3D printing technology was first used in 1980s, but was mostly limited to government and industries that time. Later in 2009 it became commercially available for consumers. Despite its more and more consumer-friendly models introducing in market, 3D printers continues to be out of the financial reach of average consumer. Makerbots costs $2,000 which is by the way still not bad compared to the price tag of industrial printers ($5.000-$10,000). There are some open source projects happening to make technology make more widely accessible. Others are providing customizable services through internet options. Global 3D printing market takes into account shipment from OEMs in automatics, consumer products, healthcare, aerospace and defense. Due to which its expected to boost the marker from 1.95 billion to 11.07 billion. Industrial side is what pushing the technology forward in automotive sector contributing 21.2% to the global market.  Honda and Peugeot have used 3D printers which are released in files so that anyone can achieve that design. Read more at: http://www.technavio.com/blog/car-parts-body-parts-3d-printing-showing-no-signs-slowing-down

Nowadays, Marketers are re-examining the role of TV advertisement in digital age for making budget modification, as very few are tuning in TV to watch your ads. The number of Youtube viewers are increasing marketers are blending it and new viewing trends to learn new ways of drawing customers. The first driver of Youtube visitors is it  variety of content such are mash-up of memorable events, movies trailers etc. This has lead many personalities to entertain online which are rather becoming more famous among viewers according to a survey. Secondly, Youtube is gaining respect in media industry as it garners credibility to views as reach metrics Third drivers has to be the cord- cutting movement as people are purchasing digital programs instead of cable or satellite which offers them the flexibility of when and what to watch along with engaging in their other important business simultaneously. Moreover, these viewers preference offers analytics opportunities to understand the changing trends in peoples preferences. Read more at :- http://www.cmswire.com/digital-experience/are-you-really-reaching-customers-with-tv-ads/

Unprecedented growth of e-commerce industry, has given marketers a hard time to acquire and retain shoppers. The retailers need to have the right insight in collecting analyzing data as well determining the actions that will resonate with consumers and deliver best experience. 1) Marketers need to have a long sighted approach towards consumer lifecycle and tactics within their acquisition. It helps in identifying the consumer goal from specific interaction and what this long term engagement will offer to shoppers. 2) The shoppers needs to develop the capability to anticipate shoppers actions and to do marketers must learns individuals likes and dislikes, their interests and most of all be able to discern individuals intent from collected rationalized data. 3) E-Commerce brand should use ensure that their data must be collected from each interaction and across every touch point to create one cohesive customer experience. Lack of persistent communication within various interaction units hurts the data aggregation and analysis. Read more at: http://www.cmswire.com/digital-marketing/keep-one-step-ahead-of-your-e-commerce-competition/

Call for innovation is acknowledging efforts which are required to lead the market. But innovation initiatives without a plan or meaningful approach can be delayed. First setback does not understand the need of innovation, which may result in the lack of explanation and context leaving staffs in jittery. It's essential to have a specific objective that fits the central need of the customer telling them what you are all about. Secondly, it's more important to learn and listen the original problem rather than hunting for solutions. Third, mishap is by solely asking for ideas of innovation without much interaction over the problem or the matter at hand.Read more at : http://www.cmswire.com/social-business/why-your-call-to-innovation-keeps-falling-flat/

Large companies are collecting big data every minute. The need for new data base analyst and system programmers is increasing having specialised skills and in depth knowledge. Their roles include 1) management of databases and their recovery readily measured and monitored against disaster. 2) Implementation of self-realising and self-tuning processes. 3)SQL and database performance tuning. 4) Database logs and error management. Many of these roles are unnecessary due to high speed of big data analyst solution. Similarly, database performance tuning has become redundant as it lacks internal performance tuning resulting of no need of specialist in new enterprise environment. The task of specialist involves, 1) System and network performance tuning along with software installation and migration. 2) They be the leading technical specialist for critical application assisting data architecture changes. 3) Set the performance benchmark for prospective vendor tools. This infers that less and less specialist will be required in the coming phases when the role of generalist can be easily done by supplementary staff. Read more at:  http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/database-administration/big-data-technologists-transition-to-customerfacing-roles-the-current-team-70675

