SigmaWay Blog

According to Marge Breya (CMO and Executive Vice President of Worldwide Marketing and Informatica Education), “data is the fuel powering business processes, machines, sensors and customized user experiences.” Using data in marketing gives you a competitive advantage. Some basic steps for making data driven marketing team: firstly, identify a person who has knowledge about data analytics within and outside the organization. Secondly, to create a data driven culture, find a leader. Thirdly, a leader needs to create an environment where their marketing team feels safe in becoming data literate. And to solve the problem of “how to make a data literate team,” use education, exposure and practice. Read more at: http://www.computerworld.com/article/2928800/big-data/how-to-create-a-data-driven-marketing-team.html

There is a lack of awareness about the insurance sector but it has a lot of attractive and interesting propositions to offer. Amendments have been made to the Insurance Act, 1938.  Foreign investment ceiling in insurance companies has been increased which will boost job opportunities and growth potential. But, talent retention is a challenge in this sector. Economic and regulatory changes have affected this sector. This led to companies adopting short term policies over long term ones. It is also predicted that salary structures would increase slowly with average increment levels at 8% for the current year. Read more at: http://info.shine.com/article/talent-retention-is-a-big-challenge-for-insurance-firms/8814.html

There is a positive correlation among investment in employees and output generated. This phenomenon has been defined as the Return on Employee Investment and it has been a challenge for organizations. It has been found that employee investment leads to business growth, revenue generation and has significant effect on long term growth. There is no hard and fast rule to measure the return on investment but it does bring back positive changes within an organization. This investment can be treated by the employees as a motivation factor, a "benefit on efforts". This can help to retain talents in an organization. Experts believe that though it is possible to find a measure for ROI, HR is not always the right choice to quantify it. To know more, please follow: http://info.shine.com/article/spending-on-employees-can-maximise-your-roi/8849.html

Mainstream retail companies are taking a heavy beating from their online counterparts. These companies are facing stiff competition due to discounts and lots of advertising from the e-commerce industry. Company reports indicate that the decline in sales for the brick and mortar firms are a steady affair, and sales do not increase even during the festive seasons. Revenue growth of these companies has slowed down impacting the distributors. Distributors are stocking less and there has been a significant decrease in inventory holding. With the number of offline firms growing day by day, these firms are looking for a change in their marketing strategies to counter online competition. To know more, please follow the link: http://info.shine.com/article/the-churn-in-the-retail-sector/8822.html

Optimizing production for manufacturers with complex operations is not an easy task. There can be volatility in costs and prices, managing multiple plants and figuring out the combination of inputs for products are complex operations. These complexities are abundant in the chemical industry. Advanced data modelling and analytical techniques have helped this industry perform better. Data about companies’ performances can be put into a mathematical model which predicts production under different conditions. The resulting model brought sea changes in the companies’ production decisions, increased plants’ EBIT returns and production capacity. This change was not without a side benefit: better cross-unit collaboration and decisions were made with all constraints and trade-offs in mind. Read more at: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/operations/taming_manufacturing_complexity_with_advanced_analytics

In healthcare, conclusions drawn from predictive analytics can directly influence patient's health but unfortunately it's not used widely because of the vendor hype and sales exaggeration of sales. Nowadays, doctors are using predictive analytics in treating breast cancer also. They ask questions like: Of the last 10,000 Asian females, with a tumor like this, how were they treated, what was the outcome, what were the side-effects to ensure she gets the right kind of medicine. That is what we call a learning health care system. Using data and predictive analysis is the need of the hour to improve our health care delivery.?Read more at:  http://www.zdnet.com/article/harvard-medical-professor-big-data-and-analytics-help-cure-cancer/

News agencies are venturing into analytics. A news agency also cleans the Internet for news, indexes it, and then allows users to ask questions of that data. It also allows you to extract facts and do trend analysis. Firms are taking data collected by machines or people, and using that data to generate news. Thanks to big data technology, it's becoming more practical to incorporate the field intelligence into the predictive models that executives increasingly rely on to make good, fast decisions.  Read more here: 

http://www.datanami.com/2015/05/29/how-big-data-is-changing-how-businesses-use-the-news/ana

