Kathy Harris

I’m at Gartner’s  U.S. CRM conference in Phoenix this week and our attendees will hear research on a broad range of strategies and issues. In fact, by noon on Monday (just in the first four hours of the conference), they will have heard about which CRM strategies to cut and which to keep; Web-centric customer relationships; [...]

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In some recent research, I discussed next generation jobs, specifically those aimed at engaging people through the Web, communities, and so on. Here’s an excerpt from that research: 
“… organizations will struggle to keep pace as they integrate rapidly changing behaviors and technology into already established business culture and infrastructure. To succeed in “consumerizing” corporate technology, [...]

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Recently, I’ve discussed IT strategy with many government and private sector organizations who are implementing new packaged systems and applications. In many cases, these are enormous undertakings that will take years to accomplish. And, the massive business changes that have occurred since the current system was implemented have added to the already complex environment and this will be difficult to re-automate. 

Here [...]

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The Web is currently the most fruitful area for innovation — every day, new ideas emerge along with new uses for old ideas. The difference in innovations from the Web and those from other sources is who is driving the change. Web innovation is led by individual consumers (acting alone or in communities) and by [...]

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I’ve just completed a presentation on CRM and Innovation, including analysis of where and how to find great ideas. The truth is I don’t see many new ideas and innovations in CRM right now – and there’s a good reason for that. CRM is a well-established strategy with well-defined processes and loads of vendors, advisors and [...]

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In my career, I’ve generally looked at any project or investment for the long term. I worked in organizations whose point of view was that investments in innovation or technology or services should be leveraged as broadly as possible. So, in many projects, we looked not just at current needs but also at future needs and we scoped initiatives [...]

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As the topic of business growth returns to favor, there seems to be more discussion than usual on skills and workforce issues. I’ve heard comments from clients; I have two presentations this week that focus on skills; and today, we discussed the topic in a research community. 
This is not the first sign of concern about the adequacy of skills — especially [...]

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Gartner categorizes organizations into one of three segments depending on how early and aggressively they adopt new technologies. Segment type A are the most aggressive companies – they will adopt more technologies earlier and take more risk in anticipation of gaining more market share or brand value if they succeed.  Segment type B organizations are moderate [...]

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I had a discussion yesterday with a company pondering its future in an industry that has been dramatically restructured by the economic crisis. This company has done a good job of analysis and research – they assessed their competencies, services and products – they know what they can do and where their talents lie. They also [...]

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I just completed new research on jobs that are emerging from consumerization and the deep adoption of consumer technology and the Web by individuals.  This same consumer technology is also being adopted for corporate use and is driving a growing demand for skills in advanced customer or employee services and in technology-enabling these human interactions. In fact, the current and emerging [...]

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