How Design Thinking and User-Centered Design Build Trust—Lessons from Designing Tucson Medical Center’s Digital Front Door

Posted on enero 23, 2025 by Hieu (Sam) To, Manager, UX/UI Design

Design thinking is about empathy—putting yourself in another person’s shoes to solve a problem they are facing. User-centered design is about, well, useability. It narrows in on the part of that solution that is tied to a digital or online experience, whether that’s a product, an application, or a website. The two concepts go hand-in-hand, and as Kopius went about building Tucson Medical Center’s (TMC Health) digital front door, both were at the forefront of our thinking. 

The reason? Trust.

It’s important for people to be able to trust their health care system and its providers. And we wanted to send that message loud and clear in every digital interaction. Empathy and useability were the keys.

Key Strategies for Overcoming Complexity

Healthcare can be complicated, overwhelming—even scary. A digital front door, which is an online portal or platform where a health care system, its staff, patients, and even their families or other caregivers, can easily interact and access the information, should be designed to make it less so. Design thinking and user-centered design drove every aspect of our approach to building the new site, which we did using the Payload content management system.

Among the many strategies we used, three stand out. First, every decision we made was centered on the user journey, which was a bit tricky, since there was more than one user. Second, we made access to critical information as straightforward as possible. And third, we used visual branding to simplify and guide users.

While these are particularly critical in a health care setting, they are truly universal and applicable when developing any digital product or solution.

1. Prioritize the User Journey—Even on the Backend

When developing any digital product, the user journey should always be your top priority. But in TMC Health’s case, they needed to welcome both new and established patients, and their journeys are very different. For example, new patients are often looking for educational and marketing materials about what the health system offers while returning patients need to quickly find specific services and providers, schedule appointments, etc. We had to create pathways for both.

Digging deeper, we realized those aren’t the only two user personas that matter. TMC Health’s team uses the site to upload and manage content. They had their own user journey that had to be addressed. Not only did we need to structure the backend so they could work efficiently, but we also needed to build guardrails so that they uploaded new content, they didn’t make changes that would impact the user experience.

Websites often must address the needs of more than one user persona, both on the front end and the back. You may not be able to tackle everything at once. That was the case with the TMC Health project, so we took a phased approach. First, we addressed the established patient journey, then the needs of new patients.

2. Make Sure Important Information is Just Two Clicks Away

TMC Health’s previous website grew to include more than 1,300 pages of content. It was a maze to navigate. Our challenge was to simplify it so people could find what they needed with minimal effort. We started by conducting a content audit and inventory, then we built a restructured site map with improved hierarchy that prioritized important information. We also condensed content and sunset out of date information. In the end, we were able to get those 1,300 down to about 400, so that no critical information was more than two clicks away.

Next, we turned our attention to TMC’s internal users. To make sure they could add necessary content without overwhelming the site or patients using it, we developed content writing guidelines tailored for healthcare that focus on clarity, accessibility, and relevance. Then, we streamlined the back end to make it simpler for content writers to manage and update information across the network and reduce the need for training. We also added formatting and character count limits in the CMS to ensure new content was concise and is easy to skim.

While finding the information you need fast is critical when your health is on the line, it’s true on any website. Many companies, especially in the business world, overcomplicate their sites—they want potential customers to spend time on it. But I would caution to pick your moments. Customers come to your site for many reasons—sometimes they need information fast, and other times they’re there to learn. Prioritize accordingly.

3. Use Visual Branding to Create Cohesiveness—and Differentiation

TMC Health is comprised of 10 clinics and facilities. On their previous site, these were all visually branded the same. Typically, consistent branding is a best practice, but in this case, it created confusion for users. Our challenge was to find a way to create alignment with the primary TMC Health brand structure while making it easy for people to quickly differentiate between locations. We solved this by developing an overarching color scheme and using different but visually related colors for each location. Importantly, though, we kept the page layout consistent so users could quickly find or navigate to the information they needed.

This situation isn’t exclusive to healthcare—large corporations with multiple lines of business often face similar challenges. The big takeaway here is that color can provide cohesiveness, but in a situation where everything else is consistent, it can be a differentiator that helps the user—in this case a patient—quickly understand that they are in the right place.

Design Thinking: Empathy Builds Trust

Patient care begins at the digital front door. It’s a healthcare system’s first opportunity to build trust and demonstrate the level of care people can expect throughout their healthcare journey, from routine family care to urgent help in an emergency. A digital front door built on a solid foundation of design thinking and that prioritizes the user journey, can make a real difference in moments that matter, perhaps even saving lives.

JumpStart Your Technology Project—and Stay on Track—with Kopius!

At Kopius, we harness the power of people, data and emerging technologies to build innovative solutions that help our customers navigate continual change and solve formidable challenges. To accelerate our customers’ success, we’ve designed a JumpStart program to prioritize digital transformation together.

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Increase Innovation with Kopius' JumpStart Program

Introducing Kopius Labs—Innovate and Scale Quickly and Cost Effectively with Our Blended Talent Teams

Posted on noviembre 5, 2024 by Diego Anfossi, Vice President of Delivery, and Matias Mazzucchelli, Managing Director

Everywhere you go, emerging technology like generative AI (GenAI) is top of mind. Organizations are wisely racing to incorporate it into their workflows to gain insights and efficiencies that will drive customer value and give them a competitive edge. But many of the fundamental challenges that faced IT and development teams prior to the advent of GenAI remain, and chief among them are simply bandwidth and budget. In fact, in the Skillsoft 2023-2024 IT Skills and Salary Report, more than 5,700 respondents identified resource and budget constraints as the number one challenge their organizations face. 

At Kopius, we hear this from our clients every day. Your senior team members are so bogged down with day-to-day responsibilities, they don’t have the time to address emergent business needs, much less innovate. But adding headcount is both time-consuming and costly. It takes time and effort to find the right people with the right skills. You don’t always have the budget for full-time staff, or you may only need extra help for a short period of time.

At Kopius, we are excited to introduce Kopius Labs, a new resourcing solution designed to meet you where you are, so you can quickly and cost effectively stand up a team for a pressing, usually short-term project.

Your Team, Your Way—Flexible and Cost-Effective Blended Talent Teams

If you’ve worked with Kopius before, you know our team of inspired realists is our superpower. What you might not realize is how much work we put in behind the scenes to identify the best talent. And we don’t stop there—we also provide continuing education to make sure they’re always at the top of their game. Our near shore, LatAm-based teams are a blend of experts in a broad range of technologies and principles, people with solid, mid-level experience, emerging talent fresh out of Kopius Academy, our certification program, and everything in between.

If you have a small project or short-term need, we can quickly and cost effectively stand-up a Kopius Lab—a team of people with blended levels of expertise, some who are between longer term projects, to close the gap.

Kopius Labs is a win-win for both you and our team members. You benefit from rapidly advancing design thinking, accelerated feature development, and groundbreaking R&D work, and our teams gain rewarding opportunities and valuable experience working on cutting edge projects. All of this is delivered through a cost-effective, blended team structure, ensuring high-impact results without the expense of high-priced resources.

Just tell us what problem you’re trying to solve, and we’ll spin up a custom Kopius Lab to resource it.

Kopius Labs—A Right-Sized Resource Solution

At Kopius, we’re still focused on digital leadership: developing digital products and custom applications powered by technology, data, and IoT. And we still deliver services through all our usual resourcing approaches: future-state workshops, end-to-end project delivery, managed services, and with embedded team members. Now, with the addition of Kopius Labs, we can help our customers quickly fill technical gaps between those larger scale and longer-term projects.

Here are just a few ways Kopius Labs can help:

Managing Daily Operations
Every company has operational upkeep—tasks you must do to keep things running smoothly. But it shouldn’t keep your senior team members from contributing where you need them most. Kopius can spin up a Lab to handle the everyday so you can use your team more effectively.
Addressing Emergent Needs
No matter how well you plan, something unexpected always comes up. Need to quickly ramp up your technical resources to handle an ad hoc project or augment your team during busy season?
Kopius can spin up a Lab so you can scale your team quickly.
Experimenting and Innovating
Sometimes, you just need to understand if something is the right approach for your company. Looking to explore a new idea, test something quickly, or whip up a quick proof of concept? Kopius, can spin up a Lab to make sure you’re headed in the right direction.

Kopius Labs is all about scale, flexibility, and speed—at a competitive price, of course.

Innovate and Scale—Quickly and Cost Effectively—with Kopius Labs!

At Kopius, we harness the power of people, data and emerging technologies to build innovative solutions that help our customers navigate continual change and solve formidable challenges. To accelerate our customers’ success, we’ve designed Kopius Labs so you can innovate and scale quickly and cost effectively

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Introducing AI-fueled CodeOps, Your Development Velocity Accelerator Solution

Posted on noviembre 5, 2024 by Rob Carek, Vice President, Client Solutions

There is so much intellectual consideration given to the application development lifecycle. 

Methodologies like Agile, DevOps, and DevSecOps, which are designed to drive more value by getting new features and enhancements to market faster, with fewer issues, are evidence of this. But very few people think about managing the code lifecycle, at least not beyond a single product. We often just accept the limitations and inefficiencies around code development.

AI-fueled CodeOps is here to change that.

CodeOps is designed to relieve developers of repetitive coding so they can focus on higher level work and accelerate the velocity at which they can get new features and enhancements to market.

Repetitive Coding—and Testing—Is Inefficient

Companies typically align development teams to a single product, and those teams rarely branch outside their own area of focus. The approach has both advantages and disadvantages. On the upside, developers have greater context for their work. They know their products and can build on code they created. The downside, especially for companies with multiple products, is that developers waste large amounts of time writing code that does things that already exist within other products. They’re writing code to do the same thing again and again.

It’s wildly inefficient.

And it’s just not developing code—it’s testing it, too. You develop the code, you develop the test code, you identify and address issues, you release, you fix bugs. The inefficiencies grow exponentially, especially across multiple products. You can see how this might open the company to greater exposure from a security standpoint, as well.

But what if you could find similarities between requirements, develop code to address them, and use it everywhere those requirements exist? What impact would it have on your company, customers, and development teams?

CodeOps Accelerates Velocity—and Value—at Scale

Enter CodeOps.

CodeOps is a methodology that prioritizes reuse of existing code wherever possible. Organizations can use it to reduce development time and get new products, features, and enhancements faster and more securely by reusing, repurposing, or building on code they already have. It entails adopting new ways of thinking, putting new practices and processes in place, and using technology like GenAI to match requirements with reusable, modular pieces of code stored in a code library, so new code is written only when it’s not in the library and/or is truly unique to a single product.

The obvious gains are consistency, efficiency, and security. Products are more structurally similar, and developers aren’t spending hours recoding the same thing dozens of times—or testing it. You already know it works. If your organization uses DevSecOps practices, you know security was a primary consideration in its development. And if there is an issue, once a patch is deployed, it is fixed everywhere it is in use.

But CodeOps is more than just an efficiency play. By using code from the library, even as a starting point, developers can put more time and effort into coding things that are going to have a big impact on your products—things that drive value to your customers and create value for your company. And from a developer’s perspective, that is more interesting, rewarding, and desirable work.

As with agile, DevOps, and DevSecOps, CodeOps requires cultural and process changes. Developers must adopt new ways of working, but they also must be willing to trust the code.

Ignite CodeOps Adoption with an External Catalyst

All the major code platforms—Jira, GitHub, Azure DevOps, Slack—are actively exploring how to integrate CodeOps into their solutions, and third-party tools are emerging, as well. They are all nascent, with some working better than others, which makes it difficult to determine which one will best serve you in the long run. In addition, adopting CodeOps is more than just bolting on a technology solution. Like Agile and DevOps before it, CodeOps requires a cultural shift. Developers must adopt a new mindset and new ways of working. And they must learn to trust the existing code modules enough to incorporate and build on them.

These technical, organizational, and cultural barriers make it challenging to figure out how to get started, especially when your teams have so much to do. Sometimes, it takes an external catalyst to make CodeOps real. At Kopius, we’ve developed a solution to help organizations adopt CodeOps without having to tackle the organization and cultural transformation or make a long-term commitment to a platform that is still figuring out its approach.

First, we use GenAI to intelligently review your backlog and identify commonalities in new requests. Next, we aggregate those requests and develop requirements to address them. Then, we develop code to cover the bulk of those commonalities and validate it with your developers to get their feedback and buy in. The code is stored in the code library and pushed to the right code repositories. Then, when you’re ready to tackle one of those new requests in a sprint, your developers simply pull the relevant code from the repository and use it as-is or as a starting point. As additional new requests come in, the process is repeated.

Companies gain the advantages that come with looking at code across their entire portfolio and maintaining it by feature and functionality, without disrupting existing development processes.

It’s a smart point of entry for any organization wanting to get started with CodeOps today.

CodeOps: A GenAI Approach to Working Smarter, Not Harder

Ultimately, CodeOps solves a fundamental problem that many organizations have—writing the same requirements and code for multiple products. It’s a hard challenge to overcome because the organizational constructs inherent in development teams lend themselves to a product-by-product approach.

But with a little help from GenAI and an external catalyst like Kopius developers can work smarter, not harder and accelerate the velocity at which they can deliver value.

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GenAI Is Coming for Coding in the Best Possible Way

Posted on octubre 28, 2024 by Kopius Editorial Board with Rob Carek

Rob Carek Explains Why CodeOps is a Win for Businesses, Customers, and Developers

Across the enterprise, in every industry vertical and every operational and functional area, organizations are racing to take advantage of Generative AI (GenAI). It’s already in use in 65% of organizations, according to a McKinsey Global Survey. For software companies, much of the focus has been on using GenAI to generate code. But the approach has challenges. Depending on the tool developers use, the code accuracy rate is only between 31% and 65%, according to a Bilkent University study. The general consensus is it’s buggy and poses hidden security risks.