More and more industries are realizing the benefits that the remote working environment has to offer. Instead of calling of a meeting or walking up to employees desk for ideas, companies communicate via instant messaging, phone, video conferencing. According to surveys, remote workers sleep better, exercise more, have healthier diets and have low stress. Now a day's companies are expanding search beyond office geography. Yet owners fear the resulting lack of communication and collaboration. With the right communication tool, we can 1) encourage video conferencing. It is the most effective way of distant communication yet is harder to get used to in initial practices. 2) Instant messengers to keep updates and ask questions. 3) Central status update on project progress is a prime feature of project management tool which can be used to have general meetings.Read more at:-http://www.cmswire.com/social-business/embrace-the-growing-remote-workforce/

Retailers face hectic flurry for organizing and planning for big sales, poor inventory management system can sabotage your sales even with great customer services. Negligence may lead to small discrepancies such as colour, sizes which can destroy customer relationship and cost valuable revenue. Accurate and timely delivery requiring effective management of omni-channel system is crucial for customer satisfaction beyond friendly services. Small to medium business should focus on mobile access, real time access of disparate data, sales forecasting and product management for prior inventory. Delay in information and updates of innovated products and services will lead to disrupt business as it leads to unrealistic promises which can’t be completed in time window. Your need to empower your sales person with latest technologies and real time inventory information. Delivering products to customer on time is as sales, when investing in newer solution, its important to plan for short and mid-term growth. Changing inventory multiple times would cost resources, but will be necessary if you fail to take proper decision now. Read more at:- http://www.cmswire.com/customer-experience/dont-leave-customers-empty-handed/

Over last quarter-century, there has been a steady increase in the features available for different application of analytics industry. At one level all the features help organisation get the most value possible from their information assets. All different technologies are designed for different user types. Due to merging of needs of different user, if we want to leverage all the features, we typically need several servers and interfaces. SAP cloud analytics integrates all technologies into a fast blazing platform which we don’t even need to install. With SAP HANA, we can easily cleanse, integrate combination of data sources and provide insightful budget forecasting. We can also analyse combination of structured and unstructured data and augment data exploration with sophisticated geographical mapping with the ultimate vision of Big Data Discovery. Based on SAP HANA’s HTAP capabilities, its all possible on real operational data with instant sophisticated of data for analysis. Read more at:- http://timoelliott.com/blog/2015/10/reinventing-the-analytics-experience-sideways.html

This year's blockbuster Black Friday and Cyber Monday saw more than ever selling which implies that in future, marketing will be imperatively focused through internet transactions. International survey suggests that more than 151 people shop online. Buyers hit physical stores for available door busters. With online shopping, they get to browse around other brands and pick other things of interest. The Interactive Advertisement bureau reports that people still visit showrooms to double check prices of commodity before purchasing online. Soon special days like black Friday and Cyber Monday would loose their importance. Read more at:-http://www.cmswire.com/digital-marketing/what-you-need-to-know-about-new-retail-realities/

Surveys show that security concerns are primarily stopping user from using cloud solutions. In reality, the security provided by reputed cloud vendors is much more secure than home grown solutions as seen in Sony's email hack and target credit card breach cases. Cloud solutions are cheaper, adds flexibility, providing tremendous computation capacities to users in just second without even installing software. It updates continuously, where we can store personal data with greater security because the cloud service provider know better protection than a customer. People are reluctant towards transferring all data from premise to cloud just for analysis because they don't understand how much of the data analyzed comes from internal system. Audience at the international conferences uses cloud analytics over Hybrid Transaction/Analytical Processing (HTAP) due to risk of disruption of jobs. The visible risks of cloud solutions are acceptable because of the rule that relying on outside services run by experts completely overwhelms the potential cost. Read more at:- http://timoelliott.com/blog/2015/10/whos-afraid-of-cloud-analytics.html

