Successful companies in 2014 are expected to take Big Data Analytics and utilize it for growth and competitive advantage. Experts discussed how to use data strategically for a strong analytics culture at the webinar "Fine-tune your analytics strategy for 2014". According to Stephen Sharpe, Director of Global Strategic Analytics of Johnson & Johnson, companies need to start working on a cloud based system to integrate and broader integration and training across the various sectors to share best practices. According to Larry Seligman, VP, Advanced Consumer Analytics, Inter-Continental Hotels group, companies need a new definition of data integration and they need to learn how to value projects and programs and quantify the things which were previously not quantifiable. According to Mazhar Hussain, Leader Big Data Practices, HP, gives insight on the importance of analytics as a service. Mid-sized and small customers will take great advantage of analytics as a service which is going to take up big stream and it is important to have the right kind of strategy implemented in the company. Read more at:

http://www.modernanalyst.com/Resources/News/tabid/177/ID/2915/6-things-to-focus-on-in-2014-analytics-strategy.aspx

Big Data analytic has the ability to improve business strategy leading to the identification, provide unprecedented insights and utilize untapped profit sources. The top Big Data trends that emerged in 2013 are Open Source, Convergence and Cloud Data. Companies have to synthesize analytic results across domains and work to produce holistic insights in order to achieve the maximum benefits. A variety of new and complex sources of data, extracting tools and new data mining have been introduced specifically designed to handle disparate sources of data. These systems can interact intelligently; minimize data movement and share data and/or analytic results between components. Overall analysis efficiency has been given a boost and producing better returns. Big Data analytic is based on the open source revolution and the adoption rate of open source technologies. Companies are increasing their overall spend on cloud infrastructure. The intersection of analytic and cloud is creating new value and means for Big Data exploitation. Read more at: 

Those in the managerial level want data to back up assumptions. We can’t formulate decisions on a raze sensation, or what we recognize our rivals are doing, or what we believe our consumers desire. A lot of time companies have no perception of their purchase. So to ignore taking bad decisions, data is used to back it up. Analytics is checked to see what public are doing. So what are business analytics and how do we acquire them? At this level of analytics we need to know our rivals, and what their digital outlets are. We require a digital fingerprint of the rivalry, and we should also have a good knowledge of our market. What people are wanting and giving the services we propose. Information of the industry is very important to make a plan to assess the true data, and then make an approach that originates our expedition  . Read more at:

http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/whats-going-your-industry

The desire to be mobile and make a mark is not new to us. Today we use GPS for wherever we go and communicate on a variety of devices. Big data is the phenomenon which has helped in generating and sharing information. The difference between data in ancient times and now is that before, only humans created and collected data whereas now with the rise of sensors and other technology that creates and collects data. However, the big thing about big data is the self-organization i.e. without human intervention and awareness, data is organizing itself.  But, this leads to a big question that-Are we playing with fire? With big data revolutionizing, there comes a new responsibility, because the purpose of managing data is not to predict the future but to shape it which is a huge responsibility. However, revolution hasn't stopped. Changes took place slowly in the evolutionary manner. Using technology that provides insight into data, today's business leaders have a unique opportunity to make thoughtful decisions that will have long-lasting impacts. But along with all this, disruptive changes are happening in every industry around the world which increasingly making us concern about whether today's leaders rise to the challenge of shaping the future in a responsible way or not. Read more at:http://analytics.theiegroup.com/article/53c3f6413723a87216000156/Shaping-The-Future-With-Big-Data-Are-We-Playing-With-Fire

Customer service is the key element which decides the fate of a business. If the customers find the employees rude or they don't know what they are talking about the organisation will start losing customers. Irrespective of the business type, customers make phone calls and may want to know the hours of operation or they may have a query about a recent purchase. The customer service department should always follow up with customers in order to show that they care about their customers and they make sure that the product features matches the demand of the customer.Helping them to the car when they have an arm load of products is a good way to show them you care. Helping them decide on which products to purchase and helping them to understand which products will complement each other is another way. To know more go to:http://www.coursepark.com/blog/2012/07/4-reasons-why-customer-service-is-important-for-your-business/

