Categories
Innovation

Intrapreneurship: innovation engine for companies

Creating environments for innovation and supporting new ideas from employees is one of the ways companies have to explore different facets of growth and development.

Reinventing oneself, finding new growth routes, diversifying the portfolio of products and services, opening new lines of business, taking advantage of materials that are underused, are all characteristics of  intrapreneurship, a practice that is widespread in the Colombian business ecosystem.

In the past, generating entrepreneurship projects within companies was an activity that occurred occasionally, the result of the curiosity of a member to solve a problem that arose in their daily tasks. Sometimes, this search ended in the resignation to advance the project on a personal basis.

Law 1739 determines that companies that invest in research, technological development or innovation can deduct 175% of the invested value from their income.

Today, many companies have understood that the vein to grow is found in innovation ,  and a good way is to  create favorable environments so that great ideas that become profitable and sustainable projects are cooked and developed  in house , that is why it  is It is essential to detect these talented people at the right time  to retain them and give them proper management, so that they can explore their qualities in innovative projects, be it  new business units, a  startup  or a  spin off ,  when the company and the company are combined. academy. staff.

To favor these processes, it is key to have some elements within the company and create an atmosphere that facilitates the conditions for corporate entrepreneurship:

  • Special place:  having a specific place for the entrepreneurial team will give it favorable conditions for creative work
  • Autonomy:  managing time and certain resources is essential to propose innovative projects.
  • Sponsor:  it is key to have one or more executives or members of senior management on your side who trust in the advantages of intrapreneurship.
  • Reward:  in addition to the one that contributes to the growth of the organization, the economic compensation also recognizes the innovators.
  • Ownership:  giving entrepreneurs control of the project is essential to generate leadership and a sense of belonging in them.

Entrepreneurship in Colombia

Entrepreneurship indicators show that the country is in the first places among 54 nations studied by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) , thanks to public and private initiatives, and action plans that have multiplied in recent years in a large part of the territory national.

It is estimated that the Regional Entrepreneurship Networks add up to more than 450 support institutions among government entities and support entities, such as incubators, foundations, among others.

According to figures from Sena, during this government, the Emprender Fund has delivered resources of approximately $233 billion, which means around 3,000 new companies.  In the first quarter of 2016, the same fund opened a call with a budget of $15 billion to support business units in all sectors.

With regard to corporate entrepreneurship,  the inventiveness of Colombians is increasingly receiving greater encouragement from the companies in which they work , as well as from country policies such as those of  Colciencias  and  iNNpulsa , with their Mega E program, which they motivate companies interested in developing  their facet of science, technology and innovation . In addition, Andi has a model for investing in companies, which is intrapreneurship, focused on ensuring that  innovation occurs in a planned manner and is not the result of chance .

Google allows its employees to spend 20% of their time thinking and projecting business options, a method that has enabled the technology giant to reach 50% of its innovations.

Under any analysis, intrapreneurship represents a win-win model both for employees, who fulfill a dream of carrying out their projects without having to leave the company with less economic risk , and for companies, which incorporate innovative models as a safe path. of growth and sustainability.

Benefits of supporting entrepreneurship within companies

David Zapata Sanclemente completed his internship in the Concept Design area at Haceb a couple of years ago and had the initiative to join a colleague to participate in the “Who is measured?” contest, of the Government of Antioquia. The challenge was to create a portable equipment to guarantee the cold chain for the vaccines that are taken to indigenous communities  that live in rural areas of 31 municipalities of the department.

David found in the company a favorable environment to develop intrapreneurship  and thanks to the support and commitment to open innovation that is put into practice in Haceb, he had the support to carry out the project, which was awarded in the contest.

There are other examples like this, since more and more companies trust in the  advantages of supporting and promoting intrapreneurs ,  keeping people with innovative ideas in the work team that can be turned into projects that help organizations grow.

Innovation, the route that countries must follow

Although the entrepreneurial panorama in the country is important, innovation still needs to grow. According to information from GEM,  economies driven by innovation present the highest level of internationalization  on average, 20%, compared to 6% for those driven by other factors and 13% for those driven by efficiency.