More CEOs are recognizing established companies as a more formidable competitor than an outsider. In order to excel in today's game changing competition, we need to understand what game we are playing. At the beginning, employees understand their jobs, later they lack this capability as the company emphasizes more on organizing customers and products rather than their actual reason from where they started. The KPIs stays disconnected from customer needs, leading to disruption of business. Game changing innovation requires us to 1) Step outside of our organization silos by thinking new products and services from customer point of view using newer technologies. 2) Use right incentives and metrics to cannibalize the market in long run assisting employees to link their efforts to over company's strategies. 3) become faster and flexible to respond to the inevitable shifts by simplifying existing decision making processes. Read more at:-http://timoelliott.com/blog/2015/07/3-key-steps-to-game-changing-innovation.html

Big data analytics require skilled data scientists who are paid unreasonably high amount of money, because of their ability to ask right question and create the most effective algorithm in order to extract meaningful information from tons of data. But, not anymore. Researchers at MIT teamed had developed a machine of automated analytics that explores patters and designs in data structures. Read more at:- http://blogs.csc.com/2015/10/16/can-automated-analytics-reduce-need-for-data-scientists/

Baseball is an exclusive game. It has been played for over centuries and hence is defined by the long history of data collected over the years which has hardly changed. We can relate baseball and big data. Baseball combines analysis of historic structured data with real-time event data and sequential insights. The following three factors have a direct analogy in consumer marketing: 1. in baseball, a manager look at batting averages, spray charts, and righty-lefty matchups whereas a marketer might look into historic purchases, create segmentation of behaviors and demographics, and add channel preference.
2. In baseball, a manager might look into real time data e.g. how pitch is affected, player’s approach. On the other hand the marketer looks into how he can capitalize on real-time events.
3. For a pitcher, set up pitch is important On the other hand, in marketing, the flow of emails or offers dictates the next offer or product promoted.
Read more at: http://www.tibco.com/blog/2015/08/10/baseball-and-big-data-marketing-closer-than-you-ever-thought/

The relationship between structured and unstructured data in real time can be analyzed by turning the structured and unstructured data (wide data) into fast data. Origin of a problem can be found by wide data. Quicker decision and analysis can be made by fast data. With the boom of Internet of Things (IoT), new challenges relating to the structured and unstructured data may arise. By turning wide data into fast data we will be able to retrieve massive amounts of data from various sources and then use them to identify and potentially assess their behavior in real-time.
Unstructured data can also be used to meet real-time data demands. When wide data is turned to fast data it opens doors to various opportunities.
Read more at: http://www.tibco.com/blog/2015/07/17/big-datas-companion-wide-data/

They are often first point of contact with the customer, and a happy encounter makes a happy customer. Taking care of experienced call center agents and making employee satisfaction a priority produces numerous benefits for the company. ? Below is a list of a few things that you should be doing to take care of those employees who take care of your customers. • Excellent salary. Even in a very competitive industry, experienced agents can command high salaries befitting their expertise. They can get salaries that are higher than the average day job. Aside from their base salaries, these agents also deserve additional benefits and overtime pay for their hard work

• Incentives and commissions.  Aside from their salaries, agents also get additional money for reaching sales quotas or other milestones. 

• Awesome working environment. As a reward for their hard work, call center agents get all the pampering they can get through excellent workplace facilities. This is why most call centers provide their employees the works – immaculate bathrooms, cozy sleeping quarters, play areas, clean pantries with free coffee and so on.

• Career growth opportunities. If you’re like most agents, chances are you won’t be satisfied with being an agent for the rest of your working life. You will look for opportunities that can push you up the corporate ladder. A good call center provides its agents the chance to add more skills to their resumes so they can become eligible for higher positions in the company. A call center that takes care of its people’s career advancement produces agents who are not only successful with their jobs but also those who are actually happy staying in the organization.

