What do Google Wave, FaceBook Chat, Yahoo FireEagle, IBM Blue Spruce, Palm Pre, Google Android, Apple’s iPhone OS 3.0, and Palantiri Systems’ Collaborative Device Community platform have in common?  They are all examples products  utilizing XMPP as a real-time connection mechanism to change the rules of how people and devices communicate and collaborate.

So what you might say…  All of this underlying technology doesn’t do anyone any good if there isn’t some business value to go along with it.  We agree completely.  That is why it is very encouraging to see preeminent analysts such as Harbor Research examining and understanding the real business value created by the Palantiri Systems Collaborative Device Community platform.  We believe that this is just the first of a wave of business validations coming as folks are becoming more and more aware of the impact that a true collaborative environment can have on the level of engagement and interaction they share with their customers.

Last week at the Google I/O Conference, Google revealed a new communication and collaboration tool called Google Wave. The brainchild of brothers Lars and Yen Rasmussen (the guys behind Google Maps), this tool has some early indications of really changing the model for how people collaborate online. For us, it’s only logical to extend this model and consider “things” as active participants within a wave, and it’s consistent with what our platform offers today. Putting all this together, this announcement by Google certainly validates our belief that online collaboration is changing, especially when you consider the following:

• Real-time collaboration via XMPP - underlying architecture for both Google Wave and the Palantiri platform.
• Google stresses the speed, extensibility, and secure nature of Wave in their preview video – these are all important attributes of XMPP and it just validates what we’ve been saying (and building into our platform) all along.
• More importantly, Google is creating more of an API with their wave tool, allowing “robots” and “things” as well as people to participate in online waves. This perfectly aligns with Palantiri’s platform, where we enable machines and devices to communicate, interact and otherwise contribute via XMPP.

Needless to say, we are excited about the possibilities!

Last week Palantiri Systems had the privilege to attend and present at IQPC’s 3rd Annual Remote Service Implementation conference.   Our Monday afternoon presentation focused on the scalability of remote services systems and the benefits of using open standards in your implementation - a topic that is becoming more and more relevant as deployments grow in size.  We had a great group in the workshop with a lot of thought provoking questions.

It has been very exciting to watch the Remote Services space mature over the last couple of years.  More and more companies are beginning to view Remote Service as being less about service, and more about a new a way of doing business.  There has been a real shift from the break-fix mentality of the past to a new customer focused view. Organizations are looking for ways to engage their customers in more meaningful ways, drive growth, and innovate.

Some of the deployment numbers that companies mentioned further demonstrate the maturing of the space.  It is no longer uncommon to hear of deployments consisting of 10,000+ connected devices.  Clearly scalability has become a critical issue.

During last year’s IQPC conference in June, Mark Vigoroso mentioned how it may be one of the last years that the conference will be primarily attended by early adopters.  It looks like his prediction was correct.  In one of the opening presentations, Jennifer Love,  a Remote Network Services Manager at Honeywell, asked how many people in the room were just beginning a remote service implementation and only one person raised their hand.   As the market matures we expect to see a continued focus on the customer, a desire to utilize device information in new and innovative ways, and an increased reliance on remote services systems.

No matter what your political stripe, it is always fascinating to see how the United States transitions from one presidency to another.  Aside from the occasional missing W’s on some keyboards, these transitions typically go relatively smoothly.  There are a couple of keys to this: (a) the fact that there is going to be a transition is well known and the date is cast in stone and (b) there are larges teams of people putting in a tremendous amount of time and money to ensure things go according to plan.  I believe it is the character of most Americans, no matter their political ideology, to see this as a proud and hopeful time.  Hopeful that the transition does not just bring more of the same old thing but that it brings with it some new energy and new ideas that will serve us well into the future.

We should be so lucky in the technology world.  Transitions are often thrust upon us by forces outside our control and often at the most inopportune time, creating the potential for rash decisions that we might come to regret.  Changes in the vendor landscape for our critical technologies often bring about the need for near or mid-term transitions, which implies the spending of a lot of time, energy, and money.

It is important to see such events as an opportunity to move forward.  Technology moves at a very rapid pace today.  Spending a lot of time and effort just to wind up with essentially the same capabilities you started with makes no sense.  That doesn’t mean you should throw everything you have done out and start all over again, that is neither politically or economically feasible.  The key is creating an effective transition strategy that allows you to adopt and move forward with the newer, more advanced approach, while preserving the investment you have already made.  In the enterprise software space, anyone that has been involved in the switchover to a new CRM or ERP system can attest - its not just a matter of pointing your browser to a new web page.  There are user training, data migration, and enterprise application integration issues that take significant wherewithal to overcome.  This is especially true in the device networking space, where there also may be a large installed base of devices with older technology in the field.

Many of you may find yourself in such a position at some point in time in the future.  When thrust into such a scenario, the single most helpful piece of advice I can think of comes from Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - “Don’t Panic!”.  Take the time to think about the future.  Think about your existing system - what works and what doesn’t.  Think about where you want to be in 3-5 years - will replacing an 8 year old technology with technology of the same vintage get you there?  Now is the time to enhance the things that work and improve on the things that don’t.  Most importantly, think positively and look at it as an opportunity to move forward, not just to tread water.