A report by Misión Pyme shows that  Colombia, without being a leader in the matter, generates ideas that give concrete results and provide clues to conclude that its performance can be improved in the future.  The country was ranked 67th in the 2015 Global Innovation Index among 141 countries and is sixth in Latin America.

Part of this reality is found in the impulse that comes from government sources and specific legislation that favors innovation. For example,  the Conpes approved in 2015 conditions for tax deductions to be made to companies that invest in innovation , while for the National Development Plan 2014-2018, the goal is to double investment in science, technology and innovation, from 0 .5% to 1% of GDP.

  • The Corona Organization, in several of its companies,  puts innovation into practice as a means for growth . The Vice President of Consumables and Construction Materials and manager of Sumicol, Jaime Alberto Ángel, confirms that 1% of the group’s sales are invested in innovation and in some group companies the indicator is 3.5%.
  • A notable case is that of  Nexentia , a firm created under the spin off  methodology  between Sumicol and Grupo Coloides, from the University of Antioquia, to  produce and market nanotechnology and microencapsulation from non-metallic mineralsToday, Nexentia offers three products to the public: Simplea (microencapsulated calcium carbonate to address calcium sciences in humans), Clean beads (mud masks, kaolin microspheres and ceramic microspheres for the cosmetic sector) and E caps (calcium carbonate microencapsulated to address calcium sciences in equines).
  • A notable case is that of  Nexentia , a firm created under the spin off  methodology  between Sumicol and Grupo Coloides, from the University of Antioquia, to  produce and market nanotechnology and microencapsulation from non-metallic mineralsToday, Nexentia offers three products to the public: Simplea (microencapsulated calcium carbonate to address calcium sciences in humans), Clean beads (mud masks, kaolin microspheres and ceramic microspheres for the cosmetic sector) and E caps (calcium carbonate microencapsulated to address calcium sciences in equines).
  • iNNpulsa, through the “companies creating companies” challenge, chose the 12 Mega-Entrepreneurs of Colombia for their leadership in the development of corporate entrepreneurship. The pioneering companies in this recognition are:
 
Categories
Innovation

10 aphorisms by Jorge Wagensberg

The Spanish physicist, Jorge Wagensberg, has stood out for his informative work as a lecturer, scientific editor and advisor to science museums, also for his aphorisms. He knows some of these.

1. It can only be created when not everything is law and not everything is random.

2. There are two kinds of innovation: a horizontal one that consists of changing the answer (evolution) and a vertical one that consists of changing the question (revolution).

3. Intelligence is the ability to anticipate uncertainty and with it it was possible, for the first time in evolution, to put the problem before its solution.

4. Every sense has a joyful end and a painful end, both valuable for survival.

5. The improbable amazes everyone, the everyday only genius.

6. Lies are built, truths are discovered.

7.  A superfluous innovation is a solution without a problem.

8. Spirally unfair syndrome in a work team: the one who works well works more and more, the one who works poorly works less and less. 

9.  Symbiosis:  one plus one equals one. /  Parasitism:  one plus one equals zero. /  Asexual reproduction:  one equals two. /  Sexual reproduction:  one plus one equals three.

10. To ask what it is, what a certain phenomenon consists of is to investigate language. The why places us on the plane of metascience. The for what, in that of technology. And the how, in that of science.

Categories
Innovation

Everlane, sustainability as a driver of innovation

Companies like Everlane are a good example of how fair trade and transparency create value relationships and consumer loyalty. Get to know this case in images.

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With its formula of radical transparency, exceptional quality and ethical factories, Everlane is a successful business that produces superior consumer and environmental impacts.

 

All the products of this brand have the information of how much it costs to produce them, how much the company earns in each one and how is the price versus the market.
 
The company delivers timeless, quality products that can be used for up to decades, such as cashmere jackets, Italian shoes, and Peruvian pima cotton t-shirts.
 
Everlane has plants in the United States, Peru, Spain, Italy, China and Vietnam.
 
The commitment to sustainability is profitable for Everlane, which has grown 100% year after year since its creation in 2011.
 

 

The Everlane Black Friday Foundation got customers to pay full price in the season to donate solar panels at its Los Angeles satellite plant and hard hats for 8,000 employees at its Nobland factory in Vietnam. 
 
