Device Squad: the Podcast for the Mobile Enterprise

Show Notes Modern Digital Enterprise Podcast Episode: Contact Center and Customer Experience with Five9 Chris is joined by Dan Peterson (VP, NE Sales) and Orin Wentworth (Channel director from Five9, to discuss the evolving experience of Contact Center. As technology has improved (and our world has been shaken by COVID), the very definition of a satisfactory Customer Experience has evolved. Labor shortages and a geographically-evolving workforce are discussed, as well as the Contact Center's capabilities to be proactive rather than just reactive. Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence's place in the CX landscape are also discussed, along with the changing expectations of customers. Host Chris Hayner, Enterprise Architect, Anexinet Guests Dan Peterson – VP, Northeast Sales, Five9 Orin Wentworth – Channel Director, Northeast, Five9 Audio Editor Dustin Karrat About Us The Anexinet Infrastructure Modernization Podcast is a product of Anexinet. We use this platform to allow industry professionals and subject matter experts to discuss current trends and technology topics. If you have any questions please call us at (610)-239-8100, or email us at info@anexinet.com. We are online at https://anexinet.com.

Show Notes The Modern Digital Enterprise Podcast Episode: Call Centers and Modern Customer Experience with NICE Chris is joined by Robby Paul from Anexinet, and Ray Hicken of NICE, to discuss the Customer Experience around Call Center. Modern Call Center software such as NICE's CXOne platform are much more than a phone call service. Today's customers expect a lot more around engagement, including asynchronous communications with chatbots and social media, as well as rapid problem solving with as little repeated conversations as possible. Hybrid and 100% remote work scenarios are discussed, as well as the power automation can bring to customer interactions. Host Chris Hayner, Enterprise Architect, Anexinet Guests Ray Hicken – VP of Strategy & Business Development, NICE Robby Paul - EVP, Contact Center & Collaboration, Anexinet Audio Editor Dustin Karrat Music Credits Bensound: Energy https://www.bensound.com/ About Us The Modern Digital Enterprise Podcast is a product of Anexinet. We use this platform to allow industry professionals and subject matter experts to discuss current trends and technology topics. If you have any questions please call us at (610)-239-8100, or email us at info@anexinet.com. We are online at https://anexinet.com.

Show Notes The Modern Digital Enterprise Podcast Episode: Dial “1” for an Optimized Contact Center In today's Modern Digital Enterprise, the digital transformation podcast from Anexinet, Glenn is joined by Robby Paul, EVP of Contact Center at Collaboration at Anexinet to talk about the need for enterprises to up their Contact Center game. They discuss common challenges that customers experience with contact centers and how, if done right, the Contact Center can be an element of digital transformation efforts to improve a customer's perception of the company and drive increases in long-term customer value…instead of driving customers crazy. Additionally, the episode covers: The challenges with “unintelligent” IVR Why integration between different enterprise systems is key to success The growing importance of omni-channel contact center touchpoints (chat, Apple Business Chat, WhatsApp and more) Should I migrate from my on-premise solution? The importance of providing coaching tools to your contact center representatives Staffing challenges and demand modeling Are intelligent chatbots ready for prime-time? How to start building a Contact Center strategy Host Glenn Gruber - Senior Digital Strategist, Anexinet Guests Robby Paul - EVP, Contact Center & Collaboration, Anexinet Audio Editor Dustin Karrat Music Credits Bensound: Energy https://www.bensound.com/ About Podcast The Modern Digital Enterprise podcast covers all aspects of Digital Transformation, including strategy, mobility, security, development, design, testing, emerging tech.

In today's Modern Digital Enterprise, the digital transformation podcast from Anexinet, Steve and Glenn discuss NFTs with Andy Ofiesh, former Software Engineer for Bitcoin Armory. Are they a speculative investment or a status symbol? Proof of ownership or proof of fandom? What are the risks? What are the benefits? Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT)s are cryptographic assets the ownership of which is tracked on a blockchain via unique identification codes and metadata that distinguish them from each other: digital certificates of authenticity stored on the blockchain. This episode also answers the following: What are Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT)s? What can be sold as an NFT? What is the significance using Ethereum vs. Bitcoin as a payment method? What does Proof of Work have to do with it? What does “ownership” of a digital file mean, anyway?What are you paying for? What do you own? Why do some NFTs have multiple owners? Is proof of ownership really proof of fandom? Why are NFTs even a thing?? How are NFTs an investment??How do NFTs help artists? How do they hurt artists? Are they only useful for established artists? How much of an issue is counterfeiting? What are the applications for the Enterprise? Will this pass as a fad or become more formalized?Where do we think this is going? What are CryptoPunks and CryptoKitties?Are we just too old to get it? Links in the episode: Investopedia: Blockchain Explained https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/blockchain.asp Investopedia: Cryptocurrency https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/cryptocurrency.asp YouTube: What are NFTs and Crypto Art: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rztmblQAmjI What is NFT Art? https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2021/03/26/what-nft-art-beeple-sold-69-million-crypto-ethereum/7010716002/ CNBC: People are paying millions for clips that can be viewed for free. Welcome to the world of ‘NFTs’ https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/03/what-are-nfts-all-you-need-to-know-about-crypto-collectibles.html Beeple Explains The Absurdity Of NFTs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTmF26NUZTA “Crossroad”: The $6.6M Beeple graphic: https://niftygateway.com/itemdetail/secondary/0x12f28e2106ce8fd8464885b80ea865e98b465149/100010001 The Verge: Grimes sold $6 million worth of digital art as NFTs https://www.theverge.com/2021/3/1/22308075/grimes-nft-6-million-sales-nifty-gateway-warnymph Buying & Selling Tweets: https://v.cent.co/?fbclid=IwAR0YJhw59crVBmWAky7VcgVscTT-Fezaaz-4kVY_axv7TIlZncQS-3lljyM CryptoPunks https://www.larvalabs.com/cryptopunks CryptoKitties https://www.cryptokitties.co/    

In today's Modern Digital Enterprise, the digital transformation podcast from Anexinet, Steve and Glenn discuss the SolarWinds Hack and what steps your organization should take to ensure the success of its CyberSecurity Strategy with Enterprise Architect, David Mahoney.  This episode also answers the following: What is the SolarWinds Hack and how does it work? How could the hack have gone undetected for so long? Why are passwords no longer a valid security mechanism?How is data exfiltration even worse than a Ransomware attack? How can you scope a cybersecurity Program that is right-sized for your organization? What security tools and services does Anexinet offer? What's so bad about anti-virus programs?What is the solution to prevent attacks like these from happening moving forward? How important is a well-thought-out security strategy?What are the most common gaps and risks companies take?How does Anexinet's preventative and proactive approach help companies stop cybersecurity threats in their tracks? Links in the episode: CNET: SolarWinds software used in multiple hacking attacks: What you need to know https://www.cnet.com/news/solarwinds-hack-officially-blamed-on-russia-what-you-need-to-know/ CRN: Anexinet Exec: Lack Of Monitoring In SolarWinds Hack Is ‘Scary’ https://www.crn.com/news/security/anexinet-exec-lack-of-monitoring-in-solarwinds-hack-is-scary-    

