Making the shift to a new Millennial Enterprise · Making the shift to a new Millennial Enterprise....

Making the shift to a new

Millennial Enterprise

WHITE PAPER

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Copyright © 2016 Virtusa Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

Making the shift to a new

Millennial Enterprise


An introduction to the Millennial era 5Assessing your business across 3 primary dimensions 6Key factors to consider 6

Disruption and dinosaurs 8Record companies: The first dinosaurs 8More extinction: Blockbuster vs. Netflix 9Ignoring disruptive innovation: Kodak and Polaroid extinction 9From innovators to complacency: Borders Books 11Disrupting the media industry: Flipboard 11Capitalizing on innovation: Amazon Web Services 11Avoiding extinction: USAA 12

Seizing the Millennial opportunity 14The innovator’s dilemma 14Signs to look for 15

The new mainstream: Four disruptive technology trends 17Customer experience goes mobile 18Business becomes more social 18Services emerge in the cloud 19Insights in your data 20Linking it all together 20

The emergence of the Millennial generation 21Changing demographics 22Political, social responsibility and sustainability 22

The legacy infrastructure challenge 23The largest application modernization initiative in history 23Technology enablers for application modernization 24Satisfying the Millennial worker’s device and application cravings 25

Selling to the “Millennial Consumer” 26It’s all about the mobile device 26Location matters 27Being social 28Text me 28Peer pressure 28More choice 28Got money? 29

Contents


Engaging the “Millennial Worker” 30Understanding the new Millennial worker 31Technology platforms are the key to employee enablement 32Using gamification to drive innovation 32

Improving the customer experience 34Businesses of the future 35

Risk to your business: Avoid becoming a dinosaur 35The retail bank of tomorrow 35Healthcare in the Millennial era 39

Conclusions 41References 42


An introduction to the Millennial era

Corporations and business leaders are facing some of the most disruptive changes of a generation. Digitally savvy consumers and advances in technology are at the forefront of a paradigm shift in user expectations. The emergence of a new generation of digital natives, unlike digital migrants, is reshaping the expectations of the end consumer and employee. At the same time, four disruptive technologies are enabling corporations to innovate and introduce new products and services at an unprecedented pace. Driven mainly by the advent and maturation of Mobile, Social, Big Data and Cloud, many of today’s products and services that don’t leverage these technologies can lose market share or even become obsolete, creating competitive threats for some of today’s best known brands. And in a more connected world, competition can emerge from all corners of the globe. The need for enterprises to accelerate innovation and introduce their products and services faster has never been greater.

At the same time, economic uncertainty has mandated that corporations do more with less. IT is being evaluated more as an overhead and less as an enabler of growth. But the factors cited above are driving massive change in enterprise computing and is quickly becoming the largest application modernization initiative in history. So how do companies keep up?

Never has it been more important for enterprises to look at these forces and evaluate the impact of these changes. The risk / reward equation has never been higher: Corporations that embrace this paradigm shift are facing a tremendous growth opportunity, while those that are slow to transcend the changes will rapidly become extinct, like the dinosaurs before us. So how does one avoid becoming a dinosaur?

There are tremendous benefits in being first. It’s an opportunity to leap frog your competition. But failure to act early will mean you are catching up not being a leader in your industry.

This whitepaper is the first in a series to take a deeper look at these changes and provide enterprises a way to assess the current state of their business and develop a strategy and roadmap for first surviving and then excelling in the Millennial world.

So let’s get started to ensure you don’t become a dinosaur!


Assessing your business across 3 primary dimensionsAs a first step, corporations will need to assess their business across three primary dimensions:

Answering these questions may be a difficult task for many organizations but this is a critical first step in assessing readiness to be competitive in the Millennial world. Once you gain a better understanding of the current state, you can then construct a strategy and a roadmap for how to be ready for the Millennial era.

Key factors to considerTo help companies get started, we have established seven key factors to consider as part of creating a strategy and roadmap. These are the major challenges that are affecting companies’ core business models, workforce and operations today. Getting a hold on these areas can be extremely difficult.

Here is an overview of the key challenges companies face today:

• Technology proliferation: The advent of four disruptive technologies in Mobility, Social, Cloud and Big Data has corporations scrambling to understand how to integrate these new paradigms into their legacy infrastructure. While the consumerization of IT is all around us, many organizations are still struggling to adopt these technologies. The end Millennial consumer is now demanding an experience built upon these capabilities.

• Changing consumers: The emergence of a new generation of consumers who expect more choice, immediate availability and competitive pricing will have companies scrambling to re-invent their products and services. Equally challenging is that this generation relies more heavily on their peers for buying recommendations and lacks the brand loyalty of early generations. The balance of power has shifted to the consumer with the ability to affect brand advocacy (positively or negatively) with the speed at which social networks can distribute content.

• Changing workplace: The Millennial worker is arriving with very different habits and expectations of how work gets done. Work is something they do, not a place they go. The methods and policies around communication, collaboration,

Re-evaluating your traditional business models

Do your existing business models still make sense? Is your innovation model and velocity appropriate for the demands of the millennial consumer? Are your commercial models flexible enough to offer competitive products and services? Are you co-creating with your customer? Is your end customer experience adequate to drive brand loyalty? How will you stay ahead of your competition?

Enabling your workforce

How do you better empower your employee? How can you increase worker productivity? How do you engage and motivate your employees? How do you deal with the challenges of a more diverse and distributed workforce? How do you promote collaboration, knowledge sharing and re-use? Are you ready for the new paradigm of how work gets done?

Optimizing your operations and core processes

Are your methods and processes tuned for the Millennial world? Do your policies make sense for the Millennial generation? Are your business processes ready for the mobile consumer and worker? Are you leveraging virtualized resources to accelerate innovation? Are you able to shorten your innovation cycles?


motivation, organization structure, working hours and workspaces that were effective for prior generations will be looked upon as antiquated by Millennial workers. The boundaries of personal and professional life are greatly diminished for many of these workers creating a new set of challenges for many companies.

• Economic uncertainty: We are amidst uncharted territory in terms of our global economic stability. The world’s economy is still suffering from the worst recession in 70 years. While there have been some positive signs of recovery in certain sectors, many feel this is the new economic norm that businesses will need to adopt. Many corporations are also facing growing social unrest around wealth inequality, corporate incentives and hardships facing many families. So even as growth remains uncertain, companies will need to continue to optimize their operations while continuing to fund new areas of innovation.

• Globalization: The global economy is driving a redistribution of business to emerging areas of the world. Enterprises will need to deal with quickly setting up new infrastructure and operations in regions where the highest growth is expected. At the same time, staying ahead of the competition in a more connected world will require accelerated innovation.

• Political uncertainty: The dynamics of political unrest across the globe may have an impact as corporations attempt to expand globally. Emerging areas in Asia, China and Africa, while identified as high growth potential, have also been identified as the regions of most political unrest over the next 25 years. Many of these embryonic political systems are unable to withstand the recessionary pressure and growing social discontent. It is more important than ever that those businesses undertake thorough risk assessments across their global operations and investments and plan for future instability.

• Natural resource uncertainty/impact of sustainability: Consumer behavior and sustainability will go hand and hand in the future. Customers want to purchase products and services that are environment-friendly and take other social factors into consideration. Corporations will need to change or adopt policies and procedures that clearly demonstrate their reduction in carbon footprint, minimal harm to the environment and wild life.

Many of these challenges will be discussed in more detail in this whitepaper and elaborated in future reports. It is clear from these factors that businesses will need to work harder than ever to prepare for competing in the Millennial world. They will need to re-invent themselves as “Millennial Enterprises”.


Disruption and dinosaursTo begin, it will be useful to cite examples of companies that have either embraced the “Millennial Enterprise” concepts or have failed to recognize the changes in consumer buying behavior and technology advances to transform their core business models. Some companies have anticipated the changes and re-invented themselves; others have not and have ceased to exist.

There are many examples of companies that have entered markets and created disruption.

Record companies: The first dinosaursPerhaps the best example of companies that failed to recognize changes in their business model, advances in technology and the changing consumer buying preferences were the record companies. These companies failed to act like “Millennial Enterprises” and today are on the verge of extinction.

For years, the record companies had been able to force consumers to pay premium prices for music. Even if you liked just one song, you had to buy an entire CD or Album. In some cases, singles were available, but they were never a popular alternative due to price and size. With the advent of digital music players, consumers became increasingly frustrated that they could not buy music online in the single format they preferred.

The catalyst of change occurred when peer to peer music file sharing services such as Napster began to appear on the scene in the late 1990s. This caused a fundamental paradigm shift (i.e. disruption) in the music industry which affected how music was marketed, distributed and sold. Technology advances in the MP3 file format, lower cost of storage and broadband internet connections all made this paradigm shift possible.


As a result of this, music was made available in the manner in which consumers preferred; online, digital and one song at a time. While many of these early services may have been illegally distributing the music (which was clearly copyright infringement), the key fact was that content was no longer centrally controlled which meant artists could create and distribute music through independent means, without the assistance of a record company. The reality was that the business of making records and distributing them was no longer a viable business model for the record companies. The old business model became extinct.

Enter a computer company called Apple Computer that was able to create an online music store called iTunes and a set of innovative music players called iPods. They not only created a new breed of devices but completely disrupted the way music would be sold from that point onwards. They were able to recognize the changing consumer behavior and advances in technology to launch an innovative music service. They were also able to convince labels to sell their music online through the iTunes music store and negotiate the required royalty terms. In addition they began to offer more personalized content fueled by rankings and recommendations. This shift placed less importance on CD sales and more on revenue from concert tickets, band merchandise and other personalized content.

So why didn’t record companies quickly change their model and adapt? Why was Apple able to move into this industry and become a music company (they actually dropped the word “Computer” from their name during this time)? It’s a lesson in what can happen when you are entrenched in your existing business paradigms and don’t take the time to re-evaluate and question the fundamentals of your model. It’s critical to be open and embrace change. Those that do make strides survive while those that don’t stumble and in some instances become extinct. As on September 2012 Apple the most valuable company ($657 billion market cap) in the world and worth more than Exxon Mobile and Microsoft (the next 2 most valuable companies) combined is a case in point16.

More extinction: Blockbuster vs. NetflixAnother familiar example is Blockbuster, a company founded in 1985 whose brand became synonymous with movie rentals, who were slow to react to the changing expectations of their end customer and the disruptive advances in technology. Their customers wanted more convenient ways to access movies, faster access times, lower cost with no late fees and more selection. Advances in bandwidth speeds to households and the emergence of set-top devices and Internet enabled TVs changed the technology landscape of how movies could be delivered.

Companies such as Netflix were able to quickly arrive on the scene and offer a disruptive alternative to movie rentals. They first focused on the convenience and selection factor by offering large online catalogs and mail based delivery for movies and games for a reasonable flat fee. They then migrated that offering to a real-time on demand streaming subscription based model. They delivered exactly what customers wanted: ease of use, reasonable cost (with no late fees) and access to a large catalog of movies.

While Blockbuster tried to compete with Netflix by implementing similar strategies, they were late to the market. Despite some limited success their operational costs could never compete with Netflix that was a company built for the new economy. While Netflix was redefining the industry, Blockbuster was getting distracted by trying to grow by acquisition with a merger with Viacom.

What was the result? As of March 2011, Blockbuster indicated it had closed a majority of its 3400 US stores and went bankrupt. Only a small fraction of the company’s online business is still in operation. This contrast highlights why customer-focused innovation is typically more important than growing a business by acquisition. Netflix prospered by becoming a Millennial enterprise. Blockbuster became a dinosaur.

