Convergence – Physical & Virtual Shopping

Published by Robi | Filed under Brain Buster, Professional

New York State says all you need is a dollar and a dream for the lotto. I say all you need is One Note, Paint.NET, Word Press and something worth sharing for a profession.

Here I am posting a high level view of the convergence of physical and virtual space as it relates to retail or the act of shopping. It has been agreed that a multi channel solution for retailers is important… so neither of these components are going away.

The opportunity for convergence is blending them into one cohesive experience for the consumer. The outcome of this innovation is significant, most importantly more satisfied customers and improved revenue for the owners. This also lays the foundation for additional operational efficiencies (inventory management, load balancing and understanding consumer insight) and gives corporate retailers / brands the opportunity to distinguish themselves.

Monday 4.27.2009

Published by Robi | Filed under Ramble

Reflection: Have you ever heard the expression “Dress for the job you want, not for the one you have.” All I have to say is that I am wearing sandals today and am pretty happy about it.

Feeling the pressure. After several days of intense postings of thoughts. Several things have become clear.

1. According to both my statistical analysis suites Thursday is the hot day for visitation to robibanerjee.com. I have accredited this to people looking for inspiration and spiritual guidance before the weekend.
2. Need to reconsider my messaging towards corporate brands and their relevant interests. US online adults have increased their adoption of social networks and online communities from 25% in 2007 to 32% in 2008, more brands are paying attention to this growing trend – source Forrester Research.
3. Need to improve my hosting service… accordingly look for more to come on search engine optimization .

Quote of the weekend:  “The objective of a question is to obtain information that matters to us and no one else” William Forrester – If you can guess who he is… well that is worth fifty cents.

Infoporn and lack of Context.

Published by Robi | Filed under Brain Buster, Ramble

Just admit it, we all have our little dreams (I avoided the use of “fantasy” out of fear of getting harassed all day in the office) of diagrams floating in our heads. Sometimes looking back helps us look forward. What I really liked (disliked) about this Wired story from October 2007 is that it failed to cover the devices that are in most use today. Maybe we could call that lack of Contextporn. Where is my info on mobile devices? Storage mediums? Servers? Cost per website click? And of course laser disk players.

So the point to this ramble is that the resources used and the eyeballs / mindshare applied towards this infoporn might have been better spent if the information represented that was more relevant in our lives.

http://www.wired.com/gadgets/gadgetreviews/magazine/test2007/st_infoporn

  

The cost of Living on the bleeding edge of gadgetry.

Historically, Americans have taken their time getting comfortable with new technology before forking over serious cash for it. When color TVs came out in the 1950s, consumers were entranced. But it took another 20 years for half of US households to ditch their B&W sets; two decades later, DVD players hit that benchmark in just six years. If you think those flatscreen HDTVs are pricey, consider this: They cost about the same, adjusted for inflation, as the first color TVs. Here’s a look back at what we’ve paid for gadget lust.

Sunday 4.26.2009

Published by Robi | Filed under General, Ramble

Sunday 4.26.2009

What a gorgeous weekend here in Sunny Syracuse. The weather was fantastic and my daughters are two days older. A couple of reflections include:

• For the perfect pancakes (New Hope Mills being the mix) keep the clumps in and make sure the griddle is hot.
• It is very hard to cheat at Clue Jr. Maybe cheat is being too harsh I should just say creative.
• The internet is a scary thing to lose. Time Warner seems to have had an outage for several hours today and I though the sky was falling. Where were you MV?
• In my comeback process to outdoor doubles volleyball I am remembering the importance of neck muscles. For all the old schoolers out there I am currently feeling like Merton Hanks. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merton_Hanks

Blending Personal and Professional Lives

Published by Robi | Filed under General, Professional

For others who are challenged by this, here are some good thoughts.

Like it or not, the emergence of social networks, the proliferation of mobile devices and the ubiquity of the Web has blurred our personal and professional lives. This has been particularly true on Twitter, the social networking service where users share short messages with one another.

Get personal to show what you have in common.

Contrary to conventional wisdom — created via horror stories of people getting fired for outlandish Facebook or Twitter messages — sharing personal messages (intelligently) can be advantageous to your business. You should not be afraid to do it.

When people can relate to you, or find common themes, then they will be more likely do cut a deal or do business with you, says Laura Fitton, who runs Pistachio Consulting, a firm that helps companies utilize Twitter.

“The more human you are, it’s harder to vilify you or your brand,” Fitton says. “Twitter isn’t as much about ‘what are you doing,’ as it is ‘what do you have in common?’”

http://www.cio.com/article/488776/Twitter_Tips

Thursday 4.23.2009

Published by Robi | Filed under Ramble

I am starting to feel the challenges associated with a long day of what some would call professional thinking and thinking of something amusing or relevant that others would want to read. This assumes others find my posts interesting to begin with.

All that being said I did have a request for more pictures of my dog named Blue.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

His official name is Blue Rex of Syracuse. I got help with the name. He is a Blue Heeler, an Australian Cattle Dog. To learn more about Blue Heelers visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_heeler or http://www.acdca.org/.

