At the Crossroads of Sports and Technology

What I see coming, and what excites me is the merger between onboard technology and data science to help a rider achieve their personal goals. Coupled with cloud technology, your coach and data science analyst can all reside in different cities and still provide relevant critiques of performances and areas for improvement.

The whole world is talking about IoT nowadays where everything is connected and talks to one another. Despite the fact, very less is known or is put to practice, it's said IoT is going to change the entire face of human-machine interaction.

Would you like to share your perspective on how you think about IoT revolutionizing your marketplace?

I think IoT is going to be bigger and broader than most people predict. The cost of sensors has continued to drop, but I feel the independent “maker” and Hack-a-thon space is going to contribute quite a bit to the growth factors we will see. Broad groups of people are coming forward and are building solutions, sharing results with peers, and modifying solutions for one sector to more rapid solutions. However, I do believe more needs to happen across the technology sector to ensure the rapid deployment of IoT technology is properly secured and hardened, and IoT providers can learn quite a bit from the desktop and networking sectors to provide more security conscience solutions.

What are some of the other technologies you think should be adopted in the near future?

The trend will be more specific solutions and riders will demand those solutions to be integrated with other solutions to create a truly customized experience. Similar to custom apparel, riders will want to customize their objectives, and this ability to customize will go well beyond the hardcore rider. This will stretch into the person wanting to commute to work by bike easier, or simply get fit more effectively. I firmly believe that broad technical integration will be considered as much of a success factor for a product as the functionality of the product itself. I’m also very excited about following the maker space to see what un-met/ disruptive needs are being developed.

With your rich experience of managing IT organization and steering technology for your enterprise, can you please share some of the unique lessons learned and your advice for fellow CIOs? How has the role of a CIO has changed over all these years looking into the technology paradigm shift?

We need to manage the long tail of technology within our organizations more aggressively and keep the length of that tail within reason. I have seen many great ideas get delayed because some piece of antiquated technology needed to be worked around. Managing the long tail of technology requires constant attention and management at both a tactical and strategic level. It also requires discussion at an organization level to ensure resources are working to keep everything on a more natural timeline. If done properly, organizations will be able to accelerate our push into the future in an effective and efficient manner.

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