Now for something a little different

from http://thebluediamondgallery.com/c/communication.html

If you ever look at this blog, you'll notice that the overwhelming majority of posts merely link to my articles on other sites. Once in a rare while, though, I do post about writing or language. This is one of those rare posts, though with a twist. It's not so much my own how-to as a commentary on another.

I started to just write this up on a Google+ post, but it was getting rather long for that.

Now notice the sentence I just wrote before this one. It is true and relevant; however, that is not the only reason I put it in. The same goes for the sentence just before this one. Both the sentences featured two independent clauses put together. In one, they were joined by the coordination conjunction"but" after a comma. In the other, they were joined by the adverbial conjunction "however" with a comma that was placed after a semi-colon. Both "but" and "however" serve to join the two parts of the sentence in a way that signals the relationship of the first part to the second part.

And now on to what I'm referring to. it's Blogspot's "The Ultimate List of Words That Sell." Some points are fine and well known, like focusing on the reader/potential customer rather than the seller.  But some attempts to turn language around are really absurd. For example:


3) And This is a clever replacement for "but" when dealing with criticisms or objections. The word "but" signals to the prospect that you are about to utter a statement that runs counter to what they'd like to hear. "And" by its very nature is inclusive -- you seem to agree even when you're disagreeing. Consider these two examples from Sales Coach Seamus Brown:

"I see that you only have a budget of $50,000, but let me tell you why our system costs $100,000."

"I see that you only have a budget of $50,000, and let me tell you why our system costs $100,000."

Brown points out that the second sentence acknowledges the prospect's budget, while the first steamrolls over the problem and makes the buyer feel ignored. However, she fails to understand how conjunctions connote different meanings. 

Simply linking two contradictory points with the coordinating conjunction "and" does not make the contradiction go away. Using "and," the least specific of linkage words simply makes the sentence weaker. It actually indicates you're just paying lip service to the concerns of the buyer without working out a solution. A much better way to approach the problem is to make an actual selling point here. "I understand that you have set a budget of $50,000 and so would think that our $100,000 system is beyond your reach. But that's not the case because of our flexible payment terms/guaranteed savings/whatever."


Another strikingly stupid example offered in this article is this one:


12) Because

Ellen Langer, a social psychologist and professor at Harvard University, conducted a study where she tested the impact of phrasing on people's willingness to let someone cut them in line. Here are the variations she used:

"Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine?"

"Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine because I have to make some copies?"

"Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine because I'm in a rush?"

While only 70% agreed to let her cut in line when she used the first question, upwards of 90% let her skip when she used either the second and third phrasings. The takeaway? When asking people to do something, always include a reason. Don't just request that your prospect introduce you to another stakeholder or fill out a survey -- explain why you'd like them to take these actions.I can get the rush reason a bit for those who have sympathetic coworkers around, but explaining you want to use the Xerox machine because you need to make copies is absolutely ridiculous. What else would you be using it for -- to make coffee? Really, if I were on that line, I'd be completely turned off by someone trying to cut ahead of me for that because we're all waiting to use the Xerox machine to make copies.
Last and maybe least, in this case, is this:


13) Opportunity

Problems are bound to crop up in the sales process, but that doesn't mean you should acknowledge them as such. The word "problem" has a negative connotation, and can make the prospect feel as if the process is difficult and unpleasant. With this in mind, replace it with more positive words. Instead of saying "no problem," for example, say, "it's my pleasure." "I understand the problem" can become "I see an opportunity to make this run more smoothly.

Perhaps the writer doesn't normally get calls from recruiters. "Opportunity" is their word of choice for job possibilities. That's what most people would associate with it. But this section isn't even about using the word "opportunity," despite the heading. Rather it is about avoiding saying the word "problem," even "no problem."


