CIO Social Media LandScape

LinkedIn's Reid Hoffman on the New Data Landscape Reid discusses how social media is creating a vast abundance of consumer related data that companies must learn to use in order to more efficiently go after sales prospects. He also discusses how the mining and distribution of this personal snapshot data can cause a backlash and how companies must learn to balance the power of access with respect for privacy.

	100 Pages, 100 Keys to Effective Social Media Strategy 100 Pages Of Essential Tips And Insights For Winning, Retaining and Converting New Customers Via the Social Internet.
	White Paper: Brand Value Creation, Communications and Equity This is a great time to be in marketing research. The opportunities for both improvement and for changing the way things are done, are huge. The aim of this white paper is to summarise current thinking on a range of issues around brand equity and communications. It is a very insightful read and essential for anyone involved in branding, marketing and social media. Inside:   Brand Re-defined for the Social Media Era.   The Structure and Source of Brand Experience.   How Minds Process Brands.   The Role of Emotion is Branding, Does the Transparency of Social Media Alter this Mix?   Translating Brand Equity for Your Accountant and Putting it in Terms of Financial ROI
	White Paper: 2011 Global Consumer Trends Report The core objective of this white papers is to define insight platforms that help inspire brands to optimise their strategies and their implementation at both global and local levels. Here, you will find a preview of the report findings. This report provides managers with a clear and organised picture of how consumers across the world are grouped around common expectations and beliefs, based on their own cultural values. Questions Addressed Inside:   Do different markets share similar values across the world?   Which communications strategies should brands use to approach different markets that share similar values?   Which brands are consumed by each consumer typology?   Which emerging trends are appearing in which consumer typologies?   How will they evolve in future?
	White Paper: Digital and Social Media Outlook Report Consider that it took Apple only one month to sell a million iPads, that Facebook has grown from 150 million users to almost 500 million in 15 months or that Hulu now streams over one billion videos per month. Yes, there are dozens of other statistics we could cite about this tectonic shift in consumer behavior, but the epicenter is mobile: In the U.S. alone, there are more than 280 million mobile subscribers. By the end of 2011, more than half will be smartphones. The mobile transformation alone has extraordinary implications for every brand, as consumers will expect a brand’s social universe to be accessible and delightful and on-the-go. And, when combined with emerging technologies such as multi-touch, augmented reality and cloud computing, an ocean of opportunity opens up. Consumers aren’t just craving new experiences — they’re demanding them, and aren’t shy about sharing from their social media soapboxes. Successful brands will be those that adapt and derive from customer insights, both positive and negative. Inside:   Publishers to Watch in the Years Ahead.   How to Become a Social Brand.   Why Business and Technological Agility is now Essential.   One to One Marketing to the Masses.   The Emergence of Everyday Innovation.   Analytics, Cost Savings and ROI.
	White Paper: Social Media and 5 Other Technologies Reshaping the Decade Technology can transform your business and this report explores the technologies that are making that possible. From the opportunities cloud computing presents, to the innovation Agile processes can produce, these technologies will shape the business landscape in the decade ahead. Inside:   Social Brands and Social Media.   Why Cloud Infrastructure is Now Crucial to Customer Experience and Therefore Your Business.   How Multi-touch is Transforming Retail.   The Mobile Retail Revolution.   Accellerating Adoption of Agile Business Practices and Methodology.
	Ogilvy White Paper: Social Media, Brand Conversations and the Digital Future This Ogilvy White Paper provides best and worst case scenarios for the future of digital and social media. By examining both optimized and misguided implementations, several essential insights about the decade ahead are revealed. Inside:   The Four Es of Digital and Social Media.   The Six Digital Global Hot Zones.   The Dangers of Simply Porting a Traditional Campaign to Social Media.   Examples of Major Brands Sucessfully Optimizing Traditonal Campaigns for Social Media.   Examples of the Two Way Social Media Conversation at Work.
	White Paper: Social Media and the Enterprise Social media is not just a new channel or a few extra degrees in the 360° approach to marketing and communications. Social media represents a fundamental consumer behavioral shift requiring marketers to change how they market, how they are organized and how they measure success. To succeed via social media and to achieve real business impact, brands and organizations must adopt a comprehensive strategic approach to integrating this new discipline. Companies, by contrast, have lagged behind their customers, but they are learning that embracing this platform is not optional. Whether you are a global FMCG, an automobile manufacturer, financial services company or a B2B technology leader, no one can afford to hesitate. At the same time, tactical, unconnected experiments will not vault the brand forward. Integrating social media into the marketing and communications functions implies a deep transformation not just of marketing but customer service, product development, and even the way the enterprise benchmarks success. Inside:   The Global Growth of Word of Mouth.   Social Media and Change in the Enterprise.   Social Media Strategies for the Enterprise.
	White Paper: Social Media and the Future of Selling This Ogilvy & Mather presentation examines selling in the age of Social Media. It provides statistics and charts that reveal how major companies such as Zappos are adapting and succeeding according to the new rules of socila media. Inside:   Social Media Adoption and Use Rates by Country.   How Social Networks Fundamentally Change the Sales Process.   Examples of Social Selling from Volkswagen, IKEA and Captain Morgan.
