
The Emerging Networks of Record
The distinction between Geoffrey Moore’s Systems of Record and Systems of Engagement concepts is a hot topic amongst organizational leaders today. A quick primer, courtesy Wikipedia: Whilst a system of record (SOR) is the authoritative data source for a given data element (e.g. CRM, ERP and Supply Chain Management), systems of engagement (SOE) “focus on people, not processes”. Texting, Twitter, […]

Does Your SaaS Company Have to Have a Sales Force?
Any time absolutes are being bandied about, I have to do the fact check. Sorry, it’s just an automatic reflex. We live in a world that is largely gray and seldom black and white. This was never more true than in the world of startups. Entrepreneurs need to see both sides of every coin before […]

Integrating Your Marketing and Sales Funnel
The marketing funnel is not exactly a new idea but neither is sales or customer service though all have morphed considerably from what they were more than a decade ago when CRM got started. Sales and service evolved organically making incremental changes as markets transformed and new technologies became available. Marketing is in the middle […]

“Chasm Crossing” case study: Igloo Software
I’ve done a couple of briefing calls with the folks at Igloo Software this year. They have a number of intranet, collaboration and other tools that compete with the likes of Jive, Saleforce’s Chatter and Lithium. What has impressed me about Igloo is how they seem to be following the market adoption principles that Geoffrey […]

Rolling Out An Idea
Has the emergence of social technology been faster than the roll out of other advanced technologies like CRM and ERP and why? I have recently been reading a dense technical book from 1990 with the improbable title (for CRM), The Rise and Fall of Infrastructures — Dynamics of Evolution and Technological Change in Transport, by […]

The widening chasm
Cloud application vendors are able to add new functionality at a far faster rate than conventional on-premise vendors, and with less cost and risk. That’s opening up an innovation gap that the established incumbents will find increasingly hard to close.

Reengineering Work: Obliterate AND automate
I have been invited to moderate a customer panel on next-gen BPO at the Cognizant Community event next week. The theme of the conference is The Future of Work”. When I look at the wide range of industries represented on the panel, the economic models behind today’s BPO, the technologies which are influencing every business […]

Six big trends to watch in 2011
I’ve long been a fan of Geoffrey Moore’s classic business books about the evolutionary path taken by emerging technologies and the companies that champion them. Especially now that several of the key emerging technologies I follow are at such different stages of their evolutions. These contrasting cross-currents are going to make 2011 a fascinating and […]

Twitter, Facebook and the tornado
Social networks are 800lb gorillas trampling all over the sensibilities of their users as they get bigger, and the crowd is letting them get away with it.