An article by Sofie De Beule, community manager of Engagor, conveys that the majority of mobile consumers use their devices to broadcast their location by checking in on Foursquare, posting a photo on Facebook from dinner with friends or getting directions. Thus location-based social data has become the new currency to engage and build stronger relationships with consumers. Therefore, location-based marketing - targeting people with advertising, based on their location - is essential for businesses to partake in. To keep the mobile-savvy consumer engaged longer, one-to-one connection and delivering the right content through a personalized message based on their personal, localized data is essential. As the connected consumer continues to rely on their mobile device to determine where they will go and how they will spend their money, companies need to embrace location-based marketing.

To know more visit http://socialmediatoday.com/sofie-de-beule/2399336/why-location-based-social-data-new-currency 

Will this be the year in which retailers add SMS texting to their customer support channels? Plenty of consumers have discarded SMS in favor of WhatsApp. Thirty one percent of mobile phone owners prefer to text rather than talk. Texting bypasses the annoyance of wading through multiple menus and directives to enter account numbers or other personal information to route a call.

 To gather more information, follow the article link by Lydia Dishman, veteran business journalist.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/lydiadishman/2014/05/02/is-texting-the-next-solution-for-retailers-to-field-customer-complaints/

Though applying cutting edge technologies are on unprecedented rise in banking industry, security issues are cropping up more and more. Banks are becoming vulnerable to increased frauds and cyber-attacks.  This can negatively hamper the image of the bank in the minds of its customers.

To counteract this, banks have developed various analytics tools. But, they are rule based that depend on arbitrary thresholds to trigger alerts for potential frauds. The flip side here is that it may generate false positives. These can cause deep frustrations among honest customers who are falsely blocked for fraud or are constantly asked to undergo strict security procedures.

 A new type of analytics tool has been developed to solve this problem. The new tool is called Adaptive Behavioral Analytics. It produces an accurate result that reduces false positives. Unlike rule based analytics, Adaptive Behavioral Analytics combine customer information to create a behavioral profile at an individual level. This gives a clear picture about the customer and generates an alert if there is any deviation from typical behavior spotted in real time. Interested to know more?

Read at http://www.bobsguide.com/guide/news/2014/May/16/and-now-for-some-good-banking-news.html  for more details on how this new Analytics tool is helping banks to detect and fight fraud.

Social media - one of the most sought after tool for marketers to increase their business. Using social media, you may probably think to broadcast your products, post updates to social networking sites and introduce promotions. But, that is not the whole thing.

Every action carries a strategy. It is true in this case also. Unless and until you give updates about your products, customers will not get it. You have to build a community like situation and not just concentrate on sales. You have to create relationships using social media and along with that build a value, which is really important. Social media is giving rise to a concept called co – creation, which is much like a give and take policy. You create value for your customers through interactions, sharing experiences, etc. and they provide value to you in the form of feedbacks, contributions to your community and growing your network.

So, what are the guidelines that you will follow so that social media can be truly made to work for your business? Read them at http://timesofsandiego.com/opinion/2014/05/16/make-social-media-truly-work-business/ .

If you are a marketer, then you must agree that social media has brought in an entirely new change. Most likely, you have also started to leverage the power of social media for the success of your business. But, at any time, do not think yourself as a social media expert, a social media guru or the like. Even, if someone tells you that ‘I am an expert in social networking’, do not believe. You must be thinking why! The only reason is social media is still evolving. And, if something is developing, how can he or she be an expert?

Think of mobile marketing. In the past, had you ever imagined how social media will make a mix with mobiles now? At present, it has exploded and at every moment, way of interacting in social media is changing.

While you may be knowing many things about social media, these are the things that you may not know: http://www.forbes.com/sites/steveolenski/2014/05/16/4-things-marketers-may-not-know-about-social-media-marketing/  .

Delivering business value requires proper understanding of the business various drivers. Driver can be a problem or opportunity which is associated with the project and relates the key variable to address the problem. Prioritization and listing of key indicators are very essential at the beginning of the project for proper decision making. The article mainly talks about few key performance indicators and also contains a list of 75 KPIs that every manager needs to know developed by Bernard Marr, a well-known performance management expert. Please go through the link for more details: http://www.projecttimes.com/articles/measuring-project-success-using-business-kpis.html

Pitney Bowes Inc., provider of technology solutions for all size firms that help them to connect with customers to build loyalty and grow revenue, announced the launch of the Spectrum® Spatial platform. It’s a platform built on MapInfo technology that delivers advanced location intelligence that enable businesses to centrally manage and deliver location data. Companies can apply this technology across departments and applications to address diverse business challenges.

To read more, visit the following link: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/pitney-bowes-launches-new-location-intelligence-platform-to-connect-the-dots-between-data-and-geography-2014-05-08

Competitive Intelligence Radar (CI Radar), announced that they are named as one of the top five emerging mega trends companies in the 5th annual Southeastern Software Society Impact Awards. CI Radar's cloud based service utilizes state-of-the-art technology and a professional analyst team to deliver daily competitive analysis and market intelligence briefings. CI Radar also provides comprehensive market insight to clients, enabling them to reduce their business risk, make better strategic decisions, drive revenue and outperform their competitors in the marketplace.

Read more at:http://www.sys-con.com/node/3082682

Location analytics adoption rate is growing rapidly. It's fueled by various trends like: Exposure of geo-coding technology, increasing focus on regulatory requirements, market intelligence and competitive intelligence. Over 80% of all data contains a location component. Location intelligence is easily attained through utilizing Geographic Information System (GIS). Location Analytics helps to visualize & explore relationships within this data and uses the result in decision-making. Location analytics firms are focusing on packaged solutions that can be integrated into other solutions such as workforce management solutions and analytics software.

