Seminar 7 Review

We had a short but interesting seminar this week. We discussed podcasting and how it affects the businesses today. Who can utilize this new technology or platform to improve their standing in the market.

I was eagerly waiting for this seminar since I didn't know much about Podcasting. A 'podcast' is basically a media file that can be distributed over the Internet and can be played on mobile devices and computers. The biggest advantage of podcasts is it's portability and the possibility of interaction between the podcaster and the viewers.

The professor explained how the podcast is being used by numerous well know firms and companies both as a means of internal and external information distribution. The feature which all these firms find advantageous to the situation existing within is that podcasts provide the means for this information to be viewed at the recipient's convenience and can be accessed and utilized multiple times unlike a presentation given in person or the content of a meeting.
Another problem with the conventional presentation and meetings is the problem of coordination with all the employees or the people who are meant to attend them. With podcast, a simple link would be all that needs to be sent and the employee can view the content at his convenience. Through feedback, they would also be able to analyze and discuss the contents of the podcast with others hence utilizing the wisdom of a collective intelligence.

In many countries around the world, the working population spends a considerable amount of time in transport. According to the Land Transport Authority of Singapore, about 5 million trips are made on public transport everyday! A significant number of this would be the working population. So it is clear why a portable and mobile medium of information like podcasts would be preferred. This shows how big a market and scope podcasting has to expand to and if integrated by a telecommunication company, will give it a big boost in the market. Podcasts would make a profitable addition for any business model be it financially like for companies like Starhub or SingTel, or improving the efficiency of information distribution by firms and companies in general to their dealers, suppliers or customers. For example, IBM has a podcast on "The New Intellectual Marketplace" featuring Dr. Irving Wladawsky-Berger, IBM vice president of technology strategy and innovation.
Even U.S. Senator Barack Obama has a podcast reporting his views! Here is the link to his podcast: U.S. Senator Barack Obama Podcast. This seems a very novel way to get himself heard by a lot more people around the world than he could have through news channels or by speeches. I would have never heard his whole speech even if I wanted to through by any other means.

Another advantage of podcasts is that almost anybody can make a podcast without any significant expenditure for equipment or software which may be required. The software is available for free while the hardware (a simple microphone) is available for a very nominal price. Of course there is high-end equipment available too for those would are ready to spend a around S$ 1000 for the system.

We also talked about how smart tagging can help drive traffic to podcasts you produce and share on the Internet. I had already read about tagging since it was related to the web spider program used by search engines to list web pages. There are many software on the web available that allow users to edit these tags. One such software is iTunes.

The professor also pointed out how programs like Skype be used to conduct interviews of experts on particular topics with ease and can be posted on the Internet for the interested to access and hear the views.

I realize now how podcasting has enabled us to distribute information better and utilize the collective intelligence of people from all over the world by providing a common platform to share views with each other.

Elevator Pitch

After some slight modifications, the Elevator Pitch by Wizards of the Web (our group) is up on YouTube! Check it out!

Seminar 6 Review

We had an interesting seminar this week. We got to do a fast case analysis on "Wireless Infrastructure for a Regional Food Safety Initiative in Southeast Asia". Basically, it was a model to help the Agriculture Ministry keep track of the cattle used for the meat products in Singapore in wake of all the diseases that are cause loss throughout the world. For the assignment, we were supposed to present screen designs for particular scenarios that a ministry inspector could encounter.
Before we started on the case analysis, the professor explained why this particular kind of assignment was important to master. It seems it was what many companies test when one applies for a job with them. The professor also explained to us something called the "In-box" exercise. I searched for some explanation and came up with this. It explains how the HR managers or the trainers design an In-box exercise.
The professor gave us a taste of whats that like while we were doing the assignment. I felt that the time we had for the assignment wasn't utilized properly by our group. I guess thats what an In-box exercise is all about, time management.

