Disqus - Latest Comments for philayres

Re: Google: UK privacy laws don't apply to us, we're American

Phil Ayres — Mon, 19 Aug 2013 13:24:17 -0000

It sounds like Safe Harbor principles allowing US firms to meet EU requirements in a streamlined fashion are being abused (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/w.... Perhaps a little EU - US dept of commerce head to head will focus Google's attention.

Re: On The Future of iOS and Android

Phil Ayres — Sat, 17 Aug 2013 13:55:11 -0000

Maybe it will become a selling point for manufacturers that they release with the newest OS. Since phones get upgraded more often than PCs, both hardware and OS, I'll be interested to see if developers actually complain about the fragmentation, or just the Apple PR folks.

I personally moved from iPhone after my device was forced into retirement by an unusable iOS upgrade. I dislike that kind of forced obsolescence for hardware that was fine and functioning well the day before. Guess I'm bitter until Android does the same to me.

Re: How Do Digital Marketers Engage On Twitter?

Phil Ayres — Sat, 17 Aug 2013 13:45:18 -0000

Interesting to see the breakdown of the apps that people use presented that way. I'm not sure how it aligns with the research I performed, which looked at the percentage app usage per tweet:
http://meaningful-social.co... - this placed hootsuite at the top.

The other stats are pretty interesting though. Thanks for sharing.

Re: On The Future of iOS and Android

Phil Ayres — Tue, 13 Aug 2013 21:38:22 -0000

Redth, thanks for adding the real facts to back up my pontifications. Good point about Samsung too. Their own desire to own an OS does seem to put a chunk of the ecosystem at risk IMO.

Re: On The Future of iOS and Android

Phil Ayres — Tue, 13 Aug 2013 21:33:00 -0000

Walt, I think you've got a point. That said, PC hardware is hugely diverse, and it remains the responsibility of the hardware vendor to ensure the base OS and their customizations work well. And that common applications work well (which covers most of the usage, I know).

I did some corporate dev years ago and we really didn't test on a range of PCs. The Microsoft development tools were refined enough back at Windows 2000 to just make things work. Other infrastructure, not so much, but that's a different story.

It feels like we are in the same place with Android, when you read some of the iOS v Android blogs from real developers. Both net out about the same development time for the same app, apparently (will try and find my links to back up that claim).

Google is incredibly good at engaging developers across all their products. In such a developer driven environment I wouldn't bet against them.

Re: On The Future of iOS and Android

Phil Ayres — Tue, 13 Aug 2013 09:20:18 -0000

Great post! I can absolutely see your point that Apple will continue to push the 'performance per watt' boundaries, since they have so much control over the hardware. Although I think that equally the chip vendors supplying to the Android ecosystem will stay close enough that it won't make much difference. Why? If Apple relies on the extra performance of new phones too highly, it will force obsolescence of earlier devices too quickly for consumers to accept. Previous iOS updates push you into buying a new device in 3 years. They can't go faster than that, as wallets won't allow, even if carrier contracts start to, and the mid-range iPhones will start to hold some major app development back (why focus only on top end phones since your potential custom base is smaller).

More importantly though is fragmentation in the Android ecosystem. I don't see it being a real issue. The PC thrived for years in a hugely fragmented market, with hardware and software all over the map. It wasn't this fragmentation that killed developer adoption of Windows as the place to try and make money. I don't see why it should be the same for Android (yet). For developers, the quality of the tools can make more of a difference than the single device you are targeting. If the tools make different screen sizes and hardware easy to handle, you're not going to worry. This seems to be good Apple FUD, but nothing I've heard real developers of Android really concerned with.

I know I'm going to have to re-read your post, as there is some really great analysis in there I haven't fully consumed.

Phil

Re: How QR Codes Can Grow Your Business

Phil Ayres — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 18:35:22 -0000

Hi Darren,

We have an online solution that can help you publish mobile-friendly pages, generate short URLs and QR Codes, and track the number of hits you get. If you're interested, take a look at http://consected.com/mobile

You may also want to take a look at bit.ly which can shorten URLs and track usage for regular web pages. You're not going to get the same conversion rate on the pages if they don't work well in a smartphone, but you'll get the data you need.

