Episodes

Retailers: We know it’s tougher than ever to turn customers into loyal evangelists for your brand. The experts say: Christine B. Whittemore: “The winners in retail today are retailers who understand that the customer calls the shots. Few retailers can compete strictly on price...” Brian Kilcourse: “Retailers have a big opportunity to re-define the in-store experience by making it a part of the world that today’s consumers operate in.” Lisa Joy Rosner: “Where business intelligence provides the re...

Open government. Transparency, participation, collaboration. Sounds good on paper, but is it a true game-changer yet? Our experts say: Dr. Natalie Helbig: “Opening government is a perfect storm, but we don’t know whether it will just be a lot of data or a sustained and meaningful change in the way we govern and are governed. Russ LeFevre: Technologies exist to enable open government. This ‘genie’ is out of the bottle. What needs to change is policy, culture and the will of government leaders to ...

Risk. A fact of business life today. What is your company doing about it? Hear what our experts say. Dr. Parveen Gupta: “Today, nothing is more fundamental to business and more vexing to a company’s directors than effective risk governance...a failure in risk oversight could be interpreted by the regulators and the courts as a breach of fiduciary duty by the Board.” Barry Murphy: “Good information governance allows companies to get value out of information while minimizing the costs associated w...

Have your employees demanded a BYOD (bring your own device) policy yet? If not, the writing is on the wall – or on the tablet. Any day now, they’ll be bringing their iPhones and iPads to work. Is this trend a threat or an opportunity for you? Consultant Steven Romero sees the latter, advising companies to “leverage the consumerization of IT to advance enterprise mobility.” Forrester’s George Lawrie agrees. “74% of the information workers in our survey used two or more devices for work—and 52% us...

Today’s the day! You’re hiring a well-vetted, steep-salary C-suite exec and you’re staffing a business-critical new department. Surely your HR folks gave you rock-solid validation for these particular human capital investments. Well, did they? Bersin and Associates founder Josh Bersin doubts it. “One of the biggest opportunities for HR to drive value in the coming years is talent analytics, but HR teams are absolutely not ready. And the systems vendors aren’t helping much either!” SuccessFactors...

Bankers, listen up: It’s not about YOU anymore. Customers are demanding a hassle-free experience, convenience, faster transaction processing, fair fees. Gone are the days of luring them with a free toaster. Two recent blogs tell the story: “4 Reasons Why Bankers Should Think Like Retailers” and “Stop Running Banks for Bankers—Run Them for Customers.” What do the experts say? Javelin’s James Van Dyke: “In today’s increasingly always-on and real-time world, people increasingly want more control of...

Enterprise mobility is an unstoppable force. By 2015, this game-changer could impact over 37% of the world’s workforce - about 1.3 billion people. And by that time, 50% of enterprise mobility applications will be HTML5, predicts Sanjay Poonen, President & Corporate Officer, Technology & Innovation Products, Head of Mobile Division at SAP. He notes, “Mobile technology is creating both an expectation and impatience in people that never existed before. In fact, mobility has such an impact on compan...

Information is still king. But you’ll need a different mantra to capture the ear and the wallets of the vast Latino market. According to JeffreyGroup president Mike Valdés-Fauli, “Culture is king...

Have your employees demanded a BYOD (bring your own device) policy yet? If not, the writing is on the wall – or on the tablet. Any day now, they’ll be bringing their iPhones and iPads to work. Is this trend a threat or an opportunity for you? Consultant Steven Romero sees the latter, advising companies to “leverage the consumerization of IT to advance enterprise mobility.” Forrester’s George Lawrie agrees. “74% of the information workers in our survey used two or more devices for work—and 52% us...

Ready to grow your company into a global brand? Good plan, says Emergent Research’s Steve King. “Almost 75% of global GDP growth over the next 10 years is expected to come from emerging market countries. How can you not participate in that growth? More good news from Vivaldi Partners’ Erich Joachimsthaler. “Today, we run a global business in a hyperlocal fashion. Collaboration between headquarters and subsidiaries is changing profoundly due to...new social technology and collaboration tools. The...

Like their grown-up counterparts, college newspapers are in trouble, says campusmediagroup.wordpress.com. “It’s now conventional wisdom that newspapers are dying, and the only debate left is when, not if...Are you with a college newspaper...? What have you been doing to stay relevant and prevent your eulogy from being written?” SAP VP Dan Mahowald has the answer. “The newspaper is not dead. Higher education revives it by adapting it to the new mobile reality. Here’s proof. Kathy Gates, Universit...

Through the magic of remote radio production, SAP Radio producer / host Bonnie D. Graham interviewed more two dozen attendees at SAP’s Sapphire Now 2012 for this special edition of “Coffee Break with Game-Changers”. Hear noted influencers plus SAP partners, customers and experts answer the big question: “How is SAP changing the game for your company, clients and/or market?” And see guests posing with the official Game-Changers mug [photos courtesy of Malcolm Kimberlin] at: http://www.facebook.co...

