After almost a year of research, interviews with hundreds of CIOs, integrators, vendors and mobile solution providers, Ted Schadler and I are proud to officially launch the CIO's Mobile Engagement Playbook. The report that started it all — Mobile Is The New Face Of Engagement — was one of the top three reports read by our CIO clients in 2012. The ideas that Ted and John McCarthy created have now blossomed into a body of research for CIOs that covers the business impact of mobile engagement, the impact of tablets and smartphones on your business, assessing your company's maturity to embrace mobile engagement and, the strategic planning and roadmap process you need to codify your plans.

Without stopping to take a deep breath, we are now knee-deep in the part of this playbook where the rubber meets the road – how do you execute on your vision and plans? Perhaps the most exciting part of the dozens of interviews we've done in the last several months is to hear the pride that our interviewees feel when they talk about the things their company has done. Its not theory. It's not about the possibilities if only the time, funding and motivation was there.  It's about the real applications like the iPad application from Firespotter Labs called NoshList that Red Robin Gourmet Burgers deployed to front-of-house greeters to manage restaurant waitlists, send alerts to waiting diners on their smartphone, and track customer loyalty. No more overcrowded waiting areas or clunky red buzzers with limited range.

In the coming months, reports in the CIO Mobile Engagement Playbook will look at the organizational and business process issues and guide you through the complex maze of solution providers who will help you build and run the technology platform that you need. Take a peek at the Playbook's executive overview and then share your stories with us as 2013 feels like a big year in mobile. We want to thank everyone we interviewed so far and look forward to talking to many more of you throughout the year.