Today’s retail customers are more liberated than ever in their browsing and shopping habits. For retailers, there’s no putting the genie back in the bottle – they have to learn to adapt to the new environment where online commerce and mobile access continue to grow. Equipped with a smartphone, considerable online resources and an active social network, the customer is a) always connected, even if they are in a brick and mortar store, and b) often even better informed than the sales staff.

Yesterday was a big day: for us as alfabet, for me as one of its founders, but also for the whole market of Enterprise Architecture Management and IT Portfolio Management. Software AG announced the acquisition of alfabet and with it another step in their strategy to support their customers in becoming digital enterprises. We as alfabet have found in Software AG the perfect partner to strengthen our ability to execute and expand our market leadership in Enterprise Architecture Management and IT Portfolio Management.

IT projects have a bad reputation. In her book “The Success Health Check for IT Projects” Joanne Flinn cites a study that claims that 93% of IT projects fall short on expectations: 60% of them by a little, but 33% by a lot.

Over the last year, we at alfabet have more than doubled our customer base in the United States. There is no one secret to our success. It’s a combination of having a great product, planningIT; a motivated, informed sales team; and culture across alfabet to provide our partners with valuable insight into their IT portfolios.

Dr. Ulrich Kalex will be joined by Khalid Kark, a consultant who has dedicated his career to helping clients in the government, healthcare, and financial services sectors mature from an IT-centric role in their organizations to a business-embedded one.

Every day, IT architects and executives are challenged to help their organization succeed by making the most of their technology portfolio. They face simple but surprisingly challenging questions: how to make sense of all the data in their application portfolio? Where are gaps or weaknesses? How can they get a comprehensive perspective on their cloud strategy?

We recently compiled a new survey IT Portfolio Assessment on how companies assess their IT portfolios, and where in the process they might be struggling. The results of our IT Portfolio Assessment survey are striking, and reveal several trends that are worth comparing to your own organization’s process. An IT Portfolio Assessment is a common way companies support strategic planning, adapt to regulatory challenges and encourage good housekeeping. It involves reviewing the applications and technology assets of an organization to make sure IT has all it needs to help the business grow. Our survey focused on how companies have adopted IT Portfolio Assessments for 10 core use cases: we’ve been asking the participants their opinion on market needs, organizational adoption, and their personal involvement.

If you read our preview of planningIT eXchange New York last month, you’ll remember that we were in the process of bringing together some of the top business-oriented IT analysts and executives to share ways they’re making sense of increasing complexity in the IT landscape. In the run-up to the event, as I was planning the forum, speaker list and topics for group discussion, the number “1” came up over and over again: • This was alfabet’s first planningIT eXchange New York, and our first user group meeting in the United States, now one of our top markets since we opened the Boston office in 2007; • We recently signed the #1 company in the FORTUNE 500 as a new client; • alfabet is #1 in the Forrester Wave for Enterprise Architecture Management suites Looking back now with a successful planningIT eXchange wrapped up, three words describe the event: unique, innovative, and social.

Last week, we had the pleasure of gathering industry leaders from some of Europe’s most IT-savvy companies at planningIT eXchange 2013 in Berlin. The conversation was insightful, the energy was high, and by lucky coincidence we found ourselves in the same building and just a few floors below a rehearsal led by world-renowned Sasha Waltz, Berlin’s “house” choreographer for contemporary dance theater, for the upcoming premier of Rite of Spring at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg.