Enter the new Wii U controller:

The centerpiece of the new console, the new controller, borrows a few ideas from everywhere while at the same time is unlike anything seen before.  My first thought was “wow, its a gigantic Nintendo DS!” followed immediately by “no wait, the controller is a tablet!”  It turns out it’s actually a bit of both.  The new controller features a large touch screen which can be used as a secondary display to the primary TV screen.  Pretty cool I thought, although I’ve seen this before in my old Sega Dreamcast and it’s Visual Memory Unit (remember when you could pick plays in NFL 2K on your controller?  Revolutionary!) .  It wasn’t until I saw video of the new controller in action that I realized the power of what it could do.

Check out this video of the New Controller in action

In the video, the player is playing a game, then switches to watching TV while the game is transferred to the screen on the controller.  Next you see  him holding the controller in front of him while using the controller’s screen as a targeting cursor for targets on the TV.  In another demo,  a player lays the controller with a golf ball on the screen on the floor then swing at the ball which launches it into the TV display.  So the controller screen is not only a secondary display, but an extension of another device.  We have convergence!  I love the idea of two technologies interfacing with each other.  This is when I started getting excited.  But my geek senses really started tingling when I came to the idea that the controller is a tablet, but a tablet can be a controller.  And then all sorts of ideas began popping into my head.

Think of using a tablet as an extension and controller for all sorts of devices.  You could use your tablet to change channels or transfer the current show to the tablet to allow someone else to watch something.  Perhaps you the tablet could interface with your oven so you could get a video feed of what you were baking, as well as temperature and timer information (as a baker, this would really be awesome). Or let’s say you were working on a slide show presentation on your computer to show a customer.  You could swipe to bring the presentation down to your tablet, then when you are displaying the presentation to the customer,  you could just swipe and transfer the display to a larger screen.

But wait!  Little did I know that Apple has already developed a tablet/television control system.  Apple’s AirPlay allows an iPad to interact with an Apple TV by streaming music or video.  You could be watching a movie on your iPad and then tap the little AirPlay icon and have the video display on your television.  I think this is a great first step on the road to convergence and would love to see its capabilities expanded.  The catch is of course is that you need an Apple TV for this to work just as you’ll need a Wii U for the new Wii controller.  One can hope that in the future that a standard will be in place to allow any tablet to interface with any compatible devices.  Sort of like BlueTooth, but on steroids.

With the Wii U not due out in until 2012, it will be a while before we see if this idea fades away or if it catches on to become one of the next big things in technology.  Certainly I would hope it becomes a reality, as I’ve burned too many things in the oven while working on a presentation and watching TV.

“TargetAdvantage takes prescribing data to the next level, focusing not on what physicians did but why they did it. We feel strongly that this is a key component in effective targeting, which is why we’re excited to team up with Skura. Their state-of-the-art Sales Enablement services reach a large number of clients that are serious about managing and nurturing interactions with customers. TargetAdvantage will add significantly to Skura’s ability to deliver personalized content and ultimately improve customer relationships,” Stated Craig Scott, CEO TargetRx.

“Our partnership with TargetRx represents a significant step forward in our goal to continually improve our Skura SFX users overall sales effectiveness.” states Jeff Wessinger, President of Skura Corporation. “Enabling Skura SFX users with instant connectivity to the TargetRx solution and its wealth of information in an easy to use and intuitive application will undoubtedly strengthen the user relationships with their targeted physicians.”

About Skura:

Founded in 1996, Skura has grown into an international company with satisfied customers around the globe. Headquartered in Oakville, Ontario, Skura also has offices in the US and Europe. Skura clients benefit from our unique value proposition as a provider of Sales Enablement solutions.  As a recognized leader of software products and services, like the SFX™ Suite, Skura holds an envied reputation as an award winning provider of innovative sales and marketing solutions. To learn more about SKURA SFX™ and the entire SKURA SFX™ Sales Enablement suite please visit www.skura.com or contact sales@skura.com.