But software companies and developers now have another meaningful approach to GenAI at their disposal—CodeOps. GenAI fueled CodeOps is an approach that now enables developers to reuse internally owned, fully approved, modular coding building blocks—systematically. And it’s driving a transformational shift that creates business and customer value, unburdens developers of mundane and repetitive coding, and enables them to innovate.

We sat down with Rob Carek, Vice President of Client Solutions at Kopius, to introduce you to CodeOps.

Tell me about CodeOps. What is it and what problem does it solve?

Modern software development processes are wildly inefficient. A fundamental challenge, at least for companies with more than one product or application, is that there’s no practical way to reuse code. So, if you have a suite of 20 products, and every single one of them has a similar feature, your development teams have built that feature 20 different times—and they do it differently, every single time. In theory, a human could pour over requirements and search code repositories to find commonalities and reuse existing code, but that’s just not practical—it would be far more work than just rebuilding it.

But with the advent of GenAI, code reuse is NOW an addressable problem.

CodeOps is a code reuse strategy, and GenAI is not only the enabler, but also the accelerator. The idea is that companies can now develop reusable, modular code and store it in a library or repository. Then, GenAI can be used to search for existing code to use or build on instead of developing everything from scratch.

What are the big benefits of CodeOps?

There are four big benefits that I see: efficiency, innovation, faster time to market, and security. From an efficiency standpoint, since existing code is being repurposed, companies can save a ton of development and testing time. And when you think about how that is amplified across a whole suite of products—well, the gains are almost exponential. And all the time they save, they can spend innovating—building new features and enhancements that are unique to a given product and require original code. It’s the more challenging and interesting part of a developer’s job and where they really want to spend their time, so there’s a human benefit. It also means that things that really move the needle get to market and in customers’ hands sooner.

From a security standpoint, anything in the library is proven code—you know it meets organizational security and compliance standards. But, again, the impact really comes at scale. If you push a patch, everything updates, every vulnerability is closed wherever the code is in use.

Is CodeOps compatible with DevOps and DevSecOps?

Absolutely. The goal of DevOps is to break down silos between development and operations so new products, features, and enhancements get to market faster, more efficiently, and with fewer issues. DevSecOps prioritizes security at every step of the process. But both practices are focused on code development at the product or team level. CodeOps addresses a need at the organizational level, across multiple products. By reusing code wherever possible, CodeOps amplifies DevOps and DevSecOps outcomes—new things get to market even faster, even more efficiently, and with even fewer issues.

How can organizations get started with CodeOps?

Many of the major code platforms are starting to explore CodeOps and looking for ways to integrate it into their solutions, but it’s still very early days. I anticipate the first place they will start is using LLMs to identify commonalities in requirements. That doesn’t account for developing code that fulfills those requirements, and it’s going to be a long while before we see integrated, searchable code libraries. But that doesn’t mean you have to wait until they figure it out to get started.

At Kopius, we’ve developed a solution companies can use to adopt CodeOps today. We use GenAI to look at your backlog and identify commonalities in new requests and aggregate them. Then, we develop requirements and develop code to address them and validate it. The code is pushed to your code repository so when you’re ready to work those requests into a sprint, your developers can access it. It’s a more organic way to build a library of existing, pre-approved code that doesn’t require your teams to operate any differently than they do now.

What will it take to get developers to adopt CodeOps?

Modern development practices are simply not designed for content reuse at scale—there’s no precedent for it. And culturally, developers will look at someone else’s code and think, “I wouldn’t have done it that way.” So, like DevOps, getting developers to adopt CodeOps is going to take cultural change. Kopius’ solution takes that into consideration. It’s a hybrid human / technology approach that builds trust and buy-in by actively engaging developers in reviewing requirements and code and providing feedback. That way, they’ve contributed to it and have more confidence in it.

And as I mentioned earlier, CodeOps frees developers from the repetitive and mundane—things that are table stakes, so they have more time for developing things that are truly innovative. It’s a win-win.

What’s the single, most important thing companies should know about GenAI-fueled CodeOps?

GenAI-fueled CodeOps isn’t just an incremental improvement. It’s a truly transformational shift that will enable organizations to develop code at speed and scale, drive value into customers’ hands at speed, and free developers from the burden of repetitive, mundane work so they can focus on innovating.

Ultimately, GenAI-fueled CodeOps makes the most of what both technology and humans bring to the table—and rapidly scales it.