Ignoring disruptive innovation: Kodak and Polaroid extinctionKodak and Polaroid are two great examples of the failure to recognize the power of disruptive innovation. Both companies were early innovators in the film and camera industry who quickly rose to market dominance. Their brands were recognized worldwide and they maintained a leadership position in their markets for many decades.


Polaroid Corporation was founded in 1937 by Edwin Land who was one of the greatest inventors of our time. He was issued over 500 patents in his name. Polaroid was famous for its innovative instant film cameras that first hit the market in 1948. During the next three decades, Polaroid became one of the most successful technology companies in the world. Sales grew at an annual rate of 23%; profits grew at 17% and its market capitalization exceeded $1 billion44. By the 1970s, a billion Polaroid photographs were being shot every year and Polaroid had no real competitor.

Kodak was founded by George Eastman in 1889. They were best known for photographic film products. During most of the 20th century Kodak held a dominant position in photographic film and by 1976 they accounted for 90% of film and 85% of camera sales. Kodak was a brand that became so ubiquitous and popular that the phrase “Kodak moment” became the standard term for recording significant events. Their products were highly profitable and they enjoyed high levels of loyalty from customers.

So what happened?

Basically both companies failed to recognize that their industry was about to be disrupted by technology advancements driven mainly by the creation of digital cameras and Internet photo sharing. They became prisoners of the success of their original business models and could not adapt to the change required to survive in the Millennial era. As digital cameras became more affordable and people began to enjoy sharing their pictures over the Internet, the purchase of Kodak and Polaroid instant film faded steadily. And with the advent of advanced cell phones that can instantly capture a photograph and post them to the Internet, the days of analog films are pretty much a faint memory.

Kodak always thought that people would never part with analog (hard) prints and that people valued film-based photos for their high quality. They were also very worried about protecting their high margin film business and would not allow products to be brought to market that would potentially cannibalize the film business. In the end, digital cameras came to dominate not because they offered higher quality or because everyone was unable to get a set of hard prints. But because consumers began to prefer the ease and simplification of not having to go through a photo development process and wait for the pictures to be available for sharing. In the digital world, a photo was available instantly and could be shared in real time. The tradeoff between quality and the accessibility and immediacy was clearly worth it for “Millennials”.

The irony is that Kodak actually invented the digital camera way back in 1975. The initial toaster-sized contraption could save images using electronic circuits that were then transferred onto a tape cassette and were viewable by attaching the camera to a TV screen. The whole process only took 23 seconds and was a remarkable invention for its time. However, when the devices were unveiled to Kodak’s executives, they could not see or understand its full potential. Don Strickland, a former vice-president, who left the company in 1993 because even then he couldn’t persuade it to manufacture and market a digital camera, put it this way: “We developed the world’s first consumer digital camera but we could not get approval to launch or sell it because of fear of the effects on the film market”47.

By 2004, as the popularity of digital cameras grew, Kodak finally abandoned the film camera. In 2009, after 74 years of production, Kodak stopped selling 35 mm color film. And in January of 2012, Kodak filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection which ended over 130 years of a brand that many would have seen as revolutionizing their lives46. Kodak became another victim of extinction.

Polaroid’s demise was caused by an almost non-existent product and market strategy and a mistaken belief that disruptive innovation is more about overcoming technology challenges and not business model challenges. Unlike Kodak, that had a cash cow film business to protect, Polaroid’s advantages were always around the magic of immediacy. How often were those pictures, frequently still developing, being based around at an event or celebration? Very much the same way digital cameras or phones are passed around today. So why didn’t Polaroid take advantage of this and develop a way to digitize their platform so consumers would have the best of both worlds instantaneously; a digital and analog version of their photo with the ability to instantly share them with the physical and virtual online world.

Unfortunately the demise of Polaroid follows a similar fate as Kodak. Between 2001 and 2009, Polaroid filed for bankruptcy twice, was sold three times, eventually discontinued Polaroid film in 2008, then filed for Chapter 11 in 201246.

They became prisoners of the success of their original business models and could not adapt to the change that would be required to

survive in the millennial era.


It’s another sad story about the demise of invention and entrepreneurship by not recognizing some of the same market disruptions that they once themselves created.

So the lesson here is that success can sometimes breed complacency. For these two top innovators, they were unable to continue their cycle of disruptive innovations. Once leading innovators, they were now unable to foresee the changes being driven by technology advances that would transform the analog world of pictures and film to a digital world. Why couldn’t Kodak or Polaroid have become Flickr? Why couldn’t they have moved into social media and created an online presence where people could share experiences and photos? Could one of them have even become Facebook? So what was in their way? It was their failure to recognize how the changes in technology and the changing consumer expectations around the immediacy and real time sharing of photo content would disrupt their industry. These are two very common themes we have seen in companies that become dinosaurs.

From innovators to complacency: Borders Books The Borders Books story follows a similar fate as Blockbuster. The Borders story began in 1971 where brothers Louis and Tom created a revolutionary system to track book sales and inventory. The elegance of their system was to analyze the sales data across a huge number of titles to identify local buying tastes at a store level and tailor inventory at the store level accordingly. It was a great example of disruptive innovation and an early use of analytics to drive sales revenue and growth. This has a very positive impact on sales at a store level and created an intimate knowledge of their clientele. They continued to scale this model and by the 1990s it had stores all over the country and had captured close to 40% of the marketplace. So what happened? First, Borders was unable to adequately address the emergence of the Internet as a primary sales channel. It also did not foresee the evolution of eBook market. The second area, and more importantly, was not keeping up with the very innovation that established the company. As they scaled, they failed to build efficient systems and processes to build upon their foundation to create new and better supply chain systems to keep pace with the changing state of technology in the retail industry40. Borders missed an opportunity to innovate and take advantage of new technology channels. They ultimately also became a dinosaur.

Disrupting the media industry: FlipboardFlipboard is another example of a disruptive new Millennial company. Flipboard is a tablet based application that allows readers to aggregate a variety of content sources from traditional online print magazine content to social media feeds such as Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, etc. as well as RSS feeds. The brilliance of Flipboard is in the elegance of the user experience which mimics a print magazine experience by providing the user the ability to “flip” through the pages of application very much like the experience of a print magazine. It’s not just another traditional eReader experience, it’s a user experience that captures the essence of the physical content and translates that to a rich interactive experience.

As of June 2012, Flipboard had already acquired over 8 million users. With that it brings validity to the content aggregation model and creates a powerful base of users to interact with. The next phase of evolution for companies such as Flipboard will be to drive more personalization and customization of content. This is where the real opportunity will be.

The important point here, however, is that Flipboard is a product that any big media company should have invented on its own. So why didn’t they? For any of these large media companies, inventing their own Flipboard would have yielded full control of the business model. However, because they were not prepared to question their current business model and did not predict the rapid adoption of tablet based eReaders, they were caught unprepared to capture the market and allowed an agile start-up like Flipboard to redefine the user experience and content aggregation space. Are Media companies becoming like the dinosaurs15?

Capitalizing on innovation: Amazon Web Services When Amazon first launched Amazon Web Services in 2006, it was questioned far and wide. What exactly was the online mega-retailer doing dabbling in web infrastructure?

But the reality is that Amazon has continually capitalized on innovation during the course of its almost 20-year existence. It basically created the e-tailing industry and has grown to become the world’s largest online retailer. They created an intricate distribution and supply chain network and have mastered the art of cost effective logistics and shipping. They are a leading aggregator and wrangler of digital content.


They were one of the first to recognize the power of Social peer reviews and recommendations in making buying decisions. And they entered the mobile device market with devices such as the Kindle and Fire. And in the process of all of this they have created a massive interconnected computing network.

In the Millennial era, innovation and transformation is the key to survival. If you plan to be around for the long haul, it is no longer good enough to just build a strong business and operate it well. In 1958, the average length of time a company remained on the S&P 500 was 57 years; by 1983, it had dropped to 30 years; in 2008, it was just 1849. Business models no longer remain static and companies that are built to transform have the greatest chance of avoiding extinction.

Amazon is one of the few dot-com leftovers who actually survived and more surprisingly, thrived post bubble meltdown. They emerged from the bubble in 2002 as a $4 billion pure play online retailer mainly focused on books and music to a multi-national conglomerate of products and services that generated over $62 billion in revenue in 201250.

A deeper inspection of how Amazon accomplished such high-profile success points to their ability to innovate, to identify white space opportunities and deliver high value services and products to end consumers. They embraced transformational growth and were not afraid to develop radical business models, even at the risk of cannibalizing some of their existing revenue streams (e.g. the Kindle potentially cannibalized their online book business). And when they identified a market opportunity, they executed extremely well.

They also understood what they were good at and when they needed to partner, acquire or setup separate companies to achieve the needed innovation. In 2007, Amazon setup Lab126, as a subsidiary of Amazon.com to focus on creating innovative, easy to use consumer oriented products. Their first major product result was the Amazon’s Kindle device which became one of the standards of the eReader market and sold an estimated 500,000 devices in the first year alone.

Amazon is also good at connecting the dots and leveraging their core assets to create new business opportunities. That is the secret of their web services business (AWS) which provides small to medium businesses cheap, efficient cloud based storage and computing power. The positioning is simple; if it’s good enough for Amazon to operate the world’s largest online retailer, it’s probably good enough for your business.

Amazon has not only demonstrated the ability to transform but it has built a culture of innovation where new ideas for business models are met with interest and encouragement. They realize that to survive for the long haul, it requires having business leaders who have an open mind to new ideas and possess the creativity to create entirely new business models.

Amazon was built from the ground up as a “Millennial Enterprise”.

Avoiding extinction: USAANot all established companies are sitting back and waiting to become extinct. United Services Automobile Association (USAA), is a financial services company founded in 1922 by Army officials in San Antonio, TX. They provide a full range of highly competitive financial and insurance products and services focused on military personnel and their families. The organization started offering homeowners’ and life insurance in the 1960s and brokerage and banking services in the 1980s17.

USAA is not a publicly traded company, so they are able to focus on their members and tailor their services accordingly. Today USAA serves over 8.6 million members and expects to add close to 1 million each year. They have become one of the few fully integrated financial services and have grown to over $100 billion in size and operate with about $20 billion in working capital17.

By most accounts, USAA is still a small niche player that focuses on a very specific community of users. They are not necessarily the bank you would expect to be leading the financial services industry in IT innovation. However, what is most interesting about USAA is that they have been able to adopt their business model, products and service offerings to compete in the Millennial age.

They have been able to adopt their business model,

products and service offerings to compete in the

millennial age.


Despite being founded during the pre-depression era, they have consistently leveraged technology to re-invent themselves. Their list of IT accomplishments is long, from opening the first online bank, being the first bank to offer remote bank deposits using image technology and one of the first to launch iPhone, Android and Blackberry banking applications.

In addition, USAA routinely ranks as a top 10 employer for IT (they were number one in the US in 2010 and 2011) and have been using innovative techniques to engage their workforce. According to Greg Schwartz, senior VP and CIO, USAA is getting employees at all levels involved in the process of innovation. With 2,300 employees in IT, they created an 11,000 square feet Open Innovation Center, a place where any employee can volunteer to spend time working on

projects of interest to them. Employees are encouraged to submit ideas through the company’s Innovation Communities and 85% of employees participate actively, according to Greg29.

Once ideas are processed those that get the green light are sent to USAA’s newest lab, the Rapid Application Development (RAD) lab that was launched in 2011 as a way to more quickly roll out enhancements to customers. The RAD lab has delivered a significant reduction in the time to release changes, as little as a few days for small changes. In addition, it provides for a better experience for the customer service reps, because they had a hand in developing the tools they use.

