Get detailed with the here and now, and macro with the yet to come

So
I’ve had meetings with three vendors in the last week where we’re talking about
mobile and tablet computing in banking, Big Data, Cloud and such like, and I’m
sick to death of it.

Not of the vendors, but of this bandwagon hype around jargonised words
that are meaningless.

They were meaningful five or ten years ago, when no-one knew what
they were or what they meant, but now everyone throws these buzzwords into
their presentations and you go: “oh jeez, shut up and show me something
useful”.

Big
Data, cloud, mobile, social …

It’s like watching the news.

The first time you hear that there’s a Royal Baby, it’s a boy and
its name is George, you go: “ok, that’s interesting”. 

Then
the media rattle on and on about the weight of the boy; the visits of the Queen
and Charles and Camilla; the outfit Kate was wearing when she left the
hospital; the underpants Prince Harry might be wearing when he went around to
see William; and you go: “shut up and tell me something else”.

 And that’s how many start to feel about vendors and their
mobile Big Data cloud dialogue.

What we really want to hear is something new.

Tell me about the internet of things and wearable computing, and
how that’s going to change banking.

That’s a far more interesting dialogue as I’m not hearing enough
of that.

That’s future positioning.

This is why solutions providers need to talk about what the world
will look like in three to five years and, if they’re confident about their vision,
bet the farm on it.  After all, any vendor who poured their money into
mobile Big Data cloud stuff five years ago should be making a mint today.

Five years ago, the mobile Big Data cloud conversation was
interesting because it was new and unknown. 

But
now? Yada, yada, yada, tell me something else.

Tell me about how you have implemented a solution for a bank that
allows them to pinpoint a customer, anywhere, anytime with a relevant offer. 

Sure,
that’s a Big Data conversation but just don’t call it Big Data.  Call it
Small Data. 

It’s
Small, in that you’ve taken that Exabyte stream of data and converted it into
this really Small moment of truth where the customer gets an amazing experience
that is totally personalised.

Now you’ve taken the dull conversation and turned it into a story
with benefit and a relevance. 

This is why you either talk about long-term vision or short-term
illustration.

The
vision is the three to five year away concepts; the illustration is the here
and now.

That’s
why I don’t want to hear about mobile, social, big data, cloud but about how banks
are using the mobile network to identify where the end customer will be in the
next ten minutes and, by using the GPS network combined with small data, making
them an offer they cannot refuse.

Solutions providers just need to get detailed when things are here
and now, and macro when they are yet to come.