This is part two of a series about retail shopping trends.  See the first part here. 

by Leeann Fecho,  Marketing Manager for Emerging Media and Loyalty, Follett Higher Education Group

Managing the digital marketing activities of 900+ different stores brings both constant challenges and immensely rewarding work. Follett Higher Education Group is the largest operator of university bookstores in North America, and as Marketing Manager for Emerging Media and Loyalty, I’m responsible for the company’s loyalty marketing strategy and execution, which includes email, social media and mobile marketing efforts.  Our customers are primarily in the 18-24 year-old demographic—college students—a group that is typically known for being both cost-conscious and social media-savvy.

While speaking on an IBM breakfast panel in Chicago, I had the opportunity to discuss the growing influence, rise and reach of digital marketing. Marketing—in particular, digital marketing—must be very responsive to marketplace shifts fueled both by the business and the consumer.  Of all the consumer trends felt by retailers today, there are three I believe are having an immediate and seismic impact on marketing initiatives.

The “Shop Anywhere, Any Way”  Mentality

Customer mobility and accessibility, driven largely by smartphone adoption, plays a critical role in enabling this fairly new consumer mindset.  Customers can comparison shop in your aisles and tweet about your customer service while conversing with an in-store associate.”  They can share photos of a sweatshirt with friends via text or social networks — and then purchase the same item from your competitor while physically standing in your store. This “omni-channel” environment introduces new problems and questions that must be addressed, i.e. which channel are these customers “in” and how do we reach them?

 The Proliferation of Consumer Choice

The purchase decision process no longer consists of simply choosing between store A or store B— the choice exists in product selection, in format, as well as in retailer and channel.  The omni-channel challenge for businesses isn’t so much about expanding specific social media or mobile efforts as much as it’s about recognizing that:

1.  Customers have a myriad of options at their disposal and they’re quick to exercise them.
2. Customers are merging their lifestyles with their devices and technology to curate their own personalized shopping experiences.  For Follett, being prepared to continue to exceed expectations, provide value, and deliver seamless, top-notch customer service is always at the forefront.

Here are two real-life examples of how Follett has anticipated and met our customers’ demands for choice and value.  First, the birth and tremendous growth of Rent-A-Text, which is now the nation’s largest bookstore rental program.  As a company that was built upon extending the life of books through our used book business, we’re now driving our business by renting course materials and driving down the cost to students (in most cases) by 50 percent or more. It was a mindshift, process shift, and ultimately, rental is the new ‘normal’ on college campuses.  And in turn, our efforts have maximized the amount of inventory we can make available for rent.

The second example: digital content.  With our own digital textbook platform, CafeScribe, and a collection of third-party digital content, the entire digital evolution on college campuses takes aim at both mobility, and of course, price.  For us, offering robust solutions in both the rental and digital space is a necessary component to our strategic plan—one that ensures that our campus store’s channels remain competitive in a quickly changing shopping environment.

Deep Customer Insights Driven by Big Data & Micro-Targeting

Targeting and engagement aren’t the same thing; one enables the other.  Data is king, and provides the key to understanding how individuals shop and exhibit their preferences.  If you don’t know who your customer is, where they are, and what they want becomes near-impossible to anticipate and respond to their needs.  Mass-marketing to our customers through broadcast messaging isn’t the solution for greater sales and engagement; building customer loyalty through targeted interactions is.

As customer expectations for retail experiences rise, it also pushes the industry to differentiate our services and create more value.  We are excited to reach consumers in new ways, push the envelope to continue providing more value and choice, and pave new paths to loyalty.

Technorati Tags: Analytics, data, shopping, smarter commerce, social media

by Ioannis (Yannis) N. Miaoulis, president and director of the Museum of Science, Boston

I am delighted that IBM recently launched Minds of Modern Mathematics, the free iPad app that recreates the remarkable 50-foot infographic on the history of math designed by Charles and Ray Eames.