According to Greg, the strategy of opening up the innovation process to anyone in the company and rethinking how to get new ideas into production, has led to a dramatic reduction in the time it takes to complete IT projects.

So why would a niche financial services company be so focused on innovation? They realize that the fundamentals of their business are changing and the only way for them to compete as a smaller player is offer competitive, innovative services that meet the growing expectations of their end customers. They realized early on that the future of banking is not through physical branches and that the remote, mobile customer will become their predominate end user. USAA was well positioned to understand this as they have always operated without a heavy reliance on brick and mortar infrastructures. In their early days, they leveraged mail and fax to serve their customers and then advanced to computer technology and now rely heavily on mobile access to service their customers.

USAA is staying ahead of their competition by implementing the future of banking today. It is reported that 32.5 million people used their mobile device to access banking information in 2011, accounting for 13.9% of the 233 million mobile users — an increase of 21% from 2010. And in emerging markets adoption is progressing even faster. For instance, in Africa, fewer than 15% of the adults have bank accounts, while over 60% have a handheld phone capable of collecting and moving money29. These trends make the importance of having remote and mobile banking in place now. Because of this, USAA has been able to not only sustain but improve their financial performance. They now rank 62nd in net worth among Fortune 500 and 144th for revenue. They are the 5th largest homeowner and car insurance provider43. USAA transformed into a “Millennial Enterprise”.


Seizing the Millennial opportunityIf the Millennial opportunity presents significant benefits for businesses of the future, then why don’t more organizations adapt? Why do so many organizations become dinosaurs? What are the key inhibitors to embracing this type of change? What are the signs an organization should look for to indicate change is not happening within their organization at the required pace? What is there to learn from the above examples?

The innovator’s dilemma In Clayton Christensen’s 1997 revolutionary bestseller, “The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail” he highlighted that when the best firms succeeded, they did so because they listened responsively to their customers and invested aggressively in the technology, products and manufacturing capabilities that satisfied their customers’ next-generation needs37. The book went on to define “Disruptive Innovation” as the type of innovation that helps create new products in new markets which eventually disrupt existing products and services in a current market. This was heavily contrasted against “Sustaining Innovation” where a company primarily focuses on evolving existing products and markets. Many incumbent companies tend to ignore disruptive innovations since they are so entrenched in the day to day competition of their existing technologies and products. This can leave companies susceptible to newer entrants to develop disruptive products and services that can create or redefine a market. This is as relevant for the Millennial era as it was back in mid to late 1990s when the Internet was just becoming more prevalent. For companies to compete in the Millennial era they must be conscious of the disruptions that can occur due to technological advances while at the same time being able to sustain their current market positioning.


Signs to look forThe reality is that it is very hard for incumbents to recognize the changes that can occur in their industry. Corporations have the daunting task of needing to be aware of their market conditions, evaluating competitive positioning, seizing the opportunity created through emerging technologies, monitoring changes in their customer buying behaviors and cultural changes within their own organization. And with the speed in which the Millennial era operates, these changes can occur almost overnight. But all is not lost as companies can enable Millennial behaviors within their organization. The goal is to empower your entire workforce to be focused on the internal and external factors that can decide whether your company ultimately succeeds.

Here are some of the key Millennial attributes we believe should be considered in your organization:

• Remain agile. This is probably one of the most important attributes to monitor within your organization. It is inevitable that as companies scale, they typically become more focused on quarterly cycles around products, customers and earnings. Focus begins to shift to operational efficiency, growth and profitability. As a side effect, there is less focus on identifying new opportunities and creating new innovative products and services. The typical corporate lifecycle is not designed to be Agile throughout; it has its highest degree of innovation in the early stages of the company. Therefore it is important to figure out how to preserve an agile, innovative culture. One approach is to create a separate group focused on emerging product ideas and new technology areas which can ensure there is dedicated focus on “disruptive innovation”. Listening to your customers and engaging them to extend your innovation boundaries beyond your four walls can also produce some positive changes.

• Foster a culture of innovation. It is critical that organizations foster a culture of innovation to stay ahead in the Millennial era. This requires a multi-dimensional approach. Configure your corporate environment to stimulate innovation by reconfiguring space to include more team rooms, less traditional cubicles, activity areas that encourage collaboration and discussions that can lead to innovations. Assemble diverse teams, rotate employees into different project and functions to generate different perspectives. Create systems of engagement that encourage employees to voice opinions, share ideas and challenge existing conventions within the company. Celebrate and reward innovations, but also embrace failures as a key method of learning. Make customers your innovation partners. Expand your boundaries to co-create beyond your four walls. Don’t confuse growth and innovation; growth is a product of successful innovation. As an example, Netflix used a “bounty hunter” technique to improve its video recommendation engine. The company offered to pay $1 million to anyone, inside or outside its walls, who could develop practical solutions to a specific set of engineering challenges around their video delivery engine. It took almost 3 years but a cross function team of mathematicians and computer scientists from countries around the world came up with the algorithms and solutions that were required. Netflix gladly paid the prize as the price tag was a bargain for such an innovative breakthrough solution39.

• Connect the dots. Staying ahead does not need to be complex or extraordinary. Frequently the big “what if” ideas are right in front of us. Most incumbent companies have already established leading products within their market. And as these companies expand or acquire more product assets, they may not “connect the dots” and integrate products to develop new innovations. Extraordinary can come from creatively looking at the possibilities of leveraging existing assets to create new innovative products or services. One example of this is how Amazon extended its massive infrastructure it built for its retail operations to offer a set of cloud based infrastructure services. They were able to leverage their existing assets by decomposing and exposing them into valuable infrastructure and development services.

• Listen to your customers. Customers should be treated as partners. It is critical that customers be respected for the “power of the choice” that they have. And in the Millennial era, this power has become even stronger. It is imperative that you solicit input from your customers about how to improve or evolve your existing products and services. It’s not just about changing; it’s about improving your products and services. Blockbuster failed to do this in a big way. Netflix disrupted the movie rental model and transformed the concepts such as late fees from a necessary evil to a nasty punishment, which in the mind of the end customer meant they were no longer acceptable. Blockbuster failed to recognize this in time and thus failed to steal customers’ affection for Netflix. Blockbuster did not listen to their customers’ desire for an alternative subscription model and allowed an agile Netflix to disrupt the market and win over Blockbuster customers.

• Be aware of your competition. Corporations should be ruthless about monitoring their competitive positioning in their industry. This should not be limited to current competitors as in the Millennial era, new competitors can emerge overnight.


Competition may arise from the most unlikely suspects. Did the record industry expect Apple Computer to become the largest music distributor on the planet? It is important to maintain a degree of healthy paranoia around how your competitors can hurt you. Be aware of the challenges that competitors may create in the market that require an adjustment to your strategy. Corporations should have a formal process that evaluates a company’s competitive positioning in their market. Use competitors as vehicle for making your products and services better; they can become indirect innovation partners. Be careful not to compete on price, but continue to offer higher value services. On the flipside, there will be times when it makes sense to embrace competition, so be open to partnering with some of your competitors to seize or disrupt market opportunities.

• Execution counts. There is a big difference between “invention” and “innovation”. In its purest sense, invention is the creation of a product or service for the first time while innovation takes that invention, improves or builds upon it and delivers it to the market. Innovation requires execution. There are many examples of companies that were inventors but not innovators. Xerox invented the first computer mouse, the first Ethernet, the first graphical interface operating systems for PCs and the first laser printer. But it turns out that invention without execution is not enough. And Kodak was never able to beat the Japanese digital camera manufacturers despite their early leading position. The iPod wasn’t the first portable music device. Sony popularized the “music anywhere, anytime” concept 22 years ago with the Walkman. Apple evolved the “invention” and executed flawlessly to create a whole new market. Invention without execution will not yield real innovation. Therefore, it is important that your organization executes.

We believe that organizations that can foster the above Millennial characteristics are more apt to avoid extinction in their industry. While it is always difficult to manage change within an organization these are critical for competing in the Millennial era.


The new mainstream: Four disruptive technology trends

We believe there are four disruptive technologies that will significantly shift the way enterprises service their customers and their employees. This will have a profound impact on how enterprises think about innovation and their current business models. These shifts are occurring because we are in a new era of unprecedented, rapid technological change - the “Technology Tsunami” - driven mainly by the advent and maturation of Mobility, Social Networking, Cloud Computing and Big Data. This wave of new technologies can make today’s products and services lose market share or even become obsolete overnight. These technologies also level the playing field for competition and provide small and medium businesses reach into a global marketplace faster than ever before. This represents significant risks for global 2000 enterprises that are still following traditional product development and innovation practices. It also creates significant opportunities for companies that can harness the power of these new technologies to optimize current products and services or to develop new business channels.

While many of these technologies have been around for several years, they are now reaching a level of maturation that is creating a tipping point. Together they are converging to fundamentally change the speed in which information is shared, the way users interact with products and services and the speed in which applications and services are created and deployed. This will drive massive change in enterprise computing with new distribution channels emerging, changing requirements in customer experience and the need for more insights through smarter analytics. In addition, new opportunities to harness the power of location aware applications and contextual services have never been greater. Marketers have now even coined a new acronym for the convergence of Social, Local Based Services and Mobile called “SoLoMo”.

And the amount of data that is now being created by the proliferation of these mobile devices, RFID tags, sensors, online transaction systems, social networks, etc. are creating big data challenges for many enterprises worldwide. The volume, variety and velocity at which this data is now being generated is overwhelming traditional Data Warehouse and Business Intelligence systems within the enterprise. According to a recent survey over 56% of executives are overwhelmed by their data and 62% admit to having an “Insight Gap” within their organization due to the inability to process and analyze the data they are now collecting27.

Compounding all of this is the rapidly changing demographics of both the enterprise workforce and the end consumer. The expectations on how work gets done within the enterprise is changing as younger workers bring their consumer oriented mindsets to the workplace where they expect to collaborate differently, be managed differently and be motivated differently. This will require organizations to think differently about how they organize teams around their innovation initiatives. We firmly believe that classic application development paradigms will no longer produce the expected outcomes in the needed timeframes.

• 6 billion mobile users• 10.9 billion Apps downloaded• $7 billion in mobile payments• 8 trillion text messages

• 50 million tweets/day• 800 million on Facebook• 120 million on LinkedIn• 4 of 5 Internet users on Social

• Netflix• YouTube• Pandora/Spotify• Google Docs• DropBox• Carbonite

• Google: 24 PB/day• FaceBk: 12 TB/day• NYSE: 1 TB/day• eBay: 50 TB/day• Walmart: 100 TB

MobilityMobile is the new

Endpoint

SocialPeople are the

Platform

CloudApplications are a

Service

Big DataAnalytics is the

Weapon


This sentiment is also driving higher expectations in the end customer as they have become accustomed to one-to-one personalization, contextual services, real-time responses and interactions and a full 360 degree view of “my identity”. The mobile and tablet interface is rapidly becoming the new “Enterprise and Consumer” standard for interactions. It is rapidly turning many of the classic desktop and web based applications into legacy.

We believe all of this will require enterprises to think very differently in how they approach innovation. They will need to become much more agile and lean in the processes they used to develop and deploy enterprise wide systems and services. They will need to think about the power of social networking and co-creation. They will need to stop fighting the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) wars with their end users and begin to use Mobility, Social and Cloud as a way to accelerate innovation, improve core business processes, create contextual services and harness the power and insights that exist in Big Data. They will need to enable business users to more rapidly assemble utility based services to better react to their rapidly changing business needs.

