Web 2.0 has spawned a new wave of collaborative online sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Wikipedia and del.ici.ous which harness the power of groups. Are Web 2.0 tools (personal profiles, rating, tagging, wikis, bookmarking and commenting) being incorporated into your sales process, CRM applications and other applications that your business uses? If yes, how are they being used? Are they making you more efficient?

How should companies be using these technologies? Which tools should they be using to make them more efficient and why?

Responses for this Case will be used in a whitepaper being created by Techdirt for TheCustomerCollective and will be included with the results of a separate survey we are conducting. Please take the survey and we will share the results with you.

LetsTalk's PhoneTalk blog wants to add new voices to its website, and they're posting regular Cases here for the Techdirt Insight Community to add interesting new content to their site. The winning submissions for each Challenge Case will be posted (perhaps with some editing) on the PhoneTalk blog -- with credits to the author. The following is LetsTalk's next assignment:

We're looking for interesting phone apps or services that make your phone more useful to you. For example, do you use Google's GrandCentral to block undesirable calls? Have you installed any third party software on your phone that you use regularly? Have you tried any user-friendly services that can text message driving directions to your phone? Do you use any voicemail-to-text services?

Read more...

The Storage Area Network (SAN) market is rapidly changing with most of the focus on Ethernet vs. Fibre Channel, and iSCSI vs FCoE (Fibre Channel over Ethernet). Add to that the growing list of optimization features appearing in today's storage systems (thin provisioning, de-duplification, encryption to name a few). With so much dynamic change, Dell is kicking off an ongoing conversation regarding the SAN market and its current and future directions. We'd like to hear some views, insights, needs and concerns from every day IT users and how these technologies fit into future datacenter plans.

To start off, we're broadly interested in collecting educated opinions concerning SAN implementations and technology choices. Following this, we may delve deeper into specific issues and develop further discussions about storage products. Here are some initial questions to begin the discussion. It would be great to get your insight on these and other issues surrounding the SAN space.

• How do you see the current SAN market, and where do you think it's going? Feel free to highlight personal experiences.
• For FC users, will they wait for proposed FCoE products before the next upgrade, and if so, how long?
• What are the biggest pains around block storage -- performance? growth? management? How have you or those you know dealt with these?
• What are the storage implications when dealing with server virtualization?
• How does disaster recovery play into the SAN discussion? When dealing with disaster recovery are there better options for mirroring and data migration?
• Where do you think things stand with de-duplification? Is it ready for prime-time and why or why not? Where is that space heading and what impact will it have on the rest of the market?

Submissions for this Case do not need to be restricted to these questions only. We're looking to start a lively, on-going discussion, so if you have an interesting viewpoint regarding your SAN environment -- don't stay silent. Dell will be republishing the best results (with your name and a link to your site, if you wish) on a minisite that will be launched soon. Selected Insights will be placed on the new site and get a share of the available bonus. Submitted Insights should ideally be in a blog post format, but feel free to include graphs, charts or any supplemental materials to support your opinions. You can submit multiple insights to try to qualify for multiple shares. We will be closing this particular case once we feel there are enough initial insights (somewhere between 10 to 15) so please get your insights in early!

NOTE: You do not need to answer all of the questions. Pick one, two or however many you're comfortable with and discuss it in a few paragraphs.

Accounting software solutions have grown in complexity with an ever increasing number of features aimed at small businesses as well as large enterprises. Now, software focusing on medium-sized businesses is becoming a more important area. How can software solution providers better serve this middle segment? What are the unique challenges facing mid-sized businesses that small or large organizations aren't dealing with?

For those of you who have transitioned from Quickbooks to Intacct Enterprise, NetSuite, SAP BusinessOne, QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions, Sage MAS 90 or another mid-market solution, how did you know it was time to upgrade? Please describe your successes and failures in making the transition and how the transition ultimately helped or hurt with your company's growth. What advice would you give small and medium-sized business owners to help them to avoid pitfalls and better make this transition?

For those of you who haven't done this switch, but are familiar with these products or the space, what do you think are the key factors in moving up to mid-market solutions and what are the biggest pitfalls and risks that companies face in making that transition?

Responses for this Case will be used in a whitepaper being created by Techdirt for MyVenturePad and included with the results of a survey we are conducting. Please take the survey and we will share the results with you.

 

Cadbury Schweppes sells a wide variety of beverages in the US including brands like Seven-Up, Dr. Pepper, Snapple, Motts, Hawaiian Punch, Canada Dry and A&W. The company is looking for ways to go beyond the normal web offerings of online coupons, and they want to create real value for their retail partners -- using the internet to drive customers to those retailers.