In today's Modern Digital Enterprise, the digital transformation podcast from Anexinet, Steve discusses Infrastructure Automation  with George Carter, Director of Automation Services, and IT Automation Developer, Thomas Breslin.  This episode also answers the following questions:What differentiates RPA from Infrastructure Automation?For clients who don’t fully understand what automation can do for them, what kinds of things is it possible to automate today? What areas can be automated that companies may not have considered?In what ways can an organization’s infrastructure be automated? What can automating infrastructure do for an organization? What are the advantage of automating infrastructure? Why is it important for organizations to have a 3rd party help them manage their infrastructure? What are the advantages of having a 3rd party? When does automating away the busy work free your IT Teams to work on? What role does automation play in security? How is Anexinet able to augment, rather than replace, the client’s IT team? How is augmenting more effective and beneficial than replacing?So, with all these benefits, what is it that’s still holding companies back from automating?Art of the possible: what are we currently doing versus what are we capable of doing for companies?Where do you think Infrastructure Automation is headed? Where is this technology going? Links in the episode: The Practice of System and Network Administration

In today's Modern Digital Enterprise, the digital transformation podcast from Anexinet, Steve and Glenn discuss Centers of Excellence (COE) with Sr. Strategist Nitin Bhatia and Digital Solutions VP Stephen Tranchida.  This episode also answers the following questions:What are the 4 types of COEs? How does Anexinet work with each one? How did the concept of a COE originate? Who determines a COE's direction? How have COE's evolved over time? What additional services & technologies does today's COE handle? How do COE's interact with vendors and 3rd party providers? What are the issues that arise there? What are the biggest issues with COEs? Why do COEs fail or get a bad rep? What should organizations avoid with their COE? How does Anexinet help avoid these issues? What does Anexinet provide organizations in terms of their COE? What is the ideal configuration for a COE? What is the Lifecycle of a typical COE? How does a lifecycle approach to COE's help fiefdom culture?What is Anexinet's COE Kickstart? How can we be sure Anexinet knows what our best approach should be? What role does Change Management play in the success of your COE? Where are COEs going? What additional responsibilities will COEs assume in the future?

In today's Modern Digital Enterprise, the digital transformation podcast from Anexinet, Steve and Glenn discuss how the concepts of "flow" and "path to production" represent the future of event-driven systems with VMware CTO, James Urquhart. This episode also answers the following questions: How do backyard chickens represent an event-driven system? Why is the evolution from request-response interfaces to event-driven interfaces so valuable? What does James mean by “path to production”? How does path to production minimize friction for developers and create a better environment for building and improving code? What's the best way to secure buy-in for the cultural change required to adopt this approach? Beyond CI/CD, what other activities impact the developer path to production? What is the role of containers in improving path to production? What is the role of serverless in improving path to production? How should leaders organize IT for modern software development and efficient path to production? What is “flow” (a.k.a., the "world wide flow") and how will it change the way we use software? What would incentivize an organization to use stream processing? What are the infrastructural hurdles to adopting this approach? What architectural decisions should you be making to prepare for flow technologies? What are the most powerful uses of streams? How do streams increase organizational efficiencies and improve your customer experience? How can organizations benefit from sharing flow streams? What are the ways event-based integration might scale over time?

In today’s Modern Digital Enterprise, the digital transformation podcast from Anexinet, GM & Executive VP of Digital, Al Sporer speaks with Digital Transformation SVP, Steve Tranchida and Sr Enterprise Architect, David Lavin on the topic of trends in Modern Enterprise Architecture. The episode defines what makes up a modern enterprise architecture and explains how trends toward agility and real-time data necessitate a new microservices approach that lets organizations adapt easily to achieve business goals. Further, the episode describes how event-driven architecture helps organizations adapt to the changing business landscape by leveraging a business-centric view of enterprise events that enables the orchestration (and re-orchestration) of microservices. Additionally, the episode discusses: Getting started with microservices Dealing with legacy infrastructure and data Tools for transitioning to modern architecture Enabling real-time data at massive scale throughout the organization Use cases for event-driven architecture Increase your agility and velocity by releasing software more quickly, continuously, and incrementally through the independent deployment of smaller components.

In today’s Modern Digital Enterprise, the digital transformation podcast from Anexinet, GM & Executive VP of Digital, Al Sporer speaks with Anne Erickson, Real-Time Intelligence Manager and Senior Analyst, and Ariana Patrick, Manager and Lead Analyst on how we leverage Social Analytics for our clients and the impact the COVID-19 Coronavirus pandemic has had on the grocery industry, along with the public’s general attitudes and concerns around shopping for groceries—based on the findings from their Social Media Analysis Report. Social Media Listening is one of the most effective ways to gain a deeper understanding of your customers so you can deliver a truly great digital experience. Anexinet helps global brands utilize Social Media data to drive their corporate strategy. Our Social Listening Managed Service tracks the nuances of emotion and sentiment to provide true insight into how consumers feel about your brand, products, services and competitors. Further, we listen and derive insights from social conversations among patients and across therapeutic areas within the pharmaceutical industry. We analyze this dialog qualitatively and quantitatively to provide insights into patient behaviors, attitudes, concerns and knowledge gaps.

Our strategy kickstarts are bite-sized engagements with banquet results—to help launch your digital initiatives quickly, easily and without risk. Our proven ideation process takes you from ideation to action-plan in as little as two weeks. Naturally, we’ve had to adapt this highly collaborative face-to-face process in the face of the Coronavirus pandemic. In today’s Modern Digital Enterprise, the digital transformation podcast from Anexinet, GM & Executive VP of Digital, Al Sporer speaks with Sr. Digital Strategist, James Hoshor on how Anexinet is maintaining, and even improving, the quality of its strategy kickstart process by virtualizing our strategy ideation sessions for the new normal. Further, James discusses our strategies for facilitating large virtual groups and ensuring success by providing additional client-training on the new digital tools. Finally, the episode describes how organizations are dealing with the current disruption and adapting to the new normal, along with showcasing some real-world lessons on how virtualization has actually helped improve collaboration across departments and increased efficiency and productivity (while reducing costs) for many of our clients.

In today’s Modern Digital Enterprise, the digital transformation podcast from Anexinet, GM & Executive VP of Digital, Al Sporer speaks with SVP of Digital Transformation, Steve Tranchida on the topic of connected customer experiences: why they’re so important, and how to ensure your organization is providing a great one. “61% of customers are unable to easily switch from one channel to another when interacting with customer service. 91% say they should be able to pick up where they left off.” — Aspect Software, Inc.​ To accommodate customer self-service, successful digital leaders must offer customers a connected, consistent ecosystem of services across many channels—not just isolated applications. Seamlessly creating connected self-service experiences ensures greater customer satisfaction. “Companies with the strongest omni-channel customer engagement strategies retain an average of 89% of their customers, as compared to 33% for companies with weak omni-channel strategies.”​ — Aberdeen Group, Inc. Let Anexinet help accelerate your CX self-service application strategy and development journey.