	White Paper: How Social Media Creates Empowered Customers New research from Ogilvy & Mather and Communispace reveals extreme new consumer shopping behavior and spending priorities. This report looks at what this means for the 2010 holiday season and at how consumers will go to market in 2011. Inside:   Social Media & The Evolving 'In Charge' Customer.   How to Approach Empowered Customers with Deals.   Social Media and Marketing Strategies for 2011.
	White Paper: Digital/Social Media Trends Among Women There is no question the world has gone digital. This has greatly impacted consumers’ lives and brought about dramatic changes in marketing. For women, who still do the majority of household purchasing in America, digital communications fulfill unique needs, which in turn offer marketers more engaging ways to connect buyers with their brands. This white paper examines how marketers can make best use of all that the digital realm has to offer. Inside:   Vital Statistics on the Increasing Purshasing Power of Women.   Why Female Social Media Adoption Trends is Good News for Marketers and Retailers.   Social Media Adoption and Usage Patterns per Age Group.   What Women Want from Their Digital/Social Media Experience.
	White Paper: The Evolving Opportunities of Social Media Consumer Generated Media, User Generated Content, Web 2.0, citizen journalism none of this would exist without the primordial drive of human beings to interact with each other; it is important to remember that all the technology, which is integral to the CGM phenomenon, does nothing but enable this urge. This white paper explores how social media continues to evolve and add value to public relations, customer relations and online retail. Inside:   Inside the Emerging Tide of Social Interaction.   PR and Web2.0   Social Media Case Study with Panasonic and its Lumix Series.   The Next Generation of the Web Insights from IBM.
	White Paper: How Brands Leverage Social Media Social media is online content that users can easily participate in and contribute to in order to interact with each other in online conversations. It’s people who are the keys to social media, and it’s people who can parlay that participation, interaction and influence into something that can do a world of good for you and your brand. This white paper will discuss the basics of branding using social media as well as why it’s so important and how to best implement a social media strategy to ensure optimal customer relationship management (CRM) success in the long run. Inside:   Key Social Media Usage Statistics.   How Social Media is Evolving.   Case Studies on How Brands Use Social Media.   6 Ways for Brands to Take Advantage of Social Media.
	White Paper: Brand Strategies for 2011 Predictions for 2011 for brands by sector. Airlines, Business Consulting, F&B, Digital, Retail and Travel are all Covered. Inside:   Post-recession Strategies.   Branding and Cross-selling Opportunities.   The Evolution of Branding and Technology Adoption.   New Opportunities and Challenges of Digital Interaction.
	White Paper: How the Biggest Brands use Storytelling Human beings love to listen to good stories: We need a good story to share a laugh, to shed some tears and to enjoy a chat over a cup of coffee. Creative brands work in the same fashion. The most creative brands are not necessarily the brands that intrigue us by the way they look, but rather the brands that tell us never-ending stories that make us want to learn more. Whether a brand captures the archetypal hero (Nike) or the coach that makes everyone perform better (adidas), the most creative brands succeed because they take into account the basic human need for storytelling. Brands like Pixar, Google, HP, Puma and Nike take us on journeys that surprise us and capture and spark our imaginations. Below are some of the ways in which the most creative global brands are successfully building their brand stories into all levels of their work. Inside:   Using Storytelling to Stay Relevant to Your Audience.   Using the Brand Story to Drive Internal and External Engagement.   Re-defining and Evolving Your Brand with Storytelling.
	White Paper: Four Principles of World Changing Brands It should come as no surprise that the world’s most valuable brands spend a great deal of time and money thinking about the way their brands come to life at every touchpoint. They spend even more time keeping on top of what their customers desire and they meet those desires in unique and inspiring ways. Nearly all of the Best Global Brands have embraced the idea of constant change, evolution and innovation, and are able to continually meet the changing requirements of their customers. It is this kind of investment that has put them in the leadership positions they enjoy and it’s continued investment that will keep them there. These brands embrace change. But more specifically, when examined closely, these brands tend to adhere to these four principles, an approach that keeps them at the forefront of changing our world. Inside:   How They Anticipate and Create Desire.   How to Incorporate and Participate in Dialog.   Designing a Living and Flexible Impression.
	White Paper: The Future of DIgital and Social Media In recent years, the proliferation of social networking and its attendant technologies has shifted the online space from a product-centric model to a customer-centric one. As a result, a new level of transparency is now required between businesses and customers and there’s an even greater focus on the role of the brand in online business. Unfortunately, the majority of businesses miss the opportunity to adequately engage with consumers online. It isn’t that corporations aren’t there – it is that they don’t have a clear brand strategy for their online channels. Inside:   How the Online Customer Experience has Evolved.   Mapping the Customer Journey Online.   What Every Brand Can Do to Create and Nurture their Customer's Digital Experience.
	White Paper: Boosting Brand Value with Social Media in recent years, in large part due to the expansion of the internet, the explosion of mobile apps, and the broad impact social media has had on the relationship between brands and their audiences, the value of developing internal association with the audience has grown. As opportunities for dynamic dialogue between business and consumer have multiplied exponentially, organizations are pushing to find ways to engage and elevate their associative value. Brands that get it right go beyond appealing to material needs; they transcend the superficial back-and-forth to engage with audiences not just around what people seek in a material sense, but on a deeper and more personal level. Inside:   How Social Media has Changed the Relationship Between Customer and Brand.   Brand and Social Media Case Study with Starbucks.   How to Monitor Brand Reaction via Social Media.
