The most effective business web sites of the future must integrate customer data, and that means more than personalized landing pages and tracking visitors. The off-site data you collect must be fed into your web site. Unfortunately, few of the current small business web sites have this capability. I predict the next big wave of web design will be to integrate contact databases. Are you ready?

Digital Life: You Don’t Need A Website! 2010-Jun-26, by Shelly Palmer

It is remarkable how many people still come to the online world believing that a website is the central core of their operation. Nowadays, that seems as archaic as saying that a television show is the central core of your operation. We’re in the information age, everyone is in the customer relationship management (CRM) business and that starts with a database. Now, you might want to build a website that allows your customers to access your data (content, video, audio, text, graphics, pictures, etc.). But you will also need an easy way to supply their needs on smart phones, app phones, cell phones, landline phones, netbooks, notebooks, slates, tablets, iPads, iPods (separate because they are not flash compatible) and a whole host of other devices that are out there and that are yet to be invented.