In today's Modern Digital Enterprise, the digital transformation podcast from Anexinet, the strategists discuss the dominance of Zoom as a video conferencing platform during the Coronavirus pandemic. One company made it big while all others fizzled. What was it about Zoom that enabled such massive success? What lessons can be gleaned by their success regarding the importance of increasing security as you scale, and thinking-through the advantages and pitfalls of scaling at the onset.  We also discuss a brief history of Zoom security issues, explain how to avoid Zoombombing (and how it became a thing in the first place) and provide some best practices to customize your meeting security settings. Was Zoom ever truly “256-bit encrypted, end-to-end”? Does anyone at Zoom know anything about cryptography? And what, if anything, does China have to do with all this? Enjoy this success story of how Zoom overcame bad security and bad press! The continued spread of COVID-19 presents significant uncertainty. While many of our manufacturing partners have announced free and reduced-price licensing for their mobile-worker and collaboration products, Anexinet is working with customers to build secure, holistic solutions for supporting remote workforces while developing remote-work strategies around team collaboration and security. The end-goal? Ensuring your organization stays productive and protected during this global pandemic. Anexinet's areas of focus include: VDI and remote desktop VPN Identity management and multi-factor authentication Mobile security and policy management

In today's Modern Digital Enterprise, the digital transformation podcast from Anexinet, Steve talks with Anexinet VP, Ryan Benner about ramping-up your enterprise remote workforce as a strategy for dealing the Coronavirus. Is your organization flexible enough to accommodate the surge in your remote workforce necessary to keep the business running and employees safe? Is your IT ready to scale a broad work-from-home capability?  The continued spread of COVID-19 presents significant uncertainty. While many of our manufacturing partners have announced free and reduced-price licensing for their mobile-worker and collaboration products, Anexinet is working with customers to build secure, holistic solutions for supporting remote workforces while developing remote-work strategies around team collaboration and security. The end-goal? Ensuring your organization stays productive and protected during this global pandemic. Anexinet's areas of focus include: VDI and remote desktop VPN Identity management and multi-factor authentication Mobile security and policy management

Today's Modern Digital Enterprise, the digital transformation podcast from Anexinet, features our annual Tech Prescriptions for 2020 roundtable from the Emerging Technology Council. Remember, these are “prescriptions” (pragmatic, actionable things you should be doing in the coming year), not “Predictions” (which are almost sure to be wrong!). The group has plenty to talk about this year! Enjoy the following session topics: Using AI And Analytics to Improve Customer Experiences — James Hoshor, Sr. Digital Strategist A Pragmatic Approach to Blockchain — Nitin Bhatia, Sr. Digital Strategist Supercharge Your Edge/Fog and IoT Efforts With 5G — Bob Noren, Sr. Digital Strategist Adopt an Event-Driven Architecture — Steve Tranchida, VP of Enterprise Architecture Refresh Existing Mobile Apps; Use Your AI Superpowers for Good, Not Evil; Invest in Intelligent Automation — Glenn Gruber, Sr. Digital Strategist Links in the episode:Emerging Technology Council 5G and IoT: Ushering in a New Era

In today's Modern Digital Enterprise, the digital transformation podcast from Anexinet, Steve and Glenn talk with Citizens Bank VP, Jeet Shome on the ins and outs of Robotic Process Automation (RPA).  This episode also answers the following questions: What is Robotic Process Automation (RPA)? What is attended versus unattended RPA? What use cases are a good fit for RPA, including front-office and back-office use cases? Which RPA platforms are better at back-office RPA versus desktop RPA? What is RPA's role in Machine Learning (and general) bias-removal? How should our organization get started with RPA? Is there a security application for RPA? That is, could RPA be used to make a system more secure? Who are the big players in Robotic Process Automation? How do you justify the cost of the platform? Is there a minimum number of transactions required for a good ROI? What are some tips or key takeaways for anyone contemplating RPA at their company? What’s next for RPA? How might RPA be improved even further?   Links in the episode:How to identify Robotic Process Automation (RPA) opportunities        

In today's Modern Digital Enterprise, the digital transformation podcast from Anexinet, Steve and Glenn talk with Takeda Data Security Risk Advisor, Jason Marchant on the most-pressing security issues today's organizations face.   This episode also answers the following questions: What are the largest internal security issues facing today's teams? How do we create a Security Scorecard as a path to remediation? How does Anexinet's Policy Characteristics Matrix compare with Scenario-Based Control Requirements? What are some 2-Factor (and multi-factor) Authentication Best Practices? How secure is 2-Factor Authentication, anyway? What are the implications of posting personal data to Social Media (health, etc.), and how responsible are they for protecting that data? Does HIPAA still apply? What are the security determinants for moving to the Cloud? Does the move make a company's data more or less secure? How effective is data-masking? What threats to AES encryption are beginning to emerge? What is the greatest security threat organizations face today? What about the role of AI/Machine Learning/Quantum Computing? How much of a risk do they pose? What are the risks of increased surfaced area (IoT proliferation) and morphing malware? What are Sans Institute's "Top 20 Critical Security Controls"? How does Trust & Verify compare to Zero Trust in terms of Risk-Management Practices? How do you determine your ideal Risk-Management Strategy? Links in the episode: Sans Institute Top 20 Critical Security Controls  

In today's Device Squad, the digital transformation podcast from Anexinet, Steve, Chris Hayner & George Contino talk with Katie McCroskey & Larry Mogil of PAM Cloud Leader, Thycotic on the state of Cyber Security & Privileged Access Management (PAM).   This episode also answers the following questions: How will Anexinet's partnership with Thycotic supplement Anexinet's offerings? What is Secret Server? What is "Secrets Management"? What's the difference between DevOps Secrets Vault and DevOps SDK? Why is moving from on-premises to cloud important when it comes to privileged access management? What are the benefits? What does privileged access management at cloud scale and speed mean? What's changed that we need this level of security today? Where do you see the company going? What does the future of cyber security look like? Links in the episode: Thycotic https://thycotic.com/  

In today's Device Squad, the digital transformation podcast from Anexinet, Glenn Gruber and Maribel Lopez host the Emerging Technology Council's latest Roundtable discussion which provides a wrap-up from WWDC19 and a review of the announcements large and small that impact the enterprise. Lastly, name our new Podcast & win a prize!