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Two Smart Strategies for When Timeline and Budget Don’t Line Up with Project Deliverables

Posted on octubre 8, 2024 by Jim Darrin

Delivery Challenges Blog Series

Every technology project starts with an outcome—a business goal that needs to be achieved. But to achieve that goal, you need to define a set of deliverables, establish a timeline, and determine a budget. Rarely do the timeline and budget line up with the work that needs to be done. There are seldom enough dollars to put the number of people on the project necessary to bring the deliverables to life within the timeline. This is often because of how challenging it is to fully scope a project up front. No matter how thorough you are, new requirements come to light, resulting in scope creep.

Many companies will lean into project management to make everything come together. Smart—a solid PMO practice is the foundation on which all successful technology projects are built.

But you can’t always project manage your way out of this type of problem. That said, there are some things you can do.

Two Key Approaches to Use When Time and Budget are Out of Sync with Project Scope

One of the most complex technology consulting programs I’ve worked on was for a new company in the healthcare space. The budget was a swag from an investor’s presentation deck and was completely out of alignment with the six-month timeline for standing up ERP manufacturing system, provider and patient registration and management portals, and an ecommerce app. Rescoping the project wasn’t an option—if every compliance parameter wasn’t met within the given timeframe, the client would have to wait an entire year to reapply with the organization that had program oversight. In the end, we met the timeline, stayed on budget, and our client was awarded the contract they were after.

We used two key approaches to make it happen. First, we brought all the right stakeholders to the table early to develop standard operating procedures (SOPs). And second, we used those SOPs, as well as compliance guidelines, to build and validate wireframes before standing up MVPs. Then we validated those before coding the actual apps.

Engage the Hive Mind

At the beginning of the initiative, we brought all the key stakeholders together for a series of workshops—one for each app we had to deliver. Every department that had a say was represented—product, engineering, sales, marketing, manufacturing, and legal. Not only did we have a binder on hand detailing hundreds of pages of compliance regulations, but we also had someone on hand who knew them inside and out. Collectively, we walked through every aspect of each app, developing standard operating procedures, strawmen, and requirements.

This hive mind approach meant we could problem solve, make decisions and come to agreements at speed and minimized our chances of going down the wrong path.

My Take

When timeline and budget aren’t in line with the work that needs to be done, you can’t afford to make mistakes. Get the people who hold the answers to your questions in a room and map out your requirements. At Kopius, we call these JumpStarts, and they may take a few days or a few weeks. Then, continue to check in with the same stakeholders at every critical juncture to validate your work.

“Measure once. Cut twice.”

For me, the project management equivalent of “measure once, cut twice,” is wireframes first, MVP second, coding third. And at each of these stages, you need to bring your stakeholders together to validate your work. For the healthcare project, once we had a thorough list of requirements, our UI/UX developed wireframes that we validated with the same group of stakeholders we initially brought to the table. This allowed us to identify and work through any potential issues up front. Then, once the wireframes were validated, we stood up MVPs for each app so stakeholders could walk through the basics of each process and validate it. Only then did we dive deep into coding all the features and functionality for the first release.

My Take

When timeline and budget aren’t in line with the work that needs to be done, the inclination can be to jump right into coding. A better approach is to double down on validating your path forward through JumpStart workshops and wireframing. This will minimize errors—and added time and costs—in the long run.

Expect the Unexpected

No matter how thorough you are in developing your requirements, there are going to be some “ahas” along the way. You have to expect the unexpected and remain flexible. But being flexible doesn’t mean saying yes to everything. Scope creep can derail a project from both a timeline and budget standpoint. For this project, we managed that by getting everyone to agree to a light phase one for each application, then planned to iterate, releasing new features every two weeks after launch.

Looking Ahead: The GenAI Approach

Like many technology companies, Kopius is actively integrating generative AI (GenAI) into our processes, and I’m working on a set of custom GPTs that I believe can make a difference when time and budget are out of sync with requested deliverables. By entering business and technical requirements into it—maybe even a transcript from a discovery session—and asking it to generate common use cases that serve as starting points for designing application features, we can streamline the work involved in building new apps. The prompt engineering requires a lot of up-front effort, but once that initial lift is done, we’ll be able to use it again and again.

Undoubtedly GenAI will deliver thousands of small efficiencies like this, but it’s only part of the equation. The time / budget / scope challenge is an inherent part of software development, and solving it is always going to take a multi-faceted approach.

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Setting up a Data Lake is More Achievable Than You Think. Here’s What You Need to Know.

Posted on agosto 21, 2024 by Michael Rounds

The demand for data lakes is growing. Fast.