Nowadays, companies are focusing on the best possible answers than asking the right questions to get the minutest details. To get the best details, a set of connect questions has to be answered which requires using a connected set of data sources. This is called unified analytics. It will enable the access and analysis of data from multiple sources on a single interface. But we need to keep certain things in mind like integration of unstructured and structured data which is not an easy process. Also, we need to look beyond traditional sources within firewall and focus the data strategy on customers. Read more at: 

 http://www.analytics-magazine.org/web-first/1266-unified-analytics-a-new-mastery-over-the-data-wave

Software as a service (SaaS) is a software licensing and delivery system in which software is licensed on a subscription basis and is centrally hosted. The advantages of the SaaS model are that it is easier to manage and that all the users have the same version of the software because updates and patching is done automatically. It grants global accessibility, making remote working models easier, which reduces costs and improves performance. The SaaS industry is now maturing beyond simple, historical financial measures towards a sophisticated operational measure in the form of a new Customer Success Metrics and Predictive Analytics.
Some of the giants in the industry are Salesforce, LinkedIn and Workday and while their services vary, the most significant one remains their cloud computing applications and platforms. Read more at: http://zeendo.com/info/top-10-software-as-a-service-saas-companies/

In market research, it is observed, quite frequently that when the research is undertaken by paid bodies, they have a tendency to skew the data, for the company's favor, which may not be healthy for the company in the long run. Hence more and more companies are turning to, undergraduate or graduate marketing students who are unpaid and usually furnish unbiased information, as their main interest lies in gaining knowledge about the industry, learning about research analysis and developing presentation skills. Companies are preferring the fresh outlook of students, guided by proper mentors. Read more at:

http://www.cmswire.com/customer-experience/is-college-the-key-to-better-market-research/

80% (including tangible assets) of a business total corporate value on the S&P500 index, now only count for 20%. Now, intangible assets such as data, talent and intellectual property has become the hallmark. In this competitive world, the CFO needs to allocate their entire budget in digital technologies. CFOs need to become leaders and guide business during digital transformation. According to Gartner, "intangible assets are the core competency value of any business." And they need to rebalance their investment portfolio. According to Shailender Kumar (MD of Oracle India), data and access to the data are the most valuable intangible assets for businesses today and cloud helps organizations to get the most from the data. Organizations need to rethink on their ROI measurement procedure. They need to develop new metrics, risk and performance measures in order to measure ROI. To know more about the CFO role in cloud and digital technologies, please follow this link: http://www.financialexpress.com/article/industry/companies/data-talent-and-ip-are-key-to-a-companys-market-worth/78557/

Statistical analysis is being used extensively in all sorts of sports now-a-days. However the growth of analytics in soccer has been quite slow, mainly because of its orthodox nature. Hence, enters Thomas Bayes’ famous theorem, the Bayes’ theorem, according to which, the chances of an event taking place, is updated, by integrating the former chances of its occurrence and the new information that might affect its prospect. The Bayes’ theorem completely encourages the use of analytics to revise our perspectives regarding players and teams. Stats refer to raw data collected from each match regarding both the individual player’s performance and the performance of the team as a whole. Analytics manipulates this data, thereby extracting the desired information, which helps in predicting future game scores. Read more at:

http://www.sportsnet.ca/soccer/soccer-analytics-premier-league/

There is a lack of awareness about the insurance sector but it has a lot of attractive and interesting propositions to offer. Amendments have been made to the Insurance Act, 1938.  Foreign investment ceiling in insurance companies has been increased which will boost job opportunities and growth potential. But, talent retention is a challenge in this sector. Economic and regulatory changes have affected this sector. This led to companies adopting short term policies over long term ones. It is also predicted that salary structures would increase slowly with average increment levels at 8% for the current year. Read more at:

http://info.shine.com/article/talent-retention-is-a-big-challenge-for-insurance-firms/8814.html

The present day drug traffickers are very proficient in using modern technology, manipulating it for obtaining new marketing opportunities for their drugs. These criminals are using digital networking to a large extent for distributional purposes via secure methods, provided by modern day technology, which go undetected.  Often investigators fail to identify the disturbance they must be looking for, whose data lies well concealed under suitable digital protection. Advanced crime analytics incorporates big data and advanced analytics along with crime science study to detect anomalies, often their sources and the associated people. Advanced crime analytics is also essential in controlling cross-border drug trafficking by not only protecting witness details but also speeding up the entire process. To know more follow the article by Craig Richardson (chief executive of the Wynyard Group) at:

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/comment/crime-analytics-software-proves-powerful-weapon-in-war-on-drugs-20150414-1mkp6r.html

Ski resorts now-a-days are using certain frequency recognition systems, whose data is used to upgrade skier's experience, in multiple ways. For example, the system has led to the replacement of the old paper system, which unnecessarily consumed a lot of excess time. Stats collected from individual skiers are used by programs, to get an idea about the number of lift rides taken, number of days spent in the slopes, height scaled etc. Skiers can also get rewards based on their performance as directed by the data, thus leading to a gaming experience, which is attracting more and more skiers to the slopes. Big data also ensures that the ski resorts can efficiently transfer proper information to the consumers using data management. Big data not only helps the resorts in predicting weather, with the right stats, but also helps in strategizing suitable marketing techniques. Read more at:

http://channels.theinnovationenterprise.com/articles/even-ski-resorts-are-benefiting-from-the-big-data-explosion

IoT technology is not only for retailers or e-commerce, but it can be also used by critical industries like oil and production for tracking events. Let's discuss how IoT can help these industries? Traditional method of communicating and controlling operations in large industries is SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition). SCADA works by getting information from the central controller. But IoT sensitivity detectors can track information from both mobile devices and other communications. These devices not only send key messages directly to the sites, but also provide better and simpler communications along with sending information into headquarters. It provides lower cost and improved communications. To know more about, how IoT can help critical industries in better operation, please follow this link:  http://recode.net/2015/05/28/the-iot-and-the-needs-of-business/

In this information era, marketing is all about information and content marketing is an important part of marketing strategy because it provides a foundation for leveraging other marketing channels. For example: social media marketing is one of the best ways to reach leads, but what will happen if you don't have a content to post in a social media account? According to Sarah Goliger (Inbound Marketer at HubSpot), content marketing is a long-term strategy. Tips to manage content marketing:

• Plan ahead
• Write evergreen content
• Promote evergreen content
• Leverage older content for new conversions

To know more about content marketing and its importance, please follow this link: http://www.business2community.com/content-marketing/how-campaign-based-content-will-kill-your-marketing-strategy-01238559

Investment in real estate plays a vital part in an investment portfolio. People tend to diversify their portfolios and real estate investment provides valuable diversification. There are certain risks associated in real estate investment. It is cash intensive, time consuming and vulnerable due to fluctuating interest rates. Investors should learn from past market scenarios and know when to make the right choices. Real estate offers direct ownership unlike other assets. Private real estate deals are popular among investors as risk of sole ownership can be avoided. Another option for investors is real estate investor trusts (REIT). REIT’s are usually publicly traded companies investing in real estate through purchasing properties. Risks include cost and tax implications and declining net asset values of REITs’ in case of rising interest rates.  To know more, please follow:

http://www.dailyfinance.com/2015/05/22/real-estate-investments-risks/

A well-known tractor maker company in US, is also a front-line innovator. This company has incorporated integrated software, network connectivity and data gathering sensors into tractor hardware. It is a perfect example of digital transformation in a much needed field, but yet, least expected of such transformation, till now. Digital transformation should be the heart of every business, whose sole purpose is to improve the existing business philosophies of the firm. Read more at:

http://www.cmswire.com/customer-experience/digital-transformation-your-key-to-survival/

In business, the 'black swan' is a form of disruption, which is usually least expected by a firm. Again, 'ugly duckling' refers to the day to day disruptions, which are always expected, and the firm remains prepared for it, hence, the coining of the term.  Companies don't pay attention to these disruptions with the expectation that they will remain small and never grow up to be as big and disruptive as the 'black swan'. Majority of the companies have risk management departments who focus on regulations and the traditional risks, completely ignoring the extreme ('black swan') cases. The 'black swan' has the capability of even surpassing the traditional data analytics procedures. Hence, comes into the picture, big data and advanced analytics, which gathers newer insights even about the most uncommon and worst case scenarios that may happen in the near future. Armed with information, much beforehand, the companies can make themselves immune, even to the worst of the situations. Predictive analytics thus plays a major role in recognizing 'black swan' events, often from the data of past 'black swan' episodes. Read more at:

http://www.teradatamagazine.com/v15n02/Features/Ugly-Duckling-or-Black-Swan/