Best Reading of the Day - Entry 0005 App Updating Improved

Happy Friday Everyone,

The biggest problem with the Apple App Store is the "Apple" part in "App Store" and the cumbersome approval process that is in place for it.  Where there is difficulty there is opportunity and an enterprising company in Philadelphia, PA has an innovative solution.

Artisan Mobile technology depends on a software development kit, or SDK. A retailer embeds the Artisan SDK into its mobile app and submits the app to the app stores for approval. Once the SDK-enabled app update is approved and downloaded by users, the retailer can begin making changes on the fly. Artisan Mobile hosts the app design and content on its servers. A retailer executive uses a WizzyWig interface to make changes to the app. WizzyWig is a user-friendly style of editing that enables non-technical personnel to make changes to a site or app, while viewing on a screen how the site or app would look.

Once a retailer is finished with changes, it saves them on the Artisan servers. Then, the next time an app user requests a section of the app that has been changed, the app’s Artisan SDK pulls the refreshed content from the servers.

Read the complete article here:
http://www.internetretailer.com/2013/06/27/specialist-easy-mobile-app-updating-raises-55-million

I hope you have a wonderful weekend.

J.W. Gant

Best Reading of the Day - Entry 0004 Walgreens Loyalty

Walgreens is in the news again for their mobile efforts.  The award winning app is among the highest rated retail apps on both the Apple App Store and Google Play at 4.5 of 5 stars.

What does loyalty mean to you?  A system of bribery to coerce customers in to your store?  Maybe not, not any more.

Walgreens has leveraged Mobile and the rest of the connected store experience to build a loyalty program 72 million members strong.

NEW YORK – A Walgreens executive at Forrester’s Forum For Customer Experience Professionals East said that the retailer has acquired 72 million loyalty members in the past nine months by focusing on mobile and digital as key components to an omnichannel approach.

Read more here:
http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/how-walgreens-leveraged-mobile-digital-to-build-72m-member-loyalty-program

Here is a screenshot of their app as of a few weeks ago:

Happy reading,

J.W. Gant

Best Reading of the Day - Entry 0003 Mobile Payments?

Mobile smart phones are now ubiquitous and that connection to the internet, always on, is changing many of the things we do.  Many readers have heard of the term "mobile wallet" that indicates digitizing all of those things we carry around in our wallets every day.  Credit cards = mobile payment.  Boarding Pass = eBoarding Pass in your mobile wallet.  Etc.

The payments space is seeing an enormous influx of new methods, new ideas, new companies, and old companies trying new ideas.  Yet many people still carry cash and use it as their primary method of payment.  Changing such core habits can be slow.  It took 27 years for debit cards to reach 50% of payments.  How fast will mobile payments grow?

Not too fast at all if this study is accurate:

http://www.pymnts.com/commentary/if-cash-isn-t-dying-can-electronic-payments-grow/

This points to a question of perspective.  If I stated you'd only expect to lose 10% if you continue on your current path you may not be inclined to act.  However if you ask what would you do to see a 10% return on your investment the story might change a bit.  Mobile payments are here to stay though their final form may be many years off, and I don't predict the death of cash even in this century.

Happy reading,

J.W. Gant

Best Reading of the Day - Entry 0002 The Marketplace Fairness Act

The legislation working its way through Congress certainly has many people watching and waiting, and a little company called Amazon.com is no small player in that group.

It appears that after working state by state for the last 10 years or so on taxes for its distribution centers and sales Amazon.com views this legislation as the final ruling it has been waiting for.  No more questions, no more negotiating state by state, this will be the law of the land and anything Amazon.com has been holding off of will finally have a clear direction and a clear understanding of viability.

Will the law pass?  What will it look like?  What impact will it have on retail both traditional B&M and eCommerce?

Here is just a bit from the article:

...Daryl Logullo, director of ecommerce for Kellyco Metal Detectors said that the Marketplace Fairness Act is going to face a big challenge especially when it gets to the House of Representatives.

“Some people would argue that it is unconstitutional because it’s a tax issue across multiple states,” said Logullo.