Customer experience goes mobileCustomer experience has not undergone this much transformation since the introduction of the Web in the early 1990s. The advent of smart phones and tablets has turned the world of user experience upside down as organizations now need to design for the Web, PC as well as phone and tablets users. And it’s not like these new mobile channels are replacing other channels; they need to coexist as most consumers now own multiple devices and will interact with your products and services through these various channels. Users want a consistent design and customer experience across all platforms of access whether using the app on the web or on their mobile device.

What is making this even more challenging is that these “smart” mobile endpoints are becoming increasingly sophisticated to include touchscreens, high-megapixel cameras, global positioning systems, video conferencing, voice interaction, social interaction and a variety of gaming and entertainment options. The power of these mobile endpoints is driving consumer demand for richer mobile interactions. Basic mobile web interfaces are no longer meeting customer expectations. Mobile phones really aren’t mobile phones any longer but rather mobile computing and sensory devices. Consumers are doing more and more functions from their device. As Mobile devices continue to evolve, they are moving from pure consumption based devices to a combination of creation and consumption based devices. Customer experience is going mobile.

Mobility presents a whole new way to interact with your customers. It is critical that companies don’t just port their web experience to their mobile experience. It is important to uniquely design for mobile and exploit what mobile does best. Great mobile experiences are sympathetic to context. They understand where you are and appreciate the need for more task oriented interaction. It is critical that the mobiles have proper screen sizes, simple menu navigation, automatic form filling, voice interaction and an overall intuitive interface. Getting this right is critical for customer loyalty in the Millennial era.

A good example of an enriched mobile experience is the “Siri-fication” of mobile applications. Siri was introduced by Apple as a personal voice assistant on the iPhone 4S. Siri changes the game for how mobile applications will interact with users in the future. Being able to use voice commands to navigate tasks on your mobile device while on the go improves the overall experience.

Business becomes more socialThe adoption of Social platforms in the consumer world has certainly reached mainstream with over 1.5 billion users linked globally over the many social networks that exist today. The speed of adoption exceeded most industry predictions and Social platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter have now become a common vernacular for people to communicate. Further, these networks have changed consumer behaviors significantly. They have sparked new methods for organizing communities and events, monitoring news, sharing information, rating experiences and disclosing geo-locations.


But most importantly, Social has changed the way consumers purchase products and services. Through these interconnected, real time communication vehicles, the balance of power has shifted to the consumer. With an ever growing population of digital natives the amount of product reviews, opinions and real time feedback they create and share on anything from a product rating, customer service interaction, pricing information is remarkable. Businesses in the Millennial era need to be activity engaged in these communities and re-evaluate the traditional way in which their products are marketed and sold. And being heavily in touch with your end customer, monitoring behaviors and leveraging their insights can help drive innovation, develop new business models and be a growth enabler for your business.

Despite all of this, Social has mostly remained a consumer oriented phenomenon with most businesses still trying to figure out how to unleash the power of Social to drive value creation for their clients and employees. Companies have adopted basic Social techniques like collaboration tools such as Jive, Yammer and Chatter, Blogging and Twitter interactions. But they have not yet leveraged Social to fundamentally change their business. There is a tremendous opportunity for organizations to unleash the power of interconnected teams to drive innovation, increase productivity and optimize core business process and platforms. The power of Social is a lot more than bringing Facebook to the enterprise. It’s more about using Social as a way to optimize how a corporation is functionally structured, how collaboration and communication occurs and how applications are developed and launched.

For decades companies created technology platforms that have focused on mechanizing core business processes. These processes were focused on capturing, managing and storing information from documents, transactions, customer information, etc. In the process, we reduced the human intervention, interaction and collaboration surrounding many of these core business processes. And while that created incredible cost benefits, efficiencies and scale, an unfortunate by-product was that we lost the power of the social capital. In the end, true innovation and optimization comes from conversations, idea sharing and the power of interconnected relationships. Companies that put social capital to work will ultimately create the most efficient, productive businesses. Companies that use social to enhance data and increase relevance through social connectivity will gain competitive advantage. This is the new way of business; connecting the people that make up your business and not just connecting the systems that enable it. Freeing companies from the limitations of the physical world and their systems, allows them to connect people across geographies and time zones and to multiply their influence beyond the numbers of people they could otherwise reach. That’s how a “Millennial Enterprise” will operate.

Services emerge in the cloudIt may not be obvious how Cloud is interrelated to these other technological forces such as Mobility, Social and Big Data in creating better consumer experiences. Corporations are using cloud computing to deliver lower IT costs, replace legacy systems and adopt new applications more flexibly.

At the foundation, Cloud provides organizations the ability to accelerate innovation, get to market ahead of competition and scale very quickly. The maturity of Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) from providers such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Rackspace makes it very easy for organizations to quickly procure infrastructure and more importantly provide elastic compute capacity on demand. Having this capability is crucial to being able to provide Millennial era capabilities such as real-

time analysis of big data streams, sentiment analysis of user generated social feeds and linking and aggregating the ever growing network of Cloud based services.

More interesting, however, is the rapid emergence of Cloud based services. If you consider the fact that mobile and tablet devices are driving the creation and usage of more Cloud based applications you can easily see how critical Cloud computing will become in the Millennial era.

What is critical to understand is that mobile phones and tablets are application consumption devices. People are not computing on the device they are computing with the device. While data such as a photograph, tweet, email or blog may emanate from the device the real computing for that application is typically being done elsewhere, most probably in the Cloud. Looking at popular services such as Netflix, Google Apps, You Tube, Vimeo, Skype, Flickr, Dropbox, SlideShark (to display presentations) and Evernote, you can see that momentum is already building around these Cloud based services. And new services are launched every month. And with the growth rates of mobile and tablet devices now exceeding 100% each year while PC growth has halted to under 10% annually, the demand for Cloud based computing services will only increase in the future.


Additionally, the second wave of Cloud services is now rapidly emerging to provide higher value business services in either a Platform as a Service (PaaS) or Software as a Service (SaaS) delivery model. The list of companies that leverage such models is endless: Twillo bringing voice and messaging to web and mobile applications, Success Factors providing Cloud based human capital management solutions, Okta providing Cloud based Identity and Access Management solutions, Basecamp offering web based project management tools, Xero offering online accounting software services, PayCycle which is an online payroll service, WorkflowMax providing basic workflow capability allowing you to track time, manage jobs, create quotes, purchase orders and invoices, etc.

Even more exciting, is the evolution and richness of the Cloud based application development environments such as Force.com, Google App Engine, AWS and Heroku. This is a clear indication that the application development platforms of the future may reside outside a company’s four walls.

As this second wave of Cloud computing continues to mature, corporations will begin to see greater business impact and productivity gains in addition to the cost reduction benefits seen in the first wave of Cloud services.

Insights in your dataData has always been one of the fundamentals to understanding your business. Corporations that are able to process and analyze their data and turn those insights into action are able to gain competitive advantage. In the Millennial era, the amount of data now being produced and captured is several orders of magnitude greater than any previous era. This “big” data is increasing in volume, becoming more unstructured and originates from a variety of data sources. Every day we are creating 2.5 quintillion bytes of data with 90% of the world’s data being created in the last two years alone. And approximately 90% of all real time information being created is unstructured data. The proliferation of mobile devices and social networks are major contributors to this massive growth in data.

Big Data datasets are growing so large that they become awkward to manipulate using modern database management tools. Difficulties include capture, storage, search, sharing, analytics and visualizing. Additionally, the cost of processing these bigger data sets is prohibitive using traditional database software platforms.

So how can companies analyze these vast quantities of data to extract the meaningful insights and use them effectively to improve products, services and the customer experience? It starts by first deciding which data streams merit analysis. Not all data being produced may contain insights. Once the data sets are identified, it is important to establish complementary procedures for handling these new big data streams by using distributed Big Data processing platforms such as Hadoop, Aster Data and Greenplum. Once these platforms are in place they can be integrated into the traditional enterprise data warehouse and intelligence solutions to provide full unified insights.

Smart companies are realizing that unleashing the power of Big Data insights is the key to staying ahead. And, while it may seem like a daunting task, companies that are making Big Data and analytics a cornerstone to their sales and marketing strategy are undoubtedly ahead of their competition. This is critical in the Millennial era.

Linking it all togetherThe convergence of these technologies is where the real benefits begin to occur. As organizations link these paradigms real competitive advantage emerges.

Taken together these technologies are revolutionizing business and society by disrupting old business models and creating new ones. These capabilities now form the basis of the technology platform of the future. And this platform now places an incredible amount of power in the hands of consumers and employees.

Content and data has always played a significant role in staying ahead of the competition. Organizations that gather, monitor and leverage the data they have access to in new and innovative ways are well poised to launch new products and services. Organizations that can quickly provide mobile experiences that link social interactions and localized services are likely to be recognized as leaders in the Millennial era and will not only sustain but grow their customer base. Organizations that leverage the agility and speed that Cloud services offer will be first to market. And being first in the Millennial era can be the difference in winning or losing in your industry.


The emergence of the Millennial generationA new generation, the “Millennial Generation” is emerging who will drastically shift consumer buying patterns. Additionally, this generation, which is becoming an increasing percentage of our workforce expects employers to engage with them in ways that are different. While there may be many different views on the demographic dividing lines and age groups across the generations of Baby Boomer, Generation X, Generation Y and “Millennials”, the fact is that the “Millennials” will not be like any prior generation. “Millennials” are generally described as the generation of people born between 1983 and 2003. They are generally a generation with high self-esteem, intense interest in new communications technologies such as social networking and instant messaging, a close relationship with highly protective and involved parents, a sense of entitlement and an indifference to traditional hierarchical authority structures. They are the most ethnically diverse, less religious and on track to become the most educated generation in history. To sum them up, they are confident, connected and open to change1,9.


“Millennials”, being the largest generation in history, will drive significant change in markets and industries. They will take over purchasing power and become the leading influences on market expectations. By 2025, about 69% of the US workers and 75% of the Indian workforce will be “Millennials”. By 2030, US “Millennials” will outnumber “non-Millennials” by 22 million31.

Today’s “Millennial” (i.e. worker or consumer) is “always on” as they are history’s first fully connected generation; the “digital natives”. They are steeped in mobile technology and social media; they treat their multi-tasking hand-held gadgets almost like an extension of their body. “Millennials” feel a strong social pressure to stay digitally connected 24/7. “Millennials” gorge themselves on all types of media and spend over 30 hours per week using the internet, using their mobile devices and playing video games. They sleep with a cell phone glowing by the bed, poised to engage in texts, phone calls, emails, songs, news, videos, games and wake-up jingles.

Changing demographics The aging global workforce will create a shortage of skills that will force companies to look globally for talent. In the US alone, there are 76 million potential Baby Boomer retirees and only 51 million Generation X’ers to fill the gap. This will drive more diversity in the workplace with 83% of workers being multicultural individuals. This will force companies to develop new strategies for dealing with this younger, multicultural workforce. The good news is that “Millennials” are the most diverse generation in history and are well accustomed to multi-cultural environments. In fact, many of them prefer diverse social and professional communities. Approximately 33% of children under the age of 18 are racial or ethnic minorities and about 20% of elementary and high school age students are immigrants or children of immigrants, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Political, social responsibility and sustainability By 2015, potential “Millennial” Voters ages 18-38 will become one-third of the US electorate. “Millennials” identify as Democrats over Republicans by 50% to 35%. Majorities of “Millennials” also hold favorable attitudes toward the Democratic Party (51%) and unfavorable attitudes toward the GOP (53%). In the policy arena, by 56% to 35%, “Millennials” prefer a bigger government that provides more services to a smaller government that provides fewer services. 72% of young Americans say they follow what’s going on in government and public affairs at least some of the time12,35. This broad belief in governmental approaches in dealing with economic and societal issues is reflected in the almost 2:1 preference of “Millennials” for the expansion rather than the repeal of the 2010 health care reform legislation (44% to 27%) and for increased spending to help economic recovery rather than reducing the budget deficit (55% to 41%).

