Online Experience Optimization: The Next "Big Idea" in the Cloud

Every modern business does business online. This means that every modern business decision maker needs the answers to five key questions.

1. Do we know what customers, competitors and competitors' customers are saying about our company online?
2. Do we know that every online interaction with our company is equally compelling, fluid, frictionless and fulfilling, regardless of the user's device or connection type?
3. Do we know what colleagues, customers, partners and prospects really think about doing business with us online, especially compared with other companies?
4. Do we have solid, defensible evidence for all that we know or think that we know?
5. Can we act on what we know in ways that help our business to succeed and grow?

To be able to answer these questions with confidence, business decision makers must integrate multiple previously separate initiatives ranging from content management and social networking to analytics and infrastructure management. Here's a high-level look at just some of the elements involved in every user's online experience with a company – such as yours.

• The user's access device – whether PC, laptop, tablet or smartphone.
• The network connection – whether wireless or wired, dial-up or broadband, etc.
• The company's Web site or sites (and the equivalent portal or portals for internal users).
• The content displayed by the Web site and/or internal portal.
• The tools used to create, edit, curate and manage that content.
• The tools used to measure and analyze all aspects of the online experience, from the performance of the Web site to who's accessing which content how often – plus more.

A holistic view of these and other relevant elements is essential to achieving a critical goal of every modern business: online experience optimization (OEO), for both external and internal constituencies.

The perceptions of those "from without," including competitors, customers, influencers, partners, and prospects, directly affect multiple human factors that in turn directly affect revenues, profits and competitive positioning. The perceptions of those "from within" affect things like employee job satisfaction, loyalty, referrals of superior new employees and overall business agility and responsiveness.

OEO touches every aspect of every type and size of company that does business online or plans to do so. Business stakeholders include advertising, marketing, public relations, sales, internal and external support teams and business performance decision makers, among others.

Technologies involved range from Web site construction and management tools to content management systems, analytics tools and support for “the mobile, social cloud.” Example relevant vendors include IT stalwarts such as Adobe, IBM, Oracle and SAP, disruptive upstarts such as Consona, Medallia, Nimble and Zoho and even so-called "digital agencies" such as 311 Media and Surge.

OEO is clearly a "big idea" that demands immediate and sustained attention from business and technology decision makers – and from the vendors hoping to sell to them. And based on the initial findings of continuing OEO surveys, that attention is needed now.

When asked to rate their companies' abilities to know and respond to what's being said about those companies online, only 18.5 percent of respondents chose "Excellent." Some 44.4 percent chose "Good," while approximately one-third said their companies were "Fair" (22.2 percent) or "Unsatisfactory" (11.1 percent) at this critical OEO element.

Respondents were also asked when they believe that decision makers at their companies will start to collect and act upon what's being said about them online. Approximately one-third of respondents expect this to happen within the next six months. But a quarter of respondents don't expect it to happen within the next year, and 41.7 percent said they didn't know when it might happen.

I'll have lots more to say about OEO here and elsewhere, so stay tuned. Meanwhile, you can take those surveys I mentioned in approximately three minutes each, anonymously if you prefer, and request summary findings at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/JJVTC6J and
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/WFCM2KR. Thanks for your help – please tell everyone you know!

SaaS Growth Halted Immediately as Salesforce.com Executives Flee – or Not...

“SaaS Growth Thrown Into Question,” wrote my former colleague (and, despite my past influence, one of the most insightful people I know) John Foley for Information Week's cloud computing blog last Friday.

“Shakeup at Salesforce.com,” wrote Ben Worthen for the Wall Street Journal's “Digits” blog on the same day.

“Tough Times at Salesforce.com,” wrote Jeffrey M. Kaplan for “Seeking Alpha,” a fairly cool Web site devoted to stock market opinion and analysis, just today.

Do these folks know something you and I don't? Maybe – but I don't think so.

What got them all cautious was the departure from Salesforce.com of Steve Cakebread, now-former president and chief strategy officer, and two senior sales executives, Gary Hanna and Dave Orrico. Oh, and the fact that Salesforce.com canceled its European edition of its annual multi-day tent revival/prayer meeting, Dreamforce, in favor of a free, one-day event. And the fact that Salesforce.com stock fell about 5% on a day when a lot of other stocks went up.

But seriously, if you were Steve Cakebread, which would you really rather help to run right now? Salesforce.com, from which he'd already tried to retire once, or your family-owned, high-profile, high-quality Napa Valley winery? I live in Sonoma County, which is often seen as a friendly competitor to Napa, and I know which one I'd pick – and I'm a big fan of Salesforce.com and SaaS in general.

As for Messrs. Hanna and Orrico, with all due respect, it could be and has been argued by others that there might have been too many sales executives at the company anyway, especially given the current economic turbulence.

And regarding replacing Dreamforce Europe with Cloudforce London – well, I've been saying for some time now, most recently in a December 2008 blog posting, that the big trade show is probably going the way of...well, bits on disks versus SaaS, just to pick an analogy at random.

Is Salesforce.com in trouble? I seriously doubt it. Is it facing uncertainties, and the prospects of fewer, smaller deals and even some customer churn during the next few months? Almost certainly. But when I look at the range of resources the company has, particularly its ecosystem of partners, the Salesforce.com Foundation, and the team still in place, I can't help but believe the company remains a good bet for users, partners, and even investors. Yes, there will be more competition for customer dollars, from companies such as SaaS solution provider Zoho and platform-as-a-service (PaaS) purveyor LongJump. But Salesforce.com has enough irons in enough fires, and enough bright, clever people committed to its success and that of its customers, that it will weather this storm just fine.

What does it all mean, then? If you're a user considering SaaS with little to no investment in Salesforce.com solutions, it “couldn't hoit” to look at some alternatives, including those from the two other vendors I just mentioned. If your company is already invested in Salesforce.com solutions and relationships, don't panic – just ensure your contractual terms are known, well-documented, and sufficiently favorable to and protective of your company.

And if you're wondering if overall growth of the SaaS/PaaS/on-demand software market is in jeopardy? Well, I'm still predicting growth in 2009 and beyond. It may be slower than the past few months, and it may be distributed across more companies than I and others may have originally thought. But the basic dynamics remain the same – companies want to do more with less, and SaaS and its related technologies enable that more easily and economically than almost any alternative. And Jeffrey Kaplan apparently agrees with me. In his above-referenced blog entry, he states:

“I’m convinced Salesforce.com will withstand the current crisis, just as I’m confident that the SaaS and broader cloud computing market will prosper long-term despite of today’s economic challenges. Salesforce.com is still the biggest and among the most influential players in the SaaS and cloud computing market, and I’d much rather be in the on-demand services sector than in either the housing or automotive industries.”

Mr. Kaplan adds that critical to the survival and success of SaaS companies will be their abilities to focus on tangible benefits, such as cost savings or higher sales productivity, operating efficiency, and/or customer satisfaction. These are the kinds of things you should focus on, too, if you're trying to consider or promote SaaS solutions at your company, whatever its core business or size. Meanwhile, let's stop wasting time speculating, and build better business infrastructures and service level agreements (SLAs) for managing vendor relationships effectively, while we wait for credible public statements, from Salesforce.com and elsewhere.

At least, that's what I think. What about you?