Webinar About Best Practices: Customer Experience Management, Technology, Roles and Strategy

Vice President and Principal Analyst, Constellation Research
Constellation Research

Role: Vice President and Principal Analyst focusing on the IOT of Customer Experience and how the cloud is driving more flexible, agile, and robust customer service and customer experiences. In-app or in device customer service is the future. Coverage Areas: Next Generation Customer, Digital Marketing Transformation Bio: As a Vice President and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research, Inc, Petouhoff works with Fortune 100 and 500’s Senior Leadership teams to create strategic customer experience (marketing, sales and service) solutions which engage customers, build brands and grow businesses. Combining her experience as a former Forrester software analyst, PWC systems integrator and change management consultant, Petouhoff leads executive workshops to discuss to not only…...

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Is your brand following these best practices for customer experience management? Find out more at this webinar on 6 steps to superb customer experience management and here’s the research paper on best practices in customer experience management, technology, roles and the strategy required for success! As brands realize customer experience management is key to their overall strategy and long-term growth, Constellation Research recommends considering the following to deliver an integrated web, mobile, social, email and commerce experience:

1. Decide Who Will Lead The Experience Management Strategy: A Competitive Advantage

Leaders of experience management must be effective communicators and be able to bridge many disciplines and functional areas. They must keep their eye both on the internal needs and strategy of the business, while taking into consideration the prospect’s experience. This may mean organizations at the very least assign the CEO, CIO or CMO to this charge. Though most of these roles are in overwhelm with their current responsibilities; tough to add more and expect them to really perform well.

2. Multi-disciplinary Skill Sets Required of Chief Experience Management Officer

Regardless of who takes on the role, leaders of experience management must be effective in communicating what the goals of the experience management team are, how they fit into the rest of the business why they drive revenue. Experience management needs to be focused on what customers are interested in, have concerns about and providing the information they need to make purchases.

3. Experience Management Technology and Integration

With strategy and leadership decided, processed mapped from the customer’s viewpoint, technology can be chosen and deployed to deliver on the brand’s promise. Brands should focus on creating meaningful, multichannel interactions that optimize the customer experience, improve conversions, scale business, and increase revenue via an interconnected platform.

4. Consider an integrated, interconnected technology platform: The need to provide a continuously connected and integrated experience is often difficult if the technology wasn’t designed to provide that from the start. Contemplate a comprehensive experience platform that can provide an elegant, integrated solution that connects channels, engagement automation and analytics and commerce, with external tools and databases, to drive exceptional customer experiences for each and every unique customer.

5. Strive for unity among channel connectivity: Customers expect you to recognize them when they engage with your brand, no matter what channel or device they use. And they expect you to remember previous interactions with them and keep the context of the conversation as they move from channel to channel or device. You will want your website, as the hub of experience management, to be directly connected to the email experience you provide, as well as have it parallel simultaneously branded experiences in social, mobile, commerce and print.

6. Use predictive insights to deliver real-time, optimized responses: To provide an experience where customers can navigate across multiple devices (mobile or desk-bound), brands must deliver engagement and shopping experiences that recognize each device and automatically adjust interactions to deliver seamless experiences. You will want to be able to respond to each customer’s interactions in real time and extend relevant content and offers based on an individual’s real-time activity, when their engagement is at its highest.

Which steps are you following? All six or only a few? Use this as a guide to determine how close your organization is to best practices! Join R “Ray” Wang and I for the webinar to learn more details!