The Everlane Black Friday Foundation got customers to pay full price in the season to donate solar panels at its Los Angeles satellite plant and hard hats for 8,000 employees at its Nobland factory in Vietnam. 
 
Categories
Innovation

Innovation: 4 agile methodologies

The impact of technology and the permanent change of products and services challenge companies to innovate and respond to the needs of consumers. Learn how to do it efficiently with these methodologies.

Behind the success of Pixar  is the prodigious mind of  Steve Jobs , but also different methods that would forever change the way of understanding organizational culture, including innovation hubs, coworking  and  braintrust  , which promote permanent contact between collaborators, leisure spaces within companies to improve productivity, and the belief in the ideals and potential of people rather than in great ideas.

Like these techniques to encourage creativity, teamwork and the creation or improvement of products and services, agile innovation methodologies have been positioned in the business sector thanks to their flexibility and their ability to break paradigms. These arise from an  agile manifesto  that seventeen critics of software development models raised in 2001 and achieve:

  • Improve the efficiency, development and quality of final products.
  • Greater responsiveness to change.
  • More customer satisfaction.
  • Early deliveries of results.
  • Facilitate continuous feedback throughout the implementation process.
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According to Ana María Giraldo Botero, Chain Research and Development coordinator , “in a traditional project, systematic practices are used that have a high probability of not giving the expected results and the contracts leave the greatest risk to one of the parties. On the other hand, the agile ones allow all the actors to be involved from the early stages of creation and construction of the service or product, with technical discussions, management of differences and overcoming problems”

The four most popular agile methodologies are:

A strategic decision

The influence of Information and Communication Technologies, ICT, impacts the daily activities of businesses. Emerging companies come to the market with other ways of buying, learning and communicating , therefore, the traditional ones must understand the needs of consumers and solve them promptly.

According to data from the  2011-2015 Chaos Report  after evaluating 10,000 software projects, 39% were successful and 9% failed with agile methodologies, while with traditional methods only 11% were successful and 29% failed.

 

It is a challenge for companies to reach a level of maturity and organizational agility that allows them to have self-managed teams that know their responsibilities and work to obtain the best benefits, deliver a functional product, and adapt to change.

Likewise, the disposition of senior management must be taken into account, have trained human talent  , define these methodologies as an organization strategy  and  promote greater trust among those involved.

4 principles for good results

  • Manage expectations: Agile methodologies do not imply lower costs or a final delivery before the planned date.
  • Add a client to the team: so that approvals are immediate and the greatest possible trust is generated between the parties.
  • Strengthen the culture of innovation: that it respects the best practices and the management guide for agile projects.
  • Have a reward system: make it emotional and recognize all the effort of the work team.
 

Survey

Categories
Innovation

Innovation = model x speed

Today innovating is not enough, you have to do it fast. Opportunities for large companies and startups.

You do not have to invent business from scratch, nor give up what you know and master, but the digital revolution is a reality and it does not only occur in data-based businesses: any economic activity today is different from what it was ago ten years, and the realities of then are not enough today.

Juan Camilo Quintero, manager of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at ANDI, has worked in innovation management at the university, the State and the company for several years, and believes that at the present time large companies should consider the need to increase the pace and for this they can resort to various means. One of them is to stop being suspicious of entrepreneurs and see them as allies to enter a new paradigm.

For those who work in innovation, the  S-curve  for the maturation of a technology is a traditional exercise. After the release and growth comes maturation.

Quintero superimposes another graph on top of this graph: companies aspire to be at the top of the curve, but they cannot accept that the maturity line remains horizontal, they must look for a new S to maintain growth. And it is with innovation that he proposes that this curve always continue upwards.

For this reason, he maintains that it is a matter of speed in innovation. And while he ranks companies at the top of the chart, he puts university research at the front of the line. There is a great distance that sometimes does not allow us to innovate at the necessary speed. In the middle are the startups, small, light companies with an innovative vocation, which can provide novel responses and new services in the sector in which the company operates.

faster relationships

Many startups, despite having very powerful products or services, do not overcome the valley of death because:

  • They are not clear about their  business model
  • The leader is absorbed in administrative tasks that distract him from his innovative focus.
Large companies often have internal innovation processes that are more focused on the product or business model than on new disruptive opportunities.
 

