Online social networks give vital information. If someone posts something on Twitter, Facebook, they generate a digital footprint. If someone reads it, or watches a YouTube video, they add to the data trail. We can analyze it to take business decisions. The information that we look for depends on business goals. Some companies use social media to increase sales, some concentrate on brand consciousness, others are focused on brand trust, or increasing customer satisfaction. An analyst records keywords which customers are discussing, use them into status updates or tweets to be more relevant to customers. They check which messages attract readers most so that they can reach new customers. There are different social media analytics tools. Some are Hoot Suite; span multiple channels, Twitter etc. Some tools include workflow; they allow social media managers to connect information to others. Customer feedback raises sentiment analysis. Read more at: 

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/jun/10/effective-social-media-analytics

Technologies, today, have enabled bank customers to make payments, track spending or move money between different accounts easily just by going online with a PC, phone or tablet. People are using popular websites like PayPal, for cheap loans and saving returns. Cash machines, ATMs have also become more advanced and multi-functional which means customers will soon be able to send money overseas, receive money transfers, purchase foreign currency and carry out transactions such as applying for loans. According to futurologists, smartphones will become mobile wallets soon enabling a customer to use discount vouchers and earn cashback on any transactions.  Banks will also have to exploit social media well i.e. listening to customers and have conversations on networks such as Twitter and Facebook. Mobile banking also helps banks to know the physical location of their customers and provide services accordingly. For example, banks might text to offer foreign currency when the customer arrives at an airport. However, new rules and improved technology have made it easier to switch current accounts and will make it even easier in future which in turn provides enough incentives for the banks to excel in technology, in all aspects of their service. Read more at:http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/public/moneymatters/article3925149.ece

Big Data does not necessarily mean good data. And that, as increasing number of experts are saying more insistently, Big Data does not automatically yield good analytics. As everyone realizes, bad data equates to bad intelligence, which equates to bad decision-making and thus equates to bad things happening in your business. If the data is incomplete, out of context or otherwise contaminated, it can lead to decisions that could undermine the competitiveness of an enterprise or damage the personal lives of individuals. So how do we detect that? Firstly it's important to understand where your data originates. Has it been captured by your own work force? What measures were put in place to ensure that the very best job has been done and that the data being captured lives up to expectations? What are the requirements for the data your business needs and uses daily? Do you enhance your data from other sources (external or internal)? An example of how out of context data can lead to distorted conclusions comes from Harvard University professor Gary King, director of the Institute for Quantitative Social Science who was attempting to use Twitter feeds and other social media posts to predict the U.S. unemployment rate, by monitoring key words like "jobs," "unemployment," and "classifieds." To read more about the episode visit: http://www.infoworld.com/d/business-intelligence/big-data-without-good-analytics-can-lead-bad-decisions-225608.

Government today is suspected to be unworthy by most of us. And it is totally justified because of the increasing corruption and selfishness creeping in the society. US president Barack Obama has agreed to keep full transparency between him and the people and prove his credibility. He has signed an 'Open Data Policy' to create an open government. The idea behind is simple. All the government departments are required to update their expenses on the website USASpending.gov. People have full access to this website and can mine the data available for finding any expense that is unnecessary or excessive. Only some areas covering the expenditure of military and covert operations are unlikely to be revealed. Read more at: http://analytics.theiegroup.com/article/538f58943723a83b6f000205/Obamas-Open-Data-Policy

Big data is extending the range of data types in banks that can be covered beyond those common transaction data, and it helps to address problems. Some important areas in banking like fraud analytics, customer analytics and web analytics are also enhanced by big data. Today's improved technologies and frameworks enable banks to get customer data, graph data and geo-location data easily from customers, other banking channels etc. which in turn yields significant insights that can be used in customer marketing, risk management and infrastructure optimization. Big data projects are beneficial as they enhance areas like web security, compliance checks and customer analytics and thus cause the banks to make relevant investments in it. Banks need to know and understand the characteristics of the data they need and need to capture more information beyond risk and marketing data. If the users have sound idea of the nature of the available data, their strategies of making a rough analysis and then use the results to guide them in refining the analysis, will be more effective. This approach helps banks to analyze more data and gain insights that were previously difficult to achieve, without changing the current analytical infrastructure of the banks. Read more about this in Jaroslaw Knapik (Senior Analyst, Financial Services Technology)'s article link:http://www.cloudcomputing-news.net/news/2014/jun/16/big-data-set-to-boost-the-effectiveness-of-analytics-in-banking/