@drnatalie, VP and Principal Analyst, Constellation Research, Covering Marketing, Sales and Customer Service to Deliver Amazing Customer Experiences

 

Marketing Transformation Next-Generation Customer Experience Chief Customer Officer

IBM Joins Apache Spark Bandwagon (and Coopetition)

Doug Henschen

Former Vice President and Principal Analyst
Constellation Research

Doug Henschen is former Vice President and Principal Analyst where he focused on data-driven decision making. Henschen’s Data-to-Decisions research examines how organizations employ data analysis to reimagine their business models and gain a deeper understanding of their customers. Henschen's research acknowledges the fact that innovative applications of data analysis requires a multi-disciplinary approach starting with information and orchestration technologies, continuing through business intelligence, data-visualization, and analytics, and moving into NoSQL and big-data analysis, third-party data enrichment, and decision-management technologies. Insight-driven business models are of interest to the entire C-suite, but most particularly chief executive officers, chief digital officers,…...

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IBM stole the day-one headlines at Spark Summit 2015 in San Francisco with a big endorsement of the open-source, big-data-analysis platform. But it’s sure to be a selective embrace, as IBM, like other commercial vendors, plans to offer its own software and services on top of Spark.

IBM threw its significant weight behind Apache Spark on Monday, calling the open-source, in-memory platform “potentially the most significant open-source project of the next decade.”

Among the moves announced, IBM will offer Spark as a service on its BlueMix cloud, opening a Spark development center in San Francisco and redirecting more than 3,500 IBM researchers and developers to work on Spark-related projects. It also promised to educate more than 1 million data scientists and data engineers on Spark through community partnerships and support for online courses.

All of the above is great news for the Spark community. But is Databricks, the Spark development, certification and support firm, in danger of being eclipsed by big companies embracing the platform? Spark is the darling of the conference circuit this year, with Databricks executives often showing up at Informatica World, Alteryx Inspire15 and other events as keynote speakers. Even when official representatives aren’t there, Spark is often mentioned as a “Spark inside” enabler of new big data initiatives, as was the case at the Teradata Influencers’ Summit.

But the embrace of Spark isn’t always wholehearted. That’s because the platform supports multiple modes of analysis, including machine learning, SQL, R, graph and streaming. Hadoop distributor Cloudera, for example, was early to jump on the Spark bandwagon, but it tout’s the platform’s machine learning capabilities, not Spark SQL, which presents a threat to Cloudera’s Impala SQL-on-Hadoop component. Hortonworks and MapR also support Spark, but they give equal billing to Hive and Drill, their favored SQL-on-Hadoop options, while invariably showing Apache Storm in architectural diagrams as the streaming option instead of (or in addition to) Spark Streaming.

I’m set to hear more about IBM’s specific Spark plans here in San Francisco this week, but at last week’s Hadoop Summit in San Jose, a few IBMers informally told me the company is mostly interested in using the Spark in-memory platform and machine learning options. As for Spark SQL and Spark Streaming? These are two areas where IBM can offer its own technologies. What’s more, IBM is contributing its own SystemML machine learning software to the Spark community, building influence in this core area.

With a Spark service now available on BlueMix and thousands of IBMers now working Spark-based applications, Databricks will see new competition to its eponymous Databricks platform (formerly called Databricks Cloud), which runs on Amazon Web Services. IBM’s move is also a challenge to analytics leader SAS, which has spent the last three years developing SAS Visual Analytics and Visual Statistics as it’s choice for in-memory big-data analysis (either on top of Hadoop or on a dedicated distributed cluster).

Even if commercial plans lie behind IBM’s embrace of Spark, Databricks executives weren’t about to throw cold water on any endorsements of the platform. “It’s great to see some of the large vendors in the community throwing their weight behind Spark,” Databricks executive Arsalan Tavakoli-Shiraji told me last week. “SAP is integrating Hana with Spark, IBM is embracing it, and Intel is also making a lot of contributions, so it’s great to see the community growing.”

Stay tuned for more from me this week from IBM, SAS and the Spark Summit as the fast-moving big-data analysis world moves even faster.