ANDI’s Innovation Manager affirms that the purpose should be to “reduce time and space in the relationship between entrepreneurs and businessmen”. In his opinion, this is the network that should operate smoothly in the current circumstances where speed is required. There are many possibilities to co-create between entrepreneurs and startups.

Opportunities for the entrepreneur

  • customers for your product.
  • Needs in which it can concur in joint processes with businessmen.
  • Partners, when your venture is in the sector in which an entrepreneur sees growth opportunities

Opportunities for the entrepreneur

  • Innovation paths faster than those that can be given by a person or a research team inside.
  • Offers of innovation in response to raised needs.
  • Radar in which it detects businesses that it can acquire for growth goals that are often not achieved organically, and that generally have the advantage that they have a technological base that allows them scalability to grow sustainably.

To buy or not to buy

Google bought 19 startups last year  , and allocates significant resources to projects where it finds avenues for growth.

Acquisition is always an alternative. If you do, some questions to ask yourself are:

Acquisition is always an alternative. If you do, some questions to ask yourself are:

Does what it does have to do with my core?

Is your business scalable?

Is your business model clear?

Is your leader inspiring?

Categories
Technology

CCM: the platform that enables effective communication

If you want to address your customers with clear, timely, direct messages and through the medium they prefer, the CCM –Customer Communications Management– platform is the ideal tool. Know your benefits.

Today your company has the possibility of using a mix of media to reach its customers:  traditional means of communication such as the telephone line, a contract or a printed extract, and digital channels that have been growing at a dizzying rate that expand the offer,  always seeking to be relevant in communication: reach the client with the useful message through the appropriate means.

To give an example: the son is at the university, connected to a laptop; the mother is a sales person and is on the street all the time with the phone. The father is a financial trader and has chosen to be disconnected at home: outside of work he only reads printed material. Grandma learned to handle the  tablet  and she can’t get away from it anymore. Brands need to communicate with each other, from different areas and with different types of messages.

But how do you ensure that it reaches everyone? And if it can be done, how to do it in a way that is not redundant and without wasting resources?

Cadena is the first company in Colombia to acquire the CCM solution and to have certified personnel in its application.

In addition to having multiple media, a platform is required that allows the organization to manage these communications.  Just as there is an ERP platform to manage resources or a CRM platform to manage the relationship with the consumer,  today it is possible to have a CCM –Customer Communications Management– tool to guarantee the personalization of contacts and their effectiveness.

It is a way of guaranteeing that the public that is expected is reached with a homogeneous communication;  having a concentrated information repository that can be connected with different composition tools and output through various means. But realistically, when is a company’s IT team going to be able to tackle a project of this magnitude in a time when there are so many priorities?

Cadena offers its customers the benefits of the CCM platform

At  Cadena  we have been allies with organizations such as your company to bring communications of various kinds to your clients, and  now we are venturing into the management of this platform, as a natural evolution of the business and in the constant search for solutions.  Thus, in addition to improving the delivery indicators of your communications, we can help from planning and choosing the appropriate channels.

Cadena has the knowledge and ability to implement any CCM solution in your company. Contact the Relationship Unit.

The key is to generate consistent communications for different media  and this platform offers numerous possibilities, from email and text messages, to delivery of statements or purchase payments, to name just a few, since  one of its advantages is that it allows transactionality.

It is a robust and complete solution that can incorporate all the required variables. Thus,  before a message is issued to a person, the respective validations are carried out within the areas that intervene in the generation and validation of the content,  and as a fundamental part, the legal conditions are always considered following very strict processes, to avoid risks.

One Key: Personalize Information

Facilitating the way in which the consumer receives information about products and services is a very important point for companies today,  since in a market as competitive as that of insurance companies, banking, telecommunications,  retailers,  among others, there are offers of similar conditions. That is why it is transcendental to mark differentiation through communication.

57% of the companies surveyed expected to invest more resources in the customer experience in 2016, according to a study by Temkin Group. Only 6% expected to spend less on it.

In the user experience that the customer has with the brand, it is vital that they feel that it is their own, personal experience.  It may seem that a single communication is not going to achieve it, but if you add up the contacts that are made through a statement, when you access the website, by text message, with an email or through a notification from a mobile application, the experience can be more powerful.

