24/7 Software Blog

“Amazon really wants to come over to your house. Or at least make it to the front door,” writes Vanessa Romo in their recent NPR article entitled “Amazon Acquires Ring, Expanding Reach Into Home Security.”

According to Romo, “The Seattle-based tech giant announced Tuesday it's made another move into the home security and surveillance business, acquiring Ring, a smart-doorbell maker that streams audio and video to cellphones.”

“Neither company has released details about the deal but Reuters reported that it cost over $1 billion,” writes Romo.

The NPR piece continues that, “Amazon may have just officially put a ring on Ring, but the relationship between the two started through its Alexa Fund, which funnels money into companies that create new ways to integrate Amazon's voice technology into their products. In June, Ring announced they'd figured out how to connect select devices to work with Alexa on Echo Show and Fire TV.”

Do you see Amazon’s strategy here?

Yes, it’s probably “world domination.” (Just kidding)

But, that’s not what we’re referring to here.

We’ve recognized a grand strategy from Amazon’s acquisition that validates a point we’ve been talking about a lot lately.

So, do you see it?

It’s the push towards platform technology!

They’ve recognized a space that needs a platform (where everything talks to one another) to maximize the capabilities of their customers.

This play hit home for us.

Why? It’s literally written in our mission statement here.

We want to provide our customers with a platform that does a whole lot to help them achieve Proactive Operations.

Today, Amazon proved to us more than ever the value (and long-term importance) of this effort to bring a platform to our customers – and most important – their customers!

Are you using a platform to maximize your performance?

If not, we’ve got to change that starting today.

This year will be the year of the proactive operations platform.

You’re probably wondering how we know this.

Agree?

How can we predict the future?

It’s because operations are motivated to employ Proactive Operations, which makes a proactive operations platform the apparent answer.

You can’t apply the Proactive Operations methodology without the intention of maximizing your efficiency.

There’s no way around it.

A proactive operations platform takes your operation further.

There’s something special about operations management software that can enhance real-time communications, maximize experience, and reduce risk.

A characteristic exists that ‘brings everything together’ to take your property’s operation levels above its current performance state.

Do you know what that quality is?

It’s a unified solution for your property.

Think about it for a moment. How efficient is using multiple tools – from various vendors – to operate?

It’s not efficient in any way.

So many operations are still operating this way.

But, we know 2018 will be the year you move away from this method.

The current approach of using individual tools forces you to maintain a reactive state because you always depend on different applications to perform well.

It also means you’re relying on different vendors to remain effective.

That’s not proactive. That's terrifying. 

“A Wisconsin company is offering to implant tiny radio-frequency chips in its employees – and it says they are lining up for the technology,” according to Merrit Kennedy’s recent NPR article entitled “Wisconsin Company Offers To Implant Chips In Its Employees.”

Kennedy writes that “the idea is a controversial one, confronting issues at the intersection of ethics and technology by essentially turning bodies into bar codes. Three Square Market, also called 32M, says it is the first U.S. company to provide the technology to its employees.”

“The company manufactures self-service ‘micro markets’ for office break rooms. It said in a press release that obtaining a chip is optional, but expects that about 50 employees will take part,” explains the NPR piece.

Kennedy continues, “Employees who have the rice-grain-sized RFID chip implanted between their thumb and forefinger can then use it ‘to make purchases in their break room micro market, open doors, login to computers, use the copy machine,’ 32M said.”

According to the article, “CEO Todd Westby said that the company believes the technology will soon be ubiquitous.”

Here’s the quote from Kennedy’s article:

“An update from the Wild Wild West of fake news technologies: A team of computer scientists have figured out how to make words come out of the mouth of former President Barack Obama — on video — by using artificial intelligence,” writes Aarti Shahani in their recent NPR article entitled “Computer Scientists Demonstrate The Potential For Faking Video.”

Shahani writes that “if you've been on the Internet at any point in the last year, there's a good chance you've come across fake news articles. Soon we may see a wellspring of fake news videos.”

“As a team out of the University of Washington explains in a new paper titled ‘Synthesizing Obama: Learning Lip Sync from Audio,’ they've made several fake videos of Obama,” according to the NPR piece.

“Take, for example, a time that he discussed the Pulse nightclub shooter and said "the investigation is ongoing, but we know that the killer was an angry and disturbed individual who took in extremist information and propaganda over the Internet,” Shahani explains.

The NPR article continues that “Obama did, in fact, say these words. But the computer scientists were able to make it look like he said them in places different from where he actually did — in this instance, in a different room at the White House. Audio and video images could be manipulated to make it look like he said them at a different time — say as a much younger Obama.”

This video shows the variants the team created during their project:

“If Senate Republicans get their way, former Justice Department lawyer Christopher Wray will soon become the next director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” explains Carrie Johnson in their recent NPR article entitled “5 Questions For FBI Director Nominee Christopher Wray.”

According to Johnson, “Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, recently told reporters he hopes the nomination will ‘not languish’ and said it's his plan to get Wray confirmed before the August congressional recess.”

“But before any votes take place, Wray will have to face a series of questions about his background — and his backbone,” Johnson shares in the NPR piece.

According to Johnson, the following are the five questions Wray is expected to answer:

Today, we celebrate our independence.

Some of us celebrate Independence Day in the United States. But, all of us will be celebrating our independence from inefficiency by the end of this article.

Why?

We’re tired of inefficiencies that slow down and prevent good property operations from becoming the world’s greatest.

From one tool to run guest services to another tool to report incidents, to an entirely different tool for running your facility maintenance.

The list goes on, but we hope not much longer.

Are you running your property this way? What does it do to your team? How does your boss feel knowing they’re paying for several different systems that don’t even talk to one another?

It’s time for a unified solution.

Today is the day you declare your independence from the inefficiencies of using individual tools so you can finally employ Proactive Operations.

Are you ready to set off some high-flying fireworks as you declare your independence?

Let’s do it!