Momentum: A Brief Lesson in Physics

Momentum=mass x velocity is a fundamental concept of physics that has applications in everyday life. For instance, athletes gaining speed in a race are said to be gaining momentum. Outside scientific applications, of course, there are other types of momentum that are equally important. Take the momentum generated from executing forward-moving ideas in business.

Thanks in large part to the growth of social media (see image below), monitoring your brand reputation online is no longer a "nice to have" program but an essential part of any business operation. The benefits of proper monitoring are gained by understanding both positive and negative discussions about your company on the internet. For instance, in the social web 2.0 world, many brand mentions are time-sensitive opportunities for social engagement, whether to strengthen a positive discussion or mitigate a negative PR crisis. Ignoring or delaying an engagement opportunity can have negative impact on your brand's reputation.

*Social Media Growth: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter

For the IntraLinks Performance Engineering team, our ultimate goal is application performance that yields an excellent user experience. Such a broadly defined goal requires a broad approach. In order to effectively deliver an excellent user experience, performance must be managed throughout the application life-cycle. Taking a larger view of application performance opens up additional possibilities for improving user satisfaction that might be missed with a narrower focus. Application Performance is not just a testing activity, it is built-in to the product and therefore must be addressed throughout the product life-cycle in order to be effective and achieve the best results. Let's look at some of the ways application performance is managed during the software development process.

On Monday, Joseph Menn of the Financial Times posted an article titled: Security Experts Find Flaws in Cloud Computing.

I agree that if the cloud vendors don’t get serious about securing critical business information, then the cases like Twitter’s will get worse and worse. The negligence on the part of players like these not only puts valuable information at risk, but also reflects badly on other service providers who have invested in security and provide business grade services. But in the end, clouds are here to stay. The burden will be on both the companies who utilize clouds as well as the media to educate consumers and professionals on the applications that are appropriate – and secure enough – for their needs.

I used to see frequent reports and blog postings about the success or failure of CRM systems. Lately, however, I hear radio silence. Has this technology finally turned the corner and achieved consistent ROI, delivering on expectations?

Probably not. The most recent survey from CSO Insights showed no appreciable change in CRM adoption within the sales community of the companies surveyed. CSO measures adoption when 90% of the sales force consider a CRM system a "must have." Lamentably, only roughly 39% of companies surveyed achieved that criteria.

Arguably, as major creators of information in a customer relationship, sales' failure to adopt a CRM system means that system has failed. I know from personal experience that salespeople cannot be bullied, nagged or even incented to use a tool they don't want. So wherein lies the answer? I always look at the "What's in it for me" (WiifM) measure. I suspect that WiifM drives behavior much more than we would wish to believe, and certainly has more impact than encouraging salespeople to be good corporate citizens. And why not? Depending on the industry, a typical sales person has to close $10,000 of business per day, which tends to create laser-like focus on what works and what doesn't.