Business Is Increasingly Social - Is Your Organization Tapping In ?

Things are really changing and the pace of change is only going to accelerate. In order for organizaitons to meet this change they must rethink the way they function. Technology continues to shift power to the consumer and the adoption of tablets, mobile, and social networks have resulted in new variables around customer experience via digital channels. Businesses can not simply reengineer their current processes and methods; they must embrace things in  totally new ways.

The recent video content around salesforce.com glimpses into a future where business is increasingly social. As a result how technology is adopted is essential for success. A large number of progressive business leaders contribute to this video and I recommend it highly for being thought provoking. You see the world is changing and the way we service and engage our customers has to change along with it.

How do you view changes in your organization ? Is your technology platform at the center of your future ? Is profound organizational change central to your future ? It better be. I'd love to hear what you think. Thanks for visiting.

About the author:

Bryan O’Rourke is a health club industry expert, technologist, financier, shareholder and executive in several fitness companies. He works for Fitmarc, which delivers Les Mills programs to over 700 facilities in the US. He advises successful global brands, serves as a member of the GGFA Think Tank and serves as CEO of the Fitness Industry Technology Council. To learn more contact Bryan here today .

The New Enterprise Requires A Progressive Technology Platform

Believe me, all industries and institutions, and in particular the health club, fitness and wellness business, are going through tremendous change, whether one wants to admit to it or not. History tells us that transformative times are met in two ways: as an exciting opportunity for advancement or as a threatening force to the status quo. What people think about change is usually aligned with how much they benefit from the way things are not the way they could be.

When I say that the fitness, wellness and health club industry is wrestling with "Digital Darwinism" "the evolution of consumer behavior when society and technology evolve faster than our ability to adapt", I'm addressing that pull between the future and the past and today I think a lot of that tension lies in misunderstandings around technology. With obesity so rampant and preventable chronic illnesses so pervasive, our modus operandi must change to achieve a brighter future . Achieving this future requires doing things in very different ways . Understanding how to recreate the enterprise around technology platforms is a major part of what needs to happen to make things better.

Other progressive industries are changing the way things are done and learning from them is a good means of exploring the path to this future I refer to. Watch the brief clip below with Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts, who is creating the ultimate Social Enterprise using salesforce.com, incorporating social and mobile elements across the entire organization, and connecting with employees and customers in a whole new way. Your business is your customer experience and platforms enable organizations to deliver on that experience. As Angela summarizes to CEO's who remain skeptical , that failing to adopt her approach she doesn't know where business models would be in 5 years. She's right . As the historian and author Daniel Boorstin said, the greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance - it is the illusion of knowledge. We have a lot to learn but its there for those who want to find out how. Watch !

About the author:

Bryan O’Rourke is a health club industry expert, technologist, financier, and shareholder and executive in several fitness and health club companies. He consults with numerous global brands, serves as a member of the GGFA Think Tank is Chair of the Medical Fitness Association’s Education Committee and a partner in the Flywheel Group - an expert in salesforce.com development and implementation. To learn more contact Bryan here today .

Cloudforce 2010 - San Jose

You know I'm a big fan of the cloud and it just keeps getting more and more interesting. Now the next generation of cloud computing is upon us. It’s mobile, collaborative, and social and available today with Cloud 2. It’s changing everything! A big salesforce.com event in San Jose on June 22, 2010 will address the Cloud 2 trend.

Salesforce.com Chairman and CEO Marc Benioff and industry luminaries from CA, VMware, and BMC, and thousands of others will see how the next generation of cloud computing will transform entire businesses. Watch !

Why Your Organization Better Jump Into Cloud Computing

Let’s say you’re like many small to medium sized companies with information systems comprised of a variety of pieces. You have one or two in-house servers, a number of laptops and PC’s, a Microsoft operating system, desktop applications like word processing, spreadsheets, Outlook and perhaps a third party proprietary Intranet application accessed over the Internet. This is common for many small to mid sized organizations.

Trouble is, if you take a moment to calculate what the cost of all this technology and maintenance is for your company you might be surprised. Upgrades, hardware maintenance, software licenses all add up. Don’t even mention that you are unable to really manage what folks are up to on a day to day basis.

To make this more challenging your people aren’t able to take full advantage of things like their smart phones, mobile internet access while they are on the go or at home, social media, and other advancing technologies. This would help them be more productive in serving customers or developing new business.

To make it even more alarming, what is you ARE relying on a third party vendor, which might have financial issues you are unaware of given today’s environment, to manage and host your Intranet content or business systems based on a proprietary infrastructure? You may have some real trouble ahead. What happens if they fold ? What upgrades are they making to adopt new tools ? What is your EXIT strategy ?

You have a problem that deservers consideration. The good news is there is a solution. You just need to gather the will to understand the tremendous risk and opportunity that  all organizations face today around their information systems.

With all of the advancements in technology available to organizations today, particularly with the cloud, you really really have to sit down and take account of how you are using your IT and strongly consider shifting your strategy to the cloud....Entirely to the cloud. Sooner not later would be a very good idea.

Watch Mark Benioff CEO of salesforce.com explain the cloud, technology and what is happening and why you should jump in. Don’t wait and let your competitors beat you to the punch.

Business Email On Life Support ? Enter Salesforce.com Chatter

Let's face it, email has become an extremely undisciplined form of collaborative communication for organizations. From my own experience I see it every day. It starts with a question or comment, copied among a group, and then spreads, unknowingly, to become a waste of resources and time. What to do ? Well we've all been participating increasingly with social networks and there are a lot of potential there. Its just that organizations using social networks haven't been able to leverage their potential as efficiently as they could be until the advent of tools like salesforce.com's chatter.

Salesforce.com announced at its Dreamforce event in San Francisco this past week something called Chatter, a "collaboration cloud" platform that integrates social network features. Chatter proposed to bring the flexibility and ease of use found in applications such as Facebook to businesses, enabling feeds from business applications, content and users that can be followed, profiled and shared. Salesforce.com plans to begin offering Chatter in 2010. The end of email as the mainstream method of communicative collaboration is approaching.