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In this issue:

  * Smart Dust
  * Sun's New Software Strategy
  * The Myth of the Product Benefit
  * A New VALS(TM) Resource
  * Goals in Bioelectronics
  * Integration: The Key to Next-Generation Learning
  * Simplicity in Financial Services
  * Signals of Change
  * Prospects for Micro Fuel Cells in Portable-Intelligence
      Devices
  * Proactive Responses to Public Concerns
  * Enterprise-Application Vendors in the eLearning
      Marketplace
  * Presentations and Press


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(Full text of SRIC-BI publications is available to
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---------------------
 Recent Publications
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Smart Dust

Researchers are eager to make devices smarter as well as 
smaller. A hot topic in this area is "smart dust": small, 
low-cost, wireless devices, or motes, that not only can 
monitor measurands and communicate with each other but also 
can form networks that are self-organizing and self-healing. 
Such sensor networks could lower costs, open myriad business 
opportunities, and possibly usher in true, real-world 
pervasive computing. (Smart Dust: Self-Organizing Wireless 
Sensor Networks)
http://www.sric-bi.com/Scan/ScanMonthly/SM008.shtml#D03-2447


Sun's New Software Strategy

Sun Microsystems has launched an aggressive software 
strategy that will likely bring the company into direct 
conflict with Microsoft and IBM. In contrast to the current 
sales strategy, which requires users to buy individual 
applications and subsequent add-ons and upgrades, the new 
strategy offers a combination of new and rebranded products 
in one software package. Sun believes that this approach 
will cut the cost and complexity of the current computer 
environment. (October 2003 Component-Based Software 
Engineering Viewpoints)
http://www.sric-bi.com/Explorer/CBSE.shtml


The Myth of the Product Benefit

The idea that products have predetermined benefits that 
appeal to the general consumer population is largely a myth. 
In fact, a benefit for consumers in one segment of the 
market can be a cost or disadvantage for consumers in a 
different segment. Moreover, one product feature can, over 
time, transmogrify from a benefit to a disadvantage for a 
particular user. (The Mythical Product Benefit)
http://www.sric-bi.com/Scan/ScanMonthly/SM008.shtml#D03-2446


A New VALS(TM) Resource

SRIC-BI's VALS consumer psychographic segmentation system 
offers a rigorous and scientific treatment of the 
psychological differences and similarities between consumers 
and analyzes how these differences and similarities affect 
consumers' choices. In a new handbook for students, 
professors, and others interested in the psychological 
attributes and demographics that underlie consumer decision 
making, VALS analysts describe the system's eight consumer 
types; highlight the characteristic attitudes, activities, 
and behaviors of each type; and offer a case study to 
illustrate how organizations can apply VALS insights. 
("Understanding U.S. Consumers" is available for $50 plus 
shipping.)
http://www.sric-bi.com/VALS/bookstore.shtml


Goals in Bioelectronics

So far, commercial progress in integrating biological 
entities with electronics has been slow. Taking applications 
to market will require long development timelines and 
considerable financial resources. However, the market 
potential of bioelectronics applications is huge, 
particularly in medical applications. Using biomolecules as 
building blocks for higher-level functional devices, 
researchers will be able to create recognition or sensing 
devices, such as biosensors, as well as biofuel cells that 
use substances in the body to generate energy to power 
implantable devices. (Bioelectronics: Integrating 
Biomolecules with Electronics)
http://www.sric-bi.com/Scan/ScanMonthly/SM008.shtml#D03-2448


Integration: The Key to Next-Generation Learning

Most learning and knowledge environments in today's large 
organizations are a hodgepodge of platforms and 
technologies. This situation will be increasingly 
unsustainable as learning activities play a greater role in 
work processes and as workers require greater access to--and 
the ability to reuse--a variety of digital learning content. 
One key to better learning will be close integration of 
eLearning, digital-content management, and knowledge 
management. (LoD Bulletin, Third Quarter 2003)
http://www.sric-bi.com/LoD/bulletins.shtml


Simplicity in Financial Services

By offering customers a steady stream of complex product 
offerings, many financial-services providers are overlooking 
their customers' oft-expressed desire for simplicity in 
their financial affairs. This desire will only intensify as 
people have less and less time for everything they want to 
do. Success will go to the financial-services companies that 
recognize consumers' need for a trusted financial 
relationship that enables them to simplify and consolidate 
their finances. (KISS: Keep It Short and Simple)
http://www.sric-bi.com/CFD/MRsummaries/MR.VI-05.shtml