In today's Device Squad, the digital transformation podcast from Anexinet, Steve and Glenn talk with John Hershey, Machine Learning Researcher at Google about the state of Facial Recognition (aka Face Surveillance) Technology, about AI bias, and about San Francisco's recent "ban" on the technology for government use. Is Facial Recognition a valuable public-safety tool or is it an infringement of our civil liberties? Also, name our new Podcast & win a prize! This episode also answers the following questions: What does it mean when San Francisco— one of the most tech-friendly and tech-savvy cities in the world—is suddenly the first state to prohibit its government from using facial-recognition technology?? Why the ban? Why now? What's wrong with government agencies using Facial Recognition? Is it really invasive? Or is it more about it not being perfect? Where are we at with facial recognition? What would be the source for their data? How are they recognizing these faces, anyway? Is this more about concern over the possibility of errors? Wrongful imprisonment? Are they simply worried about being sued? Or do they really care about our right to privacy? What part does AI bias play into this? If we recognize that bias exists, what steps are being taken to eliminate the bias? Is there a way to estimate or predict bias? Is the ban worth it? Do we need more like it? What about other forms of recognition? Voice recognition, airport scanning, etc. Links in the episode: STUDY: Facial feature discovery for ethnicity recognition https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/widm.1278 San Francisco just banned facial-recognition technology https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/14/tech/san-francisco-facial-recognition-ban/index.html SF Ban on Face Recognition - Acquisition of Surveillance Technology https://sfgov.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&ID=7206781&GUID=38D37061-4D87-4A94-9AB3-CB113656159A Facial recognition data collected by U.S. customs agency stolen by hackers https://www.salon.com/2019/06/11/facial-recognition-data-collected-by-u-s-customs-agency-stolen-by-hackers/ Facial Recognition Software Wrongly Identifies 28 Lawmakers As Crime Suspects https://www.npr.org/2018/07/26/632724239/facial-recognition-software-wrongly-identifies-28-lawmakers-as-crime-suspects?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=politics&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=20180727&fbclid=IwAR1x74a-cBXMrZm_79UJHmHjxhUos4XunsivYU__ekdbsTgUPRU7bx54NuM Does object recognition work for everyone? A new method to assess bias in CV systems https://ai.facebook.com/blog/new-way-to-assess-ai-bias-in-object-recognition-systems/ Don't smile for surveillance: Why airport face scans are a privacy trap https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/06/10/your-face-is-now-your-boarding-pass-thats-problem/ U.S. Customs and Border Protection says photos of travelers were taken in a data breach https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/06/10/us-customs-border-protection-says-photos-travelers-into-out-country-were-recently-taken-data-breach/?utm_term=.cb047794d0a2 Chickens Prefer Attractive People https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/01/animals-chickens-evolution-eggs-food/  

In today’s Device Squad, the podcast for the mobile enterprise from Anexinet, Steve and the Propelics Team (James Hoshor, Todd Chusid, and Nitin Bhatia) discuss the challenges and complexities of Enterprise Mobile App Help and Support with Anexinet Tech Support Lead, Monica Avina. Topics include the following: How the advent of mobile technology has changed the enterprise help desk How to assess your readiness to support mobile The key support components every organization needs Best practices for transitioning from dev to support How to measure the success of your support organization This episode also answers the following questions: What are the key areas to assess to determine your help desk organizations readiness to support mobile? What are the key components you need to have to be successful for providing the proper levels of support for enterprise mobile? What are some “Best Practices” for transitioning from development to support? How much should the support role overlap with other roles (design, development, etc) in the organization? How will support desks handle new technologies like AI/Machine Learning/augmented reality? Conversely, how will new technologies like AI and Machine Learning improve our ability to provide help and support.

In today’s Device Squad, the podcast for the mobile enterprise from Propelics, Steve and the Propelics Team (David Enarson, Cesar Cavazos, and Andres Reaza) discuss the complexities and successes of the Canopy Health Project with Cathy Farmer (Mobile/Web Delivery Director at BayHealth Development) and Noori Dhillon (Product Strategy Director at BayHealth Development). Project goals including helping the health care startup design and build a new web-based provider/service directory, online member portal, along with a suite of cross-platform mobile applications (MyCanopyHealth) to improve access to care and provide transparency into the management of one's health. This episode also discusses: Canopy Health: what is it and what is its mission? What was new about what Canopy Health was trying to do? How was the project broken down to make it all doable? What were the challenges in trying to make this goal a reality? Why did you choose Propelics to help you achieve your goals? What did Propelics do to help make your goal a reality?  What are some of the integration challenges of working with healthcare data? What did you ensure HIPAA-compliance across all deliverables? Of all the technologies brought into play, which proved to be the most difficult integration and why? What does theMyCanopyHealth app do for Canopy's members and providers? How does the app manage to provide 24x7 live video care? How does the cost-estimator work? How did the applications help Canopy Health transcend traditional health care companies? What unique qualities did Propelics possess that helped make this project possible? What impressed you most about Propelics? How is the program doing today?  What do we have to look forward to from Canopy in the future? Links in the episode:  Canopy Health https://www.canopyhealth.com MyCanopyHealth App (iOS) https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mycanopyhealth/id1279407608?mt=8 MyCanopyHealth App (Android) https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.canopyhealth.mycanopy&hl=en Webinar: Meet the New CEO! https://www.canopyhealth.com/en/events/2019/new-ceo.html Webinar: Better Together! http://webinar2.canopyhealth.com/

In today's Device Squad, the podcast for the mobile enterprise from Propelics, Steve and Glenn talk with Krishnan Subramanian, Founder and Chief Research Advisor at Rishidot Research about the state of Enterprise Cloud Computing, including AWS,Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, along with Serverless and Kubernetes. This episode also answers the following questions: What are today's big trends in cloud computing? What about Serverless? What is Kubernetes? And why is it so important? AWS and Azure seem to be winning the cloud war. But what about Google Cloud Platform? Are any companies still hesitant to embrace the cloud? If so, why? And what can be done to turn them around? Where are we at as an industry in terms of DevOps adoption What’s next in DevOps? What's so different about DevOps for AI? What's the best way to introduce a new chicken into a flock? Links in the episode: Krishan Subramanian on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/krishnansubramanian/ Stacksense: http://www.stacksense.io Krishnan on Twitter: @Krishnan Algorithmia: https://algorithmia.com Diego Oppenheimer's Tweet that started it all: https://twitter.com/doppenhe/status/1039578430013091845 a16z podcast: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/a16z/id842818711?mt=2&i=1000420311247  

In today’s Device Squad, the podcast for the mobile enterprise from Propelics, Steve and Glenn talk with Roman Dumiak, Director of Technology Innovation at Allstate Insurance about the use of Internet of Things (IOT) devices, AI and Machine Learning in the insurance industry. This episode also discusses: What life was like being an Allstate Sr IT Architect in 1976 What better engagement buys insurance companies? The gamification of insurance Allstate’s Drivewise app Why employers and the insurance industry are so excited about wearables Privacy & HIPAA-compliance issues around capturing biometrics data How insurance companies utilize social media data How the IOT is helping underwriting The role of AI/Machine Learning in the insurance industry How AI and Machine Learning is changing the role of computers Links in the episode: Roman Dumiak on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/romandumiak/ Allstate’s Drivewise Apphttp://fortune.com/2018/09/24/allstate-ceo-data-tom-wilson/ John Hancock’s Wellness Game: https://money.cnn.com/2018/09/19/news/companies/john-hancock-life-insurance-vitality/index.html/

In today's Device Squad, the podcast for the mobile enterprise from Propelics, Steve talks with Jim Forrest, Creative Innovation Director at Intrepid - an Accenture studio. A super-talented designer/musician, and all-around brilliant human, Jim recently moved his family from Somerville, MA to Copenhagen, Denmark to pursue a career with Accenture—and quickly discovered a better way of life. He also has this crazy-genius idea about shutting off the internet. Find out why he feels this way, and why life is so much better in Denmark. This episode also discusses: Finding design inspiration Developing a family manifesto for healthier internet habits Creating social change for healthier device usage through education (and how Apple can help) The benefits of a notification manager and granular, app-specific control The kid’s iPhone Apple needs to build Links in the episode: Jim Forrest on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dbray/ Forrest James Bandcamp: https://forrestjames.bandcamp.com/ Twitter: @james_forrest   

