Brendan Witcher says, “Omnichannel fulfillment services have indubitably piqued the interest of today’s retail leaders; nearly one-third of the retail organizations we surveyed already support “buy online, pick up in store” (BOPIS) functionality or have plans to implement the technology by the end of next month. However, proponents of omnichannel fulfillment are starting to recognize that simply offering services like BOPIS does not in itself lift the bottom line. eBusiness professionals must actively ensure that these initiatives are driving real profits for their business, leaving... [...]

Boris Evelson says, “Over the past several years, Forrester’s research has written extensively about the age of the customer. Forrester believes that only the enterprises that are obsessed with winning, serving, and retaining customers will thrive in this highly competitive, customer-centric economy. But in order to get a full view of customer behavior, sentiment, emotion, and intentions, Information Management professionals must help enterprises leverage all the data at their disposal, not just structured, but also unstructured. Alas, that’s still an elusive goal, as most enterprises... [...]

Nigel Fenwick says, “They say a picture is worth a 1000 words …. so our graphics designers and my wonderful research associate, Rachael Klehm, created this infographic to highlight a few of the data points from the Digital Transformation Playbook and the Forrester / Odgers Berndtson Digital Business research study. Tuesday, May 9th is our Digital Transformation Forum and I’ll be revealing my latest research into digital preadtors and transformers. I hope to see you there”. Digital Transformation 2016 Infographic Forrester  [...]

Rowan Curran says, “Years ago, I worked at a large customer service vendor. Our CEO had tasked us to “eat our own dog food” – that is implement our own solutions for our customer service operations which comprised of 40 or so tier 1 and 2 customer service agents. With these marching orders, I put a group of consultants and business analysts together to get this done. And after several months, the project stalled; got restarted; stalled again; then finally died. We limped on with our old systems in place for many more years. Why did this project fail? It was because of a... [...]

Rowan Curran says, “Knowledge is power. And in a time where insights drive business differentiation, knowledge is also the origin of power. In our daily routines as consumers, search is probably the most common application we use to find knowledge, and it forms the basis of our personal systems of insight. But at long last, search in the enterprise is catching up. A new wave of search-based applications and search-driven experiences are now being delivered by companies who understand the need to empower their employees and customers with immediate, contextual knowledge in an easily-consumable... [...]

Laura Ramos says, “Have you ever wondered about the tactical challenges B2B marketers (like you) face across role responsibilities like building brand/awareness, generating qualified demand, nurturing leads into qualified sales opportunities, enabling sales/channel partners to better close business, and expanding current customer relationships? Or how your practices around technology adoption, process change, modern marketing skill development, and sales alignment compare to peers? If you tell us — we will tell you more in return. Many of you read our blog and research, or talk to... [...]

Julie Ask says, “Everyone is buzzing this week about bots with Facebook/Messenger’s anticipated launch of bots on its messenger platform. What is a bot you ask? A bot is a chat-based interface that helps consumers complete tasks — ordering take-out food, chatting with their doctors, or checking the score of a big sports game. Many believe that this next step — bots in conversation with consumers — is imminent. We agree, but not so fast. There are a few trends playing in favor of bots becoming the next big user interface: 1. Apps put a huge burden on consumers. The app... [...]

Ryan Skinner says, “Last week Salesforce published its ‘State of Marketing’ survey results, which included some interesting findings for data-driven marketers. First of all, the over-ambitious title* and the survey’s methodology tell you to take the findings with a grain of salt. 43% of the survey’s 4,000 respondents were either CEO or owner, which correlates well with the apparently 39% of respondents from companies of 1-100 employees. To highlight best practice, the survey designers created a sub-set of respondents (18%) classified as ‘high-performing teams’... [...]

Satish Meena says, “I have a confession to make. I love talking with B2B marketers and clients, but there is one question I get occasionally that really makes me crazy. (And you will hear an earful if you are unfortunate enough to ask it.) “Laura, what’s working well in B2B marketing tactics?” And I’m thinking, “Do I look like the Lone Ranger?” (Silver bullets? Get it?) To be fair, when marketers ask me “What works best?” I don’t really think they are looking for a simple and seemingly magical solution to a complicated problem. Most just want to validate their... [...]

Laura Ramos says, “I have a confession to make. I love talking with B2B marketers and clients, but there is one question I get occasionally that really makes me crazy. (And you will hear an earful if you are unfortunate enough to ask it.) “Laura, what’s working well in B2B marketing tactics?” And I’m thinking, “Do I look like the Lone Ranger?” (Silver bullets? Get it?) To be fair, when marketers ask me “What works best?” I don’t really think they are looking for a simple and seemingly magical solution to a complicated problem. Most just want to validate their current... [...]