About TargetRx:

TargetRx provides pharmaceutical and biotech companies with unique insight into the true drivers of product choice and adoption for their brands, helping clients to confidently take the actions that will grow their businesses and help patients. Serving the majority of the top 30 pharmaceutical and biotech companies, TargetRx enables clients to significantly improve the launch of new products and indications, physician segmentation and targeting, creation of professional messaging and materials, and sales and marketing execution and effectiveness. All TargetRx solutions are powered by our AdvantageBuilderSM normative database and validated predictive models, created from capturing in-depth physician attitudes on the “four forces” of prescribing – product, payor, promotion and patient – on new launches, marketing campaigns and physician-rep interactions on over 500 pipeline and inline brands and modeling these attitudes against actual prescribing behavior. For more information, visit www.targetrx.com.

It is currently available for Pre-Order at Best Buy.

The SKURA SFX Sales Enablement suite delivers sales content management (SFX Viewer™), personal and non-personal cloud presentation delivery (SFX Webflow™), and predictive analytics (Channel Mix Optimizer™) through intuitive and addictive interfaces. “Today we are extremely excited to announce the addition of SFX Connections to our SFX Sales Enablement product suite.” Stated Jeff Wessinger, President of Skura Corporation. “This application provides field force sales reps with easy mobile access to relevant account and customer information.”

“SKURA SFXsuite is a game changing all-in-one sales enablement solution that will help your organization hone value propositions and improve client relationships by delivering the right information, to the right person, at the right time, to make the most of every sales opportunity.” states Chris Skura, CEO Skura Corporation.

Dale Hagemeyer, Managing VP at Gartner Inc. has completed a FIRST TAKE – “Skura Seeks to Transform Life Sciences Market Through Sales Enablement”. Please visit www.gartner.com to access the complete article.

To learn more about SFX Connections™ and the entire SKURA SFX Sales Enablement suite please visit www.skura.com or contact sales@skura.com.

About Skura:

Founded in 1996, Skura has grown into an international company with satisfied customers around the globe. Headquartered in Oakville, Ontario, Skura also has offices in the US and Europe.

Skura clients benefit from our unique value proposition as a provider of Sales Enablement solutions.As a recognized leader of software products and services, like the SFX™ Suite, Skura holds an envied reputation as an award winning provider of innovative sales and marketing solutions.

The next major technology age was that of the personal home computer, Radio Shack, Commodore, Apple and IBM initially ruled the market. My first personal computer (TRS-80) had 4k of ram, which I later maxed the memory out to 32k, and utilized “basic” language computing power. I was content with the ability to entertain myself until the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) arrived in 1985. The NES 8 bit system took the market by storm and became the best selling gaming console of all time up to that point in history (1990). With game titles such as: 10-Yard Fight, Baseball, Excitebike, Golf, Gyromite, Hogan’s Alley, Ice Climber, Kung Fu, Pinball, Soccer, Stack-Up, and the blockbuster Super Mario Bros. These games were only available on the NES system, but who cares? What system could possibly compete with Duck Hunt?

Welcome Sega Genesis 16bit.

This system was widely considered the 1st of the 4th generation gaming consoles, and the start of the video game console wars. From the fall of 1976 up until the launch of the Sega Genesis system, game developers were categorized 2 ways (1) First Party – which is a developer that is part of the company that actually manufactures the game console. (2) Second Party -which is a subsidiary of the console manufacturing company. Games up until that point were device specific, meaning you could only play Donkey Kong on a Nintendo gaming system. Once the Sega Genesis launched, another developer class was added (3) Third Party  – which according to Wikipedia is “a developer not directly tied to the primary product that a consumer is using.” The opening of the gaming device platforms to Third Party Developers created many of today’s most popular gaming companies as Electronic Arts, Activision, Neversoft and Ubisoft.

