The Southeast Venture Conference has announced the second round of presenters for the 2012 SEVC, one of the largest venture events in the Southeast, taking place at the Ritz-Carlton in Tysons Corner, Virginia, Feb 29th-Mar 1st.
There is a a widening gap between mobile banking adoption rates at smaller banks and credit unions compared to larger financial institutions.
Only 21% of consumers at regional and community banks and 15% of consumers at credit unions use mobile banking versus 37% of consumers at giant banks. Mobile banking is growing rapidly, jumping by 63% since last year and fueled by smartphone adoption, according to Javelin Strategy & Research’s latest report.
Only 21% of consumers at regional and community banks and 15% of consumers at credit unions use mobile banking versus 37% of consumers at giant banks. Mobile banking is growing rapidly, jumping by 63% since last year and fueled by smartphone adoption.
As tablets have exploded onto the scene, promising to transform mobile banking once again, smaller FIs will continue to fall behind, unless they change their strategies to improve their offerings and capture a solid customer base of mobile bankers.
Javelin’s latest mobile channel forecast addresses how banks and credit unions can position themselves to succeed as mobile banking institutions and keep pace with larger FIs.“Mobile Banking, Smartphone and Tablet Forecast 2011-2016: Mobile Banking Moves Mainstream to Mid-sized, Community Banks, and Credit Unions”
More than half of consumers will do mobile banking
More than 50% of consumers are expected to become mobile bankers by 2016. With 92% of the top 25 banks now offering mobile banking, smaller banks and credit unions risk losing valuable customers — especially smartphone and tablet customers — to these institutions and must focus on building out their mobile banking capabilities in order to compete.
“The key challenge for smaller FIs is attracting the right demographics,” said Mary Monahan, executive VP and Research Director, Mobile at Javelin. “The typical mobile banking customer is young (ages 18 through 44), ethnic (typically Asian, Latino, or African American), and high income (earning more than $75K).
Customers at regional and community banks and credit unions are significantly older, less wealthy, Caucasian, and less tech-savvy. FIs must broaden their services, appeal to a wider range of demographics, and attract new clients if they want to succeed.”
“Smaller banks and credit unions have always prided themselves on providing superior customer service, so they cannot continue to ignore the mobile channel,” said Jim Van Dyke, president, Javelin.
“Resource-constrained institutions should focus initially on the browser method, currently used by a majority of mobile consumers. It is the most cost-effective and easiest to deploy. However, these FIs need to focus future efforts on developing app and SMS text banking to appeal to a broader array of users and technology.”
The report is based on surveys with 15 mobile banking vendors, a review of 23 FIs with mobile banking offerings, and survey data collected online from more than 17,400 consumers.
Mobile is now the top communication channel. Mobile usage is surpassing online usage.
Consumers’ use of mobile banking rose dramatically in 2011. Jumping by 63%, 57 million U.S. adults conducted mobile banking in 2011, increasing 63% over 2010.
Consumers use an assortment of channels for mobile banking. Most consumers continue to access their mobile banking accounts through the browser, a financial habit established through online banking. At the nation’s largest banks, where the triple play, that is, mobile banking through browsers, apps, and SMS text, is offered, this tendency flips: More customers use apps and SMS than browsers.
One in five (19%) Americans have come in contact with someone online who made them feel uncomfortable through stalking, persistent emails, and other aggressive outreach attempts, according to new data from the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) and McAfee in time for Stalking Awareness Month this January.
The study, conducted by Zogby International, also revealed that two-fifths (39%) of those victims reported the incident while 61% remained silent.
January is National Stalking Awareness Month, a time to focus on a crime that affects 3.4 million victims a year.
This year’s theme, “Stalking: Know It. Name It. Stop It.” challenges the nation to fight this dangerous crime by learning more about it.
The Stalking Resource Center of the National Center for Victims of Crime states that one in four victims report that the stalker uses a variety of technologies, such as computers, global positioning system (GPS) devices, or hidden cameras, to track the victim’s daily activities.
Stalking is a crime in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, but it is often difficult to recognize, investigate, and prosecute. Unlike other crimes, stalking is not a single, easily identifiable crime but a series of acts, a course of conduct directed at a specific person that would cause that person fear. Stalking may take many forms, such as assaults, threats, vandalism, burglary, or animal abuse, as well as unwanted cards, calls, gifts, or visits.
“The Internet is an amazing tool for sharing and connecting with people. Unfortunately, there are some people who will use it to track, harass or make unwanted contact. Stalking can be dangerous and should be taken seriously,” said Michael Kaiser, executive director of the National Cyber Security Alliance.
“We encourage anyone who believes they are being victimized online to report the crime and seek help, if needed, from law enforcement or a victim service provider.”
“Cyber criminals are more resourceful than ever. This data supports an ever-increasing need for online users to be vigilant in their actions each day,” said John Thode, executive vice president, consumer, mobile and small business, McAfee. “Americans must be educated to recognize the signs of stalking and other forms of cyber crime as well as taking action to protect ourselves, our youth, and our digital infrastructure from victimization.”
The Big Bang Theory pokes fun at super smart "geeks" who love science, comic books and the girl next door.
Finally, you can answer the burning question, are you a geek, a nerd or neither?
Personally, we have mixed traits, although we do like this statement cited as nerd-talk, “I would love to change the world but they won’t give me the source code.”
We think there is some confusion generally about what constitutes a nerd. The TV show “The Big Bang Theory,” for instance, suggests that nerdy university scientists are rabid comic book fans. Some may be, but as much as we enjoy the show, we doubt its premise.
