New forms of customer relationship management are moving to the forefront of enterprise capabilities as companies begin a new era of investment in the function, says new data. But are companies really ready to get more social and mobile, or they just reacting to seemingly irresistible customer demand? The companies that understand how to employ new CRM trends strategically seem most likely to benefit.
We are not far from a tipping point in IT where the majority of business solutions come from workers and the lines of business via the cloud and newer mobile platforms. While this is a sea change in the way we look at software and data ownership and management, it's clearly under way. What will happen to the traditional IT department as consumerization takes place and what should organizations do to get ready?
In today's ever more technology-centric world, the stodgy IT department isn't considered the home of innovation and business leadership. Yet that might have to change as some of the biggest advances in the history of technology make their way into the front lines of service delivery. Here's an exploration of the top five IT trends in the next half decade, including some of the latest industry data, and what the major opportunities and challenges are.
While app stores have become enormously popular with users, particularly on mobile devices, they are now moving to the enterprise. The new Jive Apps Market provides an interesting approach that combines apps with direct integration into the flow of a worker's primary social experience. Not to be outdone, Apps Market is also designed to appeal to IT as well. It will be one of the enterprise app stores to watch closely.
There's been an important and relatively sudden change taking place over the last couple of years in the way that we interact with the Web. While direct access or search activity has been (and still is) the most common way that we access the content and applications of the Web, new ways have been rapidly growing and competing with how we work online, both at home and at work. These new models, exemplified by social networking sites like Facebook or mobile apps on platforms like the iPhone, Palm's new webOS, and Android, seems to be heralding a change in the way that we work with our IT systems in the enterprise.See what the implications are and what you can do about them.