In financial markets, the ability to take risk while investing indicates risk profile. This is an important variable considered by a financial planner before advancing a product to an investor. Risk profile classifies the individuals in conservative, moderate or aggressive. Wealth management services suppliers use psychometric surveys to estimates the risk profile of a customer. Generally, the individual taking the test is asked to choose that option that best describes his response to the position out of the many options provided. The responses help the financial planners and wealth managers to insight how the person will react in a given situation. That is the basis of the individual's capacity to take risks. The survey minimizes the probability of wealth managers from being biased in the financial-planning process. An individual taking the test should be honest enough to select that option which best explains him.Read more about this aspect at: 

http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2011-04-21/news/29459327_1_wealth-managers-risk-profile-financial-planner

The biggest fallout of the big data revolution -- where every type of business gathers and analyzes data -- is a massive human resources shortage. Across the globe, thousands of data analytics jobs are not filled up because of a shortage of qualified manpower. Data analytics is not coding work but thinking work, described Dinesh Kumar, a professor of quantitative methods and information systems at the Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore. "The potential is huge, but we are behind in creating a talent pool," he said. Quality is a worry, and companies are finding it difficult to recruit top-class people, Kumar said. Data analytics as a job discipline became mainstream almost a decade ago, and the demand for trained professionals has been growing steadily since. Given India's reputation for the availability of professionals in varied disciplines at reasonable costs, global banks and financial services firms were the first to migrate their analytics work to India, followed by pharma and life sciences companies. Global retailers, consumer firms, logistics firms, consultancies, and engineering firms have all begun routing their data analytics work to IT services providers and specialized analytics service providers in India. In India, which has long been a hub for outsourced technology services work, the scarcity of analytics talent is particularly acute, as global companies send increasing numbers of data-related tasks to the country. To know more about this go to:

http://www.techrepublic.com/article/indias-high-demand-for-big-data-workers-contrasts-with-scarcity-of-skilled-talent/ .

Associations are always searching for approaches to help their clients. Better administration, modified items, and value certifications are simply a few ways that associations attempt to guarantee client dependability. For administration and information suppliers, be that as it may, it is not generally simple to give included esteem past the administration or information gave. The guarantee of more information and better perceive help guarantee client fulfilment by giving them the tools they have to addition included experiences. Non-profit, educational, and government organizations are illustrations of commercial ventures that have posted demographics or other explanatory information online for open utilization. This means associations create provisions that are inserted inside their answers that could be given as an administration to clients. This right to gain entrance to investigation assists furnish clients with more extensive experiences into their records, clients, patterns, reporting needs, and so on. Generally, associations incorporate these additional reporting or dismemberment capacities as an additional to the organizations or information successfully gave. To read more visit: http://midsizeinsider.com/en-us/article/using-embedded-analytics-enhanced-customer-experie#.U5_Dw_mSxvM 

This is the 21st century and here everyone expects more from business interactions. Call center analytics is an efficient and quick way to gauge its overall approach to Customer Relationship Management (CRM). Earlier, call recordings were thought to be an approach for analyzing customer demands. But due to its shortcomings like delays in recording and transcribing, has open doors to new methods. Every company seeks for newer methods to differentiate their customer service experience and optimizing it to the fullest level. A recent example is of Amazon Mayday Functionality which promises help from a real person with prior knowledge of functionality and the service is delivered with high quality video experience. With visual demonstrations it is easier to resolve the problems sometimes in matter of seconds. The greatest contribution for this technology is made by WebRTC supported on desktops and even android phones. It has proved itself successful providing the customers with the best they deserve. Read more about this aspect in Ashley Unitt (founder of NewVoiceMedia)'s article link: http://www.mewvoicemedia.com/blog/contace-centre-innovations