The folks at Masters in IT, created this infographic to help you decide where you fit on the geek/nerd scale:
If you found the text hard to read on Geek/Nerd traits, here it is:
Geek Traits:
Someone with a specifc niche interest/lifestyle that they have become the expert on
A fan of gadgets
An early adopter
A Mac
Wears ironic t-shirts
Can be pretentious and longwinded
Knowledge can range from mundane to “living encyclopedia” status
Interests might include gaming, film (both artsy and anything Will Ferrel stars in), collecting, gadgets/tech, computing, coding, hacking, techno music, screen printing, etc.
Likely geek jobs:
Web design/development
IT professional
Marketer
Graphic designer
Game designer/developer
Barista at an indie coffee shop
Entrepreneur
Record store
Bartender
Nerd Traits:
Extreme interest or fascination with academics
Introverted
Socially Inept
Diverse and sometimes impractical skillets due to broad interests in games, movies, science, computers, etc.
A PC
Interest might include: Battlestar Galactica (BSG), LARPing, SecondLife, Physics, Chess, Fantasy/Sci-Fi, Computer programming
Likely nerd jobs:
Rocket scientist
Reclusive and renowned professor
Computer programmer
Engineer
IT professional
Inventor
Or work at a video store
Jamie DePeau, chief marketing officer at Lincoln Financial.
Nearly half of all Americans make a New Year’s resolution each year, but only a small fraction follow through. To increase your chances of successfully adopting a more optimistic outlook in 2012, consider taking control of your life with small, simple actions.
Lincoln Financial Group’s new MOOD (Measuring Optimism, Outlook and Direction) survey identified the secrets of optimistic and empowered people. The results revealed that those who take charge of their lives are more likely to have an optimistic outlook on life.
In fact, according to the MOOD findings, 66 percent of Americans feel in control of their lives and believe their lives are headed in the right direction. So what is it about these optimistic people that eludes the rest of us?
It seems the secret is not about having more, but about doing more with what you have—be that resources, family or time – and engaging with those around you. For example, start the New Year by making more time for those you care most about. MOOD revealed that this is a key trait exhibited by Americans who feel in control.
Grand resolutions unsustainable
Start working this into your daily life by hosting family dinners, helping kids with homework, making time for friends and using social media to cultivate relationships. Another way to feel empowered and have a positive impact on those around you is to volunteer in your community.
“Grand resolutions, such as exercising an hour five days a week, are often unsustainable and can wind up making us feel very frustrated,” said Jamie DePeau, Chief Marketing Officer at Lincoln Financial.
“That’s why it’s so important to highlight that optimistic people often start small. Indeed, MOOD has shown us that these people take very specific actions to achieve success, often through small, daily behaviors. Simple steps such as balancing your checkbook or taking the stairs instead of the elevator can lower stress, lift your belief in your own potential, and eventually get you on the road to having an optimistic outlook on life.”
So before making a resolution to clean out your entire garage or tackle overflowing piles of laundry in one fell swoop, consider the Top 7 behaviors of those who feel in control of their lives.
According to MOOD, these Americans:
1. Cultivate relationships with friends and family and use social media to engage with those they care about
2. Volunteer in their communities and contribute to charitable organizations
3. Take quiet time to be alone and think
4. Exercise
5. Spend time on a hobby
6. Save a little money from each paycheck regardless of the amount and adhere to a budget
7. Own a retirement account and financial products such as life insurance, annuities or educational savings accounts
“The great news is that you don’t necessarily need to make monumental changes to take charge of your life. A few simple steps can be empowering and put you in control of your destiny,” adds DePeau.
“Finances can feel overwhelming. Rather than making a lofty, and potentially unattainable, New Year’s goal, we are hoping to inspire Americans to adopt some of the principals of optimistic Americans, which include building savings and investing in their financial security as a whole.”
BrightEdge,a search and social management platform for global enterprises, says that Google+ page creation amongst the world’s top 100 brands jumped in the last month from 61 percent to 77 percent. while the number of people in circles increased over 50 percent from 147,000 to 222,000.
Compare that to Facebook (93 percent of top 100 brands are on Facebook)
It is still early days as top 100 brands determine how best to establish a Google+ presence, while continuing to attract more people in circles. Google continues to have the largest fan contingent of any brand with more than 77k fans, up from 65k just one month before.
Starbucks quadruped its social followers
Brands like Starbucks nearly quadrupled their social followers in the last month and H&M and Pepsi broke into 20k plus people in circles, which is still a shadow of the millions of Facebook fans these brands have already connected with.
In fact, a review of Facebook and Google+ properties for all top 100 brands, showed a collective total of almost 300 million Facebook fans for these top brands, compared to approximately 148k Google+ followers for these same brands.
“Google is embedding their popular new product with its dominant search marketing position, replicating the tie between social and search channels, just as Facebook’s Open Graph tied sites and search together earlier this year, blurring the lines between social and search engagement,” said Jim Yu, CEO of BrightEdge.
“Top 100 brands are realizing that they now need to address both channels. Now the real work begins, if they want to extend their social presence on the Web from Facebook to the new Google+.”
To learn more about the Google+ analysis, please visit BrightEdge SocialShare to view and download the full report here:http://www.brightedge.com/resources.
Legacy Keepers, the only nationwide complete legacy preservation service, has released “Filling in the Legacy Gap,” a white paper that addresses the Baby Boomer generation’s strong desire to preserve an emotional legacy.
Baby boomers want to leave a ” personal legacy” that goes beyond just a will and an inheritance, says a study.
Based on a landmark study sponsored by Allianz Insurance, the white paper examines the shift from the cultural norm of primarily leaving just financial preparations for future generations, to leaving a more complete legacy.
Additionally, it indicates that the interest in preserving a personal legacy is a growing interest, one that will likely gain traction with future generations.
