The profile of the modern consumer is rapidly evolving and eCommerce sales continue to grow in double digits. It is increasingly on social networks that consumers build their preferences of a given product or service; it is on social networks that consumers gather the necessary information to make purchasing decisions; and it is on social networks that brand awareness is established and brand image is ultimately built.

I have just spent the last two weeks in Asia, first in Singapore, where we hosted a breakfast seminar for retailers, then in Mumbai where we presented our Top 10 Retail predictions at the Asia Retail Congress and then attended NASSCOM. I also had the wonderful opportunity to meet face-to-face with many retailers based in the regions to discuss their technology strategies and their challenges. I end these two very busy and productive weeks, with an understanding that retailers in the region align with one of  two camps, those who are investing in technology, with a strong belief that technology fuels their growth strategies, and those who believe technology is a cost that should be minimized as much as possible.

February 4, 2010 – This week I attended the Open Group (www.opengroup.org) conference on enterprise architecture.  The Open Group has worked tirelessly to promote thought leadership in the area of enterprise architecture and promulgates the TOGAF standard for best practices in architectural governance.  The TOGAF standard is gaining traction as a key part of the CIO's governance toolkit along side COBIT and ITIL.  The most interesting tract of the conference though was a thoughtful discussion of cloud computing.