Let me start this article with a confession: I can’t keep up.

I’ve spent my career in a range of roles that should enable me to stay on top of marketing strategy and technology–large corporate CMO, principal at two different leading consulting firms, startup CEO, etc. Now I am affiliated with a leading business school, have a broad network of cloud computing and social connections that is growing by the week, and most people I reach out to are happy to discuss new developments. I even travel to San Francisco and Boston once in a while. But I can’t keep up.

Second, executives should help their teams strike the right balance between choosing the best package for each purpose–the best CRM system, the best email marketing system, the best social management platform, etc.–and achieving seamless integration between the packages by buying them all from two or three sources. The key here is to maintain a single, high-quality set of customer data that all of the pieces tie to, so that complete pictures of all interactions are readily available and can support the business of marketing and selling.