The massive stress, the high expectation, nation’s passion and panic on the shoulders of an enthusiastic but defective Brazilian team. They trapped under the pressure, but there was more to this pressure, or faulty strategy and player’s selection, or inexpert positional play, or a first class German team filled with efficient passers. First-half goal storm saw Die Mannschaft 5-0 up, Miroslav Klose gave his record-breaking 16^th goal at the finals and the brutality continued into the second period with Schürrle.  Mesut Özil missed to make it 8-0, moments before Oscar scored a goal in the final minute of the first semifinal of World Cup 2014. Germany place up in 4-1-4-1 changing from the 4-3-3 they begun with. David Luiz and Dante saw the ball early in deep areas, but with no one to pass and kept missing. Germans moved with instability, interchanges outside the box and played generously, passing football. Read more about this analysis at: 

http://outsideoftheboot.com/2014/07/09/world-cup-tactical-analysis-brazil-1-7-germany-germany-run-riot-to-trounce-brazil/

Cloud, social, mobile and big data technology have been primarily viewed as the drivers behind Customer Relationship Management (CRM). According to a Gartner report, they are now being joined by an emerging driver- the Internet of Things (IoT). According to Joanne M. Correia “CRM will be the heart of digital initiatives in the coming years”. In the report Gartner views that ioT, where sensors connect devices to the internet, create new services previously never considered. Gartner forecasts CRM market to reach $ 23.9 billion this year, with cloud revenue accounting for 49 percent. IoT joins cloud, social, mobile and big data to spur a critical need for more operational CRM, according to Correia. According to an article in Information Week, Gartner predicts that in 2020, there will be 7.3 billion smart phones, tablets and PCs in use- but about 26 billion IoT devices. IoT is driving CRM investments, because the use of cloud- connected intelligent devices is creating new business opportunities for marketing, sales and support executives. Read more at:

http://www.cio.com/article/2453781/big-data/big-data-as-a-driver-for-crm-investments.html

The clinical data analytics market has shifted its focus on new payment models, electronic health records. As a result many healthcare groups are looking to analytics solutions to reduce the risk of the patient population. According to a recent Frost and Sullivan market analysis, clinical data analytics is poised to grow at a CAGR of 37.9 percent from 10 percent, in 2011 to 50 percent adoption by 2016. Despite strong market growth it is not smooth for data analytics. Managing such complex and extensive data is a difficult task. Such analytics can be very expensive. Claims based analytics is still very much a reality. Many analytics vendors have tried to align their brand with PHM by any means necessary, which has increased competition making it difficult for them to differentiate in the market. Also researchers have found a very immature buyers' market, which has raised the doubt as to how far the capabilities of analytics solutions will bear results. Read more at:

http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/clinical-data-analytics-get-red-hot?page=0

Cloud data centers are capable of handling higher traffic loads whereas traditional data centers are facing various challenges in terms of confluence of capacity, performance and infrastructure complexity due to the data explosion and rising need for scalability. The traditional incremental approach will no longer offer the scalability to face the challenges that are unavoidable in cloud computing. To overcome the challenges, the transition of data centers involves end-to-end transformation of servers, storage and networks has become a necessity. Cloud data centers support greater degree of standardization, virtualization and automation resulting in high performance and cost optimization. Mid-sized and large data centers are growing considerably attributed to huge cloud storage deployments and build-out of public cloud offerings. Investments are pouring from various vendor segments into the data center markets due to these changes. There is an industry trend where almost all cloud service providers are establishing two or more data centers in high economic and advanced zones near major metropolitan cities. Consequently, cloud data centers are clustering around major internet hubs in the world. Read more at: 

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/the-enterprise-cloud/cloud-computing-and-the-evolution-of-the-data-center/

Big data contains consumer information including transaction data, demographic information, buying patterns, CRM data etc., collected across multiple platforms. The data gives an insight to the customers' preferences of support options, desired communication mode, future buying patterns, impactful promotions, etc. Big data provides better customer service in several ways. Using predictive analysis tools organizations can now predict a customers' next move also. Big data using these tools helps the organization to predict customers' present and future preferences, drive real-time decisions, increase customer retention and increase profitability. More than 77 percent marketers agree that individualized messages and offers are more effective than mass messages and offers, which can drive engagement, boost sales and increase conversions. Usage of Omni channel marketing strategy increases client retention rates and bring superior financial results. Using data to create a cross-platform customer engagement strategy ensures highest customer service. A multichannel shopping experience shapes a brand's story generating revenue and customer loyalty. In two years smartphone users will be more than basic phone users, mobile service increases at the rate of 7 percent annually. Thus best customer experience is delivered through mobile channels for high performance organizations. Unable to ignore the potentiality of social media big brands register tens of thousands of social media interactions every day. There are wide range of options available. Communication through online communities reduces call center costs. Read more at:
http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/insidecrm/5-ways-big-data-can-enhance-customer-service-62054