According to Gartner, more than 80 percent organizations will fail to develop a consolidated data security policy which will result in potential non-compliance, security breaches and financial liabilities. As big data is transforming the way of storing, processing and accessing data, so to avoid uncoordinated data security policies and security chaos Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) need to develop and manage an enterprise data security policy which will define data residency requirements, business needs, stakeholder responsibilities, data process needs and security controls. At first they need to evaluate current implementations of Data-centric Audit and protection solutions against data security policies, then they need to find out the gaps in the current implementation and finally review the risks with business stakeholders against those potential DCAP solutions. To do so, CISOs also need to build a good partnership with those stakeholders to develop a new management structure. Read more at:http://www.informationweek.in/informationweek/press-releases/296090/-centric-security-focus-gartner/

Big-data analytics impacts any organization economically, but often data scientists hope for benefits.The reality of where and how data analytics can improve performance varies across industries. Customer-facing activities- the greatest opportunities lie in telecommunications. Here, companies benefit by focusing on analytics models which optimize pricing of services, maximize marketing spending by predicting on where product promotions will be most effective, and identify ways for withholding customers. Internal applications- In industries, like transportation services, models focus on process efficiencies-optimizing routes. Hybrid applications- Some industries need both. Retailers use data to influence next-product-to-buy decisions and to choose the best location for new stores or to catch flows of products through supply chains. Companies operate along two horizons: capturing quick wins to build momentum while keeping sight of longer-term. Open data- swelling reservoirs of external data. Models are often improved combining these data with the existing ones for better business outcomes.. Read more at: 

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

In the present world, advertising is shifting towards digital media, and experts say that small business owners should keep up with that trend in spite of prevalence of billboards and newspapers ads. Whatever the product is, marketing the product to target customer is critical. With the limited budget advertising decisions should be taken wisely. According to Eric Schiffer (head of marketing firms' digitalmarketing.com and socialmediamarketing.com) "You can easily throw a lot of money down the drain if you don't think about the right strategy and right platforms". Owners can build a local business profile on either Facebook or Twitter, and they will be presented with buttons to "promote" or "advertise" their page. Using this process will enable the owners to identify and convert customers at far less cost compared to search based advertising. According to Sidney Smith "E-mail is still king, and building out your e-mail list is so important". Services such as ConstantContact, Vertical Response and iContact can be used to manage an e-mail marketing list. Companies uses GPS data to push coupons and deals via text messages to individuals near a store. To know more about usage of social media, e-mails, text messages and loyalty cards for advertising visit: 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/on-small-business/small-business-guide-how-to-invest-your-digital-advertising-dollars/2014/04/20/67f5ad6c-c4a7-11e3-bcec-b71ee10e9bc3_story.html  .

There are significant opportunities to make use of big data techniques. Unlike technology and consumer retail sectors in which advanced analytics has been implemented, it can also be used in other industries like insurance, health care, banking and public sector. In insurance, data can be aggregated from public sources and specialist data providers, allowing companies to better target customers and frame policies accordingly. Banks are increasingly using big data to generate a much deeper view of their customers, combining the information collected from all of customer's interactions with bank with selective third-party data like paying patterns for mobile phone bills, tracking trends on social media platforms such as Twitter. Read more about this aspect in Dominic Barton (global managing director at McKinsey & Co.)'s article link:http://blogs.wsj.com/experts/2014/03/28/sectors-where-big-data-could-make-an-impact/?KEYWORDS=analytics 

For the very first time in this computing era, it is made possible for machines to learn from experience and penetrate through the complexity of the data and identify associations between them, collectively known as cognitive analytics. This innovation works in a similar manner as of human brains. It processes information, draws conclusion and codifies behaviour and experience into learning. Cognitive analytics has the ability to process and understand exploding volumes of data in real time including data that may contain wide variations of format, structure, and quality. Instead of depending on predefined rules and structured queries to mine answers, cognitive analytics relies on systems that draw from a wide variety of potentially relevant information and connections to generate hypotheses. This process differs from traditional analysis in the way that more data is fed into a machine learning system, the system learns, which results in higher-quality insights and more accurate hypotheses. Read more at:http://deloitte.wsj.com/cio/2014/05/13/human-brain-inspires-new-cognitive-analytics/?KEYWORDS=analytics