They want to focus their efforts on their top retail channels in the US, like Kroger, Safeway, Food Lion, Albertson, Stop & Shop, Wal-Mart, McDonalds, YUM, 7-Eleven, CVS. The key goal is to find ways to use Cadbury Schweppes brands as an asset to bring shoppers into the stores (not just to buy Cadbury Schweppes drinks). Don't limit yourself to just focusing on drinks. The ideal project drives more interest in getting shoppers into retail partners, increasing the overall amount of consumer spending.

What innovative and new ideas are there for engaging shoppers with retailers & Cadbury Schweppes brands online that can translate to added profitable sales for retailers? Please describe specific examples of strategies that could be employed, and estimate budgetary and return on investment factors for any proposed solutions.

 

LetsTalk's PhoneTalk blog wants to add new voices to its website, and they're posting regular Cases here for the Techdirt Insight Community to add interesting new content to their site. The winning submissions for each Challenge Case will be posted (perhaps with some editing) on the PhoneTalk blog -- with credits to the author. The following is LetsTalk's next assignment:

Just about every wireless service provider has its own mobile music service, and added to that, there are also third-party wireless music services as well. So we're looking for reviews of the most popular services. What are your opinions on the usability and value of: Verizon's VCast Music, the Sprint Music Store, AT&T's mobile music services, T-Mobile's Music, Alltel's mobile music, etc? If you don't like those services, which ones would you recommend? Do you think 'unlimited' service plans will boost adoption of any of these mobile music products?

Read more...

LetsTalk's PhoneTalk blog wants to add new voices to its website, and they're posting regular Cases here for the Techdirt Insight Community to add interesting new content to their site. The winning submissions for each Challenge Case will be posted (perhaps with some editing) on the PhoneTalk blog -- with credits to the author. The following is LetsTalk's next assignment:

It's only a matter of time before everyone's cell phone has a social networking app on it. In fact, phone addressbooks and service plans like T-Mobile's MyFaves already contain most of the features of a social networking app. So which mobile social networking apps are (or will be) the most popular? Will 'Bluedating' ever make it big? If you had to pick a top 5 list of social networking functions for your phone, what would they be?

LetsTalk's PhoneTalk blog wants to add new voices to its website, and they're posting regular Cases here for the Techdirt Insight Community to add interesting new content to their site. The winning submissions for each Challenge Case will be posted (perhaps with some editing) on the PhoneTalk blog -- with credits to the author. The following is LetsTalk's next assignment:

While the threat to safety from driving and talking on a cell phone can be debated, there are already several laws around the US that prohibit such actions. However, there is no federal regulation -- just recommendations from the National Transportation Safety Board that all states should restrict certain drivers from using cell phones while driving. So which states have enacted the most reasonable regulations against cell phone use while driving? Or (if there aren't any existing laws that you like) what kind of rules should be proposed to encourage common sense in driving? Are hands-free accessories really effective? Will factory-installed systems in the dashboard help? With GPS navigation and other advanced wireless services coming to more phones, what exceptions should be made (if any) to laws against driving while using mobile phones?

LetsTalk's PhoneTalk blog wants to add new voices to its website, and they're posting regular Cases here for the Techdirt Insight Community to add interesting new content to their site. The winning submissions for each Challenge Case will be posted (perhaps with some editing) on the PhoneTalk blog -- with credits to the author. The following is LetsTalk's next assignment:

Recently, several "unlimited" wireless service plans have been introduced from Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile, AT&T and Sprint. Obviously trying to distinguish its service, though, Sprint has created an unlimited plan that includes not only voice, but data, text, e-mail, Web-surfing, Sprint TV, Sprint Music, GPS Navigation, etc. But does this offer really present a significant difference? Will existing Sprint customers readily adopt features beyond SMS? Will Sprint subscribers upgrade their phones? Is there anything that may hinder Sprint's 'Simply Everything' offer? Does Sprint need to throw in its Airave service into the 'Everything' plan as well? How do the 'unlimited' plans from Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T compare? What do you think the long-term effects of introducing 'unlimited' wireless service plans will be?

LetsTalk's PhoneTalk blog wants to add new voices to its website, and they're posting regular Cases here for the Techdirt Insight Community to add interesting new content to their site. The winning submissions for each Challenge Case will be posted (perhaps with some editing) on the PhoneTalk blog -- with credits to the author. The following is LetsTalk's next assignment:

More and more phones have included GPS and assisted-GPS functions to make smartphones that much smarter. So how do you use GPS on your phone? Do you use it at all? How about your carrier's GPS services? What about GPS accessories for the car designed to work with cell phones? Besides mapping and navigation, what do you think will be the most popular location based services on phones?