A decade ago, Apple’s iPhone cornered the mobile phone market by developing a platform interface that expanded its product from a simple one-task tool to a multitask utility. Using platforms to gain competitive advantage is no longer unique to Apple — it is happening in other industries across the board as readily available platform options grow in number.

Companies can monetize their data by improving internal business processes and decisions, wrapping information around core products and services, and selling information offerings to new and existing markets. Adopting any of these approaches, however, requires management commitment to specific organizational changes and targeted technology and data management upgrades.

The combination of new analytical capabilities and burgeoning data assets are being used to form value-added “data products.” Such products have powered rapid growth in the value and success of online companies, but the expansion of analytics means the standard model for developing these products needs to evolve. An updated model needs to reflect new “time to market” expectations and input from a variety of stakeholders.

Of you haven’t yet jumped on the social media bandwagon, you may want to hurry up and join. Social media is not a passing fad, but a permanent, transformative technological change to how companies conduct business. Social business expert Jerry Kane explains how social media is likely to fundamentally alter the business environment in the near future.

Embracing social collaboration tools could raise productivity by 25%. So what’s the hold up? The problem is that too many companies have installed the right products and networks but have not implemented them into the fabric of how they work. “Full implementation means not only that people know how to use the new tools from a technological perspective, but that they adjust their communication,” writes Terri L. Griffith, author of The Plugged-In Manager.

A fundamental shift from push to pull is not limited to marketing; it’s occurring in all aspects of business, from human resources to research and development. A new book argues that companies need to adapt to this change.

The global financial crisis that occurred in 2008 can be viewed as a systems accident that was fueled, in part, by innovations in the financial sector.

Most companies have yet to figure out how to leverage their existing information assets to generate growth.