ICYMI: Microsoft Layoffs, Sales Force Software Transforms and More

1. Microsoft Layoffs Expected Amongst Talk of Restructured Cloud Sales

by David Roe

Thousands of jobs at Microsoft are on the line as the company announces a major reorganization of its sales team. Microsoft initially avoided any mention of job cuts, stating any changes will be to better serve customers and partners, but later confirmed that layoffs were on the way.

Microsoft is focusing on a renewed push to the cloud, which may be to blame the cause of the layoffs. While employees may be getting burnt, Roe determines this shift may be the push Microsoft needs to compete with Amazon.

by David Coleman

Corporate transparency, timely information, better understanding of company goals or initiatives, celebration accomplishments and visible leadership are items on many corporate employees’ wishlists. Cue the infamously mishandled, overused and under-evolved all hands meeting. 

Coleman discusses the four challenges of the all hands meeting (lack of interactivity, difficulty and cost of content creation, software costs and lack of followup analytics) and suggests some new technologies to help bring your next gathering to its intended glory. Sorry execs, public speaking lessons not included.

5. Information Overload Comes in 3 Flavors: Here's How to Combat It

by David Lavenda

Here’s an exhausting fun fact: the average American adult spends 70 percent of his/her waking hours consuming media. As a fellow multitasker, I bet your initial reaction is that of elation — 11 hours a day of greatness. Think again, my friend, information overload is real, and it’s stealing all of your hard-earned productivity.

Information overload comes in three flavors, and they’re nowhere near as delicious as a neapolitan sundae. Lavenda delves into each of these (too much information, not enough time and poor quality of information) and provides methods to circumnavigate each.

Take time for yourself today to read this article, your future less-stressed self will thank you.

Here are some bullet points from the rest of the articles this week that you probably (definitely) won’t want to skip:

• Did you hear Acquia has unveiled Acquia Lift Starter, a “starter pack” to help marketers gather customer data before providing personalized customer experiences?
• Also, Sitecore appointed Mark Frost as CEO to “drive next phase of growth”
• Microsoft released an add-on for Office 365 enterprise edition — Microsoft Workplace Analytics — designed to provide insights on how employees spend their time. We’re talking about tracking things like calendar metadata, to/from data, subject lines and timestamps. I’ll keep my opinions to myself and let you read more about this on your own
• This is it, folks, “... we have entered a customer-centric universe, that the revolution involves a shift in power from organizations (religious, government, commercial) to customers, people, communities.” Check out the article to discover Gerry McGovern’s reasoning
• Dom Nicastro digs into the role of the modern CMO (what are they anymore?) and serves sobering thoughts about the point of their existence. Great read
• The time has come to quit wasting time on the unimportant details. Contributor Jed Cawthorne discusses why strategy reigns supreme in the enterprise information management industry
• “With great AI comes great data responsibility,” writes Adam Corey (and also maybe Spider-Man’s Uncle Ben if I remember correctly)
• With a name like ‘The Machine,’ a reputation as a 'computer built for the big data era,’ tracking to host 160 terabytes of memory, it’s no wonder why Erika Morphy questions if HPE will make good on its vision
• Running a web CMS pilot? You’re going to want to read this story first. Reporter Kaya Ismail gets the inside scoop on running a CMS or DXP pilot.

Events

One in five professionals suffer from FOMO* (Fear of Missing Out). Don’t be that person, attend any number of the events below to stay in-the-know:

1. On-Demand — [Webinar] Customer Experience is a Team Sport
2. July 17 — AnDevCon Washington DC 2017
3. July 25 — [Webinar] Building a Customer-Driven Growth Engine
4. Sept. 18 — Gartner Digital Workplace Summit London 2017
5. Nov. 13 — CMSWire's DX Summit Chicago 2017

Featured Resources

Sir Francis Bacon (mmm, bacon) once stated knowledge is power. Here are some resources to help you climb that ladder: 

1. Gartner: Critical Capabilities for Web Content Management
2. Digging Deeper: Gartner Critical Capabilities for WCM
3. A Buyer's Guide to Web CMS
4. 10 Effective Personalization Tactics
5. CMS Buyer’s Guide for Higher Education

Thank you so much for reading this week’s rendition of “ICYMI.”

Keep up the great work — have a wonderful weekend. 

*Rough estimate based on non-factual information I made up, but it’s probably true.