We also talked about the different approaches one can take for a case analysis. The professor pointed out that it was important to recognize which approach, for example, Value Chain or Process Flow Analysis, Value Systems Analysis, Financial Analysis, is required for the case. He also walked us through what a DHL value chain looks like.
Let me give the example of OCBC Bank and their value chain. The value of their service in Singapore is the easy accessibility to one's account and money. What they need to know to provide this value to its customers are the most frequented places and where these access points (ATM machines) can be placed so as to provide the accessibility at these places. Some such places can include the malls, MRT stations and bus terminals, etc. Another thing which is very important is for them to provide good customer support services.
If we look at the primary activities of the value chain analysis for OCBC, we will see that the inbound logistics consist of getting new accounts made and accepting and handling the cash that comes in and entering the information in the bank servers. The operations that the bank would need to do is to calculate interest for the money it holds and at the same time use that money to make investments and earn profits. The outbound logistics for OCBC will mainly consist of providing customers with access like I mentioned above. Along with all this. there would need to be some marketing involved to attract new customers along with the support services for existing customers.

I am making some improvements in the elevator pitch we made for a previous seminar. I will post the link as soon as I have uploaded the video.

Also, I found this interesting news on one of the websites:"Barack Obama Hops on the Web 2.0 Bandwagon". It just goes to show how significant a role the new Web 2.0 platform is playing in the society today.

Seminar 5 Review

I would like start this post by thanking Professor Gilbert for not giving us the case analysis as an assignment for the next class. I was worried how I would do the assignment with a quiz added to my already ample workload for this week. Also I am happy because our elevator pitch presentation went well in the seminar. It definitely took me more than 6 hours to make the presentation but that was because I wanted to do a good job with it and also found it interesting as I had never done such a thing before with any presentation for any other module. The biggest challenge with the video was to synchronize the narration with the slides. I liked the suggestions Professor gave on how I could improve our presentation. Also, I got a chance to judge the presentation made by other groups.

The topic in discussion for this week's seminar was "Governing the Freedom Economy:Do we need new rules?" A very interesting topic. We can discuss for weeks on end and I can keep giving you reasons why we need new rules in relation to the changing technology in the world today. I personally feel that we need people to monitor the capabilities of the new technologies that enter the market and make rules or standards to govern them.

During the seminar, we discussed how the Singapore government has adopted the new system available to charge the vehicle owners/drivers for the use of the ways and roads in the ventral business district. Using the system called Electronic Road Pricing; the motorists are charged the required amount that needs to be paid from their CashCards by the ERP gantries. Click on the link for more information about the system. The system uses the "pay-as-you-use" principle. The important thing that was pointed out by the Professor was that a similar yet a little inconvenient system already existed before this system was introduced. Here I realized how the existing behaviour of the Singaporeans was used to enhance and improve the system using the new technology that had been developed. The professor pointed out that it would have been very difficult to introduce a totally different and new system as the people would not be "used to it" and hence might not have been so easily accepted. I found it interesting to see how the government uses the norms we all follow in society to make or improve laws to make them more acceptable to the people.

Lets take some examples how some technologies forced a change in laws all over the world.

• When the first mobile phones entered the market, I am sure there was no law banning their use while driving. But as the dangers of such a practice were realized, laws were quickly implemented to prevent this practice.

• Same is the case with laws for the use of internet. As hackers and piracy became more prevalent, it was felt necessary to control and moderate the internet by the governments which then placed laws into place to combat these threats.

• Currently the copyright laws owned by television and movie production companies are being violated by many users on the popular websites like YouTube. These users record and then post episodes that are shown on the television of popular series. Sometimes whole movies can be found on such websites which can be easily seen by anybody by streaming it from the internet. A lot of companies are trying to force YouTube to go against or modify its privacy agreement thereby enabling itself to give out information on these users who violate the laws so they can be punished by the companies. I am sure before such violations were even possible, the copyright laws didn't extend to such limits. This was mainly because the enabling technology that now makes this possible didn't exist at that time.

These are just a few examples that point out why it's so necessary to monitor and moderate the use of the new enabling technologies that are constantly being introduced in the market.

That reminds me of this news piece I read today...

Apparently, "Nokia will be teaming up with YouTube to allow users to view YouTube content on Nokia handsets." I would like if that happened, now that I own a Nokia handset!

Source: Gizmodo (Click on the link for the full article)

Keep reading my blog. Thanks.

Seminar 4 Review

For this seminar, we had a new venue, a lab with faster and better computers! Of course, that was of no significance as we didn't have to use them.

