Future of Screen Technology and Content Sharing
What experience do you see five years out for screen technology, user interfaces, mobile devices and content sharing?
TAT, a leader in UI design, recently ran an open innovation experiment. The video below shows the results of the experiment and their take on the future of screen technology with stretchable screens, transparent screens and e-ink displays, to name a few.
What are they missing? Is this possible in two years, 5 years, 10 years?
Mobile Devices Transform Shopping Process (Report)
Nielsen and Yahoo show that mobile devices are transforming the shopping process, according to a new report released within the past several months.
The wave of smartphone adoption and growing tsunami of tablets, combined with faster network speeds and better form factors (Please don’t get me started on some of the net books and clunky tablets that some companies, not to be named, have released.) are creating an ever growing commerce-oriented end-user base. The report shows that consumers are increasingly using their mobile devices while shopping and while watching TV.
- “9 out of 10 mobile users have accessed mobile web while at a store, and approximately 50% of in‐store mobile web activity is related to shopping. 48% of in‐store mobile users take and/or send a picture of a product to a friend or family member.”
- 57% of mobile internet users and 41%of non-mobile users intend to use their mobile phones for shopping research within the next 12 months.
- “1 in 5 mobile shoppers who have seen ads during the shopping process say they always look at it. The key to being successful in mobile shopping advertising is to make sure the ads are informative. Consumers want mobile ads to include price, product features, and benefits.”
- “86% of mobile Internet users (and 92% of 13‐24s) are using their mobile devices simultaneously with TV, presenting a compelling opportunity for content providers and advertisers alike to complement the viewing experience on the mobile platform.”
- 41% of users use their phones for impulse buys.
Worldwide Mobile Application Store Revenue $15 Billion in 2011
Revenue Between 2010 and 2014 is Forecast to Grow 1,000 Percent to Reach $58 Billion
Worldwide mobile application store downloads are forecast to reach 17.7 billion downloads in 2011, a 117 percent increase from an estimated 8.2 billion downloads in 2010, according to Gartner, Inc. By the end of 2014, Gartner forecast over 185 billion applications will have been downloaded from mobile app stores, since the launch of the first one in July 2008.
Worldwide mobile application store revenue is projected to surpass $15.1 billion in 2011, both from end users buying applications and applications themselves generating advertising revenue for their developers. This is a 190 percent increase from 2010 revenue of $5.2 billion.
“Many are wondering if the app frenzy we have been witnessing is just a fashion, and, like many others, it shall pass. We do not think so,” said Stephanie Baghdassarian, research director at Gartner. “We strongly believe there is a sizable opportunity for application stores in the future. However, applications will have to grow up and deliver a superior experience to the one that a Web-based app will be able to deliver. Native apps will survive the Web enhancements only when they will provide a more-personal and richer experience to the ‘vanilla’ experience that a Web-based app will deliver.”
Gartner analysts said the hype around application stores in 2009 continued through 2010 with alternative offerings to the Apple App Store gaining some traction. Android Market, Nokia’s Ovi Store, Research In Motion’s (RIM’s) App World, Microsoft Marketplace and Samsung Apps are the key competitors that saw the number of application downloads grow in 2010.
Free downloads are forecast to account for 81 percent of total mobile application store downloads in 2011. This percentage has been decreasing since the first launches in 2008, and Gartner estimates free downloads will continue to decrease in 2011, but it will increase again from 2012 through 2014. Users will begin paying for more applications as they perceive values in the concept of mobile applications, and they become more trustful of billing mechanisms.
In 2010, application stores’ revenue is estimated to have reached $5.2 billion, both from end users buying applications and applications generating advertising revenue for their developers. The growth between 2010 and 2014 is forecast be over 1,000 percent.
Application stores’ revenue is split between the store owners (such as Apple, in the case of the App Store, or RIM, in the case of App World) and the application’s developer. The average revenue share is based on a 70/30 split, with 70 percent going to the developer. By the end of 2014, advertising will be generating a little under a third of the revenue generated by application stores, up from 16 percent in 2010.