Data to Decisions IBM AI ML Machine Learning LLMs Agentic AI Generative AI Robotics Analytics Automation Cloud SaaS PaaS IaaS Quantum Computing Digital Transformation Disruptive Technology Enterprise IT Enterprise Acceleration Enterprise Software Next Gen Apps IoT Blockchain CRM ERP CCaaS UCaaS Collaboration Enterprise Service developer Metaverse VR Healthcare Supply Chain Leadership business Marketing finance Customer Service Content Management Chief Information Officer Chief Technology Officer Chief Information Security Officer Chief Data Officer

Webinar Invite: Delivering on Continuity & The Future of Marketing

R "Ray" Wang

Principal Analyst and Founder
Constellation Research

R “Ray” Wang is the CEO of Silicon Valley-based Constellation Research Inc. He co-hosts DisrupTV, a weekly enterprise tech and leadership webcast that averages 50,000 views per episode and blogs at www.raywang.org. His ground-breaking best-selling book on digital transformation, Disrupting Digital Business, was published by Harvard Business Review Press in 2015. Ray's new book about Digital Giants and the future of business, titled, Everybody Wants to Rule The World was released in July 2021. Wang is well-quoted and frequently interviewed by media outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, Fox Business, CNBC, Yahoo Finance, Cheddar, and Bloomberg. Short Bio R “Ray” Wang (pronounced WAHNG) is the Founder, Chairman, and Principal Analyst of Silicon Valley-based Constellation Research Inc. He…...

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Marketing Begins With Continuity of Experience

If you’re a regular reader of my blog, and have managed to take a look at my book, I think we can say that we’ve established that digital disruption impacts every person and every business on the planet. Nowhere is the impact being felt more than in the marketing department.

I’ll be presenting on the Future of Marketing and diving in on how marketing teams need to deliver continuity in order to really operationalize the campaign to commerce lifecycle.

When we think about digital disruption, it’s in the marketing department where we  see both power and responsibility. The rise of marketing automation and analytics tools gives marketing teams the power to do so much more. And on the other hand – the responsibility of evolving the business lives largely with the marketing team that must decide who to target, how to target and when – and execute a significant part of it. Not to mention the role that marketing must play as they educate and lead their organizations to the true nature of brand – not a logo, not a slogan, but a promise that must be delivered on by everyone.

It’s a tall order. Please join me for the Future of Marketing webcast presented by Microsoft Dynamics and learn more about how you can drive success in this new age of marketing!

Feel free to join the conversation at #MSDynCRM #CustExp.  I also encourage you to keep watching for lessons, and join in full keynotes and book tours.

Your POV.

Want to learn more about disrupting digital businesses?  Are you competing in a new business model? Have you ordered the book?

Add your comments to the blog or reach me via email: R (at) ConstellationR (dot) com or R (at) SoftwareInsider (dot) org.

 

Marketing Transformation Next-Generation Customer Experience Innovation & Product-led Growth Tech Optimization Future of Work Data to Decisions New C-Suite Digital Safety, Privacy & Cybersecurity SoftwareInsider AI ML Machine Learning Generative AI Analytics Automation B2B B2C CX EX Employee Experience business Marketing SaaS PaaS Growth Cloud Digital Transformation eCommerce Enterprise Software CRM ERP Leadership Social Customer Service Content Management Collaboration Customer Experience Disruptive Technology Next Gen Apps LLMs Agentic AI Robotics HR HCM Metaverse developer IaaS Supply Chain Quantum Computing Enterprise IT Enterprise Acceleration IoT Blockchain finance Healthcare VR CCaaS UCaaS M&A Enterprise Service Chief Customer Officer Chief Marketing Officer Chief Information Officer Chief Technology Officer Chief Digital Officer Chief Data Officer Chief Analytics Officer Chief Information Security Officer Chief Executive Officer Chief Operating Officer Chief Financial Officer Chief Revenue Officer Chief People Officer Chief Human Resources Officer Chief Experience Officer

Lesson 7 From Disrupting Digital Business - Humanize Digital With Digital Artisans