Also,  if instead of multiple messages a week from different areas, communications can be integrated, more value is added.

With CCM,  without changing the essence of the message,  it is feasible to speak to people in a unique way, with the information that interests them, with high levels of personalization,  regardless of the platform they prefer to use, achieving a direct impact,  by strengthening the link that you have with current customers and achieve their loyalty and fidelity, designing a single piece that encourages interaction between sender and receiver.

CCM changed the mentality in communication with clients, since they no longer need to bring them to their office, but instead put the company in their hands.

Organizations need to communicate more assertively with their audiences every day and knowing how to manage that contact is an art in which  Cadena  has been specializing for ten years and many companies in the country have already trusted this solution that we offer. Cadena  has the tools, knowledge and certified personnel to do so.

CCM Benefits

  • It facilitates the management of communication in a company.
  • Simplifies the work for customer management. He decides how he wants to receive the messages that you need to convey to him.
  • Improve operational processes within companies.
  • Optimize the interaction between various areas to personalize content.

Advantages for your company

  • You can forget about managing all communications, we do it for you.
  • You will talk closely with your client, with the data that he wants to receive from your product and/or service.
  • Unify communications regardless of the channel through which it reaches the consumer.
  • It gives consistency to all the forms of communication you have with your customers.

Success stories

Many world-class companies have improved communication with their customers thanks to the CCM tool. Here are two examples:

Bradesco, Brazil

ABnote  is a leading North American company in preparing secure documents and is an ally of the  Bradesco bank ,  from Brazil. This union used GMC’s solution to convert Bradesco’s transactional documents, including credit card and bank statements, to a more flexible model that would allow them to print color messages on their products, hand in hand with a third ally such as HP, since evaluated the value of adding promotional or educational messages to transactional correspondence. In this way they could attract customers, generate a competitive advantage for the bank and bring in new sales of the bank’s products and services.

After several meetings between the three companies and some prototypes, in a month and a half they installed the software, the hardware, trained the staff and had the application tested, a job that required several months, responding to Bradesco’s urgent needs.

shanghai telecom

The telecommunications company wanted to improve the customer experience across print, email communications, and mobile channels by enabling the integration of multiple data sources into a unified management, for multi-channel output.

  • Enable the delivery of electronic invoices.
  • Reduce printing costs.
  • Support customers through various channels.
  • Obtain valuable information for the CRM system.
  • Improve interaction and communication with customers.

Hand in hand with this solution,  Shanghai Telecom  created multi-channel communications that are scheduled and executed automatically.

Categories
Innovation

The time of integration

Beyond outsourcing processes, integration is about strengthening processes hand in hand with allies. Learn more below.

A good example of process integration is when executives and engineers from a brand meet with engineers from their suppliers, find possibilities to improve parts, make requirements and receive proposals and, in the end, make improvements to the product… and also to  the process: that equipment, with its brand, with its price, with its commercial strategy, may not pass through your hands at any time.

It is what Apple is doing: it no longer designs its processes in isolation, but sits down with its suppliers and together they work on developments, carry out tests and adjustments. It is not just a question of quoting and requesting a requirement so that it is ready at a certain time, it is necessary to involve all those who are part of the production chain  so that they understand how it should be done.

How to work in integration?

So that all areas and suppliers are correctly related and can guarantee customers quality products or services that satisfy their needs or requirements in the time they demand, it is necessary to think about integration policies with suppliers, which have to do with systems, processes and strategies that allow greater agility and efficiency.

Juan When thinking about integration, everyone must be  seen as part of the same strategy, which is executed through different processes  and whose objective is to impact customers, seeking to have a positive response. If something fails, you have to see it as a whole, not in isolation.

The challenge today is to adopt methodologies that facilitate integration and dare to deliver internal processes to third parties,  for example, in data analytics there are specialized companies whose processes and results, in general, tend to be very high and have better assurance, “if it is properly integrated with whoever executes the analytics, it is as if it were done internally”, explains Luis Javier del Corral, Vice President of Chain Innovation and Development.

“Integration is more than reducing the number of intermediaries in a process, it is reducing the number of processes.”

Luis Javier del Corral,

Vice President of Chain Innovation and Development.