On April 4, we explored whether business intelligence, aka “BI”, is an oxymoron or a way to make companies genuinely smarter. Today our experts take a deeper dive into why even the best technical intelligence isn’t really “smart” without a solid strategy. Jason Rose sees it this way: “Technology is an enabler. Having a strategy sets your roadmap for success.” Brian Sommer takes a mathematical approach. “There are four kinds of BI strategies I see: none, outdated, accidental and purposeful. And, ...

Put on your consumer hat for a minute. Does your personal favorite customer service horror story end with how easily the offending company could have made your experience a dream, instead of a nightmare? Now put on your business hat. If you’ve heard such a tale of woe about your own company, do you know why? SAP’s Anthony Leaper believes it’s about the people you hire. “Are they emotionally attached to your brand and to the customer impression you want to leave behind?” Author Becky Carroll obse...

We’re spoiled! We’re so accustomed to getting real-time/right-time personal and business information via mobile devices and apps that we now expect similar responsiveness from the public sector. Could game-changing mobility be the answer to speeding-up the so-called slow-turning wheels of government? Yes! And government leaders are poised to make it happen. At the recent Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Federal CIO Steven VanRoekel named 2012 as “the year of mobile government.” And IDC Go...

Wow! You’ve got an amazing idea for the game-changing new product of the century. But no money to bring it to market. What to do? Start by begging for seed money from your FFF circle (family, friends and fools). If that fails, cast your hopes heavenward for an angel investor with start-up capital. Or, if you’re dreaming big, find a venture capitalist with millions to invest in your potentially high-growth idea. Sound simple? Not so much. Your road ahead is paved with decision trees and gotcha tr...

Pop quiz: Business intelligence aka “BI”. (A) Alphabet soup? (B) Oxymoron? (C) Secret weapon that instantly makes your company smarter? Answer: C, but it’s not that simple, says analyst Josh Greenbaum. “Business users don’t understand data, and data geeks don’t understand business. BI software has traditionally been among the top forms of shelfware in the enterprise. Most data warehouses are sanitary landfills.” Asuret’s Michael Krigsman adds, “Without a sense of focus and direction, BI and anal...

The mobile world isn’t coming; it’s already here. It’s a fact of business your company has to deal with, and a serious game you’d better play to win. That means getting the right information in the right format to the right people at the right time and place. According to communications researcher Maribel Lopez, “Businesses face a dynamic landscape where both customer and employee demands are changing…There are three market shifts that are driving this change – Mobile, Social and Cloud.” Communi...

“Demanding, vocal, impatient, and always right.” If this describes your customers, are you tempted to just give up and find new ones? Don’t do it, cautions Becky Carroll, author of The Hidden Power of Your Customers. “The popularity of social media and ubiquitous mobile phones have created the perfect storm for customer service - and companies need to get it right or suffer the very public consequences.” How to win this challenge? According to Forrester’s Megan Burns, “Enjoyable experiences are ...

Utilities. We only think about them when we flip a switch and the power doesn’t come on – right? But utilities are businesses that must play to win in a competitive global arena with infrastructure, government, supply, economic and customer challenges. Ovum’s Stuart Ravens warns, “Business and technology pressures are combining to create a virtuous – or vicious – cycle disrupting the utility business model. Utilities are struggling.” Can they survive? The Smart Grid Library’s Christine Hertzog h...

“Good. Better. Best. Never let it rest, until your good is better and your better is best.” This classic children’s nursery rhyme should be a grown-up mantra for every company today. Either do it better - operate more efficiently and continually innovate to meet market demands - or succumb to rising costs and proactive competitors. But how? SAP’s Peter Russo advises, “Many standard processes can be covered quickly, efficiently and at a much lower cost thanks to pre-configuration and new implemen...

Tech leaders with a traditional “CIO” title face increasing pressure to change with the times. Why? According to Asuret’s Michael Krigsman, “In the old days of corporate technology, experts guarded big computer centers and served as the high priests of technology. Few others were allowed inside their precious realm. Today, so-called ‘consumerization of IT’ means every department and function in a business has the potential to be its own IT department.” Vala Afshar at Enterasys adds, “Consumers a...

“Show me the money”, the iconic phrase from the 1996 film Jerry Maguire, still resonates in business and pop culture more than 15 years later. But before a company can see the money, they need to demand, “Show me the information.” That’s no easy task because growing your business requires getting the right information, in the right format, to the right people at the right time. Adding to your challenges, the total volume of digital data is expected to double every 18 months. According to Howard ...

Valentine’s Day: Love it if you receive “the perfect gift”. Hate it if you don’t know what gift to give or where to find it. If you’re the latter, it’s not all your fault, says Adrian Drury at Ovum: “You may not know what to buy your loved one, but your retailer does.” As a game-changer holiday, Feb. 14 poses a double-edge relationship sword for retailers. Fail to help a consumer express their love, and that consumer will not love your brand. Why is this so difficult? Because of a sea change of ...