R "Ray" Wang

Principal Analyst and Founder
Constellation Research

R “Ray” Wang is the CEO of Silicon Valley-based Constellation Research Inc. He co-hosts DisrupTV, a weekly enterprise tech and leadership webcast that averages 50,000 views per episode and blogs at www.raywang.org. His ground-breaking best-selling book on digital transformation, Disrupting Digital Business, was published by Harvard Business Review Press in 2015. Ray's new book about Digital Giants and the future of business, titled, Everybody Wants to Rule The World was released in July 2021. Wang is well-quoted and frequently interviewed by media outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, Fox Business, CNBC, Yahoo Finance, Cheddar, and Bloomberg. Short Bio R “Ray” Wang (pronounced WAHNG) is the Founder, Chairman, and Principal Analyst of Silicon Valley-based Constellation Research Inc. He…...

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Get All 10 Lessons Learned From Disrupting Digital Business

As with the beginning of every revolution, those in the midst of it can feel it, sense it, and realize that something big is happening. Yet it’s hard to quantify the shift. The data isn’t clear. It’s hard to measure. Pace of change is accelerating. Old rules seem not to apply.

Sometimes when you are in the thick of it, it’s hard to describe what’s happening.  In the case of digital business, these models have progressed over the past 20 years.  However, non-traditional competitors have each exploited a few patterns with massive success. However, as the models evolved, winners realize there are more than a handful of patterns.

Lesson 1 – Transform Business Models And Engagement

Lesson 2 – Keep The Brand Promise

Lesson 3 – Sell The Smallest Unit You Can

Lesson 4 – Know That Data Is The Foundation Of Digital Business

Lesson 5 – Build For Insight Streams

Lesson 6 – Win With Network Economies

Lesson 7 – Humanize Digital With Digital Artisans

In fact, the impact is significant and now quantifiable with 52% of the Fortune 500 gone since 2000 and the average age of the S&P 500 company in 1960 is down from 60 years to a little more than 12 projected in 2020.  That is a 500% compression that has changed the market landscape forever in almost every industry.

Over the course of the next 10 weeks, I’ll be sharing one lesson per week.  For traditional businesses to succeed, they will have to apply all 10 lessons from Disrupting Digital Business in order to not only survive, but also relearn how to thrive.

Humanized Digital With Digital Artisans

So far, we’ve spent most of our time talking about business models and strategy.  We now turn to humanizing digital.  Why?  Digital by nature can seem hard and cold.  With digital we do need the best math as we have entered into a war of algorithms.  These algorithms will drive our ability to automate, predict, and even augment decision making.  We also need the best design.  Having the best math may lead to great spreadsheets and ton of numbers without context.  Pairing the best math with the best design means we take into account the human component.  So where we often hire for science, technologists, engineering, and math we need to account for anthropology, ethnography, design thinking, user experience and story telling.  The goal – bring the right brain and left brain capabilities together.

Homework

This lesson requires leaders to re-examine the digital DNA of teams.  Work with your heads of talent, or people and:

• Start by examining your teams for a balance between right brain and left brain.
• Use a design thinking session to show the benefits of right brain and left brain collaboration.
• Identify where team members can master the basic concepts of good math and design.
• Augment teams with the right balance of skills
• Re-examine hiring and talent goals

The Complete 10 Lessons Learned From Disrupting Digital Business

For those attending the full keynotes and book tours, you’ll get the complete session and in many cases a copied of a signed booked.   For those following virtually, I’ve provided the slimmed down slide share deck for your use.

You now have the 10 lessons learned to disrupt digital business in your hands. You can take this information and change the world in front of you or choose to sit on the knowledge as the world passes you by and digital darwinism consumes your organization.

I trust you will do the right thing. And when you want some company, come join us as a client at Constellation Research where we’re not afraid of the future and the art of the possible.

Get The Book Now Before Digital Darwinism Impacts You

Purchase on Amazon
Bulk Orders: contact [email protected]
About Disrupting Digital Business

Join the Digital Disruption Tour. Events in London, and Amsterdam!

Your POV.

Are you ready to disrupt digital business?  Have you ordered the book?

