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OPINION

Top CRM Blogs of 2018: Countdown, Part 2

The Top 10 blogs on our top 20 list are written by people well known to CRM professionals. There's a reason for that: In order to understand and appreciate the discipline of CRM, you must be a person who values other people, and part of valuing people is being able to communicate with them. As a res...

INSIGHTS

NetSuite's Revelations at NRF

NetSuite announced results of its sponsored study at this week's National Retail Federation show in New York, shedding light on technology adoption in a retail setting. The study suggests that merchants are not doing what customers would want and that they have a misguided perception of the situatio...

EXPERT ADVICE

Let Your Data Do the Forecasting

Decision makers in any sales organization know that forecasting correctly is both art and science. To predict the unforeseen successfully, you must use every piece of logic and reasoning available to help you make your predictions reality. When developing a strategic forecasting approach, your busin...

Netflix has decided to hike prices by $1 to $2 for all 58 million of its subscribers in the U.S., as well as customers in about 40 Latin American countries who are billed in U.S currency. Customers in key international markets such as Mexico and Brazil reportedly will be exempt from the increases. N...

INSIGHTS

Salesforce and the Machine

There's been way too much obsessing about how artificial intelligence and machine learning will eliminate jobs. For example, 60 Minutes recently ran a feature about AI venture capitalist Kai-Fu Lee, one of many stories predicting the elimination of jobs and a dystopian takeover of the world, or so i...

OPINION

Top CRM Blogs of 2018: Countdown, Part 1

After several years of instability on this list, 2018 saw things settle down a bit. In past years, blogs would make the list for a flurry of great posts one year, then fizzle the next. Sometimes, bloggers would change careers and their CRM content would dry up. Once in a while, a great blogger would...

INSIGHTS

The Teetering Social Empire

Disruptive innovations are only disruptive for as long as it takes competition to develop and thus create a market. Worse, for the disruptor, the niche it created can spawn other niches. Social networking provides a vivid example. First, there were networking sites that could help you find a job or ...

Microsoft and Kroger announced a collaboration on Retail as a Service to equip stores with Kroger Technology products that run on Microsoft Azure. The technology utilizes the IoT, connectivity, the cloud, and data collection and analysis to improve both customer experiences and store bottom lines. T...

While technology undoubtedly has transformed the retail landscape, it also has been pushing the industry forward to create new kinds of customer experiences. Technology may be killing retail, but it could be saving it as well.

EXPERT ADVICE

4 Retail Tech Trends to Watch in 2019

Year over year, we see the numbers. In 2017, e-commerce represented 49 percent of all total retail growth, up 16 percent from the previous year. If this year's $119.99 billion holiday shopping season spend indicates anything, it's that 2018 is projected to be yet another banner year for commerce. It...

INSIGHTS

2019 CRM Wish List

I've been writing a forecast column every year at least since W was president. Nothing's wrong with that, lots of people do. However, I often find that my forecast is more of a wish list than a true prognostication, so this time I'll dispense with the fiction of analytical rigor and just say what I ...

EXPERT ADVICE

Is Weak Data Integrity Foiling Your CRM?

American companies spend an enormous amount of money on training. Spending reached more than $90 billion in 2017, an increase of over 32 percent from 2016. It's unlikely that even a small share of the billions spent on training last year were devoted to educating and motivating employees to regularl...

According to the United Nations, 15 percent of people worldwide have a disability that affects their daily lives, and many retailers are unaware that their websites are not always accessible to them.

INSIGHTS

Oracle's Customer Transition Challenge

Oracle narrowly missed its number last quarter, so it was good to see the company come roaring back -- it made a lot of money. More importantly, many analysts have conceded that Oracle has reached a point in its infrastructure deployment where it can mount a serious challenge to other providers and ...

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