This is absurd. No one walks away from hearing "no problem" with a negative association unless they are sticklers for saying a more old-fashioned "thank you." Now if the question is about using the word in connection to actual problems, I say, you're better off calling a spade a spade and then offering a real solution because that's what business deals are really all about: finding solutions to problems. There is no progress made by ignoring problems, sweeping them under the rug, or referring them through some ridiculous euphemism in order to try to mitigate their impact. The best selling point for any business offer is to identify the real problem the potential customer is struggling with and to offer a solution that will fix it. Unfortunately, this article will not work as a solution to communication problems.
Related post: http://writewaypro.blogspot.com/2015/08/3-signs-youre-doing-social-media-wrong.html#gpluscomments
and
http://level343.com/2012/08/30/key-questions-for-content-marketing/

Hybrid cloud alliance

Hewlett Packard Enterprise's unique partnership with NTT America is a classic example of a New IP partnership -- built on the strengths of each and to the advantage of both in that it delivers innovative products, market access, interoperability, security and more

Read more in 

HPE & NTT: A Strategic Alliance for Hybrid Cloud

.....

Big Data at Bentley

Every day, we create 2.5 quintillion bytes of data -- so much that 90 percent of the data in the world today has been created in the last two years alone.

Those eye-popping figures were tallied by IBM … in 2012. Three years’ proliferation of sensors, mobile devices and Internet-enabled products has only multiplied the data collected about us on a given day. The challenge now, say experts at Bentley and elsewhere, is extracting value from that tsunami of information.

“Whether companies are large or small, established or brand new, they are all collecting data. The difference is that the successful ones are already leveraging it,” says Christopher Lynch MBA ’91, who works with young companies as a partner at venture capital firm Accomplice.

Related posts that are quoted in the article: Predictive Analytics: Data and Retail Expertise and A Data-Driven Game-Changer for Football

- Read more in  Big Data from 30,000 Feet 

Nested virtualization improves the odds for online gaming

                  

photo  https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/26/Roulette_wheel.jpg

In the past few years, 888 Holdings—one of the largest online gaming companies in the world and the largest one for legal online gambling in the United States—has grown rapidly and expanded into new product lines and markets. The Israel-based company delivers casino games, poker, bingo and sports betting to computers and mobile devices.

To meet the demands of more than 20 million subscribers in Europe and the U.S., 888 Holdings relies on cloud services. It also uses a nesting virtualization solution, which provides flexibility and rapid replication of environments.

CIO Eran Elbaz explains that his organization has to reconfigure and test its own applications, while also conforming to regulations in different jurisdictions.

Read more in

Nested Virtualization Solution Saves Time & Money

Using data for good

We hear a lot about businesses looking for ways to tap into data to make better decisions. For Bloomberg, financial data is not just about the numbers that make up corporate profits. It's also about the metrics of a company's sustainability in terms of its social and environmental impact. - See more at: http://www.baselinemag.com/news/using-data-for-good-is-good-for-business.html#sthash.dDbMetvo.dpuf

3D printing for more efficient factories

"We make your factory run better" is the tagline for the maintenance services offered byATS.  

One of the ways it accomplishes that mission is by providing necessary parts, which it can now do faster, better, and cheaper with 3D printing. I spoke with Mike Waltrip, general manager of Industrial Parts Services at ATS, about the benefits 3D printing brings to his business in particular and manufacturing in general. 

Read more in 

Making Factories Run Better with 3D Printing

Related posts: 

3D Printing Reshapes Automotive Supply Chain

Lean Thinking for Sustainable Supply Chains

Data Mining for Legislative Influence

If you want to learn about the process of getting a proposed bill passed, you can read the official explanation on a state senate site. It’s remarkably similar to the steps involved for federal legislation, according to the explanation offered to the protagonist of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.

 What the explanations don’t reveal, however, are the entities behind the proposed legislation.

The actual authors of proposed legislation don’t sign their names, but they do leave signatures of a sort, the signals of individual style that can be found throughout their written work. All it takes is reading through thousands of proposed bills to find the textual clues that link bills to the same source. The only drawback is coming up with the time it takes for humans to read through it all. But this is one problem that technology can solve.