“While the average number of downloads per device onto a smartphone will remain stable as the market grows, it must be assumed that media tablets will drive more downloads from consumers, boosting the overall average downloads per device,” said Carolina Milanesi, research vice president at Gartner. “We estimate that Apple’s App Store drove close to nine application downloads out of 10 in 2010 and will remain the single best-selling store across our forecast period (through 2014), although to a lesser extent, as other stores manage to gain momentum.”
“Application stores have become a highly visible and potentially lucrative part of the smartphone ‘ecosystem, largely due to Apple’s App Store. As well as promising revenue, application stores allow store owners to leverage innovation from a community outside their own R&D department,” said Ms.Baghdassarian. “However, setting up a successful application store is far from simple. Application store owners need to rise to the challenges of attracting developers, organizing content and engaging users throughout the life of the store in order to remain profitable.”
Additional information is available in the Gartner report “Forecast: Mobile Application Stores, Worldwide, 2008-2014.” The report is available on Gartner’s website athttp://www.gartner.com/resId=1498914.
Note to editors
There are many application stores in the market, selling anything from applications to media content. In this forecast, Gartner only considers application stores that have a storefront accessible directly from a mobile device, without having to go onto the Web and entering a Web address. In the mobile application stores revenue forecast, Gartner considered only the revenue generated by applications, excluding other types of content, such as ringtones and wallpaper.
About Gartner:
Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT) is the world’s leading information technology research and advisory company. Gartner delivers the technology-related insight necessary for its clients to make the right decisions, every day. From CIOs and senior IT leaders in corporations and government agencies, to business leaders in high-tech and telecom enterprises and professional services firms, to technology investors, Gartner is the valuable partner to 60,000 clients in 11,000 distinct organizations. Through the resources of Gartner Research, Gartner Executive Programs, Gartner Consulting and Gartner Events, Gartner works with every client to research, analyze and interpret the business of IT within the context of their individual role. Founded in 1979, Gartner is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, U.S.A., and has 4,400 associates, including 1,200 research analysts and consultants, and clients in 85 countries. For more information, visit www.gartner.com.
Did Eric Schmidt Jump Or Was He Pushed?
Google’s Q4 2010 results look good, but the big story is the stepping down of Eric Schmidt. Did Eric Schmidt Jump Or Was He Pushed? It sounds like a little of both.
Michael Arrington at TechCrunch interviewed Eric Schmidt, Larry Page And Sergey Brin about Eric’s leaving earlier today. Read the full article on TechCrunch.
Schmidt stressed that Larry is ready to take the CEO position because for the last decade he, Sergey and Schmidt made all important decisions together. “The only difference is that Larry will get the credit and attention,” said Schmidt, saying that Larry is more than ready for the job. And Schmidt will certainly still be around as executive chairman in case things slip.
Eric Schmidt’s statement on Google’s Official Blog: “We are confident that this focus will serve Google and our users well in the future. Larry, Sergey and I have worked exceptionally closely together for over a decade—and we anticipate working together for a long time to come.”
Ken Auletta’s article Why Is Eric Schmidt Stepping Down at Google? has another good take on the announcement.
What are your thoughts? Did Eric Schmidt Jump Or Was He Pushed?
Product Development, Magical Thinking and the Zero-Sum Roadmap
We all suffer from too many “strategic” features and not enough resources. This is where prioritization and reevaluation come into place. It’s an age old problem, and one that will make or break your company. It’s also part of what keeps things exciting and may very much be part of the reason you work in technology.
How are things prioritized? What must get dropped out for the new project/feature to be added to the roadmap? How many more resources should be added?
Rich Mironov talks about the approaches that many product managers take with their roadmaps and how they handle new requests in his latest article Magical Thinking and the Zero-Sum Roadmap. How does your team approach requests?
Recent conversations at several clients highlight an often-repeated set of magical thinking: beliefs by internal clients that development resources are infinite, and beliefs by product managers that prioritization can convince anyone otherwise. Both are wrong, but seductive. Here goes…
The starting point for this conversation is the typical product roadmap: crammed full of prioritized work and heavily negotiated with the development team. Almost every optional item has been postponed, and there’s still some risk of delay. This is a product plan with no “white space,” no large chunks of unallocated engineering capacity, no slop or slush funds or hidden treasure…
…Our internal customers are not interested in why their requests are low-priority, only in how they can get things addressed sooner. Clear communication about what’s really important, together with solid roadmaps and carefully managed overflow capacity, can ease the pain a little.