Enterprise Search – More about Moore

Published by Robi | Filed under Brain Buster

Geoffrey Moore is a Silicon Valley based high technology consultant and author.

Note to reader. Avoid confusion of Geoffrey with the legendary Gordon Moore, cofounder of Intel, creator of Moore’s law(s) that describes a long-term trend in the history of computing hardware (basically highlighting the exponential growth of number of transistors that can be inexpensively placed on a circuit has been doubling every two years and is expected to continue for some time).

One of Geoffery Moore’s key insights (Marketing and Selling High-tech Products to Mainstream Customers) is that the groups adopt innovations for different reasons. Early adopters are technology enthusiasts looking for a radical shift, where the early majority wants a “productivity improvement.” The latter group wants a whole product, where the earlier group only needs the core product, and has the technical competence, and financial / mental resources to make the rest work for themselves.

Diagram 1 – Crossing the Chasm

From this thinking, I began to expand on how this applied to Google crossing the consumer search chasm. The foundation of consumer search is the structure of the World Wide Web. This was followed by technological innovation from the Google founders with Bibliometrics and page rank. The success of Google was first sustained through a very user friendly interface and almost a purist “movement” about what search should be about (we all remember NetZero and the free dial up service). However, the ongoing success has been their able to create a better connection between consumer and their search desires to business looking to advertise. Viola Context.

Diagram 2 – Crossing the consumer search chasm – Google analysis
This magical context fails to immediately translate into the enterprise world. The information that employees have and need access to is made up of data (well structured repositories) and information (poorly if at all structured emails, presentations, documents, etc…). This is where ES comes into play and is a need in the market place that continues to remain unfilled (however, many companies are getting much better at). It is my belief that what will provide the solution to what some call ES has six components. See below and if you want more just ask robi@robibanerjee.com or come back at a later date.

Diagram 2 – Crossing the enterprise search chasm

Wednesday 4.22.2009

Published by Robi | Filed under Ramble

“Never try to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.”
Robert Heinlien

Somalia Pirates are Getting Rich: A Look at the Profit Margin.

Errol Flynn never had it this good in “Captain Blood”

Being a Somali pirate looks like a profitable business from the outside and it is. The margins are as attractive as those in the software industry.  Microsoft still makes 60% or better margins on its core Windows, business, and server operations. With the risks that the pirates take, they ought to do as well as that.

The New York Times did a piece last year in which it estimated that the pirates would bring in $50 million in 2008. That number will be higher this year, by as much as four times.

Most information on hijacked ships is that the ransom paid to get them back is about $2 million per vessel and crew. In some cases, the pirates actually charge an additional fee for the ships which has been estimated as being as high as $5 million.

http://247wallst.com/2009/04/14/somali-pirates-are-getting-rich-a-look-at-the-profit-margins/

Enterprise Search – Top Ten

Published by Robi | Filed under Brain Buster

Several conversations during the past few days on the topic of Enterprise Search (ES) made me reflect on some previous thoughts I have had. Below, I have condensed these reflections into my OFFICIAL top ten list.

1. More then search… more then access… it is enablement.  Failure to be integrated into either an organizations culture or its information management strategy will leave it as an unsung promise.
2. Opportunity for industry specific applications for ES. Everyone agrees that context is critical for ES. Solutions at the industry level immediately establish a certain level of context that can be customized to an organization or individuals
3. Google affect – How can an organization get the simplicity and user friendly outcomes in the corporate space similar to what the experience with Google? I have the answer but it comes at a cost.
4. Expertise first… products second. Many companies have horror stories from installing ES products and expecting a rich ES outcome. Unfortunately, it requires expertise to understand the context and relationships with in a company for the desired outcome.
5. Importance of librarian / empowerment of employees. Richness of information is enhanced and secured by people.
6. Difference between looking back & looking forward. Many ES vendors have solutions for archiving / crawling / searching existing information. Very few companies provide solutions / expertise, beyond technical, for moving forward with information management / search capability.
7. Understanding organizations / infrastructure / roles / security. These are only a few of the handful of key elements that need to be addressed. The Majority of vendors for ES have an “out of the box” solution that leave several question unanswered.
8. “ES” is not the panacea for poor IM strategies. The technologies surrounding ES are evolving rapidly. However, the best practices/ culture  associated with how employees / organizations will use them are evolving at a much slower pace.
9. Taxonomy challenges. Less is more. Less of the right taxonomy structure is far better than an over built / bloated taxonomy structure
10. Commitment from the top.  A successful ES installation is much easier than successful ES utilization. Commitment from an appropriate level executive is critical to assist in crossing threshold boundaries.

Tuesday 4.20.2009

Published by Robi | Filed under Ramble

Diggin Digsby – www.digsby.com. Seems to be a good email, instant messaging and social networking collection service. Installation was straightforward and easy. Minor customizations make a big difference (thanks MV).

Always remember, men with facial hair have something to hide.