Digital Project Management:
The nature of front office projects compare to traditional IT projects is one that generally involves a more co-operative project.
Not only do you need developers and testers but you might need artists, user experience and web analysts or more.
As a result THE key skill of a digital PM is the ability to be a strong scrum master who knows how to be a gatekeeper not just a facilitator.
Part 3 of our series
Let’s continue on with the newest installment in looking at digital positions. The Digital Revolution is upon us. As organizations start to build out their front office technology teams, there are many different skills and positions that are needed.
Let’s keep the list the same for now:
Social Media
User Experience (UX)
User Interface (UI)
Web Programmers
Graphic Designers
Data Scientists
Data Analysts
Digital Business Analysts
Digital Strategists
Digital Architects
Web Analytics
SEO
SEM
Real-Time Database Administrators
CRM Implementers
Programmers
To recap; If you want to be part of a winning front-office digital team you need to always keep in mind the purpose of your position; to drive sales, full stop.
This week we look at the Digital Architects, Digital PM’s, Web Analytics (again) and RT Database Administrators.
Digital Architects: Architects in technology come in many different forms (solution, data, application etc…) but in the digital world the term architect is largely used to indicate someone who can incorporate the front office systems into the middleware and enterprise systems of large organizations. This is a very important skill that allows the sales and marketing teams to connect with the technology infrastructure teams. Ultimately it aids in revenue generation by streamlining the processes of an organization.
Digital Project Mangers: The nature of front office projects, compared to traditional IT projects, is that they generally involve a more co-operative team environment. Not only do you need developers and testers but you might need artists, user experience and web analysts or more. As a result THE key skill of a digital PM is the ability to be a strong scrum master who knows how to be a gatekeeper not just a facilitator.
Web Analytics: We talked about web analytics in edition 1 but it is worth revisiting as it can be such an inclusive title. One of the more detailed roles within this broader category is using the Adobe Digital Marketing Suite. Experts in Adobe or their competitors’ digital marketing tools can find themselves looking at potentially ludicrous contract opportunities. The digital marketing suite allows for many things such as
Real Time Data Architects and Administrators: This is the one “Digital” position that probably is still being paid for by the IT department but is of critical importance to the success of digital departments. Databases such as Hadoop that allow for data to be stored in such a way that it can be used in real time provide a significant advantage to front-office teams. The people who understand how to setup and run data centres using these technologies are empowering the analytic and data science teams of the front office to perform their roles to the utmost of their capabilities.
That’s it for part 3, we will take a look at a few more positions in coming weeks. Remember if your position reports to the CMO, CDO or VP of Sales, the value you provide to an organization is in some way related to increasing sales and revenue!
Andrew is one of the newest members of Planet4IT, but he brings with him a fresh new perspective.
With one eye on the job market and the other on the IT world, he’s the man to go to for information on how the latest advancements in Data, Digital Marketing and Social Media are affecting business.
Andrew encourages you to reach out to him through not only telephone or email, but LinkedIn and Twitter as well
The conclusion to our series.
Talking about cost, here are some interesting stats about cell phones here.
A SMS, known as texto here, is cheaper than a call. That in turn has a different rate depending if I call a Telmob number, or that of another company.
Telmob charges me 10 FCFA for each SMS I sent to a Telmob number, 20 FCFA for a call to another company and 50 FCFA for international calls.
50 FCFA is 10 cents, I wonder if Bell can beat that? A phone call will set me back 1.5 FCFA per second. So 90 FCFA per minute for local calls is about 18 cents. International calls are 150 FCFA per minute. So I can call Canada for 10 minutes and it will cost me about 2.00$. I get call display and voice mail for free.
Of course, all companies offer roaming at an astronomical cost. To be honest, I used my sim card in Paris and nada, rien, zilch. Could not get in touch with friends to tell them I had finally landed. So had to buy a local sim card. I am getting an interesting collection of them. But there is one company that does it better than all of the cell companies I dealt with in my life – and that is quite a few.
