Thursday, October 28, 2010

Cloud Confusion

Yet another study indicates that people are confused about cloud computing and whether it has any benefits for their organization. This article has some pointers about how to address this confusion. Do your research, Try it out on some non-critical apps. Evaluate the experience. Treat it as a strategic decision, with all the implications that carries with it.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Frenemies

A new form of collaboration on the web is that of working with competitors. While this has been touted as a likely outcome of web usage since the web began to be used for business purposes, the idea has been gaining some traction lately, with the collaborating competitors being referred to as frenemies.

One important form of it is having customers browsing for certain products directed to a local physical location where they can obtain what they seem to be looking for. The chances are that if a customer is just looking and does not place an online order, they will go to a location within a reasonable distance from them in any event. So the idea is that they are referred to a local place, even that of a competitor. Of course, this works both ways, with competitors referring to their competitors as well, so over time, the business brought in from referrals should hopefully be more than any business lost to competitors.

For an article describing the arrangements made along these lines by a particular company, please see this link.

Friday, October 22, 2010

Social CRM

CRM is a natural tool for enhancing and perhaps even establishing a strong CRM System. Social Media can be used to engage customers, gain feedback and vet new ideas and initiatives.

But the issue has been how best to use social media. Just setting up a Facebook page or Twitter Account won't accomplish much.

One of the approaches to consider is to identify which types of customer are most likely to use social media and become engaged in it. There are several possibilities, but Chris Bucholtz, a blogger at Forecasting Clouds, has made three good suggestions. First is sports fans. Often they are young and enthusiastic users of social media. Another is clients of government agencies. The agencies themselves are usually eager to hear from the publics they serve and often the publics they serve are eager to provide feedback. Finally, certain Hobby enthusiasts may provide a successful group of social media users.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Targeted Ads on Facebook

What better place for targeted advertising than Facebook, where people voluntarily disclose their personal information. While such voluntary disclosure does not remove the strictures of the Privacy Act, nevertheless, there is some ambiguity about this, and Facebook has implemented a system of advertising based on the information that people have disclosed, such as their gender, age, etc. Recently, Facebook has revealed that these targeted ads have become their largest source of revenue. This article explains.

Friday, October 15, 2010

Cloud Computing - SAAS and PAAS

Many companies continue to move to cloud computing despite the additional risk involved. Vendors are becoming more sophisticated in the area and offering more comprehensive solutions. For example, the original center of the cloud - Software as a Service (SAAS) has now evolved into Platform as a Service (PAAS). With integrated platforms available in the cloud, it makes it more feasible for companies to move their ERP, CRM and BI systems there.

Microsoft has declared that they are fully into the cloud. In a recent interview, Bob Muglia, president of the nearly $15 billion Server and Tools Division of Microsoft, explains the current state of the cloud and offers an insight to Microsoft's strategy in this important area. The interview, complete with videos, can be seen on this site.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

IT Careers: Hottest Jobs, Skills in Cloud Computing, Mobile Application Development

The latest IBM Tech Trends survey of IT professionals reveals that cloud computing and mobile application development will provide the most career opportunities, followed by social media and business intelligence. See the article at this site

Monday, October 11, 2010

Google - Maker of Fine Automobiles

Google has announced that they are testing a new car that drives itself. There have been predictions for a few years now that the traditional car manufacturers would be moving in that direction, but this is a very tangible and interesting move by a company that has not been involved in any way in the automobile industry. It shows once again how sudden and discontinuous change has become the norm for the information age.

Some of the car makers have been introducing new self driving functionality, such as, for example, the self braking feature of the new Mercedes. However, these initiatives have been sporadic and have not approached the status of a fully self driving car.

Google is investing a lot of money in their new initiative. It will be interesting to see if they succeed. For more on the self driving car, see this website.

Monday, October 04, 2010

E-discovery Goes In-house

As legal issues have moved into the electronic age, so has the discovery process. Discovery is the pre-trial process in legal actions that involve making documents available to the other party so as to improve the fairness and efficiency of the actual proceedings. Since many documents are now electronic, the process of e-discovery was born a few years ago to include the production of electronic documents. E-discovery has grown as a part of the legal process and now has reached the point that companies are bringing it in-house so as to include it in their regular control operations. For a good article on this development, please see this article.