New York SBDC Research Network

IEN's exclusive report, "The State of Manufacturing & Digital Commerce," is now live. Download the report, for free , to read: • How manufacturing companies fail at online sales. • How real-time pricing can help close the deal. • How to identify online competition. • How tech investment can improve sales. • How dynamic content enhances website performance. • How to make sure you're not leaving money on the table.

The digital era not only makes big bets possible but increasingly necessary. The Internet of Things (IoT) is becoming a force that is driving innovation and new opportunities by bringing every object, consumer, and activity into the digital realm. At the same time, leading businesses are making similar changes within their enterprises by digitizing every employee, process, product, and service. This year, we conducted our first Technology Vision survey, polling more than 2,000 business and technology executives across nine countries and 10 industries, in order to understand key technology challenges as well as priority investments. Our survey revealed that 62 percent are investing in digital technologies, and 35 percent are comprehensively investing in digital as part of their overall business strategy. Taken in aggregate, enterprises find themselves connected to a digital fabric that has the potential to touch all aspects of their business, their customer relationships, and the worl

Some 69% of senior marketers at enterprise companies anticipate an increase in digital spend beyond inflation in 2015, and only 6% foresee a decrease, according to a recent report from Teradata and Econsultancy. On the other hand, only 48% expect increases beyond inflation in traditional marketing budgets in 2015, and 29% who expect decreases, the study found. Enterprise marketers expect digital budgets to increase roughly 10% annually for the next five years, with average digital spend reaching 40% of total budgets by 2019, according to the report. Read more from MarketingProfs .

Like most folks, I was aware that the FCC had mandated Feb. 17th, 2009 as the day that American television signals would be transmitted digitally, and would render TVs with analog reception as useless. What I didn’t know was that, this week, Congress was debating to extend the deadline for this switch to June. It seems as though nearly 6% of Americans were not yet ready for the switch, and there was hope that the extension would enable better promotion of the coupon program available for people to obtain the special converter box. However, just yesterday, the House failed to garner the necessary two-thirds vote to extend the deadline. So, February 17th – be digital, or listen to the radio. “Mr. Green, he’s so serene, he’s got a TV in every room . . .”