Add your comments to the blog or reach me via email: R (at) ConstellationR (dot) com or R (at) SoftwareInsider (dot) org.

 

Marketing Transformation Innovation & Product-led Growth Tech Optimization Future of Work AI ML Machine Learning LLMs Agentic AI Generative AI Analytics Automation B2B B2C CX EX Employee Experience HR HCM business Marketing Metaverse developer SaaS PaaS IaaS Supply Chain Quantum Computing Growth Cloud Digital Transformation Disruptive Technology eCommerce Enterprise IT Enterprise Acceleration Enterprise Software Next Gen Apps IoT Blockchain CRM ERP Leadership finance Social Healthcare VR CCaaS UCaaS Customer Service Content Management Collaboration M&A Enterprise Service Robotics Chief Customer Officer Chief Marketing Officer Chief Information Officer Chief Technology Officer Chief Digital Officer Chief Data Officer Chief Analytics Officer Chief Information Security Officer Chief Executive Officer Chief Operating Officer Chief Experience Officer

Panel Discussion at #CNX15: Social Customer Care with Honeywell, Aetna, and ALEX AND ANI

Vice President and Principal Analyst, Constellation Research
Constellation Research

Role: Vice President and Principal Analyst focusing on the IOT of Customer Experience and how the cloud is driving more flexible, agile, and robust customer service and customer experiences. In-app or in device customer service is the future. Coverage Areas: Next Generation Customer, Digital Marketing Transformation Bio: As a Vice President and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research, Inc, Petouhoff works with Fortune 100 and 500’s Senior Leadership teams to create strategic customer experience (marketing, sales and service) solutions which engage customers, build brands and grow businesses. Combining her experience as a former Forrester software analyst, PWC systems integrator and change management consultant, Petouhoff leads executive workshops to discuss to not only…...

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Social Customer Care has become an expectation among consumers. Telling your community that you’re accessible on social channels delivers a strong message. Your community and supporters are online, and it is fundamentally changing how and where constituents look for support, and how they engage with you today.

For organizations of any size, listening to constituents online doesn’t only present the opportunity to uncover and address complaints and issues, but the opportunity to learn, improve, and engage your audience in new ways to strengthen – or build new – relationships over time.

In this session learn how HP, ALEX AND ANI and Honeywell not only provide exceptional service to their customers through social channels, but how they capitalize on these interactions as a marketing opportunity.

You’ll get to hear real-world stories of how brands are looking at marketing and customer service and how they are bringing those to functional departments together to create better customer experiences and drive enhanced marketing conversion rates. Remember – you can’t sell something to someone (or market to them) if they are mad.

Taking care of customer service issues means your customers will be more receptive to your marketing campaigns. Don’t waste the time, energy, money on creative, content and campaigns without taking into consideration if you are solving your customer care issues . There is nothing worse than launching a campaign and then having unhappy customers use the campaign to complain about the brand, its products and services. Be proactive and get your organization to be proactive in their strategy around social customer care and marketing.

Speakers:
Jessica Woodbury, Sr. Manager, Social Media & Customer Engagement for ALEX AND ANI
Dane Hartzell, Director of ePresence for Honeywell
Dr. Natalie Petouhoff, Vice President and Principal Analyst for Constellation Research
Waladeen Norwood, Global Social Media Manager for HP

Breakout Session: Wed June 17th, 8:30 AM EST  #CNX15

See you there! Come say hello!