There are three modes of services available for customers, namely e-mail, live chat, and phone. Each of them has their own positives and negatives. E-mails are cheapest,\ and extremely useful for connecting globally. If solutions are not required immediately this can be the best platform with clear and written solutions, which are transferable. Customers do not have to deal with foreign accents or “on hold” waiting. Customers feel their importance and in this way a number of customers can be handled simultaneously. On the other side phone calls are better for people who want immediate support and are less technological forward. They get the solutions immediately and feel that their business is being appreciated. A helpful voice can calm and assure customers. Internet connection is not required. The type of medium selected depends on the type of client one faces. Usually sue to the fact that there can be multiple types of customers providing different forms of consumer support mediums is usually the best solution. Read more at:http://ezinearticles.com/?Email,-Phone-Or-Live-Chat-Support---How-to-Best-Serve-Your-Customers&id=3518663

It will take several years for banks to implement the necessary changes to become customer-centric. They need to assess their operations, identify what needs to change, and then implement the changes and the systems to support them. After the 2008 crisis, customers have eschewed “too big to fail” institutions in favor of local banks. Customers realize they have multiple banking options, often selecting different institutions for different services. A customer with a credit card from a multinational may keep savings and checking accounts locally. Attracted by competitive interest rates, the same customer may apply for a loan or mortgage with a regional bank – or even an online institution.To increase their share of wallet with customers, banks must address three fundamental areas: organization, processes and technology. However, once they crack the code on how to deliver a better experience to customers, they will position themselves to seize phenomenal opportunities to engage with customers. Ultimately, that translates to higher revenues. To know more on why banks should embrace a customer-centric model go to:

http://www.banktech.com/business-intelligence/banks-must-embrace-a-customer-centric-mo/240166955 .

Today, companies have the option of collecting information about consumers which was never available in the past. This information is collected through internal sources, such as company websites and sales records, and external ones, such as social media, smartphones and tablets. This vast amount of information on consumers is increasingly referred to as big data. When a consumer visits a website for the first time, cookies are sometimes uploaded on his browser containing a unique ID, making it possible for the company to identify him during his next visits. Once identified, it will be possible to link the consumer to all information the company stored about his profile, which makes personalized marketing possible. Today, because of prescriptive analytics models embedded into their operational systems, websites and apps can analyze consumer information in real time in order to offer personalized travel options instantly. In the next few years, we will witness a gradual move to 1-to-1 marketing in the online travel category, with each consumer treated in a different way in terms of the whole marketing mix. To know more about this visit:

http://blog.euromonitor.com/2014/05/big-data-unique-ids-and-prescriptive-analytics-revolutionising-online-travel-marketing-part-1.html  .

Customer satisfaction is an important necessity for any organization to retain customers. Few basic rules of customer service includes firstly, integrity, the service provider should be honest and commit to the mistakes and also communicate ideas to correct such follies and such mistakes in future. Secondly, there is response time. It is essential that the customer service provider is able to explain the mistakes of the company through one to one communication or through e-mails in case of large customer circle in an effective way. Thirdly, there is realistic expectation. It is necessary that the consumers are satisfied with company's promises and delivery to retain customers in the long run. Thus, under promise and over deliver is the best policy. Fourthly we have respect. For customer satisfaction it is very important to respect and appreciate them and uphold their point of view. Hence these basic rules should be followed by any business house. Read more at :http://managementhelp.org/blogs/customer-service/2010/04/12/customer-service-basics/  

Service level, abandoned calls, productivity indicators, quality indicators, customer service are some of the key metrics typically used by a call center to measure data for customer complaints. For many businesses, retaining existing customers are cheaper than acquiring new customers. Customers become repeat purchasers usually because they believe that the services they buy are good value for money and the service they receive when contacting the firm is of optimal standard. Read more at:http://www.lieberandassociates.com/800_Number_Measurement_Metrics_Inbound_Customer_Service_Orders_Sales_Statistics.shtml