This list celebrates changemakers creating meaningful impact through leadership, innovation, fresh perspectives, transformative mindsets, and lessons that resonate far beyond the workplace.
Actian DataCloud Achieves Epic Status in the Inaugural Bill of Rights Certification for Cloud Integration
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The Enterprise Cloud Buyer’s Bill of Rights provides a tool for clients and vendors to change the tenor of contract negotiations from user subservience to an equal and collaborative long-term partnership.
Actian’s acquired Pervasive Software on April 11, 2013. Constellation evaluated Pervasive Software prior to the merger. Actian DataCloud achieved a 4.77 weighted score and achieved the highest certification – Epic for its achievement in meeting the 61 requirements of the Cloud Buyer’s Bill of Rights category.
Everything that we do on an internet connected device leaves a digital trail. Whether it is an internet enabled refrigerator, a PC, smartphone or tablet – somewhere there is a log file recording of what your device did, what it connected to and when. And if that involves sending files, or creating or consuming content – then that data grows – for those files would be copied, replicated or cached in each location.Google’s Eric Schmidt famously suggested that from the dawn of civilisation through to 2003, the human race had created roughly 5 exabytes of data.
Starting a business is like flying by the seat of your pants. Even experienced entrepreneurs experience the simultaneous challenges of validating and launching a product, marketing, resourcing, managing staff, engaging stakeholders and securing funding. Often – in the whirlwind – a strategic approach to marketing is lost. Or worse – ignored. My view (as it would be), is that it is never too early to market.
I have been a fan of HubSpot for some time. I love the way that they relentlessly connect the dots between marketing and action, between marketers and their customers, and the web and the business of marketing...With the release of the HubSpot Culture Code, we can gain a glimpse into the philosophies and policies that inform and activate their culture. They have rethought the old and newer ways of working around focus, support, working hours, workplace and tenure. And the culture code makes the point that while people have changed, “many organizations operate as if they’re frozen in time”.
Avaya recently hosted industry analysts at its Customer Experience Management event to describe and expand on its direction for contact center customers. Faced with a large installed base of legacy products, Avaya is setting a clear direction to help its customers gain value by leveraging their existing investments and moving forward with new applications for customer support. Avaya’s direction is to simplify its offerings with more bundled solutions and give its customers new options for implementation. Its vision for going forward includes investments in improved speech analytics and predictive analytics, mobile support and cloud solutions. Avaya recognizes the need to offer its existing Avaya and legacy Nortel customers with a well-defined strategy and path for upgrading existing contact center applications with expanded next generation customer support options.
I had a briefing with Jason Sosa, founder of IMRSV, Inc, and then invited him to lunch. Privacy by Design and building a sensor analytic ecosystem are building the future of informed decisions.
I must admit to being more than a little intrigued by Bitcoin, the open source, peer-to-peer digital currency. In fact, anything with the words “open source, peer-to-peer and digital” in its description is likely to pique my interest. But as a currency, Bitcoin operates independently of central banks or a central organisation – which in times of sovereign debt crises adds to its attractiveness.Very few of us go through the process of thinking through how our currencies actually work. We know enough to understand our local banking systems – and the way that they manage transactions, the money supply and so on – but Bitcoin operates in a completely different way.
Customer support organizations are scrambling to accommodate their changing customer behaviors and preferences. The move to social media, mobile applications and online communities triggers customer service organizations to search for applications that deliver the same level of support on emerging channels as their traditional channels. Without an actionable plan for accommodating customers equally across all channels, support organizations find their customers’ experience suffers. This fragmented approach also causes integration issues, which often require extensive fees for professional services to bridge the legacy applications with the newer ones. To avoid the pitfalls of managing and integrating multiple point solutions, service organizations need to create a customer service support framework, as the foundation for their support strategy.
SAN FRANCISCO, CA April 9, 2013 – Constellation Research, Inc. the research and advisory firm focused on disruptive technologies today announced the publication of “Customer Service Strategy for a Disruptive World” a market overview by Constellation Vice President and Principal Analyst, Elizabeth Herrell.
Apply the Customer Service Support Framework as Your Strategic Weapon in Customer Experience
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As disruptive new technologies have emerged in recent years, the world has witnessed a dramatic change in how customers interact with brands and companies for service. The rapid rise of social media and mobile applications has triggered an unprecedented shift in customer behavior. With pervasive use of smartphones and tablets, more than half of U.S. customers use their mobile devices for reaching a company and initiating service requests. Companies need to build a new customer service strategy for delivering a seamless cross-channel customer experience based on a collaborative approach from sales, marketing, IT and customer experience managers. The change in how customers communicate is already here. This report provides a framework for building a world-class customer service strategy.
In the age of social media, effective customer and employee engagement is becoming an increasingly important business initiative. Companies that effectively engage their customers experience greater customer loyalty and repeated patronage. Companies that effectively engage their employees can expect greater employee satisfaction and productivity. However, as the number of social channels continues to grow, engagement becomes increasingly difficult as constant bombardment of these channels often leads to alienation and fatigue.
In the age of social media, effective customer and employee engagement is becoming an increasingly important business initiative. Companies that effectively engage their customers experience greater customer loyalty and repeated patronage. Companies that effectively engage their employees can expect greater employee satisfaction and productivity. However, as the number of social channels continues to grow, engagement becomes increasingly difficult as constant bombardment of these channels often leads to alienation and fatigue. Enter the 9 C's of Engagement. Employ the 9 C's of Engagement to connect with your customers and employees in an increasingly saturated social environment.In this interview at SXSW 2013, R "Ray" Wang explains how companies should be using the 9 C's of Engagement.
Partnership Announcements Enhance Ultimate Software’s OfferingsAmidst a crowd of 1500 customers, partners, and attendees, Ultimate Software held their annual gathering from March 12th to March 15th, 2013 in Las Vegas. Geared towards the medium sized to enterprise markets, Ultimate Software has steadily taken market share from ADP for payroll and expanded out into operational and strategic human capital management (HCM) capabilities. New mobile access, generation 4 cloud architecture, and timeline features for employee’s highlight Ultimate’s growing ambitions and customer requirements.At the event, Ultimate announced two strategic partnerships that bode well for customers and prospects facing an increasing level of customer complexity and growing need for global capabilities:
On March 21, Nokia came out swinging directly at Google and indirectly at the emerging WebRTC standard when it claimed that VP8, the video codec within WebRTC, contains Nokia intellectual property. Nokia's action complicates the issue of the default video codec within WebRTC because Nokia has stated that it will not license any of its patented technology to the IETF.