Expert Advice

Most successful companies invest in marketing. Marketing budgets are utilized differently depending on factors such as industry and company goals, and results are contingent on how well an organization understands and interacts with its customers. However, what many organizations don't know is tha...

Several years ago analysts began trumpeting the finding that operational costs had surpassed capital costs as the dominant source of expense in IT infrastructure. Despite evidence supporting this claim, many IT managers for a time continued to focus primarily on capex. However, over the past few y...

International e-commerce is poised for explosive growth in the months and years ahead. Demand for U.S. products overseas is booming due to vast selection, high-quality specialty goods and unbelievable values. The Internet is bringing all of this value, selection and convenience directly to consumers...

What if you answered the phone one day to a friendly voice offering tech support for some software that had been troubling you? "Not possible," you'd say. We all know the drill with technical difficulties. We call up the software company during business hours and then sit on hold only to get an agen...

How we communicate has always had a dramatic impact on business. The telephone made the "sales call" possible; soap company advertising created a whole genre of radio and TV programming; the Internet enabled the "live demo." Business is about connecting with your consumer, and the earlier your compa...

The new Main Street exists anywhere thumbs can hit keys or scroll across a touchscreen. So what does your online presence say about what you have to offer those virtually strolling by? Customers regularly seek feedback on future purchases from their social circle. Conversations about your brand are ...

For B2B marketers, social media has quickly become a desirable component of most cross-channel marketing campaigns. According to an August 2009 survey by Mzinga and Babson Executive Education, the vast majority of professionals worldwide are using social technologies for business purposes. Eighty-si...

Businesses are extending their reach across multiple channels of commerce -- from stores, call centers and kiosks to the Web 2.0 reality of social networking sites and blogs -- to maximize sales opportunities. As customers get more demanding in this competitive environment, it pays to listen to them...

Most security companies are big fans of the doom-and-gloom scenario of information security. However, when it comes down to brass tacks, security is nothing more than a business function -- specifically, a business function of measuring and mitigating risk. The key motivator behind information secur...

Accountability is essential for any company that wants to be successful. Without it, there is no way to know whether what you're doing is working or could be done better. In the competitive world of Internet retailing, razor-thin margins and fickle consumers make it even more important to ensure ...