According to Mark Zuckerberg the potential of improving business through social media is very high. Sponsored ads appear everywhere nowadays in all social media platforms. If your ads are of quality customer service and eye catching visuals you can convert visitors to loyal customers. But there are few strategies required to gain from the use of social media. Firstly, be active but do not be overactive. One needs to have knowledge about how much his competitors are posting and then decide on how much to post every day. Compiling all content in an easy to read editorial calendar is a good idea which can be further separated by social channels. Secondly, ach channel should be treated as an individual entity. The content which might be spread across all channels should be adjusted depending on the audience for that channel. For example, LinkedIn has more business focused audience while Instagram has audiences looking for engaging visual content. Thirdly, tweets or other feedbacks made by customers should be answered properly and quickly. While positive feedbacks are to be responded with acknowledgements negative feedbacks should be dealt with patience and respect. Fourthly, one should accept their mistakes made on their posts. But reposting several times is not a good idea. One can send out content from their social accounts to make the customers aware. Fifthly, metrics important to one's business should be reviewed monthly, like number of posts, follower growth, clicks, page views, likes and shares etc. Tracking can be done by free tools like bit.ly, Google analytics etc. Lastly, being active on Google+ helps you to receive essential free ad space when users search for you on Google. Read more at:  http://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2014/01/09/social-media-marketing-strategies

In present situation having a suite of products called 'marketing cloud' is necessary for any enterprise. While renowned and young companies have their own roles, marketing analytics point out that the problem is that "marketing cloud branding obfuscation" across dissimilar products makes the jobs of marketers, merchandise and IT guys harder. Gigaom Research found the priorities and hot buttons of several digital marketers and got to know about the effective marketing tactics they used. They also researched about areas where they required help. The study showed that salesforce was not wrong in its eagerness to tap into social media. The majority of big spenders use almost every digital tactic on every phases of marketing, namely awareness, acquisition, conversion and retention. Smaller companies still use SEO and email. Bigger companies are the biggest users of social media marketing as well as mobile and digital video. 50 percent of them are likely to increase their social media spending. In spite of this most marketers head to social media based on faith. They find it difficult to prove ROI for social media. Read more at: http://gigaom.com/2014/07/13/whats-needed-from-marketing-clouds/ 

Nintex , the world leader in workflow software, announced its integration with Salesforce.com and Microsoft Dynamics CRM, the two market-leaders among CRM platforms. Nintex is the first workflow company which enabled business users to connect critical ECM and CRM systems through the cloud, and allowed customers to quickly and easily automate processes between departments in a customer-driven environment. With the new integrations, users can accelerate a variety of processes which involves frequent interactions between customer-facing teams and internal business operations. Nintex’s integration with Salesforce.com and Microsoft Dynamics CRM lets organizations:

• Drive business processes in SharePoint in response to events in CRM so work flows better between previously siloed systems

• Automate the process of creating, updating, retrieving, and querying records in Salesforce or Microsoft Dynamics using simple drag-and-drop workflow actions

• Post status updates, links and polls to Salesforce Chatter or Microsoft Yammer, and progress workflows based on user responses in social channels

To know more, go to: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/nintex-announces-integration-with-salesforcecom-and-microsoft-dynamics-crm-2014-07-14

It’s the customer service and experience the customer that help businesses to retain customers and grow.  The companies which deliver a good customer service and experience are customer-centric putting the customer in the centre of decisions, ideas, marketing, system design and more. Companies like apple manufacture products that people don't even realise they need, and the packaging of their products adds to the customer’s experience, which makes them the leader in customer service. A company that delivers only a great customer experience won’t survive if the product or service the company sells doesn’t work or do what it’s supposed to do, so they have to manufacture high quality products as well as provide a great customer service. It’s the combination of the two, a great product and an amazing customer service experience, that can meet the expectations of the customers and make a company grow to the top of their industry. To know more go to: http://www.hyken.com/customer-experience-2/product-experience/#more-5264