“Technology and social media have made the dissemination of personal information a mainstay in the modern lifestyle—it only makes sense that that mindset would be present as people begin to think about their own mortality,” said Corina Kellam, director for Legacy Keepers. “Simply preparing a will just won’t cut it; people and their families are looking for more.”
This growing desire for personal legacy preservation has opened up an entirely new service industry Boomers are eager to utilize. To address this need, Legacy Keepers built a nationwide network of personal historians who work with individuals or loved ones to compile the information needed to succinctly capture a personal legacy.
These stories are then complied and preserved as a professionally edited Legacy Book, high-definition DVD or audio CD set.
“There is a clear distinction between an inheritance and a legacy, and we’ve found it’s not just assets and wealth that retirement-aged people are looking to pass down to their kin,” said Keith Ogorek, senior vice-president of Legacy Keepers and author of the “Filling in the Legacy Gap” white paper.
To read the complete “Filling in the Legacy Gap” white paper or for more information about the original Allianz study, see: http://bit.ly/n5rW9D.
As we embark on another holiday season, we’re once again deluged by images of groups of happy people socializing. But a large number of us will be facing the biggest shopping period of the year either alone or feeling lonely - an important fact largely overlooked by both consumers and the people who market to them, says Baba Shiv, Sanwa Bank, Limited, Professor of Marketing at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Shiv’s research comes on the heels of census figures showing that many more adult Americans – 45 percent – are now single.
“Because of social media, you’d think people would be saying they’re less lonely than before the technology existed,” Shiv said.
Shiv became interested in studying loneliness, or the sense of being socially isolated, when he heard a statistic that stunned him: 25% of people today say they are lonely, a percentage that’s higher than in years past.
“That’s so counterintuitive,” he says. “Because of social media, you’d think people would be saying they’re less lonely than before the technology existed.”
How loneliness affects buying decisions
As someone who studies consumer behavior, Shiv naturally turned to the question of how loneliness affects buying decisions. In a recent study, which he conducted with colleagues from the business schools of the University of Iowa and the University of British Columbia, the researchers looked at what sort of movie lonely people would choose to rent from Netflix.
They showed participants a picture of a DVD case along with a description of the movie and a rating, supposedly the average of past viewers’ reviews. One randomly selected group saw information for a movie with a Netflix rating of 2.5 stars (or slightly below the midpoint on the site’s 5-star scale).
The other group saw information about exactly the same movie, but were told that its rating was 3.5 stars, a tad higher than the midpoint. After evaluating how much they would like the film and how likely they were to rent it, all the participants completed a standard loneliness questionnaire.
Most people, not surprisingly, said they would like to see the higher-rated movie. But intriguingly, just the opposite was true for those who scored on the lonely end of the loneliness scale: lonely participants actually favored the 2.5-star film.
Why would that be? The Netflix study was inconclusive, Shiv says, because 2.5 stars can mean quite different things. It’s possible that a movie earned that average because it’s loved by a significant minority, in the way of a cult film; but it could simply be a mediocre movie, rated below average by just about everyone.
Lonely people prefer the minority choice
Shiv and his colleagues ran more experiments and found results that matched the first interpretation. “People who are not lonely prefer to go with the majority, whereas people who are lonely prefer to go with the minority,” he says.
For example, in one study, students had to choose a piece of artwork after being told either that 80% of past buyers liked this artist’s work or that 20% of buyers liked it. The lonely students (and only the lonely) went along with the 20%.
However, there was an important twist to this result: It held up only when participants were shopping for art to display in their own room. When they were told they’d be buying art for a public space, they went along with the majority preference, just like the non-lonely students. Lonely people, Shiv believes, are often comfortable being lonely when they’re alone, and choose products that fit their identity as part of a minority. “But, in a social setting, they become so anxious about other people that they go overboard in going with the consensus.”
That private-public tension, says Shiv, creates the possibility of a troubling mismatch between buying decisions and actual preferences. “If a lonely person makes a purchase in public, but the consumption happens in private, that can result in huge dissatisfaction,” he says.
Despite what the loneliness questionnaires show about people’s private feelings, few are willing to publicly admit to their loneliness. This may be one reason marketers seem to underestimate the prevalence of the lonely consumer. TV commercials, for example, typically show people enjoying a product while amongst family or friends. “That may not work for the lonely consumer,” Shiv says. Not only might lonely people have a harder time relating to these social images, but also they may actually find such scenes off-putting, in much the same way they stayed away from majority-endorsed DVDs or artwork in Shiv’s studies.
Market online to reach lonely consumers
So what’s a marketer to do? “If a quarter of the target market is lonely, it might make sense to promote more heavily online,” Shiv suggests. For one thing, lonely people might shy away from bustling stores and movie theaters, and feel more comfortable in the privacy of their own homes, whether it be watching videos on Hulu.com or shopping on Amazon.
Reaching lonely consumers through online channels offers another advantage, Shiv says: the ability to show targeted offerings. Through traditional media, it’s not nearly as easy to target the lonely consumer as it is to reach a narrower but more visible swath of the population, such as Hispanics or Denver-area parents.
Online marketers, on the other hand, can customize their message based on browsing patterns and purchase histories. Personalized messages, such as “People like you bought this product” — something the Amazons and Netflixes are already doing across the board, will work especially well for lonely consumers, Shiv believes.
Consumers, for their part, can take comfort in knowing that though they may be lonely, they are far from alone. “It’s okay to be lonely,” Shiv says, “and it’s not something to be ashamed about.”
Most cell phone and tablet users can purchase digital goods and charge them to their monthly bill or prepaid phone account. But they may not get the protections they need to limit their financial liability if something goes wrong with the transaction.
The protections consumers receive will vary depending on their wireless carrier’s policies and what’s in their cell phone contract, according to a new analysis by Consumers Union.
