IORMA’s recent strategic agreement with IBM reminded me of the important role that IBM played in shaping the future direction of my career and my involvement in the technologies and strategies I anticipate will shortly have a very disruptive impact on business and commerce in an OMNI world.

1. The Role of Gamification and Enabling Technologies in the Future of
Commerce in an OMNI World
IORMA’s recent strategic agreement with IBM reminded me of the important role that IBM played in
shaping the future direction of my career and my involvement in the technologies and strategies I
anticipate will shortly have a very disruptive impact on business and commerce in an OMNI world.
In 1983 I was working as a Sales and Marketing Executive for IBM General Systems Division in
Nottingham. My role was known as a NIU (Non-IBM User) sales specialist trying to persuade users of
ICL, Burroughs and NCR mainframe computers to replace them with IBM kit. I was fortunate that
IBM had launched the System/38 (now the AS/400), a revolutionary new technology architecture
IBM had built from scratch, incorporating a relational database embedded into its system.
IBM System/38 – (AS/400) circa 1984
One of my customers was Courtaulds and I worked with them on supplier chain management
solutions that provided a more direct and responsive connection between retail sales and the
manufacturing process. Later in my career, during my time as Director of the Serious Games
Institute, I was to witness the quantum leap in retail-manufacturing links at the Dell manufacturing
facility in Northern Ireland. Here I saw individual laptops and PCs being built to the exact
specification of an individual customer order placed over the internet with a sophisticated logistical
operation that ensured minimal levels of stocked components.
The business model that shaped my future during this time was an IBM case study of the
pharmaceutical distributor Unichem who built substantial market share amongst High Street
chemists through the use of hand held bar code scanners that could be placed in a modem cradle to
transmit orders directly to Unichem for next day delivery. Each chemist would pay around £5000 to
join the network and would be supplied with the portable scanner and equipment that connected to
their telephone line. It provided very easy access to ordering and automated billing and was risk-free
in the sense that the chemist could be refunded the £5000 if they decided to leave the network and
return the equipment. This e-commerce solution impressed me enormously because I could see the
shift away from the tradition cost justifications of IT solutions based on greater efficiency towards
solutions based on technology for competitive advantage.

2. It was the Unichem solution that led me to start up my consultancy Mass Mitec in Leicester in 1984.
Our initial focus was to provide consultancy services for corporate seeking competitive advantage
and, as part of my business development strategy, I used my company as a demonstrator by
equipping myself with technology tools that provided me with competitive advantage. The first of
these tools was a floppy disk IBM PC with 64k memoryand a hardware/software package called the
Braid Telex Manager which, combined with the revolutionary (for its day) Multimate word process
software, allowed me to do electronic mailshots to client telex machines (before fax machines
existed). This solution cost my business over £6,000 but enabled to reach corporate clients and
prospects with marketing communications and regularly brought in up to 100 attendees for my
technology seminars
Enabling Technologies circa 1984
I also invested in a Polaroid Palette 35mm slide maker that I used in conjunction with Execuvision
software to design and produce my own and customer business presentations on a PC with an early
colour monitor that afforded a maximum of 4 colours and a resolution on 320 x 240 pixels. This was
later to open up many opportunities within corporate clients who not only commissioned us to
design presentations but also often purchased the same equipment and training from us.
Early Electronic Imaging Technologies
I soon discovered that corporate clients were more interested in Mass Mitec as a provider of PC
based business communication solutions than as a consultancy so we quickly became one of the
UK’s presentation graphics specialists and a supplier to many blue chip companies like Courtaulds,

