Starting a small business can seem tough and impossible at first when, there is so much to do on the front end before you even open the doors for your customers . We are now in the age of the art of technology which uses cloud computing to store all of our information and access if from anywhere we are. Not only does this make operating a business easier, but it makes the process much more efficient. The cloud can be your secret weapon to any aspect of the start-up process of your business. Here’s how.

Read more at:  http://www.business2community.com/cloud-computing/6-ways-use-cloud-start-business-01669177#o3OZvYPJyqBGeKit.99

With increasing complexity in the sales environment, improvement in growth and retention of customers is required. Prescriptive guidance can provide answers to these. It is predicted that implementation of analytics tools and strategies will increase. So, B2B companies will reinforce a position for Chief Growth Office (CGO) who will require analytics tools to implement their ideas.
Thus, a step towards Prescriptive analysis and effective implementation plan will help B2B companies to improve their financial performance.
To know more about prescriptive analytics, follow the article written by Javier Aldrete (senior director of product management at Zilliant) at: http://www.inddist.com/articles/2015/05/rise-prescriptive-analytics-b2b-environment

Sales and marketing platforms can easily be combined to generate a closed-loop approach to marketing analytics whereas business analytics understands the structure of the past to estimate what might happen in the future. Through marketing analytics, marketers can easily measure all aspects of their marketing efforts. Business Analytics can measure everything from warehouse efficiency and manufacturing. Business Analytics typically incorporate high level data from each department to gain knowledge of how the organization works. What makes marketing analytics different from other business analytics, is its concentration on real market output. Marketing analytics go beyond measuring strictly online performance and provide representatives from sales, customer service and senior business management with real market feedback that helps guide decisions on where to invest and how to prioritize. Thus marketing and business analytics are really a two way street - without marketing data business analytics wouldn't tell the whole tale, and vice versa. Read more at: 

http://blog.hubspot.com/insiders/marketing-analytics-vs-business-analytics

The market is becoming more competitive nowadays. Companies like General Electric, Honeywell, Raytheon and IBM have managed to save billions of dollars in cost savings by process and quality improvement through Six Sigma. The majority of companies like to implement DMAIC methodology because they have existing processes. The remaining minority of Six Sigma practitioners is using a Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) approach to design a new product. DMAIC mainly focuses to improve the existing processes in such a way that final products can be produced with extremely low defects i.e. 3.4 defects in 1 million opportunities. Design for Six Sigma on the other hand, is about the design, development and commercialization of new products and processes for Six Sigma quality. To know more about DMAIC and DFSS, please go through the link: www.isixsigma.com/new-to-six-sigma/design-for-six-sigma-dfss/design-six-sigma-dfss-versus-dmaic/

According to a new survey conducted by Deloitte, it is found that as complexity in global supply chain networks continues to increase, less than one-third (26 percent) of business executives are using data analytics tools and processes to help manage third party relationship risks.Thirteen percent of those surveyed are still learning how to use analytics software and 22 percent use no data analytics at all. Few market leading companies leverage advanced data analytics tools and forensic accounting to identify anomalies in their transactional data & getting astonishing benefits while rest are lagging far behind in this issue. Nearly one-third (31 percent) of business executives surveyed, said that their organization has faced supply chain fraud, waste or abuse in the past 12 months.

Mark Pearson, principal, Deloitte Financial Advisory Services LLP, speaks about why organizations need data analytics to tackle supply chain fraud. To read more, please visit the following link:

http://www.net-security.org/secworld.php?id=16641

Organizations have implemented various software solutions to manage many processes, from ERP to power consumption to supply chain management. But when it comes to the most critical component of supply chain management – “Human Capital”, many companies are still playing catch-up. However, nowadays more organizations are turning to labour optimization solutions. These solutions not only keep track of operations, but also use predictive models and algorithms to determine future labour needs. Labour optimization software also analyze orders and resources to predict warehouse throughput. Then it automatically schedules the right balance of full-time, part-time, and temporary workers to meet demand. Managers receive alerts when labour levels don’t meet requirements. Optimization solutions have been used successfully for years in operations such as call centres, which needs to examine historical call patterns to predict future call volumes and ensure that they have the right people with the right skills in the right channels. Such intelligent technology has enormous potential in a manufacturing setting, helping companies do more with less.