The data lake market will generate revenues of more than $86 billion by 2032, driven in part by IoT-dependent verticals like manufacturing, healthcare, and retail, according to Polaris Market Research. A data lake is a centralized repository for storing all your raw data, regardless of source, so you can combine it, visualize it, and even query it. It is essential for any organization wanting to take advantage of generative AI, now or in the future. But if you’re planning to implement one—or just want to get your data out of silos and into the cloud—it’s important to get it right.

At Kopius, we have helped a fair number of companies whose first try at setting up a data lake didn’t yield the kind of results they were looking for to get projects back on track. Given that risk, it’s no surprise that we also talk with companies that are wondering if it’s worth it.

The answer is a resounding yes.

When properly implemented, putting your data in a data lake or similar environment will enable you to better meet customer needs, solve business problems, get products to market faster, more closely manage your supply chain, and even unearth insights about your business that a human might not even be able to see.

And setting one up doesn’t have to be a long, arduous journey—think of it as more of a quick trip.

Data Lakes Deliver Strategic Advantages: Insights at Speed

Whether you’re moving your data from an internal SQL or other server to Cloud or already have your data in one or more disparate cloud applications, putting all that raw data into a data lake has strategic advantages. Chief among them, and the one that is top of mind for many organizations, is that it is an essential first step in preparing yourself to take advantage of generative AI, (GenAI), which requires raw data in a modern environment.

Another big advantage of data lakes is simply speed. Once all your data is in a data lake, you can set up pipelines to ingest and structure it. You don’t have to go through the tedious process of standardizing or normalizing it to build dashboards or reports or do whatever you need to do. It’s a much faster process than your old SQL server or whatever solution you’re using now. For example, a global healthcare consulting and services company we worked with spent months coding a pipeline to ingest data they needed for a process that took three to four hours to run. Once we implemented their data lake, we set up a couple of pipelines in just two weeks to support the activities they were already doing, with processing time of just minutes.

As fast as businesses move today, all that speed gives you a competitive advantage.

A Data Lake Isn’t the Endgame

Implementing a data lake isn’t the end game—it’s a starting point. It’s just one of several critical components in an overarching, long-term data strategy. Data must be structured—formatted so you can visualize it, query it, or do whatever it is you need to do. So even though it’s somewhat straightforward to stand up a proof of concept, it’s important to know what your endgame is. You’ll need to have some big picture idea of how you want to use your data, because that informs what solution set is best for you. And the market for solutions is both somewhat nascent and already very complex.Fortunately, at Kopius, we have a process for walking you through all these important considerations to find a point of departure or move you further along the data maturity path, including helping you narrow down what your endgame is. It’s designed to get you on the right path up front, so you get the outcomes you are looking for.

Jumpstart Your Data Lake Initiative with a Proof of Concept

At Kopius, we harness the power of people, data, and emerging technologies to build innovative data lake solutions that help our customers navigate continual change and solve formidable challenges. To accelerate our customers’ success, we’ve designed a JumpStart program to prioritize digital transformation together.

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Looking Down the Innovation Curve: IoT, Data, and AI

Posted on julio 30, 2024 by Jim Darrin

One of the earliest known instances of IoT being used for remote monitoring took place at Carnegie Mellon University in 1982. A Coke® vending machine was connected to ARPANET, a forerunner of the Internet, to keep track of how cold the sodas were and whether the machine was full. This notion of collecting data from an end point and sending it to a network to monitor a device is as valid a use case now as it was then. In fact, it’s at the heart of an initiative we work on with the Gates Ventures—monitoring fixed and mobile refrigeration units in remote locations to ensure the vaccines stored in them remain safe to use.

Today, however, IoT is much more than this.

IoT has grown into a massive industry that spans virtually every vertical. In fact, McKinsey estimates that by 2030, the economic potential of IoT could rise as high as $12.5 trillion globally. It plays a critical role in industries as broad ranging as energy management, healthcare, agriculture, and retail. But IoT is only one piece of a much larger data strategy. It’s no longer just about monitoring endpoints and measuring activities. It’s about gaining insight, solving business problems, and driving better outcomes.

Why a Data Strategy Matters

To move from monitoring endpoints to driving outcomes, you must establish a solid, overarching data strategy around all your relevant data sources, including IoT devices. You will need to explore how to combine data from disparate sources, determine where to store it, for instance in a data lake, decide how best to structure it to make it queryable, and address how to visualize it. You will also need to put appropriate data governance and security policies in place.

These decisions will serve as the bedrock on which your ability to use and manage your data in the future will be built. To ensure that it is a strategy that supports long-term business agility, you would be well served by collaborating with an external partner with deep domain expertise in structuring and visualizing data who can help you explore challenges your organization is likely to encounter in the future and how will need to access and use its data to address them.