Read the full article here.
Vendormate Lands Growth Investment
Vendormate, Inc. (“Vendormate”), the leading hospital supply chain and credentialing solution, today announced a significant investment from Primus Capital (“Primus”).
This investment demonstrates the company’s commitment to growth and desire to win the vendor credentialing and compliance monitoring space in healthcare and across additional verticals. Vendormate’s flagship product, Vendormate VISIONTM, is used daily by over 1,200 healthcare facilities across the country to identify and qualify vendors and their personnel.
Vendormate Founder and CEO, Andy Monin remarked, “With this investment, I am excited to move forward with our hospital and vendor partners to improve their interaction, lower costs and simplify the complexity of their business relationships. With Primus as a partner, we fully expect to expand our market leadership and continue to introduce innovative, value added solutions to the market.”
Primus Managing Director Phil Molner added, “Vendormate has achieved an impressive growth trajectory with their market leading solutions. We are excited with the opportunity to work alongside the Vendormate management team to continue to grow the business.”
About Vendormate
Vendormate protects the health of hospital supply chains with a unique vendor credentialing and compliance monitoring solution. The program assures compliance with both internal policies and government mandates, including HIPAA and the Deficit Reduction Act. Registered vendors are screened and rated by custom criteria and continuously monitored for non-compliance. Integrated badges control access to facilities. Call 1-877-483-6368, or visit www.vendormate.com or vendorcompliance.wordpress.com.
About Primus Capital
Primus Capital is a private equity firm that invests in growth-oriented companies in the healthcare, business services, and for-profit education industries. With a flexible investment approach, Primus pursues transaction types that include buyouts, recapitalizations, and expansion capital. For more information, please visit www.primuscapital.com.
Interest is high, but few brands take loyalty to mobile devices
As smartphones and the mobile internet increase penetration among Americans, shoppers are relying more on their phones while out and about to get product, store and price information to help them make decisions. Loyalty programs can also be tied to mobile, giving customers an easy way to access points and coupons—and retailers an easy way to capture customer data.
When Zoomerang surveyed US mobile phone owners on behalf of mobile marketing firm Hipcricket in October 2010, more than a third of respondents said they would be interested in a mobile loyalty program from a trusted brand. But just 9% were already participating in such a program.
Read more on eMarketer in their release Untapped Potential for Mobile Loyalty Programs
Dell to Acquire SecureWorks
SecureWorks’ Security-as-a-Service Solutions Expand Dell’s Services Portfolio with Industry-Leading Enterprise Protection
ROUND ROCK, Texas–Dell today announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire SecureWorks® Inc., a globally recognized provider of information-security services. SecureWorks’ industry leading Security-as-a-Service solutions include Managed-Security Services, Security and Risk Consulting Services and Threat Intelligence. The acquisition expands Dell’s global IT-as-a-Service offerings and information security expertise.
Organizations of all sizes and across diverse industries – including Global 500 companies, mid-sized businesses, financial services, utilities, healthcare, retail and manufacturing – rely on SecureWorks’ industry-leading security services to reduce risk, improve regulatory compliance and lower costs of managing IT security. The company’s proprietary threat management platform is scalable and integrates easily with client environments. In addition, SecureWorks’ world-class Counter Threat Unitsm research team helps protect clients across multiple industries from ever-changing global IT threats.
SecureWorks processes more than 13 billion security events and sees more than 30,000 malware specimens each day. The company has more than 1,500 banks and credit unions as managed security services clients and is protecting trillions of dollars in financial assets. Its reliability, capability and focus on client service has earned SecureWorks a best-in-class customer satisfaction rating from its global client base.
The acquisition is the latest strategic investment by Dell as it expands its portfolio of enterprise-class IT-as-a-Service solutions. Building its capabilities as a Managed Security Services Provider (MSSP) is an important next step in Dell’s strategy to help clients drive better efficiency across the enterprise and dramatically simplify the management of IT infrastructure.