To read more about this aspect, please visit Tracey Schelmetic’s article link as given below:

http://www.thomasnet.com/journals/techtrends/articles/labor-optimization-solutions-make-best-use-of-human-capital

Cloud is a buzzword that has been taking circles in the IT world for the past few years. Today, every organization demands more software deployment and significant reduction in the response time. To achieve improvement in efficiency and to utilize the resources better, cloud is the sure shot answer.  Cloud infrastructure is also improving its efficiency, availability and security. People who were looking at cloud with suspicion, are now preparing themselves to adopt the technology in a large scale. Cloud is definitely here to stay. There are 3 types of cloud services in offer, namely public, private and hybrid. In the BFSI sector, as data security is one of the core issues, the tendency towards private cloud preference is obvious.

Johnson K Jose, Deputy General Manager, IT Department, Federal Bank, talks about the benefits of adopting cloud model & preference for private cloud in BFSI sector. To read about his views, visit the following link:

http://ibm.informationweek.in/interviews/item/245-private-cloud-is-the-preferred-flavor-in-the-bfsi-segment.html

It is estimated by the research firm, Gartner, that in the year 2014, healthcare providers of India will spend approx. $1.08 billion specially to improve technological supports and IT infrastructure. R Chandrashekhar, President, Nasscom, said healthcare sector will focus more on implementing information technology to enhance their value chain.

Please go through the link for more details: http://www.dnaindia.com/money/report-healthcare-to-contribute-1-billion-to-it-sector-in-2014-gartner-1966870

To find new opportunities and minimize current problems, it is important for an organization to collect and use big data efficiently. On a day to day basis, Excel is a common tool. But when it comes to analyze huge data, sometimes Excel becomes inefficient. The probability of errors are always there in spreadsheet, especially when data set is more complex. A blog by Renat Stewart, Banking Officer at M&T Bank, talks about how to utilize Excel spreadsheet in an efficient manner.

Please follow this link : http://www.riverlogic.com/2013/05/data-complexities-prove-excel-spreadsheets-difficult-to-maintain/

Working at a stretch of 8 hours is tiresome and that too sitting at the same desk. So, TIBCO Software Inc., a US based company, developed TIBCO Spotfire Mobile Metrics, a highly accessible and user-friendly Business Intelligence tool. With the help of this tool, employees can monitor the pulse of the business instantly and business leaders can act on business opportunities and problems using personalized key performance indicators.

Big data and analytics play a major role in any business. According to John Hagerty, program director of IBM, big data and analytics together can improve all the processes from management work to application in any business. Research revealed that with the proper use of these, any business can reach a limit where it can outperform its competitors by 75 percent.

For more information, please go through: http://www.zdnet.com/converting-big-data-and-analytics-into-real-results-7000026720/

Social media plays an important role in searching information  and decision-making behavior of consumers.  A country like India, where 65% of population is youth, uses laptop, tab, Smartphone etc to be socially connected.  Therefore the Brands have realized the importance of social media to reach today’s young generation. For example, if we go to Nike’s Facebook page the entire focus is on fitness and athleticism rather than their products. Another way to connect with consumers is to know the importance of real time marketing which focuses on real time incident. Social media has also molded the consumers to reviewers. 

To read more- visit the following link:

http://www.mbaskool.com/business-articles/marketing/9150-consumer-behaviour-in-the-age-of-social-media.html

What is Cloud? The cloud computing is a phrase, which is used to describe a variety of computing concepts that involve a large number of systems connected through a communication network such as the Internet. It also means the ability to run an application on many connected computers at the same time.

Entrepreneurship emphasizes on innovation and as we all know, innovation leads to sustainability in this volatile demand & application driven market.

The current technological environment demands these two factors, cloud and entrepreneurship to come together as an explorer combo pack. The idea is like start ups can swipe a credit card, buy a little bit of infrastructure and get the idea off the ground. And it doesn't matter if a company’s idea is related to technology, marketing or consumer products. It is a very fast and efficient means of getting the back office & customer-facing capabilities moving.

To read more- visit the following link:

 http://www.dailyrecord.com/article/20140301/NJBIZ/303010002/Cloud-computing-discussed-at-NJ-tech-conference?nclick_check=1