Dare we say when referring to tech: “This ain't Kansas anymore”? Though there is a solid start to the information age, the time of its end is certain, transition is upon us. What do we call this new era? To answer that, let’s take a gander at society and how the most cutting-edge tech is handling information, and let’s do it through a business-to-business or B2B lens for title sake.
Via APIs, ordinary people generate and relay tons of data every day just by using software services; Amazon alone collects an average of 5GB of information on each American per day. The effortless flow of banking information makes for creative interpretation by software to determine rates on interest owed, dividends projected, spending habits, etc. “Etc.” is a gross understatement; if the information were Lego blocks, it’s easy to see that there are infinite possible combinations; those combinations if crafted strategically, allow us to infer and deliver niche products.
Point in case, The SilverLogic combined a Visa API with augmented reality to identify discounts offered by countless brands in Visa's arsenal by merely pointing a smartphone at them; called RealDeal, keep an eye on this one. Visa was awarded 1st place at the Emerge Americas competition.
Looking at digital user behavior, it’s clear that we have high expectations. It should be available, and it should be useful. If there is a lot of information, it should be distilled down to what is needed to sufficiently solve a problem. Shucks, computers were made to help process solutions to problems for us; we expect it, and when our expectations are met, the bar moves higher. It’ll get to the point where the only information we need is confirmation that something was done for us. So…
This emerging era must be called the automation era. Applied to B2B, it’s easy to imagine confirmations as they relate to savings, billing, scheduling the cat’s next vet appointment, making travel plans, and so on. Money and tech touch every aspect of our lives. The future significant services are the ones that insert themselves between the information we inadvertently radiate and our B2B information. Once there, they will do the work for us. Here’s the million-dollar question (there are billions of right answers):
“How can I take widely available information and seemingly unrelated data to make people’s lives easier?”
Business Automation software.