectively. When discussing this topic, people typically mention things like process, tools or skillsets but in truth, though those aspects are important, of far greater import are things that affect people’s focus, commitment and direction.

Leadership: Size will determine the exact structure of the leadership but there must be a clearly defined leader of the software development team. This person is the ultimate head authority that sets tone, policy, leads the culture and has the right to direct the activities of the team. There can be multiple people “at the top” to be sure, for example, driving sales or marketing or directing strategy or defining architecture. But team members need to have a clear understanding of who they answer to so there is comfort in knowing they’re performing as requested and not receiving conflicting direction.

Culture: While this word is frequently overused, understanding it is central to an organization’s ability to deliver effectively. There is a continuum between “fast and furious” for example, and “slow and deliberate”. Where does your organization lie? Is the team rewarded for being nimble and effective and delivering frequently, for example, or is the concern more about knocking down every last defect before each interim release? Do you celebrate quality over timeliness or is rapid, regular, reliable delivery more desirable? Having your team understand the underlying philosophy that will be rewarded allows them to function successfully almost automatically.

Legalism: Rules get a bad name. Rules are fantastic. They give people a sense of direction and how to operate. When there is a lack of policy and standards, people become confused and unsure how to proceed. By the same token, rules are constricting. When rules trump effectiveness, results suffer. Relying strictly on “rules” as a safety net rather than relying on your own common sense makes no sense. Your culture should be so well communicated that people know when an exception to the rule is the right way to go.

Fear: People should be empowered to make decisions because there is clear leadership and they understand the culture and they know when the rules don’t exactly fit the situation. Team members must be comfortable, not fearful, that decisions they make on their own will be supported, not picked apart and “Monday morning quarterbacked.” Feedback after the fact is important to be sure so that individuals understand how to make better decisions the next time. But confidence in their right to use their common sense “in the moment” will more often than not lead to superior results. Backing the person rather than the rule will have huge rewards downstream and will increase loyalty to the organization many times over as well as allow a person to grow in their decision making prowess.

Rigidity: Change is hard. Switching policies makes people uncomfortable. People complain because they developed a comfort level with how things have always been done. But change is essential. Tools evolve. Markets shift. Requirements change. Organizations that don’t adopt new practices, try out new techniques, adopt new methods and tools, are headed for the ash heap. Your staff must get comfortable with change. Your staff must get used to, at times, being uncomfortable because of change. Great organizations are great adopters of advancing techniques, ideas and methods. Promoting a positive, eager attitude that embraces change will lead to a culture of success.

Your organization can be extremely effective in building and delivering software, but, you have to pay attention to more than just process and methods.