Many enterprises are at cross-roads in creating their unified communications (UC) strategy. Assuming that the business drivers have been identified for unifying their communications capabilities, enterprises must decide among three competing deployment options for their UC solutions. These are:

As with any maturing product category, CRM applications have evolved over time from point applications to best of breed solutions to end-to-end suites. This report examines some common styles of modernization as CRM emerges from the systems of transaction era to the systems of engagement era and beyond.

Mobility is increasingly about business and innovation (and less and less about the delights of technology).  From analysis of recent research into the management of mobility (produced in three Reports – see Note 1), Constellation Research sees a widening and deepening gap growing between an enterprise’s approach to mobility and its management and IT.  This has the potential both to deliver innovation plus diminish and reshape IT, and many of the vendors which sell to IT.  

Much hype surrounds the topic of gamification. Often seen as a technique to add engagement to existing tasks, projects, marketing campaigns, and initiatives, the term gamification unfortunately lacks the seriousness it deserves. This report seeks to change the point of view and demonstrate where gamification plays a role in the enterprise. More importantly, executives will discover how gamification can drive behavior and outcomes through both monetary and non-monetary incentives in enterprise class settings.

Executive Summary

As business requirements change, both the adoption of new technology and the role of the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) will continue to evolve. This future of the CMO customer survey report addresses two questions: How has the role of the CMO changed? What skills will I need to develop to further my career as a marketing leader? Readers will gain perspective on the new four hats of the CMO, and begin to assess which skills to develop to meet both personal career and business needs. This market overview includes data from a Constellation Research survey of 126 marketing leaders serving CMO roles across multiple industries and geographies leveraging The Social CMO network.

Report Summary    

Contact centers face a coverage gap as social and mobile commerce sites expand. Traditional customer support organizations are not set up to support social-mobile channels resulting in inadequate support from isolated support staffs who respond to customer service requests from these sites. Without integrated customer service support for social media and mobile commerce, customers grow frustrated with customer support delivered over these new channels. Companies must do more than establish a marketing presence on these channels, but also develop integrated support to ensure customers receive consistent treatment and problem-resolution over four channels-telephone, email, Web and social-mobile sites. As these newer channels take hold, companies also need to assimilate social customer transactions into mainstream customer support operations and create a unified support model across their sales, marketing and service operations.