The article first appeared on the Forbes.
Here’s the list of technologies everyone should be tracking -- and piloting:
Cloud Computing
Location-Based Services
Augmented, Virtual & Mixed Reality
Social Media Analytics
Wearable Technology
The Internet-of-Things
AI/Machine Learning
Augmented Analytics
Cryptocurrency
Blockchain
Social Media Analytics
Social media analytics “is the process of gathering data from stakeholder conversations on digital media and processing into structured insights leading to more information-driven business decisions and increased customer centrality for brands and businesses … there are three main steps in analyzing social media: data identification, data analysis, and information interpretation.” Social media analytics impacts a variety of products and services including customer satisfaction, brand management, innovation, competitor analyses and customer acquisition, among any process where market, competitor and customer insights might be leveraged. Impact can be measured in a series of pilots, but – as always – pilots need funding and sponsorship -- and impact metrics displayed in dashboards that make it easy to see the location and extent of impact.
Wearable Technology
“Wearable technology is a blanket term for electronics that can be worn on the body, either as an accessory or as part of material used in clothing. There are many types of wearable technology but some of the most popular devices are activity trackers and smartwatches. One of the major features of wearable technology is its ability to connect to the internet, enabling data to be exchanged between a network and the device. This ability to both send and receive data has pushed wearable technology to the forefront of the Internet of Things (IoT).”
Wearable technology impact can be defined in at least two major ways. Some companies (1) create wearable technology and some (2) apply wearable technology to their products and services in, for example, clothing, smart watches, trackers, shoes and other external or implanted wearables which can improve, extend, modify to replace functionality of existing products and services. Hypotheses (that define the pilot project plan) should be developed that will measure the impact of wearable technologies likely to be cost-effective, competitive and deployable across these two impact areas.
The Internet of Things (IoT)
“The Internet of Things (IoT) refers to a network comprised of physical objects capable of gathering and sharing electronic information. The Internet of Things includes a wide variety of ‘smart’ devices, from industrial machines that transmit data about the production process to sensors that track information about the human body. Often, these devices use internet protocol (IP), the same protocol that identifies computers over the world wide web and allows them to communicate with one another. The goal behind the internet of things is to have devices that self-report in real time, improving efficiency and bringing important information to the surface more quickly than a system depending on human intervention.”
IoT is designed to extract data from a process, a device or a human to make a process 'smart,' or solve some specific problem. Potential impact should be measured against a set of specific smart objectives. IoT will enable smart buildings, smart cities, smart networks, smart clothing and just about every thing and process imaginable. IoT permits quantitative-empirical measures of effectiveness that can be estimated and validated.
Read more on the Forbes.