Founded in 1999, SecureWorks is headquartered in Atlanta, GA and serves thousands of clients in 70 countries, including more than 15 percent of the Fortune 500. The company has approximately 700 employees and projects Fiscal Year 2010 revenue of more than $120 million. Gartner has positioned SecureWorks in the Leaders quadrant of its “Magic Quadrant for MSSPs, North America” report based on criteria that includes a company’s completeness of vision and ability to execute. Forrester named SecureWorks as one of only two “leaders” cited in The Forrester WaveTM: Managed Security Services, Q3 2010. SecureWorks was among the companies that received top ratings in several categories: including value proposition, vertical and geographic footprint, and infrastructure and perimeter security.
Quotes
“The frequency and sophistication of attacks on technology infrastructure and malicious attempts to access data, requires reliable, capable and innovative information security,” said Peter Altabef, President, Dell Services. “SecureWorks is a recognized industry leader in information security services and its offerings and expertise will immediately enhance our solutions portfolio. We look forward to welcoming SecureWorks team members – who bring their passion and dedication to serving clients with best-in-class security services – to Dell and our clients.”
“Dell’s global scale and relationships with clients provides a tremendous opportunity to rapidly expand SecureWorks’ business,” states Michael Cote, CEO and Chairman of SecureWorks. “With Dell’s commitment to our clients, our team and our market, I am confident that SecureWorks will flourish as part of the Dell Services organization and that our clients will continue to be well-served and well-protected by the services on which they rely.”
Closing and Initial Integration
The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close in early 2011. Dell plans to maintain SecureWorks’ current operations and continue to make investments in enhanced security offerings. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
About SecureWorks
SecureWorks is one of the top information security service providers protecting over 2,900 clients worldwide spanning North America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and the Pacific Rim. Organizations of all sizes, including more than 15 percent of the Fortune 500, rely on SecureWorks to protect their assets, improve compliance and reduce costs. The combination of award-winning security technology, strong client service, and experienced security professionals makes SecureWorks the premier provider of information security services for any organization. SecureWorks was one of only two “leaders” cited in The Forrester Wave™: Managed Security Services, Q3 2010 report (August 2010). SecureWorks has won SC Magazine’s “Best Managed Security Service” award for 2006, 2007, 2008 & 2009 and has been named to the Inc. 500, Inc. 5000 and the Deloitte lists of fastest-growing companies. www.secureworks.com
About Dell
Dell (NASDAQ: DELL) listens to customers and delivers worldwide innovative technology, business solutions and services they trust and value. Dell Services develops and delivers a comprehensive suite of services and solutions in applications, business process, consulting, infrastructure and support to help customers succeed. For more information, visit www.dell.com.
Dell is a trademark of Dell Inc. Dell disclaims any proprietary interest in the marks and names of others.
Mobile Couponing Best Practices and Guidelines Released by MMA
Download “Guidelines and Best Practices in Mobile Price Promotions” at http://mmaglobal.com/mobilecouponguidelines.pdf.
– The MMA (Mobile Marketing Association) (www.mmaglobal.com) today published “Guidelines and Best Practices in Mobile Price Promotions.” Created by the MMA’s Mobile Couponing Committee, the document is designed to provide marketers, merchants, wireless carriers and other ecosystem members with an industry-standard framework for using mobile coupons and rebates to increase sales and promote consumer loyalty.
Nearly 30 percent of U.S. consumers are interested in mobile coupons, according to a recent joint study by the MMA and Synovate, its official research partner. Mobile coupons are one type of Mobile Price Promotion, which the MMA defines as “electronic coupons or rebates that traverse the full redemption process without the requirement for conversion into a paper or other hard-copy format.”
Mobile Price Promotions are distributed, discovered and redeemed through a variety of mobile technologies, including SMS, MMS, Mobile Applications, Mobile Web, Bluetooth, NFC and 1D/2D barcode scanning. “Guidelines and Best Practices in Mobile Price Promotions” provides a concise overview of these channels, as well as the key considerations for developing and executing these types of campaigns:
- The five stages of mobile price promotions, such as the ways that consumers can discover and redeem coupons and rebates.
- General best practices and principles, including transparency, good taste, privacy, opt-in/opt-out and government laws, rules and regulations.
- Campaign-specific best practices and principles, such as those involving contests, food, pharmaceuticals and alcohol.
- Tips for designing coupons, using the word “free” and creating notices such as terms and conditions.
