SMAC (social, mobile, analytics and cloud) is the concept that the convergence of four technologies is currently driving business innovation.

SMAC enables a business to transit from traditional to digital business. The four technologies improve business operations and help companies get closer to the customer with minimal overhead and maximum reach. The proliferation of structured and unstructured data created by mobile devices, wearable technology, connected devices, sensors, social media, and website browsing is creating new business models built on customer-generated data. None of the four technologies can be an afterthought because it's the integration of social, mobile, analytics and cloud together that creates a competitive advantage and new business opportunities.

The technologies under the SMAC umbrella are as follows:

• Social: Social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat have provided businesses with new ways to reach, interact with, target and acquire customers. It has given rise to new marketing tactics such as viral marketing campaigns, and new data sources such as likes, reposts, hashtags and network connections.
• Mobile: Mobile technologies and platforms such as the iPhone and the iPad, have changed the way people communicate, shop and work. The introduction of connected devices and wearable devices, both of which rely on cheap sensors to generate and transmit data, are the basis for new business models and new services offered to customers.
• Analytics: Data analytics allows businesses to understand how, when and where people consume certain goods and services. It is also used as a predictive indicator for future customer behavior. As the cost for processing power and storage decreased, analytics became a top priority for companies. The open source project Apache Hadoop ushered in a new era of analytics called big data.
• Cloud: Cloud computing provides a new way to access technology and the data a business needs to quickly respond to changing markets and solve business problems. It ushered in a new way to build infrastructure, platforms and services. Amazon Web Services was one of the big disruptors in this space.

A pioneer in the tapestry of digital services, SMAC uses customer-provided data combined with existing loyalty programs, enterprise social media presence, and other functions while capitalizing on the popularity of cloud computing and mobile technology. SMAC enables enterprises to function as a consumer-driven digital business.

Recently, the Internet of Things (IoT), a network of connected devices that enables machine to machine communications, is often referenced in relation to SMAC, but exactly where it fits in is still up for debate. Some believe IoT belongs under the SMAC umbrella; others see IoT as an extension of the four already-established SMAC pillars.

NetFlix, the popular video company, was one of the few ones who adopted SMAC framework to achieve its ambition of fast growth and optimized operations. They took the decision to shift from traditional data center environment to cloud based setup in Amazon AWS Infrastructure. Netflix used all of the four components of the SMAC framework:

• Social: Users are encouraged to log in using their social media accounts that help the registration process faster thereby better user experience. Users can share their activity on their social media accounts so that they can share experience, reviews with their friends. Netflix continues to use social media to build and promote its brand. For example, the company creates original content, and by releasing an entire series of episodes at once, it triggers a social media buzz that gets customers talking and builds up a fan base.
• Mobile: Mobile technologies and platforms such as the iPhone and the iPad, have changed the way people communicate, shop and work. The introduction of connected devices and wearable devices are the basis for new business models and new services offered to customers. The videos both recorded and streaming is well architected for users to access on their mobile devices and laptops with uniform user experience across all devices.
• Analytics: Netflix can break down customer data analysis to such a granular level that its recommendation engine can personalize suggestions for individual family members who share the same account, a concept known as 1:1 marketing. Analytics helps to know the interests, preferences, and choices of video content of the users so that Netflix can optimize their digital library based on the customers demand.
• Cloud: Netflix draws upon up to 20,000 servers running in Amazon data centers. Using the potential of Amazon AWS cloud features, Netflix is able to spread its processing across many different data centers for data redundancy and distributed processing. The AWS cloud services help Netflix to safeguard themselves from possible infrastructure outages.

Assignment

Select a company in Mainland China, Hong Kong or Taiwan that has harnessed the SMAC (or part of SMAC) framework. Based on the concepts learnt in this course (e.g. Week 4: Hardware, Software and Mobile Systems; Week 6: The Big Data and Cloud Computing; Week 9: Social Media Information Systems etc.), analyze and evaluate the implementation of SMAC in the company in order to attain competitive advantage and explore new business opportunities. You should also make recommendations on the improvements and/or implementation of SMAC in the company in future.