Having spent many years in the technology corporate space working with mobile operators, mobile vendors, computing hardware & software providers and as a business consultant has enabled me to look at technology from a different perspective.

If we consider the main drivers for the evolution of technology being Information, knowledge and intelligence what it is and where we are, we are best positioned to understand what will evolve technology, business and in some cases how it will impact current and future business models.

What is Information, Knowledge and Intelligence?
Having asked myself this question many years ago the following are the definitions that I created:

• Information: Generic raw data, news, radio, internet etc
• Knowledge: Accumulated topic specific, segment specific information
• Intelligence: Knowledge with ACTION
  

If we consider the above definitions and where technology has been and where it currently is, we quickly come to the following conclusion:

• Up-to early 2000’s
  • Telephony, the internet, 1st Gen Software = Information
•  Up-to early 2010’s
  • Specialised segment specific web sites, CRM systems 2nd Gen Software = Knowledge
• 2010 – and beyond
  • The Dawn of Automation, knowledge with action, 3rd Gen Software = Intelligence

What will evolve technology and business?
If we look at how we have managed both the buying and selling processes over the past few decades there has been numerous advances in technology that enables us to SERIOUSLY improve how we serve our customers.
Currently we hear numerous companies talking about AUTOMATION, automate this and automate that. The key is Intelligent Automation, if I know (knowledge):

• When my customer wants to buy?
• What my customer wants to buy?
• How much they are willing to pay for it?

I can automate all the mundane and repetitive stages in sales process whilst (not forgetting to maintain the all important human contact at the critical stages in order to maintain rapport and a good relationship with my customers) delivering total customer satisfaction.


Ask yourself does your business have or is working towards creating a knowledge base system that houses ALL your customer information in 1 SINGLE DB that enables either a human or automated process to better serve your customers?

By understanding how and when to offer intelligent technology automated solutions alongside THE ALL IMPORTANT human contact will bring about the new winners and losers in the new Intelligence market place.
The future businesses and business models will be all focused on Intelligence -

“Knowledge with Action”

What is the next technology BIG THING?
If we look at technology per se and the OSI model, the main technnolgy BIG THING milestones can be summarised as:

• 1980's - Transport Convergence – Optical Fiber
• 1990's - Network Convergence – TCP/IP
• 2000's - Platform Convergence – Win, Mac, Web
• 2010's - The only one left is Application Convergence - ??

So the Next Technology Big Thing will be how to deliver ALL Applications in 1 Database and 1 Database in all applications that enables either a human or automated process to better serve your customers, an intelligent base system via -

 “Application Convergence”

3GB CRM is one of the first Application Converged Systems.