Profit as the sole measure of business success is rejected by 92% of “Millennials”. Over 50% of “Millennials” believe that the purpose of business is primarily innovation and societal development.

“Millennials” are also notable for their support for economic reforms that address the gap between the rich and the poor. More than 6-in-10 “Millennials” say that one of the biggest problems in the Unites States is that we don’t give everyone an equal chance in life.

Nearly 70% believe that the government should do more to reduce the gap between the rich and the poor and 72% favor the “Buffett Rule,” which would increase the tax rate on Americans earning more than $1 million a year. At the same time, two-thirds also believe that poor people have become too dependent on government assistance. About 70% favor the DREAM Act, allowing children of illegal immigrants to gain legal resident status if they enter the military or go to college36.

30% have boycotted a product because of the conditions under which it was made or the values of the company that made it. Roughly the same proportion has “buycotted” a product or bought it because they approved of it.

69%By 2025, about 69% of the US workers and 75% of the Indian workforce will be Millennials.

22 millionBy 2030, US Millennials will outnumber non-Millennials by 22 million.

30 hoursMillennials gorge themselves on all types of media and spend over 30 hours per week using the internet, using their mobile devices and playing video games.


The legacy infrastructure challengeIn addition to the changing technology landscape and emergence of the “Millennial Worker”, companies face another major challenge in the new millennium. Much of their technology infrastructure, business applications and key operating process are not tuned to support the emergence of “Millennial” business models and “Millennial” workers.

Many of these legacy systems are not web services based, are monolithic and very hard to change. Without web services it is difficult to integrate them with newer mobile applications. Many of these applications have not been architected for the mobile user/worker and are certainly not prepared for the demands of the “Always On” generation. As a result, time to market is hindered by the lack of flexibility of these legacy systems.

The largest application modernization initiative in historyApplication modernization cycles tend to occur every 10 to 15 years with the last major cycle being the client/server to web-tier application transformations of the mid to late 1990s. Other notable cycles were the migration from centralized mainframe base systems to distributed client server desktop based systems. Most of these cycles tend to be one-dimensional or linear where there was typically one core technological advancement driving the transformation. However, in this cycle there is a wave of four core Millennial technologies that is creating a tsunami affect for companies to deal with. The front end consumer experience is changing rapidly with the rise of mobile phones and tablets. The back-end infrastructures are undergoing significant change as the way applications are provisioned, licensed and delivered using cloud and other virtualization techniques is becoming more prevalent. The volume, variety and velocity of data being produced and consumed are overwhelming traditional enterprise data warehouse and business intelligence platforms. This is creating the need to develop Big Data processing techniques as well as Fast Data or in memory processing capabilities to achieve the required performance. The speed at which information travels through our many Social networks has created numerous security and compliance challenges for companies in regulated industries.


Technology enablers for application modernization There are several key technology enablers that enterprises need to consider to modernize their current application infrastructure to better prepare for integrating Millennial technologies. These enablers transcend the foundational elements of any application infrastructure which include web enabling of services, decoupling of core business process from underlying technology, consolidating data into unified repositories, streamlining and simplifying end user interfaces and access channels.

The following are a set of key design principles that should be considered as you get started on this massive application modernization journey.

• Create a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). Foundational to enabling the Millennial technologies is to make sure your application infrastructure is leveraging web services for key application functionality. The most important aspect of SOA is to decouple business process and logic from the underlying technology platforms. This does not necessarily require you to rip and replace legacy applications but rather to wrap them in modern web services and expose them to your enterprise service bus (ESB). This will also help you decompose monolithic applications into coarser grain services that can be readily assembled for use by other channels such as mobile.

• Adopt a business process centric design culture (BPM). Business process management allows organizations to decouple business processes from the underlying technology platforms. It empowers business users to drive the definition and automation of core business processes in the enterprise. It helps organizations automate their work and provide a way to easily change business processes without re-coding. Ultimately BPM improves productivity and organizational effectiveness. Having these core business processes implemented using a traditional BPM paradigm makes it easier to integrate Millennial technologies. Creating mobile access to a well-defined core process, integrating social or big data analytics all become straight forward if the process definition is not embedded in the application code of the platform.

• Consolidate disparate data sources into Master Data Records (MDM). Establishing unified or golden data records around customers, products and transactions is critical for being able to serve consumers in the Millennial era. Having a 360 degree view of your customer is paramount in being able to provide a Millennial consumer experience. Also, the ability to rapidly launch services and products is highly dependent on the unification and quality of the data sources within your enterprise. Take the time to implement Master Data Management (MDM) technologies within your enterprise.

• Design for multi-channel, context aware customer experiences. It is no longer adequate to design your customer facing systems to be single channel in nature. In the Millennial era, customers will interact with you in a variety of channels such as web, mobile and social. It is critical that there is consistency and linkage between these interactions. Companies that can design their customer facing interfaces to be channel and context aware will be able to provide superior customer experience. Understanding what channel your customer is coming through and customizing that experience is the key. In addition, it is important to leverage modern user experience techniques in your designs. Millennial user experiences are centered on simplicity, have clean designs and mask the complexity of applications in the mid or back office. The benefits of implementing a modern application infrastructure as described above can be significant. Through these technology enablers, companies can increase productivity, enter new markets quickly, lower costs of maintenance and accelerate innovation.


Satisfying the Millennial worker’s device and application cravings “Millennial Workers” will demand that they can leverage their device of choice and access any of their applications they use in everyday life. The challenge is that many current IT policies are antiquated and don’t support the remote worker or the “Bring Your Own Device” (BYOD) employee.

In addition, many traditional IT systems such as email, ERP and CRM are not preferred by the “Millennial Worker” who feels much more comfortable using social and community based applications. According to a recent ComScore study, email usage has declined by 27% in the past year for ages 12-34. At the same time, the typical Millennial sends 50 texts in an average day, and according to an eMarketer study, 43% of 18-24 year olds say that texting is just as meaningful as an actual conversation with someone23.

“Millennials” are accustomed to instant gratification from an IT perspective. “There’s an App for that” sums up what “Millennials” want and expect. They want access to whatever information they need, in the palm of their hands, immediately. They don’t care what network an application runs on, where the data is a database, what security policies, etc., they just want it now. With over 5.9 billion mobile subscribers (87% of the world’s population), IT needs to shift rapidly as a result of these trends.

The application world outside of enterprise IT is changing every day. Over 300,000 apps have been developed over the past 3 years. That’s 273 new apps being rolled out every day! And these apps have been downloaded 10.9 billion times! This rapid innovation cycle presents serious challenges for Enterprise IT as the cycles and expectations for application development and launch have drastically reduced.

Interaction of BPM, MDM and SOA in a Millennial Enterprise Architecture

Source: Gartner


Selling to the “Millennial Consumer”The expectations of Millennials’ are very different from that of the previous generations. Companies will need to rethink their business models, how they market and sell their services, how they drive brand loyalty and how they retain customers. In spite of this, a lot of research still shows that executives have a dismissive or negative attitude towards “Millennials”. Companies that wish to survive will need to embrace the characteristics of this generation and adopt their product and marketing strategies accordingly.

The new wave of Social, Location and Mobile based services (called “SoLoMo”) is changing the way end consumers expect to be engaged when using their mobile platforms. Understanding and exploiting these new technologies is the key to harnessing the power of these new behavioral patterns and unlocking the potential of these future opportunities. The below graphic illustrates some of these key “Millennial Consumer” behaviors. The following are several factors companies should consider.

It’s all about the mobile device“Millennials” own an average of 2.4 Internet-connected devices. 62% percent are using smartphones and nearly a third use tablets. They expect services to be available when they want it and on their preferred device. “Millennials” use their mobile devices for almost all of their interactions (both personal and professional) – from communication, commerce, research, connecting with others, etc. More than 75% of “Millennials” have their mobile devices glued to their palm while in stores as a trusted personal shopping assistant. 28% use location-based apps multiple times per day for locating stores (54%) and points of interests (46%) as well as connecting with others (40%) and checking in (32%)33.

Companies will need to ensure that their products and services are accessible through mobile platforms and that the end customer experience is as rich (if not richer) than the web based interfaces.


Location mattersLocational Based Services (LBS) will be an important method for engaging “Millennial Consumers”. 48% of “Millennials” are more likely to engage with an Ad that’s relevant to their location. 56% are willing to share their location for more relevant content. 81% prefer free local content that is Ad supported over paying for content without Ads33.

“Millennials” already use many of the common geo-location services like Foursquare and Gowalla to check into places with their mobile device and then share on social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook. Companies like Foursquare have seen success through the establishment of marketing partnerships for brand referrals. For instance, Starbucks has used Foursquare to offer discounted drinks for customers with five check-ins at the same Starbucks restaurant.

Companies will need to take advantage of this geo-locational information to promote and cross-sell their products and services as well as build brand loyalty through reward based programs.

Source: JiWire “The Connected Millennials”


Being socialCompanies that truly get “Millennials” engaged have an opportunity to forge long term relationships with them in the market.

Mobile social networking is on the rise as 69% regularly access their social networks via phone. 48% would welcome better integrated SMS services within social networks34.

“Millennials” are far more engaged than prior generations in providing product ratings, opinions and advice. They will go out of their way to provide rich media content such as photos, videos, images, etc. as part of these entries.

As powerful as brand advocates can be, detractors can be extremely detrimental to a brand.

Text meThe communication and collaboration platforms that “Millennials” are using are different than prior generations. According to the latest report by Nielsen, “Millennials” send or receive on average 3,339 texts a month. “Millennials” show a strong affinity to SMS and was named by 81% as the most used smartphone feature besides voice calls. Apps came in second at 12% and mobile email third with only an 8% response rate. 68% of smartphone owners continue to use SMS even if other communication channels, such as voice are available. 71% said they would be prepared to give up alcohol, chocolate, caffeine, exercise or a toothbrush for a week rather than lose the ability to text2.

Companies should be conscious of their customer’s communications preferences and use methods such as SMS to provide real time, relevant offers and product information. Enriching the interaction with 2-way SMS communication can provide an even stronger relationship with your customer.

Peer pressureMany “Millennials” do not hold strong loyalties to brands or organizations like the generations before them. They value peer recommendations over expert opinions. They trust people over brands. They are comfortable taking the opinions of strangers who have made like buying decisions. “Millennials” are more likely to turn to social networks to find experts or opinions and 84% of “Millennials” claim that user generated content will play a critical role in their purchasing decisions. “Millennials” also feel less need to conform in their consumer choices to everyone else in their generation or to other generations. For instance, 68% of “Millennials” ask friends before choosing a restaurant.

The bottom line is that “Millennials” buy differently than generations before them and corporations must transform their services to be able to capture this rapidly expanding user and employee community.

More choice“Millennials” expect a much greater selection of products and services. They have grown up with a large array of choices and they believe in the power of choice. This is a major change in consumer buying behavior. They demand ultimate consumer control over what they want, how and when they want it. They are more likely to respond to the cost, style, comfort or other attributes of the product than the brand of product. When they do mention a brand, rarely does more than one person mention the same brand. “Millennials” are generally unhappy when there are inadequate choices.