IBM collaborated with the Eameses to develop the richly illustrated timeline for Mathematica: A World of Numbers…and Beyond, an exhibit that opened at the California Museum of Science and Industry (now the California Science Center) in Los Angeles in 1961. Replicas later traveled to the New York World’s Fair and beyond.

Mathematica’s interactive models illustrating basic math concepts have intrigued visitors at the Museum of Science, Boston since 1981. Children like playing with the Celestial Mechanics machine, releasing steel balls into orbits like those of planets around the sun, while a 12-foot-high Probability Board captivates adults, as it sends plastic balls clattering through a maze of steel pins to form a bell-shaped probability curve.  Here is our exhibit:

New York Hall of Science director Eric Siegel called Mathematica “a founding document” of interactive STEM exhibitions.

I agree. Mathematica plays an important role in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education because it conveys the wonder and excitement that mathematicians feel doing what they do. In fact, it reflects the Museum of Science’s own hands-on educational approach. We encourage people to practice the skills that scientists and engineers use, instead of simply learning information.

As the language that supports the activities of science, technology and engineering — mathematics performs a timeless function. The more people understand how the S, T, E, and M of STEM relate to each other, the better.

Today, the NY Hall of Science and the Museum of Science, Boston are the only places Mathematica is on public display. A new iPad app expanding the exhibit’s reach couldn’t come at a better time.

U.S. elementary and secondary school students still lag behind many nations on international math and science assessments. K-12 STEM education has focused more on math and science than technology and engineering. But all four disciplines are important.

Since 2004, the Museum has worked to advance knowledge of STEM by integrating engineering as a new discipline in schools and developing technology exhibits and programs via its National Center for Technological Literacy®. Engineering design skills and concepts can engage students in using their math and science knowledge to solve problems, which can lead to the innovation of technologies. Engaging students in identifying a problem, designing a solution, testing, and improving the design also offers a platform for learning in math, science, English language arts, history and social studies.

Meanwhile, if you can’t visit Mathematica at the NY Hall of Science or the Museum of Science and you would like to explore the impact of mathematics on the world since 1000 AD, I urge you to download the free Minds of Modern Mathematics application and interact with this fascinating timeline in a new way.

Technorati Tags: Boston, Eames, IBM, Ioannis (Yannis) N. Miaoulis, Math, Mathematica, mathematics, Museum of Science

People complain that my generation’s “addiction” to technology will lead us down the path of unsustainability.  I think they are wrong.  While it is true that my generation, Gen Y (those born after 1980) is the quickest demographic to adopt new computing trends, the advances that we are adopting—mobile, cloud, big data—are intrinsically greener.  So, as white-collar Baby Boomers step away from their life in front of a computer, and the new wave of Gen Y workers step forward to take their place, the computing landscape will move to a more energy efficient and sustainable future.

Consider that a decade ago, Baby Boomer households joined the Internet Revolution by purchasing hulking desktop computers. But over the past decade we have seen a shift with laptops overtaking the personal computing market. And that means less energy use—a typical laptop uses 45 watts  while your typical energy guzzling desktop computer uses a whopping 100 to 300 watts of electricity.

Who among my generation wants a desktop?  Very few, if any at all.  As my friends moved out of their family home bound for college or transitioned to a new city for their first job, the laptop perfectly complemented their geographically shifting lifestyles.  That’s not going to change; my generation today lives even more of a life on the move, spending less time at home than ever.  With this, smartphones and tablet computers, which use even less energy, are rapidly becoming the new gadgets that power our lives.

And it doesn’t stop there.  Gen Y also loves cloud computing, an environmentally friendly solution that fully supports our life in motion.  We grew up in a world of free, web-based email and have fully embraced the smartphone revolution.  Now accustomed to the ability to access data “on the fly,” Gen Y houses contact lists, banking tools, homework files, and other personal information in the cloud.

Gen Y doesn’t bother to purchase traditional newspapers or to tune in to the nightly news broadcast.  Instead, it uses social media and Internet news sites that can simultaneously deliver to millions through the cloud. And most importantly for the planet, cloud computing enables servers to fully utilize computing capacity, allowing data centers to save energy by requiring less power and cooling supports.