“Our recent study with Synovate shows that consumer interest in mobile coupons is high and growing, giving brands, merchants and marketers a powerful new opportunity to establish and maintain relationships with consumers,” said Greg Stuart, CEO of the MMA. “The MMA created ‘Guidelines and Best Practices in Mobile Price Promotions’ to give the ecosystem an industry-standard framework for capitalizing on that opportunity while protecting the consumer experience.”
Chaired by Mobile Dreams Factory, the MMA’s Mobile Couponing Committee includes Cellfire, Inmar, Infinian and Verizon Wireless.
For more information about “Guidelines and Best Practices in Mobile Price Promotions,” visit http://mmaglobal.com/mobilecouponguidelines.pdf. In addition, the public is encouraged to provide feedback by January 28, 2011 by sending comments to committees@mmaglobal.com.
About the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA)
The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) is the premier global non-profit trade association representing all players in the mobile marketing value chain. With more than 700 member companies, the MMA is an action-oriented organization with global focus, regional actions and local relevance. The MMA’s primary focus is to establish mobile as an indispensable part of the marketing mix. The MMA works to promote, educate, measure, guide and protect the mobile marketing industry worldwide. The MMA’s global headquarters are located in the United States and it has regional chapters including North America (NA), Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), Latin America (LATAM) and Asia Pacific (APAC) branches. For more information, please visit www.mmaglobal.com.
Mobile Year in Review 2010
Highlights of the 2010 Year in U.S. Mobile
- 5 billion mobile apps downloaded, up from 300 million in 2009
- 5 million Foursquare users, up from 200,000 in 2009
- 347% growth in mobile Twitter usage
- 200 million mobile Facebook users
- 100 million Youtube videos played on mobile devices every day
- 3,339 average number of texts sent per month by U.S. teens
- iPhone become the most popular camera on flickr
December 2010 World Map of Social Networks
Facebook continues to expand its dominance of social networking, as seen in the December 2010 World Map of Social Networks compiled by Vincenzo Cosenza.
A brand new map of the world, showing the most popular social networks by country, according to Alexa & Google Trends for Websites traffic data* (December 2010):
Cloud Services, Mobile Computing, and Social Networking to Mature and Coalesce Into a New Mainstream Platform
FRAMINGHAM, Mass., December 2, 2010 – Transformation has been a recurring theme in the annual International Data Corporation (IDC) Predictions over the past several years. During this time, a wave of disruptive technologies has emerged and evolved, forged by the pressures of a global economic recession. In 2011, and certainly beyond, IDC expects these technologies – cloud services, mobile computing, and social networking – to mature and coalesce into a new mainstream platform for both the IT industry and the industries it serves.
“In 2011, we expect to see these transformative technologies make the critical transition from early adopter status to early mainstream adoption,” said Frank Gens, senior vice president and chief analyst at IDC. “As a result, we’ll see the IT industry revolving more and more around the build-out and adoption of this next dominant platform, characterized by mobility, cloud-based application and service delivery, and value-generating overlays of social business and pervasive analytics. In addition to creating new markets and opportunities, this restructuring will overthrow nearly every assumption about who the industry’s leaders will be and how they establish and maintain leadership.”
The platform transition will be fueled by another solid year of recovery in IT spending. IDC forecasts worldwide IT spending will be $1.6 trillion in 2011, an increase of 5.7% over 2010. While hardware spending will remain strong (7.8% year-over-year growth), the industry will depend to a larger extent on improvements in software spending (5.3% growth) and related project-based services spending (3.5% growth), as well as gains in outsourcing (4% growth). Worldwide IT spending will also benefit from the accelerated recovery in emerging markets, which will generate more than half of all net new IT spending worldwide in 2011.
Spending on public IT cloud services will grow at more than five times the rate of the IT industry in 2011, up 30% from 2010, as organizations move a wider range of business applications into the cloud. Small and medium-sized business cloud use will surge in 2011, with adoption of some cloud resources topping 33% among U.S. midsize firms by year’s end. Meanwhile, the more nascent private cloud model will continue to evolve as infrastructure, software, and service providers collaborate on a range of new offerings and solutions. Meanwhile, the vendor battle for two cloud “power positions” will be joined to determine on whose cloud platform will solutions be deployed, and who will provide coherent IT management across multiple public clouds, customers’ private clouds, and their legacy IT environments.