	White Paper: The State of Mobile Commerce in 2011 As online technology and services develop, mobile online technology and services of the same kind are sure to follow. This is true of mobile commerce. E-commerce has grown significantly over the past 10 years; and today, mobile commerce not only offers shoppers the same browser-based purchasing services via mobile, but in fact, allows more seamless crossing of channels from digital shopping to in-store shopping. Key M-Commerce Takeaways: - An extension of online shopping, not a separate entity - An immediate purchasing solution; it can be used almost anywhere at any time - Can drive online and in-store sales and vice versa - Not just for 20-somethings; the rapidly growing 40-plus group is larger than previously believed - Hispanics are major users of mobile technology, followed by African- Americans - Works best as part of a 360-degree marketing platform that integrates all selling channels, advertising venues, and promotional vehicles Inside:   The Evolution of Mobile Commerce.   Demographics and Products Purchased.   The Potential of Mobile for CPG.   The Cross Channel Approach to Mobile Commerce.
	White Paper: 2011 State of Inbound Marketing This report is based on a January 2011 survey of 644 professionals familiar with their business‘ marketing strategy. The key takeaways are: - Inbound marketing channels are maintaining their low-cost advantage: Inbound marketing-dominated organizations experience a cost per lead 62% lower than outbound marketing-dominated organizations. - The gap between spending on inbound vs. outbound continues to widen: In 2009, inbound marketing had a 9% greater share of the lead generation budget; in 2011 its share was 17% greater. - Blogs and social media channels are generating real customers: 57% of companies using blogs reported that they acquired customers from leads generated directly from their blog. - More and more business are blogging: Businesses are now in the minority if they do not blog. From 2009 to 2011 the percentage of businesses with a blog grew from 48% to 65%. - Businesses are increasingly aware their blog is highly valuable: 85% of businesses rated their company blogs as ?useful,? ?important? or ?critical;? a whopping 27% rated their company blog as ?critical? to their business. Inside:   The State of Marketing Costs and Budgets.   How Inbound Channels Convert Leads into Customers.   Marketers' Main Priorities in 2011.   Facebook for Contests, Competitions and Promotions.
	White Paper: 2011 Facebook Marketing Update In the ensuing months Web marketers have seen their to-do lists steadily fed with new items from Facebook that provide opportunities for their own sites. On August 18 Facebook Places was announced as an important location based marketing service. An October 13 partnership with Bing gave the Open Graph greater influence on search results. Facebook Deals became part of the social buying landscape on November 2. In March 2011 the Like button gained added functionality and a commenting system was announced to provide social relevance to Web feedback . Meanwhile Facebook continued to enhance the Pages that businesses use as their home base on Facebook.com. This eBook looks at the recent opportunities with insights as to how Web marketers can use and benefit from them. Facebook now has approximately 600 million users and they most likely know something about your customers. These are some guidelines for an effective partnership. Inside:   The Marketing Power of Facebook's Open Graph.   Using Facebook Connect for E-commerce.   Facebook and Location Based Marketing.   Facebook for Contests, Competitions and Promotions.
	White Paper: The Next Decade in Social Media 10 consumer marketing experts provide essays on the changes that digital and social media are bringing to the global marketplace in terms of customer behavior and opportunities. Inside:   How the Empowered Consumer Means Expanded Opportunities.   Social Media and the Next Decade.   Key Statistics on Millennials and Social Media Adoption Around the World.
	White Paper: Building Social Media Relationships and Gauging Influence How should public relations professionals respond to these new, powerful forces that are shaping their markets? How can they engage social networks in the most productive ways? And how can they avoid the pitfalls awaiting any company venturing into a new medium? This White Paper presents three steps that will lead to constructive engagement with social networks. Inside:   Finding Your Customers Online.   Effective Engagement Strategies.   Techniques for Tracking and Measuring Engagement.
	White Paper: The Rules of Social Media Engagement Creating an effec tive se t of social media conduct guide lines demands that you listen to users , resolve conflicting needs , and remain both ope n and engaged with internal and external communities. Whether your organization has committed to a social media presence yet or not, it’s now readily apparent that it should establish guidelines that spell out the rules and standards of online engagement and behavior. Social media and its impact can’t be ignored by anyone. There are millions of online influencers and tens of millions of people who are participating (on and off company time) on social media sites, microblogs like Twitter or content sharing sites like Youtube. Inside:   Finding a Balance Between Structured and Spontaneous Engagement.   9 Essential Social Media Guidelines.   How to Create a Social Media Policy as a Dynamic Living Document. How Companies are Now Following Consumers Across Platforms to Create Persistent and Consistent Messaging.
	Burson-Martseller 2011 Social Media Report With the advent of digital and social media, communications anarchy is the new norm. Social media has shifted control of the corporate message away from the organization and towards consumers and other stakeholders, and running away and hiding is no longer the safe The study’s sample consisted of the companies on the 2010 FortuneGlobal 100 list. The sample breaks down as follows: -32 U.S. companies -47 European companies -18 Asia-Pacific companies -3 Latin American companies The results of this study are compared to last year’s Burson-Marsteller “Global Social Media Check-up 2010,” which analyzed the social media presence of companies on the 2009 Fortune Global 100 list. Results from the Global Social Media Check-up 2011 study are charted in blue; results from last year’s global study are charted in gray. Data was collected between November 2010 and January 2011. Data was collected by Burson-Marsteller’s global research team. Inside:   Global Regions Compared for Social Media Adoption and Use.   The Three Major Social Media Platforms (Twitter, Youtube and Facebook) Compared for Adoption and Use.   Corporate Social Media Strategies across Platforms Compared.
