Advanced analytics is considered as a game changer in all industries today. The benefits received from its application are tremendous. These benefits can also give the user firms – a competitive advantage- which further gives them a lead in their industry. Gavin Seewooruttun, in his article at abc.net, has listed five top applications of advanced analytics, that will prove to be a winning element for its users. They are:

• Gaining the whole customer view
• Customer micro targeting: upselling and cross selling
• Customer micro targeting: acquisition and churn management
• Customer micro targeting: value addition
• Proactive maintenance

To understand them in detail, please visit the following link:

http://www.abc.net.au/technology/articles/2015/06/04/4248646.htm

In terms of technological advancement, insurance industry is considered as a late mover or rigid in terms of adapting. In contrast to manufacturing industry, where organizations have spent most of the past two decades standardizing their IT, in insurance industry, the use of proprietary software systems is still the norm. This is because of the following reasons:

• High levels of complexity
• Immature software market
• Budget constraints
• Inertia

Despite these factors, the future of insurance industry lies in the standardization of its softwares. These steps will not only lead to cost reduction and reduction in adaption time, but will also give the firms - a first mover advantage - in terms of multi-channel marketing, digital-product innovations and straight-through claims processing. For this, Mckinsey experts have identified five critical success factors. They are:

• Technologies
• Transformation
• Team
• Timing
• Transparency

To understand them in detail, please read this highly informative article by Sanjay Kaniyar, Peter Peters, and Ulrike Vogelgesang at Mckinsey.com:

http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/business_technology/transitioning_to_standard_software_lessons_from_erp_pioneers

U.S. is seen as trendsetter in terms of digital marketing. Though, it’s not the only country in this space, but still people look up to it, to know what’s coming next. In his article at The Guardian, Luke Carrell, Strategy Director at We Are Social, has shared few digital marketing trends that are doing the rounds in US. They are:

• Personal branding for (mostly) good
• Social thinking
• Push into consciousness
• Innovating from within
• Branded content

Albeit, not exclusive to US, these trends shows us the future of digital marketing globally.

To understand them in detail, please visit the following link:

http://www.theguardian.com/media-network/2015/jun/01/trends-us-digital-marketing-landscape

In this fast changing world, entrepreneurs need to keep up with the trends to make their companies stand out. To keep their business afloat and growing, they need to know about all fields related to their business, including marketing.

Digital marketing is the trend these days. So, to help entrepreneurs update their knowledge on this front, Neil Patel, Cofounder of Crazy Egg, Hello Bar and KISSmetrics, in his article at The Forbes, has shared six must know points on digital marketing. They are:

• It’s more than PPC ads.
• It costs money.
• Content is king.
• SEO is not dead.
• Mobile optimization is de rigueur.
• Conversion optimization will give you the biggest impact in the shortest amount of time.

To know more about these digital marketing key points, please visit the following link:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/neilpatel/2015/05/04/6-things-that-every-entrepreneur-must-know-about-digital-marketing/

Cloud computing has changed the way organizations work in this digital world. Whatever be the size of the companies, cloud computing is the key. This has now become the norm.

In context of small companies, its use has been even more beneficial. Many new organizations have also come into existence because of this. According to a research by Microsoft, “62% of companies using cloud services report significant benefits of IT productivity, and 45% of small businesses said they should adhere to cloud services this year.”

Diogo Costa, in his article at tech.co, has stated the advantages of using cloud computing for small companies. They are:

• Cost reduction
• Increased data security
• Possibility to work remotely

To understand them in detail, please visit the following link:

http://tech.co/small-companies-cloud-computing-2015-05

Agile is the buzzword in industry today. Simply put, it is a better way of managing teams and projects by self organizing and cross functional collaboration.

Ming Chan, Founder and CEO of The1stMovement, in his article at Forbes, has shared his experience of transition to agile and benefits achieved from it in an agency context.

In his words, “Transition of moving from Waterfall to Agile as a business nearly killed our agency, but once we pushed through the steep learning curve, the implementation of Agile into our day-to-day workflow, and most importantly, our culture, undoubtedly took us to the next level.”

According to him, this transition yielded the following benefits:

• Project Profit Margin
• Client Satisfaction
• Employee Happiness

To learn more from his experience, please visit the following link:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/theyec/2015/06/01/the-benefits-of-adopting-an-agile-approach-in-an-agency-setting/

Last month, Microsoft announced Microsoft Azure Stack at its Ignite Conference. Since then, there has been a lot of commotion among cloud technology enthusiasts as to what it is, how is it different from the existing Microsoft Azure pack, etc.

Tim Anderson (author) has answered these questions in his highly informative article at theregister.co.uk. According to him, the special features of Azure Stack fall into three categories. They are:

• Infrastructure services
• Application services
• Azure Resource Manager

To know more about this private cloud solution, please visit the following link:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/05/18/azure_stack_versus_azure_pack_whats_the_difference/

IoT has been present since long. But, recently this concept has achieved infinite fame with its easy to use nature and its feature of simplifying the complex devices. With IoT’s horizon widening and Microsoft being the Cloud software giant, with its program called, Azure, there are humongous possibilities of getting the benefits of both by combining their usage.

