Gartner recently announced its top 10 strategic technology trends for 2012, at the Gartner Symposium currently being held in Orlando. Included in the list were in-memory computing, big data and cloud computing. The list reveals a mix of both technologies which are already making a lot of disruption in 2011, such as cloud computing and some lesser talked about technologies such as in-memory computing.

Ah, the poor 21st century sales professionals, if he/she is not getting it from their manager, they are being squeezed by what he thought was a “loyal” customer, wringing yet another concession to ensure they keep the business.  As if all that were not enough, there is always a sniper, pundit or sales expert ready to threaten their existence and value.  One such “end is near” piece was onSellingPower.com, entitled “How Many Salespeople Will Be Left by 2020?“, according to which the species will be all but extinct by the end of this decade.

According to research carried out by eMarketer, US marketeers will spend over $3 billion on social network advertisements this year. That would mean that ad spend in this region would see growth levels of 55% in comparison with 2010.

The most recent forecast is a far more positive outcome than previous estimations, with the 2011 figures looking to beat initial predictions by some $1 billion. The rise will also increase...Read more at http://www.soldlab.com/social-media-advertising-2011/

Twitter has proven to be an effective marketing tool, but a lot of businesses struggle because of the time it takes to do it right.  Here are a few apps that can help you save time and use Twitter more efficiently for your business.

1. Hootsuite

HootSuite allows you to pre-schedule tweets in advance, to save time each day. This is useful for posting some “evergreen” tweets, when you’re too busy to tweet in real time, but it shouldn’t be used exclusively. Twitter works best when you can engage in conversations.

2. SocialOomph

This tool also lets you schedule Twitter posts for the future, and enables you...Read more at http://www.soldlab.com/hometop-5-twitter-apps-for-bus/

Dave Wells, TDWI : "Business Intelligence has changed substantially over the past decade, shifting from an emerging practice to a mainstream business competency, and from very high-cost to affordable for small and mid-sized businesses. BI has matured, but maturity does not imply that BI is static and unchanging. Expect continued change in BI, and consider how these influences should shape your BI plans and directions.

We Are Cloud have contributed to a Trend Report published by focus.com - 2011 Trends Report: Business Intelligence. "The current economic environment is marked by more dangerous and frequent changes than in the past. It’s no wonder that more and more, businesses look to Business Intelligence (BI) software to identify and analyze business data to speed corporate responses to these changes. So, what changes are ahead for BI? In this guide, Focus Experts Bill Cabiro, David Crandall, Wayne Kernochan, Kirsty Lee, Clarice Lin and Shawn Rogers share their 2011 predictions for business intelligence." An extract from the report:

Deloitte’s annual Technology Trends report examines the ever-evolving landscape of technology put to business use. Although it is written from the perspective of the CIO, it also informs business executives on exciting new possibilities to apply technology to address their most pressing business challenges.