@drnatalie VP and Principal Analyst, Constellation Research, Covering Marketing, Sales and Customer Service to Deliver Amazing Customer Experiences

Next-Generation Customer Experience Tech Optimization Marketing Transformation Data to Decisions Digital Safety, Privacy & Cybersecurity Innovation & Product-led Growth Future of Work New C-Suite Distillation Aftershots Revenue & Growth Effectiveness salesforce Marketing B2B B2C CX Customer Experience EX Employee Experience AI ML Generative AI Analytics Automation Cloud Digital Transformation Disruptive Technology Growth eCommerce Enterprise Software Next Gen Apps Social Customer Service Content Management Collaboration Chief Customer Officer Chief Marketing Officer Chief People Officer Chief Revenue Officer

Microsoft Dynamics and LinkedIn Sales Navigator Make Strong Connections

Vice President and Principal Analyst, Constellation Research
Constellation Research

Role: Vice President and Principal Analyst focusing on the IOT of Customer Experience and how the cloud is driving more flexible, agile, and robust customer service and customer experiences. In-app or in device customer service is the future. Coverage Areas: Next Generation Customer, Digital Marketing Transformation Bio: As a Vice President and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research, Inc, Petouhoff works with Fortune 100 and 500’s Senior Leadership teams to create strategic customer experience (marketing, sales and service) solutions which engage customers, build brands and grow businesses. Combining her experience as a former Forrester software analyst, PWC systems integrator and change management consultant, Petouhoff leads executive workshops to discuss to not only…...

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LinkedIn is building deeper integration between LinkedIn Sales Navigator and Microsoft Dynamics CRM, enabling companies to easily connect their social selling activities to their customer engagement efforts. LinkedIn’s  information embedded right into Dynamics CRM, sellers can better identify and build relationships with new and existing customers.

With the LinkedIn Sales Navigator integration, sellers can send connection requests, view the latest lead and account updates, discover similar decision makers, and send InMail messages directly from Microsoft Dynamics CRM. This is important because LinkedIn is the world’s largest online professional network, with more than 364 million members worldwide.

Sales Navigator is now on iPhone and Android. Access Sales Navigator’s key features where you need them most: everywhere. Learn more and download the Sales Navigator Mobile App.

Here’s links to the paper I wrote on Social Selling – how to build a personal brand, focus on the right prospects and build trusted relationships! Whether you are in sales or not, this is a very important integration. It connects a large social network to a CRM system…

@DrNatalie, VP and Principal Analyst, Constellation Research Covering Marketing, Sales and Service to Deliver Amazing Customer Experiences

Next-Generation Customer Experience Chief Customer Officer Chief Marketing Officer

Four Steps in the Creation of a Customer e-Commerce Engagement Organization

Vice President and Principal Analyst, Constellation Research
Constellation Research

Role: Vice President and Principal Analyst focusing on the IOT of Customer Experience and how the cloud is driving more flexible, agile, and robust customer service and customer experiences. In-app or in device customer service is the future. Coverage Areas: Next Generation Customer, Digital Marketing Transformation Bio: As a Vice President and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research, Inc, Petouhoff works with Fortune 100 and 500’s Senior Leadership teams to create strategic customer experience (marketing, sales and service) solutions which engage customers, build brands and grow businesses. Combining her experience as a former Forrester software analyst, PWC systems integrator and change management consultant, Petouhoff leads executive workshops to discuss to not only…...

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In our new research on e-commerce customer engagement and its effect on driving revenue, we discovered four steps necessary for the creation of a fully engaged customer experience. Download an excerpt of the report here

 Four steps to create engaging ecommerce customer experiences

Step 1. Choose the technology that enables top e-commerce customer engagement.

• It must be easy to start the buying process in one channel and finish in another.
• And customers must able be able to switch from one device to another and not lose the context of where they are in the purchasing process.
• Make sure the technology you choose allows you to proactively deliver contextual agent assistance during the purchase process.
• And in addition, the technology must have the ability to detect if customers need pre-purchase help and support.
• And then you must be able to send help to any channel and any device.
• Lastly, make sure that the technology has the capability to create performance reports viewable as a dashboard or downloadable as a report for analysis.

Step 2. Create content that delivers high closure rates.

• Whether you are creating knowledge base articles or marketing and advertising content, make sure that you know what works and what doesn’t work.
• This information will help to inform you so that you continually improve the content so that it drives purchases as well as self-service.
• Make sure you have the staff to deliver on this capability.

