“It is time to break down our internal silos, so we can deliver the right information to the right person at the right time” explained Maribel Lopez, mobile technology market researcher during her keynote at FICO World.
The right-time experience is a term Lopez has coined to explain the holy grail of data integration meeting mobile delivery. She told the audience at FICO World in San Diego that at a time where there is one mobile connected device for every person on the planet that we need to change our approach to business processes.
“Too many times, I see businesses taking the complexity and density of existing customer services and trying to force them onto mobile. Consumers want simplicity, they don’t want to go searching for what they want. In a mobile world I want the answers to come to me.”
To do this effectively Lopez believes we need to ‘Extend, Enhance and Evolve’ the mobile experience. In the past, the technologies used to deliver personalized and contextual services were either unavailable, unaffordable, or reserved solely for the consumer market. Today, however, the next wave of computing—mobile, cloud computing. big data, and analytics—has provided the foundation for businesses to create adaptive, personalized applications and services.
Lopez then walked the audience through a few key examples she has observed worldwide in her work.
Streetline has developed a wireless sensor technology that it has embedded in streets as part of a smart city programmes undertaken in cities across the globe. These sensors use either sound level monitoring or road surface temperature detection to tell whether a car is parked at the spot. The sensors form a mesh network, which relays information within a minute to Streetline’s back-end platform. From there, it is made available via a parking app on mobile phones.
Lopez explained that not only is this an innovation in Right-time experience, delivering parking spot availability to citizens, it has had bigger consequences. It has created new markets via electronic offers from high-street retailers and dynamic pricing for parking meters from local councils.
Right-time experiences are targeted and predictive because they analyze a person’s prior transactions, analyze data from your current condition and predict likely requests.
Disney has spent a rumored one billion dollars to do just this by deploying ‘magic bands’ in its theme parks. The bands contain a radio frequency identification (RFID) chip that allows for the collection of intelligence that is coupled with guest input. The MagicBand also allows guests to enter the parks, unlock hotel rooms, buy food and merchandise and collect theme ride photos.
All of this data gives Disney valuable information about customer preferences, which are then used to provide high-value experiences. Analytics are used to predict services, staffing and plan for the future.
Australia’s Commonwealth Bank has recently introduced a new service called Cardless Cash that has helped to create a new category of convenience focused on the Right-time experience.
Accessed through the CommBank app, the feature lets you make one cardless ATM withdrawal per day with a maximum limit of $200. Users can collect the cash themselves from the majority of our CommBank ATMs across the country, or can allow a family member or loved one to collect it on their behalf by nominating the person in the CommBank app.
Anecdotal usage has already seen this move beyond its intended purpose of saving people, when they are stranded without their card. Young Australian’s are taking the service up in large numbers to save them carrying a wallet when drinking on a Saturday night!
These were just a handful of examples Lopez used to show how companies can create competitive differentiation using mobile, cloud computing Big Data, and analytics to improve commerce, customer service, and communications with employees and consumers.
In the next few weeks we will post the full video of Maribel Lopez’s keynote.