Finally, what integration seeks is to make real teams to carry out processes,  regardless of whether the members are “on one side of the wall or the other”. Today, many companies contract processes externally because they trust the experience of the partner, but they create an area within that must receive and reprocess, this tends to reduce efficiency and make it more expensive, therefore, after finding a partner to do it, the objective must  be be to integrate and design a process together.

This is how Cadena is doing it

Cadena’s proposal in digital is to operate processes that are not  core  for clients, as is the case with statements:  a process in which sensitive information is handled but in which Cadena, thanks to the reliability it has generated, it is capable of executing, thus saving the client a process, which may even be redundant internally.

It is currently implementing methodologies with BPM technologies and once the processes are set up, with an information system you can:

  • listollets
  • Monitor if they are being efficient enough.
  • Suggest changes, but also model and simulate before putting them into operation, which is of great value because you can have information about what will happen if a certain change is applied and this is done with real historical data.
  • Prevent possible losses.
  • Get more efficiency and reduce costs.

Communications is another of the processes that can operate, through a system that generates emails, text messages and other means with which a company communicates with its customers. This operation is done smoothly, more efficiently and without duplication.

Categories
Security

Blockchain: more transactions, more security

The Internet is an information network, through which data travels, but it did not seem made to carry out commercial transactions, contracts, financial operations. Blockchain proposes collaboration and security to be able to do it.

Two people make a document with an agreement and put it in a glass box, closing each one with a padlock. One hundred people are looking at the ballot box and receive a copy of the agreement. They ask a third person to join the agreement, open both padlocks, this person adds something, gives copies to 110 people who continue to look at the ballot box and puts a third padlock. For a fourth to join, all three locks must be opened and more people will watch and receive copies. Everyone can read the document, and when the locks are opened you can read and add something, but not change what is already agreed.

The document is only one, but every time someone signs it, there are more padlocks and there are multiple witnesses. Each operation causes the document to be protected by more locks.  And in the unlikely event that someone did manage to open them, there would be too many witnesses to say that person was not authorized to sign the document.

That is the principle of blockchain  (“chain of blocks”, each operation is a block),  a technology that seeks, using cryptography and collaboration, that there is more security in operations between people. .

cryptocurrency

Bitcoin is the best known example of a blockchain. It is a cryptocurrency (money based on the principles of collaboration and cryptography)  that has been growing in such a way that it has made governments think about the way in which transactions made in this way can be regulated.

Bitcoin users are already millions in the world and thousands of operations are made a day ,  which leads to millions of padlocks that make it practically invulnerable: it is not possible for anyone to appropriate anyone’s bitcoins if there is no Approved transaction.

But it is only one of several existing cryptocurrencies. And cryptocurrency is one use of many that blockchain has.

Business operations using blockchain

Under a blockchain system, cryptocurrencies, electricity, working hours,  and almost anything can be traded, explains Joaquín López, from Kolokium. In addition, businesses that require the fulfillment of several conditions to be carried out can be insured. In these cases there is talk of Smart Contracts.

The Spanish company Kolokium, an ally of Cadena, is one of the pioneering Spanish-speaking companies in traceability solutions through Blockchain, thanks to its Truetrace system that allows any object to be identified, located and tracked in an unalterable, public and permanent in time.

Each movement is registered and stored in the Blockchain as if it were an accounting book.

 

1. Two people negotiate a vehicle. They define conditions for the business to materialize. The contract is mounted on the  blockchain  and each agreed step must be fulfilled.
 
2. Each step that is being fulfilled is certified in the document, a new block is generated ,  the other party is notified and there are multiple “witnesses”. And in the end, when all the conditions are met, the operation is perfected, without the need for anything other than the evidence in the contract that all the steps were met.
 
3. Each movement has a  hash  (part of the encryption) of the previous one that is recorded and stored as if  the blockchain  were an accounting book  that is constantly rewritten forward, never on what has already been recorded. This ensures that no one can change the information provided.
 
4. Encryption: Each movement that is made in the file is encrypted, that is, with a code that makes it impossible for an unauthorized person to do so. And each new block is encrypted on top of the previous encryption, making the system increasingly invulnerable.
 

decentralized custody

Blockchain  is a decentralized system: the information is not found in a single deposit, it is in thousands of servers (miners) connected to each other. In each of them, the file is updated with each new block, that is, when an operation is performed.

