Innovation at the intersection

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The convergence of formerly separate communications technologies and media with IT and computing is creating its own innovation dynamic according to Vodafone Ireland head of business product development Liam O'Brien.

“Innovation comes in many forms”, he says. “It can be the utilisation of technology to drive new business processes or it can be the creation of an app for a smart phone. From our perspective at Vodafone Enterprise, we believe the convergence of different technologies is creating very fertile ground for a vast range of different innovations and new products and services that we couldn’t have imagined even a few years ago.”

The convergence of fixed and mobile telephony is a case in point. “This enabled people to work from a much greater variety of locations while the devices they were working with were getting smarter”, he explains. “This led to a self-reinforcing cycle of innovation. As the devices got smarter people could do more with them and the applications were developed to allow that. Those applications in turn required better and smarter devices. That push-pull dynamic is still ongoing and leading to the creation of entirely new business models.”

Those smart devices have been largely responsible for the convergence of communications and computing technology. “Ten years ago your IT device was your desktop computer in your office or maybe a laptop. Now it’s a tablet or a laptop with wireless and mobile connectivity or even a phablet or smartphone. Voice is now merely one application among many. That’s leading to a paradigm shift and putting technologies into the hands of people who never had them before.”

This has also led to changes for Vodafone and brought the company into new markets. "We are no longer just a voice communications provider, although it is still a significant part of what we do". O'Brien notes. "We are a communications provider in the broadest sense. We connect people, places and things to each other and we are enabling highly innovative new services in the process. Cattle feeding machines in China are being controlled from Carlow, for example."

He points to the automotive and transport sectors as ones where there are some particularly exciting new developments happening. "Most people will have heard of our partnership with Ryanair and how that is helping the airline become even more efficient but communications technology could soon have a profound effect on our driving habits as well. We are working with Porsche on technologies which allow owners to start up their cars remotely with their smartphones to warm them up on a cold day, to monitor maintenance, and we can track the car and immobilise it if it is stolen. These are the sort of technologies which will be available in normal family cars in future."

That ability to track location and maintenance has the potential to transform businesses like car leasing, rental and insurance. Leasing companies will be able to monitor their assets in real time and ensure that users are keeping to their part of the agreement; it will be possible to rent cars by the hour and for the hire company to always know where it is parked and how much fuel is in the tank; and usage-based insurance will be enabled with drivers only paying for insurance in accordance with the number of kilometres driven each year.

But breakthrough innovations like these aren’t the sole preserve of large corporations. “Souhan’s Garage in Trim, Co Meath is a family owned business with a very good track record in terms of innovation. They are exhaust specialists and can make exhausts for any type of car from vintage to the very latest models. They use up to the minute communications technology to deliver an enhanced customer experience and send regular text alerts to customers in relation to special offers and so on. Every device is connected using Vodafone SIMs. Even the car wash is connected! If something goes wrong with it the machine sends a text to the members of the owning family so that it can be fixed as quickly as possible.”

Similar solutions are now being adopted by machinery manufacturers. “Expensive machines like printing presses are now being connected and relaying data back to the manufacturer. They are analysing this data to predict accurately when machines might be in danger of breaking down and then schedule a service or other intervention to prevent that from happening.

“We are also seeing the development of true mass personalisation, something talked about in business schools for years but never really achieved until now. Solutions can be tailored to the specific needs of individual business customers or consumers in accordance with feedback received from them. This is going to be a key competitive differentiator in future. This is the sort of really exciting innovation being made possible by the convergence and intersection of communications and computing technologies.”