Trends

Now would be a good time to put Zoho on your radar if for some reason it isn't there already. The Austin-based company just announced Catalyst, a developer environment that helps programmers and others to speed development of apps and microservices with capabilities inherited from Zoho's apps portfo...

As technology advances and consumers' expectations and digital sophistication rise exponentially, marketers no longer can focus on delivering static messages, regardless of how "targeted" or "multichannel" they may be. It's no longer enough simply to greet a customer by name.

I wanted to like Kara Swisher's recent piece about Facebook's attempt to wrestle with its demons, but I can't. It feels too much like self-delusion. To cut to the chase, Facebook announced it was forming an oversight board with responsibilities for policing its domain and reducing or even eliminatin...

I have been writing about Salesforce for 20 years. That's incredible for me because, aside from marriage, there's nothing in my life that I've done consistently for so long. Perhaps, like a marriage, the thing that has been attractive about Salesforce is its constantly changing nature.

After a 50 percent rise in the stock price of The RealReal, the marketplace for consigned luxury items, following its June 28 public offering, there's been a search to define what is so lucrative about this company, or e-commerce in general. The RealReal certainly has exhibited wisdom in various asp...

I'll admit it, it was love at first sight when I purchased my first MacBook. It was my iPhone that prompted my decision to give up years of PC efficiencies and dive head-first into learning a new operating system, but familiarity had kept me complacent for too long. Still, I remember the excitement ...

Online tech support scams have been on the rise for the past decade, as hackers found new ways to trick consumers into providing remote access to their computers in order to steal information. This tried-and-true scam currently relies on sophisticated social engineering, fueled by detailed user info...

When word came out that Motorola was rereleasing its hit Razr smartphone, I was excited. Now that it has been delayed until the end of the year, the sizzle seems to be lessening a bit. Razr was hot more than a decade ago, but then it quickly faded away when the iPhone and Android stole the show. Mot...

Customer service is a big deal in e-commerce, as many customers view it as an important factor in their purchasing decisions. Providing a flawless customer experience is integral to optimizing customer retention -- particularly important with ever-lucrative subscription services.

If you've ever played chess, you know that each move you make has to be the best move. At one level, this is painfully obvious -- after all, who would choose to make a terrible move instead of a better one? -- but it's illustrative of an important concept. Specifically, the core reason it's true is...

Digital marketing was the firstborn child spawned from the invention of the Internet. It quickly became the major focus of businesses interactions -- and transactions -- both online and in person. Digital marketing now is fundamental to the success of your business. Why is digital marketing so impor...

Your new salespeople have very specific expectations of how their workday should flow. These 20-somethings want to sign a contract poolside, then post about it on Instagram -- #workingpoolside, anyone? They want to approve a purchase order on the go as they head to post-work Pilates and pizza. They ...

I don't see how you can operate a modern application development shop without a platform. Many vendors, if not most, offer a platform or platform-like environment, and a new approach to development, called "DevOps," has been percolating in the information technology space.

Customer-centric CEOs are putting their most important stakeholders, customers and employees, at the top of their agendas, and with good reason. Today, no matter what channel customers use to interact with a brand --phone, email, text, chat, online communities -- companies must be able to create pos...