	Burson-Martseller Report on Global Social Media Trends With the advent of digital and social media, communications anarchy is the new norm. Social media has shifted control of the corporate message away from the organization and towards consumers and other stakeholders, and running away and hiding is no longer the safe Burson-Marsteller’s Fortune Global 100 Social Media Check-up study demonstrates that most companies have dipped their toes in the social media world — some with a big splash and others with a timid ripple — and that simple, responsible engagement in social media can reap big rewards in building relationships with stakeholders online. We explored the use of social media among Fortune Global 100 companies based on their involvement in Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and corporate blogging. Inside:   The Proliferation of Corporate Engagement in Social Media.   9 Steps: An Evidence Based Approach to Social Media.   Country by Country Snapshots of Social Media Usage Trends. How Companies are Now Following Consumers Across Platforms to Create Persistent and Consistent Messaging.
	White Paper: Social Media and Brand Engagement With good listening, brands already have the raw ingredients to inform their voice in social places, and to craft voice, tone, frequency, creative. People used to think it was enough to set up shop in these channels, run a few promotions off-the-cuff. Now there’s discipline around it. Efforts in social channels need to be informed by the brand just like all marketing channels. That doesn’t mean a corporate presence in social media is doomed to be inauthentic or contrived in that horribly transparent way that we’ve all witnessed. But these days, social media efforts – for those on the right track – are certainly more thoughtful and more strategic than they might have once been. Inside:   Adding Structure to Social Media Campaigns without Losing Authenticity.   5 Keys to Brand Programming/Engagement via Social Media.   How to Create a More Scientific, Structured and Successful Branding Campaign via Social Media. How Companies are Now Following Consumers Across Platforms to Create Persistent and Consistent Messaging.
	Arbitron Report: New New Media Consumer Roadmap “If you build it, they will come.” Well…maybe. The proliferation of digital channels and unprecedented consumer mobility are making it trickier than ever to build an effective media plan. Traditional media planning methods are largely based on reaching stationary consumers who give undivided attention to the content—and the advertising messages. But today you must ask how you can reach consumers who are on the go, multitasking and have more media choices than ever before. The answer largely lies in knowing your consumers at a granular level and broadening the media mix to reach them on the go, as well as at home. This requires insight into their media exposure, shopping preferences and buying habits, as well as a firm grasp of demographics and other more traditional media measures. These 10 media insights, drawn from some of Arbitron and Scarborough Research’s latest industry research, illustrate the many dimensions advertisers should consider when developing media plans. They are grouped under the three critical challenges facing advertisers today: How to reach consumers on the go, how to reach an increasingly digital-savvy consumer and how to know one’s target audience. Report Findings Include:   Inside the Explosive Growth of Mobile Technology and Marketing.   How Digitally Savvy Consumers Create New Opportunities.   Business Analytics, Social Media and ROI.   How Companies are Now Following Consumers Across Platforms to Create Persistent and Consistent Messaging.
	Arbitron Report: The ROI Growth in Digital and Social Media In January 2011, Arbitron and Edison Research conducted a national telephone survey (landline and cell phone) of 2,020 people aged 12 and older This is the 19th study in a series dating to 1998 These studies have explored digital platforms , their impact on radio and other media and the increasing ROI from emerging technologies. Among the 85 Page Reports Findings:   Nearly 90% of U.S. households have access to the Internet and most via broadband connections.   Multi-computer households are growing rapidly.   More than half of Americans 12+ now have a Facebook® page.   Smartphone ownership has tripled in two years.
	56 Page Social Media Marketing Playbook Social media sits at the nexus of consumer-generated content, conversations and interactions. Before user-generated content became so pervasive, consumers learned about brands and products from (a) one-to-one word of mouth (b) press reviews or (c) advertising. Social marketing has elements of all of these, making it a bit more complex, but also creating fantastic opportunities for establishing stronger ties with consumers. Because of this complexity, social marketing defies organizational boundaries and standard line items in a marketing budget. It doesn’t fit cleanly into existing agency relationships. Social marketing eliminates the middlemen, providing brands with the unique opportunity to have a direct relationship with their customers and to both listen and talk. Marketers who embrace their customers in social spaces will thrive. They will learn from their customers by listening, while concurrently using the medium as a platform to foster advocacy, earn stronger brand equity and inspire loyalty due to the direct relationship. The downside of ignoring this radical landscape change goes way beyond just a lost opportunity ignoring the shift has the potential to erode decades of brand equity Inside:  How to Strategically Approach Social Media Marketing.   Social Media Marketing and Communications Best Practices.   Strategies for Building your Community and Fan Base.   Turning Fans and Friends into Evangelists.
