The accompanying Executive Report is the second in a series that describes the adoption of Web 2.0 technologies and the impact they're having in the enterprise.

While effective service sourcing strategies are absolutely critical for effective outsourcing, they are commonly misunderstood and ill defined. Worse still, the execution of these approaches tends to be somewhat isolated, both from the domain of software architecture and development and the world of business decision making.

While effective service sourcing strategies are absolutely critical for effective outsourcing, they are commonly misunderstood and ill defined. Worse still, execution of these approaches often tends to be somewhat isolated both from the domain of software architecture and development and the world of business decision making.

We are increasingly servicing customers directly through IT-enabled means and indirectly by way of IT-enabled customer service personnel. This proliferation of IT-enabled touch points creates the foundation for what Rick and I are increasingly calling "born digital data" or "digital data genesis."2 This proliferation of customer data that is natively digital enables strategic options that were simply not feasible before.

We are increasingly servicing customers directly through IT-enabled means and indirectly by way of IT-enabled customer service personnel. This proliferation of IT-enabled touch points creates the foundation for what Rick and I are increasingly calling "born digital data" or "digital data genesis."2 This proliferation of customer data that is natively digital enables strategic options that were simply not feasible before.

Imagine yourself walking into Barnes & Noble or any other major book retailer. Perhaps you visit the store about once a month to browse a few books and grab a cup of coffee. You open the store doors and see in front of you one of the staff members sitting behind a counter. The person calls you out by name, asks how you are doing, and then proceeds to itemize the last five books you browsed when you last visited the month before. Not only that, the staff member then proceeds to tell you about several books of which you were completely unaware.

Imagine yourself walking into Barnes & Noble or any other major book retailer. Perhaps you visit the store about once a month to browse a few books and grab a cup of coffee. You open the store doors and see in front of you one of the staff members sitting behind a counter. The person calls you out by name, asks how you are doing, and then proceeds to itemize the last five books you browsed when you last visited the month before. Not only that, the staff member then proceeds to tell you about several books of which you were completely unaware.

In this CBR survey, Ron Cenfetelli and I asked firms to share with us how they are using IT to provide convenience, personalization, and, most importantly, a memorable customer experience. We designed the survey questions to gauge the usage of the various types of technology services being deployed, their targeted audiences, and what business service were they being given access to.

In this CBR survey, Ron Cenfetelli and I asked firms to share with us how they are using IT to provide convenience, personalization, and, most importantly, a memorable customer experience. We designed the survey questions to gauge the usage of the various types of technology services being deployed, their targeted audiences, and what business service were they being given access to.

As I mentioned in the introduction to this issue, one of my main research and consulting interests pertains to the use of IT as an enabler of customer service and service delivery.

As I mentioned in the introduction to this issue, one of my main research and consulting interests pertains to the use of IT as an enabler of customer service and service delivery.

This survey explored the use of IT as a means of enhancing the services, personalization, and convenience that organizations provide to customers. Thirty percent of the 66 respondents hold senior management/policy making or IS/IT management titles, with consulting, marketing/sales, project management, and software engineering/programming being among the other job titles reported.

This survey explored the use of IT as a means of enhancing the services, personalization, and convenience that organizations provide to customers. Thirty percent of the 66 respondents hold senior management/policy making or IS/IT management titles, with consulting, marketing/sales, project management, and software engineering/programming being among the other job titles reported.

As businesses open up to interact with and leverage social networking environments and tools, we find users, customers, partners, and suppliers are taking up important roles, each day becoming more involved in the R&D of all commercial products and services.

Advances in IT change the way people and organizations operate. On a daily basis, new tools, devices, and functionalities that have an impact on and modify existing processes become available. Organizations struggle to keep up with technological progress that sometimes is incremental and builds on previous technologies, but other times is disruptive and requires a radical transformation of working habits.

Business architecture requires alignment with IT architecture. Concurrent alignment efforts must focus on the gap between these two architectures.

The rise of business architecture can be directly attributed not only to the continued failure to develop good business requirements (i.e., requirements that actually represent the business), but also to the change in the role of the business analyst. In 1995, the Standish Group first published its Chaos Report, which looked at the success and failure criteria of IT projects. The report listed the top 10 factors that caused projects to be challenged.

In this article, I describe an operating model for business alignment drawn from 27 years of experience, working for both consultancies and major end-user organizations in a variety of industries. The key points that come out of this experience are:

Alignment among all parties involved in business change is the issue: the business consists of multiple parties that need to be aligned; IT is just one of these parties.

The world of business is at one of its lowest ebbs, with the global economy currently in a dire state. The obvious questions that many seem to be asking are, "Why did we get into such a mess? Where exactly is the problem? Who created the problem? How did it happen?" All these are questions that can be explored endlessly, with no definitive answer in sight.

The world of business is at one of its lowest ebbs, with the global economy currently in a dire state. The obvious questions that many seem to be asking are, "Why did we get into such a mess? Where exactly is the problem? Who created the problem? How did it happen?" All these are questions that can be explored endlessly, with no definitive answer in sight.

Over the past few years, business and IT leaders have practiced and published a myriad of concepts, philosophies, and principles of business-IT alignment. For many practitioners, it has been an unavoidable trend. In most cases, the incentive for their alignment initiatives has been directly related to establishing, organizing, and prioritizing specific business and IT strategies.

Over the past few years, business and IT leaders have practiced and published a myriad of concepts, philosophies, and principles of business-IT alignment. For many practitioners, it has been an unavoidable trend. In most cases, the incentive for their alignment initiatives has been directly related to establishing, organizing, and prioritizing specific business and IT strategies.

The organizational change that began with the Industrial Revolution and accelerated via Henry Ford's introduction of mass production and the assembly line has had a profound impact on the organizational structure of businesses up to the present time. Many current companies have built what amount to assembly lines, where specialists perform specific tasks along the path to producing a product or service that is delivered to their customers.

The organizational change that began with the Industrial Revolution and accelerated via Henry Ford's introduction of mass production and the assembly line has had a profound impact on the organizational structure of businesses up to the present time. Many current companies have built what amount to assembly lines, where specialists perform specific tasks along the path to producing a product or service that is delivered to their customers.

While enterprise information technology architecture (EITA) has been used successfully to improve operational efficiencies in many organizations, few have been successful with leveraging EITA as a strategic value-creation tool. We contend that one reason for this is that in many instances, EITA lacks the business relevance and context necessary to align IT direction with business strategy in other than an incidental fashion. Enterprise business architecture (EBA) holds promise as a source of requirements for EITA.