Today's Device Squad, the podcast for the mobile enterprise from Propelics, is a real treat. Glenn Gruber of the Emerging Technology Council speaks with Dr. David Bray, Executive Director, People-Centered Internet coalition and former CIO of the FCC. They cover a number of AI topics around privacy and security, including the organizational and human impacts of introducing AI into the enterprise. In 2016, Business Insider named David one of the top "24 Americans Who Are Changing the World." He was also named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum for 2016-2021. He accepted the role of Co-Chair for an IEEE Committee focused on Artificial Intelligence, automated systems, and innovative policies globally for 2016-2017 and has been serving as a Visiting Executive In-Residence at Harvard University since 2015. Since 2017, he has served as Executive Director for the People-Centered Internet coalition co-founded by Vint Cerf, focused on providing support and expertise for community-focused projects that measurably improve people's lives using the internet. This episode also answers the following questions: What does crossing your arms tell us about AI bias? How do I know if our organization is ready to use AI? What are some Enterprise AI do’s, don’ts and use cases? What’s up with AI and voice recognition? What is the People-Centered Internet coalition and what is its mission? What was “The mother of all demos” and what did it demonstrate? What will AI enable in the next 5-10 years? What role will quantum computing play in AI? How does ai helps you keep control of your own data? How does AI differ from Machine Learning, Neural Networks, and Big Data? What new enterprise roles around data privacy and consent are needed? How do time and space relate to our enterprise dataset? What is the evolution of Google Translate and Emergent Behaviors?  What is the role of AI in diplomatic negotiation? What is the role of AI in medicine? What happens when AI goes wrong?   Links in the episode: Dr. David Bray on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dbray/ People-Centered Internet: https://peoplecentered.net/ Ai Learns Asteroids: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1o4naC4P8-M The hu-manity.org project: https://hu-manity.org/  

  Today on Device Squad, the podcast for the mobile enterprise from Propelics, Steve speaks with Sean Bradley Co-Founder & CTO at AudioEye about how AudioEye enhances the user experience to help make digital content more accessible for those with disabilities. This episode answers the following questions, and many more: What is accessibility and what are its principles? When did accessibility first become recognized as a need to be addressed? What were some of the early attempts at accessibility like? What is the Americans with Disabilities Act? What disabilities does accessibility accommodate? Are there established UI/UX rules around accessibility and what are they? What are the compliance requirements? How do Apple’s accessibility features compare to Windows? Are they the same? Who is required to meet these requirements? What are the top accessibility tools available? What are the web content accessibility guidelines? How does Accessibility testing work? What is AudioEye's mission? What is the AudioEye Digital Accessibility Platform? What does being Certified by AudioEye mean? What is AudioEye looking at in the future?  

In this episode of Device Squad, the podcast for the Mobile Enterprise from Propelics, Steve hosts a Strategists Forum with Propelics Mobile Strategists Glenn Gruber, James Hoshor, and David Enarson, along with Anexinet Cloud Solutions Director, Ned Bellavance, to discuss a new incarnation of some old mobile technologies, and to take a look at the reasons why the new sharing model (ride sharing, bike sharing, and scooter sharing) isn't quite as caring as it seems, and what—if anything—can be done about it. Articles cited in the episode: Meet the Militant Taxi Drivers Union That Just Defeated Uber and Lyft http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/21386/militant_taxi_drivers_union_uber_lyft_alliance_new_york_city New York Just Capped the Number of Uber, Lyft Vehicles in the City https://money.cnn.com/2018/08/08/technology/uber-lyft-new-york-legislation/index.html a16z Podcast: All about Bike Sharing https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/a16z/id842818711?mt=2&i=1000401356891 The Bike-Share Oversupply in China: Huge Piles of Abandoned and Broken Bicycles https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2018/03/bike-share-oversupply-in-china-huge-piles-of-abandoned-and-broken-bicycles/556268/ Electric Scooters Are Going Worldwide https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/12/electric-scooters-all-over-the-world/ Santa Monica Proposes Tougher Rules for Bird and Other Scooter Rental Companies http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-santa-monica-scooter-pilot-20180607-story.html Doctor: Do Something About the Dangers of E-Scooters https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/16/opinions/dangers-of-e-scooters-vox/index.html Uber Invests Its Growth Into Its Next Chapter — Including Scooters and Bikes https://www.recode.net/2018/8/15/17694914/uber-q2-financial-results-bikes-scooters-revenue-growth Chicken-Sharing in Massachusetts and Elsewhere http://www.rentthechicken.com/p/boston-ma-and-surrounding-areas.html    