3,339

81%

12%

8%

Average texts (send/receive) per month

SMS - The most used smartphone feature besides voice calls

Apps

Mobile email


“Millennials” are the driving force behind “The Long Tail Concept”. Access to abundant, cheap distribution means the end user tends to distribute as widely as the choice. The idea is that more efficient and economical distribution systems (e.g. via the internet) are making a much wider array of products and services more available and cost effective8.

Got money?Don’t be fooled by all the reports and stereotypes that “Millennials” consume less than prior generations, avoid making big buying decisions or don’t have enough disposal income. In reality, “Millennials” are just as apt to spend, if not more than prior generations. But they will spend more time doing research and collecting data prior to making a purchase than their preceding generations. And they will rely more heavily on peer and community recommendations to influence their buying decision. They want to be more in control and drive the purchasing process.

But all is not lost as recent projections from Harris Interactive and Deloitte estimate that “Millennials” will be spending $2.45 trillion by 2015. Another estimate shows “Millennials” far outpacing their Boomer parents in earnings by 2018. By 2017, “Millennials” will have more spending power than any other generation before them. That kind of buying power cannot be ignored.

Companies will need to focus on their brand preservation, ensure there are brand advocates in the online social communities and be proactive about brand loyalty. In the information age, one bad customer service issue could go viral in no time and affect the buying decisions of millions in an instant.


Engaging the “Millennial Worker”

The technological shift that many corporations are facing in the wake of Mobility, Social Networking, Cloud Computing and Big Data is forcing them to think differently about the way they approach application, product and service development. These trends are also driving changes in the workplace and redefining how work gets done. These technologies are having a profound effect on how workers learn, collaborate, communicate and innovate. This will require corporations to think differently about how best to engage this new era of “Millennial Workers”.

As the Boomer generation retires and the Gen X’ers become the new mainstream Boomers, millions of “Millennial Workers” will begin to enter the workforce. So how do companies engage these workers for the long haul? Can they count on them to be the fabric of their organization? Can they drive the innovation needed to survive?

First, it’s important to dispel some of the common myths that surround these “Millennial Workers”. If you believe that everyone under 30 is narcissistic, unwilling to comply with authority and uncommitted to an organization then you are probably going to have a difficult time engaging this new flock of employees.

But if you take a moment to understand the context in which these workers grew up, from a sociological, economic and technological perspective, you will gain more insights to how best to engage them.


Understanding the new Millennial worker The first step in engaging the new “Millennial Worker” is to understand their lineage, orientation and value system.

The following are some key guidelines to keep in mind for engaging the “Millennial Worker”.

•Millennials grew up in technological age. While many look at the advances in Mobile and Cloud Computing as the “new” way of computing and interacting, for Millennials it’s all they’ve known. The idea of instant communications, constant collaboration, 24x7 availability is second nature. It’s important that we understand how this affects the workplace. For instance, Email is not a preferred form of communication and is frequently viewed as very formal and hierarchical. Using social techniques such as SMS (text messaging), social networks and social forums are preferred. Conducting meetings in a classical sense for collaboration is considered unproductive. “Millennial Workers” much prefer tools like Yammer, Jive, Chatter, etc. as their preferred forum for sharing ideas, collaborating with co-workers and engaging with management.

•Millennials are not willing to listen to authority. Some believe that because many “Millennials” may have grown up in an environment where their parents and teachers told them that everything was wonderful and perfect that they may have an inflated view of themselves and be unwilling to listen to authority. However, there is an important corollary to this. This generation, more than any prior, had an unprecedented level of participation from parents and teachers in the coaching, constant feedback and shaping of everything they did from academics, to sports, to arts to their personal lives. They are well seasoned in understanding the expectations from a variety of “stakeholders” in their life.

This represents a tremendous opportunity for companies to continue this paradigm and shape “Millennial” employees’ behavior. Leaders can help Millennials understand the expectations and benefits of their achievements.

• Millennials lack organizational loyalty. The conventional wisdom is that most “Millennial Workers” will have limited loyalty to their organization. The reality is that there is not much difference in this workforce as there was in the early days of the boomers and Gen X’ers. Workers want to feel engaged and they look for guidance and mentorship from their superiors. Much like the generations before them, employees will stick around if their management teams provide them inspiration, new experiences, additional responsibility and overall opportunities for advancement. That is something that has not changed in over 100 years. “Millennials” expect to be challenged and will not respond to “boring” work. Your best bet is to give them work that they will find meaningful and actually enjoy. They come with a set of sharp skills, especially in technology, so it’s a perfect opportunity to leverage the wisdom and experience of Boomer and Gen X workers with the power of the new generation. A generation that, in general, can access a vast volume of information faster and more efficiently than prior generations. This may create an interesting shift in the way managers and supervisors approach “Millennials”.

• Millennials want more work/life balance and flexibility. Would anyone actually argue with this point? Are Boomers and Gen X’ers addicted to work or are they a prisoner of antiquated working styles? Can a “Millennial Worker” bring a new approach or method to accomplishing work than ever before? Could that lead to efficiencies and a better Work/Life balance? Organizations will benefit from flexible work policies, such as work from home, flex/off hours, advanced studies and community outreach. Organizations that provide the ability to “weave” work into personal goals and aspirations are more likely to engage workers for the long haul. Work is what they do, not where they go. This is a generation that always grew up with computers so they don’t understand why they would need to come into the office every day if their work is primarily done on a computer. Telecommuting and flexi-time aren’t seen as work privileges to this generation, but rather, work requirements. Their ease with technology means they also expect leniency to visit social media sites and use personal electronics during work time.

• Energy, new way of thinking. The “Millennial Worker” comes with a lot of energy. Most of their lives have been oversubscribed with school, sports and a plethora of extra-curricular activities. Just to get into a good college these days most had to not only have academic excellence but also community service, etc. Undoubtedly they have been more involved than many of the generations before them. So they bring the ability to multi-task and enduring energy. The challenge is how best to tap into this potential.


•Meritocracy. “Millennials” prefer a culture of meritocracy. They are confident and expect if they succeed they will be rewarded. “Millennials” want and expect a frequent stream of feedback. They are not hierarchical and comfortable working across organizational boundaries. They tend not to let hierarchies and organizational politics get in the way. To better engage “Millennials”, keep organizational structures simple and flat or instead organize around project or products or initiatives. That’s what HubSpot does. According to CEO Brian Halligan, there has never been an official org chart at HubSpot because rigid hierarchies optimize around collecting people to manage. HubSpot has a big whiteboard that tracks people’s ‘official’ reporting relationships in black lines and your ‘unofficial’ influence lines in blue. The most successful people at HubSpot have the most blue lines41. When Meritocracy succeeds in an organization, there is a release of energy, loyalty is improved and there is impact on motivation and productivity.

If you think the way to motivate and retain these workers is to give them free iPhones and iPads, think again. For one, they probably already have them. However, engage them in helping figure out the next best mobile application and you’ll have a motivated employee!

And be open to a different way of thinking. Most of today’s business processes and practices were developed over 25-30 years ago. While they may have been slightly optimized over the years, they may not have been fundamentally transformed. Being open to a new way of thinking could open up new and unforeseen opportunities.

In today’s financial and economic climate where college graduates are desperate for opportunities, it would be best for organizations to take advantage of the “Millennial” Workforce Asset and use them as a way to accelerate their product and services innovation.

Technology platforms are the key to employee enablement One of the key enablers to a successful employee engagement program and improving your end client experience will ultimately be around how well your technology platforms support the ever increasing expectations of employees and clients. For instance, if your email system does not contain strong collaboration capabilities, you are unlikely to see employees engaging, exchanging ideas and challenging conventional points of view. Email is traditionally looked on as a formal, frequently hierarchical communication tool that may not stimulate the more casual interactions that are frequently at the forefront of creating new ideas. Similarly if your knowledge management portals are static and lack freshness, they will not be used as co-creation platforms. If your core systems and business process are not yet mobile enabled, it will be difficult for the mobile worker to be productive and be in a position to delight end customers.

Using gamification to drive innovation “Millennials” are driven for achievement. They are exposed to a myriad of online gaming environments in which fierce competition, deep collaboration and building reputation is all about being in the game. In a game the mission is clear; you compete or collaborate to compete and your standings depend only on your achievements. This environment is exhilarating and engaging to the point of addiction. A well designed game provides instant feedback in a transparent manner. It touches the deep human desires for achievement, acceptance, visibility, fairness and meritocracy. Gamification is all about adopting these essential social elements of games.

A well gamified process will create a near game-like engagement for employees or for customers. It will create opportunities for people to accomplish regular small wins and earn reputation among the peers which are essentials for deep engagement.


Here are the key building blocks of enterprise gamification:

Score is essential for games. A simple point scheme or a

counting scheme will provide a way for people to keep score

of accomplishments

ScoreScore is essential

for games

Level like in game shows the level of mastery one has

achieved of a skill or a process

LevelsLevels provide a way to

establish a sense of progress

Badges are symbols of skills, accomplishments or contributions which act as an intrinsic reward for the

achievement

BadgesBadges are the way to build

ones digital reputation

They create competitions for performance and help build

reputation

LeaderboardsLeaderboards provide visibility and ranking

Gamification can be applied across many core areas of a business. However, a stepwise strategy applying the concepts to inherently more social and competitive processes such as performance management, skills development and sales would result in easier enterprise adoption3.

Internally at VirtusaPolaris, we have applied some of these gamification techniques in several ways. The first was to implement an instant feedback mechanism to create a culture of appreciation. We created an instant feedback and praise engine called RAVE (Rapid Appreciation Value Engine) that enables VirtusaPolaris managers and peers to instantly recognize people for their achievements, collaboration and idea sharing. The recognitions are reflected in the individual’s profiles and count towards badges they earn thus gamifying the performance feedback and promotion process. Over 250,000 Raves have been shared at VirtusaPolaris over the last five plus years and this has significantly influenced the culture of instant feedback and recognition. This has been a major force in increasing employee engagement and retention which is critical in our industry.

The second area we have seen benefit from has been in applying crowd sourcing techniques to promote innovation at the periphery. Thousands of our employees work with our client’s day in and day out helping them develop core applications and business solutions. During the process, many innovations are created from best practices, reusable assets, tools and new ways of solving problems. Many of these discoveries can remain resident in the project teams which may contain only a small percentage of our consultants. While we have historically implemented traditional knowledge sharing platforms and portals we never seemed to capitalize on reuse to the degree we desired. To address this we created “vInnovate”, a platform that enables engineers on the ground to contribute innovative ideas and opportunities that they encounter and input them into a system that tracks, rates and promotes these innovations. Applying gamification techniques, contributors are then rewarded if their idea is re-used somewhere else. A royalty and badge mechanism is then maintained that promotes leaders in the system. The platform not only connects the ideas within the VirtusaPolaris community but also helps our end clients leverage these innovations for their benefit. As a recent example, one of our healthcare clients discovered that a whole new segment of customers could be reached by leveraging an idea from a mobile phone application framework that was contributed to the vInnovate platform by a digital native at VirtusaPolaris. By reusing the asset, the company was quickly able to test the market opportunity before investing in a production class solution.


Improving the customer experienceTo truly be a successful “Millennial Enterprise”, an enterprise must be manically focused on their end customer experience. One bad interaction and a “Millennial Consumer” will gladly look elsewhere or even worse become a brand detractor taking away 100s if not 1,000s of customers via association.

Improving customer experience in the Millennial world is all about the following principles.

