Do you find hard to explain what you do for a living? To your mum? to your dad? To Harry Potter’s fans? I do. How many of us have encountered this question. “What do you do in life?” and feel “Well…” Our work has become more difficult to explain. Especially since the rise of computers, networks, Artificial Intelligence, Google, startups, […]
2023 is now off to a flying start. I want to say a very big thank you to each of you for your contribution, feedback and support to me in making this blog even more relevant. This blog still continues to attract and reach more and more people, across industries and geographies. Far beyond my expectations. And I really enjoy […]
There is something attractive about the new announcement by Salesforce and Sprout Social about Tableau. It is refreshing, to some extent, the whole discussion on Big Data. In short, Sprout Social is now providing integration capabilities to Tableau, Salesforce’s analytics platform. This will make it easier to incorporate social data from Sprout Social into Tableau. This is the thing. The […]
Consider any organization – large and medium. One of the first things it does when it wants to increase its market share, its sale revenues or, more broadly speaking, invest in digital initiatives, is to choose a technology platform. Possibly the right one to support it sales force. This is a big decision for most organizations. In this paper, I […]
Digital transformation is not only about changing the way businesses operate by using new technologies. It is rather more about new processes, business models, and organizational practices. I’m listing here some of the 10 lessons learned and best practices I remember when developing digital transformation programs for some of the leading organizations in the world:
Every time I am attending a conference, there is AI on the agenda. Somewhere. I have to admit this is not a new topic as such – Strictly not -, but it is interesting to see the growing interest from business executives. We have all been speaking about the rise of AI, APIs, Big Data, cloud technology, Internet of things […]
These are the kind of excellent ways to wreck apart your CRM project. If we were really being honest about CRM initiatives performance, we may be wondering why some projects result in very strong benefits – growing profit or reduced operational costs -, while others produce disappointing outcomes, literally blowing up money into a black hole as in space science […]
Harvard Business Review publishes an excellent article on ecosystems by Prof. Gianvitto Lanzolla (Bayes Business School) and Prof. Constantinos Markides (London Business School). This is a fantastic topic! You may not realised it but roughly 50% of the top brands in the world are already managing ecosystems. You may think of Amazon, Salesforce, Google or Apple for instance. But it […]
Everyday I see more and more organisations working on some kind of harmonisation of their CRM processes across their international operations. They want a common set of processes to be deployed globally, and all enabled by a technology platform. Precisely like we used to do with ERPs in the past. I also observe that many of those organisations often operate […]
In the very near future, Voice User Interfaces will progressively integrate with front office and CRM systems. This is a fact. Voice User Interfaces have the potential to become the next killer application. This is my belief. In my previous article, I was sharing my view on one of the key trends in CRM today: the move towards Cloud. Now […]
I recently posted Big data projects in Marketing are surprising. Constantly (Part 1) explaining that, from my experience, big data projects in Marketing were a do & learn approach. I was highlighting the importance of aligning stakeholders on a common definition of big data. In part 2, I am still referring to the same project: Marketing campaign effectiveness in a […]
Working in a Big data project in Marketing is constantly surprising. Essentially. When I first got involved in a big data project, it was in marketing. I knew marketers had struggled for ages to really understand who their customers were in a holistic way. They had tried to reach them across several channels. They had built datalakes. They had implemented […]
With the rise of digital business models, ecosystems, and the greater maturity in technologies such as AI, most organisations are forced to revisit their business models and the way they engage with customers. In this paper, I am exploring some of the options business units managing customer experience have to adapt in order to address the many challenges they are […]
SAP and Siebel are head to head! Hey Didier? “You’re kidding, aren’t you? It’s Monday. We’re supposed to be moody!” Haha! Those were the headlines… 20 years ago (13 February 2001). For the admirers of Salesforce & Co, I was indeed joking. I found this headline in my archives yesterday. I used to show them in presentations at that time. […]
“Digital and Value Creation: Where Do European Banks Stand?” This is the new 2022 research conducted by the market agency D-Rating. I like to compare performance year after year. So I monitor the D-Rating report every year for the Nordics. In this report, it is insightful to notice: – The current digital journey Handelsbanken is going through, moving upward quickly.– Swedbank and Nordea still in the upper […]
Comments on Gartner’s three important ways Artificial intelligence (AI) can benefit Customer Service Operations. Gartner has recently published an engaging article on Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Customer Service operations (Dated 19 January 2022). This article is available online on Gartner’s website. Indeed, we are all witnessing the growth in popularity of AI solutions in recent years. Driven by the rising […]
