By Tim Young

“You can't just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they'll want something new.”

-Steve Jobs

Now, Jobs is a guy who knows, as well as anyone, what the customer wants. As a company that anticipates and, in some cases, creates trends, Apple is as aware of the challenges of navigating the intimidating landscape of customer need (and customer want) as any company.

However, there are many customers who want to be able to change what they want on the fly, and want offerings that change as they do. For these customers, a personalized experience, driven by prediction and adjusted by customization, is the ideal solution to the dynamic environment of customer demand.

What are the underlying issues behind the idea of personalization? How can CSPs provide a personalized experience to their vast and diverse clientele in a cost-efficient manner?

That’s what we’re tackling in this issue of Pipeline.

We bring you word from our own editorial team on the promise of personalization and when we can expect to see it come to fruition. We also bring you wise words from Sterling Commerce on how intelligent apps can create the very demand-driven landscape that users crave.