“Consumers using mobile payments should get the same strong protections they currently enjoy when they make purchases with a credit card or debit card,” said Michelle Jun, senior attorney for Consumers Union, the nonprofit advocacy arm of Consumer Reports.
“But we found that consumer rights can vary widely between wireless carriers and the protections carriers claim to provide are often nowhere to be found in customer contracts.”
In May 2011, Consumers Union called on the top wireless carriers tostrengthen their contracts to protect consumers in the event that their phone is lost or stolen or if a merchant makes a billing mistake or the customer is not satisfied with a purchase.
Consumers Union urges carriers to provide stronger protections
The consumer group urged the carriers to provide the same strong protections guaranteed by law when consumers use a credit card or debit card. In addition, Consumers Union pressed the companies to provide consumers across the country with the same protections California phone customers are entitled to receive as a result of regulations issued by the state’s Public Utilities Commission (PUC).
Since May, Consumers Union has been in communication with representatives from AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon Wireless to find out how they handle disputed mobile payment transactions. All four carriers maintain that they provide ample protections for consumers.
However, Consumers Union found that the protections these carriers provide fall short of what consumers get when they use credit cards and debit cards or when California consumers report a disputed charge on their phone accounts.
In addition, many of the protections that wireless carrier representatives described to Consumers Union are not disclosed in customer contracts, making it difficult to know whether consumers can count on these safeguards when problems arise.
“As new mobile payment options become available, consumers are better off sticking to services linked to credit cards or debit cards, which come with strong protections required by law,” said Jun. ”If wireless carriers want consumers to have confidence in direct carrier billing programs, they should strengthen their contracts with the protections consumers need.”
Below is a summary of the protections that Consumers Union analyzed and what is provided by the top wireless carriers:
Limit liability when phones are lost or stolen: A credit card customer’s liability is limited to no more than $50 for unauthorized charges. In practice, credit card issuers usually shield customers from any financial liability for fraudulent charges. Verizon Wireless’ contract makes clear that its customers are not liable for charges related to a lost or stolen phone.
Contracts for AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile protect customers from fraudulent charges made after a phone is reported lost or stolen but consumers may be on the hook for charges made before making a report.
Limit liability for disputed charges: If a billing error appears on a monthly credit card statement, there is no liability for the customer as long as the customer reports the error within 60 days.
“Billing error” also includes a dispute with a merchant about the delivery or acceptability of goods or services. While all four wireless carriers insist they provide refunds for billing errors or when customers are unhappy with purchases, these rights are not clearly disclosed in their contracts.
Re-credit pre-paid customers within 10 days for disputed charges: After a consumer reports a fraudulent transaction involving a debit card, the bank must either complete its investigation within 10 business days or provisionally re-credit the consumer’s funds within that time.
AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile indicated that they strive to provide prompt refunds but none guarantee in their contracts that pre-paid customers will get a provisional refund within ten days after reporting fraudulent charges. Verizon Wireless does not allow customers with pre-paid phone accounts to make mobile payment charges.
Give customers the right to withhold payments for disputed charges: California’s PUC rule gives phone customers in that state the right to withhold payment of disputed charges while an investigation is conducted and requires investigations to be completed within 30 days. Sprint’s contract indicates that customers don’t have to pay for disputed charges as long as they are reported within 60 days.
AT&T said that it gives all customers the right to withhold payments during an investigation but its contract only discloses this right to Californians.
T-Mobile discloses these rights for California customers but not for customers living in other states. Verizon Wireless’ contract allows customers to withhold payment for charges related to lost or stolen phones but it does not indicate that consumers have this same right for other kinds of disputed charges.
Enable customers to set a cap on mobile payment charges: The California PUC rule allows consumers to block third party charges on their accounts. All four wireless carriers allow customers to block third party charges but AT&T and Sprint do not disclose this right in their contracts.
AT&T, Sprint and Verizon Wireless set their own dollar limits on allowable charges (AT&T has a $100 limit per month per linewhile Sprint and Verizon Wireless limit charges to $25 per month per line). AT&T enables consumers to set their own limits but charges $4.99 per line each month to do so.
While nearly 100 percent of websites today include a privacy policy, existing policies are highly complex, lengthy and written in language that is confusing for the average person to understand, according to a new privacy index from Truste.
Additionally, the vast majority of privacy policies are not readily transparent regarding third-party usage of data or consumer choices.
In the 2011 Website Edition of its Privacy Index, TRUSTe analyzed the privacy policies of the top 100 U.S. websites (as ranked by Alexa Sept. 2011) to evaluate privacy practices by measuring key policy attributes, as well as the type of disclosures contained in them.
“Clearly, more work needs to be done to deliver shorter, more accessible privacy policies that can be quickly and easily understood by consumers, so that they have the ability to make choices regarding the sharing of their personal information,” said Chris Babel, CEO of TRUSTe.
TRUSTe Privacy Index – Key Findings from the 2011 Website Edition The 2011 Website Edition reveals that the typical privacy policy is written six grade levels higher than the average U.S. reading level of 8th grade (calculated per the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level Readability Formula).
In addition, at 2,464 words, the average privacy policy is almost twice as long as the Declaration of Independence and one and a half times as long as Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech — taking approximately 10 minutes to read at a 250 wpm comprehension.
Written in this complicated and lengthy form, most online privacy policies are not easily interpreted by the majority of consumers, limiting their understanding of how personal data will be used and the choices that are available to them.
In addition, because disclosures are not clear and readily transparent, most consumers do not fully understand that when they visit one site, another company can be tracking their behavior, and yet another company might be receiving a copy of the data they entered.
The privacy index findings include current online trends, such as:
72 percent of the websites analyzed say that they allow third-party tracking on their sites;
36 percent say that they collect users’ location data; and
31 percent say that they share user-provided data with third parties.
However, in regards to consumer disclosures, many websites still fall short:
93 percent of the websites do not disclose how long they keep customer data on file; and
68 percent do not explain how a user can delete an account.
Ninety-seven percent of the websites analyzed have a privacy policy, compared with a national average of 14 percent in 1998 (Privacy Online: A Report to Congress, Federal Trade Commission, 1998). Yet out of the 100 websites analyzed, only a miniscule two percent have a mobile-optimized privacy policy. Yet, according to TRUSTe’s 2011 Mobile Privacy Surveyconducted by Harris Interactive, privacy is the number one consumer concern when using mobile applications on smartphones.
Which tech trends will emerge and which will disrupt business in 2012?
Deloitte today announced the research findings from its 3rd annual “Tech Trends 2012″ report, which identifies and predicts the top 10 emerging and disruptive technologies that are expected to play a crucial role in how businesses are anticipated to operate globally in 2012 and beyond.
“As we head into 2012, many CIOs are evaluating the various aspects of IT, looking ahead to the new technologies that can help them drive business growth in the years ahead,” said Mark White, principal and chief technology officer, Deloitte Consulting LLP and co-author of the report.
“Mobility, social, analytics, cloud and cyber are technology forces each impacting business today. The intersection of these represents an opportunity for new business technology value and innovation.”
Deloitte’s “Tech Trends 2012″ distinguished the technologies in two categories: “(Re)emerging Enablers” and “Disruptive Deployments.” (Re)emerging Enablers are five technologies that many CIOs have spent time, thought and resources on in the past, but deserve another look this year. Disruptive Deployments are five additional technologies that showcase new business models and transformative ways to operate.
The 10 predicted technologies identified for 2012 are:
(Re)Emerging Enablers:
Geo-spatial Visualization: Within the world of visualization, geospatial takes advantage of an explosion of geographical, location-aware data. Sources feeding this growth include new semi-structured data from mobile devices, geo-tagging of existing enterprise structured data and tapping into new streams of location-aware unstructured data.
Digital Identities: The digital expression of identity is growing more complex every day. Digital identities should be unique, verifiable, able to be federated and non-repudiable. As individuals take a more active hand in managing their own digital identities, organizations are attempting to create single digital identities that retain the appropriate context across the range of credentials that an individual carries. Digital persona protection is becoming a strong area of cyber focus.
Data Goes to Work: Organizations are finding ways to turn the explosion in size, volume and complexity of data into insight and value. This is occurring across structured and unstructured content from internal and external sources. This is expected to complement but not replace long-standing information management programs and investments in data warehouses, business intelligence suites, reporting platforms and relational database experience.
Measured Innovation: CIOs can help facilitate the discovery of the next wave of true disruption — and continuously improve the business of IT and the business of the business. Measured innovation offers an approach to managing both disciplines by providing a pragmatic way to identify, evaluate and launch potential innovations with a focus on aligning opportunities to areas that can fuel disruption and create measurable, attributable value.
Outside-in Architecture: Flexibility in operating and business models is proving more important. As a result, need to share is colliding with need to know and shifting solution architectures away from a siloed, enterprise-out design pattern and into an outside-in approach to delivering business through rapidly evolving ecosystems.
Disruptive Deployments:
Social Business: The emergence of boomers as digital natives and the rise of social media in daily life have paved the way for social business in the enterprise. This is leading organizations to apply social technologies on social networks, amplified by social media, to fundamentally reshape how business gets done. Some of the initial successful use cases are consumer-centric, but business value is available — and should be realized –across the enterprise.
Hyper-hybrid Cloud: Cloud-based and cloud-aware integration offerings are expected to continue to evolve, and many organizations face a hybrid reality with a mix of on-premise solutions and multiple cloud offerings. The challenge becomes integration, identity management and data translation between the core and multitenant public cloud offerings, and offering lightweight orchestration for processes traversing enterprise and cloud assets.
Enterprise Mobility Unleashed: Mobility is helping many organizations rethink their business models. Consumer-facing mobile applications are only the beginning. With the explosion of mobile use cases, organizations should make sure solutions are enterprise class – secure, reliable, maintainable and integrated to critical back-off systems and data.
Gamification: Serious gaming simulations and game mechanics such as leaderboards, achievements and skill-based learning are becoming embedded in day-to-day business processes, driving adoption, performance and engagement.
User Empowerment: User engagement remains a key doctrine for enterprise IT with consumerization setting expectations for solutions built from the user-down, not the system-up. Compounding the need, IT is becoming increasingly democratized, with empowered end-users able to directly source solutions from the cloud or app stores — on a mobile device and increasingly on the desktop.
“The next 12 months will see several technologies including the cloud, big data and mobility continue to grow, while a topic like gamification is just starting to emerge at the enterprise level,” said Bill Briggs, director, Deloitte Consulting LLP and co-author of the report.
“It will be important for CIOs to help lead their organizations in these areas, as they can redefine the role that IT plays within an organization and place them in a position to positively disrupt their operating models, business models, or even their industries.”
Last Thursday, December 1st, I got the chance to be a judge at the Carolina Challenge, a startup pitch event for UNC students, faculty, and staff to present their startup ideas to local startup community vets.
The Pitch Party, as it was monikered (and “Party” is probably the reason I got invited, although I was told to leave my entourage back at the ranch), was hosted and run by Patrick Vernon, Associate Director at UNC’s Center for Entrepreneurial Studies.
The pitch party.
I’ve worked with Patrick a few times in the past, once at a startup, and once as a guest for a thoroughly enjoyable panel for one of his classes.
The judges were a diverse array. They included local VCs Jason Caplain from Southern Capitol Ventures and Lister Delgado from Idea Fund Partners, as well as other established entrepreneurs, mentors, startup-friendly service providers, and members of the faculty.
The startups themselves ranged from “we just thought of this a couple days ago” to full-blown active companies already dishing out a product or service to an established customer base. For example, YardSprout, the brainchild of former HomeTownRents.com founder and Triangle Startup Weekend winner Andrew Pearson, took home the grand prize of $1000. YardSprout is a service that connects growers with people who have land to grow on (like, your back yard), and thus promotes local food and urban farming.
I know Andrew because he’s a member of my startup network ExitEvent, and in fact, out of the 48 startup teams who presented at the Pitch Party, YardSprout is the only one in that network, which includes 150 startups from early companies like YardSprout all the way up to iContact, Appia, and Bronto.
Which means there were 47 companies at the event who aren’t even on my radar, which in turn means there is a healthy rookie league somewhere between MBA School (not everyone pitching was a student) and early-stage, waiting to feed the RTP startup ecosystem pipeline.
Yardsprout checks in.
Congrats to YardSprout, they got one of my ten allowed votes for the evening. Of course, not everyone can win, and not every finalist got my vote. So, like a Monday Morning Startup Quarterback, here are the other nine companies I voted for and would like to see move forward, in alphabetical order:
ActionClassroom.com: Artificial Intelligence for education content tells teachers which concepts to reinforce. With my background, I was into this one right away. Robot teachers? Brilliant! It’s got limitations, mainly around data collection and delivery costs, but it’s a solid plan.
Champion Charity: The goal here is to give local charities a national voice, or reach, thereby increasing the flow of funds. Currently still hashing out the business model, but I liked what I heard.
Eco Marker: A refillable and reusable dry erase marker. This one is appealing because of how far along they are. There’s a good chance they’ll land a major customer before they need to take any money.
iGuide: App for campus tours. Good team and the concept, if tweaked and expanded a little, could be viable.
Proximatas: App that uses a ranking algorithm to filter and connect patrons at large events. Sort of like a robot business matchmaker. How could I not like this?
Sanitation Creations: Environmentally-friendly, close-looped, odorless portable toilets. Boom. Porta-potties have “problem” written all over them, and the concept and team here have a very good chance of fixing a number of those issues.
Symbology: Fair trade clothing with a first world meets third world ethos. The team here is wildly enthusiastic and they’re also close to first customers. That alone should be enough to keep them viable.
Synco.tv: An app that allows multiple people in different locations to watch video content together and interact. There are bells and whistles with this one that make it intriguing.
Wallet Glucose: A solution for remembering and carrying glucose for people with diabetes. They’re far along in the patent process and an outstanding team.
Although I’ve highlighted teams where I was especially impressed with them, I should say that nearly every single team member I met was smart, passionate, and listened more than they talked. Very few questions went unanswered, even questions like “How are you different from the Envirolet, ‘the premium choice in composting toilets’, as endorsed by celebrity eco-warrior Ed Begley Jr.?”
The answer got my vote.
But the point is regardless of the idea or how far they are along, it’s exciting to see that there’s another wave behind the wave behind the wave of entrepreneurs who are very excited about getting their ideas off the ground and into reality.
Would you buy a $99 tablet computer the manufacturer says has not sacrificed performance for a low price?
MIPS Technologies and CPU Ingenic Semiconductor have introduced just such a device, the Novo7.
The new tablet runs Android’s much-touted “Ice Cream Sandwich” operating system, has a 7-inch touchscreen, a 1GHz processor, front and rear facing cameras, supports WiFi and external 3G connections.
It has connections for USB 2.0, HDMI 1.3, and a microSD slot. It even includes 3D graphics capabilities with a Vivante GC860 BPU and 1080p video decoding.
It comes with a Spiderman game installed and says its XBurst chip provides realistic graphics and fast games. It claims the battery will last six hours for games, 25 hours for music, eight hours for video and 7 for browsing web sites. It lasts up to 300 hours on standby.
Wow. If this device performs as well as claimed (we’ve asked for a demo unit), it’s likely to change the dynamics of tablet sales. It has more features than the Amazon Kindle Fire we recently bought (and still enjoy) and is the first to run the Ice Cream Sandwich operating system. At $99, we might even buy a couple as Christmas gifts if they are available and it runs as advertised.
Clicking on the buy button on the Novo7 site, however, led us to “Sorry, your item is sold out notice.”
We haven’t seen one of these yet – but here’s a video from the company showing it off:
Networked TVs can steam movies or music, go to the net, show smartphone photos and more.
Internet-enabled TV devices, including Smart TVs, connected Blu-Ray players, game consoles, and streaming media players continue to grow their footprint within consumers’ homes.
Already about 17 million US households currently own a connected TV, and ownership of streaming media players has nearly doubled since the end of 2010.
Yet only a fraction of consumers that own an Internet-capable TV device actually connects it to the Internet to become over-the-top (OTT) video consumers.
Despite this hurdle, the growing base of OTT-Video-capable US households is propelling the revenue for online video-on-demand (VoD) and electronic-sell-through (EST) to double by 2015, according to new NPD In-Stat (http://www.instat.com) research.
“OTT video is continuing to grow, overcoming the barriers of low device connect rates and cumbersome user interfaces,” says Keith Nissen, Research Director. “Even stronger growth of I-VOD and EST video services is possible if device manufacturers and digital retailers can put together a simpler, plug-n-play solution for getting online video to the TV (web-to-TV). The proliferation of tablets is also contributing to OTT growth.”
Some of the other factors affecting the OTT video market:
Streaming video transactions will reach just under 1 billion in 2010.