Finally, we are not alone in our pursuit of these continuous improvements in energy efficient technologies.  Our university IT departments are quick to follow where we are going.  At my school, the University of Michigan, email is moving from university servers to the cloud.  The university also recently released a new storage service, making it easier for students to share and retrieve files seamlessly through the cloud.  In this way, universities reinforce IT trends by first adapting to the computing habits of their students, then mass deploying current computing products to that next generation of workers.

Embrace my generation’s addiction to technology.  The Information Technology industry continues to innovate towards energy efficiency; with Gen Y at the helm of the world economy, the IT industry can rest assured that these green innovations will be adopted with a hungry enthusiasm.

Lawrence Han (Class of 2014) worked as a systems integration consultant prior to graduate school

Technorati Tags: cloud computing, ERB, IBM, internet, mobile devices, national medal of technology, University of Michigan

When we talk about a Smarter Planet our discussions usually move very quickly from the general to the specific. Take water management as an example. What is a Smart Bay? How does the technology capture weather data in real-time? How will it improve the quality of my drinking water? Can I use the information to plan my fishing trip this weekend? The most interesting conversations are about the detail of how the solution operates.

Most Smarter Planet solutions however involve many different groups. Typically these companies and organizations range in size from large multinationals to smaller niche players and start-ups. Each one however brings a different part of the solution and unique domain knowledge and experience. In this post however I want to talk about these ecosystems and what we are doing to support them.

It’s about communities and entrepreneurs
Over the last couple of years we have been watching as organizations like Seedcamp, TechStars and Y-Combinator have started to build a network of highly active ecosystems. They have successfully helped entrepreneurs build businesses with lots of mentoring and very small amounts of cash. They have successfully engaged the broad community of seasoned veterans to support young entrepreneurs and share experience and networks. They have started to build new role models for entrepreneurs to show how building your own business is an exciting and rewarding career path. Their way of working and geographies are slightly different however they all have great mentor networks and a model which puts the entrepreneur at the centre.

It is interesting for me is to watch how the energy of the entrepreneur is matched with the experience of the mentors who have ‘done it’ before. To see how they learn and evolve very quickly to adsorb new insights and outlooks. Also to see that the gap is not capital (most of the time) but skills, experience and networks. This energy and experience is important if we want to build a Smarter Planet.

Smartcamp grew from our involvement in these programs.

What is SmartCamp
SmartCamp is designed for start-ups who are developing solutions which fit this vision of a Smarter Planet and connecting them with a global network of mentors, entrepreneurs and investors.

The program will be rolled out to 7 cities in 2010. In each location, five companies will be selected to spend one day networking with 25 world-class entrepreneurs, investors and industry experts. Selected companies will be invited to the global finals week to be held in Nov.

SmartCamp aims to accelerate the expansion and internationalization of promising companies. We do this a number of ways. Firstly, selected companies receive 12 week mentoring. During this time we identify appropriate resources IBM has in terms of technology, marketing and go-to-market globally. Secondly, in addition to our own resources we look to leverage our network. For example via our Venture Capital team we work with leading investors to filter and showcase appropriate companies. Last year 4 of the 5 selected SmartCamp companies received funding or investment offers from our partners.

As you might expect these events will be covered by leading local and international press.

What types of start-ups?
SmartCamp is interested in early stage technology companies who are helping to build a Smarter Planet including:

•Networking and Mobility
•Enterprise Software Applications
•Internet & SAAS
•Cloud and IT infrastructure
•Healthcare & IT related
•Analytics and Modelling
•Energy efficiency and Smart buildings
•Carbon and Water management
•Transportation systems
•Smart Cities including – transportation, education, and public safety
•Risk management

Presenting companies will at the seed or start-up stage. In all cases the process is open to companies with revenues
less than $1m in the last 12 months.