A special thanks to each of you for making 2021 such a great year – still a surrealistic year like the previous one, however. This blog continues to reach people beyond my expectations. Google Analytics shows that you have been more than 20,000 this year to access it, and my LinkedIn page grew to more than 6,600 followers. Our community […]
It should be no surprise to anyone if I add Artificial Intelligence (AI) into the top list of trends impacting the CRM world. AI systems have become a reality and are maturing quickly. For most of us, as consumers, Artificial Intelligence is synonym of Amazon Alexa, Google Nest or Apple Siri: Smart devices that provide varying levels of expert assistance. […]
People often ask me what trends I see today in the CRM and digital transformation fields. It is a kind of legitimate to try to understand what is happening today and foresee how the future will be. In this series of articles, I am sharing some of my views on the trends that are causing this digital transformation and shaping […]
2020 has been a surrealistic year. With Covid-19, thousands of people and companies quickly adjusted to a new way of working that we all called WFH. Some moved quicker than others. For some, it was business as usual, for others, the experience was more painful. New lessons were learned. Flexibility was key. The diversity in digital maturity was striking. During […]
According to a recent PEGA study, employees facing customers are often frustrated with the level of service they can provide to customers. They denounce inadequate technology and processes that limit their effectiveness. The survey shows that 81% of respondents mentioned fast resolution among the four most important factors for quality of customer service. Speed is however not the only consideration. 72% also […]
Commentary – We were around 350 people and prof. Mark Greeven shared some great insights and practical examples on why and how organisations should leverage partners to build sustainable businesses. On ecosystems – Have you listened to IMD’s webinar on “leveraging partners in disruptive times” last Tuesday? (The one I was talking about in a previous post). Working with partners […]
Commentary – Gartner has just released a 2020 quadrant for Digital Experience platforms (DXP), basically revamping the classical Web Content Management MQ with a new terminology and enlarged scope. It is true all WCM solutions now include enough features to encompass a digital experience. It is also true that, from a functional aspect, there is little differences between solutions. At […]
Opinion – I have received a good number of reactions and messages after my post last week on the impacts of the current crisis on projects in Sweden. A project manager confessed the decision had been made to postpone some of the activities to further undefined notice. This will impact both costs and timeline, he said. My first reaction was […]
Commentary – Any new Gartner Magic Quadrant release is a kind of milestone in my life as a CRM consultant. I have just reviewed the recent (2020) MQ for Analytics and Business Intelligence platforms. Sounds fun? Well, this year, Microsoft is in the lead, closely followed by Tableau while Salesforce is a clear visionary player. Now, that said, we know […]
Opinion – The Covid-19 crisis is revealing flaws in business continuity plans and weaknesses in value chains, exposing business and people alike. Most business continuity plans were based on a few number of key employees performing critical functions. They were not made for a large number of employees suddenly working from home. As a result, bits and pieces were missing: […]
Some of my contacts in Sweden are confessing to me that their CRM projects are now at risk. The reason is that some of the critical project resources from their integration partners have been stranded abroad for 2 weeks now and will still be for a while. I can see a general trend unfortunately. Often, integration partners rely a lot […]
I had this exciting discussion yesterday on the risks arising from having inconsistent pricing models and systems. The context was B2B commerce with sales people using multiple pricing tools. This is obviously leading to significant issues such as inconsistencies in prices, excessive tactical discountings, over-generous contracts, or jeopardizing margins. We all know that in some cases like in Asset Management […]
Just revisiting the PEGA Business Architect course I attended last year to refresh my knowledge of the platform. Afterwards I will do the same with Salesforce and Dynamics… Life as a CRM consultant…
Preparing for the long Swedish winter, always a good time to revisit old business classics and new inspiring books. This year, my plan is: 1. Refresh my knowledge on Big Data analytics, through the IBM Big Data platform, 2. Revisit chapter 6 on Information Management and manipulation, in Frank Webster’s Theories of the Information Society, 3. Going into Steve Job’s […]
Just summarising some of my recent questions on Open Banking. Do they make sense?
Open Banking: The future of banking will be driven by open business models and APIs. The Question: From core competence to market power, what is the best positioning for you? Let’s talk about it!
The question: How do you best set up the right organisation in order to leverage your unique data advantage to compete or partner with Fintech and Bigtech players? This question is actually not new and has been on the agenda for a very long time now, even before the “Open Banking time”. Would Open Banking be an accelerator for banks […]
I like this statement by Nicholas Negroponte in “Being Digital” (1995). Very relevant in the era of Open Banking! I have just re-read his book during this festive break. I recall reading it for the first time when studying Information Technology in London in 1996. I was trying to understand and appreciate the impacts of the (then) new ICT technologies […]