• I’m on the go. The “Millennial Customer” is always on the go. Being able to effectively interact with your end customer over mobile channels is no longer an option; it’s a basic requirement to keep that customer. In fact, it’s rapidly becoming the preferred channel and in some cases, the only channel your customers will interact on to avail themselves with your products and services. So it is critical to make the mobile experience a fantastic experience. Realize that classic web and desktop interfaces may not translate well to the mobile environment. Spend the time to focus on usability, minimize menus, clicks and allow users to get what they need done in a timely, intuitive model. The biggest mistake you can make is to take your existing web presence and port it directly to your mobile channel.

• Being social. Corporations need to engage in social activities, monitor sentiments and link them to actionable responses. It’s not enough to just have Facebook pages, Twitter accounts and blog posts. This has to be a primary customer engagement platform. Are your call centers enabled to chat and interface with clients over social networks? Are your customer service representatives monitoring activity and sentiments in the communities and forums where your products and services are discussed? It is critical to listen, engage and build community around your products and brand.

• Co-creating. Corporations that regularly solicit inputs and opinions from their customers about their products and services are more apt to create brand advocates and drive brand loyalty. The new breed of customer wants to be heard and wants to engage in regular two-way dialogues with their service providers about issues and ideas that are important for them. Corporations should not do this in an ad-hoc fashion but have formal process for obtaining customer inputs. Formalizing it will also create a brand around being customer centric. Be transparent about the prioritization of ideas and your short and long term roadmaps.

• Understand me. Corporations that truly understand their end customer are best positioned to provide them relevant products and services. “Millennials” have a diverse set of interests, belong to many communities and have a variety of personas. Understanding “where I am” in the context of “what I am doing” is critical to being relevant; personalization is the key. And also ensure that you have a 360 degree of “who I am” and all of the relationships I have with your products and services. Use Big Data Analytics to not only collect “my data” but also to correlate it. Understand the whole “me”.

• A total experience. It is important that corporations create a complete end to end experience for their customers that span all of the various interaction channels whether that is print, web, mobile, call center or any other medium. A total experience comprises many “micro touch points” that a customer may have. It can be an interaction with a customer service representative, a search on your web site, a print ad or even a recommendation from a friend. A total experience is not about just one interaction, it’s about a sustained and consistent set of interactions that drive positive customer experience.

• Provide value. This probably goes without saying but it’s important that your end customer clearly understands the value your product and service is providing. In this competitive market, quality and consistency count. Corporations that look at the long term value of the relationship and don’t focus on the immediate transaction are more likely to retain customers for the long haul.

• Be customer centric. It is critical to transform all employees, not just front line employees into a customer centric organization, offering flexible commercial models. It is critical for every employee to understand the role they play and feel enabled to deliver experiences that align with the defined strategy and vision for your customers.

• Be first. The speed at which you introduce new products and services count. First to market, first to go viral, first to win new customers and retain existing ones. Having the best customer experience alone is not good enough, timing counts. The Millennial era is all about early mover advantage.


Businesses of the futureRisk to your business: Avoid becoming a dinosaurHow do you avoid the risk of your company becoming obsolete – a dinosaur? Throughout this paper we have explored many examples of companies that failed to recognize fundamental paradigm shifts in their industries and as a result went out of business. The entire industry was on the verge of extinction.

Fortunately, there are examples of corporations who were able to re-invent themselves. These corporations had the foresight and courage to embrace change, both technologically as well as addressing shifts in their business model. These are the corporations that were able to avoid becoming the dinosaurs of their industry.

What’s encouraging is that if they can do it, so can you. By applying some of the concepts discussed in this paper and implementing some of the technical strategies discussed, you can avoid becoming a dinosaur.

The first step is to envision what the future of your industry holds and how these disruptive technologies will change the fundamentals of your business model. Here are two examples in the Banking and Healthcare industries where changes will affect the future of how businesses will operate and engage with their end customers.

The retail bank of tomorrowMany banks are still struggling to create a vision for the “Bank of Tomorrow”. They are struggling to understand how to attract new clients, how to keep their existing customer base and how to increase revenue per customer. The reality is that many of these banks still don’t understand their customers. It’s not due to increased regulations making it more difficult to serve their clients. It’s more about making the necessary time and investments to continuously improve the customer experience. Banks need to begin to focus more on the end user journey and not on the transaction. There is a lot of opportunity to simplify and enrich many of the user journeys around todays banking transactions.


The rise of internet and mobile bankingInternet banking initially fueled a major shift in consumer banking behavior by providing customers more choice and control. Expectations around how, where and when banking transactions get done changed drastically. For example, customers don’t want to have to go into physical branches to sign paperwork, open accounts or conduct transactions. And they don’t want to be restricted to traditional banking hours of 9 am to 3 pm. Banks needed to serve clients where they are and when they want.

The proliferation of mobile devices has further widened the gap between user expectations and corporate banking. According to IDC, mobile internet transactions will overtake traditional PC and laptop access in 2014. As banks move towards mobile, how do they deliver genuinely innovative services that offer more than just a scaled down version of their customer-facing web sites? Many banks, while they may have mobile banking applications, have not re-designed the application to significantly change the user experience. So many customers end up with a smaller version of their web interface requiring too many clicks and form fills to be effective in a smaller form factor. The result is customer frustration.

The bottom line is that mobile phones will become the primary banking devices for the next generation. These devices will routinely process payments, conduct commerce, exchange electronic cash and begin to replace traditional POS devices. No cards, no cash, no terminals. Banks that understand and embrace that vision today are likely to survive as “Millennial Enterprises”.

Banking has become social The community aspect of social networking is one area that has really taken off, especially in the retail world. Customers trust friends and their network more than they trust the brand or corporate marketing. What this means for banks is that just having Facebook pages or Twitter accounts is not enough as a social media strategy. For example, for every official Facebook page a bank may have, many brand detractors have created pages that propagate derogatory information about the brand. These pages frequently end up with more “Likes” than the official page. Marketing and campaigns can’t protect against brand damage. You can control what people are going to think or say about your brand. It gets back to the need to create great customer experiences and to engage customers in a community that stimulates dialog and discussions that can lead to innovation and co-creation.

Most banks don’t really do much more than create a single Facebook page, limited YouTube presence or Twitter account. Many retail like banks end there. However there are exceptions such as Wells Fargo which engages in a host of social media initiatives and has clearly set the bar for social media in retail banking. They have over eight different blogs, five focused Facebook pages, three Twitter accounts and three YouTube channels all with different focus and intent. According to Ed Terpening, VP of Social Media Strategy at Wells Fargo, simply listening and engaging voices on the web, Wells Fargo has changed the tone of their customers. “We are receiving high marks for simply listening, being honest and trying to engage our customers”, he adds. It’s not about getting it right all the time, but it’s a commitment to continuous improvement and excellence that wins brand advocacy.

Wells Fargo did not stop there. They even created an online virtual world called “Stagecoach Island”. The goal of this virtual community is to raise awareness and expertise around investing and banking best practices. This is accomplished by allowing players to explore the island and find hidden secrets and compete. Clearly Wells Fargo is using Gamification techniques to build loyalty among the Millennial Generation.

Branch of the futureWhat will the branch of the future look like?

First, the design of these future “Smart Branches” will evolve around the customer, not the bank, and will provide an inviting environment for customizing products, services and information. The layout and design of branches will change dramatically with the focus no longer being around the teller and transaction windows but rather an open environment for exploring products and series and engaging customers. Think Apple Store or Starbucks design. Functionally, a bank branch may look more like a hotel lounge in the future than a traditional retail banking location with new features like a “money bar”, concierge desk, reading rooms and even in-house coffee bars.

Mobile internet transactions will overtake traditional PC and laptop access in 2014.


And in the future, Location Based Services will be at the forefront of customer interactions driven by the use of RFID tags within smart bank cards, mobile device GPS, Near Field Communications (NFC) and QR Codes. The ability to identify who you are and where you are will allow banks to personalize product offers and services that are contextual to your needs. Imagine for a moment that with an appropriately enabled mobile device, the branch of the future can recognize you and begin providing you relevant offers immediately as you enter the branch.

The ability to obtain information through Interactive Walls or “iWalls” will be a key feature of these new “Smart Branches” where entire walls will be life-like, touch sensitive screens that allow customers to easily navigate to information and perform banking transactions. Noticeably absent will be the presence of printed materials and paper (an old world branch mainstay fixture) allowing banks to better meet their sustainability goals.

The bank teller will give way to automated self-service kiosks for processing deposits and withdrawals within the branch. Think about how the self-checkout line works in the grocery store today; a similar concept will follow in the branch with rows of self-service kiosks overseen by one centralized teller to assist customers and to also handle more complicated transactions as required. The goal is to drastically reduce human intervention in the handling of money which in turn reduces costs, avoids potential errors and increases security. With ATM and Mobile banking on the rise, extending this inside the branch is a logical next step.

Engaging users through mobile banking J.P. Morgan Chase is the largest bank in the U.S., with over $2 trillion in assets51 and is the world’s second largest public company, right behind Exxon Mobile52. While many other banks today, like Bank of America or Wells Fargo, are downsizing and closing branches, Chase is one of the few that is actually expanding, both in branches and workforce. J.P. Morgan Chase announced plans to build as many as 2,000 branches over the next five years, which would be about the size of an entire regional bank. They opened more than 200 new branches last year and plan to add 150-200 annually over the next five years. Chase is looking to expand its market share in states where they have limited presence such as Florida and California.

One catalyst behind this expansion may be their early embrace of mobile banking technology which is still considered a frontrunner in the industry. They were the first major bank to introduce mobile quick deposit, as well as all of the other features that are now common among mobile banking apps like being able to pay your bills through your phone or deposit checks through your mobile device. Being first to market with mobile banking technology gave them a clear differentiator and positioned the bank as a “Millennial Enterprise”. This helped not only retain customers but also acquire new customers in the millennial age bracket as they were now considered to be a leader in the mobile banking space.

Chase’s quick deposit app, which lets consumers snap a picture of a check to deposit, has generated more than 2 billion deposits since launching in 2010, showing that consumers are relying on mobility more and more for everyday banking. Chase is also creating a multi-channel experience for customers who visit both their website as well as use their mobile banking platform. Chase.com ranked as the most visited banking portal in the United States in 2011 and currently hosts 15 million registered users and growing at a rate of 600,000 mobile users per month51.

Chase is also starting to leverage the power of SoLoMo advertising. They recently launched a mobile ad campaign for their new Liquid card. Chase decided not to use typical banner ads for this campaign but instead make all of these mobile ads interactive and react to both touch and shaking of the device. The ad also uses the device’s GPS to tie in locational promotions. This rich media component not only enforces the message behind the campaign but also makes the ad more engaging, giving users an incentive to interact with the unit for a longer period of time. Chase also partnered with Pandora last summer, offering 14 “summer themed” radio stations with limited commercial interruptions, sponsored by Chase’ Sapphire brand52.

Late to the mobile banking gameContrary to the Chase example, Bank of America was a late entrant into the mobile banking space. Bank of America is the second largest bank in the nation by assets and has 5,800 branches and 16,200 ATMs in more than 150 countries55.

But despite its large size and high value of the company, Bank of America is one of the leaders in current branch closures and consolidations. According to Bank of America roughly 580 of its 5,800 branches are to be closed by the end of 2014. One of the reasons they have attributed is the rise in mobile banking leading to a decrease in branch visits. In their mind, the rise of mobile banking has simply made branches less critical for some consumers.


