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IN FOCUS BLOG

Analysis of trends and technologies geared toward your business from our team of insider bloggers.

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Oracle rocked banking platform deals in ’08

Posted by Sally Cole Johnson on June 10, 2009

In a recent report, Forrester Research (www.forrester.com) recognized Oracle (www.oracle.com) as being a “global power seller” for its 2008 banking platform deals.   Sounds pretty good. But what the heck does this really mean? Forrester defines global power sellers as those boasting “more than 35 new banking platform clients in at least six regions of the world in 2008.” Randomness aside, Oracle was one of the lucky few (actually one of two) out of 17 vendors of globally deployed banking platforms surveyed for the report to meet this criterion. They scored 62 total deals with new clients, 20 more than the nearest competitor, Temenos (www.temenos.com), according to Forrester’s Global Banking Deals: Settin ... Read more >>

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Intuit grabs PayCycle

Posted by Sally Cole Johnson on June 10, 2009

In a move to bolster its online payroll offerings, Intuit (www.intuit.com) recently announced a plan to acquire PayCycle (www.paycycle.com), a fast-growing online payroll services company that serves more than 85,000 small businesses. The $170 million deal makes sense because two companies share a common vision: Using the Internet to deliver a secure and easy-to-use payroll solution to small businesses. And it’s all about strategy, Intuit says. The acquisition supports Intuit’s strategic goals by underscoring the company’s connected services strategy, which is designed to give customers online access to its products and services. This is key, because Intuit derives more than half its total revenue from connected services ... Read more >>

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Relationship ROI

Posted by Deidra Jow on June 10, 2009

Many corporations have a marketing manager who focuses solely on building relationships with executive decision makers at top enterprise accounts. You can recognize them by their titles:  Executive Engagement Manager, Strategic Engagement Manager, etc. The goal of their work is to deepen C-level relationships that will help them open doors to in-depth discussions and eventually drive favorable business decisions. I’ve found that this marketing role is often a very misunderstood and unappreciated. In many companies, even large established firms, field sales reps still think of the marketing department as a toy store or creative services department or a ticket outlet. “I’m going to my customers’ site; can yo ... Read more >>

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The FLIP side of Video for the Enterprise: Where are the Cinematographers of Tech Marketing?

Posted by Deidra Jow on June 9, 2009

At the risk of dating myself, I recall that one of the cool new products to buy in 2001, the year Windows XP came out, was the Canon PowerShot S110 digital camera with a whopping 2.1 Megapixels and 2x zoom lens. I thought it was hot stuff. I could finally do away with lugging my old clunky Canon 35mm SLR and messing around with loading the film and carrying the special lens attachments. One of the neatest things about it was the ability to capture short movies. Fast forward eight years, and Canon now offers a 14.7 Megapixel camera with 5x wide-angle zoom lens. My PowerShot S110 is now as relevant as a classic Polaroid instant camera. I recently chatted with Mimi Reilly, an innovative marketing and business development geek based in Housto ... Read more >>

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What 2.0 Really Means: Two-directional communication

Posted by Chris Bucholtz on June 3, 2009

By Chris Bucholtz   There’s an awful lot of confusion about the new ways we’re supposed to work: CRM 2.0, Sales 2.0, Enterprise 2.0, and on and on. The conversation about these ideas usually starts with the discussion of a lot of technologies: in CRM 2.0, the discussion leaps to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and other forms of social media, then to tools for monitoring social media, then to technologies for sifting through the data pulled from social media, and so on.    That’s all well and good, but I think it misses the point. I was speaking to Matthew Greeley, the CEO of BrightIdea, when the real definition of 2.0 technology struck me. (BrightIdea, by the way, works in what might be called the Innovati ... Read more >>

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Make Sense of your Metrics - or Else

Posted by Chris Bucholtz on May 14, 2009

Can you identify the problem with the following scenarios: A call center rep can’t retrieve your billing records, and keeps pumping you for information you don’t have, but refuses to transfer you to a supervisor. A sales manager rips into a marketing director about the quality of leads, and receives the response that marketing has generated more leads in the last 30 days than it has in any month in the company’s existence. A customer loyalty campaign is in full swing when, suddenly, the CEO begins questioning the program’s effectiveness because the company has had a slight drop-off in new customers. What do those three things have in common? They’re all examples of conflict caused by the improper applicatio ... Read more >>

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A Google Voice Account Is Worth What??

Posted by David Hakala on May 13, 2009

A look at eBay’s completed listings for “Google Voice" today shows Google Voice accounts selling for between $50 and $399.99. That’s what people have paid, not what sellers are asking. The top price was paid by someone who wanted a Los Angeles 213 area code vanity number whose last four digits spell out “SING” or “RING.” This probably has something to do with the entertainment or communications businesses. The second-highest price, $385, went for a Washington, DC, 202 area code number of no specified vanity value. However, area code 202 carries its own cachet. Prices declined rapidly as one moved down the power ladder:  San Francisco 415, $150; Florida 813, $115; New York 212, Columbus OH 614, ... Read more >>

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HD VoIP Will Save the Day

Posted by David Hakala on May 13, 2009

When video cassette recorders appeared, it was predicted they would drive movie theaters out of business. It didn’t happen because VHS tapes aren’t as good as the big screen. It didn’t happen when DVDs came out, either, for the same reason. But now it’s happening, thanks to HD TV and Blu-Ray. There comes a point in every disruptive technology’s life when it is not just an “acceptable alternative” to the entrenched technology, nor even “as good as” the entrenched technology, but “preferable to” the entrenched technology. That’s when the entrenched technology dies. That’s when VCRs and audio cassette tape decks show up on FreeCycle.org and the shelves of Goodwill ... Read more >>

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Marketing in Virtual Worlds

Posted by Deidre Jow on May 13, 2009

Come on, admit it: We’ve all gone to trade shows and have felt sorry for the sales reps in the exhibition booths.  The sales reps really don’t want to be there just to ask you if you want information or if you would leave a business card in exchange for some sort of doo-hickey that you are going to give your kids as a “gift.”  You know you don’t want to be bothered by a sales rep, but you got lured in by the colorful knickknack or cool tech toy. When I think of virtual worlds, I automatically think of San Francisco-based Linden Lab’s Second Life virtual environment (www.secondlife.com).   Personally, I have a hard enough time with my first life; I don’t want to have a second lif ... Read more >>

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Entering the New World of Social Media

Posted by Deidre Jow on May 13, 2009

How will marketing professionals transition from traditional marketing vehicles like live events, seminars, webinars, direct mail and email to this new landscape called social media?  From the looks of it, people are still feeling their way around it, trying to figure out what to do and how to come up with a strategy and an integrated marketing plan that covers the whole range of old and new marketing vehicles. So what’s holding corporate marketers back?  Well, first of all, it’s still relatively new and I can see where fear can rule whenever you are starting something new.  There are so many new tools. How should a corporate marketer build a social networking presence?  How do you use blogs, communities, Tw ... Read more >>

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