Filter Results
Results
Industry veteran joins Constellation Research to extend coverage of enterprise software by publishing first report and holding first webinar.
Press Release
Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) simplifies much of the complexity involved in implementing and using enterprise software. However, in consulting on several SaaS selection deals over the past two years, I've grown concerned that some SaaS providers may be neglecting some of the key elements of success for buyers.
Analyst Blog
I love this advice written on the back of an index card by University of Chicago Professor, Harold Pollack. In clear, simple terms, he explains the dos and don’ts of building wealth over time. Of course, like all advice, it’s easy to hear and hard to put into action. My favourite point is “The person on the other side of the table knows more than you do about their stuff”. Applies to everything in life. Remember it.
Analyst Blog
This week I learned about an outage that happened at a provider of Microsoft Office applications. Which reminded me about the sad state of high availability across the industry.
Analyst Blog
Helping brands determine if a cloud solution makes good business sense for their organization
Best practices and a checklist for vendor selection
Constellation Research, Inc. announced today the publication of a new research report: “Cloud Customer Support Delivers High Value” by Constellation Vice President and Principal Analyst, Elizabeth Herrell.
Analyst Blog
Premium Research
Cloud Next-Generation Customer Support Offers Speed, Flexibility and ScalabilityDownload the report snapshot
Customer support grows in complexity as new demands for services and expanding customer expectations increase in magnitude. The cloud is an effective means to deliver differentiated services quickly and provides greater flexibility for meeting customer demands.
On September 5th, 2013, Foster City, CA based Zuora, announced $50 million in Series E capital. The announcement has significant ramifications not only for Zuora’s self proclaimed subscription economy category, but also the broader business theme of matrix commerce
Analyst Blog
Helping brands determine if a cloud solution makes good business sense for their organizationBest practices and a checklist for vendor selectionDownlad the report snapshot
Press Release
I had the pleasure to attend the VMWorld user conference last week - if you have missed my takeaways you can find them here. VMworld is a gathering of all professionals and companies involved in virtualization, IaaS and PaaS - starting 6 months ago I began receiving questions during briefings (formally and informally) about whether I would attend. Notes from my briefings follow.
Analyst Blog
Founder and former CEO R "Ray" Wang stays on board as Chairman and Principal Analyst
Today Constellation Research, Inc. announced that Bridgette Chambers, a well respected and accomplished executive with a track record of successful corporate turnaround, transformation, and growth, is joining Constellation as Chief Executive Officer and member of the Board of Directors. Chambers will take the reins from founder Ray Wang, who will maintain his role as Chairman and Lead Analyst and continue to drive the company’s research strategy.
Analyst Blog
Founder and former CEO R "Ray" Wang remains on board as Chairman and Principal AnalystToday Constellation Research, Inc. announced that Bridgette Chambers, a well respected and accomplished executive with a track record of successful corporate turnaround, transformation, and growth, is joining Constellation as Chief Executive Officer and member of the Board of Directors. Chambers will take the reins from founder Ray Wang, who will maintain his role as Chairman and Lead Analyst and continue to drive the company’s research strategy.
Press Release
Vidyo is positioned to see tremendous benefit from a revenue and deployment perspective as WebRTC clients proliferate using VP9 SVCGoogle and Vidyo jointly announced an agreement in which "Vidyo will develop a scalable video extension for the VP9 codec as part of the WebRTC client open source project". What does this really mean, and what will be the impact for both WebRTC and Vidyo?This article will explore the implications of the announcement, but first will offer some background on the technology.
Analyst Blog
Holger Mueller, discusses VM Ware's biggest challenges with Dennis Howlett. Filmed at VM World 2013.
Video
Demystifying Social Business: Optimizing the Issue to Resolution Process (Support & Service) - Quark
Quarks
Pragmatic Advice on How to Get Started in Your Social Business Initiatives
Quark version of the popular full length report: Demystifying Social Business: Optimizing the Issue to Resolution Process (Support & Service)
This report focuses on the issue to resolution mega-use case, which addresses internal- and external-facing use cases. Internal use cases include knowledge base creation, support escalation and support resolution. External-facing use cases include agent escalation, peer- based support, reactive support and predictive support. These use cases should provide a starting point for mapping out the service and support journey.
Whether or not you like being on camera, expect that you will be in the future when contacting your customer service organization. Video has had relative limited usage for customer support but as costs decrease, many view video as a more natural way to engage with others and share information. The former stumbling blocks of video, such as difficulties with setup and support, non-friendly user interface and struggles with publishing content have been reduced through technical advances and cloud services. Also, as Web Real-Time Communications (WebRTC) becomes more widespread, video sessions will become even simpler to deploy.
Analyst Blog
There was a time when the only “digital” device in your home was likely to be an alarm clock.
These days, we live with a range of internet connected devices from refrigerators to lightbulbs, and CCTV systems to VOIP phones. And that’s before we start counting computers, laptops, tablets and smartphones. When network security firm Sophos surveyed gadget users around the world in March 2013, respondents indicated that they carried an average of 2.9 devices with them. Smartphones and laptops were the most popular, with eReaders rounding out the list at 29%.
Analyst Blog
After a long weekend due to labor day, Microsoft and Nokia hit the press with the intention to acquire Nokia's smartphone business and licenses by Microsoft. Which was a rumor many times in the past - but nonetheless a surprise that it (still) came through now (at last).
Analyst Blog
Do you remember the Palm Pilot? Billed as a “PDA” – a personal digital assistant, it was a phone with an address book, could read your writing and translate it into text and it could even do basic emailing if you worked it hard enough. In many ways it was ahead of its time.
Analyst Blog
Attending VMWare's VMWorld conference this week in San Francisco was an interesting experience - we got to witness a lively ecosystem, a company with a strategy and really passionate - if not even cultishly loyal - user base. But where there is light there is also shadow - and we will describe both in this post.
Analyst Blog
I have not done a cup of chaos on a Friday for sometime … but this just seemed too delicious to ignore.
Analyst Blog
Let's use CNN, the self-proclaimed "Worldwide Leader in News" as a case study. The back-to-back headlines this week were: The imminent call to war on Syria by the U.S. and its allied nations; Miley Cyrus's VMA performance; and the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King's epic "I Have a Dream" speech.
What's wrong with this picture?
Analyst Blog
Quarks
Integrated Knowledge Management Is Essential for Supporting Converged Customer ExperienceThe road to converting customers to use self-service on the Web or their mobile devices has been slow. While most brands recognize the need for self-service, they fail to address the underlying causes for lack of adoption. Brands can build their own best-of-breed solutions or consider pre- packaged, fully integrated customer service KM solutions from top-tier solution providers listed in this report.
In the last federal election, social media showed its potential to engage and influence the voting public. We saw some tentative steps into the world of social media – some tweets, Facebook updates and the occasional blog post. And the public – largely ignored in terms of digital citizenry – leapt at the opportunity to not just join the conversation – but enter the debate.
Analyst Blog
Today Constellation announced the publication of “The Identity Manifesto: Seven Points on the Future of Identity” by Constellation Principal Analyst & CEO, R “Ray” Wang. This research report explores the future of identity and its implications for work, life and society.
Analyst Blog