Next Steps – Apply today
Smartcamp is now open – the first event is Stockholm on the 20th May. The other locations and dates are:

Additional locations include:
Stockholm 20th May
Boston 3rd June
Tel Aviv 24th June
London: 21st July
Silicon Valley: 8th Sept
Paris: 16th Sept
Dublin: 15th Nov

Note: deadline is typically 14 days before the event

Register

More info

And finally….
In future posts we’ll ask our partners like Seedcamp and Techstars to talk about their experiences of building these networks. We’ll also ask the selected companies from 2009 to post on what they are doing and what SmartCamp means for them.

Technorati Tags: smartcamp, startup

by Andy Stanford-Clark

The science of how things work has fascinated me for as long as I can remember. As a young lad, I developed a way for my Mum to dry her washing outside without it getting wet when it rained. I set up a simple buzzer that would go off when a sensor detected falling rain. When Mum heard the signal, it was time to grab the laundry off the line.

Today I’m still trying to “connect the dots” of how my family and I can pursue a lifestyle that reduces our use of natural resources.

Using the same “messaging” software I work on with my development team at IBM’s software lab in Hursley, UK, I’ve made my 16th Century cottage on the Isle of Wight into a modern-day “smart home,” so I know exactly how much electricity and water I’m using, and when I’m using them.

While some might scoff at this, having this knowledge has enabled my family to reduce our personal carbon footprint and slash energy bills by one-third.

Here’s how it works: About a dozen wireless sensors are hooked up to the electricity and water systems and other things in the house. The sensors collect information, which is fed into an analytics system that makes “intelligent” decisions based upon that information. The updates are distributed to a display in my house, and as a stream of messages on Twitter, the social networking communications tool, which I can watch on the web, or on my mobile.

The “tweets,” or brief status messages, talk about how much electricity or water is being used, or even if a mouse has been caught in a trap in the attic. I can see unusual activity: if I’ve left on a heater, my home “talks to me,” via Twitter, and I can go find what’s causing the spike in electricity use.

The information on display has become part of the home’s ambient background, like having a light on in the kitchen. You know it’s there: but unless the light starts flickering, you don’t pay much attention to it. Unless my home “tweets” me that something unusual is happening, such as a window left open on a cold day, the messages blend into the household’s background.

Feeling good about helping the environment can be contagious. What if all of us got involved? According to the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change, 47 percent of the country’s carbon emissions come from the way the nation generates heat. The DECC has set a goal of having “smart meters” in all homes in the UK by 2020 to monitor gas and electricity usage.

If you don’t want to wait until 2020, you don’t need a Ph.D. to install and use the relatively inexpensive gadgets available to monitor your energy use and to begin conserving energy immediately.

Sometimes what we do for ourselves can benefit many others.

Like many commuters, I want to spend the least amount of time on my commute.

Strong winds or fog can delay the ferries running between my home on the Isle of Wight and my workplace near Winchester.

By tapping into data available online about the location of the Red Jet ferries, I began timing my arrival at the dock to when a ferry would actually leave. I began sharing this information via Twitter to other passengers. To its credit, the Red Funnel line saw the value in this information, and now the company provides a constant stream of information about the ferry schedule to their passengers who follow the company on Twitter. This is not ferry personnel posting the information to Twitter manually, it’s a tweetject (an object that twitters!). That’s a tricky idea for some people, but it’s at the core of building a smarter planet.

These are examples of how all of us have the ability to make our entire planet “smarter.” We just need to use sensors that operate individually to instrument the world around us, link together the information streams the sensors provide in a network, and then apply intelligence in the form of an analytics system that can recommend appropriate actions.

I look at my “smart home” and use of social networking tools for commuting as steps that I can take as an individual.

If enough of us take steps at the micro level, momentum will build. Smarter buidlings are coming as we think about structures differently: seeing homes not just as living spaces, but as living systems; seeing offices not just as static structures where work is done, but as manifestations of all the ways the world works.

Technorati Tags: ferry, sensors, Smarter Planet, Smarter Transportation, Stanford-Clark, twitter

Manny Schecter, IBM Chief Patent Counsel told me that “patents are the currency of innovation.”