Airtel. It’s the company we love to hate.
Well, their service may not always be the most reliable but they are the only one who has the infrastructure to support BlackBerry, the tablets, Android and others. Their big advantage is that you can use your sim card no matter where you are in Africa as long as that country is served by Airtel. No roaming charges.
For instance, this chap who helps me with these articles, Adama, calls his family in Burkina Faso while in business in South Africa using his local Airtel number with no need to add even the country code, 226. And likewise, his wife in Burkina calls him in South Africa only dialling the 8 digits of his cell number, again, without the country code. I tested this using my Congo Airtel number… and yes, it does work. I can call any number in Burkina with my Congo number. And, by the way, I have not put credits on my Airtel number in about a year, and my number still worked.
In Canada, my number is suspended after six months if my phone is not recharged. Given that I am in Canada one month out of every 12, it cost me a new sim card every time. At the modest cost of $40.00. Here, a sim card is $3.00. The only drawback is that you have to queue to give the cell phone company tons of info on your little person.
Oh, I know, I hear you, it is a poor country and you cannot really expect people to pay Canadian fees. OK, maybe. But a cell phone is a cell phone, no? It works on the same technology and apparently, the same infrastructure and thus similar cost of development. I am sure I will get the eternal and predictable arguments about costs upfront to develop the infrastructure and what not. I am still not convinced. Companies here had and still have to develop the infrastructure and yet, the cost to the clients is way more reasonable, even when considering the local wages.
Let’s end on a funny note. The recharge. There are two ways to recharge your phone with credits.
Either you buy a recharge card for whatever amount you want from the kids who sell them at every street corner. There are hundreds of them. These cards work like an instant winning lottery ticket back home. You scratch the thin cover and you get the private recharge code. Enter it in your phone by calling a special number with special signs (#,*) and bingo, you won your recharge!
Or you can recharge using your local credit card. Which I don’t have, so I rely on the charge cards. But there is another way that I find absolutely hilarious. The telephone guy.
So there are these guys (and yes, they are always always always guys!) who walk around with their phones and will transfer credit to your phone, using theirs and obviously, a special connection with your provider to do so.
You pay once you have received your credit, notice of which comes in the form of a texto! You can also get anyone phone credits. This is how many people in Ouaga recharge their family members’ phone back in the country side. Because obviously, not everyone can afford the phone nor the recharge. Family members working in town often provide for their extended family back in the country side.
Instead of a wandering salesman, it’s a wandering phoneman!
Digital Strategist: There is still a lot of pushback from companies regarding embarking on digital campaigns and most of this derives from a lack of understandable direction. The front office loves quantifiable measures (If I call 100 people I will get 10 meetings and 2 sales) and the digital universe isn’t setup to be conducive to quantifying results. That is where the digital strategist comes in. They are the purveyor of all things actionable and can translate what a business needs into a measurable digital strategy.
The most mysterious of all positions. The ability to write algorithms that find relationships in datasets is only usable if it provides actionable insight.
Consumer behaviour analysis allows front offices to better predict what and when consumers are buying. Data science provides the raw information that allows that to happen.
It’s pretty easy to film things now-a-days. With the invention of quality cell-phone cameras, you only need a free hand to capture everything from a double rainbow to a war on the other side of the world.
Now technology has evolved to a point where hands aren’t even necessary to catch the world around us.
Or above us.
Welcome to the world of the Go-Pro Camera.
The concept of the Go-Pro Camera has revolutionized the way people capture the world around them.
From capturing daring events, to spotting undiscovered species, this camera attaches to a variety of items. Want to document your surfing expedition? The Go-Pro can attach to the nose of your surf board. Want to see what an eagle see’s while its in flight? Well…
For such a simple concept, a hands free camera, the video these cameras produce is quite simply, extraordinary.