Logullo said he thought it would over-complicate things for retailers online, creating mass chaos and confusion.

“I’d be surprised if it does get through and becomes law,” said Logullo.

Logullo said if it does go into effect, it’s going to ask retailers to take a hard look at their pricing structure.  He added that constitutionally, the Marketplace Fairness Act is questionable.

“We’re kind of waiting to see what happens,” said Logullo.

And the entire article:
http://multichannelmerchant.com/retail/retailers-open-up-about-the-marketplace-fairness-act-21062013/

Hope you have a fine summer weekend.

Regards,

J.W. Gant

User Interface Design

Have you been hearing the word "Skeuomorphism" recently regarding Apple?

Know who Jony Ive is?

Hear anything about iOS 7 in the news?

Recently I performed an analysis of the current state of design in the User Interface realm and what application developers should be focused on.  The result was a new white paper where I predicted the design elements in smart phones were all moving towards a flat interface with more emphasis on using the design elements to pass information.  The purpose of this white paper is to inform application developments efforts about the direction they should be taking today to prepare for the world of tomorrow.

You can read that white paper written back in May here:
The End of Skeuomorphism

At Apple's WorldWide Developer's Conference this year, on June 10th, many of the details of the pending iOS 7 operating system were released.  A flat design was indeed their path forward with non-skeuomorphic design a central element and more.

Here is Apple's page on the WWDC:
http://www.apple.com/apple-events/june-2013/

It appears Apple is currently confronting The_Innovator's_Dilemma and is only going to release incremental changes to their existing products.  Innovation in design is happening elsewhere and Apple is playing the follower now.

Here is a concept image to help you picture the differences:

Happy reading,

J.W. Gant

Daily Research

Dailies in the movie business are the shots of film produced that day.  Every day the director finishes shooting, the film is developed (it is instantaneous with digital cameras) and the director reviews the shots of the day.

Inspired by this I have formed "Dailies" that are web sites I visit every day at least once.  For news, information, research, or just to keep generally informed, I visit a few dozen sites every day.  RSS feeds, Google Alerts, and more also assist me with this process.

For Mobile Product Management in Retail Grocery I've started reading roughly 39 sites every day on topics ranging from Payment, to general Retail, to Mobile, to Technology, to Grocery, and more.  I'll pull from these every week to provide you with the very best from my "dailies".  Here are just a few of those sites:

http://www.realcleartechnology.com/

http://www.mobilepaymentstoday.com/

http://www.fmi.org/

http://www.zdnet.com/

http://www.xconomy.com/

http://www.retailonlineintegration.com/

http://supermarketnews.com/

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/marketing-daily/#axzz2QkYCECHW

http://chainstoreage.com/

http://www.groceryheadquarters.com/

and...

http://thenextweb.com/

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Google Research Studies - Mobile In-Store

Are you interested in the retail industry?

Interested in mobile technology?

Interested in learning how the retail industry is intersecting with mobile?

How Mobile Is Transforming the Shopping Experience in Stores

Google - research-studies/mobile-in-store

Smartphones are changing the retail landscape. They help us research, compare, and purchase products not just online, but also in stores. In fact, 84% of smartphone shoppers use their phones while in a physical store. This study, done in conjunction with the Google Shopper Marketing Agency Council and M/A/R/C Research, seeks to uncover the role and opportunities for mobile in the shopping experience.

You can download the study or peruse it there.  Worth taking some time to digest the whole thing.

Happy reading,

J.W. Gant

Best Reading of the Day - Entry 0001

Yes, I'm being a bit of an optimist to place 3 zeros in front of that entry.  Who knows?

Best reading for the day:

dont-panic-but-we ve-passed-peak-apple-and-google-and-facebook/

...Apple will never again come out with a product as transformative as the iPhone. Google will never build anything more useful than its existing search engine, and it will never discover another business model as lucrative as search-based advertising. And Facebook may keep growing until every person on Earth with a computing device is a member, but it won’t ever be anything more than a place we share photos and links....