Cheers,
Phil

Re: How QR Codes Can Grow Your Business

Phil Ayres — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 18:32:47 -0000

This is a brilliant review of the use of QR codes. It is important for all new QR code creators to remember that it is essential for any web pages behind QR codes to be mobile-friendly. Standard web pages, especially those with complex menus, Flash and difficult layouts just don't work well on an iPhone or even an Android device.

Take a look at http://consected.com/mobile for a better discussion on this.

Again, great article.
Phil

Re: The Business Card Is Dead, Long Live the Business Card

Phil Ayres — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 09:46:53 -0000

QR Codes have breathed new life into the business card. Add a simple "block of blocks" onto your business card, and it suddenly becomes all 21st century. What a wonderful way to cross the analog / digital divide!

The QR code at the bottom of this example online business card ( http://cnsd.co/rq ) can be shrunk down to really quite small, printed on your business card and still read by smart phones with autofocus (iPhone 3GS and up, most Droids).

Love the business card! @consected

Re: QR Code and Online Business Card from Consected - Review, Compare, Get Demos & Free Trials | GetApp.com

Phil Ayres — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 19:33:11 -0000

For anybody who needs the QR Codes that everybody is talking about, but doesn't have time to work out all the technical jargon, this app makes it easy to create just what you need.

Re: Travel Expenses - Free Instant App from Consected LLC - Review, Compare, Get Demos & Free Trials | GetApp.com

Phil Ayres — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 22:52:59 -0000

This is a great app for small and mid-sized businesses that want more control over travel expenses than just a form being emailed around. For a start, you get to pick whether you want a traditional categorized expense report form, or want to itemize each expense.

You also get to organize your employees and contractors into groups, such as projects, clients or departments, which really helps to keep things in order and control the data being entered. You can pick different styles of form for each group as well.

Even with a paid support agreement I don't think there is anything out there which is better value.

Re: Mozilla: Internet Explorer 9 Isn’t A ‘Modern’ Browser

Phil Ayres — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 09:16:47 -0000

I don't think the average user cares about the canvas tag. They should care about having a better, faster, more visually appealing browsing experience, without having to choose the right browser for the site they are visiting in that moment in time.

By holding out on core parts of the spec, we'll see IE holding back development of some really interactive websites, since developers will have to develop to the lowest common denominator. This is a shame, although probably great if you are Adobe and trying to eek out the last life left in Flash.

Re: A New Distribution Model for Apps: Tapjoy's Pay-Per-Action Service

Phil Ayres — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 23:18:42 -0000

Turn this on its head and this rates as an amazing idea for pay per click advertising for SaaS business apps, not just gaming. Imagine if I could advertise my SaaS app, but only pay an ad conversion fee if a new user got through the configuration and introduced a colleague. I'd pay 10 bucks for that as opposed to 60 cents. But then the customer would have to pay in real cash, not actions they had have previously performed (unless its referral of other paying customers!)

I wish I was a gamer. Business would so much more fun!

Re: Electronic Payments | Financial Services Technology | GDS Publishing

Phil Ayres — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 11:15:16 -0000

This is good news and bad news in my opinion. The benefits for consumers and banks are clear. But for small and medium businesses delivering high value services, the cost of electronic transactions can be enormous. Almost 3% of the value of your business going to electronic transactions is really unacceptable when you are working on a low margin business, so checks will continue to be the preferred method of payment until other low volume / high value payment methods become more accessible.

Phil Ayres
http://blog.consected.com

Re: Double Down to Develop People, Processes - Talent Management

Phil Ayres — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 10:24:30 -0000

I have built on some of the ideas and examples in this article in a white paper that may be of interest for people looking at both leadership development and business process improvement. The white paper can be found at http://www.consected.com/do...

I'll also take this opportunity to thank Steve Rumery of Leadership Research Institute (LRI) for the initial inspiration to write on this topic. Steve and colleagues are by far the experts on the 'leadership' side of the discussions in this article.

Phil Ayres

Re: Why We Need Pure Play BPM Consulting Firms

Phil Ayres — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 11:11:35 -0000

Nice discussion Scott. I've seen this recently with a wannabe Accenture. When I discussed with this firm what they did around process improvement for clients, they basically told me they delivered a strategy document advising the client where they should concentrate their efforts and how they might go about doing it. Probably in the timeframe it would take you or I to deliver a fully working solution on our BPM solution of choice.