Approximately 150,000 U.S. patents are granted to investors each year and for the last 17 years, IBM has received more U.S. patents than any other company in the world. According to IFI Patent Intelligence, in 2009 IBM was issued 4,914 U.S. patents. So IBM is clearly a major player in the world of innovation.

Yet it’s still the case that some don’t know what IBM does. It’s clear based on numbers that IBM is an “innovative” company, sure, but what does IBM invent and why?

What I found out from speaking with Kathryn Guarini and John Gunnels, two IBMers with a number of IBM patents is that, believe it or not, inventors don’t want to spend their time reinventing the wheel to pad their portfolio, they’re looking toward innovation that matters (a company line which I understand better now that I’ve spoken with some true innovators). Guarini, director of Systems and Technology Development for IBM Systems and Technology Group says, “We want to innovate where there is real value. We don’t want to innovate everywhere, all the time.”

Mr. Gunnels is a research scientist in the area of high performance computing.  He has worked on several projects and is named on multiple patents related to IBM’s Blue Gene Supercomputer which was awarded the U.S. National Medal of Technology and Innovation in 2009. Blue Gene systems have helped map the human genome, investigate medical therapies, safeguard nuclear arsenals, simulate radioactive decay, simulate brain power, envision financial scenarios, predict weather and climate trends, and identify fossil fuels. And he told me that there have actually been cases where Blue Gene predicts the outcome of an experiment, which were only later verified with an actual experiment.

Several patents have been issued around Blue Gene in 2009, but consider another patent which IBM was issued this year:

U.S. Patent 7,612,655 – “Alarm System for Hearing Impaired Individuals Having Hearing Assistive Implanted Devices”
This patent describes a method for alerting profoundly deaf sleepers to danger, such as fire and carbon monoxide, or to circumstances such as a doorbell, phone call or wakeup alarm.  The concept works best for deaf individuals who have cochlear implants.  These people typically deactivate their implants when they bathe or sleep for reasons of comfort and safety.  They do so by detaching a small device normally worn outside the ear, and which normally functions as a signal transmitter to an implanted component.  During sleep or bathing activities, they typically can’t or won’t wear a device that vibrates, nor can they rely on flashing lights to catch their attention.  The patented method enables the implanted component to begin buzzing abnormally or stay silent, depending on what occasion for which the user has programmed it to respond.

As an IBMer, it’s a source of job-related pride to see companies like mine investing in something that actually makes a difference for our company and for the world. “Innovation that matters”, not just a catchy slogan or corporate mantra.  It is one of our company values.  Something we, as IBMers, take pride in and use as inspiration everyday. And I think that the real thing to take away from all the reports on patents and patent leadership is this: a great number of these innovations being patented are helping to make the world safer, cleaner, more efficient and most notably, smarter; for people, societies, and for the world.

To read about more IBM innovations and their impact, see this article from IBM Research.

Technorati Tags: blue gene, patents, research, systems and technology

As Tumblr aptly describes its platform, if a blog is more like a journal or longer-form discussion format, a "tumblelog" is more like a scrapbook. Posts are brief, multimedia and in our case, cover the waterfront of news, developments, sites, insights and examples of how a smarter planet is emerging. Our goal is to give people a broad feel for what smarter planet means, and how widely it is taking shape.

And now we've i
mplemented a version of the site optimized for mobile devices.  So be sure to add  http://smarterplanet.tumblr.com/mobile to your iPhone, Blackberry or other device bookmarks.

Of course, this mobile iteration isn't just a convenience for the rapidly growing ranks of mobile internet users. The explosion of web-enabled smartphones and other handheld devices loaded with sensors such as cameras, microphones and GPS chips is one of the most salient signs of the "internet of things" and "ubiquitous computing" that is central to what Smarter Planet is all about.

Jack Mason
IBM Global Business Services, Strategic Programs & Social Media Innovation

You can also sift through several years of Healthnex posts on topics related to smarter planet such as "e-health trends," healthcare IT innovations, clinical decision support systems and genomics.

Jack Mason
IBM Global Business Services
jkmason@us.ibm.com
http://smarterplanet.tumblr.com