In this episode of Device Squad, the podcast for the Mobile Enterprise from Propelics, Steve hosts a Strategists Forum with Propelics Sr. Mobile Strategist Glenn Gruber, and Anexinet Cloud Solutions Director, Ned Bellavance and asks the following questions: What is going on with cellphone sales? Are they flagging? Are they not? And if not, why is there so much discussion around this in the news? Lastly, how long before our phones are replaced by a new and better technology? Articles cited in the episode: CNN Money – April 20 Apple sinks on fears of slowing iPhone sales Morgan Stanley's Katy Huberty slashed her iPhone shipment projections for the quarter ending in June on Friday, citing weakness in China. Canaccord Genuity's Michael Walkley also cut his iPhone sales forecasts and cut his earnings estimates for Apple too. The chief financial officer of a key Apple chip supplier -- Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM) -- warned of "mobile softness" and "continued weak demand" when it reported earnings this week. Too innovative? It's possible that Apple's iPhone X, which does not have a home button, uses facial recognition and lacks a jack for headphones, may be a little too different for people used to iPhone upgrades being more evolutionary than revolutionary. Most analysts cite weak iPhone X demand as the biggest problem for Apple.   C/NET — Feb 7China's phone sales fell 4.9 percent in 2017The decline, according to a market research report, is due to manufacturers offering "minor upgrades" that weren't enticing enough for users to upgrade. China's smartphone market slid 15.7 percent year-over-year last quarter, according to a new report published by IDC yesterday. Throughout last year, it fell 4.9 percent.   CNN Tech – April 27Chinese smartphone sales suffer biggest decline ever Smartphone shipments in China have suffered their biggest decline ever, plummeting more than 21% in the first quarter of 2018 compared with the same period last year, according to a new report from research firm Canalys. Chinese consumers bought just 91 million phones in the first three months of this year. The last time the number was that low was in the fourth quarter of 2013. Samsung, the world's largest smartphone maker, also warned that overall "sluggish demand" for smartphones would drag down future earnings. That slowdown has already hit Samsung (SSNLF) sales in China, the world's largest smartphone market. The company sold just 2 million devices in China in the first quarter of 2018, down more than 50% compared to the same period last year. Apple (AAPL) also lost ground in China, slipping from fourth to fifth place in the market. The company suffered a "significant decline" in shipments from the previous quarter. Too Expensive? "Apple has a strong image, but their product and innovation is restricted to the very high-priced iPhone X ... most Chinese cannot afford that price so they switch to Huawei or Oppo," said Jia. Huawei was one of only two companies to buck the declining trend. The Chinese smartphone maker saw sales climb 2%. It remains the top smartphone seller in China, followed by local rivals Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi. Xiaomi was the only company to post double digit growth, with sales up 37%, partly reflecting a lackluster performance in 2017. We forecast ... the Chinese market in 2018 will have an overall decline. That would mean back-to-back years of contraction. Annual smartphone sales dipped for the first time ever last year, falling 4% to 459 million phones.   Fidelity News – April 30Investors look to Apple's cash, services as iPhone sales seen stalling The iPhone is by far the biggest product from Apple, accounting for more than 60 percent of its revenue last year, but CEO Tim Cook and other executives have targeted services as a path to growth. Disappointing forecasts from the iPhone supply chain have lowered expectations for unit sales. Analysts expecting as few as 51 million handsets sold versus Wall Street's expectations of 54 million phones and 50.7 million last year. Overall, Wall Street has lowered its expectations for iPhone revenue from $39.7 billion on April 17 to $39.2 billion, according to an average of estimates from 17 analysts by Thomson Reuters.   CNN Tech – April 30Apple faces Wall Street 'panic' over iPhone Apple stock fell this month after one of its key chip suppliers warned of "continued weak demand." Since then, a series of analysts have slashed their estimates for iPhone shipments. Daniel Ives, an analyst with GBH Insights, wrote that Wall Street was in "full panic mode" over iPhone sales ahead of Apple's earnings report. Some analysts blame the $999 iPhone X. once viewed by investors as key to driving customers to upgrade their smartphones. Instead, analysts fear Apple missed the mark by launching one redesigned model that is too expensive and two other new devices, the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus, look the same as older models. Mark Moskowitz, an analyst with Barclays, wrote in an investor note Monday that the iPhone X's "price point was too high and likely alienated many users."   Seeking Alpha – May 1st Apple Reports Second Quarter Results Apple beats on EPS and Revenue. Sales in China up 20% Revenue Grows 16 Percent and EPS Grows 30 Percent to New March Quarter Records https://seekingalpha.com/pr/17148466-apple-reports-second-quarter-results “We’re thrilled to report our best March quarter ever, with strong revenue growth in iPhone, Services and Wearables,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “Customers chose iPhone X more than any other iPhone each week in the March quarter, just as they did following its launch in the December quarter. We also grew revenue in all of our geographic segments, with over 20% growth in Greater China and Japan.”   CNN Tech – June 8 Apple warns suppliers that iPhone demand is falling The company told suppliers to to manufacture 20% fewer components for its upcoming iPhones. That could signal it expects waning enthusiasm for its flagship smartphone. A year ago, Apple told suppliers to prepare for shipments of 100 million iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X devices. This year, Apple is taking a "cautious approach," telling suppliers to prepare for 80 million iPhones, Nikkei reported. Apple is preparing to introduce three new iPhones in the fall. Investors have been worried that iPhone sales are flattening. Apple shipped 52.2 million iPhones during the first three months of 2018, an increase of just 3% compared to the same period a year earlier. It was expected to sell 53 million iPhones.   Wall Street Journal - July 5th Samsung Estimates Operating-Profit Growth at 5%, Short of Expectations Samsung Electronics estimates its second-quarter operating profit was up 5% from a year earlier, missing analyst estimates and ending its streak of record quarters at four. The world’s largest smartphone and semiconductor maker said Friday that it expects an operating profit of 14.8 trillion South Korean won ($13.2 billion) for the quarter that ended June 30. That would be up 5% from the year-earlier 14.07 trillion won, but down from the previous quarter’s record 15.64 trillion won. Sales of the company’s latest flagship device, the Galaxy S9, have been weak, as consumers keep their phones longer and remain unimpressed with the newest options. Lee Seung-woo, a Seoul-based analyst at Eugene Investment and Securities, expects Samsung will ship about 31 million Galaxy S9 devices in 2018. That would mark a dramatic decline from just two years ago, when the Galaxy S7 became Samsung’s best-selling phone ever, with roughly 50 million shipments.

Today's Device Squad, the podcast for the mobile enterprise from Propelics, comes to you live from the AI World Conference & Expo in Boston (https://aiworld.com/) where the word of the day is Data Labeling. Join Steve on his quest to figure out why companies need to create their own discrete labelled data set rather than everyone working towards creating a single, universal labelled data set that encompasses all knowledge. Plus, learn all about the Achilles heel of Machine Learning (i.e. the time and effort of finding the data to label), find out about Cognitive Computing and Knowledge Engineering, learn how AI is giving tech jobs to the poor, and much more. This episode features interviews with the following leaders in AI and Machine Learning: IBM Power9 https://www.ibm.com/it-infrastructure/power/power9 IBM Watson https://www.ibm.com/watson/ Data Robot (Dow Jones) - “democratizes predictive analytics” - Machine learning data analytics and predictive modeling (using the customer's data) https://www.datarobot.com/ Lux Research http://www.luxresearchinc.com/ iMerit - “AI-Enabled Services” - Human-Empowered Computing https://imerit.net/ Alpho the work bot???? - answers your business questions for you (we didn't quite get this one) Affectiva - in-app Emotion detection https://www.affectiva.com/ Presagen - Human behavior Automation https://www.presagen.com/ UIPath - Robotic Process Automation - drag n drop workflow for computers (not robots) https://www.uipath.com/ Voice-base - Speech analytics for the Cloud https://www.voicebase.com/ SFL Scientific - Professional Services Company - for Data Science & AI Solutions https://sflscientific.com/ Alegion - High volume data labelling and annotation, Crowdsourcing Automation for AI Training Data https://alegion.com/

Today on Device Squad, the podcast for the mobile enterprise from Propelics, Steve speaks with fellow Sr. Strategist James Hoshor and Michael Golub, Head of Machine Learning Task Force at Anexinet about the state of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning in the enterprise. This episode covers the following topics: The evolution of AI from personal to professional use Current top players in AI & Machine Learning Machine Learning basics  The problem of bias Enterprise AI adoption in 2018 AI & Machine Learning enterprise use cases  Deriving maximum enterprise value from AI Potential hurdles of implementing AI/Machine Learning

It's 2 great podcasts in 1! In this fun crossover episode of Device Squad, the podcast for the Mobile Enterprise from Propelics, Steve sits down with Ned Belavance, host of Anexinet's AnexiPod podcast to discuss Anexinet's recent acquisition of Propelics (and much more).

In this episode of Device Squad, the podcast for the Mobile Enterprise from Propelics, Steve discusses the state of retail mobility with fellow Propelics Mobile Strategists James Hoshor, Glenn Gruber, Spurti Gurram, and Alani Setalsingh. Mobile technology boosts productivity for field sales, builds better relationships, ensures security, identifies trends and allows instant access to data—all while simplifying business processes to help make everyone's life a little easier. Join us for The State of Retail Mobility - a Strategists Forum covering today's most exciting advancements in Retail Mobility.