Developing a data strategy and structuring your data, is not a one-and-done project. It is a journey—you will need to put processes in place to manage your assets over time. Where you are on that journey, essentially your level of data maturity, determines your point of departure. For instance, organizations taking early steps may need a business intelligence solution like PowerBI, while others that are farther along may be ready for a data lake or solution like Snowflake that leverages a type of SQL database better suited to support AI applications.

The Impact of AI on IoT

Looking down the innovation curve, AI in general, and generative AI (GenAI) in particular, will have a significant impact on the IoT ecosystem. AI will enable edge computing, which means data can be stored and used much closer to the actual IoT device, whether it is a component of a smart grid or a robot, so it can autonomously respond in real time to changing environmental conditions. Further, by layering AI and GenAI applications on top of your structured data, you will be able to use natural language to query it to find insights that humans would not ordinarily be able to see.

Increasingly today, and well into the future, IoT, Data, and AI will serve as three-legged stool that organizations can build on to gain deep insight into their business, make data-informed decisions, and ultimately drive better outcomes.

And virtually every industry can benefit from it.

What’s the Next Step on Your IoT, Data, and AI Journey?

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Beyond the Sensor—IoT as a Starting Point for Solving Your Organization’s Most Pressing Tech Challenges

Posted on junio 21, 2024 by Jim Darrin

Man in a hard hat reviewing data on a tablet

Across virtually every industry, in healthcare, industrial, retail and other settings, IoT is a go-to way of monitoring everything from user behavior, to equipment to the environment. It can even be used to keep track of what’s happening within our bodies. But the bigger question is why? Why are you monitoring those endpoints, and what problem are you trying to solve? Fundamentally, IoT is about data, and it’s often just a starting point. It is part of a large ecosystem of other data sources and technologies that you can bring to bear to solve your organization’s—and in some cases, the world’s—most pressing challenges.

And in fact, long-term, sustainable solutions often extend beyond technology. People and processes may be at the root of your challenges, and you will need to look beyond the sensor to effect change.

From When to Why: How IoT Brought a People and Practices Issue to the Forefront

Case in point: a leading lumber company’s door manufacturing business was among its most profitable segments. They were looking to increase their return on investment by making their machines more productive. That meant finding ways to make them run faster and reduce idle time. They reached out to Kopius, and as a first step, we worked with them to put sensors on their machines so we could pull data to better understand when they were idle and for how long. It was valuable information, but to increase productivity, we needed to understand why they were idle.

It wasn’t because of mechanical issues. Instead, the answer had to do with the way orders are processed and initiated for manufacturing, which is a people and process issue. The company’s order fulfillment process was largely manual. When an order came in, a physical bill of material was created, then someone walked it over to the area of the facility dedicated to door manufacturing. Often, they were pulled away, distracted by a more time sensitive task or by a coworker. In other cases, materials for the doors would get delivered to the wrong area. So, to solve the problem of humans being prone to error, we recommended a change management process and leveraged automation to support better tracking of materials. The expected impact was a 40% increase in production and $50M increase in annual revenue for the door division.

For this company, the initial request for IoT sensors was just the starting point for long term efficiency, agility, and sustainability. It sparked ongoing discussions that have opened a world of possibilities for what other insights could be gleaned from their data. What kinds of sensors would generate data that would help them predict when their equipment needed servicing? How could they lay a foundation for storing and structuring their data so when the time is right, they can leverage AI to gain insights into their business that humans can’t see?

A Problem-First, Technology Second Approach

This experience underscores my initial point. IoT is just one element of a larger ecosystem of technology, data, and process improvements that can be brought to bear to solve your business challenges. If you stay focused on the why—your underlying business problem—and let that guide your technology approach, you can take your business farther, faster.

JumpStart IoT Success

Innovating technology is crucial, or your business will be left behind. Our expertise in IoT technology and business helps our clients deliver tangible outcomes and accelerate growth. At Kopius, we’ve designed a program to JumpStart your customer, technology, and data success.

Kopius has an expert emerging tech team. We bring this expertise to your JumpStart program and help uncover innovative ideas and technologies supporting your business goals. We bring fresh perspectives while focusing on your current operations to ensure the greatest success.

Partner with Kopius and JumpStart your future success.

