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Airlines Set Flight Path for Better Customer Experience February 08, 2010 
The commercial airline business -- ever sensitive to booms ands busts -- is struggling to maintain traffic in the short run while also trying to build a customer base for the future. Rather than compete on price and schedule alone, airlines are moving away from a mass marketing and commodity approach to sales promotion. Instead, a greater focus on customer relations is emerging.
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CRM and the Hospitality Sector: It's All About Value January 25, 2010 
Major hotel chains have been wooing travelers for years with CRM tools focused mainly on "loyalty" or rewards programs. The CRM programs help hotels and resorts determine which customers patronize the same hospitality brand on a regular basis. However, there is a growing awareness that such programs may not be as valuable to either to the hotel, or to the customer, as once thought.
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Creepy Ways Your Social Media Data Can Be Used January 21, 2010 
People who use social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace are not known for their reticence -- many put just about any personal information imaginable out there. The risks to such openness are clear -- from inviting tailored phishing attacks to appalling potential employers with one's late-night party habits -- but many users who are tech-savvy appear willing to brave them.
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Keeping It Real for Cross-Border Online Shoppers January 14, 2010 
Everybody loves an online deal. When it comes to cross-border shopping, though, not every online transaction turns out to work to your advantage. Shipping fees, customs delays and a fluctuating dollar can sometimes turn a great deal into a so-so one -- or even a losing proposition.
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The 4 Cornerstones for CRM Retail Investment in 2010 January 11, 2010 
Retailers in the U.S. are convinced that CRM is one of the most important aspects of their business. However, the sector in general has failed to utilize the full potential of these programs, and the industry will be striving to elevate its CRM game in the future. That's good news not only for customers, but also for the providers of CRM technologies and services.
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Signing On to the Digital Handwriting Revolution January 07, 2010 
Everything's going digital. Why not handwriting? A new generation of digital pens and smartpens is bridging the divide between handwriting on paper and writing on the computer. With digital pens, you have the best of both worlds: You can sit in a meeting and take notes by hand, and then you can upload those notes onto a computer and save, share and edit them.
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The Decade of Cool - Brought to You by Technology January 04, 2010 
What are we calling the 10 years that just flew past? "The Naughts?" "The Naughties?" "The 'Aughts?" "The Digital Decade?" I nominate the "Coolness Decade," but it's going to require a little less irony and cynicism than what is normally exhibited in our culture to fully embrace that title. That will be tough, considering the physical, psychic and fiscal scars left behind by the years 2000-2009.
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The Retail Industry's CRM Implementation Problem January 04, 2010 
Cyber Monday may be the most visible symbol of the increasing use of e-commerce technology in the retail sector. On just one day, Nov. 30, consumers operating from home or office computers in the U.S. spent $887 million on Internet purchases. The spending level amounted to a gain of 5 percent versus Cyber Monday of 2008, and it matched the heaviest online spending day on record.
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Could an 'iPad' Make E-Readers Irrelevant? December 18, 2009 
Martha Stewart did a somewhat curious thing last week: She talked tablets with her followers on Twitter. No, not pills, or some arcane French revival furniture piece. Tablets, as in computers. "Serious question," the crafty decorating and cooking maven asked readers on Dec. 12: "How many of you will read magazines on an electronic tablet (interactive-full color) within two years?
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SSL Certificates: Safety, Nuisance or Both? December 15, 2009 
When stumbling around the Web in search of a new toaster or a great deal on a new pair of sneakers, it's not unusual for consumers to come across ominous policy dialogs warning of mismatched or expired SSL certificates. In fact, recent surveys have shown nearly 20 percent, or even more, of popular Web sites may have certificate problems that would lead to errors.
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Is the BlackBerry Losing Its Punch? December 10, 2009 
Breaking development news from iPhone or BlackBerry rarely goes unnoticed. The recent announcement of new developer-friendly tools for the BlackBerry platform at the RIM Developer Conference was no exception, generating interest and debate over what it all means in the battle of the smartphones.
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Pharma's New Prescription for CRM December 07, 2009 
Retail pharmacies in the U.S. filled 3.65 billion prescriptions in 2008, and another 238 million prescriptions were filled by direct mail. Each Rx was issued by a physician -- which explains why the pharmaceutical industry in the U.S. spends heavily on marketing efforts aimed at doctors, including customer relationship management programs.
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Home Sweet Networked Home, Part 2 December 03, 2009 
So far, most home networking deployments are one-off or are limited to a certain function, such as entertainment. Home networking becomes truly interesting when it is applied to all of a house's systems and its energy supply, said Raoul Wijgergangs, chairman of the Z-Wave Alliance.
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The Battle for the Mobile App Market December 03, 2009 
A turf war is going on in the mobile applications market as various companies try to carve out a foothold. The players include handset vendors such as RIM, Palm, Apple, LG and Samsung; mobile operating system developers like Google with its Android platform; software vendors such as Microsoft; and wireless carriers including China Mobile, Verizon and AT&T.
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Rx for Hospitals: A Big Dose of CRM November 30, 2009 
What U.S. business wouldn't want a customer base of 37.5 million prospects? In 2008, hospitals in the U.S. registered that many admissions -- a number that equals 12 percent of the U.S. population. Yet the hospitals in the U.S. have largely underutilized the customer relationship management tools that could exploit the data in that customer base.
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Home Sweet Networked Home, Part 1 November 25, 2009 
By now many of us -- even some of us who once couldn't program the clock in the VCR -- have installed a WiFi router somewhere in our homes to use a laptop on the front porch or in the back den. If you fall in this group, congratulations. Whether you know it or not, you have joined the home network revolution.
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