Digital Lifescapes

Across the globe, more CEOs and CIOs are attempting to capitalize on digital business transformation initiatives, to create a progressive environment that delivers a strategic competitive advantage. Likewise, vendors seek to offer the cloud, mobility and social commerce solutions that these companies require. Worldwide spending on digital transformation (DX) technologies will grow to more than $2.1 billion in 2019 with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16.8 percent, according to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). According to the IDC assessment, spending on DX technologies within the United States market will follow a similar trajectory, reaching nearly $732 million in 2019. IDC defines digital transformation as the continuous process by which enterprises adapt to or drive disruptive changes in their customers and markets (external ecosystem), by leveraging digital competencies to innovate new business models, products and/or services. Transf...

More forward thinking companies that market their business-to-business (B2B) offerings online are using social media as a key ingredient of their marketing mix. Marketers believe that the more focused B2B networking sites, such as LinkedIn, are an effective way to generate leads -- while more casual social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, are helping to reach customers in new ways. "Leveraging social media for branding and awareness-building can help humanize B2B companies, establish them as thought leaders, and offer new touch-points for connecting with customers and prospects,” said Kimberly Maul, analyst at eMarketer . Social Media Marketing as a Mainstream Practice As of May 2011, 89 percent of U.S. based B2B companies were using social media marketing , according to web survey company iTracks. Their survey was conducted among Business Marketing Association members, CMOs and other senior employees overseeing B2B marketing programs. The majority of sur...

According to the latest market study by ABI Research , the global enterprise collaboration services market will reach $3.5 billion in revenue by 2016. In 2010, the market registered 51.7 percent year-on-year growth to reach $898.6 million. Cloud-based freemium services are currently driving adoption, and volumes are likely to experience an even higher CAGR between 2011 and 2016. Positive social media experiences in the mainstream user population have prompted people to demand similar services in the enterprise environment. Applications convergence, business process integration, and technology consolidation have been three key adoption drivers of these social interaction platforms in the enterprise. Cloud-based platforms are gaining increasing relevance as vendors believe a cloud strategy is indispensable with the market becoming truly multi-modal and the number of social interactions over mobile devices increasing exponentially. "Mobility is emerging as a key functionali...

Americans are expected to hold back on their winter holiday shopping spend this year, because of rising prices for basic commodities such as food and utility services -- as well as their concerns about the overall economy. In fact, several pre-holiday surveys have already confirmed that shoppers intend to spend either the same or less on purchases during the 2011 holiday season, when compared to last year. That being said, the convenience and anticipated cost-savings from online shopping will likely bring more people on the web for the holidays -- spending a greater share of their gift budget with a variety of online retailers. eMarketer estimates that U.S. retail ecommerce holiday-season sales, which include all retail ecommerce sales during November and December, will rise by 16.8 percent this year to $46.7 billion. "This marks three years of strong online holiday sales and demonstrates the web’s ability to help consumers achieve their holiday gift buying goals i...

According to the latest market study by eMarketer, the UK has long dominated the Western European ecommerce landscape, accounting for well over half of annual sales in the European Union top five (EU-5). But France, Germany, Italy and Spain are increasingly important markets. eMarketer estimates that in 2013, combined B2C online sales in these countries will reach $121.5 billion -- and overtake the UK total for the first time. By 2015, spending across the region will reach $343.5 billion, with 58.2 percent of the total -- or $199.9 billion, coming from France, Germany, Italy and Spain. “Europe’s ecommerce market is a resounding success by any standard,” said Karin von Abrams, senior analyst at eMarketer. “The number of online buyers in Europe’s four main continental markets is rising steadily as consumer confidence increases and online sellers provide an ever-wider range of goods and services.” However, the number of online buyers in these countries -- as a percentage of tota...

Many senior executives may want to believe that an investment in social media marketing is strategic to their business, but they're apparently still not convinced. They've read all the hype about the huge amount of people that registered on Facebook, but they question how many of their customers or prospects access the social network regularly. They wonder if people really are looking for product or service information on Facebook, when most users activity tends to revolve around sharing photos of friends, family members or their pets. The most doubtful executives hear all the talk about the power of user engagement, yet their marketing staff prefers to write checks to Facebook for consistently poor-performing ad placements. Can the launch of Google+ help to reverse some of the bad perceptions that these senior executives already have about today's social media marketing practices? Or, can Google simply avoid the debate altogether, and gain a significant market advanta...