Mashups Gain in Stature
"The value of the mashup as a knowledge solution is pointed up by Nolle’s figures showing that in 2005 only 28 percent of enterprise buyers saw a connection between mashups and collaboration: in 2007 that number rose to an astonishing 81 percent. Clearly, people were getting it with mashups."
Starting to Take Shape
"Taking advantage of these features usually requires a corporate restructuring, which sometimes can be quite dramatic. Executives need to move away from a focus on the performance of autonomous business units and more toward a view of the organization functioning as a cohesive whole. Balancing the new requirements that analytics brings, such as breaking down traditional departmental barriers and reshaping the workforce, with often conflicting initiatives, such as tightening the budget, can be difficult to complete."
Programming is NOT an art
"Another essential word in the article is 'engineering', as in software engineering. Engineering is defintely not Art, it is applying methods to solve real-world problems with solutions that don't fall down (like bridges) or fail to work (like software). In fact, reaching an actual Engineering level of discipline for software is something we should aspire to, leaving craftsmenship behind, as happened in the Industrial revolution with manufacturing plants putting craftsman out of work."
Community Costs
"One assumption underlying some client conversations I have is that community comes cheap. It may have something to do with the hippy-trippy quality of the word. Unfortunately, it's just not true. As the splendid Community Guy notes it can often cost more than some traditional techniques - mainly because there is a start-up stage. But this is really just an investment like any other. One that, over time, will create a valuable asset. However, the classic comment about open source software is highly relevant: 'Linux is only free if your time has no value.' Community building is about smart people spending time building relationships in a way that machines will never do. Make no mistake community is all about being cost-effective - not cheap-and-cheerful."
Why Employee Relationship Management?
"A culture that values the employee must pervade the organisation before these technologies can begin to make a positive contribution. Without a clear management adoption of employee centered values these technologies can become a destructive force which spread a negative morale rather than a positive one. Employee relationship management tools breaks down the dependency on hierarchical command and control systems and introduces more and more a self organizing culture of employees that are networked to collaborate on points of need."
7 Qualities of a Customer-Centric Business
"What's interesting about IBM's study is that price was far less of a factor than all of the aforementioned qualities were. In fact, Balboni said, price is simply not the prime concern of a loyal customer. 'If a shopper is not loyal to you, then they're loyal to price,' he told the crowd. The key is to keep customers coming back even if your competitor is offering the same, or even lower, prices. It all comes down to policy, processes, and supporting technology, Balboni said, and while no two businesses are the same, the ones that are successful are the ones who continue to have a commitment to the customer."
