Business Software

Companies around the globe will spend almost two-thirds of their R&D budget on software and service offerings by 2020 as they adapt to digitization, according to a new survey.

CEOs must embrace technology to thrive in the digital age. But a new private-sector study is reminding them not to get too carried away.

The rise in productivity tools highlights the business need and growing trend toward improved communication and streamlined workflows, but there are few applications designed specifically for boards and CEOs.

CEOs like Document Management apps the most when it comes to mobile apps they use to keep up to speed and run their business.

We’ve all been there: watching in dread as customers waver because they can’t get their hands on the information they need to buy our products. It happened to us when we upgraded our commercial insurance line for small businesses. Our internal call centers were swamped with questions from our 12,000 agents, and we were struggling to get the right answers and quotes to frustrated customers. But the cost of simply adding more and more staff to the call centers was daunting.

While RFID technology has been in place for upwards of two decades, it has come a long way in the last year. Originally an inventory management tool that also helped reduce merchandise theft, it is currently helping retailers improve customer satisfaction and improve merchandise management and planning.

Innovation thought leaders and industry experts emphatically harp that if you want to stay afloat (and ultimately thrive) in today’s hyper-competitive business environment, innovation is not optional—it’s absolutely imperative for survival and success. Your customers demand it; and if you can’t innovate, your competitors will consistently outflank and outperform you.

From the International Consumer Electronics Show in January to an ongoing pilot laundry service in Chicago’s trendy Lincoln Park, manufacturing CEOs increasingly are directing their companies to leverage a number of factors in support of service-based strategies, from digital connectivity to the increasing desire by consumers for reliable brand names that can take more of the burdens of everyday life from them.

The enterprise resource planning (ERP) vendor and consultant landscape is large and fragmented, and startups continue to emerge, especially those focused on cloud, mobile and “business planning and consolidation” technologies.

If mid-market firms plan to upgrade their operating system to the new Windows 10, there are few things leaders should know before giving their CIO the go-ahead.