Mobile computing – on a variety of devices and through a range of new applications – will continue to explode in 2011, forming another critical plank in the new industry platform. IDC expects shipments of app-capable, non-PC mobile devices (smartphones, media tablets, etc.) will outnumber PC shipments within the next 18 months – and there will be no looking back. While vendors with a PC heritage will scramble to secure their position in this rapidly expanding market, another battle will be taking place for dominance in the mobile apps market. The level of activity in this market will be staggering, with IDC expecting nearly 25 billion mobile apps to be downloaded in 2011, up from just over 10 billion in 2010. Over time, the still-emerging apps ecosystems promise to fundamentally restructure the channels for all digital content and services to consumers.
Meanwhile, social business software has gained significant momentum in the enterprise over the past 18 months and this trend is expected to continue with IDC forecasting a compound annual growth rate of 38% through 2014. In a sure sign that social business has hit the mainstream, IDC expects 2011 to be a year of consolidation as the major software vendors acquire social software providers to jump-start or increase their social business footprint. Meanwhile, the use of social platforms by small and medium-sized businesses will accelerate, with more than 40% of SMBs using social networks for promotional purposes by the year’s end.
As the new mainstream IT platform coalesces in the months ahead, IDC expects it to lay a foundation for IT vendors to support, and profit from, a variety of “intelligent industry” transformations. In retail, mobility and social networking are rapidly changing consumers’ shopping experience as they bring their smartphones into the store for on-site price comparisons and product recommendations. In financial services, mobility and the cloud are bringing mobile banking and payments closer to reality. In the healthcare industry, IDC expects 14% of adult Americans to use a mobile health application in 2011.
“What really distinguishes the year ahead is that these disruptive technologies are finally being integrated with each other – cloud with mobile, mobile with social networking, social networking with ‘big data’ and real-time analytics,” added Gens. “As a result, these once-emerging technologies can no longer be invested in, or managed, as sandbox efforts around the edges of the market. Instead, they are rapidly becoming the market itself and must be addressed accordingly.”
IDC’s predictions for 2011 are presented in full detail in the report, IDC Predictions 2011: Welcome to the New Mainstream (Doc #225878). In addition, Frank Gens will lead a group discussion of this year’s predictions in an IDC Web conference scheduled for December 2 at 12:00 pm U.S. Eastern time. For more information, or to register for this free event, please go to http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=IDC_P22186.
Startup Insider Tips From Expert Entrepreneurs
How do you pitch an investor? What has running a company taught you? What are some rookie mistakes? What advice would you give an entrepreneur? Mashable asked these questions to the CEOs of Learnvest, Roadify, Hunch, and HowAboutWe, along with angel investor David B. Lerner and seed-stage venture capitalist Brett Martin.
What advice would you give to an entrepreneur that is just getting started?
ClickFox Raises $18M in Series C Funding To Help Gain Insight Into Cross-Channel Customer Behavior
ClickFox, an Atlanta-based web analytics firm, closed $17.9 million in additional funding.
ClickFox began in 2000, founded by former faculty and researchers at Georgia Tech, as a pure web analytics play and has been evolving to provide a much more encompassing view into customer experience analytics across multiple channels. This evolution has helped the company reach profitability and establish itself in the telecom, banking, insurance and energy/utility industries. To continue its growth, ClickFox has announced plans to use this funding to expand its sales internationally and continue heavily investing in R&D.
“We recognize the enormous potential and value of data in today’s enterprise,” said Jamey Sperans, Managing Director of Morgan Stanley AIP. “But too often this data is ‘trapped’ inside separate functional areas and difficult to understand in any holistic way. ClickFox’s innovative solutions break down internal silos to enable companies to operate in a truly customer-centric way. We believe ClickFox is literally transforming the way some of the largest, most consumer-savvy businesses in the world analyze — and act upon — the wealth of customer and customer transaction data they capture in the normal course of operations.”
“The tremendous growth ClickFox has experienced over the years is a testament to the enormous power and value of our unique approach to analytics and further underscores our ability to drive unparalleled business impact to leading Fortune 1000 companies,” said Marco Pacelli, CEO of ClickFox.