Read more in

Data for Good: Tracking Legislative Influence

Clouds and the Connected Car

Here we are, nearly at the end of 2015, and we still don't have flying cars. But what we do have are connected cars, and that technological advance has the potential to yield all new insights and solutions. Thanks to the combination of connected cars, analytic engines and the cloud, real-time data and real-time solutions are now possible.
Read more in 

Connected Cars, Data & the Cloud

Hurdles & Headways for Cloud Adoption

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_computing

Cloud computing offers clear benefits in terms of efficiency, function and cost, which is why most organizations are already using cloud services or planning to do so in the near future. However, cloud hurdles like security remain top of mind for many verticals such as healthcare.

While Cisco predicts cloud usage will quadruple by 2019, as we saw in Cisco's Cloudy Forecast, some organizations and sectors are still holding back. The question is: What is keeping them back? (See Cisco's Cloudy Forecast.)

To gain insight into the current hurdles and headways of cloud adoption, The New IP spoke with Sarah Lahav, CEO of SysAid Technologies, and John Grady, senior manager of product marketing for XO Communications Inc. Although both agree that security is the primary concern for organizations that have yet to adopt the cloud, there are other factors at play, as well.

Read more in 

Cloud Hurdles & Headways

Relatable robots

Advancements in robotics are not just about developing better robots to do work on their own. It’s about developing robots whose work is interacting with humans. Those robots have to be programmed with personality, which is not one-size-fits-all project.

The ideal robot companion for humans is not quite perfect. That’s the conclusion of PhD researcher Mriganka Biswas, supervised by Dr John Murray, from the University of Lincoln’s School of Computer Science who presented their findings the International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) conference in Hamburg this October, as reported in WT VOX.: "A companion robot needs to be friendly and have the ability to recognise users’ emotions and needs, and act accordingly. Despite this, robots used in previous research have lacked human characteristics so that users cannot relate -- how can we interact with something that is more perfect than we are?”

The good news is that it is possible to program robots to come across as more human. As the French company Aldebaran has discovered in developing culture-specific programming for humanoid robots in conjunction with its parent company, Softbank, what people would want for their humanoid robot varies, according to cultural expectations. That’s what it’s working on in developing the robot Pepper for international markets.

The controlling idea for developing a companion robot like Pepper is interaction. On one level, the robot acts like Siri on wheels. It has the ability to tap into the Internet to answer questions about the weather or local entertainment offerings. Beyond recognizing your voice and responding to what you ask, Pepper is equipped with built-in cameras and sensors that enable it to analyze facial expressions and body language to identify what a person is feeling.

Pepper communicates to humans through eye movements, what appears on the tablet it wears, and speech. What Pepper says can be neutral, playful, or didactic. Which of those three should be the default depends on the expectations of the humans around, and that’s where specialized programming comes in.

Read more in 

Our Robots, Our Selves

A cloudy forecast

from Cisco's Global Cloud Index report)

Cloud usage is set to quadruple by the year 2019 due to the demands of IoT, business processes and mobile applications, according to Cisco's fifth annual Global Cloud Index, which the company released this week. The forecast also predicts a huge surge in cloud service usage.

Indeed, "enterprise and government organizations are moving from test cloud environments to trusting clouds with their mission-critical workloads. At the same time, consumers continue to expect on-demand, anytime access to their content and services nearly everywhere," said Doug Webster, Cisco's vice president of service provider marketing, in a press release for theCisco Global Cloud Index (2014-2019).

read more in  Cisco's Cloudy Forecast

Ho hum, another hack

Hacking is so common today that even major data breaches may be filed under the "hack du jour," but what's the answer -- laws and stronger penalties, threat-intelligence sharing or sharing responsibility across the business all the way to the top?
Read more in 

Data Breaches: The New Normal?

