Business Intelligence is nowadays becoming significant for organizations of all sizes as it provides real time insight into company’s data, which in turn ensures that growth and savings opportunities are not missed at all. It is a fact that data provide valuable information that organizations can use to make better decisions improve productivity and boost revenues. But, sometimes adopting business intelligence can be a challenge. Many organizations accept that it is critical to their success but find hard to implement it. Recent research revealed that 9 out of 10 B2B companies were in the same dilemma. But, choosing the right tool, investing in the right training, confirming the right deployment and increasing user adoption are some ways by which you can easily overcome with the right strategy. Read more at: https://it.toolbox.com/blogs/itvoices/five-steps-to-implementing-a-business-intelligence-bi-strategy-040918

The future of CRM is all about Artificial Intelligence chatbots which will help in transforming these platforms and enable sales and marketing teams to respond in a better way to their customers. This article link by Will Kelly, Tech writer and analyst, tells us about the five reasons why the future of CRM will include bots and their importance. 1. Enable Bot-to-Bot Scheduling Across Your Teams, 2. Promote Self-service CRM, 3. Automate Customer Support Services, 4. Improve Lead Scoring, and 5. Integration of a chatbot into your CRM system can help solve the problem of data loss. Read more at: https://it.toolbox.com/blogs/willkelly/5-reasons-why-the-future-of-crm-includes-bots-032718

Arduino is usually an open source electronics platform accompanied with a hardware and software so that anyone can design, develop and test complex electronics prototypes and products. Besides, the hardware consists of a micro controller with other electronic components which generally can be programmed using the software to do almost any task.

What makes Arduino different from others is the simplicity of the Arduino language that helps to write complex codes easily. Arduino is said to be an excellent designed open source platform where specially designed boards which can be programmed using the Ardunio Programming Language or APL.

Nowadays, the presence of Arduino is not only spreading among hobbyists, but it is also expanding its roots in different sectors and used by experts for making prototypes of commercial products. To know more, read: https://www.engineersgarage.com/articles/arduino

To experience it live, you can join the workshop by registering yourself at: http://www.gosigmaway.com/events/robotics-iot/robotics-embedded-system/44-robosigma-arduino-4-beginners-workshop.html

These days, artificial intelligence becoming very common in everyday life. Some people can feel scary with the rise of AI technology especially machine learning. But, at the same time, it is also very exciting and has the capability to make the world a better and safer place. The author, Mark Blitz, an analyst, takes us through the five most important and practical applications of machine learning that are currently making an impact. They are driver less technology, facial recognition & security, law enforcement, healthcare and language translation. Read more at: https://it.toolbox.com/blogs/markblitz/the-5-hottest-practical-applications-of-machine-learning-022218

The year 2017 was a great year for mobile apps and mobile app analytics. According to a research, it was found that the number of app downloads grew to almost 200 billion over 2017 and revenues from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store rose 35% percent. It is also found that in the holiday season of 2017 more people did their holiday shopping on mobile than on desktop. The most important factor in the mobile industry is the app analytics as it helps to monitor crashes, improve usability, increase user retention, optimize mobile marketing and advertising, thereby giving developers the data they need to create an app. Read more at: https://www.business2community.com/mobile-apps/mobile-app-analytics-2018-stand-02031060

Sourcing and recruiting is the main task of any recruiting company. But, the recruiting organization need to attain a deep understanding of talent. At present, there are several ways to evaluate applicants, but at the end, recruiters and hiring managers have always had to hire with a hope the candidate will perform well and this can be costly. That is why predictive analytics is needed to employ the right candidate as it improves ROI on new hires, sets new hires up for success, builds institutional confidence by reducing turnover, increases time to hire and saves recruiters time. Read more at: https://www.business2community.com/human-resources/what-are-predictive-analytics-02030925

These days, the cryptocurrency market is gathering attention not because of the rise in the value of Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Litecoin, and other digital tokens. But, the primary technology that makes cryptocurrency transaction has seen important development which means that the future of the blockchain has arrived. Blockchain solutions have already entered real estate and healthcare industry. The blockchain and distributed ledger technology is upcoming  in the field of financial technology. Read more at: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/understanding-crm/the-importance-of-blockchain-technology-in-the-modern-enterprise-79183

Proper call centers must have an efficient balance between customer experience (CX) and user experience (UX). UX is the experience with the product, while CX is the review of the interaction with the brand. UX is a subset of CX. CX envelopes a wider scope of experiences. A bad UX with a good CX can be seen as a good experience overall, but a bad CX and a good UX is seen as a bad experience. Despite covering wider area, CX has some dependence on UX as well. Firms should aim at optimum CX, involving best UX via its services. Read more at: https://www.ameyo.com/blog/building-a-modern-day-contact-center-where-ux-meets-cx

Recent reports tell us that artificial intelligence will change business, and chat bots might be one of the first rollers of this game-changing technology that will make its way to consumers. According to a research, it was found that the global bot services market is expected to grow from 458.4 million today to 1,783.9 million by 2022. Here are five ways that bots will affect CRM soon. They are: Bots as sales staff, Automatic social media interaction, CRM access across more channels, routing and directly handling customer interactions, improved efficiency. Read more at: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/insidecrm/how-chatbots-will-change-crm-78997

