This is a big week for DCG. Not only are we announcing the expansion of our coverage into Social CRM, but we are excited to announce that Allen Bonde has joined our firm as a Partner and Principal Analyst. Allen is a seasoned industry analyst and a well-reputed veteran in the world of CRM and Social CRM. He started his analyst career at the Yankee Group and ABG, and has since been consulting in the field with firms like Extraprise, McKinsey & Company and Evoke CRM. He also has held numerous marketing leadership roles, serving as the Chief Marketing Officer at both eVergance and The Pulse Network. Basically, Allen’s resume speaks for itself; he knows this space extremely well from numerous angles, and we’re looking forward to his contributions to both our research and our client engagements.

But, Allen’s hiring isn’t significant just because we’re adding one more smart person onto our team. At DCG, we talk about Consumer Engagement as one of the four pillars of transformation that organizations are undergoing, and thus it’s one of our themes of coverage. Certainly, content flows through the veins of a successful customer engagement strategy, but the customer is the heart of it. Our ability to cover Social CRM and advise our clients on the technologies and practices in this evolving landscape will significantly propel us forward in our mission to help leaders navigate the digital transformation.

Allen will lay out some of his thinking about Social CRM in his first post tomorrow, but ultimately it’s not a single product. Much like Customer Experience Management (CEM / CXM), it’s an approach. Or, as Allen says, “it’s a vision about blending transactional processes and insights with social interactions and data.” It includes technologies that enable social listening, collaboration, fan marketing and profile management, and both sales and marketing automation. It also addresses the pervasive theme of data, or Big Data, and how organizations can put it to use to fuel Consumer Engagement and Social Enterprise strategies.

I’m excited that Allen shares our vision, and I look forward to sharing his great thinking with all of you.