To read more, visit the following link:http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/1905902 

NetSuite Inc., a provider of cloud-based financials / ERP software suites, announced the availability of NetSuite TribeHR Mobile for iOS. It's the first mobile human capital management software application built for employees and managers. This application meets fast-growing demand among organizations and the workforce at large for anywhere, anytime access to HR information which provides greater organizational engagement and increase productivity.

To read more, visit the following link: http://online.wsj.com/article/PR-CO-20140514-912958.html

The Human Capital Institute (HCI), institution for strategic talent management, announced details of the 2014 Employee Engagement Conference which will take place from July 23 to July 25 at the Westin Seattle. The conference will highlight areas necessary to achieve and improve employee engagement.  They are:

• Leadership Values and Brand Alignment

• Manager Accountability and Performance

• Employee Learning and Development

 To read more, visit the following link: http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/human-capital-institute-announces-details-of-2014-employee-engagement-conference-1910175.htm

Insperity Inc., a provider of human resources (HR) and business performance solutions, announced that its Insperity HCM SuiteApp has achieved 'Built for NetSuite' verification. 'Built for NetSuite' is a program for SDN (NetSuite SuiteCloud Developer Network) partners. The new SuiteApp is built using NetSuite's SuiteCloud Computing Platform and provides human capital management (HCM) software and services to help NetSuite customers automate and streamline human resources (HR) and payroll functions.

To read more, visit the following link: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/insperity-hcm-suiteapp-achieves-built-for-netsuite-verification-2014-05-14 

The concept of transferring an existing platform to the cloud appears to have many businesses stumped, including those in the insurance industry. Cloud service providers like Microsoft, Oracle and VMware are not going to wait for the insurance company to make up their mind about it. So by the time they do, they could be restricted to having their data still on old hardware systems. But if the insurance industries do not move soon in enough into the cloud - whether that's adopting a private, public or hybrid model, there could be repercussions in the future as everybody could be worse off and face higher costs and risks of running old systems, and being noncompetitive.

 To gather more information about this aspect, follow Aimee Chanthadavong, tech journalist with ZDNet's, article link http://www.zdnet.com/insurance-industry-under-pressure-to-plug-into-the-cloud-7000026920/

Skills required for project management cannot be achieved overnight. It comes automatically with experience and practice. As we handle more projects, our skills get enhanced and we work more efficiently and smoothly. To read more about this aspect, visit Sabrina Hanapiah's article link: http://www.aits.org/Articles/tabid/1450/ArticleId/10330/How-to-Develop-Project-Management-Skills.aspx/uid/10535

There are many cases of project failures where managers are actually blamed. The reason behind such failures is lack of communication between clients and project managers. To make a project successful, we need to understand specific needs of the clients and address the technical glitches. To know more kindly refer to the below mentioned link: http://blog.parallelprojecttraining.com/project-management-articles/project-managers-need-stand-counted/

According to a blog written by Todd Hixon (a contributor in Forbes), healthcare cloud is a major area of innovation.  This article also tells us about opportunities and drawbacks of healthcare cloud. Cloud technologies help in lowering cost by strengthening care coordination, and improve clinical outcomes by analyzing medical data in the cloud. Problems lie in implementing cloud technology due to unavailability of data. To read more about opportunities and problems of implementing healthcare cloud please follow this link: http://www.forbes.com/sites/toddhixon/2014/05/06/entrepreneurs-outlook-for-the-healthcare-cloud-is-cloudy/

With the growth of business, small business owners may find that some of the promotional activities are becoming useless. Brands need marketing makeover to sustain them. Hence, marketing strategy needs to be changed from time to time. This article by Nicole Fallon (Business News Daily Assistant Editor), tells us about the four strategies to boost business growth as recommended by Hiscox (small business insurer firm). Read more at: http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/6351-refresh-marketing-strategy.html

Organizations now can get some insights of consumer behaviour by using highly sophisticated click-tracking tools. Remarketing is one such tool which is becoming an important part of organizations' digital marketing strategies. This article by Nicole Fallon (Business News Daily Assistant Editor), tells us about the details of remarketing. For more please visit: http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/6354-digital-remarketing-tips.html

New technologies are emerging and along with that various analytics tools are also developing. Unlike previously, where building predictive models would take as long as twelve months, it now takes only a day or a week, provided you have the right information in your hands.

 But, wait. Your task does not finish here. You have just built a predictive model. The main thing is how you implement it. Properly deploying your model must be made in a systematic approach, as otherwise, can take months. You have to keep in mind that you have to implement your model in the real world.

How to go about it? Read these tips: http://www.banktech.com/business-intelligence/5-tips-for-operationalizing-analytics/240168237 .

Business leaders have embraced big data like never before. They believe that big data will bring miracles and will bring fortunes to their company. But, take a note - everything is not done by big data. If you do nothing, and sit on high hopes that big data will solve all problems, then you are wrong - instead of simplifying, big data will make your tasks more complex.

One thing you have to remember is that, although usage of big data has spurted, there are several analytical softwares that can give valuable outputs like how to become more competitive in the market or how to deliver better products and services, but still human intervention is necessary. Unless and until you guide your big data, it will not help you.

So, do not get lost in the midst of big data and take the right path to realize its full value and potential. Here are the ways you can do so: http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/10-things/10-things-you-shouldnt-expect-big-data-to-do/# .