Sticky Not Tricky

In many recent technology success stories a key component is the “stickiness factor”. These super sticky websites and applications grew their user base virally and exponentially. If you haven’t caught on yet don’t worry the concept itself isn’t tricky. In this context sticky describes when users stay longer, and keep returning to use software. In the case of the web, the browser’s homepage (and to a lesser degree favourites) helps a site to be sticky. Increasingly however mobile applications with their installation process, accessibility, and features, have better opportunities to be sticky.

Most people think of stickiness as purely for consumer facing applications. Enterprise applications can make use of sticky techniques to increase usage and drive employee behaviours. The carrot and stick need to be appropriately considered depending on your relationship with your users, organisational culture, and appetite for risk. For example you don’t want to drive the wrong behaviour in your employees by encouraging them to play with their phone rather than doing their job.

So what features make an application sticky? Gamification techniques are often favoured. Some examples of these include achievements, point scoring, leader boards, time/daily based challenges, and obsolescence. (For further information on gamification please refer to the article “Enterprise Gamification is it a thing?”). Additionally providing time sensitive information such as news updates, enabling chat features, and importantly social networking techniques can encourage users to return to your application. Along with the social and gamification possibilities to be truly sticky the application must be usable and as simple as practical.

Why worry about sticky? Stickiness is a key contributing factor to user uptake. Gone are the days of build it and they will come, with user expectations continuing to increase. Let’s face it you want users to be excited and motivated to use your mobile application. Consider marketing and messaging reinforcement, every page view and every second that a user is interacting with you impacts brand loyalty and provides additional opportunities. Leverage your crowd. No matter if you have millions or just hundreds of users. Can you consider a way that you can help them to help you?

Sticky Concepts for Enterprise Mobility
Consider the KPIs that you are driving and factoring these via sticky/gamification techniques into mobile applications. For example imagine a service organisation with a mobile application to capture work events. This organisation is keen for each employee to capture customer success stories. You could simply add a survey to the application; however it might be much more effective to enable your employee to capture a video of the customer’s reaction to their service. Allow employees to reach their KPI in an interactive way and reward the best videos with extra recognition.

Different types of business may be able to offer specific features that make their applications stickier. For example in the financial sector some examples could include:

• Providing an application feature like balance without log-in could encourage users to keep an app running and refer back to it more often. 
• Goal tracking for personal finances is a logical way to provide added value that keeps users returning to track their progress.
• Providing up-to date stock or currency conversion information

In a supply chain business some examples could include:

• Providing top performer lists and associate rewards
• Setting real-time watch lists for key events and/or status of key orders or incidents
• Adding features like online chat for service. 

Sales and Call-centre/help-desk business process have clear targets and readily available statistics that can leverage gamification techniques. If your organisational culture has a competitive streak then adding gamification features like a scoreboard can provide a real talking point. Perhaps the top 5 sales people could be shown in an easily accessible way. In addition adding social type interactions such as “liking” or “sharing” key events can drive stickiness.

For enterprise mobile applications (regardless of whether they are B2E, B2B, or B2C) a user base that is motivated to engage is important to success. Don’t rush in but carefully consider your goals and the culture, along with appropriate techniques and rewards in formulating a useful sticky mobile application.

Enterprise Reality

For many people their first experience of a virtual world was at the computer game arcade. Thanks to Google Glass, Facebook's purchase of Oculus Rift, and ever increasing computing power. Augmented, Virtual, and various forms of Mixed Reality are finding a niche in the enterprise. Increasingly for visualisation and use cases where it's 'handy' to be hands free. Displaying and accessing information may make sense via a Virtual or Augmented channel.

Briefly to make some distinctions: Virtual (computer generated), Augmented (computer assisted), and Mixed Reality (anything in between) enable the user to experience and access information that is beyond what their senses can naturally obtain. For example http://secondlife.com is completely computer generated and considered Virtual, whereas http://www.wikitude.com augments reality by overlaying contextual data onto video in real-time.

