IBM's Abdula Talks Analytics, Cloud, Disruption & Stolen Cars at ITEXPO

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Airbnb. Netflix. Uber.

Disruption is happening all around us.

This disruption is possible due to the rise of the cloud, and the arrival of the always-on customer, who has been emboldened by the ability to get the information and products they want when they want them with just a few clicks, and the expectation that services and solutions should be personalized to their needs.

Indeed. A third of the top 20 companies in every industry will be disrupted over the next three years because they are not moving fast enough, according to IDC FutureScape.

The above points were the setup to yesterday afternoon’s ITEXPO/IoT Evolution Expo keynote speech by Moe Abdula, vice president of IBM Cloud Products. Just as Airbnb has disrupted the hospitality industry, as Netflix first disrupted video rental and is now disrupting premium cable content, and as Uber disrupted the transportation space, he said, businesses of any size can drive disruption in their industries.

What organizations should ask themselves as they seek to be disruptors, Abdula suggested, is: How do you reach your clients in new ways?

To do that, he said, think about each of us and what we want; work to create an authentic forum for collaboration and build strong relationships; and demonstrate to your customers and prospects that you have insight about them.

Abdula then provided an example of how a Chevy dealership in Mexico leveraged a virtal Internet video to engage its customers and prospects.

It all started when the car of Zaira Salazar of Monclova, Mexico, was stolen. Rather than contacting police, she asked her dealership for help. Someone at the dealership was kind enough to take Salazar’s hand-drawn photo of the missing car and get it on the local TV station. The video went viral, with people joking that Disney, Star Wars villains, and Donald Trump stole it.

But it was another dealership that actually seized this opportunity and benefitted from it.  It was Christmas and this dealership ran a campaign called “Forget the Lost,” through which website visitors were encouraged to click to view its automobiles. It encouraged this action by saying that if it could get 100,000 views it would provide Salazar with a brand new Chevy at no cost. The campaign, which drew 600,000 views and got Salazar a new car, took that dealership from having the worst inventory to having to back order additional vehicles. It also enabled the dealership to collect information on those that participated.

Abdula noted this was not a major business, but rather a regular organization that used the cloud and analytics to drive its business.

Digital transformation with IBM Cloud, he added, entails productivity and speed at scale, choice with consistency, industrialized hybrid cloud (meaning the ability to monitor the app whether it runs in the cloud, on premises, or is desktop or mobile based), and powerful, accessible analytics.




Edited by Stefania Viscusi
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Executive Editor, TMC

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