Smartphones are key for hotel rollout

In the future, hotel keys may be regarded as quaint, as guests will open doors with their own smartphones.

On August 11, Hilton Worldwide added a new feature to its Hilton HHonors app, the Digital Key. The hotel anticipates rolling it out to 250 Hilton properties in 2016, a brand that includes Waldorf Astoria, Contrad, and Canopy. The hotel chain had already offered digital check-in, but this allows guests to use their phones not only to reserve and register their rooms but to open them, eliminating the need to stop at the front desk altogether.

Credit: Flickr

Hilton is not the first chain to enable guests to use their smartphones as their room keys. The option has been offered at select locations of hotels chains, like Starwood. It’s a growing trend, according to Robert Cole, founder and CEO of RockCheetah, a hotel and destination marketing strategy and travel technology consulting practice. Cole anticipates a lot more hotels will adopt keyless entry options in the next few years. I spoke to him about the benefits that keyless systems offer the hotel industry.

Read more in 

Smartphones Open Doors, Literally

Iot enables JIT

"Fast, good, or cheap; pick two." That used to be the motto for manufacturing, as the

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7e/Manufacturing_equipment_095.jpg

reality was you'd have to compromise on at least one of the three. However, today's technological advances like drones and 3D printing combined with advanced data collection make the inventory strategy of Just-In-Time (JIT) inventory more feasible than ever before. As a result, manufacturers now have the possibility of making their supply chains fast, good, and cheap. "This is nothing less than a paradigm shift in industry: the real manufacturing world is converging with the digital manufacturing world to enable organizations to digitally plan and project the entire lifecycle of products and production facilities," observed Helmuth Ludwig, CEO, Siemens Industry Sector, North America.

Read more in

JIT: The Promise of Emerging Tech for Electronics Manufacturing

A Wakeup Call for the Industry

It's the stuff of nightmares. You're driving a car but can't control it. You try to brake, but it refuses to stop. That's the scenario that Andy Greenberg vividly described in his article, "Hackers Remotely Kill a Jeep on the Highway—With Me in It."

The article went viral and finally got the public's attention about what the pair of researchers behind it—Dr. Charlie Miller from Twitter security and Chris Valasek, director of the Vehicle Security Research—have been trying to get across for years....

The suit against Chrysler and Harman points out that Miller and Valasek had alerted the companies to the vulnerability ahead of time, so they knowingly passed on a potentially dangerous product to customers. The danger is not "unique" (as Harman put it) to Chrysler or even to infotainment systems.

Another publicized car hack hit the news last month. University of California computer security professor Stefan Savage's research team demonstrated a successful hack of a Corvette through SMS messages. You can see it at work in this brief video.

- Read more in: http://www.baselinemag.com/blogs/a-wakeup-call-for-the-connected-car-industry.html#sthash.7lKlh8Qi.dpuf

A game-changer for football

Many brands boast of being “The official… of the NFL.” This season, a technology company called Zebra claims a more unique position. It’s the Official On-Field Player-Tracking Provider of the National Football League.

With this partnership between the technology company and the NFL, the game played between the New England Patriots and the Pittsburgh Steelers last night represents more than just a season opener; it was a game-changer.

Credit: Pixabay

The September 10 game represented a first for fan access to Next Gen Stats” in real time. While the NFL has used Zebra information from thousands of plays over the past couple of years, the information was retained internally or shared for broadcast. This was the first game to make it directly accessible to fans through the NFL app for Microsoft's Xbox One. 

Read more in 

A Data-Driven Game-Changer for Football

The trust factor for IoT

pic from https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7296/15768208714_9f9376cc7d_o_d.jpg

We talk a lot about IoT, referring of course, to the Internet of Things. But perhaps we should be thinking of making the T stand for trust. That’s what some are working on now in establishing industry standards to be worth of trust by committing to adopt best practices.