	2011 Mobile Marketing Playbook Is this the Year of Mobile? For over a decade this proclamation has turned out to be premature, giving marketers ample reason to be skeptical. The difference looking forward to 2011 is that this is the first time that consumer behavior and mobile platforms have reached sufficient scale for mobile to move beyond an emerging media tactic for mainstream marketers. Mobile is finally experiencing its tipping point as one of the critical components of the digital marketing landscape, much like search marketing experienced in the early 2000s and social marketing during the past few years. Nielsen reports that within a year, smartphone adoption will exceed the adoption of simpler, feature phones. We’re coming to a point where the majority of phones – and consumers – will have Internet connectivity wherever they go. Mobile is perhaps one of the most exciting and revolutionary forms of media to flourish over the last decade, as it builds exponentially on the groundbreaking changes brought on by search and social. While the PC Internet is completely divorced from the physical world, mobile breaks down these walls and brings the power of the Internet into the real world in real time. Inside:  New Mobile Advertising Strategies and Techniques.   SMS and Mobile Marketing.   Social Media and Mobile Marketing Trends.   Mobile Computing and the Enhanced Retail Experience.
	Xerox White Paper - Practical Guide to The Opportunities and Challenges in Cloud Computing Cloud computing is one of the hot topics of our day. And it deserves all the attention, because it has the potential to deliver a wide range of innovative services for the management of infrastructure, development platforms, software applications, and complex business processes more efficiently and cost-effectively than ever before. It will also speed up the development of intelligent, proactive 'next gen' documents that will improve the productivity of Knowledge Workers around the world, But several challenges lie in the way before the cloud becomes a widely accepted paradigm for computing. There are concerns about security. And there is considerable confusion about the relative merits of public, private and hybrid clouds. Nevertheless, cloud computing is fast-becoming a dynamic force in the business world. And forward-thinking clients have discovered that the right approach to cloud-based services can help them improve performance and create a competitive advantage today. This White Paper discusses those challenges and opportunities in detail. Inside: A Simple Cloud Taxonomy.   A Look at 'Next Gen' Documents and the ROI they Provide.  Common Misperceptions about Cloud Computing. .  The Critical Distinction Between Public and Private Clouds. A Close Examination of Security in the Private Cloud
	White Paper - The Most Important Issues in Cloud Computing Cloud computing service providers are leveraging virtualization technologies combined with self-service capabilities to offer cost-effective access to computing resources via the Internet. For cloud computing service providers to gain the most from the efficiencies of virtualization, virtual machines from multiple organizations need to be co-located on the same physical server. Enterprises are looking to cloud computing to expand their on-premise infrastructure, but cannot compromise the security of their applications and data. This paper identifies security conserns arising in cloud computing environments and outlines methods to maintain compliance integrity and preserve security protecton as virtual resources move from on-preemise to public cloud environments. It provides checklists of key questions for enterprises and service providers to consider as they prusue cloud computing deplpyments. Lastsly, it recommends a free software tool to initiate protection for virtual machines to ensure they are cloud-ready. Inside: Security Compliance in Cloud Computing.   Cloud Computings 8 Biggest Security Challenges.  How to Make Virtual Machines Cloud Ready. .  First Steps to Getting Started Today.
	White Paper - Introduction to Cloud Computing The boom in cloud computing over the past few years has led to a situation that is common to many innovations and new technologies: many have heard of it, but far fewer actually understand what it is and, more importantly, how it can benefit them. This whitepaper will attempt to clarify these issues by offering a comprehensive definition of cloud computing, and the business benefits it can bring. In an attempt to gain a competitive edge, businesses are increasingly looking for new and innovative ways to cut costs while maximising value – especially now, during a global economic downturn. They recognise that they need to grow, but are simultaneously under pressure to save money. This has forced the realisation that new ideas and methods may produce better results than the tried and tested formulas of yesteryear. It is the growing acceptance of innovative technologies that has seen cloud computing become the biggest buzzword in IT. However, before an organisation decides to make the jump to the cloud, it is important to understand what, why, how and from whom. Not all cloud computing providers are the same. The range and quality of services on offer varies tremendously, so we recommend that you investigate the market thoroughly, with a clearly defined set of requirements in mind. Inside: Types of Cloud Computing.   A Description of the Services that Cloud Computing Enables and Empowers.  12 Key Reasons to Switch to the Cloud. .  Cloud Computing and Security Issues.
	White Paper - An ERP Guide to Driving Efficiency Improving business efficiency is a perennial concern for any company that hopes to achieve 'best-in-class' operations. Businesses that successfully improve efficiency stand to reduce operating costs while improving the effectiveness and profitability of their operations. They also gain time to devote to strategic planning. While many companies employ siloed applications and manual business processes, best-in-class companies are more likely to fully exploit ERP technology. This white paper describes how ERP technology can improve efficiency by: Standardizing and automating business processes-locally as well as across multiple locations and countries-to accelerate business operations.   Offering a fully integrated suite of business management applications that share a common dataset and extending these applications over the Internet, allowing visibility and collaboration across departments, as well as with customers, partners, suppliers, and remote users.  Providing flexible and customizable reporting to improve business reporting, analysis, and insight.