Neural Networks and the Sensor Web

"Smart dust" and "sensor webs" may become an important 
application area for neural networks. Researchers foresee 
the possibility that hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of 
small sensor nodes will be able to act intelligently as a 
network and to communicate wirelessly. So far, researchers 
have been able to deploy prototype sensor webs over specific 
geographic areas to gather environmental information. 
(October 2003 Neural Networks Viewpoints)
http://www.sric-bi.com/Explorer/NN.shtml


Signals of Change

Interactive TV, wireless billboards, and camera phones are 
all blazing trails in advertising techniques by enabling 
users to take part in ads rather than just passively viewing 
them. The latest issue of Scan Monthly looks at this 
advertising development along with several other signals of 
change, including China's push to globalize its brands, 
companies' interest in tapping into the insights of their 
active shareholders, and the emergence of so-called branded 
generics in the pharmaceuticals industry. (Scan Monthly, 
October 2003)
http://www.sric-bi.com/Scan/ScanMonthly/SM008.shtml#SoCs


Prospects for Micro Fuel Cells in Portable-Intelligence 
Devices

The past year has seen a flurry of activity as manufacturers 
of portable devices and developers of technologies that 
relate to portable fuel cells pursue the vision of 
portable-intelligence (PI) devices with battery lives of up 
to 12 hours. Nonetheless, hype and media buzz have clouded 
efforts to determine the real prospects of micro fuel cells 
in PI devices, with some companies making claims of market 
entry in 2004. A more realistic time frame is 2005-06, even 
assuming that micro fuel cells meet performance 
expectations. (October 2003 Portable Intelligence 
Viewpoints)
http://www.sric-bi.com/Explorer/PI.shtml


Proactive Responses to Public Concerns

Companies have traditionally managed issues reactively, 
waiting until public controversy, litigation, or government 
regulation turns issues into crises. In today's environment 
of deregulation, consumer sensitivity, a 24-hour news cycle, 
and improved measurement technologies, some companies are 
leading the way in proactive issues management, seeking to 
identify and resolve issues before they attract the 
attention of public and advocacy groups. (Managing Issues: 
Proactive Responses to Public Concerns)
http://www.sric-bi.com/Scan/ScanMonthly/SM008.shtml#D03-2449


Enterprise-Application Vendors in the eLearning Marketplace

In the past two years, vendors of software suites for 
enterprise-resource planning, customer-relationship 
management, and other enterprise applications (EAs) have 
stepped up their efforts to bring eLearning products to 
market and win major customers. Some large customers in turn 
are adopting learning-management systems from their 
preferred providers of EA suites. The new posture of EA 
vendors has major implications for eLearning vendors as well 
as their customers. (Enterprise-Application Vendors in the 
eLearning Marketplace)
http://www.sric-bi.com/LoD/summaries/EntAppVendors2003-10.shtml


-------------------------
 Presentations and Press
-------------------------

* Americans are increasingly blurring the lines between work
  and leisure, forcing financial-services companies to
  rethink the way in which they define retirement and design 
  financial products for the new breed of retiree. On
  20 October 2003, CBS.MarketWatch.com ran an article
  discussing work in this area by SRIC-BI's Consumer
  Financial Decisions group and presenting highlights from
  an interview with Larry Cohen, CFD's director. ("New
  Retiree Signals Need for New Financial Products")

* Companies whose success hinges on technology application
  must have an explicit strategy that drives technology
  development and transfer, and they must continually strive
  to fill performance gaps in processes and capabilities. In
  a management briefing, "Applying Best Practices to
  Technology Management," Dave Button, vice president of
  SRIC-BI, outlines the efforts of an oil-company client to
  improve its technology delivery for business-unit
  performance.
  http://www.sric-bi.com/consulting/briefings.shtml

* Barbara Heydorn, senior consultant and SRIC-BI's
  fuel-cells analyst for Explorer, will give the opening
  remarks at California's Fuel-Cell Industry symposium on
  16 November 2003. The Northern California Chapter of the
  Institute of Chemical Engineers will host the event at the
  San Francisco Hilton.
  http://www.sric-bi.com/news.shtml

* Carrie Hollenberg of SRIC-BI's VALS(TM) Program will
  present "The Advantages of Market Segmenting Using
  Psychological Mind-Sets" to the Fitness Supplier
  Invitational in February 2004. The conference audience
  will include owners of private health clubs like American
  Family Fitness and Gold's Gym as well as industry
  suppliers such as Cybex International and Schwinn.
  http://www.sric-bi.com/news.shtml


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