Category: Innovation Management

covid-19 safe spaces facilitate reopening and return to work

Responding to COVID-19 – a framework for smart cities

Posted on Benson Chan2 CommentsPosted in Best Practices, COVID-19, Innovation Management, Product Management, product-market fit, Smart City, Smart Communities, Strategy

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted cities and communities worldwide. As the number of infections and deaths surge, governments are turning to technology and innovative approaches for help. However, current efforts to engage the innovation communities are reactive, piecemeal, and have limited effectiveness.

This blog describes a Smart Cities COVID-19 Collaboration framework. It provides a structured way to identify the collaboration opportunities between cities, public health systems and the technology community.

Building the Smart Region: an opportunity for electric utility companies

Posted on Benson ChanLeave a commentPosted in Business Models, Digital Transformation, Innovation Management, Internet of Things, Smart City, Smart Communities, Strategy

While smart cities represent a major business opportunity for utility companies, they are better suited to co-lead the building of the “smart region”. Utility companies have the regional focus, infrastructure, resources, operational and execution capabilities to support the largest metropolitan areas to the smaller cities and regions.

This article discusses some entry level smart region opportunities for utility companies, as well as some of the key gaps they must address.

smart city trust

Smart City Trust – think beyond cybersecurity and privacy

Posted on Benson ChanLeave a commentPosted in Industrial IoT, Innovation Management, Internet of Things, Smart City, Smart Communities, Strategy

While a smart city is powered by technology and data, it is enabled and sustained by trust. Many people equate trust with privacy and cybersecurity. However, these are only two elements of many that create trust in a smart city. Trust must be embedded into the processes, policies and technology that create the city services. It must be integrated into its creators, users and beneficiaries from the very beginning.

This article introduces a holistic framework for building trust in a smart city for smart city planners and architects to consider.

smart city innovation labs

Smart city innovation labs – ten best practices

Posted on Benson ChanLeave a commentPosted in Best Practices, Industrial IoT, Innovation Management, Internet of Things, Partnerships, Smart City, Smart Communities

Smart city innovation labs provide an organized structure for cities, community, experts, and vendors to collaboratively create viable solutions. Successful solutions piloted in smart city innovation labs can then be scaled and deployed into a city’s operations and infrastructure.

Based on our experiences in creating, launching and operationalizing San Mateo County’s Smart Region innovation lab (SMC Labs), we share ten best practices for civic innovation leaders planning their own innovation labs.

Smart City Ecosystem Architects - eight things to do

Building Smart Cities – Eight Things That Matter

Posted on Benson Chan1 CommentPosted in Best Practices, Digital Transformation, Industrial IoT, Innovation Management, Internet of Things, Smart City, Smart Communities

Whether you are planning or have already started your smart city journey, there are eight things that cities must get right. While smart cities are often associated with technology, it is but one component within the larger smart city ecosystem that needs to be addressed.

This article discusses the eight things that leaders and planners must get right, in order to build the sustainable and well functioning smart city.

Six things IT managers must do to accelerate IoT adoption

6 things IT executives must do to accelerate IoT adoption

Posted on Benson Chan1 CommentPosted in Best Practices, Digital Transformation, Innovation Management, Internet of Things

Are you ready for IoT? Despite its transformational potential, most organizations are not ready. In an era of rapid disruption and digital transformation, IT executives and managers must lead the charge. They must bridge the gap between technology, business, engineering and operations. They are evangelists, teachers, facilitators and innovators.

This article lists six things IT managers must do to successfully accelerate IoT adoption within their organizations.

Smart parking - the real innovation is not in the parking

Smart parking is innovative, but what it enables is even more innovative

Posted on Benson Chan2 CommentsPosted in Digital Transformation, Innovation Management, Internet of Things, Smart City

The real innovation of smart parking solutions is not in the technology. While smart parking solutions bring immediate value to drivers, parking enforcement agencies and cities, the real innovations and value will emerge once it is deployed and new beneficiaries emerge.

Smart parking is not all about parking. This article describes who the new beneficiaries are, shares examples of where new value is being created, and lists best practices to uncover real innovations.

Digital Transformation

The evolving role of IT managers in a hyper-converged digital world

Posted on Benson Chan3 CommentsPosted in Business Models, Digital Transformation, Innovation Management, Internet of Things

In the digital enterprise, the strategic fusion of IT, operations technology [OT], audio-video [AV] with transformational technologies (Cloud, Internet of Things, AI, analytics, edge processing) leads to richer customer experiences, business acceleration, and operational agility. This fusion leads to new innovation and digital transformation of the organization.