3. IBM, BT, Thorntons, JWT, Seagram and Girobank. We were using the old 3 lens data projectors in
1985 and in 1990 we led the field by being an early adopter of electronic imaging with the Canon Ion
camera which although it stored pictures in analogue format was the forerunner of the digital
cameras we see today.
It was later in 1992 that we were to emulate the Unichem example through an enabling technology
called Diskfax. PC technology had moved on by this time and Harvard Graphics had become the de-
factor standard for presentation graphics software. The PC digital communications devices were
dominated by the Hayes Smart modems that operated at a maximum speed of 9600 bits per second
and required some expertise to get working reliably. The Diskfax enabling technology that
transformed my business consisted of a black box with a 3.5” and 5.25” floppy disk drive, a 10MB
hard disk and an in-built 9600 modem. These revolutionary devices did not require a computer and
would guarantee 100% data integrity for IBM, MAC and Unix disks over a telephone line to a remote
Diskfax unit. Diskfax essentially provided an instant, easy to install and use disk copying service
between remote sites. It was this enabling technology that enabled me to seek out a suitable High
Street Retail partner to offer a UK wide service for professional quality 35mm slides from software
like Harvard Graphics, Powerpoint and Lotus Freelance.
The National Presentation Network partnership with Prontaprint, SPC, BT, Softsel, Microsoft etc
I chose the Prontaprint retail print/copy chain as my preferred partner because they had the largest
retail network that gave me access to customers all over the UK and Eire. I offered each Prontaprint
franchise a package for £1500 which include the Diskfax, Harvard Graphics, sample slides and
Overhead Transparencies, installation and a half day presentation masterclass launch event they
could invite customers and prospects to. At the Prontaprint annual conference when the service was
first announced, I sold 70 of these packages to franchisees and within 3 months we were handing
around £10,000 slide business per month. It was this combination of an enabling technology and a
win-win ecosystem of partners (Prontaprint, SPC, Diskfax, Lotus, Mass Mitec, BT, Softsel and
Microsoft) that brought competitive advantage and a sustainable business model in which all
partners stood to gain and consequently every partner invested in marketing and developing the
system. This business relationship ran successfully until data projectors became common amongst
business users and Mass Mitec then shifted focus onto web and desktop video conferencing.

4. Gamification Elements – see http://www.slideshare.net/dwortley/the-gamification-elements-
glossary
Today, I believe we are the threshold over some very important enabling technologies that are likely
to create new opportunities to establish the kind of innovative win-win commercial relationships
that could transform commerce. To understand the connection between “Gamification”, enabling
technologies and commerce, I offer a couple of example business models based around win-win
relationships and Gamification concepts. The first example is Simon Cowell’s X-Factor which is a win-
win ecosystem of relationships between Simon Cowell’s Talent Management company, wannabe
stars, viewers, TV networks and Telecom providers. Simon Cowell’s business challenge is to sign up
the best talent and invest in promoting them in order to gain commission on their success. Without
enabling technologies, his company would have to invest in acquiring and promoting the talent with
all the risk and competition that involves. His use of a “Win-win” Gamification strategy means that
instead of having to invest his money, he is paid to have the best talent brought to his door and
promoted for him. All of the stakeholders in this ecosystem benefit from the arrangement and have
incentives to sustain the model for its commercial returns on their investment.

5. The Ingenie Insurance proposition is based on Gamification and Enabling Technologies
The other example is the car insurance provider Ingenie which specialises in insuring young drivers.
Their Gamification strategy provides incentives for young drivers to continuously improve their
driving skills and behaviours by linking the policies to the installation of a “black box” telematics
device in the driver’s car. This device monitors and provides feedback to the driver and Ingenie and
offers monthly discounts to drivers who drive well and therefore represent a lower risk to the
company. This arrangement would not be possible without the enabling monitoring and feedback
technology involved.
Gamification Influencers leverage the power of Enabling Technologies used in my Case Studies
See http://www.slideshare.net/dwortley/the-gamification-iinfluencers-glossary

6. All of the examples I have given of enabling technologies that delivered dramatic and rapid results
within my business and those of my win-win stakeholder partners leveraged what I call Gamification
Influencers to engage, attract and manage new customers on a significant scale in short timescales.
The Braid Telex manager and Multimate “e-mailshots” focused on Awareness, Accessibility,
Affordability, Attractiveness, Affectedness, Ambition, Appearance and Authority to establish Mass
Mitec as a thought leader, pioneer and trusted provider of advanced business communication
solutions. My White paper on Gamification and Enabling Technologies at
http://www.slideshare.net/dwortley/gamification-and-enabling-technologies-white-paper provides
a fuller understanding of the principles involved.
Today, the Internet of Things, Big Data Analytics, Cloud computing and low cost mobile devices are
all maturing rapidly and opening up a myriad of innovative solutions based around such “win-win”
ecosystems of stakeholders made possible by “Measurement and Feedback” technologies that will
offer the kinds of rewards and incentives that can attract and retain customers in exciting and
entrepreneurial ways. IORMA’s consultancy services provide thought leadership in this sector to
support the cost effective development of future commerce solutions which we can barely even yet
imagine.
The revolution has begun!!!!!
David Wortley
May 2014