Converged Thinking for the CyberConsumer

Article from The FT press summarizing the main takeaways from the book Convergence Marketing: Strategies for Reaching the New Hybrid Consumer. Basiaclly - it's the 5 "C"s

• Customerization—Convergence of customized and standardized offerings and messages

• Community—Convergence of virtual and physical communities

• Channels—Seamless convergence of call, click, and visit

• Competitive value—Convergence of new and traditional competitive value equations and pricing models

• Choice tools—Convergence of new search engines and decision tools for consumers and company-provided advice

Technical Product Marketing Resources

Some useful resources for Technical product Marketing exist out there - the IT Services Marketing Association (ITSMA) is a paid membership organization (if you want to access all the really good stuff), but also have some free downloads and an insightful Blog on Technology sales and Marketing Strategy maintained by one Chris Koch.

Outsourcing convergence projects

Tools & Processes

I haven't yet found any tools specifically designed for managing converged-technology projects and products, (hmmm.. maybe there's a market there); but there are a lot of generic project management tools out there.

The International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE) maintains a comprehensive list of Requirements Management tools here.

Keeping track of the standards

Trying to keep track of all the standards can be the single biggest headache when trying to manage a project involving converging technologies. What works where, when, and for what devices and channels - and for how long ?
Which standards are becoming obsolete, and which ones are likely to replace them ?

Approaches to product marketing for products in the converging space

There are several approaches that may be beneficial when attempting to market a converged product to market spaces that may not have yet "converged" themselves:-

1. If you are selling B2B, seek out the more specialized tradeshows and conferences, rather than the big ones where you may get lost in the crowds. If you are selling equipment targeted at TV and broadcast, attend TelcoTV rather than Interop. Alternativelty, the Interop shows themselves are now fragmented across several different geographic markets, so it may be worthwhile to attend just the ones where you need more presence in that geographic area.

Mobile Device Information and

Delivering content to mobile devices is something of a pain due to all of the different browsers out there; far less homogenous than the situation that pertains to desktop users, where IE and Firefox will cover most of what you have. Knowing how to access and utilize the Wireless Universal Resource File (WURFL) for the device will make your life a lot easier and make sure your content is more likely to be delivered properly.

WURFLs are xml configuration files which contain information about device capabilities and features for a variety of mobile devices. Check out the WURFL sourceforge page at:
http://wurfl.sourceforge.net/

Testing Mobile Devices

Developers can make use of the extensive testing resources and standards provided by the Open Mobile Alliance.