Read the full press release for additional details.
Social Media Listening 2.0 (whitepaper)
Listening 2.0: Leveraging Social Intelligence to Drive Business Results, a white paper from Converseon describes the trends in social media monitoring and how companies can intergrate social intelligence into their operations.
The paper describes the challenges facing brands monitoring social media as:
Social media is becoming a core component of business strategy. As such, we are witnessing a rapid evolution from ad hoc and sponsored exploration to a desire for enterprise enablement, whereby social media and social intelligence become competitive advantages that enable critical business performance. For organizations who will participate in this evolution, four important areas must be addressed:
- Determining how and where listening can significantly impact business outcomes and objectives.
- Understanding how to manage the vast rivers of data, find meaningful insights, and support business processes and use cases — for today and tomorrow.
- Determining what should be automated and the role that people need to play; and determining the balance of internal versus external resources and capabilities.
- Creating frameworks to infuse social intelligence into the far reaches of the organization and ensuring timely action with a systematic, best-practice approach that includes performance measurement based on impact to the business.
- Converseon provides an overview of a new generation of listening solutions — it calls them Listening 2.0 — that is evolving to help meet these challenges and supersede current monitoring solutions. The company sees these new solutions providing deeper intelligence that aligns with business goals, addresses the challenges above and helps social media and social intelligence flourish across organizations.
Download the full whitepaper on the Converseon website.
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Press release:
New Social Media Listening Solutions Emerging To Solve Business Challenges
“Listening 2.0″ Outlines Specific Steps Companies Can Take To Leverage the Social Media Conversation
Converseon, the international, full service social media consultancy, today released “Listening 2.0: Leveraging Social Intelligence to Drive Business Results,” a white paper describing the evolution of social media monitoring and how companies can find business value and drive success by infusing social intelligence into their operations.
The white paper explains the trends behind the evolution from Listening 1.0 to Listening 2.0 and outlines the benefits of Listening 2.0 solutions for companies. It examines the role of listening in the enterprise and outlines actions companies can take to achieve business outcomes through social media monitoring and engagement.
“We believe that 2010 – 2011 marks the beginning of adoption and enablement of social media listening across the enterprise, creating the true ‘listening organization,’” said Rob Key, founder and CEO of Converseon. “Listening 2.0 outlines specific ways in which companies can infuse social intelligence into the far reaches of their organizations to drive business success.”
After describing the characteristics of Listening 2.0 – including deep intelligence based on human analysis, custom metrics based on specific business use cases, comprehensive data including the Twitter Firehose, ethical listening practices and integrated analytics to better inform real business decisions – the white paper addresses specific challenges posed by companies to social intelligence providers.
According to Key, these are:
- How can social intelligence move the business?
- How to answer questions beyond what are people saying about the business right now?
- What is the balance between internal and external capabilities and resources?
- How to choose a solution for today and tomorrow?
- How to organize and infuse social intelligence into the far reaches of the organization so that companies can take timely action with maximum impact?
According to Key, Listening 2.0 helps address these challenges by creating a social media and intelligence framework tied to a business’s key performance indicators and shared throughout the enterprise.
“Social intelligence is rapidly becoming the platform for business process redesign,” said Key. “Listening 2.0 helps address this challenge by helping to create a single social media and intelligence performance framework.”
Listening 2.0 is available for download on Converseon’s web site at http://converseon.com/listen. Converseon was recognized as a leader in the recent independent report “The Forrester Wave™: Listening Platforms, Q3 2010,”Forrester Research, Inc., July 12, 2010.
About Converseon
Founded in 2001, Converseon is a leading independent full service social consultancy that provides the technologies, organizational consulting and services required to help brands harness the power of social media to meet business objectives. Among its many recognitions is 2009 SAMMY Award for Best Social Media Agency. Headquartered in New York, Converseon’s team extends to Detroit, San Francisco, London, Switzerland, Copenhagen and Australia.
For additional information please contact Converseon at info@converseon.com or learn more about Converseon at http://www.converseon.com, http://www.twitter.com/converseon or http://blog.converseon.com.
Contact: David Parmet
dparmet(at)converseon(dot)com
(917) 546-8252