Has Apple already jumped the shark?  Or do they have one more big innovation in them?  What about Google, or Facebook?

Happy days,

J.W. Gant

Is It Truly Mobile?

What is "mobile"?

Why differentiate between PC's, Mobile, Smart Phones, and Tablets?

I've written a white paper on the subject with extensive appendices for your information.  You can view that through google docs here:

 Is It Truly Mobile?

Here is the summary paragraph.  I hope you find this enjoyable and informative.

Industry observers are consistently miss-categorizing tablets as purely “Mobile” devices while the customer usage data strongly indicates tablets are mostly an alternative to the traditional personal computer.  The resultant conclusions around mobility must be modified accordingly.  For example the frequently reported rise of mCommerce (see Appendix I for definitions) is actually a rise in eCommerce on the alternative tablet platform with some cannibalization of existing eCommerce almost certainly occurring.  True mobile commerce is seeing very slow adaptation rates and this is especially true within grocery retail.  To accurately focus on the omnichannel retail customer experience it is important to correctly categorize the platforms in play and make decisions accordingly.  Smartphone contributions to the customer experience are critical but significantly less so as a mCommerce provider.  Therefore, mobile development for smartphones should focus on areas other than mCommerce.

Enjoy,

J.W. Gant

The History of J.W. Gant

TopSource, LLC.

The newly created Senior Manager of Mobility Products position at TopSource is my most recent role and has provided me the motivation to create this blog.  My efforts will provide TopSource, and parent company Topco, with a Product Management capability to enable software development on multiple platforms and will result in a suite of products to further the company's strategic initiatives.

First, a moment about Product Management.

Anything that will be released to the public for consumption may be considered a product and the art & science of managing the lifespan of a product is the role of a Product Manager.  Marketing inputs, commonly through a Product Marketing role, will inform the shape of the product and various other pieces of the puzzle.  The Product Manager will work with production teams, internal and external, and project teams along with marketing and creative elements, to manage the various processes that result in a product launch and continued efforts post-launch until product retirement.

In the technology world it has become increasingly common for professionals with both an engineering background and a MBA to become Product Managers.  My background is perfectly suited to create this new functionality in TopSource and I'm very excited for the opportunities presented here.  The result in just a few short months will be mobile applications to fulfill the needs of our members.  Fun, fun, fun.

Here is a quick view of my work and education history from High School to present:

• United States Air Force
• Emergency Medical Technician
• The Florida State University
• BS Software Engineering, Minor Mathematics
• Thagent, Inc.
• Owner and Computer Consultant
• Engelhard, Inc.
• Developer Analyst
• ICS
• Development Manager and Consultant
• Purdue University - Krannert School of Management
• MBA
• MFS Investment Management
• Business Side Technology Guru, Project, Product, Problem, etc.
• Compass Solutions
• Project Manager for the Health Information Exchange, Affordable Care Act
• MerchantWarehouse.com
• Product Manager for a suite of mobile solutions and for Genius ITX Payment solution
• TopSource, LLC
• Senior Manager, Mobility Products

Next we will get in to the fun stuff.  For my current role I am daily researching dozens of web sites to stay up to the minute on concerns related to technology, mobile, retail, grocery, marketing, and more.  Sharing the most relevant pieces I find is the purpose of this blog.

Regards,

J.W. Gant

Why the Thagent Blog?

Hello,

What is Thagent and why call this the "21st Century" blog?

Thagent is a play on words/names that I have used extensively in my personal and professional life.  As a joke I have sometimes referred to myself in the 3rd person: "The Gant".  When looking for a company name and a possible web site URL this came to mind and I swapped two letters to transform "The Gant" in to "Thagent" which I used when I had a small consulting company in the early 2000s.

The portion referring to "21st Century" is both a reference to my love of history and conveys the idea that this blog is about modern concerns in the Information Age we are all living in today.  The breadth conveyed by that is broad by design: technology, current events, business considerations and thinking especially as it relates to my career, and more.

Welcome to the Thagent 21st Century Blog.

Best Regards,

J.W. Gant