Step 3. Train staff to use the technology’s capabilities to proactively assist customers.

• While it is important to obtain technology that can assist customers in any channel and on any device, when human assistance is needed, make sure to train your agents or marketers so that they know how to use the technology and seamlessly provide the proactive help customers need to make purchasing decisions.
• This will not only help increase the lead conversion rates but also help increase customer loyalty, advocacy and long-term customer lifetime value and referrals.
• You want to be known as the company that provides help anytime, anywhere.

Step 4. Design self-service that delivers on the promise.

• Often, customers can help themselves if the technology or content is designed to anticipate customer issues and help solve them before the customer needs to reach out to the brand.
• Focusing on self-service capabilities is always a must for 80 percent of requests.

MYPOV:

Evaluate your organization. Does your organization follow at least a few of the four steps detailed above? Which ones do you need to implement and which ones do you need to improve on?

@drnatalie, VP and Principal Analyst, Constellation Research Covering Marketing, Sales and Customer Service to Deliver Amazing Customer Experiences

References:
Harris Poll Research and Primary Constellation Research

Matrix Commerce Next-Generation Customer Experience B2C CX Chief Customer Officer Chief Marketing Officer

Infographic Friday: Sports Loyalty Scoreboard

Russell Scibetti

Founding Editor, The Business of Sports
The Business of Sports

My name is Russell Scibetti and I have an extensive background in sports business, including CRM and database marketing, interactive and digital marketing, social media, corporate sponsorships and activation, and applied market research. From 2007 to 2014, I worked for Arizona State Athletics, Comcast-Spectacor (Philadelphia Flyers) and the New York Jets to manage and implement CRM, database marketing, market research and other technology-based sales and marketing initiatives. In 2014, I joined KORE Software as their VP of Product Strategy, where I am responsible for the strategic vision, planning and development of the KORE ProSports Ticketing, Sponsorship and Suites/Premium software products. I earned my MBA in Sports Business from the W.P. Carey…...

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1

It’s time for another edition of Infographic Friday. Today’s content comes to us from Deloitte who created this Loyalty Scoreboard analyzing fan affinity and engagement. There are some very interesting statistics on the primary reason for team loyalty, fan tenure, and impact on spending, including key differences between professional leagues.

Check out the full infographic below (there is an expand button on the bottom right to view it in full-screen mode) or click here to see the original version at Deloitte.com.

 

Next-Generation Customer Experience Marketing Transformation Innovation & Product-led Growth Chief Customer Officer

Microsoft Is Now Taking Orders For Surface Hub

Alan Lepofsky

Vice President & Principal Analyst
Constellation Research

Alan Lepofsky - VP and Principal Analyst, Constellation Research. With almost two decades of experience in the collaboration software industry, Lepofsky helps organizations improve the way their employees work together to get their jobs done. Lepofsky’s primary research area The Future of Work, focuses on: integrating collaboration and business processes (Purposeful Collaboration), structuring work via Social Task Management, leveraging analytics and digital assistants to work more productively, the strategic impact of mobile computing on business transformation, and measuring workforce culture based on Digital Proficiency instead of age. Twitter: @alanlepoLinkedIn: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/alanlepo     , Title: Big IdeasIntelligent Collaboration: The Intersection of…...

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On June 10th Microsoft announced that Surface Hub, their large screen interactive display device, will be available for ordering on July 1st. There are two models, 55” for $6,999 USD and the statement making 84” model for $19,999. Surface Hub will be available for pre-order on July 1 in 24 markets worldwide, and will begin shipping in September.

Surface Hub is the evolution of the technology Microsoft acquired when they purchased Perceptive Pixel in July 2012. Since that time, Microsoft has been working on ways they could use these large displays to improve the way people collaborate. Last week I had the opportunity to meet with the Surface team and get an overview of the device and discuss the roadmap going forward.

So what is Surface Hub?

