This Best Practice Case Study focuses on Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) and their establishment of a Customer Advisory Panel (CAP) to help guide their new service development process, set priorities and act as a sounding board and reality check as HDS evolves their service strategy. Part of a listening-to-customers process, this particular technique of pairing senior, hands-on, highly technically oriented individuals from customers with senior engineers and service management provides many of the right ingredients for gaining market foresight. Market foresight is one of the newer strategic concepts that tries to focus top management on creating break-through developments that in turn allow their companies to “leap ahead” of their competitors and establish significant competitive advantage.