Forrester

Why Read This Report

The old concept of the marketing funnel has become passé, requiring firms to make a dramatic shift to focus on the full customer life cycle and customer relationship. To help enable the transition, application development and delivery professionals who deliver customer-facing software should understand the implications of this shift for their applications and data. The marketing funnel concept treated each customer interaction as part of a single buying or service process with a start and finish, failing to integrate all interactions into a longer-term relationship. Leading firms place the customer at the center of sales and marketing strategy, with all customer touchpoints working in concert to nurture that relationship. Application delivery leaders must help their business colleagues break out of their silos and integrate the processes and data required to support the full customer life cycle.