	Oracle White Paper - How IT Standarization Fuels Growth Business is changing and evolving rapidly. The need to improve agility and operational excellence has never been greater: - Pace of business - Technology has strongly influenced the pace of business. Customer and partner demand for getting the right information to the right people at the right time is ever increasing. - Globalization - Companies need the ability to conduct business with any customer, supplier or partner (anywhere in the world). Technology and globalization has also resulted in an influx of niche players into the marketplace, increasing competition. - Innovation - The pace of business and globalization drive the need for innovation. Companies need the ability to quickly adapt their business practices to suit changing market conditions, and launch new products and services faster. - Reduced Costs - In today’s economic climate “doing more with less” has become the mantra of many organizations. Improving efficiency, reducing complexity and lowering Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) has moved to the top of everyone’s 'to-do' list. Companies need to do all these things in a secure, cost-effective manner without being constrained by the time and cost of reflecting these changes in the supporting IT environment. Over time IT environments have evolved through waves of organizational changes, mergers and acquisitions, the introduction of new business processes, regulatory requirements, implementation of best-in-class applications, and advancing technologies. The result is a complex, inflexible, and costly heterogeneous IT environment with redundant processes and applications, information “silos,” and incompatible technology. Recent studies have shown that at large companies, eliminating these duplications and inefficiencies can reduce IT spending by tens or hundreds of millions of dollars while improving the quality of service and the satisfaction of those who rely on it. However, to achieve 'order of magnitude' improvements companies must take a holistic approach to rationalization, engage business and IT leaders to sponsor and participate in an enterprise-wide program of architectural review and transformation, and establish governance to ensure successful execution, implementation and to maintain a wellmanaged environment going forward. This drives the need for an Enterprise Architecture approach to application portfolio rationalization. Inside: Building an Architecture VIsion   Rationalizing the Applications Portfolio.  Transforming from Architechture Vision to Realization.  Maintaining a Well-Managed Applications Portfolio.  An Oracle Case Study in IT Standardization.
	Oracle White Paper - Achieving the Cloud Computing Vision Cloud computing is enabling the agility required by organizations to be leaders in today's ever growing global economy. It is accelerating the time to market for new products and services while reducing the costs to design build, deploy and support these products and services. it has the ability to fundamentally change the way IT services are delivered and consumed. The cloud computing storm has been brewing since the early days of computing. In the 1980's and 1970's, the expense of acquiring and running mainframe computer systems necessitated the use of pooled resources and virtualization. In the 1980's and 1990's inexpensive commodity hardware enabled distributed computing with rich use interfaces. In the early to mid 2000's, a vitualized grid of commodity hardware emerged. Today, cloud computing is adding self service and metered usage to the virtualized grid, enabling capabilities such as dynamic workloads and automated provisioning. The promise of cloud computing is extraordinary. Improved agility, reduced CAPEX and OPEX, faster time to market, among others, are just some of the business denefits. And to realise your vision, it takes a disciplined approach to building a proper business case and sustainable future state architechture. This paper provides a framework and process that organizations can use to achieve their cloud computing vision. Inside: Financial Service Cloud Successes   State Goverment Cloud Successes.  The Cloud Computing Simple Cost Model  The Future State of Customers IT Environment.  Cloud Computing and IT Optimization.  The Impact of Governance on Cloud Computing.
	White Paper - Bridging the Divide between SaaS and Enterprise Datacenters Increasingly, companies are considering public cloud computing, including Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions. As a result, SaaS solutions will increasingly become the newly arrived ‘neighbors’ of the IT data centers enterprises have been building and maintaining for the last few decades. However, this is not a tightly-knit neighborhood, as a vast technological divide separates the privately-owned data centers from the third-party public clouds. This divide presents organizations wishing to adopt public cloud solutions an array of new challenges to overcome and a new level of management complexity to control. Read this white paper to learn how customers can leverage Oracle Fusion Middleware to seamlessly bridge this divide by overcoming the five challenges of bulk data loads, real-time synchronization, process integration, identity administration and compliance, and security access and management, and continue on their path of business agility and transformation even in the most hybrid of environments. Inside: Synchronizing Data in Real Time   Assimilating SaaS applications into Existing Business Processes.  Administering Identities and Ensuring Compliance  Unifying Information Security and Access Control.
	68 Page White Paper - Cloud Computing Use Cases The Cloud Computing Use Case group brought together cloud consumers and cloud vendors to define common use case scenarios for cloud computing. The use case scenarios demonstrate the performance and economic benefits of cloud computing and are based on the needs of the widest possible range of consumers. The goal of this white paper is to highlight the capabilities and requirements that need to be standardized in a cloud environment to ensure interoperability, ease of integration and portability. It must be possible to implement all of the use cases described in this paper without using closed, proprietary technologies. Cloud computing must evolve as an open environment, minimizing vendor lock-in and increasing customer choice. Inside: Definitions and Taxonomy.   Use Case Scenarios.  Customer Scenarios.  Security Scenarios.  Security Use Case Scenarios.  Service Level Agreements.  Conclusions and Recommendations.
	White Paper - Service Experience and Customer Advocacy In today's environment, your company cannot compete on product and price alone. To survive and prosper, you must deliver the ideal service experience. Weakened brands, customers‘ easy access to information about vendors, and the ease with which consumers can migrate among brands have combined to make the service experience a critical element of your company‘s success or failure. The end result is that SEM allows your business to deliver a customer-focused and ideal service experience that successfully balances customer interests with business goals. In this paper we have developed an approach to address this mission-critical challenge. Although our approach may seem aggressive, it is well-defined and will leave you asking several critical questions. Are you prepared to meet the customer service challenge in an entirely new way? Do you believe differentiated service and decreased friction in serving customers and prospects will contribute in a substantial manner to your top line revenue and bottom line income? Are you willing to invest the significant resources required to meet the challenge? Can you accept the risks and challenges related to migrating your existing processes and systems? Are you ready to partner with KANA to drive a successful project? Inside: Why Companies Need a New Approach to Managing Service Processes.   How Service Experience Management Transforms the Design, Management and Control of Service Processes.  How Service Experience Management Enables Evidence Based Customer Service.
