Scan Monthly No. 013March 2004 |
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Signals of Change
Data Strategies for Data Conflicts
SoC045
The massive amounts of data rolling into computer systems throughout the business world are leading parties to filter and preprocess the data, saving only what each player needs for its immediate purposes. Technological, legal, and privacy constraints all have the potential for encouraging various parties to pare down the kinds and amount of data they acquire, store, and process. But such localized optimization threatens to limit the benefits of sharing data across business units, companies, and industries. The development and implementation of comprehensive data strategies is the only means to avoid suboptimization by local entities.
The End of Actuarial Medicine?
SoC046
The actuarial arts analyze historical data in an attempt to cope with future costs and outcomes. The health-care industry is currently anticipating two new sources of data to supplement historical data. The first concerns customization of health-care solutions on the basis of individuals' genetic profiles. Solutions that performed well for only 10% of a test population may become practical if researchers can determine the distinguishing genetic or metabolic characteristics of that 10% of the population. The second is the predictive capabilities of the patient's genome—very much a double-edged sword. A patient with a known genetic predisposition toward a particular illness such as heart disease has the option of early, anticipatory interventions, but he or she also may suffer discrimination on the part of insurance providers that want to charge him or her higher rates for health insurance.
Neuromarketing
SoC047
The business press has popularized neuromarketing (the use of brain-imaging techniques to explore consumer decision making) as the search for a buy button in the human brain. Researchers know, however, that the concept of a buy button is a gross oversimplification—the mind and its processes are complex and defy simple explanations. The research has resulted in some very interesting findings, but you won't want to abandon your focus groups just yet.
Animate, Inanimate, or Neither?
SoC048
Defining life is becoming even trickier than it used to be as scientists, researchers, and artists explore the threshold between animate and inanimate processes and entities. The health-care industry and the art world seem to be leading the charge, but the processes they're exploring are so basic that significant implications are inevitable for many industries.
Insights
| Beyond the Supply Chain: RFID in the Value Chain | View summary |
| D04-2462 | Download this Insight |
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Radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology is well on its way to a permanent place in the business environment, but the adoption of RFID technology in manufacturing, process industries, supply-chain management, and logistics applications (see D04-2460, RFID Comes of Age in Manufacturing and Supply-Chain Applications) is only a first step. Once a sufficient infrastructure has emerged—driven by favorable return-on-investment and security considerations—a wide variety of commercial opportunities will emerge. New applications involving areas such as product and material recycling, product recall, and simulation systems will grow on top of the RFID infrastructure originally for more traditional supply-chain efficiencies. Combinations of RFID technology with sensors and RFID-enabled consumer products and services are additional examples of potential areas of application for the technology. This study looks at RFID technology's potential roles beyond the supply chain throughout the broader value chain, including postpurchase applications such as security, safety, anticounterfeiting, data-mining, medical, and consumer applications. It also examines implementation challenges, including those involving infrastructure, adoption, privacy, liability, and regulations. Author: Martin Schwirn. 16 pages. |
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| Privacy Concerns in Consumer Marketing | View summary |
| D04-2463 | Download this Insight |
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Thanks to a remarkable confluence of technologies, marketers today can aggregate vast quantities of consumer, demographic, and product data in data warehouses for analysis by data-mining software. Electronic mail allows them to target consumers with personalized messages for a small fraction of the cost of direct mail, and the Web offers marketing opportunities such as online advertising and corporate Web sites. Handheld-communication devices such as mobile phones and PDAs further enhance marketers' ability to send personalized messages to consumers anywhere anytime. But just as technology empowers marketers like never before, social and political forces and new legislation are conspiring against them. Consumers' trust in marketers is eroding rapidly, prompting them to organize to protect their personal information and to stave off the deluge of unwanted marketing messages. Regulators are taking note of consumer concerns and enacting legislation to curb fraudulent or invasive marketing practices. Even in this more restrictive environment, wise companies will be able to protect their brands' reputation and hold on to consumers' trust by pursuing measures such as permission-based advertising and techniques for matching messages to consumers' needs and targeting consumers who are receptive to specific types of marketing messages. Author: Paul R. Merlyn. 15 pages. |
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| Next-Generation Mentoring for eLearning | View summary |
| D04-2464 | Download this Insight |
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eLearning mentors, or "e-tutors," guide learners through their online learning experiences. A new generation of mentoring tool is now making greater use of collaboration technologies and becoming a more integral part of the overall eLearning process. This next generation of mentoring services, or "collaborative mentoring," is far more flexible than traditional mentoring, enabling much greater choice of technologies and mentors and greater flexibility in the duration of support that learners receive. New companies—including Ensemble Collaboration and Global Mentoring—are bringing next-generation mentoring services to market and challenging incumbents like KnowledgePool and SkillSoft. Leading-edge users of collaborative mentoring tools—including Braxton (formerly Deloitte Consulting), Unisys, United States Air Force Communications Agency, Bank of Montreal, Fireman's Fund Insurance Company, and Wachovia—believe that the greatest value of the tools lies in their ability to put a human face on eLearning, thus motivating learners and driving use. Author: Rob Edmonds. 15 pages. |
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| Beyond the Human Genome Project: Science and Technology Update | View summary |
| D04-2465 | Download this Insight |
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Research in the field of genomics will undoubtedly not only change the nature of research but also dramatically alter product-development processes in the pharmaceutical, food, and chemical industries; transform medical practice; and enable new security, computing, and electronics applications. Business viability, however, is currently a leading concern for genomics research organizations. A slow rate of progress toward commercial goals demands that organizations seeking to exploit business opportunities through genomics continue to adopt a broad and long-term planning horizon. The slow progress also has led to a reexamination of the research process itself. Research policy makers increasingly see the process through which traditional research organizations translate science into products as suboptimal. A host of innovative solutions concerning the organization of research efforts are emerging in both commercial and government arenas. For example, the U.S. National Institutes of Health has identified standardization of data as critical and has proposed focusing on new research methods, discovery tools, and multidisciplinary approaches to research. This study examines recent developments in the genomics area as well as the challenges that researchers face in bringing their discoveries to market. Author: Andrew Broderick. 10 pages. |
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Calendar
Scan™ Briefings
The biannual Scan™ Briefings in which Scan staff present Scan analysis and findings in Menlo Park, California, will take place on:
- 20 May 2004 at 8:00 am
- 21 October 2004 at 8:00 am
Scan™ Abstract Meetings
Scan abstract meetings (in which SRIC-BI [now SBI] staff participate in a free-form discussion of current Scan abstracts) are open for client observation/participation on:
- 19 May 2004 at 1:30 pm
- 21 July 2004 at 9:00 am
- 22 September 2004 at 9:00 am
- 20 October 2004 at 1:30 pm
- 26 January 2005 at 9:00 am
- 23 March 2005 at 9:00 am.
Watch List
The Scan program's scanning and research processes identify areas on the periphery of your organizations's focus that constitute potential opportunities or threats. The areas that we decide bear watching go on Scan's watch list of defining forces that are transforming the business environment. Current watch-list topics include:
