ICYMI: Age of Frictionless Customer Experience, Surviving a Startup Coup

Howdy! Here’s this week’s ICYMI (In Case You Missed It) roundup. Head ’em up, move ’em out.

Quick, Give Me the Headlines:

• If your company is not already jumping through hoops to create frictionless customer service by merging speed and convenience, you’re going to want to start. Companies such as Amazon and Lyft utilize the concept, successfully shifting the idea from a novelty to a requirement. Channeling my inner Napoleon Dynamite by saying “Thanks a LOT! Gosh …”
• “Be stubborn on the mission and be flexible on the details” — Ravi Vadrevu. Check out this must read: Surviving a Startup Coup: Entrepreneur Spotlight on Ravi Vadrevu
• Domo arigato, Mr. Robotic-o process automation. It’s almost here. Just add cognitive AI enhancement and you’ve got yourself a party
• Docurated deepened Salesforce partnership with new Federated Search. Put ‘er there, partner
• Ch-ch-changes! iOS 11 is coming in hot with a new “Today” section in the Apple App store, possibly providing more visibility to your app and brand. Get to planning
• Microsoft, Microsoft, Microsoft. It seems to be the Marcia Brady of the tech world and doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon. Microsoft presented latest releases to align with goal to “reinvent personal productivity”
• I laughed way too hard at this headline: Enterprise Search: The Red-Headed Stepchild of the Workplace. Miles Kehoe digs into why it’s so bad and how to fix the issue
• Marketers: reach your customers via these community-based content marketing channels (*cough* Wikipedia, Medium, Reddit, comment sections, Quora and niche forums)
• I wasn’t sure how I felt about this article until I read it thoroughly. Martyn Perks argues governance does not belong in the modern digital workplace  
• Last week Forrester unveiled its "Vendor Landscape: Digital Experience Service Providers, 2017" to dive into this growing area. Kaya Ismail has the inside scoop on how DX Service providers differentiate and how they sometimes blend together (too much marketing speak anyone?)

Events

I think I see five fancy events over yonder. Giddy up!

• Sept. 4 — Chief Data and Analytics Officer Melbourne
• Sept. 14 — Chief Strategy Officer Summit Sydney
• Sept. 18 — Gartner Digital Workplace Summit London 2017
• Sept. 27 — 15th Annual Pharmaceutical IT Congress - London
• Nov. 13 — CMSWire's DX Summit Chicago 2017

Featured Resources

The jig is up! Here are this week’s featured resources for your reading pleasure:

• 2017 Gartner Magic Quadrant for WCM: Leaders, Challengers, More
• Content + Commerce = Power Couple
• How to Choose Your Next CMS: Key Capabilities & Features to Consider
• How Digital Agencies Stay Successful
• Web Content Management RFP Template

I'm not sure why I felt so compelled to chose a “Western” theme for this week’s article, but it’s been a lot of fun. Thanks for riding into the sunset with me. Kick some butt this week, ok? Metaphorically speaking, of course.