Kevin Miller, Microsoft’s Principal Program Manager for Azure IoT, has shared best practices for creating IoT solutions with Azure. They are:

• Think big. Start small
• Telemetry First
• Stream Analytics
• Don’t interrupt the fast path
• Defense in depth

Follow these guidelines and try the magic that this synergy provides.

To know more, please read the following article by Jonathan Allen at infoq.com:

http://www.infoq.com/news/2015/04/Azure-IoT

A business plan is a written description of a business's future, a document that tells us what to do, how to do and also tells us where we stand.

And a marketing plan lays out the marketing strategies of the business. If efficiently executed, it brings benefits to the business. Megan Totka, Chief Editor, ChamberofCommerce.com, in her article at business2community.com, has shared five ways to lay the foundation for a solid marketing plan for a small business. They are:

1. Define your objectives.
2. Create a customer profile.
3. Figure out what triggers consumers to buy.
4. Establish a timeline.
5. Identify where customers find details about your products and/or services.

To understand them in detail, please visit the following link:

http://www.business2community.com/small-business/5-steps-to-a-small-business-marketing-plan-01236176

“Small Changes, Big Impacts” – that’s what hacks are according Kirsten Newbold-Knipp, Research Director at Gartner for Marketing Leaders.

In her article at Forbes, Kirsten has listed 10 digital marketing hacks, that you can implement immediately and see dynamic changes in your marketing activities like:

• Cost Savings
• Time Savings 
• Demonstrable ROI

Some of these digital marketing hacks that were voted the best at Gartner Digital Marketing Conference are:

• Be Your Customer
• Implement Interview Projects
• Fail Fests – Embrace Innovation & Failure
• Steal Ideas from Other Industries or Disciplines

To know more, please visit the following link and make few choices for your organization:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/gartnergroup/2015/05/27/ten-digital-marketing-hacks/

Human Resource (HR) is an important function for any business. At the same time, not all businesses can afford to have a dedicated HR department. Not having one, is a cost saver. For small businesses facing such situations, there are a number of online HR tools available that can help them cope with the demands of HR needs. The following article at business2community.com lists 5 best HR tools. They are:

1) The Resumator

2) Zenefits

3) oDesk

4) Staff Squared

5) Jobatar

Review these HR tools and chose the one that fits the needs of your business in the best possible manner.

To know more about them, please visit the following link:

http://www.business2community.com/human-resources/top-5-human-resource-tools-01227232

Paul Mandeville, Chief Product Officer, QuickPivot, in his article at cmswire.com has given 3 C’s of modern retail marketing. They are:

• Context
• Content
• Customer Experience

Combining these three with big data, can do wonders for retailers. All they need to do is to clean up their organization’s database and find a common thread between these three C’s of retail marketing.

The retailers need to realize the power of these C’s for capturing their customers’ hearts. To know more, please visit the following link:

http://cmswire.com/digital-marketing/the-3-cs-of-modern-retail-marketing/

According to a research by Society of Human Resource Management, “More than 75 percent of managers, employees and heads of HR feel that PM results are ineffective and/or inaccurate.”

Performance management is considered as one of the most difficult tasks by HR managers. As, there may be different ways of performance evaluation available, but still something still looks left out. This leads to a need for disruptive innovation in this process. This is mainly because of two reasons:

• Employee expectations
• Disruptive market forces expectations

To understand them in detail and know why there’s a need to put performance back in performance management, please read the following article by Sameer Patel, SVP for Enterprise Social and Collaborative Software in SAP's Cloud Business Unit, at enterpriseirregulars.com:

https://www.enterpriseirregulars.com/89515/performance-management-needs-disrupted-pronto/

Sustainable development is the development of the society, keeping in mind the needs of the present as well as future generations. It is this development that is the ultimate goal of every nation. For this, UN will launch a new set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2016. These goals will give rise to various important questions such as:

• How will we achieve these goals?
• Who will finance these goals?
• Which countries will need most resources and of what type etc.

For answer to these questions, the decision makers refer to the data provided by various international institutions like UN, IMF, World Bank, etc. But while doing this, they face a big hurdle i.e. Incompatibility of Data in terms of definitions, methodologies and sources.

Now, with the data revolution going on and big data and analytics taking the centre stage, we now have an opportunity to collect and produce high quality data that will provide the right information on the right things at the right time. The need is – its correct implementation.

To know more, please read the following article by Gail Hurley and Jos Verbeek at brookings.edu:

http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/future-development/posts/2015/05/26-financing-for-development-hurley%E2%80%8F

According to a 2014 study, “88 percent of executives have begun a digital transformation at their company, but only 25 percent say they have completely mapped out the digital customer experience. A big part of the problem is that senior executives don’t know where to start.”

