What is business technology? A slow but relentless revolution that is important to the digital executive.

We live in a world where simply trying to align technology with business units is becoming difficult or even impossible to achieve. Savvy business staff (via the Cloud and other means) can select, fund and enable technology without the traditional IT function.

Developing effective business strategy today requires us all to blend technology strategy and business strategy in the development stage of planning, not after the fact. Technology should be fundamental to all we do as we develop business strategy.

A slow but relentless revolution in which traditional technology management, historically delivered only by an IT organization, is changing to be pervasive technology use managed increasingly outside of IT's direct control and measured by boosting business results. --Forrester Research

I think characterizing this as a "revolution" is right!! The digital executive drives a partnership with all parties, technology, marketing, sales, communication, customer service, etc. The digital executive isn't independent but is open and interdependent.

Are there risks to mobile CRM?

There's no stopping the mobile CRM revolution, but those who rush into it headlong with an eye only to the many benefits may be in for an unpleasant shock. As if we didn't have enough to worry about, mobile CRM is laden with risks, too -- from getting on the wrong side of the customer to getting on the wrong side of the federal government. Then there are the myriad security concerns that go along with making sensitive company data accessible on a device that may be woefully insecure.

More here: The Hidden Risks of Mobile CRM, Part 1 | Mobile CRM | CRM Buyer.

Customer Experience Trend: Software as an Experience

One of the big trends we are seeing in the world of customer experience is a focus on the experience of the software. The whole rise of Smart Phones is geared around this premise.

The initial rise of cloud-based software (a.k.a. SaaS, or software-as-a-service) focused on renting access to software instead of the historical approach of selling licenses. As cloud-based software expands, we’ll see these offerings cater more explicitly to the needs of customers.

How? More simple, highly-focused, specialized applications (like smartphone apps), more focus on quick initial usability, more sharing of best practices (usage, not technical), and customization based on behavioral analysis of users.

Tidbit: Net Promoter Scores for tech vendors are more correlated to customer experience than product performance.

What is your cloud strategy?

Where is the Cloud going over the next few years? Have you defined your strategy to move there yet?

According to Forrester's projection, the global market for cloud computing will grow from $40.7 billion in 2011 to more than $241 billion in 2020. Software-as-a-service (SaaS) will play the most dominant role and will be an estimated market of about $80 billion in 2015. SaaS will especially disrupt the customer relationship management (CRM), HR, and governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) software markets in coming years, and it has already disrupted other software categories such as content management and ePurchasing solutions.

Clearly the cloud isn't going away. Are you on board?

Related articles

• SaaS Sees Fastest Growth In Cloud Computing (misco.co.uk)


• Rackspace Cloud Defines Three Cla-SaaS-ic Mistakes (rackspace.com)


• Get ready for SaaS (rackspace.com)


• Software as a Service (SaaS), Security and Risk Management: Part 1 (websphere.sys-con.com)