The role of the CMO is probably the most thankless job in the modern organization: company's executives expect great branding and messaging to be propelled through all the optimal channels to market to maximize awareness and, ultimately, increase sales.

In case you missed IBM's CRM Chief Bill Payne's return to blog-stardom during Part I, he discussed his vision for the creation of a "Chief Customer Officer" position within companies, who would report directly to the CEO. In Part II, Bill discusses shifting mindsets, the impact of analytics and evolution of outcome-centric engagements impacting the marketing function...

When it comes to outsourcing, dealing with the middle-market has been somewhat akin to dealing with the mother-in-law: can be awkward to deal with, very hard to please, and always has complex demands on your patience and resources.

I wanted to introduce a spectacular new personality into the HfS family, Susan Scrupski, a legendary figure in the worlds of disruptive technology and social business - and Fast Company’s “Most Influential Women in Technology” in 2010 - who's embarked on a pivotal new project with us entitled "Business Process Reinvention"

IBM's Bill Payne talks to HfS about his refining vision for the future marketing function and, perhaps most importantly, how today's businesses need to manage their most precious assets in the face of such fundamental change - their customers.

Get ready for the healthcare market to heat up over the next three years as a result of state health insurance market places, the rapid expansion of accountable care organizations, and ICD-10 implementations.

Make no bones about it: 2012 was a pretty dire year for the industry known as "outsourcing". However, brand new data from our State of Outsourcing 2013 Study conducted with the support of KPMG, and the largest-ever research survey focused on IT and business function outsourcing, clearly shows that the majority of enterprises are not only aggressively focused on increasing their outsourcing portfoilios, but many are now taking a more mature and realistic approach.

The recent post entitled "Can we ever get back to the thinking workforce" focused on the poor work habits that have infiltrated many of today's workers to create a dearth of analytical thinkers for our organizations.

A subtle, but decisive, shift took place in the sourcing advisory landscape today, with Alsbridge's announcing the acquisition of leading telecoms/networking sourcing advisor, Telwares, to firmly place Alsbridge as the main contender to ISG at the helm of the independent boutique advisor market.

And, for the first time ever, an analyst has managed to write a "second day" blog at an industry event. So, without further ado, here's HfS' Peter Ackerson with Day Two