• Blog
• Articles
• Books
• Training
• Consulting

Articles

• The Top 10 Reasons that CRM Projects Fail

  and Our Prescription for Ensuring that Your CRM Project Won’t

  by Mitchell Kramer

  We’ve heard over and over again that 80 percent of CRM projects fail. We’re not sure that this is the right number, but there’s been a lot of commonality in the reasons for this failure. So much so that we offer in this report the top 10 reasons for thos
  Oct. 2, 2003

  All Members

  

• Making Progress in Cross-Channel Retail

  Sears and Lands' End Take Great Strides in Their Merger, but They Still Have Opportunities to Grab

  by Patricia Seybold

  Sears and Lands’ End are just over a year into their merger. Here’s a progress report on merger progress to-date.
  Sep. 25, 2003

  All Members

  

• The Dangers of Defining a Specific Scenario-Mapping Customer

  Creating a Composite Customer Yields Best Results

  by Ronni Marshak

  When defining the customer for a scenario-mapping session, create a composite customer who embodies the common traits and needs of a key customer segment.
  Sep. 18, 2003

  All Members

  

• Three Steps to Success in Cross-Business Interactions

  Coordination and Trust Will Enable You to Seize Web Service and Portal Opportunities, Reaping the Value While Containing the Risks

  by Susan Aldrich

  Web Services and Portals can make it easier to do business, but you’ll need to plan for changes in relationship, trust, and system capabilities in order to take advantage of new opportunities.
  Sep. 18, 2003

  All Members

  

• DB2 Data Warehouse Enterprise Edition

  A Comprehensive Bundle for Top-End Data Warehouses

  by Mitchell Kramer

  This report evaluates IBM DB2 Data Warehouse Enterprise Edition against our framework for data warehouse databases.
  Sep. 11, 2003

  All Members

  

• Solving the Root Causes of Nine Common Data and Application Problems

  SOA Solutions that Minimize Changes to Applications

  by Robert Eugene Shelton

  This report explains how to solve common data and application integration problems using IT services.
  Sep. 11, 2003

  Strategies

  

• Using Service-Oriented Architecture to Deal with Data and Application Problems

  Nine Common Issues in Dealing with Data and Applications

  by Robert Eugene Shelton

  This report identifies nine common data and applications problems and the four underlying architectural causes that all share in common. We outline how SOA and, specifically, Web Services, can address each root cause and each of the nine common IT integr
  Sep. 4, 2003

  All Members

  

• The Future of Enterprise Content Management

  Trends for Linking the Content Management Lifecycle to Your Enterprise Application Infrastructure

  by Geoffrey Bock

  In this report, we offer our observations about our framework-based comparisons of enterprise content management products as well as identify critical trends for content management features and functions.
  Sep. 4, 2003

  Strategies

  

• Gaining Adoption & ROI for Your Software Projects

  Dealing with the Secret Shame of Today's Stalled Software Deployment Efforts

  by Patricia Seybold

  Software suppliers need to focus on their customers’ speed of adoption and roll-out.
  Aug. 14, 2003

  All Members

  

• Service-Oriented Architecture: Defining Services

  Defining Services and Their Requirements

  by Robert Eugene Shelton

  This report provides guidelines and a template for specifying a service, using examples of services that are commonly encountered by any organization implementing Service-Oriented Architecture.
  Aug. 7, 2003

  Strategies

  

• Securing Trading Partner Interactions: Two Approaches Supported by New Standards

  Considering Federation or Automated Provisioning Standards? You'll Need Both

  by Susan Aldrich

  How do you prepare for automated interactions with your partners? You’ll need to consider an extended approach to provisioning, an updated security infrastructure, and the implications of federation.
  Jul. 30, 2003

  All Members

  

• Identifying the Right Customers and Context

  Building the Foundation for a Customer Scenario

  by Ronni Marshak

  Before you begin a Customer Scenario® Mapping exercise, you should capture the context of the scenario.
  Jul. 24, 2003

  Strategies

  

• Service-Oriented Architecture: Applying Granularity

  Applying the Right Granularity for Services

  by Robert Eugene Shelton

  Finding the “right” granularity for Web Services can be a challenge. This report applies our best-practices framework to a real-world example, showing how a candidate list of services is refined into a set of well-defined services for design or acquisiti
  Jul. 24, 2003

  All Members

  

• Granularity Rocks!

  Framing Concerns into the Right-Size Chunks Solves a Host of Business and Technology Problems

  by Patricia Seybold

  How do you address thorny business and technical issues? Break them into the right-size chunks.
  Jul. 17, 2003

  All Members

  

• Service-Oriented Architecture: Defining Granularity

  Finding the "Right" Granularity for Services

  by Robert Eugene Shelton

  Finding the “right” granularity for web services can be a challenge. This report provides practical tools and guidelines that will help you design well-defined services.
  Jul. 17, 2003

  Strategies

  

• Netflix.com Wins Patent on Business Methods

  Turning Customers' Moments of Truth into a Sustainable Business Advantage

  by Patricia Seybold

  We think that Netflix deserved to receive a patent for its innovative approach to renting DVDs (or videogames, or music). Why? The company has demonstrated that it understands its customers’ critical “moments of truth,” and has designed a business model
  Jul. 10, 2003

  Strategies

  

• Gathering Customers' Real Requirements

  Uncovering Customers' Moments of Truth

  by Patricia Seybold

  Gathering customer requirements can be tough. Particularly if customers can't envision the possibilities of how they might reach their outcomes in a dramatically different way.
  Jul. 3, 2003

  Strategies

  

• Wanted: Information Architects!

  Improving the Findability of Enterprise Information

  by Patricia Seybold

  We are in desperate need of information architects and other information professionals who can make sense of the mess of information we've created and is now exposed to our customers, our partners, and the world!
  Jun. 26, 2003

  All Members

  

• What about the Customers?

  Differences in Architecture Will Make Conversion from PeopleSoft to Oracle High Cost and High Risk

  by Mitchell Kramer

  Oracle’s announced acquisition of PeopleSoft will force PeopleSoft customers to convert from PeopleSoft 8 to Oracle EBS 11i, a conversion that, due to differences in Architecture, will result in major costs and high risk.
  Jun. 19, 2003

  All Members

  

• Going! Going! Gone?

  Will Customer Service and Software Problems Topple Internet Auction Leader eBay?

  by Robert Eugene Shelton

  Although eBay is a phenomenal success in the online auction business, the company seems to be ignoring its primary customers, forcing buggy and time-consuming technology on them.
  May. 22, 2003

  All Members