Expert Advice

There are a lot of misconceptions about open source software among legal, procurement and compliance officers. "Open source" is often equated with "loss of control" by the legal compliance or procurement department, and restrictions on its use may be imposed without a real program in place. When th...

Applications delivered as Software as a Service are great. They allow businesses to scale their operations, reduce up-front costs, relieve themselves of tasks like backups and software updates, and speed up deployment of applications. They're simple to implement (in most cases). But, oddly, I think ...

The more we invest in something, the more committed we are to a successful outcome. Obvious enough, but what this investment of time and effort means is that we are now more motivated to follow through on our initial interest in the form of action. Enticing your shoppers to stay on your site and e...

One of the great promises of the social CRM revolution was -- at least in my mind -- the opportunity for quick, creative, smaller companies to develop the same sort of customer relationships that larger companies could afford to create. There's a gulf between small businesses, which may speak or eve...

Many economists, including Paul Krugman and Nouriel Roubini, have argued that the European Monetary Union is in trouble because of the fiscal difficulties of a few of its member countries. Some have predicted that the euro will fail. Because the prospects for a future single global currency depend ...

For the past two years, media and vendors alike have proclaimed the cloud to be the next wave of IT -- promising to change computing as we know it. The reactions of many IT veterans who have lived through similar marketing barrages in the past have ranged from a cautious wait-and-see attitude to out...

A new breed of consumer has emerged. This new breed -- the social consumer -- is more connected, more vocal and has greater control. Social consumers use social media to voice their praises about a particular business, but they use social media just as frequently to voice their concerns and anger a...

Mobile truly has created an "always on society," where people are online and accessible 24 hours per day. Mobile platforms have become more than simple communications devices; they are lifestyle assistants that enable people to connect, interact, inform and influence. Because of this, they are also...

There is no denying that mobile devices like tablets are changing the way we communicate, work and share information on the go -- it's the next logical step in the "post-PC" world. In addition to an increase in cloud-based services, there is a surge in multiple mobile devices -- with consumers not o...

Cloud computing is a priority for enterprises seeking greater agility, operational efficiency and overall cost reduction, but security concerns continue to inhibit its use. Half of all companies not adopting cloud computing cite security as the reason, according to a Forrester Research October 2010 ...