At first glance one may think it’s just a large conference room display. However, spend a few minutes with one and you quickly come to understand it is much more. On the hardware side yes it’s a large touch screen, but it also includes microphones, speakers and cameras on each side that come into play as soon as you start collaborating. It’s also a computer, so you don’t need to connect a PC to it in order to run applications.

As attractive as the device is, it’s the software that makes Surface Hub shine. As soon as you touch the screen you can either load an application, or instantly start a Skype for Business meeting. The core of that meeting experience is an infinite canvas whiteboard, allowing people to draw on the screen for brainstorming, event planning, content creation, story telling and hundreds of other scenarios. People not in the room can join the meeting and see what’s happening on the screen in real time. Disappointingly, remote participants currently can only view the whiteboard, they can not add their own markup to it, but that is planned for a future release. The whiteboard is actually a Surface Hub specific extension of Microsoft OneNote, so I’m optimistic that a lot more functionality will be coming to the white boarding experience, as OneNote offers several great note taking and brainstorming features.

The power of this type of immersive collaboration is not limited to simple whiteboards. Below you can see two video where I try out native applications. Here is a video where I work on a PowerPoint presentation, including copy and pasting images from Bing.

The next two videos showcase business partner applications. The first is 3D design software JT2Go from Siemens:

The second is brainstorming application Mura.ly

 

MyPOV

There are three critical elements Microsoft needs to get right to help keep the Surface Hub out of the conference room hardware graveyard.

1) Ease of Use: The experience needs to be extremely simple. Conference rooms, shared team spaces, executive offices and briefing centers are littered with old equipment like projectors, speaker phones and smart boards that no one uses. In my limited time with the Surface Hub, I found it intuitive and interestingly enough, actually fun. Touching the screen to move things around or using pens to draw (called Inking) felt natural. In just a few minutes I understood how to start applications, join meetings, and create content on screen. I would like to see more onscreen navigational aides that popup and help teach people the basics plus tips and tricks.

2) Partner Ecosystem: It can’t just be a large screen display for slides. As shown above, even before launch Microsoft has been busy working with business partners to make sure several applications are available. Microsoft has a huge business partner ecosystem, and it’s these 3rd party products that will make or break the success of the device.

3) Help People Get Work Done: Collaboration needs to be seamless and amazing. These devices are really designed to allow teams to work together. While the first release does have Skype meeting integration and OneNote whiteboards, there is a lot of room for improvement on the collaboration front. As mentioned above, remote participants need to be able to do more than just view content. I’d like to see a lot more Yammer integration, allowing people to attach conversations to objects anywhere on the screen. I’d like to see Microsoft rethink the entire meetings experience, changing the way people plan and prepare for the meeting, participate while it is going on, and then follow up and take action one the meeting is over. With the massive immersive experience I can picture a variety of ways to drag and drop participants, tasks, emails, attachments, and more to create an effective and entertaining meeting experience.

At $20,000 the Surface Hub seems very reasonable for an office that is updating their conference rooms or modernizing their meeting facilities. Customers need to consider all the hardware the Surface Hub replaces, and then think of the creative scenarios that it can be used for.

At a time where everyone is talking about mobile and wearable devices, what role does an 84” screen play in collaboration? If you’re just wanting to look at some PowerPoint slides that works just fine with everyone staring at their own laptops, tablets or even phones. But when it comes to true collaborative work in product design, engineering, manufacturing, architecture, social media monitoring, or brainstorming and creative content creation… the large screen and it's infinite canvas experience is quite impressive.

 

Smarter Meeting Rooms

Microsoft is not the only company thinking about the meeting room experience. Telepresence vendors like Avaya, Cisco and IBM are working on their next generation products as well. IBM is going beyond just thinking about how people can collaborate, they are working on ways the room itself can become a “smart" participant in meetings. They call these meeting rooms of the future Cognitive Environments. Below are a few videos about what IBM is working on.

 

Future of Work