Research is a costly and time-taking process. Many businesses use social media as a cost effective and depth-tool to learn the insights about the market, consumer behavior, brand appearance, and other market research. One has to understand the benefits and create a proper research plan to use Social media. To use Social media one has to understand the benefits and create a proper research plan. The ways to implement and use social media in market research methods are: Firstly, Track Trends with Social Media for Real-Time Insights. Secondly, Learn the Language of Your Audience for Improved Marketing Appeal. Thirdly, Use the Real-Time Aspects of Social Media for Quick Research. Fourthly, use Social Media to Broaden the Scope of Your Market Research. Fifthly, Discover Unnoticed Trends and Insights by Engaging Instead of Leading. Sixth, Harness Social Media Research for Improved Cost Efficiency. Read more at: 

World Cup 2014 is scientifically more advanced. The world has advanced in every feature so does the sport. It is the most scientifically sophisticated football tournament. The referee has used a spray to draw circle around the ball when a foul is committed. The line or the circle vanishes after sometimes, it is actually the water-based substance used to create the foam. Three processor image cameras used to determine the objects and do all the work of tracking real time data .This help to find out how many miles a participant runs and the velocity. It also track the ball location. The fans are also benefitted along with players from these advances. other technologies such as goal line technology, some hi-tech cameras to arrest the actions closely, the official page World Cup FIFA app, boots made from man-made resources, advanced football kits. Read more at: 

http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/experience-most-high-tech-world-cup-ever

Could business analytics provide a solution to the pressures faced by the American healthcare system? As in the case of Mount Sinai Medical Centre in Miami, business analytics generated a very high payoff because it involves efficiency driven, intensive, statistical exploration of an organization's data. In the above case, it determined that the center was overpaying for the pacemakers. At the HIMSS conference, we witnessed plenty of startups peddling immediate business analytics solutions to healthcare organizations. Eventually healthcare organizations will adopt business analytics, but the process will take several years for the following reasons: Lack of Compatibility between Systems as introduction of business analytics and then integrating it with existing infrastructure is challenging. For business analytics to get to market it needs to undergo trials in one or two hospitals. Organizations require their softwares to be customized. So suppliers require time. Staff members need to be trained on how to use the software correctly. All these are time consuming. Hospitals should approach their management strategy from a higher level, planning systematic solutions. Read more at:

http://www.informationweek.com/healthcare/analytics/business-analytics-will-help-healthcare-just-not-overnight/a/d-id/1279087

Importance of Big data and Talent Analytics is a much discussed topic for the last couple of years. One just has to know how to use talent analytics as it can do a whole lot of difficult task like quantifying different behaviors, skills, intelligence, and mindsets of a HR. Talent analytics uses data in management decisions like talent acquisition, retention, placement, promotion, compensation, and succession planning. By analyzing the skills and attributes of high performers in the present, it enables organizations to build a template for future hires. Advanced software algorithms can identify talent and match it to an organization's needs. Some intangible aspects like social skills, flexibility, emotional intelligence, initiative, attitudes are now measurable- thanks to talent analytics. Along with these, new mobile apps also make talent searches a matter of anytime and anywhere. However, as it's still growing, Gartner predicts that the market for Big Data and analytics will generate $3.7 trillion in products and services and generate 4.4 million new jobs by 2015. Read more at:http://analytics.theiegroup.com/article/53b2b9c13723a81923000046/Talent-Analytics-A-Crystal-Ball-For-Your-Workforce

Consumer choice process has two steps. Firstly, he assigns a value to each product according to his willingness to pay. Secondly, the consumer compares and ranks these values. People evaluate the stimuli that they see even if they do not have to choose. Marketing may not necessarily need a billboard or commercial in order to materialize. It may extol the positive values of a product.  A consumer may subconsciously value a product anyway.  There are certain aspects that a company's advertisers have to worry about besides what its competitors say or how they advertise because if consumers automatically assign values to products, then marketing may not save a product that has many deficiencies. This may lay out cost effective opportunity to the present advertisers. Companies can highlight some positive virtues of a product on the product itself. Read more at: 

Knowledge gap is the disparity between what we know and what we need to know. Most of the information is imperfect in the real business world. The question that arises when leaders make decisions is the cost and its valuation. It is time consuming to know whether the decision is good and valuable. Organizing an internal effort to determine what reservoirs of knowledge exist inside the company and sometimes it exist in unexpected places, channeling people and published market studies are often good for the market. In case of an outside research partner, they must be open on methodology, listen to you and must be on the same platform on the basis of the timing and level of precision. It may be happen that you are in a stage where nothing more than validation is required to move to the next step. Common sense is most important to bridge the gap and move toward perfect knowledge which is both acceptable and appropriate. Read more at: