If you do a search for “Digital Transformation,” you will, no doubt, be overwhelmed by the sheer number of blogs, books, research papers, and trade conference presentations that cover some aspect of the topic. Experts and thought-leaders continue to share insights intended to help make sense of the many disruptive forces that are shaping the global economy. But with such a broad subject, it’s often difficult for any one article or discussion to give a comprehensive overview that’s easy to digest.

Chuck Martin has done just that.

Martin’s book, Digital Transformation 3.0: The New Business-to-Consumer Connections of the Internet of Things, brings together a wealth of research from a variety of respected sources to lay out a perspective on the digital landscape of today, including predictions about where things are heading in the next few years. In addition to being impeccably sourced, the inferences and conclusions that Martin draws from the aggregated research add thoughtful commentary that elevates the book from merely being a collection of observed trends to something that is, without a doubt, more than the sum of its parts.

The underlying premise of the book is that we are witnessing the third phase of digital transformation.

• The first digital transformation occurred with the advent of the Internet, forever changing the way people and businesses would interact with each other.
• The second digital transformation was mobile, with smartphones ushering in a new era where information, communication, and commerce all became portable.
• The third digital transformation, which is just upon us, is the result of the Internet of Things (IoT) enabling a level of connectivity and data collection that will fundamentally change things once again.

Just as digital transformation is a broad and deep topic, so is the discussion of the IoT. Martin provides a framework in which to segment the discussion, identifying what he sees as the seven technologically-driven forces that compose the IoT landscape: sensors, artificial intelligence, voice assistants, smart homes, virtual and augmented reality, connected cars, and drones and robots.

The author dives into each of these areas in detail, emphasizing the unique factors of each of these technologies that are shaping the way people interact with each other, with businesses, and with the smart devices around them. He also highlights the combinatorial effect that these forces have on each other. “Rather than being one cohesive, end-to-end phenomenon,” Martin writes, “the Internet of Things comprises differing silos of major innovation.” These silos interact and interoperate to propel user experiences forward, often by leaps and bounds.

The focus of the book, as the subtitle suggests, is largely about the consumer-to-business relationship. However, it seems clear that many of the observations that Martin makes could be readily applied to the relationship between employees and employers. The influx of IoT devices into people’s lives will likely, as Martin says, begin to change consumer expectations for how they interact with business. It stands to reason, however, that these expectations will carry over into the workplace, too. A careful reading of the book with an eye toward the evolution of the digital employee experience can yield insights that go beyond the explicit predictions and observations found in its pages.

Martin’s chapter on smart homes, for example, can be easily expanded to a discussion of smart workspaces, as some of the same opportunities for personalization, efficiency, and automation exist in both scenarios. Similarly, the discussion of VR and AR easily translates to an employee experience discussion, with the author actually referencing examples of employers using AR techniques to train their workers to perform tasks. The future of work will be impacted heavily by these forces, and businesses should pay attention to how these consumer trends inform new ways of working.

Such subject matter might seem somewhat dry and a bit dense to process, but this book shines when the author tries to imagine scenarios from the not-so-distant future, in which IoT devices significantly change our experiences. In one example, Martin lays out some theoretical (yet highly plausible) conversations with a digital assistant (such as Alexa, from Amazon) in which brief, natural conversations yield significant, complex outcomes beyond what are currently possible. It’s thought-provoking and engaging, and it enjoins the reader to consider what is now (or will soon be) possible in a way that’s interesting and fun.

Chuck Martin succeeds in covering a lot of ground in what amounts to a fairly quick, easy read. Digital Transformation 3.0: The New Business-to-Consumer Connections of the Internet of Things is well worth your time and will undoubtedly provide much food for thought.

Related Links

1. Digital Transformation 3.0 on Amazon.com
2. Six Differentiators of Digital-First Organization
3. Human-Machine Partnership: An LDS Case Study
4. Chuck Martin on LinkedIn

BYOD Signaled the Start

The bring-your-own device (BYOD) movement demonstrated how consumer experiences and expectations can change the enterprise ecosystem as well as the culture of a workplace. It brought an array of benefits to both the employee and company while presenting obstacles and ongoing challenges for IT organizations.

Security and data management policies are just some of the considerations that have to be accounted for in order for BYOD to become a reality for the enterprise down to the end user. Yet, if there is one thing that is true, technology is evolving at a greater pace than ever before. With that, BYOD can be looked at as the starting pistol shot signaling more things to come.