Here’s hoping our new administration looks at things the same way.

Sometimes it seems that the timing is just right.  At Palantiri Systems, we have a vision of XMPP powered real-time connectivity and interaction between all members of a community, be they people or devices.  As mentioned in a previous post, the acquisition of Jabber, Inc. added a lot of validation to our choice of XMPP.  Now, there is  more validation by an even larger player.  Last week at Web 2.0 Summit, IBM took the wraps off of their “Blue Spruce” architecture.  Blue Spruce is IBM’s vision of the next generation real-time web platform.  Central to the architecture, much as it is with ours,  is the XMPP protocol.  This is the type of news that further confirms our belief that we are on the right path and that the momentum is building rapidly.  Stay tuned for some major product announcements …

Last month, Cisco announced that they were acquiring Jabber, Inc.  This move pushes Cisco further into the messaging infrastructure space, and certainly puts a stamp of validation on the emerging collaboration / XMPP / Web 2.0 sector.

It looks like Cisco is now putting more emphasis on the importance of collaboration and real-time awareness for networked devices.  Since they are the leading supplier of networking equipment for the Internet, we see this acquisition as validation of our vision for next-generation device collaboration, and a sign of big things to come.

Something we often discuss is the availability of device data within the enterprise.  In many existing device connectivity platforms the data is available in only a few forms:

• Through a custom application built on top of the device database
• As a report generated by a tool that invloves some database knowledge
• Via a remotely accessible API, typically invloving web services or SOAP

Although these methods are useful, they are lacking for a variety of reasons:

• Flexibility: They allow for few ways to customize the delivery of content.  Web services help to alleviate this problem to some extent, but also introduce complexity.
• Searchability: None of these interfaces are indexable for use by a general search utlity, such as the Google Search Appliance.
• Data Formats: The ideal way to present device data within the enterprise is in a format native to your internal processes.  These access methods rarely do that.
• Openness: An ideal platform would allow for the interception and transformation of messages at multiple points within the system.

How do we address these limitations?  First we need to rethink what we mean by “interface.”  The interface to device data should be more than a web page or set of predefined functions.  Most device manufacturers already have a predefined format for representing device specific information.  A well defined interface would publish this device data as a first class resource on a network, much like a web page, user profile, or any other entity on a network.  This model, with a consistent and open interface, would help to alleviate the above limitations.

We just returned from IQPC’s 5th Annual Remote Device Monitoring & Management Summit in Nashville Tennessee.  Overall the conference was a great success.  There were a good mix of vendors and adopters and both the presenters and participants had great information to share.  There has been a clear growth in the overall understanding of what remote services is, as well as challenges and benefits it presents.

A few themes seemed to really emerge at the conference this year:

1. Product companies are really beginning to understand the importance of switching to a service based model.
2. In order to support a service model, it is important for remote services to be viewed as a revenue stream, and not just a cost savings measure.
3. Basic remote services are becoming less of a differentiator, and more of a requirement, so OEMs need to look to data driven services as their differentiator.
4. Device connectivity is a valuable tool for reaching out and creating an engaged customer base.  More and more companies are attempting to make their device driven data available to customers in the form of innovative value-added services.

Mark Vigoroso, the conference chairperson, made a comment in his welcoming remarks that this may be one of the last years that remote service conferences are attended primarily by early adopters, and that moving forward, they’ll be many more “fast followers.”  This was further proven out by the increased number of managers and directors responsible solely for corporate remote service strategies.  As the industry grows it will be the responsibility of these early adoptors to pave a clear path.

I live in upstate New York but travel all too frequently.  Some years back I was having a business lunch at a hotel in Southern California.  A woman approached me, calling me by name.  I could not for the life of me recognize her even though it turned out she was someone I know very well.  Some who know me well might simply attribute it to me rapidly approaching 50 and the mind starting to go.  I disagree.  The real problem was that in that setting, a business discussion 3000 miles away from home, my mind simply could not process the visual cues from someone I know socially from back home.  The context was wrong. (more…)

In our previous post, John highlighted some very unique approaches for OEMs to create an engaged customer. Creating a community environment that combines the interactive features of forums, messaging, and blogs with up to date device data and an always-on connection to the device gives the customer a reason to come to the community – and creates a reason to stay engaged.

However, for businesses that want to succeed in bringing their customer closer, where does the responsibility of creating an engaged customer lie? It’s easy for organizations to define initiatives that focus on the customer. We talk to clients every day that are starting initiatives at creating better customer portals, surveys to gather customer input, and online, interactive tools to create a collaborative environment.

Unfortunately, in the manufacturing industry, the lines of responsibility aren’t that clear. Is it the responsibility of the service and support organization to retain and maintain an engaged and loyal customer? What about the marketing department, or sales?

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