|
|
|
|
Following are some notes from a recent roundtable discussion regarding the continuing emergence of ecommerce in the financial services world... A recent Money magazine article, Break the Bank (August, 2007),claims that " online-only banks have finally come of age."
- The Internet customer is decisive - give them clear choices, and they will decide. Sometimes this is best facilitated in an interactive, online environmment. - e-customers are easier to serve than traditional customers in many ways. - Due to the pace of technological advancement, often times aggressive innovation is less expensive than incremental improvements. - There is a shift occurring from online shopping to online buying. It is a generational shift. - The Internet customer expects immediate and intelligent lead management (i.e. icosales from Kaleidico). - The Internet customer wants an iBranch, an iBroker, and a .pdf... immediately. - The "eMortgage" isn't just a cost saver - it's the product the next generation will buy (retail, wholesale, and secondary). - Banking customers are more mobile than ever. It's time for banks to find ways to be more ubiquitous than food and fuel. - The eMortgage is the perfect solution for aggressive portfolio retention strategies, and a great way to transition traditional customers to e-customers. Ditech's latest ad campaign is "people are smart".... banking on that, they are predicting that Internet banking is making a significant surge.
|
|
|
|
| Posted by Jeff Bell at | | | |
|
I have found the Software Engineering Institutes (SEI) Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) to be an adaptive model, with elements useful to any organization seeking effective development teams. The SEI defines the CMMI as a "process improvement approach that provides organizations with essential elements of effective processes" for delivering technology projects. I've seen it work in large and small organizations, and employed with agile development processes, the Rational Unified Process (RUP), waterfall methods, and extreme programming, where every project is unique. I've also found the CMMI's project management approaches to be compatible with the Project Management Institutes (PMI) Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification.
It has been employed successfully in organizations such as EDS, JPMorgan, Motorola, NASA, and Bank of America. Each organization follows the CMMI at levels appropriate to their environment to continually improve the quality of their development processes.
The CMMI is not a process in and of itself, but it defines the characteristics of a successful process, and then provides a measure of an organizations maturity in 5 levels, 0-5, which include:
Level 1: Initial
Level 2: Managed
Level 3: Defined
Level 4: Quantitatively Managed
Level 5: Optimizing
The benefits of using the model along with any of these approaches include:
- the ability to explicitly link business objectives to engineering activities
- more controlled schedule and budget success
- continual integration of lessons learned from cross functional groups
- engage the entire organization in critical engineering activities
|
|
|
|
| Posted by Jeff Bell at | | | |
|
I've been using the iPhone for about two days. Before that, there were two devices I always had with me: my Blackberry 8700 series, and my 30g video iPod.
Several reviews of the device are available - here's one from CNET. I'm going to highlight some of the main items that seem (at first impression) to be gains and losses (alternating) from my user perspective. I'm not going to conclude which wins out until I've had a few weeks with the device. I'll come back then and rate the gains and losses. But right now, John Lennon is singing "Imagine", and I'm thinking this is a curve jump.
Gain
- All-in-one. Finally, one device for (core feature) web, phone, email, text, music, video. And it's all managed through one interface. This is a major gain for someone who gets heavy use out of a pda and an iPod, specifically a video iPod. I have one device to keep track of, maintain, keep charged. In addition, the device takes care of pausing the music when a call comes in.
Loss
- Where's my Gtalk? When Blackberry came out with the gtalk interface, I installed, signed in, and haven't signed out since. Chat is the perfect in between from a phone call and an email. I can read at my convenience, reply quickly, and see who's available and who isn't for quick conversations. Hopefully I'll find a way here, but right now it seems that the one place AT&T/Cingular put down their foot was on SMS, and chat is a threat.
Gain
- Voice Mail list. Revolutionary. You can see all of your waiting voice mails and who left them before you start listening. You can pick which order you listen to voice mails just as you do emails. You can fast forward, rewind... (the same is true for contacts, emails, and songs).
Loss
- I use car and home docking stations for my iPod. When I plug in to them, they work, but the iPhone warns me they weren't "made for the iPhone". I'll see what this means...
Gain
- The best pda web browser ever. No stylus, no trackball; all touch screen. You can zoom, turn the device for different views, and you're looking at straight websites (vs. wap versions).
Loss
- The Blackberry qwerty. I know all keyboards take some getting used to. The touch screen is pretty good out of the gate (even better when widened for web browsing by turning the device). However, from the first time I used the Blackberry 8700 series keyboard, it was a perfect fit.
Gain
- Self-service setup for phone service, iTunes, and gmail.... we're there. I found myself saying: "it should always be this easy." This is the Internet promise.
Gain (I'll end with 2 in a row)
- Screen size. Bigger movies, maps, pictures, and videos; the real web; and less scrolling through emails. More of everything, and iPod quality.
Gain (3)
- Wi-Fi.
