Information systems innovation

Archive for the ‘Evaluation’ Category

Thanks to http://www.popsci.com

IBM Unveils Nanophotonic Chips that Could Lead the Exascale Computing Revolution

“IBM is prepped to lead the way into the next era of exascale computing…saying its next-gen silicon chips that communicate via pulses of light, rather than electrical signals, will be commercially available starting next year.

This would allow for chip technology and processors that are 1,000 times faster than today’s petascale computers.

This switch from copper to light is what would make chips that communicate over optical interconnects rather than electron swapping connections can perform much faster. And the more optical connections you have, the better the performance.“

This would be a radical disruptive innovation, however due to its price being higher (at least initially) it would take time for it to be cost effective for overshot and more importantly mainstream customers. However, the businesses which employed these chips would be given an excellent “sword” and create a higher motivation to innovate with the added possibilities.

The biggest winner here will be whoever can produce the cheapest nanophotonic, allowing for successful penetration of the mainstream client base and retail level sales. This will rely heavily on new, standalone value networks, as using overlapping ones will not have the materials needed to create this type of chip. This will create asymmetrical motivation and allow a firm to release up-market disruptive innovations.

Article: “To Catch a Car Thief…Up to 3,600 a Minute, Actually”
Bloomsberg Businessweek, Nov 1-Nov 7, 2010

An overview of the article is that police cars are now being equiped with infrared cameras on their trunks that can read up to 3600 license plates per minute.  The read then goes through the system and are checked against the database. Officers can no longer have to run plates to spot stolen vehicles.

Disruption applied:  The technology of infrared cameras and database management have been around for awhile, but not in this context.  By mounting the infrared cameras to read license plates, the government agencies are using the technology in a new context to catch criminals and make arrests.  The database is updated frequently and as officers drive, they check vehicles against the stolen vehicle database.  The non-market factors that are forcing policing agencies to adapt to the technology “Using the FBI’s average valuation of $6,505 per stolen vehicle, the 794,616 vehicles stolen during 2009 caused estimated property losses of $5.2 billion” is pressuring agencies to catch more criminals and regain the stolen property.

The Edge's facebook complaints----CLICK to view on Facebook.com

Everyone is probably familiar with the Edge and Temple’s student housing….and how incredibly slow and painful it can be to get anything fixed or replaced. The Edge has taken a bold, highly-innovative move and has allowed their facebook page to become a medium for resolving maintenance requests and allowing students to gripe in general. I think this is a great example of the asymmetrical motivations of various organizations, as they are coming in under the shield of more accessible and simpler customer service. This difference could potentially become their sword, as people might be drawn to the Edge because of their high-level of attentiveness to service issues.

However, I would also point out that this method places much pressure on the company to vigilantly watch the page and professionally respond to each post. Missing just one may cause an irate tenant who feels they were intentionally ignored. Plus, an outsider may come across their page and view the many service requests as a sign of a run-down building with a lot of unnecessary hassles involved.

I believe the Edge is right in taking this risk, however I would make a different page for service requests than the actual main page advertising their business though.

A newer website has a very innovative new idea: Instead of paying postal companies high fees for shipping and waiting for delivery while the uncertainty of a large company losing your shipment grows with each day, send it with a stranger.

Citizenshipper.com allows senders to post free ads for shipments and a free bid on each contract for the enrolled drivers. Drivers can deliver a fridge, a sofa, or something as small as a time-sensitive letter. It is an easy way to subsidize gas for simply dropping off a package to a destination that’s already on your route to work, school ,etc.

Since the launch of this site in 2008, there has never been a problem with a driver not being paid or a package not being delivered, thus their credibility remains very high. They enable this by using a three-tier security verification process–with each level of clearance, the additional abilities and options a driver is given and the sender receives an elevated sense of reassurance.

The innovation here lies in an eBay like structure, allowing a free marketplace for something that was previously virtually monopolized by a few select companies; certain individuals may even have they feedback and reputation grow to the point where they are a highly sought after package deliverer.

http://www.citizenshipper.com/index6.php

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Business Week has an article called “How to Measure Innovation”, wherein it discusses a British team and their goal to create an index to asses innovativeness in each industry.

Claiming that the original standard of money invested in R&D does not correlate properly with innovations, since banking and other industries spend very little on R&D yet have made some of the largest leaps in their field. Some of proposed criterion for this new innovation index:

organizational change

investment in management and skills training

competitive performance over time

a peer review in which company executives both help to define the innovation indicators and rate each other.

“Innovation today is multidirectional, not only about producing new products but also about services, technical standards, business models, and processes.”

So I guess this is considered “innovative innovation”?

Article: http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/jul2008/id20080716_335504.htm