This article highlights the new roles and expectations of IT in an age of digital transformation.

IoT innovation is not in the solution, but in how it is used

IoT innovation is not in the technology, but in what it can do

Posted on Benson Chan4 CommentsPosted in Best Practices, Digital Transformation, Innovation Management, Internet of Things, Strategy

Don’t confuse IoT with innovation. The real IoT innovation is not in the technology, but in what it can do and what it allows organizations to become – intelligent, agile and adaptive, in creating new value for its customers.

This article describes five innovation paths with IoT solutions to consider when planning digital transformation projects, along with advice to get started on turning the Internet of Things into the Innovation of Things.

Future-proofing your IoT Infrastructure

Posted on Benson Chan1 CommentPosted in Best Practices, Innovation Management, IoT, Product Management, Strategy

Buyers face a dilemma with buying IoT solutions today. Buy an immature solution now and risk obsolescence in the near future, even if the solution has value for them today, or hold off buying until things become clearer.

In this blog, we will share common causes of obsolescence and a framework for futureproofing your IoT infrastructure. We will list some tactical practices to put in place to maximize the useful life of your IoT solution.

Ten best practices for making your first IoT projects a success

Posted on Benson Chan1 CommentPosted in Best Practices, Digital Transformation, Execution, Innovation Management, Internet of Things, project management, Strategy

A recent study by Cisco found that three quarters of IoT projects were not successful. The reasons included long completion times, poor data quality, lack of internal expertise, integration and budget overruns.

In this blog, we will share ten best practices, from project planning to implementation, to help managers and project planners overcome common mistakes made with projects implementing emerging technology solutions.

The secrets to successful partnerships in the fast changing IoT market – Part 2

Posted on Benson ChanLeave a commentPosted in Best Practices, Execution, go-to-market, Innovation Management, Internet of Things, Partnerships, Product Management, sales, Strategy

Today’s IoT market is very dynamic, continuously evolving, and fragmented. No single vendor has a connected IoT stack. Partnerships are a critical business capability that IoT vendors must develop in order to be relevant in this type of marketplace.

This post, the second of two parts, describes ten best practices that vendors should use when forming and managing partnerships with other IoT partners.

The secrets to successful partnerships in the fast changing IoT market – Part 1

Posted on Benson ChanLeave a commentPosted in Best Practices, Execution, FAQs, go-to-market, Innovation Management, Internet of Things, Partnerships, Product Management, sales, Strategy

Today’s IoT market is very dynamic, continuously evolving, and fragmented. No single vendor has a connected IoT stack. Partnerships are a critical business capability that IoT vendors must develop in order to be relevant in this type of marketplace. This post, the first of two parts, describes the basic partnership types, the relationship models and key engagement scope parameters.

execution options for IoT projects

Planning IoT Pilot Projects: Execution Options

Posted on Renil Paramel7 CommentsPosted in Execution, Innovation Management, Internet of Things, Product Management, Strategy

You’re sold on the Internet of Things (IoT) and its benefits for your organization. But how do you get in the IoT “game”? Where do you start?

While there is a lot of information on the technology behind IoT, case studies, and visions of what it can do, there is not a lot of practical content on what you need to get started today.

This post discusses five options that managers have for executing pilot IoT projects.

5 types of innovation

Innovation is not just about technology – the five types of innovation all managers must know

Posted on Benson Chan3 CommentsPosted in FAQs, Innovation Management, Strategy

Recently, I met with key executives from an industry trade group to discuss disruptive innovation in Silicon Valley.

One key concept I shared with them is that although many people equate innovation with technology, there are actually five types of innovation and that some or all may occur at the same time.

This post describes the five types of innovation, and provides managers with three takeaways to guide their innovation strategy.

Innovation of Things, not the Internet of Things will drive real innovation and transformation

Posted on Benson Chan1 CommentPosted in FAQs, Innovation Management, Internet of Things, IoT

Are you ready? The Internet of Things (IoT) is here and its ability to drive new innovation will be huge.

But how much is real and how much is hype? Today’s IoT are “point” solutions that don’t live up to the hype. They offer limited utility and solve a small set of problems.

This articles discusses what IoT will look like when it lives up to the hype. It provides fives takeaways for managers to do today to begin the transformation from Internet of Things to Innovation of Things.