Devices Are Getting (More) Personal

As devices improve with new capabilities and functionality, they grow closer to interpreting user interactions. They now anticipate behavioral actions through inputs and data collection:

• Get into your car and it is likely that you will get a status of how traffic is.
• Arrive at your destination and you might be greeted with information about nearby venues or friends within distance.

Little by little, the devices we carry are inching towards a level of intimacy that will soon transform them more deeply into personal assistants. They will know more about us on a behavioral level and be able to anticipate the things we may need, the information we seek and the communications we have.

In addition, the form factor is rapidly changing. BYOD, for the most part, concentrated on smartphones and tablets. Now, technology has advanced to a variety of smaller devices such as wearables. (Think: fitness trackers, watches and smart glasses).

From Personal Device to Personal Assistant

Wearables accentuate the intimate relationship that people have with their personal devices.

• They act as conduits translating data into specific tasks, actionable events or assist with decision making.
• They work in sync with other devices as personal assistants, relaying information and updates that is both timely and relevant.
• As they progress in the consumer world, is there a place for them in the enterprise?

In short, yes, but like BYOD it will require organizations to plan and consider how to best use this technology to benefit both the company and the employee. At a high level, wearables can help create experiences in the workplace that are engaging and interactive while being productive.

• Pass by a particular conference room at work and you might get a project status on your watch.
• That colleague you passed just triggered a reminder about a meeting you have with her next week… are you ready?
• A wellness alert might appear on your device if you have been at your desk writing that RFP response for too long – thank your wearable.

With the potential to improve communication, productivity and collaboration in the workplace, enterprises must consider how to accommodate for wearable technologies beyond device provisioning. They must look to find ways in which they can tap into that intimate relationship and enrich the employee experience.

In doing so, they will ultimately excite, engage and retain their workforce. At Logical Design Solutions, we are constantly evaluating and innovating with emerging technologies like wearables for enterprise use.

Technology awareness and responsiveness to dynamic ideas of people in environments, or ambient computing, will change the way functionality, search capabilities and user experiences all get enhanced in future enterprise solutions.

The use of technologies like those found in Amazon Echo, Apple’s Siri, and in Microsoft’s Cortana will streamline certain enterprise functions while providing new and exciting experiences to business consumers.

Integration plus contextual awareness

The ability to connect people with business information, decision support data, and a range of tools and resources via simple voice commands is just the start of capabilities that lie ahead. In addition to the elegant user experience possibilities, an individual’s voice contains unique pattern identifiers that can provide systems with another layer of authentication and ultimately enhanced security.

Even more exciting, ambient computing brings together a range of disparate resources, is always-on and constantly learning about the environment and the people in it through interactions. It has a contextual awareness that can recognize a situation and then respond with relevant information.

Creating new value

For example, as a business user I may have access to a repository of many thousands of resources that I typically search within. If my traditional use of search is such that I have to filter and refine the terms I use, search remains an arduous process.

Yet, a smarter, integrated solution that considers information from my profile, my recent inquiry history and other learned variables, such as time of year relative to key business events, could yield results more meaningful to me. In the future enterprise ecosystem, you could envision people managers using solutions like these to monitor and manage their entire talent management pipeline!

In terms of experience design, nothing could be more elegant and simplistic than using one action to cull what’s relevant from vast amounts of information using only your voice. These possibilities will delight enterprise consumers with value, utility and a friction free experience across channels and devices.

Consumer trends, adapted to the enterprise context

The Internet of Things (IoT), for the most part, has already created various methods and means by which data can be collected and exchanged. As innovation continues, the consumer market will likely lead with progressive solutions in the area of ambient computing that will naturally extend to the enterprise.

The enterprise will be able to use best-of-breed solutions and apply them to create more useful and more seamless user experiences for their constituents.

Organizations can take cues now by following the growth of ambient computing within the in-home, consumer market where much of the initial progress is taking shape. The “connected-home” is the beginning of a small scale model for larger future state enterprise environments. All of the elements are there for consideration including network, device, security, profile and content management.

Using this line of sight can enable organizations to gauge which aspects of ambient computing will be most beneficial to employees in both the workplace and at home, providing them with an enhanced and seamless user experience.

