Next Up: ePharma Summit

Starting Monday you will find me in NYC sponsoring and speaking at the ePharma Summit. Now in its 11^th year, ePharma Summit is the longest running, largest and most respected digital marketing event for Life Sciences.

I have been asked to share our thoughts and observations on mobile strategies, systems integration, hybrid platforms and emerging technology trends for the future. I am scheduled to talk with attendees on Tuesday, February 7^th during the “Future Trends in Mobile” track. I hope to see you in the audience, or please stop by the booth and say hello.

Big Industry: Big Data or Very Small Data?

I’ve been asked to prognosticate on emerging mobile trends for attendees of the ePharma Summit next week in NYC. In the past we’ve shared our thinking on: the coming tablet wars, hybrid applications, total cost of ownership of mobile applications, and the evolution of sales forces.

A current hot topic is “big data” – a trend affecting all industries. At $1.0+ trillion in global revenue, Life Sciences is clearly big, and growing rapidly and generates “big data”.

With the explosion of mobile computing the communications transactions of individual sales reps (and the content they convey to their customers) generate a lot of “digital exhaust” that can be collected and analyzed. How does one harness this opportunity?

The first step is to understand and embrace this data source – what transactions take place and how much data could be generated? Second, adopt a comprehensive strategy for ALL mobile applications regarding data capture. Third, promote these standards for all mobile application vendors. Last, develop a means to move this data to your data warehouse for subsequent analysis using routines similar to other marketing channels.

However, blogger Alan Mitchell postulates an even more interesting hypothesis – Very Small Data. Mitchell states:

“So there are two classes of data which help solve different types of problem. Big Data is statistical and deals with general trends and patterns; Very Small Data is specific and deals with getting things done: gathering the information needed to make a decision, to make an arrangement, or to get some administrative chore done. Because it’s Very Small and rather mundane and specific, it doesn’t seem as glamorous and important as Big Data. But it is.

“In fact, this is where our economy’s next big productivity breakthrough is going to come from: information logistics – getting exactly the right information to and from the right people at the right time so we can solve problems, make decisions, organise and implement things without wasting time and effort looking for the right data or sifting through and discarding the wrong data.”

Ubiquitous mobility offers two major opportunities: 1) a means to capture transactions to feed the BIG data warehouse and 2) to present very SMALL data to field reps enabling them to act – in real time. And the two are related: how do you use big data to predict; and how do you communicate this with your employees? The companies that get this right gains competitive advantage – how are you putting this to work?

Freewill

Seth Godin’s recent blog “It’s completely up to you” got me thinking about a line in Rush’s “Freewill”: “If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.”

Many companies are struggling with this exact concept when it comes to mobility, especially in light of the BYOD (bring your own device) movement. Many employees want to choose their computing platforms and have organizational support; some companies embrace and promote this concept (DISCLOSURE: Prolifiq is a 100% BYOD environment).

This is inevitable — today’s information workers are savvy enough to figure out how to get their devices working on corporate systems – with or without corporate support. And, the competitive arena is constantly changing in smartphones, tablets, and desktops with Google Android, Apple iOS, Windows 8, and even Blackberry 10 creating a plethora of devices available for the user community.

One choice: ignore the BYOD movement and enforce fixed device standards for all; another choice: embrace BYOD and be open to all devices; a third choice: select and qualify several devices and let users choose.

The real challenge then becomes how to ensure IT governance policies and, most likely, compliance policies. In heavily regulated industries (such as Life Sciences, healthcare Finance, and Financial Services) choices 1 and 2 are not very practical. Arbitrary barriers WILL be ignored (especially by key rainmakers) and a free for all is very problematic for IT, legal and regulatory. What is best is to embrace a heterogeneous environment, develop an IT governance policy to support heterogeneity, qualify several devices with the associated applications, and let users choose. This will not elate all parties; but some choice is much, much better than no choice.

But, inaction is not really an option because, as Rush sings: “If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.”

(Rush not your cup of tea? Check out my previous post referencing The Who.)

Turned Off

Just before Christmas, I read where VW was turning off email after hours for its employees. Then today, I read how this may be a trend that is catching on.

This is an interesting phenomena that speaks as much to individuals’ commitment to work – and “situational awareness” as it does to the state of enterprise communications.

First, let’s look at individual communication habits. How many of us begin our day as Seth Godin discusses in his blog by checking our incoming mail? This can accomplish many things including: filling us in on what happened since we last checked, providing breaking news about performance, or alerting us to some critical timing event. It also conditions us to be in “response” mode as opposed to initiation mode.

Now let’s look at enterprise communications. In the mid 90s, “portals” were all the rage to communicate with employees – a PULL methodology. Let’s put up a website, segment our content and our people will come find the information. When we realized this wasn’t working, we started shifting time-sensitive communications to email; this way we could broadcast – a PUSH methodology – to our employees. Really, really important communications will be marked urgent. That will get their attention.

Killing email is the resultant backlash. This is a clear indication we are PUSHING too much information at our people and they have resorted to other means of communication (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Jive, Connections, etc.) to avoid the deluge. But, at the end of the day the technology is only as good as: 1) responsible use policies, 2) personal communications discipline, and 3) effective content.

Every new technology views itself as “THE disruptor” and will render all previous technologies obsolete. What is required is for us to: 1) think of what information we need to PROVIDE to our people, 2)  determine the best medium to use, 3) establish protocols, 4) develop the appropriate content for the medium and the message, and 4) measure effectiveness.

This discipline will result in employees who possess the knowledge to proactively reach their goals using all of the knowledge at their disposal.

Company-Wide API

In simple terms, an application programming interface (API) is a structured way for one software application to talk with another.

OpenView Venture Partners blogger Nick Petri recently posited the value of a “company-wide” API that enables companies to connect to their existing and future “eco-system” through an API. This is a concept that has real legs, and delivers tremendous value.

Much of my career has been dependent on APIs – in the ‘90s it was an API between phone systems and healthcare information systems (HIS); the early ‘00s it was a VoIP API for websites; now it is an API for Prolifiq. When we conceived our platform, we believed it was imperative that we connect with desktop and enterprise applications to leverage the “real estate” of their user-interfaces as well as the data/knowledge in their databases. This has been the most prescient move we have ever made.

In virtually every customer deployment, we are asked: “….can you connect your platform to our ______application?” In almost all instances (providing the application supports web services or APIs) the answer is: “yes.” This allows us to greatly enhance the functionality of our solution and leverage existing corporate assets. Most importantly, we deliver a “whole” that is “greater than the sum of the parts.”

The internet – and web services in particular – has clearly changed everything. Connectivity is key; connectivity is built on APIs. The most forward thinking companies embrace this fact and support APIs and have an ethos of connectivity built into their IT governance processes. Does yours?