I was finally able to find a purpose for the QR (or quick read) code scanner on my Blackberry. Only two months after I downloaded it for a reason I can’t recall.
I immediately start to think about how we’ll use it? Is it a way to look up product info at Best Buy? Is the way to pass information at a conference? A safety procedure in a plant? Visual XML of sorts? It can get very creative, as you can see in the Wikipedia entry.
I’m not sure what this will mean for business process or what will be the best practical applications. For now it has grown rapidly in marketing and tourism where there is a high desire to measure the effectiveness of information’s spread. Business process management also has the need to convey information rapidly and to gauge the effectiveness of our information architecture and information deployment. Maybe this is the fit? Think about being able to ‘label’ key things with QR codes and then being able to update the information behind it at as needed.
- PULL: Use a camera-enabled tablet to quickly pull the data necessary to perform a task on the factory floor
- PUSH: You complete your big presentation at the conference. You finish on the the QR code slide and the smartphones all come out at once. You feel like a celebrity.
- PULL: A QR code pulls the consumer (of information, products, services) to a place where they can leave feedback on the spot
Maybe I’m starting to see it. I’d love to hear your ideas.
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I have a QR code on my business cards, which links to my About page.
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A QR code as a personal identifier, such as on a business card, can have process implications: think of ways to have the individual talk to the corporations rather than the other way around.
Good point. The digital elevator pitch. The ubiquity of smart phones makes this work better now than the inventors imagined.
Carphone Warehouse has barcodes on all sorts of equipment around the offices and the barcode takes you to the process ‘help’ For example, you go to the photocopier and it is out of toner or paper. Take a photo of the barcode on the photocopier with your smartphone and it will take you to the process diagram in How2 to step you through ordering paper/toner cartridges. Simple. Easy.
Interesting new app tracks employees through QR Codes:
http://www.springwise.com/life_hacks/iphone-app-qr-codes-track-employee-hours/