	White Paper - The ROI of SOA in Customer Service Today’s difficult economy has created the perfect storm for customer service organizations. They must learn to do more with less -increase the quality of the customer experience, turn service centers into profit centers, ensure processes are fully compliant with government and corporate regulations - and do it all with fewer resources and tighter budgets. In the past few years, technology has emerged that can help customer service executives meet these challenges. One of the most important breakthroughs has been the development of service-oriented architecture (SOA). SOA is a business-centric IT architectural approach that supports integrating a business through linked and repeatable business tasks, known as services. These services allow applications to be constructed from discrete building blocks, which can be reconfigured in various ways to quickly address new business requirements. This paper will provide you with insight into the value of SOA to your service organization and explains how it can help you successfully deliver a consistently outstanding, cost-efficient customer service experience. Inside: Managing Customer Service in a Complex Business Landscape.   The Business Value of Service Oriented Architechture.  How to Enable Outstanding Customer Service with SOA.
	White Paper - The ROI of Social Media and Service Experience Managment Intelligent and timely adoption of technology is core to every enterprise’s success and growth. Without the technological advances that have automated and streamlined processes, facilitated the consolidation and real-time use of data, and increased the effectiveness of communications, business would still be in the ?Stone Age? - shuffling vast quantities of paper around, having little insight into what customers really want, and ever so slowly responding to market conditions. But delivering technology components or piece-parts of a solution is not sufficient, especially when it comes to meeting the demands of the modern customer service organization. Gaining control of the service experience to rapidly adapt to market pressures, increase customer loyalty, reduce service costs, and ensure compliance is the imperative for every customer service executive. This requires a technology solution that enables successful collaboration between IT and business, and gives business owners total control over service experiences. Inside: How to Empower Your Service Team to Dynamically Customize the Service Experience.  How to Implement Dynamic Case Management.  How to Link SOA and Web 2.0 strategies to immediately deliver business benefit through optimized service experiences that yield higher customer loyalty, lower costs, and more revenue.  How to Create Optimum Customer Service Integration and Orientation Between Departments.
	White Paper - Dynamic Case Management for Customer Service If you think case management is all about capturing customer notes and efficient call wrap-ups, think again. In today’s complex and unpredictable world you cannot anticipate the type of case your knowledge worker will get. Therefore, you cannot design or 'code' your applications for all possible scenarios. What you need is an efficient and dynamic system that adapts to the context of each customer and is flexible enough to accommodate any unforeseen scenarios that customer interactions present. This paper discusses what case management is and what its components are. It discusses some of the current challenges in the customer service organizations and how a dynamic case management system is suited to meet those challenges. Inside: Defining an Effective Case Workflow.  How to Implement Dynamic Case Management.  Getting an Accurate 360 Degree View of the Customer.  Implementing Multi-Channel Interaction Support.
	White Paper - Balancing the Competing Demands of Your Customers and Your Business The hopes of Customer Service have lately been placed on Customer Experiences. As the theory goes, if you deliver excellent Customer Experiences, they will be satisfied, loyal, and increase their wallet-share with an organization. Alas, a recent study found that although 80% of companies believe they are doing an outstanding job in delivering those excellent experiences, just 8% of their customers agree. The issue has shifted from whether it is the best move to deliver Customer Experiences, to how to do a better job. Organizations that want to improve the experiences they deliver must reach a balance between serving the needs of their organization, and meeting the expectations from their customers - all at the same time. To deliver in this need, organizations are realizing that even though it is not all about technology, it does play a significant role; existing technology is not ready to deliver. The question is not whether technology refresh is a necessity, which it is, but how to create a better architecture to support the business needs. Striving to create and deliver better experiences will necessitate two things to work jointly: a new architecture to support a distributed execution model that leverages past investments and the necessary changes in measurement, governance, people, and non-technical processes to accommodate the new reality. Organizations that act on this new model will experience better tracking of metrics and measurement, optimized leverage of existing investments, and stands ready to take their Customer Service model to the next generation - cross-channel Customer Service focused on delivering excellent experiences Inside: The Growing Demands on Customer Service  The Balancing Act in Customer Service.  The Customer Service Mashup Model.  Three Action Items to Get Started.
	White Paper - Customer Service in a Social Media and Multi-Channel World Multi-channel customer service is here to stay. When it comes to getting help and answers, customers are no longer willing to accept just one or two channels. Today, they take it as a given that they can get service over just about any channel they want. Phone, email, chat, Web self-service, in-store kiosks, IVR, SMS, or in-store visits – all are the expected norm. Companies are motivated by the ROI that multi-channel service can yield as well. Offering multiple ways to contact a company has been shown to increase customer satisfaction and loyalty, and the cost advantages of online channels, such as email and Web self-service, have been well documented. But for multi-channel service to truly meet the needs of the modern customer, it must do more than simply provide many channels. Too often, each new channel is implemented as a silo, resulting in multi-channel service that is disconnected and inconsistent. True multi-channel service delivers an integrated and seamless experience that is completed in as timely, consistent and effective a manner as possible regardless of channel. Inside: The Business Drivers Behing Multi-Channel Service.  The Components of True Multi-Channel Service.  How True Multi-Channel Service Positively Impacts ROI.