Pure-play anything can be the best approach, if a company already knows what it needs!

Re: Why we aren't 'Storming the Bastille' of processes

Phil Ayres — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:37:11 -0000

It is the attitude you have mentioned here that leads BPM projects to fail from the start. People have been conditioned through experience that if they don't get everything in Phase 1, there is never a Phase 2, because IT doesn't have time. Therefore we get what seem like sensible requests for features, functionality and integration that offer virtually no value, because unless it makes it in there the first time, there is no hope of you ever getting it.

I wrote about a blog about if your employees hate your IT department today, and already it seems more relevant : http://blog.consected.com/2...

Nice post!

Re: Ballmer: Microsoft ‘Betting Our Company ’ On The Cloud | paidContent

Phil Ayres — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 10:49:42 -0000

This will be a challenge for Microsoft. Traditionally bad at putting together unique products, needing to take a good idea and refine it, Microsoft may well struggle. The question will be who they copy - Amazon, Google or Salesforce.com. My guess is the Saleforce platform will be the point of competition, since it appeals best the developer crowd that has always been Microsoft's strength. If Microsoft went for a true cloud-based .NET development platform I would be most worried if I was Salesforce...

Re: AIG sells Asian unit | GDS Publishing

Phil Ayres — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 08:34:55 -0000

There will be interesting times ahead, both for the outcast AIA and ALICO and the newly super-sized Prudential and MetLife. People, processes and technology integrations are going to be interesting to watch. Will the new owners be sensible and pick the best practices, independent of which organization they came from, or will they stick with the politics and familiarity of what they do already? I'm sure everybody involved is hold their breath...

Phil Ayres
Blog > AIG selling $50B units: integration struggles ahead: http://blog.consected.com/2...

Re: For the Second Decade of #BPM, Design Matters

Phil Ayres — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 14:21:47 -0000

To your point "I get a little tired of people pretending we just discovered this kind of work in BPM" - I absolutely agree!

Re: For the Second Decade of #BPM, Design Matters

Phil Ayres — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 09:22:00 -0000

Scott, this is an interesting round up of all the features and capabilities possible in a BPM suite. I agree with your thoughts that the largest differentiation may come from collaboration, unstructured processes, discovery and potentially optimization. I struggle with the latter, since I watched my previous BPM employer (you know who you are) struggle with getting the message across with optimization. It so often became a question of measuring and optimizing the productivity of individuals down to the saving of a few seconds that in many office environments it was meaningless. They did a terrible job of helping businesses optimize on to the broader, more valuable business metrics (such as profitability v. risk for all insurance products sold), and 'lean' terms were routinely thrown around with little understanding so it was almost embarrassing.

As for Case Management, this is not 1990's Computer Aided Software Engineering (CASE). The Case tools I have been associated with are not trying to be 4th generation development tools. As you say, Case Management offers a good fit to specific business problems. They are designed to codify the best practices of managing processes that incorporate ad-hoc tasks, documents and information from multiple sources. Here is my most recent attempt at finally highlighting what Case really is: http://blog.consected.com/2... (getting closer after 4 years into blogging about it, but maybe still not quite there!). As almost a convergence with collaboration, I understand why there is such a buzz around Case. Its interesting that the big players are catching on to this and pushing it so hard with Forrester. Maybe everyone needs something to grab as Gartner's BPM vision appears to be a shambles.

And here's hoping we can all be the next Apple!

Cheers

Phil

Re: Hoopla! » Application Error - Rails application failed to start properly

Phil Ayres — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 18:05:09 -0000

This was really helpful.
An additional point for people still having problems. If you get errors from the ./script/console with message concerning
ActionController::Routing.generate_best_match
Take a look at this: https://rails.lighthouseapp...
It seems to be a new issue for version 2.3.4
Also, try removing any rufus-scheduler stuff, as that gave me no end of trouble. I need to work out how to get that going, once I make some progress again.

Re: Responding to Change

Phil Ayres — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 13:55:10 -0000

And IMHO, 'change' is the thing that makes product management interesting! Otherwise all the other stuff that goes with it could just make you crazy...