I was recently invited to present as part of WEAF’s webinar series. Focusing on business innovation, my talk – “People power: enable digital transformation with mobile innovation” – showed different ways that organisations can foster digital transformation and cultural change by using mobile technology as a catalyst. 

In this article, I focus on the key messages from the presentation: 

• take advantage of mobile technologies to push forward your innovation agenda rapidly 
• include colleagues from across the business in the innovation process
• adopt familiar and lean agile approaches to drive innovation
• start your digital transformation through innovation workshops.

Calvium’s ‘Innovation Workshops’ are designed to support ambitious businesses by kickstarting the ideas generation process for their digital transformation journey. We tailor each workshop to a client’s needs; ensuring that collaboration, enthusiasm and pragmatism underpin the experience. The outcomes from each workshop are specific to the individual organisation and have the potential to make a positive change from the very start. 

As the world adapts to a more digital way of working, Calvium’s Innovation Workshops are a vital step for organisations wanting to thrive. 

Approaches to digital transformation

Digital transformation for business is understood in a variety of ways, which can be categorised broadly as evolutionary or revolutionary: 

• Evolutionary approach is for companies who want to see incremental gains, improve current processes and save time and money.
• Revolutionary approach is where you act as if your business is a start-up and reimagine your business from the ground up, with digital at the centre. 

As with any change to the norm, either approach will provide obstacles to achieving successful digital transformation. Fortunately, as Calvium has proven repeatedly through our innovation work with clients e.g. Rolls-Royce, using mobile technologies to drive change can put you in the fast-lane for business success.

Mobile as a catalyst for cultural change

The use of mobile technologies is the best solution to stimulate and enable cultural change and digital transformation. The presence of personal mobile devices in our everyday lives makes mobile non-threatening and familiar. Below are some examples of projects that Calvium has delivered to clients as part of their innovation strategies,  demonstrating how we can help bring digital transformation to your business using mobile technology: 

Augmented Reality

Hidden Florence 3D: San Pier Maggiore was a collaborative project that saw Calvium develop an app that utilises Augmented Reality (AR)  to place the user inside a reconstructed virtual model of the Church at San Pier Maggiore in Florence. The app was created to be used on multiple sites: from the National Gallery in London which houses the church’s altarpiece, to its original home in Florence, Italy, but it also works outside of these locations. The AR technology creates a truly immersive experience for users, bringing history to life.

Haptic technologies

Working in collaboration with Historic Royal Palaces on their project ‘The Lost Palace,’ Calvium’s ‘invention through emergence approach’ enabled us to identify and develop a bespoke product to service innovation, ‘The Script Engine’.  By using handheld bespoke devices, binaural 3D sound and haptic technology, we created an immersive experience for visitors with a tour that allows them to hear, touch and feel the past.

Image recognition 

Image recognition is a familiar technology. Calvium’s work with artist Marcus Lyon on his Somos Brasil project saw us develop an immersive app that uses image recognition to bring an interactive and multisensory dimension to his portrait exhibition and book. Users scan an image and this activates an audio interview with the subject. Unlike other audio guides that require scanning a barcode or entering a number, the technology in this app was quick to react – as simple as pointing at the image and listening. 

Remote control 

Smart lighting and HVAC controls manufacturers Danlers’s ‘ControlZAPP,’ is a remote lighting controller that allows a user to set up and programme lighting via their smartphone. This lighting app is an IoT controller and Calvium were able to develop the business offer of Danlers as well as provide an energy saving solution.

GPS & sensor input 

Calvium worked with Rolls-Royce to develop the innovative FOD app,  that utilises GPS & sensors to trace foreign object debris (FOD) on airfields, that can cause serious engine damage. The app has been designed to increase the effectiveness of FOD prevention activities, moving away from a manual, time-consuming task to a more streamlined process to improve productivity. 

As evidenced above, there is an extraordinary range of ways in which mobile technologies can be employed to enhance business performance. Critical to the success of any solution is buy-in from the whole team, at all levels of the organisation. By using mobile technology to open up ideas for change, a business is enabling all levels of the business to contribute as mobile is ubiquitous and familiar. The technology is not a barrier to innovation but an enabler. Members from the shop floor, the board, the C-Suite and IT can all become agents of change in the business – if the company culture embraces such collaboration. 

An agile approach 

Even before the outbreak of Covid-19, the aerospace industry has been moving increasingly towards adopting an agile approach to enable successful innovation strategies. Given its adaptability and capabilities to deliver early iterations, risks can be identified swiftly, reducing the chance of project failure.  

Calvium favours this agile approach and we apply the ‘Agile Scrum’ methodology when working on projects. By using this approach, we can move quickly, creating solutions and testing them with real users. Working iteratively, each solution improves through cycles of use, evaluation, refinement, security audit & production. 

Calvium’s innovation workshops

For businesses who want to take their next step into digital, Calvium’s Innovation Workshops are designed to stimulate ideation that’s inclusive of the whole team. By involving the whole team, the workshops can encourage buy-in to the change process and may also result in breakthrough projects or products. 

With a structured and creative approach, the workshops help organisations come up with new, concrete solutions that harness digital technologies to advance their business performance. By encouraging users to explore the idea of using mobile technologies to foster change, our innovation workshops can expand a business’ thinking and enable them to come up with practical solutions to enhance or radically transform the company. 

If your business is ready to take the next step on its digital transformation journey, please get in touch with Calvium at hello@calvium.com or call 0117 226 2000.