Today on Device Squad, the podcast for the mobile enterprise from Propelics, Steve speaks with Dr. Alexander Cohen, MD PhD, Child Neurologist at Boston Children’s Hospital, Michael McWatters, UX Architect at TED Conferences, and Cathy Farmer, Board of Directors Member for the Organization for Autism Research. Today's topic strays a bit from our usual Enterprise Mobility focus. Instead, we're featuring a panel discussion all about digital tools for Asperger's Syndrome and Autism Spectrum Disorder, a topic I'm sure many of our listeners can benefit from. All of today's guests—including our host—have deep experience with Autism—Steve, Cathy and Michael all have siblings and/or children on the spectrum.  This episode covers the following topics: Autism Spectrum - a look at the numbers A brief history of Autism therapies Apps (and robots) for children with Autism/Asperger's Designing 101 for Autism/Asperger's The benefits of VR, TV, and SMS How a spectrum diagnosis is made The state of mobile diagnostic tools Celebrating the unique talents of those with Asperger's In the works: a centralized, comprehensive database of digital resources for Autism/Asperger's.    

A lot has happened since the last time Steve spoke with his friend Andy Ofiesh, comedian and former Software Engineer at Bitcoin Armory (his brother's company). In fact, a lot has happened since they recorded this episode only two weeks ago. Namely that the price of Bitcoin has skyrocketed from $2,600 to $10K! This time, the conversation is all about Bitcoin—and about the November 17th "crash" that occurred after the cancellation of the SegWit2x hard fork. You'll learn what caused the dip in the price of Bitcoin and why it has the tendency to behave with such volatility. Plus, Andy and Steve discuss the following: What is a hard fork? What is the SegWit2x fork? How does a Bitcoin hard fork differ from the standard definition of a hard fork? What is Bitcoin Armory and what do they do? What does giant Polynesian stone currency have to do with Bitcoin? Is there a limit to how many Bitcoin will be produced? What is the significance of this limit? Why did Bitcoin need to double the block size? What’s the difference between Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash? What might cause Bitcoin to become centralized? Why is Etherium is not doing as well as Bitcoin? Who wrote the original white paper / Who is Satoshi Nakamoto? How much of the world’s energy is Bitcoin consuming and how does this affect the price of Bitcoin? How many times may a Bitcoin be subdivided? What does the future hold for Bitcoin? Is there a limit to Bitcoin’s potential value? If you missed it, be sure to listen to Part I of this series, all about Blockchain.  Links in this episode: Rai Stones

In this episode of Device Squad—the podcast for the Mobile Enterprise from Propelics—Steve talks about Augmented and Virtual Reality (AR/VR) with fellow strategists Glenn Gruber and Spurti Gurram.  Tune into this episode to learn about where Augmented and Virtual Reality (AR) came from, where they're at and where we think they're going! We discuss the impact and experience of Microsoft's HoloLens and Google Glass along with Apple's recent ARKit, Google's ARCore, and much more. Links in the episode: The dawn of the age of holograms (HoloLens demo) What is Yelp Monocle? Apple's ARKit ARKit (developers) ARKit Demos How is ARKit better than ARCore? How is ARCore better than ARKit? The Machines (an AR game) AR Pump Training Video Apple AR glasses rumors  

In this episode of Device Squad—the podcast for the Mobile Enterprise from Propelics—Steve talks about the state of mobile technology in global health with his friend, Nikhil Patil, MPH, Environmental Health PhD candidate, and all-around super-fascinating dude.  Nikhil has been immersed in global health for the past ten years. He worked as a Peace Corps volunteer in Togo, West Africa, spent a year in Kenya studying the effects of water sanitation, hygiene and nutrition on child health-care outcomes, and helped build a research department for eHealth Africa in Northern Nigeria to improve health programs and data systems.  Tune into this episode to learn about how the African continent utilizes: Corporate-sponsored internet The role of drones  The participatory approach: the importance of social media "Crisis Mapping" for diseases, unrest, and natural disasters Securing and managing data & dealing with false data Sustainable systems (and finding ownership) Integrating technology into government health systems to facilitate interoperability Android vs Apple penetration Low-tech solutions to high-tech problems Phone data collection methods    Also, How gender affects technology access and data collection accuracy. How interoperability will future-proof remote medical technologies How to start your car in Togo  

In this episode of Device Squad—the podcast for the Mobile Enterprise from Propelics—Steve talks about mastering the art of mobile testing with his colleague, Propelics Sr. Mobile Strategist James Hoshor.  Tune into this episode to learn: Why it’s so important for testers to understand the mobile environment Key testing methods for the mobile enterprise How to determine your ideal testing tools and resources  Why adopting a mobile testing strategy is so important    Enterprise Mobile Strategy & Best-in-Class Apps: www.propelics.com

In this episode of Device Squad—the podcast for the Mobile Enterprise from Propelics—Steve talks about Amazon (AWS) Lambda with his good friend Justin Yurasits, head of software operations for Fidelity's Customer Contact platform. We discuss AWS Lambda's Serverless Computing and how it enables organizations big and small to "run code without thinking about servers" and pay only for the compute time they consume without provisioning or managing servers. AWS Lambda lets you run code for virtually any type of application or backend service—all with zero administration. But can running and scaling your code really be as easy as a simple upload? Are the days of server management really over? Is Amazon Lambda the ultimate answer for any new startup, or established enterprise, looking to minimize costs and staffing? Tune in and find out! Links in the episode: AWS Lambda AWS Mobile

Enjoy this live, behind-the scenes chat with participants and presenters from the 2017 ET6 Exchange - May 21-23, Chandler, AZ The conference is chaired by Maribel Lopez of Lopez Research. Now in its seventh year, ET6 Exchange (formerly M6 Mobility Exchange) is the longest running hosted* enterprise mobility and digital transformation conference focused exclusively on bringing an intimate end user audience together with industry experts and solution providers to discuss strategy, policy, solutions and security. ET6 is the perfect platform to help build an intelligent digital enterprise. We've been discussing the move to mobile, cloud big data and analytics for over 5 years. Mobility, once an overlay set of applications and services, is now an integral part of the overall IT infrastructure. Cloud computing has evolved from bare metal to rich services and we now have the data storage, processing systems and analytics solutions to drive insight from any type of data. These technologies are the foundation for transforming enterprises. Enterprise Transformation has grown to be an integral part of ET6 Exchange and the conference's unique format will help showcase how companies are combining these four technologies to build better businesses. Episode topics include: Engaging the many-connected user Issues and challenges with today’s emerging technology ecosystem The return of the mega-vendor Introduction to microservices

You'll finally understand what the deal is with Blockchain and Bitcoin once you listen to this interview with Andy Ofiesh, comedian and former Software Engineer at Bitcoin Armory (his brother's company).  We discuss how Bitcoin utilizes Blockchain as a distributed ledger to provide a trustable peer-to-peer currency that requires no central authority. Further, Andy explains the Byzantine General's Problem, what "hashing" is all about, how Bitcoin was created and by whom, how Bitcoin's value is determined, and how new Bitcoin are generated.  Plus, we discuss why Blockchain is such a hot enterprise buzzword these days. Does it really offers any utility outside of Bitcoin or is it just a big ol' bandwagon everyone's trying to jump upon? Tune in and find out! Links in the episode: IBM Think Academy: Blockchain, How it works Don Tapscott Ted Talk on Blockchain Blockchain 101 - A visual Demo Blockchain in Healthcare by Ted Tanner Why Blockchain is Going to Disrupt Customer Retention & CRM Maersk And IBM Are Bringing Blockchain To The Global Shipping Industry      

