Survey: Businesses Missing Out on Social Media Opportunities
Companies failing to use social media to reach their customers and employees do so at their own peril, according to a new study on the importance of social media in business and customer communications. The study commissioned by Siemens Enterprise Communications, finds that the vast majority of employees and consumers would prefer to use social networking for business communications. Survey highlights include:
Seventy percent of consumers want access to company experts and support via social media channels and trust company information provided to them via their social networks
Nearly 60 percent of customers feel company outreach via social media would improve their loyalty to that company
Most customers feel that companies should be monitoring social media for customer feedback
Fifty percent of respondents use social media daily or several times a day
Nearly 70 percent of employees feel they need better tools to track and manage social media for business, and would like the ability to initiate a Web conference automatically from a chat discussion at work, inviting people from within their social and work networks
Worldwide Cloud Services Market to Surpass $68 Billion in 2010
Worldwide cloud services revenue is forecast to reach $68.3 billion in 2010, a 16.6 percent increase from 2009 revenue of $58.6 billion, according to Gartner, Inc. The industry is poised for strong growth through 2014, when worldwide cloud services revenue is projected to reach $148.8 billion. Gartner estimates that, over the course of the next five years, enterprises will spend $112 billion cumulatively on software as a service (SaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), and infrastructure as a service (IaaS), combined.
The U.S. share of the worldwide cloud services market was 60 percent in 2009 and will be 58 percent in 2010, but by 2014, this will be diluted to 50 percent as other countries and regions begin to adopt cloud services in more-significant volumes. Western Europe is expected to account for 23.8 percent of the cloud services market in 2010, and Japan will represent 10 percent. In 2014, the U.K. is forecast to account for 29 percent of the market, while Japan will represent 12 percent of cloud services revenue.
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