The idea behind services blueprinting is fairly simple: Companies put themselves in their customers' shoes to find out what's working, what's not, and what needs to be changed.

Success in business is all about creating an exceptional customer experience, and then enhancing it. But how do we innovate the customer experience to make it exceptional?

Asim Roy, an information systems professor at the W. P. Carey School of Business, was on sabbatical at Stanford University in 1991 when several years of thinking about the operation of the brain and artificial systems inspired him to act.

Whether or not you believe the science on climate change is irrelevant, says Andrew J. Hoffman, a University of Michigan professor of sustainable enterprise. Whatever you think, it's long past the time to open your eyes to the business implications.

To many participants at the recent Digital Smart Services Leadership Summit hosted by Qualcomm in San Diego, the phrase "smart services" is digital by definition.

Anyone who's ever watched a jazz ensemble jam knows it's a fluid process. Players have to listen to each other, yield the stage sometimes, take the spotlight every now and then and always stay in sync with the group.

Self-service technologies, which automate routine interactions between companies and customers, are a source of convenience and efficiency to both parties — until something goes wrong and the customer cannot make the system work.

The next big upgrade to your corporate systems department may be something you will use but never see — "cloud computing," the next step in the evolution of SaaS technology. As with SaaS, cloud-computing customers tap into computing resources off-site and hosted by another company.

Collaborative technology is continuing to evolve — fostering innovation, connecting experts and creating relationships, between companies and their customers.

A recent survey found that $20 billion is spent annually on market research, and yet 80 percent of new items fail, according to Bart Steiner, founder and CEO of Phoenix-based Bulbstorm.com.