At the risk of this article sounding a bit like an advertorial, I’ll put a disclaimer in here. I do not own a Go-Pro and I’m going to get no profits from writing about it. What I am is a Youtube junkie (as a social media manager I kind of have to be), and I spend a few hours a day going through the latest uploads.
Over the last few years I’ve noticed a disproportionate amount of those videos being filmed using a Go-Pro camera, or something similar. It’s pretty easy to recognize its handiwork; as it creates a unique filming style. The Go-Pro has become so popular, that the name Go-Pro has come to refer to ANY hands free action camera, not just that particular model.
Indeed, the Go-Pro has become the standard alternative for any videographer or photographer (amateur or otherwise) looking to avoid expensive equipment
A standard Go-Pro costs less than $400 and films in high definition, takes photographs, records time lapse and slow motion. The newer models can even be controlled using a Wi-Fi remote.
As for ease of access – well, it’s user interface is so simple, even a Fox can use it.
In the decade of its existence, the Go-Pro doubled in sales every year to become the number one best-selling camera in the world. The Go Pro company is valued at $2.25 billion.
The company IPO’d in June of 2014, and its stocks were exploding the next day.
Where and when did all this begin?
The company is the brain child of Nick Woodman. According to him, he was inspired to start the company after being unable to get quality footage after a 2002 Australia surfing trip.
Hiring amateur photographers wouldn’t work, as they couldn’t get close enough to capture good shots while he was surfing, and purchasing some quality equipment was just too expensive for him.
In short, he couldn’t find an affordable quality camera he could use for his needs; so he built one.
Woodman started raising money for his company by selling bead and shell belts out of the back of his van. Each belt sold for under $20.
It was while making the belts that he had the idea of providing a fashionable strap to attach a camera.
In 2004, he sold its first camera system—a 35 mm film version.
As time went on and the popularity grew, the cameras evolved. Eventually, they became digital and started recording 10-second clips. From there, they became the beasts they are today.
On June 4, 2014, the company announced the appointment of former Microsoft executive Tony Bates as President reporting directly to Nick Woodman.
Want to see all the neat ways the Go-Pro has changed our lives? Check out the ideas below.
Ever wanted to know what your dog or cat sees from their perspective? Fetch allows you to strap the Go-Pro camera to your furry companion.
Fetch, designed by GoPro itself, is designed to give dogs a comfortable, collar- and water-friendly harness to hold the camera, with adjustable fit for dogs of any size from 15 all the way up to 120 pounds.
When a camera is always on recording adventures, it’s amazing what will pop up. Or under you.
Christian Yellott decided to film his trip on his GoPro camera as he took a high speed jet ski ride through the incredibly narrow canyons of Lake Powell on the Colorado River. This footage would have been impossible to get without hands free cameras.
Some species are incredibly shy and secretive, but small cameras that can record for long periods of time shed light on animals that have been notoriously shy in the past.
Now, whether or not that creature sees the camera back….
What makes the GoPro success so interesting is just how dominant it is in the market despite all that competition. As I said before, its brand dominance is so strong that it has become synonymous with “action camera”.
One of the reasons for its success, according to Woodman, is that the brand has had a far-reaching impact with its Facebook page and other social media channels — including those of individual GoPro owners. Everyone shares the footage they capture, which keeps the fires buring with free publicity.
There is some competition though, and we list some of them below.
Sony: In 2012, Sony launched the Sony Action Cam HDR-AS10 and HDR-AS15 cameras. They have the added benefits of being with Sony’s smart watch, and including GPS.
Garmin: A year after Sony’s product launch, GPS device-maker Garmin launched its 1080p waterproof cameras to compete with GoPro. They are also GPS friendly.
Others: Other popular action cams include JVC GC-XA2, Drift HD Ghost S, Polaroid XS7, MHD Sport Wi-Fi Action Camera, and Contour+2, Liquid Image Ego, The Neo Sport Camera and the Veho muvi action cameras.
The Go-Pro is continuously growing and becoming more and more high tech – I can’t wait to see what comes next with this technology!
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