Get your game on! In this episode of Device Squad, the podcast for the Mobile Enterprise from Propelics, Steve discusses Gamification Strategies with Nick Bogovich, former Mobile Executive Director of GSN Games and CoFounder of Causemo and mStyle.  We discuss the role gamification already plays in our everyday lives (though you might not even know it), the future of gamification (think AR), and how gamification can be leveraged to help motivate, titillate, and reinvigorate employees and users for increased profit, productivity and job satisfaction.  Plus, the podcast episode itself got gamified! How'd we pull that off?  Tune in and find out (and maybe even win a few bucks)! Links in this episode: Jane McGonigal - Gaming can make a better world    

In this episode of Device Squad, the podcast for the Mobile Enterprise from Propelics, Steve discusses Health Care Mobility Strategies with Ivo Janssen, Solution Engineering Director with Kinvey, and fellow Propelics Mobile Strategists David Enarson and Todd Chusid. Get your Mobile Checkup! Join us for The Health of Health Care Mobility - a Strategists Forum covering today's most pressing shortcomings and most exciting advancements in Health Care Mobility.

In this episode of Device Squad, the podcast for the Mobile Enterprise from Propelics, Steve discusses UX Design Research Strategies and methods with his old friend, Lisa Renery Handalian, now Sr. Design Researcher at Uber.  We discuss Testing Strategies, User Research vs. Design Research, the benefits of Uber's internal Day in the Life program, and Lisa's particular focus: driver ratings and compliments. Further, we get into the very cool concept of Strategic Ethnography as Lisa recounts her experiences at Ancestry and Bank of America and how Research Strategies there differed from those at Uber. Also, Steven has a bad cold. What other juicy tidbits did we get into? Tune in and find out!

In this episode of Device Squad, the podcast for the Mobile Enterprise from Propelics, Steve gets futuristic with MERL Senior Principal Research Scientist, John Hershey. The conversation centers around the current state of Neural Networks and artificial intelligence as John brings us the news from the recent NIPS (Neural Information Processing) conference in Barcelona.  We discuss voice recognition and replication strategies and what role they'll play in our everyday lives—along with John's current project, deep learning for signal separation, speech recognition, language processing, and multi-modal semantic representation learning. In other words, John has solved the problem of isolating a single voice in a crowd, a process known as Deep Clustering. Specifically, we discuss: the Universe Project - a software platform for measuring and training an AI's general intelligence across the world's supply of games, websites and other applications. WaveNet - a deep generative model of raw audio waveforms - able to generate speech which mimics human voice and sounds more natural than the best text-to-speech systems. Google's DeepDreams - DeepDream is a computer vision program created by Google which uses a convolutional neural network to find and enhance patterns in images via algorithmic pareidolia, thus creating a dreamlike hallucinogenic appearance in the deliberately over-processed images. MERL Deep Clustering - Training deep discriminative embeddings to solve the cocktail party problem.The human auditory system gives us the extraordinary ability to converse in the midst of a noisy throng of party goers. Solving this so-called cocktail party problem has proven extremely challenging for computers, and separating and recognizing speech in such conditions has been the holy grail of speech processing for more than 50 years. Deep clustering is a recently introduced deep learning architecture that uses discriminatively trained embeddings as the basis for clustering, producing unprecedented speaker-independent single-channel separation performance on two-speaker and three-speaker mixtures. John also predicts when our robot overlords will finally take over, and whether or not the revolution will take the form of an army of seemingly benevolent toys. Also, how long it will be before Alexa (and other) voice-controlled devices begin targeting content based on our emotional states.  Lastly, our two heroes engage in an exciting game of BLIP. Tune in and find out what this 1970's TOMY game has to do with with artificial intelligence and analog processing!  It's a long episode but a great one so be sure to tune in! Oh, and by the way, Mind Flex is a scam.

In this episode of Device Squad, Steve interviews his old friend, Anand Rao, Lead Counsel at Google on the Self-Driving Car Project. We talk about the different levels of 'autonomousness' and the technological differences between cars developed by Tesla, Uber, and Google—as well as their respective marketing approaches. We also get into the impact that autonomous car technology will have on the world once it's finally perfected (hint: it's bigger than you think). And lastly, we discuss the legal and technological issues around building a car that can drive itself in the first place.   

To fans of the USA Network hit show Mr. Robot, the name James Plouffe may seem strangely familiar. But who is the real-world James Plouffe?? Stay tuned and find out! In this episode of Device Squad, Steve and Glenn interview James Plouffe, Lead Solutions Architect, ServiceConnect Ecosystem at MobileIron. We talk about the present state of the IoT (and where we should be heading), common challenges around MDM (and how quotations from our favorite comedians fit into all this). Plus a bit about what's in store for MobileIron, and of course the inside scoop on Mr. Robot and techniques for blowing-up data centers.   

This week, Propelics Mobile Strategist James Hoshor talks with us about best practices in Mobile Device Management and Mobile Application Management.  Do you have the right solution? This podcast also covers: Challenges of enterprise mobility today and tomorrow The differences between Mobile Device & Mobile App Management Best practices in delivering and supporting enterprise apps Choosing the best mobile app delivery option for your business A checklist to ensure the security of your mobile app foundation   Hosted by Propelics Sr. Mobile Strategist & UX Architect Steven Brykman   Coming up in our next episode, MobileIron's James Plouffe!

In this episode of Device Squad, Steve interviews Russell Johnson, Enterprise Architect at Cintas. Headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, Cintas Corporation provides highly specialized products and services to over 900,000 customers. They talk about why the company sought out Propelics in the first place and how the Propelics ideation process helped them quickly identify and solve their biggest problems.   The two also explore how the recent release of RouteBook—an Enterprise Mobile App developed by Propelics and Cintas—has improved the lives of their SSRs (Service Sales Representatives) by simplifying their workflow, making them more productive as a result. Lastly, they discuss the direction Cintas is headed and which additional technologies the company is considering pursuing moving forward.

In this episode of Device Squad, Steve interviews Maribel Lopez, founder of Lopez Research, author of "Right-Time Experiences: Driving Revenue with Mobile and Big Data" and co-founder of the Mobile Research Council. They discuss right-time experiences, enterprise mobility trends and patterns of need, plus the significance of emerging technologies like the IoT, including which Wi-Fi door lock will make Steve's wife happy.  Maribel helps companies understand and navigate digital transformation by analyzing today's most powerful tech trends, including mobile, cloud big data analytics, and IoT. Her company, Lopez Research, offers strategic advisory, speaking and market research services. You may contact her at mlopez@lopezresearch.com or @maribellopez on Twitter.  

In this episode of Device Squad, Steve and Glenn interview Bernard Desarnauts, Founder & Principal of Wristly, a Smartwatch User Research Firm, and discuss Apple Watch trends and user impressions, Apple's strategies for the Watch, UX and performance improvements in the new WatchOS and also spend more time than we planned to talking about the magic of Apple's watch bands.