So if this still sounds all like games and gimmicks how can virtual reality be used effectively in Enterprise? It already is... Consider the following examples:

• Military Applications (Training and simulations such as flight, parachute, and combat along with Heads Up and Head Mounted Displays for various scenarios e.g. BARS)
• Design (Computer Aided Design e.g. VRDL)
• Retail (Try before you buy applications e.g. Ray-Ban and a great augmented pixel article)
• Medical Applications (Remote presence, 3d imaging refer this medical blog)
• Education & Training (e.g. Mining training)
• Real-estate (Virtual tours, walk-through)
• Asset Management

In addition advertising agencies are using Augmented Reality to bring wow factor and interaction to a variety of brands and products with interesting interactive campaigns aimed at the tech savvy generation.

Key factors when it comes to Virtual, Augmented, and Mixed Reality are the real-time nature and visualisation of information. Additionally depending on the implementation these solutions often contain characteristics such as: immersion, remote or telepresence, private or social interactions, gamification, and hands free operation. And while mostly obvious, the benefits to the use of these technologies come from increased efficiency, safety, customer loyalty and engagement along with a reduction in costs, manual handling, and errors.

Mobile computing and Virtual reality share some common enabling technologies. Looking back at early Virtual Reality is like reminiscing about old Motorola mobile phones. Both used to be chunky, had only basic user interfaces, and simple display ability. Underlying both of course are advancements in hardware and software. For more details refer to my article on the history of mobile computing. So why then is all this “un-reality” not ubiquitous like mobile phones?

A couple of key factors should be considered. Firstly while technology has advanced to a stage where phones can now act as full mobile computing devices the tech curve is still on the rise when it comes to Augmented and Virtual reality. Secondly, mobile computing by its nature has a wide scope of viable use cases. Many would argue that mobile computing is replacing desktop computing, whereas Augmented and Virtual reality only enable consumption of information in a different way.

So is all this un-reality only for high end computers with dedicated hardware? Thankfully mobile phone technology has reached the level where it can support Augmented Reality. In some ways it is currently the perfect technological platform. With a combination of ready availability, processor power, camera, GPS, connectivity, and display. A modern mobile phone is being used as a virtual platform. Obviously it is still early days with the potential of Augmented and Virtual reality continuing to improve in direct relation to advancements in software and hardware price and performance.

Augmentation applications on iOS and Android are gaining popularity and include a variety of useful and fun features such as product visualisations (e.g. Augment), Translations (e.g. Word Lens), Search (e.g. Google Goggles), Compass (e.g. Play Aid) and many more. While these applications are useful in their own right the good news is that additionally they are all paving the way for further refined use of the technology for real benefits.

So will Virtual Reality now explode into the Enterprise? My guess is probably not. This technology is not necessarily (or perhaps just not currently) sensible for all scenarios. Additionally there can be downsides such as privacy concerns, information overload/filtering, and even motion sickness. Perhaps further advancements in display and user input such as holographic, mind machine interfaces, implants, or contact lenses will enable a more ubiquitous reach for these technologies.

For industries and scenarios discussed that are already using the technologies many where early adopters. This is certainly the case for design based industries such as industrial and automotive. There is now some encroachment for certain products with the influx of 3d printing. However a Virtual world allows for a more immersive experience (take for example a concept vehicle). Additionally aeronautical and military applications such as flight simulations are some of the earliest examples of Virtual Technology. For these types of industries/scenarios the Virtual style technology is only going to improve. But for the vast majority of business computer use a Tron style environment is not likely to be productive! From time to time we've all met or worked with someone that seemed to be operating in their own reality. With continued large technology investments becoming commonplace, it won’t be long before the next great advancements in the Mobile Computing, Augmented, and Virtual Reality. This could really change the meaning of “operating in their own reality”. I can only imagine that with Google not grabbing Oculus and with Augmented Reality contact lenses already in production it must be about time for the Google “HoloDeck” announcement. Please count me in as a “Holo-explorer”!

This article was originally published on Enterprise Mobility Network

Enterprise Gamification is it a thing?

