Vision from the Top 2013: Luosheng Peng, GageIn
Which of the following current topics will significantly change the market in the next year? And what is the impact? (Business Intelligence/Analytics, Customer Engagement, Mobile, Security, or Social)
To ‘significantly change the market’, a topic must be a primary driver in growth and creating new opportunities. I nominate Mobile & Social, as they will continue to drive innovation and impact market dynamics in the coming year.
At the root of social’s growth is the sheer number of people accessing social media from their mobile devices. According to Nielsen, the total time spent (minutes) on social media in 2012 was 121.1B, up from 88.4B in 2011. (Nielson Report: http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/social/2012/)
Social behavior, combined with mobile connectivity, will continue to influence how B2C and B2B business is conducted whether it’s booking business travel and submitting associated expense reports, or gathering customer intelligence and finding connections to accelerate sales engagements. The ability to find and connect with economic decision-makers will determine top line growth. By supporting the mobile community of users, business applications expand audience reach beyond the company website thereby allowing them to benefit from referrals. Every social connection has the potential to open doors for your sales team.
Integrating social media while targeting a mobile audience as part of the business process will continue to challenge B2B companies over the coming year. Social media has played a large role in garnering fans and brand awareness for B2C companies; can it also help B2B companies keep an ever mobile workforce engaged? Or does the absence of a social presence also have a substantial impact? I try to keep in mind that the ability to navigate a complex and risk prone public approach to customer engagement is something every CEO considers, but at the same time, “The days when companies could tightly control brand messaging and progress consumers along a linear purchase funnel have long ended,” according to Nielsen’s U.S. Social Media Survey 2012
At GageIn, not only have we embraced social media to stay connected to our customer base, but more importantly, to offer them a ‘view into the board room’ so that they benefit from transparency. The business impact goes beyond simply calculating costs based on resources to revenue ratio – does this investment make sense? Will the market continue to adapt and change to accommodate a new class of social & mobile customers?
Companies will need to move beyond their traditional desktop-friendly approach to products and services in order to provide coverage for their increasingly mobile users. Data rich applications will require careful consideration of user experiences on compact mobile devices. Tablets, now becoming more viable business tools, allow businesses to engage their users with more interactive and socially aware applications. Keeping pace in the increasing competitive mobile application space while offering customers clear value, will impact how an organization prioritizes and allocates resources.
Investing in key market enablers is the fuel of great corporations. Social and Mobile are topics that present challenges and rewards when they are considered as part of the overall customer value equation. Innovate and adapt to customer expectations and they are likely to remain loyal to your company.
This interview was published in SIIA's Vision from the Top, a Software Division publication released at All About the Cloud 2013.