The impact of digital revolution has been huge. But, what all companies want is to embrace this impact and emerge as leaders of their field. They want to easily adapt to these changes like HMV did when the digital era of music challenged its business.

Joerg Niessing, INSEAD Affiliate Professor of Marketing, in his article at knowledge.insead.edu, has listed out three important principles that companies should keep in mind while mapping out digital customer experience. They are:

• Customer Orientation
• Customer Segmentation
• Integrated Branding at every Consumer Touchpoint

Although digitalization has changed the way we live and work. But, the golden rule of marketing still works nevertheless i.e. Be Customer Centric. Keep this mind along with the above mentioned principles; you may get a solution to this changing marketing scenario.

To know more, please visit the following link:

http://knowledge.insead.edu/blog/insead-blog/what-brands-need-to-survive-in-a-digital-world-4050

“Analyzing and streamlining the supply chain is one way to help companies respond more quickly to the fast pace of business today while boosting operational efficiency.”

- Glenn Johnson

Efficiency in supply chain management provides an extra edge to any organization as it helps in reducing costs, speeding time to market, better customer experiences as well as flexible operations. Glenn Johnson, in his article at smartdatacollective.com has shared 5 tips for streamlining supply chain that will result in more profitable operations. They are:

1. Review and optimize supply chain processes
2. Integrate your supply chain
3. Leverage existing systems
4. Abolish duplicate data
5. Understand the big picture

To understand them in detail, please visit the following link:

http://smartdatacollective.com/magicsoftware/312051/5-tips-streamlining-supply-chain

Banking and finance are an indispensable part of our lives.  Though the world today is divided into rich and poor, but the common fact amongst these two groups is that they need funds to invest and grow. To meet this common need of these two different groups, we have two different institutions:

• Investment Banks
• Microfinance Institutions

Matthew Johnston, in his article at Investopedia.com, has compared these two financial institutions in terms of their history, use, recent trends as well as examples.

To know more, please visit the following link:

http://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/052215/how-microfinance-and-investment-banking-compare.asp

“Marketers don't like analysis -- they prefer an epiphany."

- Elaine Murphy

Contrary to this view, analytics isn’t that bad for marketers. Rather, if used effectively, it can bring them some realization. So, the question that now arises is that how can marketers use analytics effectively to their advantage? To answer this question, Jonha Revesencio, Brand Marketer, Storyteller and Global Speaker, has listed down various useful analytics tools in her article at huffingtonpost.com. They are:

• Clicktale
• CrazyEgg
• Jotform
• Simply Measured
• Compete
• Google Analytics

To understand how these tools will help you market better, please visit the following link:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jonha-revesencio/6-effective-analytics-too_b_7421078.html?ir=India&adsSiteOverride=in

“Debt is the vital air of modern commerce.”

 - Daniel Webster

These words were spoken in 19^th century when the U.S. bond market was still in its initial stage. But, today, in 21^st century, the situation has changed. The volume of debt is growing in multifold.  This is justified by the following fact:

The borrowings of global households, governments, companies and financial firms have risen from 246% of GDP in 2000 to 286% today.

But the question is that why is the world growing so much addicted to debt? The answer to this question lies in following two causes:

1. Interest on debt is a tax deductible expense.
2. People over-estimate the safety of the fixed payments that debt offers

3 global trends have magnified the effects of these causes. They are:

• Big exporters such as China have built up reserves that must be invested abroad
• The increasing inequality between the rich and poor
• The growth of finance industry where the impulse is to manufacture debts owed by others in order to generate fees

The need of the hour is to bring reforms in order to reduce these mountains of debt.

To know more, please read the following article at the Economist:

http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2015/05/economist-explains-20?fsrc=scn/tw_ec/why_the_world_is_addicted_to_debt

Live chat is the best way to boost overall satisfaction with your customer service

- Zendesk Benchmark Report

Live Chat has emerged as one of the most satisfying customer service channels. This is because of the following reasons:

• Live chat moves customer requests away from web forms and feedback tabs to real time interactions, which enable questions to be answered directly
• Customers like the back-and-forth style of conversation

But, customer service providers should not forget the fact that customers want an accurate, relevant, and complete answer to their question upon first contact. Live chat agents sometimes fail to satisfy customers because of the following issues:

• When the customer has to wait more than 30 seconds for a customer service agent
• As agents start handling more and more chats, the increased workload may impact their ability to respond quickly and thoroughly

According to the Zendesk Report, “To optimize customer interactions, companies should monitor the ebb and flow of their live chat request volume by day and hour”.

To know more about the results of the Zendesk Benchmark Report on Live Chats, please read the following article by Noreen Seebacher, Chief Editor, at cmswire.com:

http://www.cmswire.com/cms/customer-experience/we-should-talk-how-live-chat-improves-cx-029235.php