Let me start by making my feelings clear. I hope Enterprise Gamification is a thing. I mean I work in enterprise mobility and I like games so I couldn't really think of a better combination (accept maybe sushi and beer or tropical island resort and cocktails). Anyway as an experienced exponent of computer game playing, and some beta testing, along with a few flash games I made 10 years ago plus my experience with enterprise systems I feel I'm adequately positioned to briefly explain what this gamification thing could be.

Drilling down let's look at the two key parts and what they do. An enterprise system typically aims to make a business more efficient and effective at achieving its goals and provide shareholder value. These systems enable business process; provide a central knowledge repository, and an audit trail. Games tend to be fun, addictive, reward behaviour, and keep score.

So then Gamification of the Enterprise is leveraging the techniques of gaming in an enterprise setting. So how can games be combined with enterprise systems? Some people would say that working is the opposite of gaming. That is one is fun and the other is not. What if we could make work fun, I think that would be good thing. Some of the key aspects to consider are:

• Business goals
• Key Performance Indicators
• Positive and negative activity
• Actors and Use Cases
• Technology platform
• Scoring and reward mechanism
• Change management
• Monitoring Success

With any enterprise systems or mobility project it's good to start with the business goals and align your technology with these directions. Each business, division, or organisational element may have different goals so there is unlikely to be a one solution that fits all.

KPIs have been designed for a reason and they are likely to be the best starting point when considering gamification. Note that the KPI itself (for example DIFOT) maybe a roll-up of individual transactions and activity. Whereas the transactions related to the KPI may be most appropriate for scoring in a gamification sense. Consider carefully that in games negative behaviour is also highlighted and the timeframe for scoring may need to be short enough to enable a "reset". If a staff member has been doing poorly for a time period they may need an opportunity to start fresh.

Different roles within the business will be aligned with particular use cases, business process, and key performance indicators. Gamification perhaps aligns best with repetitive tasks in a short lifecycle. Long term goals are less likely to make good candidates for gamification. If you have a multiple year sales cycle then tracking these sales in a scoreboard will not make for an addictive gaming experience. However tracking requests to provide assistance and assistance provided may result in a better outcome. Just like with many KPIs and many games, scoring can be done on a group level, an individual level, or a combination of both.

What's this all got to do with mobility? Well a mobile platform is the perfect vehicle (pardon the pun) to enable enterprise gamification. Sharing information is instant, scoring is instant, and the success can be tracked at any time. Let's take a hypothetical service scenario for a company that services widgets. The business goal is to fix issues the first time on time. KPIs track monthly how many issues are resolved, the resolution time, and how many times a refix is required. In the as-is business the service technicians receive a plan of work, go on site, and fix the issue. If they are not sure of something they ring up the office.
In the gamification scenario the service technicians have a mobile application where they see and update their job. They can request assistance from other technicians with appropriate skills who are currently free. They instantly get statistics on how many times they have helped others and their other KPIs. The leading technicians each month are rewarded with a voucher for their contribution to the company.

This leads me onto the reward mechanism. In the case of games the score is often the reward in itself. In many games a good score leads onto unlocking additional features, advancement, and general encouragement to keep playing. In business this needs careful consideration. Not everyone can be promoted because they did a good job. Someone who is the best at servicing widgets might not make the best widget servicing manager. However achieving a good score can form a part of an annual review, part of the bonus structure, be a trigger to get additional training, be bragging rights, or even a voucher for the company cafeteria.

Like with any new technology or business process change, the change management aspects can be pivotal to the success of the initiative. Involving and communicating with the user community in a sensible way encourages participation and allows some room when things don't go exactly as planned. As gamification is likely to be new to many organisations it makes sense to pilot it first with careful monitoring. The last thing you want to do is drive the incorrect behaviour. Ensure that the gamification is kept in context and don't get carried away. Some business cultures have more staff turnover and/or competitiveness than others and gamification can be introduced in very different ways. Remember that games are supposed to be fun.

Finally I'll finish with some quick ideas for gamification in the enterprise. Please let me know if you have some other ideas to make this Enterprise Gamification a thing:

• Encouraging employees to help each other
• Completing tasks in a successful or timely way
• Identifying issues/problems
• Taking a photo to highlight a success or an issue
• Social communication
• Active participation in training activities