Essentially the OTA's best practices and standards boil down to two overarching considerations. One: Device manufacturers have to consider how they will secure the data collected on their devices. Two: The consumer has to be clearly informed about the nature and extent of the data collected. Having that information allows the potential purchaser to know exactly what they would be getting into with the Internet of Things (IoT) device, and whether or not they consider the gains are worth the risk. Having a universal standard also makes it clear how one company compares to another with respect to data privacy and security.

Read more in

Setting the IoT Standards

Mapping the supply chain for greater sustainability

Like the Rome of old, a more transparent and sustainable supply chain is not built in a day. Building it takes planning, mapping, and fine-tuning. Data visualization enables organizations to bridge all three.

Awareness of the need for sustainability and transparency in the electronic supply chain is rising. And a number of companies have said they are committed to improving in those areas, whether in response to questions about components of their supply chain, like conflict minerals, or as a positive choice whendefining the company's mission.

Read more in 

Mapping Out a Better Electronics Supply Chain

3 signs you're doing social media wrong

Photo by Adem AY on Unsplash

This is not an exhaustive list. It was inspired by a quick look at a company profile on Google +. I used to follow that company but just stopped because it clearly is not paying attention to its own posts. It was guilty of all 3 of these: 

1. You only post self-promotion and nothing else.
2. You don't respond to any of the comments on your posts, including those with direct questions.
3. You have one guy post "Thanks a lot, [profile name]" on each post, which just makes it look like you hired someone not very bright to comment. 

In other words, #DoingItWrong
If you have any other signs of doing social media wrong, please write them in the comments!

What would Spock do?

from https://lurentis.com/blog/driverless-cars-pandoras-box-now-wheels/

Is there an ethical algoirthm for driverless cars

Say you’re driving at 30 miles an hour when a child suddenly chases a ball right into the path of your car. You would brake if you can stop in time. If you can’t brake you’d swerve to avoid hitting the child. But what if swerving forces you either to hit another car with passengers in it or a truck that would cause harm to those in your car? Does self-preservation override all other consideration? Would we be driven by the emotional pull of saving a child over all else? Or would we be paralyzed into doing nothing because we can’t bring ourselves to take part in any action that causes harm?

These are the types of questions that bring ethics specialists and engineers together in addressing the challenge of directing driverless cars. 

Does Spock offer a solution to the problem? He may, if people would accept Vulcan logic. Learn more in  

Driverless Cars Present Ethical Challenges

Retailers get into predictive analytics

Here on All Analytics, we’re generally sold on the value of predictive analytics. The question is: Are retailers, particularly those managed by people who believe in their gut intuition, sold on it? Even they are starting to appreciate what analytics can do for their business.

Dean Abbott

According to Dean Abbott, co-founder and chief data scientist at SmarterHQ and author ofApplied Predictive Analytics: Principles and Techniques for the Professional Data Analyst, it is ushering a cultural change for retail.

I recently chatted with Abbott about what the application of predictive analytics means to the retail space. Read more in 

Predictive Analytics: Data and Retail Expertise

Good data should not come at the cost of Goodwill

 https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a9/2008-08-04_CVS_Pharmacy_in_Durham.jpg

CVS recently ran an experiment that's generating a lot of buzz online. Unfortunately, it's not the kind of customer reaction retailer likes to get.

The drugstore giant chose the week of July 12 to deviate from its usual offer of special coupons or promotions in printed circulars. They were betting that what they gained in data insight for the week would be worth the price of alienating some customers.

- See more at: http://www.baselinemag.com/blogs/dont-sacrifice-goodwill-for-good-data.html#sthash.V3PGO2I9.dpuf

Wooden dolls and today's supply cahin

It sounds like an oxymoron: smart wooden dolls. However, that's exactly what manufacturer Avakai has created. Though it looks like a simple wooden doll in the shape Russian nesting dolls, it is Bluetooth enabled to offer interactive response. With their stress on connectivity, transparency, sustainability, and adaptability, this company reflects the values we're seeing in today's electronic supply chain.