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Elevating Customer Experience Through Digital Transformation

Posted on julio 28, 2023 by Kopius

With customers having countless options at their fingertips, the importance of delivering seamless customer experiences cannot be overstated. Offering a great product or service is no longer enough. In today’s fast-paced online world, businesses must go above and beyond to ensure each touchpoint in the customer journey is exceptional if they want to stand out from the competition. One key solution that has emerged to help companies stay relevant and meet growing customer expectations is digital transformation. IBM defines digital transformations as a customer-driven, digital-first strategy that uses “AI, automation… and other digital technologies to leverage data and drive intelligent workflows… that drive faster and smarter decision-making.” But why should companies who are looking to improve the customer experience invest in digital transformation? The benefits of shifting to a digital-first business model are plentiful, impacting those both inside and outside of the organization. Let’s delve deeper into how adopting a digital transformation strategy can supercharge the customer experience and benefit your business.

Offer Seamless Omni-Channel Experiences

Meeting and exceeding customer expectations requires delivering a consistent and continuous experience, regardless of which channel they choose to utilize. By integrating mobile applications, social media, websites, and other online platforms, digital transformations allow customers to interact with businesses through their preferred channels. Providing this level of convenience means customers can start their journey on one channel and easily continue to another without skipping a beat.

Deliver Personalization and Customization to Increase Customer Engagement

Research by Accenture showed that 91% of customers preferred brands that offered relevant offers and recommendations. Digital transformations help businesses unlock the power of customer data, by collecting and analyzing vast amounts of information to derive meaningful insights in a matter of seconds. By tapping into advanced data analytics and artificial intelligence, companies can gain valuable knowledge about buying behavior, preferences, and trends. This helps pave the way for targeted promotional campaigns, individualized interactions, and tailored product recommendations, cultivating elevated customer satisfaction.

Decrease Downtime, Increase Efficiency

Inquiries, requests, or the occasional complaint are inevitable, but how your business handles them can be a make or break for your customer. Swift and efficient customer service and support is a must. Digital transformations empower businesses to optimize processes and minimize response times, resulting in expedited customer interactions. Through automation technology, AI-powered chatbots, and self-service options, companies can deliver immediate support around the clock. Thus, customers are able to engage with brands at their desired time and place.

Digitally transforming the customer experience is a necessity for businesses wanting to thrive in the digital era and offer seamless, tailored experiences. Ensuring speed, customization, and convenience across multiple channels leads to improved customer satisfaction and loyalty, driving tangible return on investment (ROI) for your brand. Are you ready to elevate your customer experience to new heights? Contact Kopius so we can create remarkable customer experiences that will drive your goals and revenue forward!

JumpStart Your Digital Transformation

Innovating technology is crucial, or your business will be left behind. Our expertise in technology and business helps our clients deliver tangible outcomes and accelerate growth. At Kopius, we’ve designed a program to JumpStart your customer, technology, and data success.

Partner with Kopius and JumpStart your future success.

Designing for Good: User-Centered Design

Posted on febrero 2, 2022 by Kopius

We’re talking about user-centered design because ideas succeed when they translate to products, services, and experiences that users love.

So what does “user-centered design” really mean, and why is it so important right now?

To understand user-centered design, look back to the time when digital products didn’t focus on the user experience like they do today. Just 10 years ago, digital products like websites, apps, and software didn’t need to perform on multiple screen sizes or resolutions because devices were mostly standardized. Companies could create a version of their digital product for desktop devices, a distinct version for phones, and possibly another version for tablets. Many companies didn’t address accessibility and they primarily designed digital products for a single operating system. As a result, many users found technology frustrating, hindering, and downright irritating, which hindered adoption.
Kelly La Belle, Designer

A great product is a product people want to use.

Thankfully, companies addressed the user frustration, and the design process for digital products has been evolving to prioritize users ever since.

People value products that are easy to use, simple to set up, and have a logical progression. User-centered design isolates the users’ specific needs down to granular steps, then we design to be aesthetically pleasing and intuitive. To really understand the users, the design process requires user research, which can include user surveys, brainstorming, testing, and more.

There is no single approach to user-centered design. Most digital products have unique experiences that require unique solutions. An investment in a great user experience and user interface design can make the difference between success and failure.

Products that incorporate user-centered design have been proven to:

Cut down on customer service costs. More intuitive workflows result in less customer frustration and fewer service calls.
Increase sales. Customers conduct research before committing to a new product or service so first impressions online are key. A few bad online reviews about your product will result in lost sales. Rather than hire a PR firm to fix your product’s reputation, invest in a great user experience upfront to reduce the cost of sale.
Reduce lawsuits. Companies can be held legally responsible if their digital products aren’t usable for people with disabilities. Having an inaccessible digital product is in the same vein as having an inaccessible storefront. User-centered design will address accessibility as a top priority.

User-centered design is popular because it works. The digital landscape is constantly changing, so keep the user at the center of the change to ensure a great product and strong business.

Contact Kopius to JumpStart Your Success Today

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