Since the launch of the Sega Genesis we have seen the following game console platform launched:

 - 1990 SNK NEO-GEO

 - 1991 Super Nintendo (SNES)

 - 1992 NEC TurboDuo

 - 1992 Sega CD for Genesis

 - 1993 Panasonic 3DO

 - 1993 Atari Jaguar

 - 1993 NES model 2

 - 1994 Sega Genesis 2

 - 1994 Sega Genesis 32x

 - 1994 SNK NEO-GEO CD

 - 1994 Sega CDX

 - 1995 Atari Jaguar CD

 - 1995 Sony Playstation

 - 1995 Panasonic 3DO FZ-10

 - 1995 Sega Saturn

 - 1996 Nintendo 64

 - 1997 SNES model 2

 - 1998 Sega Genesis 3

- 1999 Sega Dreamcast

- 2000 Sony Playstation PS1

- 2000 Sony Playstation 2

- 2001 Nintendo Game Cube

- 2001 Microsoft X-Box

- 2004 Sony Playstation 2 SLIM

- 2004 XaviXPORT

- 2005 Microsoft X-Box 360

- 2006 Sony Playstation 3

- 2006 Nintendo Wii

- 2009 Sony Playstation Move

- 2009 Microsoft X-Box Kinect

Third Party developers rule the game space right now. They have created popular titles that have become bigger than Hollywood box office movies in sales. Many game titles have become billion dollar franchises.

EA Sports has sold more than 85 Million copies of Madden NFL since 1988 translating to more that $3 billion in total sales. They have had success by improving their product every year since launch and making it more engaging and interactive than the previous version. Also, more importantly, they have made it available on ALL game console platforms. To date. Madden NFL football has been developed for Apple II, Macintosh, SNES, Sega Genesis, 3DO, Nintendo DS, Nintendo Game Cube, Nintendo 64, Windows PC, DOS, Playstation, Xbox, Playstation 2, Playstation 3, Sega Saturn, Wii, Xbox 360, Playstation Portable,iOs, Nintendo 3DS. This is a prime example of how the development and deployment of a successful game franchise mirrors our SKURA SFX Sales Enablement solution. Successful software must be available for all computing platforms, if you are targeting one specific device and claiming it is the victor, you will be irrelevant before you launch.

Computing hardware has changed dramatically over the last 12 month. More computing devices  are now on the market than ever before. This past Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas saw the launch of over 80 new tablet devices to compete with Apple’s iPad. Each device having its own feature set and benefits for a targeted group of customers, new OS languages, better graphics, better sound, better battery, etc…(Sound familiar? Think Sega Genesis).

Latching onto one hardware platform is wrong and history has already proven this to be disasterous for companies. If you want to be a successful/relevant software company you must have the ability to get your product running on all current and more importantly all future hardware platforms. Being truly device agnostic is the only way to future proof your application to the hardware improvements that are INEVITABLE.

Although Nintendo’s Duck Hunt brings back fond memories of my youth I still cannot get the game cartridge to plug into my Samsung Galaxy.

Creating a common “branded” navigation interface and toolset across an entire product portfolio presents many positives for all of the players involved in the creation and consumption of your eDetailing initiatives.

Firstly, Sales Support and Marketing are freed from reinventing the navigation schemes, toolsets, and presentation flow for each individual product and can get down to the business of creating compelling marketing messages about the products and features they are promoting, rather than how to get around the presentation itself.  This saves time and money and puts the focus back on the message, not the tool.

The sales rep has much to gain from a standardized navigation structure and branding approach.  All presentations for all products will work exactly the same, ensuring that once they are comfortable with one brand, they can then use the majority of the marketing materials almost instantly.  Training cost and time is also decreased, and adherence to marketing strategy is increased, allowing for greater overall Rep effectiveness.

Lastly, but most importantly, customers become familiar with a specific navigation look and feel.  Less time is spent absorbing the tool itself, and more time is focused on the content being presented.  A consistent corporate branding and navigation approach provides a commonality across all brands.  This will strengthen corporate brand loyalty with the customer, instead of simply product brand loyalty, assuming a corporate connection between brands is a desirable marketing objective.

In summary, a great deal of benefit can be realized by planning and executing a corporate branding strategy for CLM initiatives.  Time and money is saved in the creation of content by centralizing and standardizing the general eDetail interface.  Rep effectiveness is increased by decreasing training load and increasing the rep’s level of expertise in delivering eDetails.  Finally, a strong corporate brand interface should increase the customer’s brand recognition and loyalty, ultimately driving higher sales.

SKURA SFX Mobile™ will run on ANY tablet device – anytime and anywhere.