BAMM.tv Provides Global Music Distribution Chain

Not only are young professionals turning to the Internet and their smartphones for business and communication purposes, but an extremely common use of this intelligence is strictly for entertainment. People want to gain easy access to the music they want and find new music in a simple and easy-to-use manner.

BAMM.tv is a music company that curates, produces, and distributes HD video content of emerging artists. The content distribution network delivers the recorded media to web, mobile, and television.

BAMM.tv gives device makers and service providers a highly differentiated music offering without the hassle and high cost of traditional music licensing, while giving artists absolutely free HD music video content creation, an instant global audience, and 50 percent of the net profits from the music video distribution agreements.

The content is delivered directly to big-name partners, such as Samsung, Chunghwa Telecom, Select-TV, and MunduTV. The system taps into global revenue streams and provides a licensing approach that creates new economic opportunities for musicians, producers, partners, and audiences because traditional music licensing costs are cut while distribution is practically limitless.

Audiences get easy access to the music they want, while musicians and producers gain a fresh outlet to target audiences. Any company with such a heavy focus on the user experience such as this one has a broad range of possibilities beyond typical business outlets.

Andrea Hayden, December 29, 2011

Mobility and Business Intelligence Merge as Companies Express Demand

A weakened economy could not stop mobile hardware development. Unfortunately it did slow down investments in mobile business product development. Soshable reported on this in, "Portable Power: The Progress of Mobile Business Intelligence."

In early 2008, hardly any companies--just under 20 percent--were delivering business intelligence data to mobile devices. That same year nearly 80 percent expressed an interest in doing so. Presently, companies are trying to get up to speed with mobile BI.

According to the article and infographic developed by Domo, by the beginning of 2013, more than $11 billion will be spent by US businesses on mobile development. Additionally, 73% of the workforce will be made up by enterprise mobile workers.

Because of the emphasis placed in this field, the infographic states:

As businesses and consumers demand more from mobile BI software, commonly used user interfaces will be replaced by those that empahsize more natural interaction, allowing for the kind of diverse functionality already familiar to users in a non-BI mobile applications.

For this reason, companies will need to incorpate the user exerience as they design mobile BI solutions. We have our eye on PolySpot as they expand connectivity to mobile options.

Megan Feil, December 28, 2011

Enterprise Search Offers Cost-Effective Way to Capitalize on EA Applications

Every enterprise is looking for affordable solutions in this economy. This has meant less dependence on IT services as their budgets have been impacted. ZDNet published a series of predictions issued by The Open Group, the leading professional body for enterprise architects, in 2012 Outlook for Enterprise Architecture.

According to the article, there is less reliance on core IT services:

This will bring an increased expectation of “I’ll buy the services, you show me know to knit them in” as the prevalent user approach to IT,” observes Dave Lounsbury, CTO. This will require “increased attention to use of standards conformance.” IT departments will change from being “the only service providers within organizations to being a guiding force when it comes to core business processes, with IT budgets being impacted.

Many specialized applications cannot be accessed company-wide for a number of reasons. License or migration costs present an issue, in addition to applications that are excessively difficult to allow all potential users to access.

We think it is best to circumvent this lack of access by utilizing a search engine. Users can tap into the data locked inside these closed applications. Essentially, enterprise search solutions offer a cost-effective way to capitalize on existing applications.

Megan Feil, December 28, 2011

User Experience is Central to Designing Mobile Technology

Language learning apps are everywhere in the app stores of any operating system. Brainglass is one of them to catch our eye because of their focus on the user experience.

It has been reported across a variety of news sources that the consumerization of technology has forced developers to create products with the ease of the user in mind. Intuitive and easy to master processes will gain in popularity while those products unable to meet consumers' needs.

Braing glass appeals to the user's desire to customize and personalize. Their website states:

You choose the content for your language learning – it is not chosen for you. The apps let you look up words in texts of your choice and quickly create exercises for them. When you do the exercises, the apps measure your learning and provide you with personalized repetition.

The name of the app is Karaoke4English. It improves reading and listening skills by simultaneously playing audio as the user reads the visual.

While this app uses text to speech capabilities, the winning aspect of their technology lies in the power of choice it offers the user. An ever-increasing list of mobile technology vendors are focusing on delivering products based on an intuitive user experience.

Megan Feil, December 28, 2011

Unstructured Content Ushers in New Business Intelligence Solutions

A burgeoning new concept has entered the IT field: Information Oriented Architecture (IOA). Furthermore, "Enterprise BI Survey by the Bloor Group Finds a New Age of Architecture Has Arrived" shows that companies are taking action.

The Bloor Group found in their study "A New Awareness: The Age of Architecture Has Arrived" that 51% of enterprises surveyed have developed an IOA. The article lacks in a thorough description of IOA, but this article delves into detail on the subject.

Basically, IOA complements and integrates with service oriented architecture, SOA. It consists of applications, development tools, data management software, and middleware. Operating systems are also closely related to IOA.

According to the Bloor survey:

    Of BI applications, traditional reporting is the most prevalent, having already been deployed by 71% of the survey takers. Dashboards, while not new, have been deployed by 51% and are at the top of the list of "currently being deployed" applications. Predictive analytics scored the highest among "plan to implement."

    The biggest IT challenges were information silos and data quality.

We see IOA as another way to redraw the maps that have already been drawn. As far as the survey results, they show the enterprise's increasing relationship with mobility and unstructured content. Without a business intelligence solution, a company will become just another piece in the data abyss. 

Megan Feil, December 27, 2011