Read more in 

picture from http://41.media.tumblr.com/d49c1c89d70c241ecbd9f1a1d6df6b58/tumblr_inline_noacz2YMVN1t8bz9y_1280.jpgA

What Wooden Dolls Can Teach Us About Today’s Supply Chain

5G: potential and challenges for the brave new world of IoT

The progression to 5G from 4G is different from the previous advance from 3G because that shift was all about speed and now it's all about connection on an unprecedented scale.

More specifically, this time around, the new factor is IoT, and as Aicha Evans, corporate vice president and general manager of the Communications and Devices Group, Intel Corp.(Nasdaq: INTC), observes, this "new paradigm will require major changes to traditional cellular network topology."

Indeed, the 5G realm will encompass a lot more devices, technologies and participants than anything we've seen before. Consequently, collaboration within the industry is essential to keep the various components in communication with each other and on the same page about standards and plans. 

That's one of the key differences between the upcoming change and previous progressions, and it holds a great deal of promise for, as well as a number of challenges, for the industry.

To get some insider insight into the journey that lies ahead for arriving at 5G over the next five years, The New IP checked in with Evans via email

Read her insights in 5G & the IoT Factor

2020 Vision on 5G

By 2020, there will be 50 billion devices connected to the internet that will generate will over $8 trillion in Value at Stake, according to a recent report by Cisco and DHL That’s quite a leap in connections.

What has to happen before the connections can grow from 15 billion to 50 billion? Intel predicts that growth of 5G will happen, as the next step in the evolution of connectivity. But the question remains about exactly what forces will influence the manifestation of 5G and how long it will take to really arrive.  Diego R. Lopez, Senior Technology Expert at Telefonica I+D, offered his perspective on how we’re are to get to that point.  

Read about it in Getting to 5G

Got rhythm? This algorithm does.

from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rap-logo-persian-wiki.png

Most of us have heard of DeepBlue, the computer that harnessed artificial intelligence to beat a chess champion back in 1997. Now there’s DeepBeat, a machine learning algorithm that raps.

Read more in

An Algorithm Gets Rhythm

Mind the gap: information governance in the age of big data

"Many companies don't benefit from big data because of the gap between those who manage the data and those who apply it. The solution is information governance.


Sue Trombley, managing director of thought leadership at Iron Moutain, offered some perspective on the causes of this clarity gap.....

Going forward, Trombley asserts, businesses will have to adopt a new paradigm that enables each department to have direct access to the information it requires in order to extract value to meet its goals.  

- Read more  in Information Governance Is Key to Big Data's Value 

The value of blogs for marketing: attraction, connection, and SEO

picture from https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/42/Blog_(1).jpg

A few years ago, everyone seemed to think video was the way to go to capture attention for effective marketing. Now, people seem to realize that many people -- like me -- would prefer to read information in text form at their own pace rather than sit through a video that can take several minutes to get to a point they are truly interested in. 

Unless you have time to kill or really need to hear information to absorb it, why would you want to sit through something for 10, 15, sometimes even 45 minutes or more to get information you can read in less than 5 minutes? If you don't want to lose the attention of the people who feel that way, you need to reach out to them with articles. Smart marketers know this. That's why some are now getting writers to turn the information they had put into videos into articles. 

There are good reasons for brands to sponsor blogs.

Lots of blog readers out there

Most people, as many as 8 out of 10, according to  Content Marketing Institute consider themselves blog readers. People are also very receptive to communication from businesses in the form of blogs because of the insight they gain either from information about their field or about how the business operates without feeling like they are bombarded by ads.

 Blogs generate leads, build brand recognition, and boost SEO

Companies that blog generate 67% more leads each month than companies that don’t, according to Social Media B2B.  In addition to the blog building the brand recognition among those who read and share the content, it boosts SEO. For one thing, fresh content is a plus for Google rankings, and blogs add new content much more regularly than website updates do.

