Enterprise 2.0 refers to the use of collaborative technologies within an organization primarily for its employees, rather than how it might be applied in a business-to-customer context.
Open-source firms are flourishing in databases (Ingres, for instance), business intelligence (JasperSoft), customer-relationship management and other business applications (SugarCRM, Alfresco).
ECONOMIST: Open-source software in the recession: Born free | The
Along with some compelling anecdotes and explorations of business strategy and customer-centricity, Nelson also crams lots of intriguing details into his piece that serve as powerful reminders that the distinction between the worlds of offline and online are not only blurring but have been obliterated.
FORBES: World Champion San Francisco Giants' CIO Offers 6 Grand-Slam Lessons
He introduced seat-back entertainment, onboard ice cream and limos for business customers to create a customer-focused brand.
First, the debt-collection business has begun to merge with the bigger customer-service call-centre industry.
In my experience at the helm of a fast growing 100-person company selling inventory software, we collect as much business-specific information about every customer as we possibly can.
FORBES: Is It Possible To Gather Too Much Customer Data? No!
Targeting high-value policyholders, winning their loyalty and focusing on retention take on new importance, especially at a time of far-reaching organizational and business-process change, when customer relationships are apt to fray and attrition rates spike.
Only 3% of business-to-business Web sites are designed for direct sales, rather than for marketing and customer service, says Forrester Research, a Massachusetts consultancy.
It could be that twelve page loan application or a key customer-facing business process.
The most popular, underloved names that I like, in terms of what I talk about the most, are in the customer-assistance business.
The study also finds that business models will be more customer-centric.
To answer that requires a deeper dive into the specifics of each organization, its work culture, its business processes, and its customer-, partner- and employee-engagement strategies.
FORBES: McKinsey's New Survey Finds Collaborative Technologies Can Improve Corporate Performance
With a customer-focused business model that effectively uses the nation's airports as distribution points, net margins of 20% are feasible, estimates Horacio Zambrano, a Wedbush Morgan analyst who tracks the security industry.
But CIOs excel when they channel their technology expertise into customer-centric business leadership that helps drive new revenue, uncover new opportunities, engage more intimately with customers, and create new products and services.
More and more of sales management is ready to make the transformation, take the leap and reinvent themselves, and lead their entire organization to become a customer-aligned business that can better attract and retain customers.
Ms. Hesseltine got the idea for using touch-screen technology to eliminate most or all of her minimum-wage customer-service staff after seeing a nearby juice business do something similar.
WSJ: As Wages Rise, Firms Consider Replacing Workers With Devices
At Microsoft Dynamics we believe that you can win the hearts of your customer-facing employees and transform your customer care efforts by providing business solutions that allow each person in your organization to thrive.
But the deal gave Bemis the most coveted customer in the candy business--Hershey.
Breaking up the firm along these lines would turn the rump of Telecom Italia into a customer-facing retail business.
ECONOMIST: Italy��s biggest telecoms firm faces an uncertain future
Combined with GME's Edge card program, which allows members to receive additional credit on trade-ins and get additional discounts on pre-owned titles, the used-game business breeds the kind of customer loyalty its competitors simply cannot duplicate.
The Business Gold Card will offer its small business customer base the ability to earn rewards through the ever-wider area of social media and online advertising in general.
FORBES: American Express Offers New Appealing Social Media Package
This tactic creates the much sought-after customer loyalty, providing a long-term financial benefit to the business by creating customers who keep coming back.
Philips is undergo radical changes to accelerate our business to be more Market-Driven (ie Customer focus).
Comet, founded by George Hollingbery, was originally a two-man business charging batteries and accumulators for customer wireless sets.
Signature Flight built its business on the ability to provide world-class customer service.
It says that it was poaching so much business from a more traditional seller of customer-relations software, Siebel Systems, that Siebel had to adopt the model itself.
In December, the Bank of America launched its own mobile payment application that is linked directly to small-business owners' checking accounts, with customer payments available within a day.
Gox bitcoin exchange and CoinLab to partner on U.S. customer business was brokered by Seattle-based CoinLab, it would not have been possible without a solid and willing financial institution in the United States.
Broad sources of demographic information, such as your local chamber of commerce, the U.S. Census Bureau, and the SBA, provide valuable information to business owners and should be explored thoroughly particularly as you consider where to locate your business (if you will have a customer-facing physical location).
FORBES: Step 3 for a Successful Startup: The Importance of Market Research
For CIOs, the answer is simple not easy, but simple: they need to begin rapidly withdrawing themselves and their business-technology teams from the integration business and begin devoting more and more of their time to growth-oriented and customer-centric innovation.
应用推荐