Anyway, the seminar started off with the presentations all the groups had made on a new information system for the Jurong Bird Park (JBP). The assignment was to come up with an efficient system to help non-English speakers fully experience the sights of JBP. We came up with a three-phase system which comprised of using the IVRS system, SMPP protocol and A2DP Bluetooth profile to provide the customers with information they need in their language of preference. Other groups also came up with some good ideas. Later after all the presentations, the professor held a discussion with the class. He walked us through the life cycle of the system. During the discussion I found out how many loopholes existed in every concept presented earlier. I also realized that this was the prefect way to actually develop an efficient and effective concept of a system. Also to note was the fact that none of the presentation really looked at the behavioural side of the system. For example, most of us who talked about Bluetooth never realized (or forgot) that many of the targeted customers might have Bluetooth but may not know how to operate it or switch it on and accept the files. I will keep that in mind for my future assignments.

Another important that we discussed was the concept of "Paid Listings" or alternatively known as "Paid Inclusion".

"Paid inclusion is a search engine marketing product where the search engine company charges fees related to inclusion of websites in their search index. Paid inclusion products are provided by most search engine companies, the most notable exception being Google."

Source: Wikipedia

Hold on! Except Google? That’s right. Google went their own way when it came to adopting this concept. They came up with "Google Ads". What happens with Paid Inclusion is that the website which pays to get listed is added to the results one gets when a search is done. Google Ads, on the other hand are these same websites but they are listed separately from the actual results thereby leaving the order of results unaffected because of these listings. Is there any doubt why Google is said to be the best!

This brought us to the different methods employed by mainly service based companies to obtain the revenue. Besides a fixed cost or subscription based service like the value added services offered by mobile communication operators, there is an alternative in the form of 'pay-per use'. Although this seems a cheaper option for users, as professor pointed out, it also brings uncertainty to the users about the cost charged. They will always be uncomfortable in opting for a service which does not have fixed charges. Another type that was mentioned, which I didn't knew even existed, was commission based system. What this meant was that the company would charge the user of the service only if it was successful in delivering what the service promised. For example, as the professor mentioned, for a service which monitors free parking slots in car parks, it would be a fair deal on the part of both the user and the company if the user was only charged when it was able to provide the user with a location with a free slot. It would not charge the user if it could not find any free slots in any of the car parks. This seems like a deal a user would readily accept.

We also back to discuss the financial strategies of Amazon.com. The professor explained how Amazon handled its cashflow. When a book is bought on Amazon, the customer is charged immediately. But even though Amazon buys and ships the book from the publisher or warehouse operator immediately, it only needs to pay every 30 or 60 days. For those 30 to 60 days, Amazon holds this money and invests it in short term investments and earns over it. The professor also pointed out that the Popular Bookstore within the Campus is preferred over Amazon by students because of two reasons. One, the shipping charges of a single book if a student orders it on Amazon is very high. And two, Popular sells what the students require for their courses in the university. So it is very convenient for us to go there and buy the book we are looking for rather than pay the extra shipping charges and search for the right book on the site and get it a few days later. By keeping up with the demand of the students and the teachers in the university, it keeps its customers (i.e. us) loyal and keeps its revenue secure.

Next, we were introduced to something known as Commerce Spaces. It was a diagram illustrating the scope of interaction between a consumer and business and the government. A service or product can change hands in broadly four ways:

1. Business to Consumer (Users buying books from Amazon.com)
   
2. Business to Business (Companies selling primary or secondary goods for the production of finished goods)
   
3. Consumer to Consumer (Items being sold on eBay by users to each other)
   
4. Consumer to Business (Websites like Priceline which enable users to offer a price for travel packages which a company then accepts. So it’s a kind of 'reverse auction')

There is also the possibility of the involvement of government which constantly releases tenders which are then bid on by companies.

Before the seminar came to an end, the professor showed us the various elements that are characteristic of a business model and what each of them signified. I felt the most important out of the list was 'Customer Value' or 'Value Proposition' which highlighted the value the model would add and positions the product or service in the market.
And as Geoffrey Moore writes in his marketing book Crossing the Chasm, "Positioning is the single largest influence on the buying decision."

I liked this session a lot as the professor explained the theory using examples for each concept. I will now remember the theory because of the connections the professor made with some popular companies and services.