Blogs increases indexed pages and raise search engine rankings

As Content Plus explained, websites can gain 434% indexed pages and 97% more indexed links from their blogs. That increase in the indexing count translates into higher search engine rankings, which can drive a lot more browsers to a brand’s website. Indexed pages and indexed links translate into higher rankings with the search engines, which also contribute to higher rankings for a website. The effect can be even further enhanced when social media and mobile communication send out links to new content on a company blog.

No one denies that content is king, though this indicates that the power of the crown remains linked to the written word.

The science of empathy

"You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view, until you climb in his skin and walk around in it," declares Atticus Finch in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird. Gaining that kind of empathic insight is helpful not only for fostering humanity, but for improving business results....

Ultimately, there is no magical question that will elicit what the C-suite and IT leaders need to know about their customers. In fact, some customers may not even be able to articulate exactly what caused them to feel less than satisfied. The solution to that problem is not magic, but science.


Even when people can't find words for what they are feeling, sensors can pick up on the signs of stress that, when combined with contextual data, can reveal the emotional triggers that define a customer's experience. That's where design consultant Elliot Hedman comes in. Experience designer at mPath, Hedman has developed a methodology that combines stress-testing sensors with traditional observational techniques.

Graph from mPath

Read more in 

Can Data Teach Us Empathy?

It's all about the delivery

http://aomc.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/logistics.jpg

I planned to write on this topic before the Target incident. But once it happened, I felt its inclusion really highlights how getting shipping right is so essential for businesses today.

When was the last time you paid for shipping? Some would have to think a while for the answer because so many of us select the "free shipping" options available for online orders.  In truth, though, shipping services are never really free. Their cost can be quite significant, particularly for businesses that that operate in the supply chain.
Shipping is lifeblood of a supply chain business.....

We can see the difference in delivery services from retailers who optimize their shipping and those who don't in our own experience.  I ordered a few items on Target.com on May 28. The email confirmation gave a range for delivery for all the items of June 3 to 5. June 5 arrived, as did some of the items, but not all of them. The UPS tracking information provided still showed June 5 as the date of arrival, despite a notation of a delay on a truck, as confirmed by a Target representative on the phone.  The UPS man who delivered part of the order assured me that there was no way another shipment would come before Monday.

His prediction turned out to be correct, and that was the only insight I gained from UPS, which failed to give me a new arrival time despite my request for information via email.  (Note: Both Target and UPS claimed to want to help when I tweeted about it, but only Target offered some conciliation in the form of a $10 gift card.)

Read more in 

Logistics Don’t Always Deliver Joy Thanks to UPS for inspiring the title with its own tagline

Robots are coming to warehouses

Today, we really do let our fingers do the shopping and click through to make our purchases that we want. Next day delivery has become standard for a host of consumer and business products. Keeping up with that expectation drives those in the business of logistics to press for greater efficiency in logistics. Robots can play a role in meeting that demand.

On April 29, Fetch Robotics unveiled new a robotic system made specifically for the logistics industry.  The system that consists of "Freight" and "Fetch" is based on ROS, the open source robot operating system. Freight refers to the mobile base, and Fetch to the mobile manipulator. In addition to working with each other, the robots are designed to work with people and with the warehouse software. 

Read more in 

Robots Improve Logistics in the Electronics Supply Chain

The right words matter just as much as the right colors

I noticed that people who post interior decor shots started following me on Google+. I would guess they are doing so in response to the post in which I said this:

Anyone here connected to a paint company like Benjamin Moore or Sherwin Williams? I have a whole new concept for packaging and marketing colors that can truly revolutionize the consumer experience. It's the solution to information overload in which all the colors meld into a blur, and one can't remember which is which any more.

 I really do have a groundbreaking idea and another really brilliant approach that can be coupled together or used separately. It would make colors accessible, memorable, and particularly shareable on social media in a whole new way.