This makes it work as an endless database and at the same time as a backup copy that is replicated countless times. The fact that the data generated during a transaction is recorded in several servers ensures that it is safe, in case one of the nodes fails or disappears.

The need for a trusted third party in the physical world that endorses and certifies each transaction disappears in the digital world with Blockchain.

Trust

In the physical world, institutions have been created that function as third parties that certify data, transactions, identities, etc. In these systems, what gives confidence is the centralization of information:  the parties depend on an entity that is the one that accredits or certifies that what they say is correct. In general, this information is not shared except at the request of the parties.

Public access to documents proposed by the blockchain  facilitates certification based on the file itself. So that the chain is not broken, the nodes must validate each transaction, and in the event that one detects an irregularity, the process is suspended.

 

Validation

Transactions are considered concluded when all the steps of the process have been validated or rejected by the actors involved.

The miners: they can indicate if there are fraudulent actions or a step is being taken without satisfying a previous condition.

The parties: the contract is approved when all the steps of the agreement have been made effective. Otherwise, it is not made effective and each person retains its properties.

The next step of the contract is not continued until all parties have reviewed and approved it.

Diplomas and resumes

The falsification of the documents that certify the knowledge acquired or the abilities of a person is increasingly common. Through Blockchain, it is possible to set up a whole secure, participatory and easily consultable public structure, through which each institution writes in the registry book, what knowledge or skill it is certifying. The physical diploma or letters or communications are not required, which will always be susceptible to falsifying or adulterating. Likewise, each employer can add to the record the experience of its employees, in such a way that a very complete and true resume of each employee is obtained at the end.

Appellation of origin systems

Health systems, education, banking, registration of real estate operations… the system can be implemented in all sectors.  For products that require traceability, for example those with a designation of origin, programs can be created that allow seeing the original product, the actors that have intervened in the chain and the point at which it is each time.

property registration

The characteristics of the Blockchain and its Smart Contracts applications make  this technology have an obvious application in the ecosystem of buying and selling properties. The specific conditions of each sale are established, each part of the transaction is authenticated,  the specifications of the property or property being negotiated are verified, compliance with the specific characteristics of the contract is verified, and the property title is changed. In this way, the inviolability of property records and the constant updating of the cadastral system are guaranteed. Each record is necessary to make the next transaction of a property.

This system can be connected with the cadastre and with the DIAN, to guarantee that the procedure complies with the law.

Related questions

Because it is:

  • Immutable:  the information is permanently recorded as it was recorded. Does not allow changes to the above.
  • Open:  Integrates systems, applications and people working together.
  • Secure:  a new block can only be created by someone who is authorized.
  • Trusted:  Each transaction has multiple validators plus it is encrypted.
  • Simple:  the interested party can consult the transactions in real time, saving time and resources.

Not necessarily. Blockchain is a system that allows different rules to be defined: some elements of the blocks can be visible and others can be codified. That way, the miners can verify the block, but only the parties see what is being traded. Or a party may see that its counterparty meets conditions, but not know who the counterparty is.

“That question is equivalent to asking ourselves in which sectors the Internet had the most potential, the answer to which would be that in all of them. Due to the characteristics of blockchain technology, it is especially appropriate for sectors/projects characterized by the use of common databases, which have to be accessed by various entities that do not trust each other and therefore require some mechanism that generates trust. From here, sectors can obviously be established whose adoption will be faster due to their potential to save costs and generate trust, as is already happening in banking, utilities, medicine and insurance, which are the fastest adopters of this technology. But it will extend to the rest, we have no doubts about that aspect”.

Joaquín López Lérida, kolokium

Categories
Technology

qiip: a brand that improves the user experience through onboarding

Understanding the user’s need, what they are looking for and how they access the service or product they are going to purchase, is essential during their shopping experience. We tell you about the case of qiip and how they achieve a satisfactory first impression from  onboarding .

For companies that offer their products or services through platforms, one of the biggest challenges is the design of the browsing experience when a user accesses it for the first time. In fact, according to  a study carried out by technology consultant Andrew Chen , applications are losing around 80% of users during  onboarding  and three out of four of them install an application and abandon it within three days due to lack of understanding. of the platform or attention on it.