	White Paper - Building Brand Value Through Every Customer Touchpoint Traditionally, branding has been the responsibility of the marketing department - advertising, offers, promotions - these were what defined brand in the eyes of the consumer. But the view of brand has changed radically over the last decade. Where branding once stopped with the purchase of a product or service, now the entire customer experience represents the brand. Today, post-sales brand management is every bit as important - if not more so - than sales and marketing activities. This shift in brand perception means that every touchpoint, including customer service, must enforce the brand. However, companies have found it difficult to measure the effect of customer service on brand. They have been forced to rely on -gut feel- about the best way to deliver service experiences that positively reinforce the brand’s image in the minds of consumers. What is needed is an ability to align the service experience with brand in a way that is appropriate for customers, yet enables the company to effectively manage costs, compliance, and other key performance indicators (KPIs). This requires the ability to measure the effect of each service interaction on brand perception and the rest of a balanced scorecard. With the advent of evidence-based methodologies, customer service organizations now have a practical methodology that helps them measure the effect of changes to the service experience on their brand. Evidence-based service leverages the lessons of evidence-based medicine, which applies data gained from scientific experimentation to predict the outcome of a medical treatment. Using experimentation and rigorous measurement, customer service organizations can determine how each customer interaction affects brand. By deliberately changing and testing a service process and then re-measuring the impact, the organization can discover the best possible process to satisfy customers and reinforce brand while meeting company objectives for cost control, compliance, and revenue generation. Inside: The Importance of Aligning Brand and Customer Service.  How to Align Customer Service to Brand.  The Next Wave: Evidence-Based Service.  How to Implement Evidence Based Service.
	IBM White Paper - White Paper - How To Navigate the Ongoing Shift to Cloud Computing Cloud computing is an important transition and a paradigm shift in IT services delivery - one that promises large gains in efficiency and flexibility at a time when demands on data centers are growing exponentially. The tools, building blocks and best practices for cloud computing are evolving, and the challenges to deploying cloud solutions need to be considered. This white paper focuses on four industry wide principles of cloud computing that will make the vision of ubiquitious cloud computinmg a reality. Inside: Current Trends Driving Efficiency in Cloud Computing.  Where Cloud Computing is Simplifying.  Advances and Challenges in Cloud Computing Security.  The Crucial Role of Open Standards in Cloud Computing.
	White Paper - Selecting ERP for Enterprise 2.0 and Social Media Functionality There is a movement taking place in the IT industry that is really driven by major consumer technology vendors including Apple, Google and Facebook. What these three companies do is really starting to set the tone for what people expect from a software application. The expectations of a software application may have historically centered around its ability to solve business problems or to enable specific types of transactions or management processes. Today, the software application will increasingly be expected to let users communicate and interact with each other the way that they can on Facebook. Organic and guided search as found on Google will also be expected, as will the intuitive usability of the iPad. Business executives are not immune from the influence of these consumer technologies. They are well aware that wikis, instant messaging, IP telephony are now proven tools for interpersonal and organizational communication that ought to be deployed within their enterprises. In fact, employees and managers of most any business are already communicating with each other through various Web 2.0 technologies - the problem being that all of this communication is taking place outside the bounds of formal and secure IT systems. While some business software companies work to integrate their offerings directly with online tools like Twitter or Facebook, we feel the real business benefits will come from enterprise resources planning (ERP) and other enterprise software that mimics the functionality of these popular online tools. This serves to improve internal communication and pull company business currently taking place outside of ERP systems back into the enterprise. In this whitepaper, we will discuss how this social media - or enterprise 2.0 technologies-can benefit complex industry including manufacturing, utilities and asset-and engineering-intensive companies. We will also discuss key criteria in evaluating ERP offerings with enterprise 2.0 features. Inside: How Social Media Can Be Used to Pull Valuable Insight from Your ERP System.  How Social Media Can Pool and Distribute Knowledge Resources Before they are Lost.  How to Structure ERP Data for Effective Social Media Integration.
	White Paper - Total Cost of Ownership Secrets for ERP Software Enterprise software should pay for itself in increased productivity and business efficiency, and some enterprise applications deliver more of these benefits than others. However, any enterprise suite will pay for itself faster if you work diligently to reduce the total cost of ownership (TCO). Those who interact with dozens of companies on implementing and maintaining their systems know that some project owners are very good at keeping the cost of their enterprise applications as low as possible. This paper discusses their TCO Secrets.
	White Paper - Survey of Databases for ERP Implementation An enterprise application like enterprise resources planning (ERP) or enterprise asset management (EAM) is comprised of multiple technologies layers, but during a software selection process it is the database layer that can be the subject of some of the most heated discussions, at least among technologists. Technologists, like everyone else, have preferences and biases about a number of things, including databases. In this whitepaper, we’ll try to sidestep these biases and preferences to compare how SQL Server and Oracle databases compare when it comes to their ability to support an enterprise application in small to medium-sized business (SMB), middle market and enterprise-level situations. Is one database platform really more complex to operate or expensive to run? This paper shows how well each platform scales to support additional users and business growth.