Paul Wallbank – Brilliant Communications

Tag: amazon

  • Amazon takes on the world

    Amazon takes on the world

    Yesterday I had my first piece in Diginomica about the threat Amazon Web Service’s new business analytics service creates for ‘old school’ companies such as Oracle and IBM as well as the up and coming firms such as Qlik and Tableau.

    Diginomica’s Dennis Howlett followed that piece with one of his own flagging consulting services and systems integrators are under threat from AWS’s new partnership with consulting firm Accenture which also further puts the screws on IBM.

    Today, AWS’s announcements of new Internet of Things services threatens a range of businesses creating data connectors and management software for connected devices.

    Historically Amazon has been a fierce and brutal competitor and there’s little indication things will be different with the new web services.

    Things could be about to get tough for a lot of sectors in the computer industry as Amazon expands its services and territory.

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  • Amazon and the customer focus

    Amazon and the customer focus

    I’m currently attending the Amazon Web Service Re:Invent conference in Las Vegas.

    One of the constant themes in writings about Amazon is founder Jeff Bezos’ focus on delivering the best service and cheapest prices to the customer, even if it does sometimes rely on some less savoury tactics to chase out smaller competitors.

    That ethos is on show at this convention with AWS Senior Vice President, Andy Jassy saying at the post opening keynote press conference,  “our strategy is to be customer focused, not only do all of our strategies and tactics work backwards from what our customers want but ninety percent of our roadmap is driven by what customers tell us matters to them.”

    He did however fall for the temptation of dissing some of his competitors in the IT market saying, “most technology companies, particularly old guard companies, have lost their will and the DNA to invent. They acquire most of their invention that’s expensive and it really doesn’t fit that well together.”

    “We’re extremely long term orientated,” Jassy continued. “We don’t call you on the last day of the quarter and say ‘boy, have we got a deal for you’. You won’t see us auditing our customers and fining them. We’re trying to build relationships with our customers that will outlast everyone in this room.”

    Jassy’s points are pertinent to the current business world, the old model of seeing your customer as being a milk cow – something the older software companies were terribly guilty of – is dying. The future needs a lot more focus on treating the customer with respect.

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  • Dashing to the shops with the internet of things

    Dashing to the shops with the internet of things

    Amazon this week showed off their Dash Button, a device that lets brands set up a one press ordering system for customers.

    The idea is that a brand, say a laundry detergent, gives out buttons that when pressed will automatically deliver washing powder or whatever product is preprogrammed into the device.

    While its safe to say Amazon’s Dash button is a gimmick, it’s not hard to see washing machines, coffee makers or industrial equipment that comes preprogrammed to automatically order supplies when it detects reserves are running low.

    So the Dash Button could be showing us how the Internet of Things will help us shop with smart devices automatically organising deliveries for us.

    On it’s own the Amazon Dash Button won’t be changing the way we shop but the future of retail is going to be very different as the IoT rolls out.

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  • Links of the day – redesigning the car and South China Mall.

    Links of the day – redesigning the car and South China Mall.

    The CES extravaganza continues in Las Vegas with a wave of announcement, most of which I’m ignoring, however the motor industry continues to show off new developments with Mercedes displaying their vision of how a driverless car will look.

    Other interesting links today include an analysis of the ill fated South China Mall’s flaws and how Amazon is reorganising its R&D efforts after the failure of the Amazon Fire.

    Mercedes redesigns the car

    A little while back I suggested that we could do better in redesigning the driverless car – Mercedes have gone ahead and done it.

    Mercedes’ redesign of the driverless car indicates just what can be done when we rethink what passengers will need in the vehicles of the future.

    Ford recalls a vehicle for a UI upgrade

    Ford has recalled its Lincoln MKC SUV models for a software upgrade after discovering drivers were shutting down the cars by accident.

    What’s notable with this story is how software changes are now one of the main reasons for recalling vehicles and how design flaws in an automobile’s computer programs are relatively quickly discovered and resolved.

    We will probably find in the near future car manufacturers will carry out the upgrades remotely rather than ask owners to bring their vehicles into dealerships.

    A long running security flaw is exposed

    In August 2013 a security researcher warned UK online greeting card vendor Moonpig that its system exposed up to six million users’ account and financial details. Until Monday the company had ignored him. This is a tale of classic management disregard for customer security and one area where business culture needs to dramatically change.

    Rumours of an AOL – Verizon merger

    It’s a speculative story but if a merger between US telco Verizon and former internet giant AOL goes ahead it may mark another wave of telcos moving into content services, although it’s hard not to think that Verizon could spend its money more wisely.

    After a flop, Amazon restructures its R&D

    The Amazon Fire was by all measures a miserable flop as a smartphone however it seems the company learned some important lessons from the device’s market failures. Instead of abandoning its research efforts, the online behemoth is increasing it’s R&D budget and reorganising its development division.

    Design fails of the South China Mall

    South China Mall just south of Guangzhou has been the poster child of Chinese malinvestment during the nation’s current boom. In a blog post from 2011, a shopping mall expert visits the development and points out the major design faults in the complex which may well have doomed the project from the beginning.

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  • Amazon solves its labour problems with robots

    Amazon solves its labour problems with robots

    It looks like Amazon has found a solution to their distribution centre labour problems — replace the staff with robots.

    A wired magazine article features the e-commerce giant’s new distribution centre east of San Francisco that is run largely by robots.

    With its employment practice being an ongoing PR sore for Amazon, it looks like Jeff Bezos has found the solution to that problem.

    For the moment the warehouse in Tracy, California still employs 4,000 workers during peak periods but it’s not hard to see how Amazon is working towards dramatically reducing that head count.

     

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