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• Smart Customization Comes of Age

  Best Practices from the MIT Smart Customization Seminar 2008

  by Patricia Seybold

  Smart Customization, a profitable and sustainable implementation of mass customization, is gaining traction. The MIT Smart Customization Seminar, held November 2008, provided glimpses of what international practitioners have done and learned.
  Jan. 8, 2009

  Strategies

  

• How Keds Uses Zazzle's Customization

  Best Practices from the MIT Smart Customization Seminar 2008

  by Patricia Seybold

  Keds is giving customers the ability to put their own designs on their sneakers by taking advantage of Zazzle.com. Zazzle is a customer-centric ecosystem that lets customers create their own designs to products and then buy or resell their creations.
  Jan. 8, 2009

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• Mars Direct: Customized Candy Combats Commoditization

  Best Practices from the MIT Smart Customization Seminar 2008

  by Patricia Seybold

  Learn how personalized M&Ms have led to a profitable new business model. Discover how Mars Direct became an innovative “personalized expressions” company within Mars. Mars Direct’s R&D Director, Dan Michael describes the journey to-date.
  Jan. 8, 2009

  Strategies

  

• Spreadshirt: Customers Want to Create Their Own Brands and Amplify Your Brand

  Best Practices from the MIT Smart Customization Seminar 2008

  by Patricia Seybold

  Why do customers love to create their own T-Shirts? “If it’s not on a shirt, it didn’t happen,” says Jana Eggers, Spreadshirt’s CEO. Customers value the ability to create their own brands. They also love to personalize well-known brands.
  Jan. 8, 2009

  Strategies

  

• CustoMax: Platform & Ecosystem for Custom-Tailored Apparel

  A Journey from Mass-Produced to Smart Customization

  by Patricia Seybold

  CustoMax is a customer-centric ecosystem for made-to-fit mass-customized suits, apparel, and shoes.
  Jan. 8, 2009

  Strategies

  

• How Adidas Moved to Smart Customization & Personalized Coaching

  A Journey from Mass-Produced to Smart Customization

  by Patricia Seybold

  Adidas pioneered in custom footwear and was an early leader in mass-customization. This brief case study describes the history of customization at Adidas from removable studs to just-in-time personalized coaching.
  Jan. 8, 2009

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• Search Product and Company Update 1H 2008

  Impressive First Half Begins a Potentially Painful 2008

  by Susan Aldrich

  Despite the U.S. recession, the search vendors on my watch list performed quite well during the first half.
  Dec. 4, 2008

  All Members

  

• Customer Service Company and Product Update 3Q2008

  Wow! Growth Continues in 3Q2008

  by Mitchell Kramer

  3Q2008 marked the sixth consecutive quarter of growth for KM-based customer service. The biggest company news was Consona’s rebranding its suites of customer CRM and KM products as Consona CRM.
  Nov. 26, 2008

  All Members

  

• Keys to E-Merchandising Success in Troubled Economic Times

  Help Customers Make Wise Buying Decisions and You Will Foster Loyalty

  by Ronni Marshak, Martha Frey

  In these hard economic times, you need to make it as easy for your customers to find, choose, and buy your products. Ten e-merchandising best practices are presented in this report.
  Nov. 13, 2008

  All Members

  

• Are We Entering a Golden Age of IT?

  How Pioneering Technology Architects View the Current Business Challenges and IT Opportunities

  by Patricia Seybold

  How do you leap ahead even in harsh economic times? Here are some tips from seasoned IT architects.
  Nov. 13, 2008

  All Members

  

• Best Practices in Corporate Blogging

  How Your Organization Can Run a Successful Blogging Program

  by Matthew Lees

  While blogging isn't a new communications medium, many companies are still getting the hang of it. Blogging takes commitment. But the many benefits can be attained by following best practices such as framing blogs as an ongoing program.
  Oct. 30, 2008

  Strategies

  

• How Customers Want to Plan a Special Event

  Identifying and Measuring the Key Moments of Truth in "Event Planning" Customer Scenario^® Patterns

  by Ronni Marshak

  Customer scenarios fall into patterns. It’s valuable to know these patterns ahead of time so you can focus on how to differentiate the experience you offer. This report focuses on the event-based event planning scenario.
  Oct. 15, 2008

  Strategies

  

• empolis:Service Lifecycle Suite

  Configurable and Customizable KM Technologies for Self-Service and Assisted-Service

  by Mitchell Kramer

  empolis:Service Lifecycle Suite is the KM-based customer service offering from empolis GmbH. Introduced in 1996, it has been implemented in 500 customer accounts across many industries. Use it to help your customers diagnose and resolve problems.
  Oct. 9, 2008

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• Customer Service Company and Product Update 2Q2008

  Strong Growth Continues in 2Q2008

  by Mitchell Kramer

  2Q2008 was the 5th consecutive good quarter for customer service. Customer growth continued at a high level. Good financial performance followed. Product activity picked up a little. The big company news was the acquisition of InStranet by Salesforce.com.
  Sep. 25, 2008

  All Members

  

• Ecommerce Search Evaluation: Mercado Ignition

  User Interface, Ecommerce Search, Merchandising, and Marketing

  by Susan Aldrich

  With Ignition, Mercado creates an environment that streamlines the efforts of shoppers and merchandisers. Retailers must consider Ignition at the top of their choices for search and merchandising.
  Sep. 18, 2008

  All Members

  

• How Customers Want to Return or Exchange a Product

  Identifying and Measuring the Key Moments of Truth in Return/Exchange/Cancel Customer Scenario^® Patterns

  by Ronni Marshak

  Customer scenarios fall into patterns. It's valuable to know these patterns ahead of time so you can focus on how to differentiate the experience you offer. This report focuses on a typical return/exchange/cancel scenario.
  Sep. 11, 2008

  Strategies

  

• Service Discovery Using Customer Scenario Mapping

  Building Your Services Catalog

  by Brenda Michelson

  In this report, we share our Service Discovery Methodology, which helps organizations define the right services for their service-oriented architecture.
  Sep. 4, 2008

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• Ecommerce Search Planning and Evaluation Framework, Version 1

  How to Plan and Select Search, Navigation, and Discovery Solutions for Ecommerce Web Sites

  by Susan Aldrich

  Here is everything you need to know in order to plan, select, and manage ecommerce search, navigation, and discovery.
  Aug. 28, 2008

  All Members

  

• Rethinking CRM: Provide Customers the Information They Care about in a Seamless Fashion

  Customers Don’t Want to Be Managed; They Do Want Good Experiences and Outcomes

  by Patricia Seybold

  The secret to a successful CRM strategy is a seamless cross-touchpoint, cross-channel and cross-lifecycle experience. Let your customers manage their relationships with you, not vice versa. Focus first on customer service, not on sales or marketing.
  Aug. 21, 2008

  Strategies

  

• Using Lakes to Monitor the Health of the Planet

  Using Sensors and Cross-Disciplinary Teams to Understand Complex Ecosystems Quickly

  by Patricia Seybold

  The PASEO project follows 24 biologists, engineers, and computer scientists as they model and monitor a chain of lakes in Argentina. This case study highlights best practices in green engineering, useful to forward-thinking business strategists.
  Aug. 7, 2008

  All Members