Netflix and other S-VOD suppliers are shifting to a more TV-centric model and will soon be competing directly with HBO, Showtime, and Starz.
The collaborative and competitive models among physical and digital retailers, content owners, and pay TV operators are shifting rapidly as players in the ecosystem grapple with the evolving mix of physical versus digital channels, EST, pay-TV, OTT, and subscription VoD.
The shift to cloud computing is driven primarily by a desire to connect employees through the multitude of computing devices in use today, according to a survey of information technology (IT) decision makers around the globe.
Turning conventional wisdom on its head, 33 percent of survey respondents cited accessibility to information through multiple devices as the most important reason for their decision to adopt cloud computing.
Rounding out the top motivating factors of cloud adoption within the enterprise were accelerating the speed of business, which was the choice of 21 percent of respondents, and cutting costs, with 17 percent citing it as most important.
In the United States, the trend among small businesses was even more pronounced, as nearly half, or 46 percent, of small businesses cited information access through a multitude of devices as the most important reason for adopting the cloud, while 10 percent of small businesses cited cutting costs.
These key findings were among the most prominent from a global survey of 3,645 IT decision makers on cloud computing usage trends conducted by TNS, an independent research company, and funded by CSC (NYSE:CSC).
All survey respondents had experience implementing cloud computing within their organizations. Representing an even distribution of small, medium and large private and public sector organizations, the survey respondents were from eight countries — Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, Japan, Singapore, the United Kingdom and the United States.
For the purpose of the survey, cloud computing was defined as a general term for anything that involves delivering hosted services over the Internet and promotes convenient, easy access and rapid provision with minimal management or service provider interaction. Its five essential characteristics are: (1) on-demand self-service, (2) broad network access, (3) resource pooling, (4) rapid elasticity, and (5) measured service.
Veracode, Inc., provider of the world’s only independent, cloud-based application risk management platform, has created an infographic, “Google vs. Facebook on Privacy and Security,” that takes a look at how the two firms stack up against each otehr when it comes to handling privacy and security concerns.
The established rules of communicating with customers are unraveling, especially online.
While many companies embrace the potential of delivering messages over different digital platforms, they’re failing to realize the complexity of digital consumers and in so doing, are wasting their time and money – this according to findings from a global study launched by today by TNS, a Kantar company and part of WPP (NASDAQ:WPPGY).
The findings were revealed by TNS’s Digital Life study, a comprehensive view of how more than 72,000 consumers in 60 countries behave online and why they do what they do. An interactive data visualization of the key findings can be found at www.tnsdigitallife.com.
Untargeted messages are counter-productive
The race online has seen businesses across the world rush to develop an online voice by developing profiles on Facebook, Twitter or YouTube, to speak to customers where they live quickly and cheaply.
However, TNS’s research reveals that if these efforts are not carefully targeted, messages become interrupted, unwanted and violates the users sense of community, thus counter-productively alienating the recipient from the brand.
The study found that nearly sixty percent (60%) of social network users in the U.S. do not want to engage with brands online. This leads to misguided digital strategies that are generating mountains of digital waste, from friendless Facebook accounts to blogs no one reads. When combined with ever-increasing content produced by consumers – the study shows that forty-seven percent (47%) of digital consumers now comment about brands online.
Noise is polluting the digital world
The result is huge volumes of noise, which is polluting the digital world and making it harder for brands to be heard – presenting a major challenge for businesses trying to enter into a real dialogue with consumers.
“Winning and keeping customers is harder than ever,” said Cheryl Max, Senior Vice President of Marketing at TNS North America.
“The online world presents massive opportunities for brands given all the channels, tactics and points of time in a day that people are online – according to our data, the average American spends 19 hrs per week is spent online – it is only through deploying precisely tailored marketing strategies that companies will be able to recognize this potential.
Choosing the wrong channel, or simply adding to the cacophony of online noise risks alienating potential customers and impacting business growth.”
Why DO consumers engage with brands?
TNS’s Digital Life study asked consumers exactly why they engaged with brands online. Fifty-four percent (54%) of people admit they use social networks to learn more about products, with only a quarter (25%) willing to move forward toward an actual purchase.
Furthermore, nearly forty-six percent (46%) of those who posted comments to a particular brand site did so for the simple desire to impart advice, while eighteen percent (18%) posted comments to praise and another twelve percent (12%) actively posted comments to complain about a negative brand experience.
The study went on to reveal that for the most part, motivations for consumers to engage with a brand can be self-serving.
Sixty-one percent (61%) of consumers are driven to engage with brands online only by a promotion or to receive a special offer.
Recognize the consumer as a unique individual
“Many brands have recognized the vast potential of the digital world; however they are failing to understand that the digital consumer is very complex,” said Charles White, Senior Vice President, Client Services and North American lead for TNS Digital Life.
“Every digital interaction a company has with a consumer is an opportunity and implementing a one-size-fits-all marketing strategy won’t deliver the return you’re looking for. Consumers are online for different reasons and they all behave differently. It’s time for marketers to recognize the digital consumer as a unique individual – one that requires their own unique approach.”
TNS has made some of the key findings from this study available to the public via an interactive data visualisation that can be found at www.tnsdigitallife.com. The visualisations were developed in partnership with Digit London.
On Facebook, top brands with the most fans are separating themselves from the rest of the world. “It’s getting harder and harder to displace the largest brands on Facebook,” wrote Jim Tobin, CEO of Ignite Social Media, in a recent blog post.
Ignite, which Tobin founded in 2007 when there were fewer than a handful of companies focused on social media marketing, has been tracking Facebook brand pages the last 18 months.
