Wearable Technologies next stage of Mobile computing

You just imagine a day without using your smart phone! If you forget phone when leaving your house, have you ever felt panicky? I think yes you feel so…nowadays without smart phone, our life become worse. Smart phone helps not only for calls, it is helping us for time, alarm, calendar, emails, camera, Google search, music player, social medias everything by a single swipe. It become a very common tool for mobile computing. Now what you think about the next stage of mobile computing? In the last few weeks I noticed several reports about Wearable technologies and I think wearable smart devices are supposed to be the next stage of mobile computing. Google Glass & Smart Watches are the most discussed 2 devices.

 

 

 GOOGLE GLASS

·         It behaves as wearable computer

·         This gadget can perform various day to day tasks, without you ever moving your hands

·         Connects with mobile devices via Bluetooth and wi-fi

·         Record videos, take pictures and can be shared on social networking websites or emailed

·         Google Glass will show you text messages as well as emails you receive and allow you to reply to them via voice commands

·         Find information - you can ask questions to find the result and the device will provide appropriate replies on the small screen in front of your eye

·         Show maps - The widely used Google Maps are integrated into Glass

·         Live video sharing - If you are attending a family function you can share the feed with your friends and family in real-time

·         Integrates Google Search  - It will keep track of your daily habits, such as when you leave for office or the route you take. It will give you alternate routes if there is traffic on the way

·         It allows the wearer to hear audio without the need for in-ear headphones – sound waves are instead delivered through the user’s cheekbones and into the inner ear

 

 

SMART WATCH

·       Samsung's recently released Galaxy Gear smartwatch, Apple's iWatch smartwatch and

Pebble smart watch

·       Connectivity with mobile and smart watch gives you notifications & helps for mobile tasks

·       With easy reach, you are able to check several features, including time, messages, and music control

·       Calls always within reach and never miss a call; you can answer and make calls from your wrist.

·        Read email, SMS and other notifications on your Smart Watch

·        Quick snapshots to create lasting memories

·        Touch less voice memos

·        POP3 and other email plugins are available at Google Play Store

·        Vibrates gently for every calendar notification in your phone

 

 

·        No need to check your phone to see if your Facebook friends are up to anything

 

 

 

How BPM differs from an ERP

Here in this blog I would like to explain about BPM, Business Process Management and how it differs from an ERP. ERP is focused on integration of information across business functions (like HR, Procurement & Sales) by sharing a common database. Whereas BPM is a business practice focused on enterprise level workflows and aimed at optimizing, improving and automating business processes. We can describe BPM as a process-intelligent layer that may or may not integrate with ERP.

 

To explain about ERP, consider an example business activity – Sale of ‘n’ Qty of product ‘X’ to the customer ‘Y’.

A basic ERP is made up of 3 things:

1. a set of data capturing / representing facts about the company (stores data of sale – Qty n, Product X and Customer Y)

2. a set of rules governing what to do when the facts happen (inventory updates when sales like stock Qty reduces when sales)

3. a mechanism & medium to communicate with business users (such as an ipad to display an invoice)

 

Now to explain BPM, consider an example business process – Set of activities

A Purchase Order from customer receives by a Sales Dept; Preparing Delivery note from Store Dept; Sales invoice from Accounts Dept.

BPM is made up of 3 things:

1. a set of rules to govern activity in a business process (a flow sequence or specific rules, see the above example)

2. a place to store "state" -　that is　for every item in the process, where is currently is according to the rule described in point 1 (as per above example to know whether you are waiting for delivery note or finished it or on the invoice)

3. a mechanism to communicate state to the business user and provide instruction on what to do next. Also a place to intercept system activity and trigger a human response.　

 

So you can think of 2 options for your business:

1. Implement an ERP having BPR capabilities and customize to suite your business processes; develop embedded workflow to manage your business process – in this case, change management is costly and lack of BPM other functionalities & features

2. Implement ERP and BPM – here change management faster. Also BPM can integrate with ERP and having capabilities of DMS fully integrated with OCR and Barcode modules.

 

All reputed ERPs having embedded workflow and　the system has the facility to manage the business process to a certain extend. However, if you’re looking for the flexibility that comes with changing processes, this is very expensive and is faster in BPM, that is why SAP providing BPM adaptors to meet the customer expectations. BPM also covers processes that fall completely outside of ERP systems such as Correspondence Management, Project Management, and Action Tracking.　

 

In brief, BPM plays an important role in making an ERP system agile and adaptable to the dynamic needs of the business. Even though BPM is getting more popularity; still it is in the 'nice-to-have' zone.