Yet Bank of America was very late in releasing a mobile banking platform and has only recently released a mobile app for iOS that allows users to deposit checks using their phone’s camera. In 2012, Bank of America added about 43,000 new active mobile customers per week and now has about 50% of its customers using online/mobile technology. Clearly the customer demand has been there for this capability56.

So while it may be hard to completely correlate a reduction in branches and customers to being a late entrant into the mobile banking space, it is clear that consumer sentiments are craving sophisticated capabilities at their fingertips. In the Millennial era, it’s difficult to imagine that end users will wait very long for those capabilities to become available.

Banks of future: Who will win?Who will win in the bank of the future? While there are clearly some banks that are trying to transform into “Millennial Enterprise”, it is unclear whether traditional banks will ever fully transform to provide the rich customer experience that is required in the new millennium. Couple that with the fact that the retail banking segment continues to be a lower growth area and focus for large banks. Some are definitely trying and the mid-tier community banks are focusing much more on this as a competitive advantage.

However it is really interesting to watch companies such as PayPal, BankSimple, Square and Movenbank who are all doing an excellent job of changing the way customers interact with their banking services. These are all companies created as “Millennial Enterprises” with platforms built for Mobility, Social and Analytics.

Bank 2.0: Movenbank

Movenbank is dubbed as the first “everyday cardless bank”. It’s an exclusively online, new model of bank that uses social, mobile and Gamification technology. Movenbank is a bank focused on utility and customer engagement and created an ecosystem called CREDTM, which uses a combination of mobile technology, social media and behavioral game theory to help consumers save, spend and live smarter when it comes to their finances with a built-in reward system.

The founder and chairman is Brett King who is the author of “Bank 2.0: How Customer Behavior and Technology Will Change the Future of Financial Services”. This book describes in detail how banking might look in the future. According to Brett, “this is the reboot of Banking as we know it. Movenbank will combine the best aspects of both a financial services provider and a customer-focused, tech start-up. It is integrating mobile, online engagement, social media and gamification into a new kind of customer experience for banking products and financial services.”

Keeping it simple: BankSimple

BankSimple aims to streamline the U.S. banking experience by decoupling it from actual banks. BankSimple offers checking accounts, debit cards and more but rather than handling cash, it partners with “back-end” banks, so employees can focus on end user experience and satisfaction and not back office operations. This is very clear from the first glance of their platform; it looks a lot more like Tumblr than it does other banking websites. The main reason is that it was designed for mobile from the beginning focusing them to make the user journeys as simple as possible.

BankSimple turns the traditional banking paradigm on its side by offering real-time, deep analysis of spending, saving and budgets. This has typically only been possible using tools such as Quicken and Microsoft Money and only after transactions have been posted (i.e. not in real-time). In addition, the integration of tagging and locational based services enables a whole new world of categorization only possible through mobile access. You can also use BankSimple to automatically hide money from yourself to make savings goals, and see your “Safe to Spend” amount that factors in upcoming recurring payments and pending transactions. BankSimple also heavily promotes no hidden fees, no monthly debit card fees, account maintenance fees, low balance fees, overdraft fees, or anything of that sort; also no fees for domestic funds transfers, or for using another bank’s ATM.

We may see this trend continue where the customer experience side of banking is separated from the core banking products and platforms. The landscape of what is a bank and what functions a bank constitutes as core may completely change. The new Millennial companies may arrive on the scene and focus on owning the customer and the customer experience while traditional banks focus on the back office products and transaction processing. One thing is for sure, banking as we know it today will surely be extinct.


Healthcare in the Millennial eraIn the next 5 – 10 years the healthcare industry is going to quickly transform itself across all dimensions. Advances in medicine, care management, along with increased accountability for quality and cost are driving these changes. Individuals and their support network of family and friends will increasingly become involved in all aspects of the delivery and financing of healthcare.

No entity will be left untouched. Payers, providers, care managers, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, biotechnology, distributors and others will need to more than just adapt to the Millennial era. They must be able to innovate. What is driving this is the increased involvement of the individual and the need to interact with individuals via persona and personal channels.

In healthcare Big Data is about to become really BIG DATA. Today big data in healthcare is primarily clinical and financial.

The exponential growth is going to come from new clinical sources such as DNA sequencing and the frequent, continuous monitoring of key health indicators. This duo, of clinical and financial information, is about to become a trio with the addition of behavioral information. Behavioral information may potentially be larger than the other two. Examples may include medication adherence, food consumption, exercise monitoring, care program activities and purchasing history. Big data and cloud computing will have a big impact.

Mobility will be critical in this new healthcare paradigm. First is the ability to monitor in real time clinical vitals such as blood pressure, pulse, glucose levels, weight and much more no matter where the individual may be. This can prevent emergency care and hospital admissions by allowing clinicians to intervene at the beginning of an episode before it escalates to a critical stage. A good example is congestive heart failure where there are early indications of an adverse event but without intervention it can accelerate quickly to an undesirable state. The second big mobility impact will be the ability to contact and interact with individuals anywhere, any time, on any device. This will enable the “reach” that is so often missing in today’s environment with providers, life sciences and payers.

Last but not the least, is the impact of social media. The obvious impact is that of individuals. Whether it is being educated on health issues, seeking care, or dealing with a condition – more and more individuals are relying on social media. But social media is now becoming of value to the other participants in the industry. As an example, some physicians (especially specialists) are using social media to stay abreast of the latest practices in their specialty as well as seeking advice and opinions regarding diagnosis and treatments.

Social disease surveillance The tracking of disease trends and outbreaks is well suited for social networking such as Twitter. In one example, the Southeastern Louisiana University uses a process called syndromic surveillance to collect health related data and predict the probability of a major outbreak. Previously this was a very labor intensive and time consuming task as it involved collecting data from hospitals, clinics and other sources. Leveraging Social monitoring tools and Twitter, researches can capture comments in real-time and compile trends and redistribute to the community. Over a period of eight months, they analyzed more than 500 million Twitter messages using Twitter’s application programming interface (API). By using a small number of keywords to track rates of influenza-related messages on Twitter, the team was able to forecast future influenza rates59.

And as computers get better at natural language processing and social monitoring tools get more detailed around sentiment analysis, scientists will be able to extract more insights and patterns from social communications. Across hundreds of millions of daily experiences, researchers and medical professionals can learn the most effective approach for treatment.


Improving patient care through mobile dashboards Despite traditionally lagging in technology adoption, the Healthcare industry has adopted the use of mobile technologies faster than other industries. 81% of physicians have smartphones and 38% use medical apps daily. One third use mobile devices to access electronic medical records daily.

To understand how mobile technology is being used to improve patient care, last year a team of people from Berlin’s Charité hospital saw an opportunity to improve patient care through mobile technology. In short order, the hospital became a pilot customer for an Electronic Medical Record mobile app. The app allows medical providers to trade their clipboards for (electronic) tablets, which present them a clean dashboard that lets them drill down into data such as medical history, medications (and allergies), X-rays and vital signs. It pulls that data down from a speedy in-memory database. “The future of healthcare IT is mobile. It must be able to handle very big data, must be secure and, of course, in real time,” said Martin Peuker, CIO at Charité.60.

At Ottawa Hospital in Ontario, Canada they have deployed 3,000 iPads to doctors, interns and pharmacists. One custom-built app gives providers a dashboard showing patients’ health records; another lets doctors to order lab tests, medical images or medication.

There’s an app for that: App explosion in HealthcareThe market for tablet based Healthcare applications is exploding with over 13,000 applications available at the end of 2012 alone. They provide a spectrum of capabilities from patient monitoring, educational and image-viewing tools.

AirStrip Patient Monitoring provides the ability to connect patient monitoring systems directly to physicians’ mobile devices to allow clinicians to check on patients’ vital signs within seconds of being recorded. It also provides a list of all active medications, lab results, allegories and medical history.

Mobile MIM allows physicians to download radiological images to their tablet using a Cloud based service that allows secure upload and download of encrypted medical data. OsiriX HD is a similar application with advanced navigation features for rapidly switching between image series with a single finger screen swipe.

Several applications such as RX-Writer handle prescriptions and secure transmission of orders to pharmacies. This cuts down on the time spent to write, track and fill prescriptions. It also limits the possibility of errors in the prescription.

The point here should be obvious that even in highly regulated industries such as healthcare with sensitive medical information, the availability and adoption of Millennial applications is becoming mainstream. While many of the provider applications may not transform the way healthcare is provided, it will certainly streamline and aggregate information to greatly improve patient care and the patient experience.

Other areas of healthcare such as remote monitoring offer more transformational care experiences. With IMS Health forecasting that 80% of the remote monitoring market will be mobile by 2016, the quality of care for patients, especially the elderly has the opportunity to improve greatly62.


Conclusions There is no question that we are in an age of unparalleled times. The changes in technology present tremendous opportunity for many corporations. The pace of innovation has never been greater. The challenge for many corporations will lie in harnessing the power of these changes as a competitive weapon and avoid having these trends making you obsolete in your industry.

During the course of this paper we discussed various techniques for accomplishing this. It starts by having the courage to ask the tough questions and re-evaluate your business model. Once that analysis is completed, it is critical that you enable and re-engage your workforce to align them to your Millennial mission. Once the team is in place, you are now able to drive optimization and innovation in your core products and services. Implementing Millennial behaviors and altering your corporate structures will be critical for success in the Millennial era. And deeply understanding your end customer, the “whole” customer and providing them an outstanding consumer experience that is contextual is key to retention.

If you don’t keep up with innovation, companies will innovate around you. And you will wake up realizing you’ve become a Dinosaur.

So don’t become a Dinosaur!


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Madu Ratnayake Senior Vice President and General Manager, Virtusa Corporation

Madu Ratnayake heads VirtusaPolaris’ internal Social Business initiative, global delivery process and quality focus and operations of Sri Lanka Advanced Technology Center for Virtusa. He is a core member of the Management Team at Virtusa from its inception and plays an active role in the industry as a thought leader and a national level policy driver. Madu is a Chartered Engineer, holds an MBA from The Postgraduate Institute of Management (PIM) and an Honors Degree in Software Engineering from City University, London. He can be reached on twitter@MaduRatnayake

Frank Palermo Senior Vice President, Technical Solutions Group, Virtusa Corporation

Frank heads the Global Technical Solutions Group which contains many of VirtusaPolaris’ specialized technical competency areas such as Business Process Management (BPM), Enterprise Content Management (ECM) and Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence (DW/BI). The group is responsible for creating an overall go-to-market strategy, developing technical competencies and standards and delivering IP based solutions for each of these practice areas. Frank also leads an emerging technology group that is responsible for incubating new solutions in areas such as mobile computing, social solutions and cloud computing. He can be reached on twitter@FrankPalermo

About the authors

About VirtusaPolaris

VirtusaPolaris, the market-facing brand of Virtusa and Polaris Consulting & Services, is a leading worldwide provider of information technology (IT) consulting and outsourcing services that accelerate outcomes for Global 2000 businesses in banking and financial services, insurance, healthcare, telecommunications and media.

Through a proven platforming methodology, domain expertise and technology innovation, VirtusaPolaris enables organizations to consolidate, rationalize and modernize IT operations. VirtusaPolaris’ preemptive outsourcing solutions allow businesses to improve efficiency and reduce costs. VirtusaPolaris’ digital enablement solutions empower companies to reimagine the customer experience, creating lasting value.

Virtusa Corporation is headquartered in Massachusetts, and together with Polaris, has 50 offices across North America, Europe and Asia.

Polaris Consulting & Services is a subsidiary of Virtusa Corporation. Copyright © 2016 Virtusa Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

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