You can improve user engagement by using your customer relationship management (CRM) platform. It should become an ongoing process as new features are available, and your business thereby can improve your sales and marketing practices. Here are some ways to improve user engagement with your CRM solution: Involve Stakeholders at All Levels in the Design of the CRM Solution, Roll Out Features Incrementally, develop a CRM Journey for Users, Provide CRM Training Support, reward your CRM Advocates and Power Users and Promote Information Sharing Within the CRM User Base. Read more at: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/insidecrm/improve-crm-user-engagement-78815

It is reported that 61% of small and mid-sized businesses found that more than half of their revenue comes from repeat customers rather than new business. You should not ignore the future revenue potential of an existing customer. There are some distinct advantages in strengthening relationships with current customers. A 5% increase in customer retention can increase a company’s profitability by 75%. The advantages of existing customers are: Important for up-selling and cross-selling opportunities; Less focused on price than new customers; Already confident and trusting in your ability to solve their problems; and often willing to become brand ambassadors. Customer relationship management (CRM) systems can help you to move prospects from lead to close by a simple dashboard adjustment. Read more at: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/insidecrm/use-your-crm-application-to-build-repeat-customer-sales-78814

As per a survey, it was found that 39% say that social networks provide the main inspiration for their purchases. Customers are already there actively engaged in conversations about your brand and your competitors. You should notice whether they are complaining or recommending or asking questions about you. You have to find the answers, solutions, and resolutions they need on their chosen platforms. Social customer relationship management helps you to integrate traditional CRM tools with real-time updates so that you can gather data and find solutions with your customers and prospects. Read more at: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/insidecrm/moving-from-social-media-to-social-crm-78781

Business Intelligence or BI is all about the data. The ability to consume data in a systematic format empowers any team to understand their business better. New insights acquired through a BI tool can be used as a spotlight on challenges that was previously difficult to pinpoint. Businesses using BI technology nowadays also understand how to make changes to inefficient processes that result in significant positive impacts to their company’s bottom line. Many projects require additional requirements. One common request is the need for real time data. This is crucial when you are making important business decisions based on the data you are pulling. Read more at: http://www.business2community.com/business-intelligence/real-time-data-2015-anytime-data-counts-01937693#GmjO9761ycdido3d.97

Nowadays, Enterprise Resource Planning has become an integral part of the business and ERP vendors are also continuously coming up with less complex and more inexpensive options. The author here explores how the new trends of ERP that can help organizations extract the maximum mileage out of their ERP solutions. They trends are: Cloud ERP, user friendly experience, mobile ERP, flexibility, security, business intelligence and social ERP. Read more at: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/inside-erp/7-emerging-erp-trends-78717

While choosing a CRM system, it is important to decide whether you want it to be hosted locally or in the cloud. Both the approaches have their advantages and disadvantages but both offer you with lot of choices. Local CRM can give you more control about everything and offer capital-based payment system. In local CRM, you are responsible for all the maintenance and takes time, effort and expenses. On the other hand, Cloud-based CRM can take most of the administrative load off your organization and tends toward an operating expense method of payment. It can offload most of the administrative effort and maintenance on to the service provider and the overall effort is much less. Read more at: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/insidecrm/cloud-or-local-choosing-your-crm-system-78708

We are moving towards a new enterprise resource planning (ERP) digital transformation with the introduction of blockchain technology, also known as a digital ledger i.e. distributed database behind cryptocurrency. Several businesses are nowadays adopting blockchain as a trusted system through which to share records with partners. This is where the blockchain enter the enterprise. Read more at: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/inside-erp/when-erp-meets-blockchain-78538

Small, independent insurance agencies must stay competitive by investing in technologies including CRM systems.  Smaller insurance agents are not in a good place due to their lack of leverage to negotiate with large carriers, thereby missing the financial resources to invest in IT upgrades. So, agencies are focusing on their connections with carriers, accounting procedures and the generation of new business. CRM is playing a big role in helping to automate this. Read more at: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/insidecrm/crm-delivering-a-competitive-edge-for-insurance-agencies-78529

You should select the right projects for your CRM so that you have a positive return on your investment. It is found that many of the things CRM will let you do won’t show a positive payoff. Others will show long-term benefits that is worth doing. You should choose the projects as a lot of CRM projects are started because they sound like a good idea, without a careful consideration of costs and benefits. Therefore, the projects fail wasting efforts and time. The most important question you should to ask before starting a CRM or any other kind project is “Is it worth doing the project?” Usually a lot of people skip this step and end up wasting time and resources on projects that never pays off. Read more at: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/insidecrm/is-it-worth-it-selecting-the-right-projects-78498

Artificial Intelligence technology usually uses algorithms to analyze data and then uses this data to spot trends and irregularities. It can also analyze huge data sets much faster than any data analyst, thus, proving an efficient tool for businesses. This article explores the ways that A.I. applications can be applied in multiple areas of your business today. Read more at: http://www.sage.com/za/business-resources/essential-reading/5-practical-artificial-intelligence-applications-to-support-your-business

Nowadays, CRM is surrounding marketing, customer service, business intelligence and several other functions. Some CRM systems can also be transformed into enterprise resource planning solutions with the use of apps and third-party add-ons. CRM has come a long way and now can include artificial intelligence, automation, data enrichment through aggregation of contact information from other sources. This article explores some tips for getting more from CRM. They are:

1.       Automate processes and data entry

2.       Clear the clutter of unnecessary data fields

3.       Integrate customer behavior

4.       Use activity management within the CRM

5.       Revisit integrations frequently

6.       Implement automation

Read more at: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/insidecrm/6-tips-for-getting-the-most-from-your-crm-78266