How to attract users and improve their experience?

 qiip  is a digital platform with a presence in Mexico and Colombia, which seeks to provide tools that help people improve their financial well-being. To do so, they have a  marketplace  of products and services focused on understanding the needs of people and, in this way, offering them the solution that best suits them.

Its most outstanding services are: the  financial well-being test  , so that people understand the current state of their finances and the  personalized coaching  sessions by video call.

Being a completely digital platform, its biggest challenge has been to design an experience that articulates its promise of value with the impression that people have when they enter your application.

For qiip, the most important thing is to generate value for the user. Therefore, they interpret their data as an opportunity to build a long-term relationship.

Since its inception in 2019, they went from having 200 to 276,000 users in 2021, analyzing data and taking strategic actions through onboarding. Currently, 80,000 of its users have taken their products and services, and they have 92 partner companies.

“We implemented a strategy based on the scalability of people entering the platform, automating processes and walking towards digital transformation, combining data analytics with user experience,” Miguel Gaytán, qiip user experience leader, tells us.

To achieve this, they used the  design thinking methodology as a guide towards the technological transformation of the company and tools such as dashboardanalytics , among others. This makes it possible to understand the user’s needs and where they arrive or get lost during the journey on the platform.

The key to your technological transformation process

1. Combination of research and analytics

Before developing a new product, they are concerned with understanding what the user’s needs are and wonder if there are prior personalized expectations that they must meet.

2. Implementation of agile methodologies
They are clear that their platform must be in constant change, that is why they work through goals and objectives that are periodically monitored. Confidence and assignment of tasks makes it easier for them to move projects forward.

3. Adoption of collaborative work
Saving information in the cloud and integrating tools for shared creation allows them to work in real time and from different countries.

What to take into account to improve the user experience?

For the success of a digital experience, Miguel Gaytán recommends:

  1. Build a long-term relationship with the user and their information.
  2. Minimize the amount of information requested from the user in the  onboarding process  or within the platform.
  3. Use metrics and analytics to experiment and test what is working and what needs to be improved.
  4. Manage the communication channels with the user and understand what each of them is for.
  5. Automate processes more and more. Thus, loads are released in operations and faster scalability is given.
Categories
Innovation

Innovative communication in the age of Social Media

How to attract visitors to an art museum? The National Museum of Fine Arts of Brazil found a creative way to merge the physical experience with the virtual experience through its Hashtags of Arts campaign.

At a time when transmedia strategies are becoming more relevant for organizations, the National Museum of Fine Arts of Brazil stands out for its Hashtags of Arts strategy ,  which has allowed it to increase the visit of locals and tourists.

What did the Museum do? He innovated in his way of communicating and inviting his audiences, he risked attracting the attention of his visitors using the Social Media language:  tags, keywords and “trending” terms of social networks, that is, words that are famous. and they are positioned thanks to their frequent searches or multiple mentions. Some of the words and labels he used were: group selfie, bff, “like a boss”, love, “installed”, no filter… all of these managed to surprise and steal smiles from the Museum’s visitors.

Combining the sumptuousness, seriousness and luxury of a museum with the colloquial language of networks, was the perfect strategy to increase revenue by more than 70%, compared to the number of records in 2018.

Taking into account that the National Museum of Fine Arts of Brazil, located in the center of Rio de Janeiro, faced an unfavorable situation related to the absence of visitors, mainly from younger audiences, having implemented this strategy was the solution. to achieve the objective of increasing visits from this type of public. This campaign has been so successful that the Museum decided to extend it until 2020.

Additionally,  Hashtags of Arts turned them into a reference for those companies that fear incorporating digital issues into their strategies with friendlier, closer languages ​​and leaving aside the “should be”. Who would have imagined a historical painting from the 19th century exposed on a wall with close, fun and everyday words?

The capacity of the Museum of Fine Arts of Rio de Janeiro was not the only beneficiary of this campaign. The Museum’s social networks had a significant increase in their followers and interactions.  They went from two thousand followers, before starting the strategy, to more than eleven thousand with Hashtags of Arts.