Read more here- http://www.callcentertimes.com/Articles/tabid/59/ctl/NewsArticle/mid/407/CategoryID/1/NewsID/1028/Default.aspx

Big data - which admittedly means many things to many people - is no longer confined to the realm of technology. Today, it is important in any business. In addition to providing solutions to insurance companies' long-standing business challenges, big data solutions offer the power to transform processes, organizations and entire industries. Big data is especially promising and differentiating for insurance companies. With no physical products to manufacture, data is arguably one of their most important assets. Financial, actuarial, claims, risk, consumer, producer/wholesaler and many other types of data form the basis for every decision an insurer makes.

Insurance companies will realize value by effectively managing and analyzing the rapidly increasing volume, velocity and variety of new and existing data. By putting the right skills and tools in place to better understand their operations, customers and new markets, insurance organizations will be on the right track to compete and thrive in this global, dynamic marketplace.

Read more here- http://analyticsindiamag.com/has-the-insurance-industry-mastered-the-art-of-utilising-big-data/

Over a decade ago, High frequency trading (HFT) used to be part of very few financial firms, but now it is an integral part of every major financial firm and is key to drive the success of these firms. Many industry experts in the field are of an opinion that big data has started entering into the financial sector at a minute level for now and it will follow the same trend like the HFT in expanding into ever major company. It will be the major decisive factor in taking many calls in near future. On the technical level, many experts feel Machine Learning (ML) will take a dominating role in areas where Statistical techniques are now used for finance and risk management. ML with its ever increasing algorithms/techniques is an ideal replacement to humans in trading scenario, though it has its own caveats. It is seen that ML and Big data is going to lead a new revolution into the field of Finance. To read more: 

http://www.automatedtrader.net/headlines/153852/gdtrm15-machine-learning-is-the-new-c%2B%2B

Attrition is often seen as a health check for any business. If a high number of people are leaving then something is wrong. The question is what, and what can be done to improve it. Micah Solomon (CONTRIBUTOR), in his article writes about the ways improvement can be done. They are: 1. Optimize recruiting and hiring

2. Enhance training programs

3. Enhance customer satisfaction focused monitoring

4. Establish clear communication channels

5. Enhance recognition and rewards programs

6. Coaching culture

7. Provide skill development programs

8. Offer continuous opportunities for promotion

9. Provide excellent software and tools

10. Improve work conditions

Read more here- http://www.forbes.com/sites/micahsolomon/2015/02/22/improving-customer-service-by-reducing-contact-center-agent-stress-and-attrition/

In the gambling industry, the house with most information wins the game. And it’s no wonder that Big Data is changing the world of gambling. Betting firms are now making extensive use of Big Data and analytics to manage their business and stay at the apex of the game. Big Data services empower gamblers by giving them more information and helping them to plan strategies more effectively. Big Data is also transforming sports gambling. With lots of data to collect and analyze, sports organizations are using it to study players and their tactics. Gamblers are now using Big Data as a way to get the odds in their favor and this has led to the growing popularity of fantasy sports betting. Gamblers are not only using Big Data for their games but also to improve their marketing efforts for example the casinos are analyzing customer data to develop personalized marketing campaign. Read more at:https://channels.theinnovationenterprise.com/articles/how-big-data-is-changing-the-gambling-world

A recent survey on customer retention revealed that insures lose as much as 20% of their customers each year. For the insurance agency this corresponds to approximately £500,000 to £1 million in lost premiums for every 1,000 policies. Customer retention is thus an important issue facing the industry. Three key points can help insurance companies to eliminate customer churn.
• Firstly, they need to properly understand their customer, which means determining overall market segmentation to understand cross sell and up sell opportunities at individual policyholder level.
• Secondly, insurance companies must be able to provide tailor made policies for each individual and also have a unique selling point in comparison to their rivals.
• Lastly, companies need to realize that they have to listen to their customer’s preferences rather than the customer having to choose from the list of policies the insurer has to offer.
Should the above be kept in mind in a company’s planning and operations customer churn can certainly be minimized if not completely eliminated.

For more information visit:
http://blogs.sap.com/banking/2015/06/19/preventing-customer-churn-with-better-data-analytics/