What Makes a Great Team Member? This is so true! Our project management team, and some other people I know fit this description pe...
Future Enterprise- The Smart Planet
Share This -
IBM was the first to jump out of the box- with the concept of the ‘smart planet’ and now the revolution has begun.
A new tipping point in human civilisation’s development has been reached. Information technology, engineering and applied mathematics has reached the point where the infrastructure and processes of our civilisation can be leveraged to a much ‘smarter’ level- with the potential to reduce risk, increase productivity and improve the standard of living for all.
‘Smart’ means that what is designed, developed and implemented must have the capacity to make intelligent decisions in realtime, largely without human intervention and be adaptive and responsive to its environment. This can be achieved using a variety of sensors, meshed communications systems, computing power and sophisticated algorithms for analytical and pattern analysis of large amounts of information. Also vital will be the use of artificial intelligence techniques such as genetic algorithms, fuzzy logic and neural networks.
It will not be acceptable from now on for our future planet’s infrastructure– its roads, bridges, railways, buildings, power generators, electricity and computer grids and the software that runs them, to be built or maintained at a sub-optimal level. It will be unacceptable for our enterprise infrastructure and processes to be dysfunctional or decay to the point of catastrophic collapse, as happens across the planet on a daily basis, with an enormous cost in lives, time and money.
IBM has gained the status of first mover towards creating the smart planet. Now the other IT behemoths- Oracle, SAP, Microsoft, Cisco and Google and all the thousands of small and medium IT enterprises will have to play catch up. The tools and techniques to realise this revolution- computing and communication power, social and scientific knowledge, software and systems capacity, mathematical and artificial intelligence - have been building exponentially in momentum and scope over the past 50 years.
Now after being handmaiden to business - developing and installing the financial, logistics, production, procurement, industrial, distribution and office support systems-assisting others to reap the benefits of building better products and services, IBM has decided to become an equal partner, sharing in the greater rewards.
The relationship between IT and business will now undergo a dramatic shift. There has always been a tension between the two as each wrestled for control of enterprise processes. Today’s management structures, architectures and planning processes will be replaced by a new smarter, more autonomous regime- decision rather than process oriented, with far less human intervention; shifting the balance of commercial power.
IBM didn’t create this new paradigm on its own- rather it capitalised on a fantastic opportunity. It has been an evolutionary process for the company; switching emphasis from hardware to software, then to services and consulting and now to business process and planning management.
Many mistakes have been made by IBM management along the way; initially ignoring the potential of personal computers and then the Internet, each time scrambling to catch up. They have also seen themselves as a one stop closed shop, capable of inventing, patenting or buying the most useful technologies, with minimal need for outside partners- until the entrepreneurial tsunami of the web proved otherwise.
But now all this has changed. This time the company is determined to lead and dominate this vast financial bonanza from the start. Over the past three years, since the original germ of the ‘smart planet’ emerged, the company has been scouring the world for the best techniques, algorithms, philosophies and smartest minds in order to successfully implement its grand design.
In the process they’ve scooped up IP relating to decision and knowledge engineering technologies, business intelligence, mathematical and AI advances, as well as cultivating new strategic business partnerships, covering the spectrum of major industries and applications.
As history has repeatedly shown however, over the longer term no one organisation has a monopoly on the process of human invention and innovation. In an increasingly globalised world, by linking intellectual progress and initiatives via the intelligent web, the planet's knowledge can eventually be shared by all.
The really Smart Planet therefore is one which harnesses life’s intelligence and potential for the benefit of all humanity; at the same time utilising the incredible power of the web to overcome the threats to our survival of global warming, disease, conflict, poverty and major catastrophes.
Only a truly global partnership will ensure the Smart Planet’s future.
Comment on this article
Only registered users can write comments. Please login or register.
