Monthly Archives: July 2015

Jul 30 2015
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Connected Technology, Internet of Things

The Future is White

Well for the Internet of Things anyway…

Ever since attending a talk hypothesising the use of white space a year or so ago, I’ve been wondering who was going to nail it first, now it seems that a collaboration between Ofcom, Microsoft, Google and BT may see a platform launched that will allow mobile phones and tablets to use the space between frequencies without interfering.

For those wondering, white space is the stuff leftover between broadcasting frequencies, they’re generally left open as buffering gaps between transmissions. The complication around using it to date has been that the frequencies vary by region, in size and exist at varying parts of the spectrum, meaning there is no one white space frequency that can be used around the country.

However, Ofcom have created a database that informs devices on the ground which segments of spectrum are available for use in which vicinity, at what point in time, therefore allowing interconnectivity without interfering with the transmission of digital TV.

If this collaboration works, the use of white space will provide another resource of bandwidth that doesn’t rely on mobile networks, providing the potential to connect both mobile and fixed devices to the internet where Wi-Fi cannot reach, bringing the world of iEverything one step closer together…

…creating little bubbles of iMe and iYou.

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Jul 16 2015
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Financial Services, new technology, The Future

Time is our currency

This week has been all about the disruption of the Financial Service sector, well for me anyway; I’ve been exploring the future of traditional banks through the eyes of millennials, pretty interesting stuff when you really get under the skin of it. 

Once upon a time (which for me is before the Internet became adopted mainstream) banking was based on the banking giants being in control; they had the money, they got to dictate their terms, from opening hours to transfer charges, meaning we mere mortals had to play by their rules. 

The Internet has changed this, and with disruptive start ups like; Transferwise, Credit Karma, Lending club, Privlo, Avantcredit (the list goes on) all delivering better placed insightful thinking with more convenient and contextual user friendly solutions, the consumer now has choice, ease of use and more importantly ease of moving around. 

So what does this mean for the Giants? It means they are no longer in control. 

I was part of a workshop last week with a bunch of industry leads, where we were fueled with coffee and left in a room to decipher how technology has lowered the barriers for these disrupters, and how we should be navigating the landscape moving forwards…

Essentially, startups get to copy the infrastructure set by traditional Giants and simply create a frictionless, seamless interface making it easier to bundle these services together in a friction-free way. This means the old school need to stop trying to use the existing tech to just push services they already have and realize a top down centralised approach won’t work anymore, in our ever increasing Internet of Things, there are thousands of data points now so the model must flip to a bottom up collective. 

Giants will need to truncate their legacy systems to give more choice and more personalization, if they don’t they will lose further pace, they’ve already lost the edge on driving innovation and millennials are losing their patience in equal measures.

In short, we must address the minutiae to reach the mass, empowering rather than enforcing. 

gold egg timer

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Jul 02 2015
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Brand, Consumer Experience, Consumer First, Customer Experience, Digital, Omnichannel

OMMMMMM G

We’re living in an omnichannel world, but what does that actually mean?

I’m getting a lot of questions around this at the moment, whilst the concept is fairly easy to understand, the minutiae of what it means to a brand is not quite so simple to grasp, so here’s a quick digest…

The word itself is derived from the word Omnis which can mean all or universal. And rather than linear use of channels, most of us are used to cross channel planning so really, omnichannel is the evolution of cross channel planning, done really well. 

To take that one step further, I would summarise it as; the true continuity of a brand or content experience that extends beyond a single place and crosses through multiple channels.  

Consumers are exposed to brands at multiple touchpoints, often at once, they could be looking at something on a mobile whilst in a physical store for example. As a brand therefore, planning for both the mobile experience and the physical store experience to be consistent would be part of omnichannel planning, it should be woven together with an invisible thread.

Essentially those brands that connect the components of an experience and the data around them; research of product, purchase, price, customer service and so on, will be the ones that shape a new dimension of customer decision.

It is indeed an intricate web we must weave.

Spider_Web_by_Autar

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