In October, for the first time, none of the top 20 brands changed places from the previous month. Facebook itself is number one (“They have an unfair advantage,” Tobin notes). YouTube is 2, Coca-Cola 3, Disney 4, MTV 5, Starbucks 6, Oreo 7, Red Bull 8, Converse All Stars 9 and Converse 10.
That list points out the verticals that do the best. “There is a real clustering around certain types of products,” Tobin says. The top 20 tends to include those that are fashion, food, entertainment and technology oriented.
Some, Tobin says, should get credit for building their brand presence on Facebook well, while others just got lucky and still others haven’t done much with assets they were handed via acquisitions.
Wal-Mart, for instance, “Has done a tremendous job,” he says, while Disney “Has done a spectacular job of touching on the nostalgia that goes with their products.”
Most brand fans interact with Coke or Disney or the others via their Facebook newsfeed, and other brand Facebook tabs (for photos, videos or more information) underperform, Tobin says.
Keys to top brand success?
What are some keys to their success? Tobin, who wrote the book, “Social Media is a Cocktail Party” in 2008, is one of dozens of digital media and marketing thought-leaders participating in the Internet Summit at the Raleigh, NC Convention Center Nov. 15-16, preceded by TechMedia’s famous Deck Party at the Convention Center the evening of Nov. 14. Tobin will discuss the secrets of the top 50 Facebook brand pages at the event.
But here are a few hints.
The number of times a brand should post will vary depending on the product(s) sold, he says. “If you’re Coke, a product someone might buy several times a day, you’ll use different tactics than if you’re selling a car someone buys every five years.”
But post fairly regularly, he adds. The average for top brands is roughly twice a day, a figure that varies according to the degree of engagement fans bring to its Facebook page. “If you are an email service provider, you are going to have a looser attachment than a movie maker.”
Post on weekends
Tobin echoes what we hear most social media gurus tell us these days: many if not most social media people post to Facebook during business hours. That’s their job. But, he points out, “You see dramatically increased fan engagement on weekends, so doing some outside regular business hours is a good strategy.”
That does require thinking about what to do if a post gets a strong reaction that needs a response while you’re at the pool, he adds.
Tobin warns, however, that taking a lecturing tone with people on your Facebook page the way Bank of America did recently over the dust-up concerning debit card fees “Is not a good idea.”
We saw that happen with a number of firms over the last year – including some tone problems when LivingSocial encountered people trying to cash in on more than one Amazon discount deal. It led to a long set of posts and responses – some perhaps ill-considered – on the firm’s Facebook page.
“The better the prize offered, the more likely people will try to scam it,” Tobin notes. “You have to expect that. Be ready. But don’t attack them.”
But the LivingSocial incident was minor compared to the way Nestle handled the brouhaha over palm oil, Tobin says.
“That’s one of the reasons you don’t just hand over the keys to an intern. Sarcasm and irony do not come across well,” he says.
SCRA’s Technology Ventures program, SC Launch, announced $167 million in follow-on funding for program-supported companies, giving South Carolina a leg up on the Knowledge Economy.
Since the program’s inception in 2006, SC Launch has supported over 188 companies through their technology-based economic development initiatives.
Twelve companies have relocated to South Carolina through the help of the program.
With initial funding of $12 million in SCRA retained earnings, SC Launch has supported and funded over 188 start-ups in SC, provided business services through a powerful Resource Network to 230 early stage technology companies and helped position emerging South Carolina Knowledge Economy companies to secure more than $167 million in follow-on funding from angel, venture and other private capital sources.
SC Launch has been recognized regionally, nationally and internationally for leadership in entrepreneurial support and technology-based economic development.
“We are delighted to announce this new level of investment funding that our program companies have secured,” said SCRA executive vice president and SC Launch executive director Dave McNamara. “These dynamic companies are meeting significant milestones and bringing tremendous value to our state’s Knowledge Economy.”
“SCRA is committed to the continued growth of South Carolina’s Knowledge Economy,” stated SCRA CEO Bill Mahoney. “This recent achievement of follow-on funding for SC Launch companies is evidence that with appropriate support and investment, technology-based companies in South Carolina can thrive and bring tremendous economic returns to our state.”
The Southeast Venture Conference has announced the second round of presenters for the 2012 SEVC, one of the largest venture events in the Southeast, taking place at the Ritz-Carlton in Tysons Corner, Virginia, Feb 29th-Mar 1st.
There is a a widening gap between mobile banking adoption rates at smaller banks and credit unions compared to larger financial institutions.
One in five (19%) Americans have come in contact with someone online who made them feel uncomfortable through stalking, persistent emails, and other aggressive outreach attempts, according to new data from the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) and McAfee in time for Stalking Awareness Month this January.
As we embark on another holiday season, we’re once again deluged by images of groups of happy people socializing. But a large number of us will be facing the biggest shopping period of the year either alone or feeling lonely - an important fact largely overlooked by both consumers and the people who market to them, says 
Most cell phone and tablet users can purchase digital goods and charge them to their monthly bill or prepaid phone account. But they may not get the protections they need to limit their financial liability if something goes wrong with the transaction.
While nearly 100 percent of websites today include a privacy policy, existing policies are highly complex, lengthy and written in language that is confusing for the average person to understand, according to a new privacy index from Truste.
Which tech trends will emerge and which will disrupt business in 2012?
Would you buy a $99 tablet computer the manufacturer says has not sacrificed performance for a low price?
The shift to cloud computing is driven primarily by a desire to connect employees through the multitude of computing devices in use today, according to a survey of information technology (IT) decision makers around the globe.
The TechJournal will be on vacation for the Thanksgiving Holiday Thursday and Friday. There will be no eWire tomorrow and Friday.
The established rules of communicating with customers are unraveling, especially online.
SCRA’s Technology Ventures