These are some initial thoughts. The big question in anticipation was: is this really a big jump? After all, isn't it really just bringing music to the pda? My first guess is that these questions come from the same people that still cannot understand what the iPod really is: that combination of individualism, simplicity, community, and style that Apple has now extended to the phone. It should always be this easy.
|
|
|
|
| Posted by Jeff Bell at | | | |
|
Wired is partnering with LivingHome to create a high tech ecofriendly home. Designed by Ray Kappe, built by LivingHome (to attain at least a Gold LEED rating), and "tricked out" by Wired and their partners, the goal is to reach the best in sustainability, technology, and design. They say it's "where green plugs in." From a technology perspetive, the home will feature:
- a wireless solar powered weather station
- biometric iris recongnition for identity verification
- HP Touchsmart PC's in several rooms, with wireless mouse / and keyboard
- a "Maxi-Multi-room HD DMR"
- a high end game room with several different game consoles, sound, and "special chairs to heighten the experience"
- a fantastic media and entertainment room
The home will be on the market this fall in Los Angeles.
Other sponsors include: BMW, Control4, HP, SIEMENS, Sunpower, Bosch, Oregon Scientific
|
|
|
|
| Posted by Jeff Bell at | | | |
|
Wired Magazine reports on their Compiler blog that the iPhoneDevCamp was in full swing this afternoon. Go there to learn more about the schedule, and some profiles on Joe Hewitt, Chris Messina, and others...
|
|
|
|
| Posted by Jeff Bell at | | | |
|
The cover article of the current edition of Business Week is "Children of the Web: How Business is Cashing in on the Global Youth Culture" (July 2, 2007) discusses the web 2.0 generation. "Because of Flickr, MySpace, Skype, YouTube, digg, and de.lic.ious, young people scattered all over are instantly aware of what's happening to others like them everywhere else." (p. 52)
The article describes these users as "today's most important demographic group: the tens of millions of digital elite who are in the vanguard of a fast emerging global youth culture."
"This is a generational shift," says Netscape founder and web pioneer Marc Andreessen. "A whole new generation grows up used to new technologies, and they're just different."
|
|
|
|
| Posted by Jeff Bell at | | | |
|
In their book, "The Clean Tech Revolution", Ron Pernick and Clint Wilder refer to the shift from our reliance on fossil fuels to energy sources, "such as solar, wind, waves, and biofuels... represents the greatest economic and technological shift in modern history."
The book advances the theory that clean tech is good business in several areas, giving examples and business opportunities in the following areas. Example companies are listed; the book has several more:
- Solar energy, Nanosolar (Palo Alto, CA)
- Wind Power, Suzlon Energy (Pune, India)
- Biofuels and Biomaterials, Cilion, (Menlo Park, CA)
- Green Buildings, Clarum Homes (Palo Alto, CA)
- Personal Transportation, Chery, (Wuhu, China)
- Smart Grid (Intelligent and distributed), BPL Global, (Pittsburgh, PA)
- Mobile Technologies, Jadoo Power Systems, (Folsom, CA)
- Water Filtration, Christ Water Company, (Mondsee, Austria)
Guy Kawasaki of Garage Ventures endorses the book, "saying it should be required reading for any responsible citizen of this planet."
(2007, Harper Collins)
Ron Pernick is a co-founder and principal of Clean Edge, the "Clean Tech Market Authority". Clint Wilder is a technology expert and contirbuting editor at Harper Collins.
|
|
|
|
| Posted by Jeff Bell at | | | |
|
"I know the price of success: dedication, hard work, and an unremitting devotion to the things you want to see happen." - Frank Lloyd Wright
|
|
|
|
| Posted by Jeff Bell at | | | |
|
Jonathan Eig's "Opening Day: The Story of Jackie Robinsons First Season" chronicles the 1947 Dodgers, addressing much of the legend, fact and fiction, that has evolved in the last 60 years. Eig elevates Jackie and Rachel, and minimizes some of the revisionist heroes.
One thing that can't be revised was Robinsons' .297 rookie batting average and his team leading 125 runs for the pennant winning Dodgers. In fact, to further illuminate his true production, he tied for first on the team with ninety-four Runs Created (a stat created by statistician Bill James, and explained in his literature, in this book, and in Moneyball. The "Runs Created" algorithm is (Hits + Walks) x (Total Bases) / (Plate Appearances)).
While producing on the field, though, Jackie was measuring importance on a different scale. As he said later, "a life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives."
His larger impact, of course, is immeasurable. Eig states that "Jackie Robinsons true legacy" was in that "given a chance to change the world, he never hesitated. He played hard and won. After that, it was a whole new ballgame."
This book has a unique impact. Maybe it's in the focus on the first season. Maybe it's in the side stories of individuals that came to a game and went out to make their own impact. Maybe it's Rachel. Maybe it's in the realization that such significant events rested on such a frail balance. Maybe it's in the contrast of a baseball contest with hard stats, bases, and foul lines, with a human struggle that was just so far out of bounds. All considered, the impact from the book is just Jackie Robinson. It's another view, another package, another reflection of a man that changed the world.
|
|
|
|
| Posted by Jeff Bell at | | | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