At LDS, we’re always looking for ways to capitalize on modern technology disruptors, like ambient computing, to design relevant digital business experiences that create competitive advantage!

Data in Enterprise HR Solutions:

There are so many interesting things you could say about data in enterprise solutions; big data, operational data, stewardship, security, integration, design, semantics, modeling, governance, architecture… the list goes on and on…

Let’s talk for a minute about HR (who’s a big enterprise stakeholder in what we’ll call “people data”), and how we regularly see HR data leveraged in our solutions to deliver real value to the business and to business consumers…

We like to think about people data in some broad categories:

1. Personal and Demographic – these are data about people, their home address, their dependent information etc. These are typically highly-sensitive details that aren’t shared with other employees.
2. Job and Work – these are data that are related to current employment, and include job information, contact and work location, organizational information, and reporting relationship. These data are typically widely shared with other employees. These are the kinds of information you would find in a directory.
3. Functional Data – these are specific data as it relates to functional areas such as compensation or performance ratings. Access to these highly-sensitive data are typically restricted.
4. Status and Behavioral – these are data that communicate where a person (or, collection of people – like a manager’s organization) is relative to completing key business process. For example, a particular manager has completed performance rating recommendations for 50% of his/her team.

So how do we effectively leverage and capitalize on these classes of data in enterprise solutions?

One way you might think about it is to provide access to data centrally, and let people reference and report on these in different contexts of the employee lifecycle. In a model like this, a user needs to connect data to the context in which they are coming from, and may need to reason about relevant data in that context.

Although the idea of centralized user data in location sounds attractive from an engineering perspective, the burden on the user to rationalize what set of data to reference, or update under what conditions quickly becomes daunting – and it doesn’t really match the online behavior of most business consumers, most of the time. Some data, which may have relevancy across many different contexts, may be appropriate to provide centrally.

Another approach is to provide just the relevant set of data based on specific user situations / process contexts as the user is experiencing the online solution. Not only is this kind of distributed data in context simplifying the amount of rationalization the user has to do, these data could go beyond just displaying relevant data but also recommend specific actions that the user needs to take or consider in relation to the context. In this way we can influence behaviors! What power!

So what should business and data architects consider as they contemplate approaches like this?

Data Availability & Quality: In diverse and global organizations, data in each of the above mentioned categories may be highly fragmented due to variability in technology, processes, and local regulations. Enterprise HR solutions need to address data availability, consistency, quality and reliability and the likely coverage of these data to user populations before bringing select candidates for user consumption.

Entitlements: Complex rules may also drive who can see these data derived based on HR service delivery models (i.e., how clearly responsibilities for client organizations are defined) for HR access to these data, and how organizational responsibilities are delegated to people managers. These need to be well understood to appropriately factor related complexity to enabling these data to these important constituents (i.e., HR and Managers).

IT Strategy: Consider the larger HR ecosystem to validate that the data represented in the primary online channel is aligned and consistent with other properties in the ecosystem where a user may navigate to as a result of data displayed.

Readiness: Provide due considerations for technology readiness, capability and reliability to organize these complex data landscapes, enforce security and governance, to ensure that your business solution can consistently deliver a single source of truth, in real-time.

In diverse and global organizations, data in each of the above mentioned categories may be highly fragmented due to variability in technology, processes, and local regulations. Enterprise HR solutions need to address data availability, consistency, quality and reliability and the likely coverage of these data to user population before bringing selecting candidates for user consumption.

Complex rules may also drive who can see these data derived based on HR service delivery organization (i.e., how clearly responsibilities for client organizations are defined) for HR access to these data, and how organizational responsibilities are delegated to people managers. These need to be well understood to appropriately factor related complexity to enabling these data to these important constituents (i.e., HR and Managers).

Consider the larger HR ecosystem to validate that the data represented in the primary online channel is aligned and consistent with other properties in the ecosystem where a user may navigate to as a result of data displayed. Provide due considerations for technology readiness, capability and reliability to organize these complex data landscape, enforce security and governance, to ensure that your business solution can consistently deliver a single source of truth, in real-time.

So, as you can see, data is an important and complex idea in online enterprise solutions.  There are important nested decisions to solve the use of data to achieve business goals, related technology, and data governance. At LDS, we’re accustomed to working through this problem space to unlock new value in the experiences we imagine, design and realize.