But to return to the matter of the people following me, here's the thing: I'm a words person. As beautiful as some of the pictures are, I get thrown off by the formulaic and clueless way the descriptions are written. Every single one of them starts with an adjective that is not really appropriate. It sounds like the person writing doesn't really speak English and merely selected words at random from some list. We have descriptions like this:

Astonishing big black tolomeo floor lamp mixed with small green living room apartment wall paint color plus brown wooden seating area set

.

Appealing small brown living room apartment set with decorative table lamps also square crystal chandelier

.

Amazing small living room apartment set with red cushions plus round black acrylic table under flush mounted ceiling fan

.

Awesome sleek herringbone parquet floor mixed with small brown white living room apartment set plus pink floral window curtains

.

Miraculous attractive undulating pendant lamps mixed with small grey living room apartment plus red sectional sofa and white coffee table

.

Captivating comfy corner blue bean bag sofa with rainbow wall decal plus small white living room apartment set

.

Trust me, the images don't match, and really, nothing I've ever seen in interior design deserved the term "miraculous."

Bringing Slavery in the Supply Chain to Light

hile human trafficking and slavery are criminal offenses, they still persist. In fact, our global economy tends to foster these crimes by keeping that labor component within the supply chain out of sight from the consumers of the final products. Now, lawmakers are betting that transparency, first on a state level, and, possibly, on a federal level, may help solve the problem.

On September 30, 2010, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed the California Senate Bill 657, the California Transparency in Supply Chains Act of 2010 (S.B. 657). It requires businesses that operate in California to disclose what efforts they take to purge their supply chains of human trafficking and slavery. For the electronics industry, with its deep roots in the Silicon Valley, this is significant news, and it may be the seed of a bigger change.

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Transparency Combats Human Trafficking & Slavery in the Supply Chain

When efficiency, algorithms, and labor laws collide

Timeclock Wikipedia Commons

Flexibility is considered a virtue and an essential component an agile organization which can respond to changing needs in real-time. However, when that type of flexibility comes at the expense of employees, the company may not only be crossing the line of ethics but of law.

On April 10, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman directed his office to send a letter (posted by the Wall Street Journal) to 13 major retailers.  What Gap Inc., Abercrombie & Fitch, J. Crew Group Inc., L. Brands, Burlington Coat Factory, TJX Companies, Urban Outfitters, Target Corp., Sears Holding Corp., Williams Sonoma Inc., Crocs, Ann Inc. and J.C. Penney Co. Inc were all asked were to account for questionable scheduling practices known as “on-call” shifts.

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The Legal Limits for On-Call Shifts

IoT to boost supply chain to the tune of $1.9 trillion

"We're all connected" served as the tagline for New York Telephone back in the last century.  That was way before people envision the level of connection made possible by the Internet of Things.  We've come a long way and will go much further, according to the forecast of a recent trend report from DHL and Cisco on the positive impact IoT will have for supply chains.
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IoT to Deliver $1.9 Trillion Boost to Supply Chain

Big data alone is not enough for an agile enterprise

Ever get a promotional email or ad that has no relevance to you? We all have, and it’s usually due to the marketing algorithms used to analyze big data inputs responding incorrectly to the wrong signal. For example, eBay started applying algorithms to the tags used to track customers in 2007 to measure the relevance of search results on its site. After a couple of years of success, the results became less accurate and seemed more random and arbitrary. The algorithms no longer worked because one of the tags had shifted. Events like that one resulted in customers seeing search results or receiving marketing emails that made no sense to them.

“The algorithm is not a human brain and doesn’t realize that the parameters have changed when tags change,” Ratzesberger observed. If a change is made to a variable, everything “downstream” from that variable must change, too, or the complex results can backfire.

The solution to this entire problem of achieving agility at scale is the Sentient Enterprise, a concept that Ratzesberger developed with Dr. Mohan Sawhney, a professor at Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. 

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