This article was co-written by Peter Armaly and Vijay Virmani. Peter heads up training and enablement for the North America Customer Success organization and Vijay is his peer in the same org. Vijay's role as a supply chain management SME (Subject Matter Expert) is to create and execute strategies for improving the ability for Oracle's customers to achieve their desired business outcomes through Oracle SaaS applications.   Consumer spending choked, business travel hobbled, restaurants trying and often failing, and sporting events operating with no semblance to their previou ..read more

This blog was originally written for HR.com. You can access the original version here.  It’s hard to believe that just three months ago we were discussing the talent economy as having a shortage of available workers and brainstorming ideas on what would attract great people to an organization and get them to stay.  That talent marketplace hasn’t disappeared forever; it is just on hold for a while.  We are now at a defining moment in time.   From this day forward, we will refer to the evolution in our organizations as before the pandemic, and after the pandemic.  T ..read more

Willie Mays exhibited it when he turned and sprinted straight to the center field wall to make a catch of a deep fly ball with his back to the plate. And although he didn’t invent it, soccer star, Pele, also exhibited agility with his bicycle kick, a foolhardy tactic if lesser mortals had attempted it to score a goal. There are some athletes who exhibit acts of agility that are unexplainable beyond concluding that their brains and their bodies instinctively react in the moment with such extraordinary speed and grace that they stand out from their peers. We often then elevate them to an exalted ..read more

Amid the COVID-19 crisis, marketing organizations are having to find ways to engage with their customers and prospects without the use of in-person seminars, workshops, and conferences.  Digital channels and technology have one answer: webinars. These online events only require Internet access, a device for viewing, and a video conferencing service provider. Because of this, many companies have already repurposed their physical conferences into a webinar format.  But before you send out the invitations, here are nine best practices my team uses when we create webinars. As online and ..read more

From needing to train new remote employees to ensuring business continuity, adopting new HR technology as a part of a digital transformation strategy can be a daunting experience, especially in today’s uncertain times.  Luckily, there’s a path to implementation that can still pay dividends for your company as HR strategist Robin Schooling shared last October at the HR Technology Conference in Las Vegas. I sat in on her engaging half-hour session where she shared her best practices.  Here’s what she had to say:  Understand the ten-thousand-foot view ..read more

You ever come across something, a stat or fact and then wonder aloud "What year is it?" I do that all the time when I come across stats like I am about to share: A recent survey of 200 B2B sales and marketing professionals showed that over half (54%) consider it easier to get personalization right in B2C than it is in their world of B2B.  I came across my most recent "What year is it?" stat after reading a piece on MarketingCharts.com entitled B2B Marketers Say Personalization is Harder for Them Than for B2C. Are They Right? For the record let me respond to the query with a ..read more

AI-based chatbots or digital assistants stand to change the way we interact with business applications, not just consumer ones. The main benefit is the ability to get immediate responses to queries via natural local language, without having to download apps or get training. While we have the freedom to engage in user-friendly experiences in our personal lives – such as Alexa and Siri – there have been few options for people in their professional lives. But that’s changing. As Steve Miranda, Oracle’s executive vice president of application development, remarked: “In HR, every common question or ..read more

This article was written by Jeff Haynes & Jim Fox, Baker Tilly Have you been working from home for the past month and a half? With remote work now a part of our national conversation, our partner Baker Tilly wanted to share some of their tips. Learn more about them at their website. Is your project team working from home in this “sequestered world”? Don’t let that slow you or your critical project down! Two recent examples from our clients indicate major projects can continue, and even kickoff, during these unprecedented times. From these successful virtual project phas ..read more

Note: This piece originally appeared on SmarterCX as 4 Ways Communications Can Improve CX During a Crisis How do you continue to provide a great customer experience during a crisis, when the very definition of “customer experience” may have changed? Now the priority must be to address customers’ needs, not to try to persuade them to buy your products. As McKinsey & Company points out, “Particularly in a times of crisis, a customer’s interaction with a company can trigger an immediate and lingering effect on his or her sense of trust and loyalty.” Therefore, open, transparent communica ..read more

In my career, I have had the pleasure of interviewing an incredible variety of people. From CMOs of the biggest brands in the world to world-class athletes to award-winning entertainers and a whole host of folks from many, many other areas of life. However, I had never interviewed a former Navy Seal. So, when the opportunity arose to speak to one – one who has become incredibly successful in the business world in his post-Seal life, I jumped at the chance. His name is Alden Mills and after his career as a Seal – including serving as platoon commander on three separate occasions, he d ..read more