SigmaWay Blog

Cloud providers are striving hard to earn profits. Some are comparing this situation to the infamous dot-com bubble of the 2000s which was characterized by the growth of various internet companies despite suffering from huge losses. There are multiple reasons behind these struggles like few believe that it is the result of over emphasizing on investments in sales and marketing while others argue that cloud providers cut down prices due to constant price wars. It is always necessary for IT workers to have an exit strategy so that they can get their data out of cloud whenever the need arises. Therefore, backups of critical apps and data should be kept at secured locations as they are crucial for running businesses.

Read more at: https://channels.theinnovationenterprise.com/articles/lack-of-profits-a-troubling-sign-for-cloud-providers

Although most modern enterprises run on data, it becomes useless if we cannot derive intelligence from it. Data includes all the information that is available including raw facts about companies and individuals. Intelligence is when we look at the data and try to find a relation to better interpret challenges and opportunities in the market. Insight with data and intelligence deals in adjusting strategies in response to the market. To develop predictive models about the market, we need intelligence and insight alongside data. Raw data is often mistaken for insights. For smarter decisions, internal and external data sets should be used as starting points and then create intelligence to draw sensible insights. To know more:  http://www.smartdatacollective.com/ray-renteria/327508/data-does-not-equal-intelligence-predictive-analytics-enterprise

Media companies are taking advantage of advanced analytics and technology in order to increase their sales. Hence it allows advertisers to foresee what ROI they might anticipate from an investment in different channels and how this basically generates revenue. Advertisers are also interested about the exact efforts that they need to pursue to improve the results.

Daniel Kehrar (VP Marketing, MarketShare) in his article on Forbes indicated the five rationales which led media companies to move towards performance-based selling and they are as follows-                       

* Advertisers are under greater security.

* Brands are growing accustomed to analytics.

* The technology to accurately and cost-effectively predict advertiser outcomes is here.

* Advertisers want more.

* Better data and analysis brings greater credibility.

 For further details on this study, please follow the link: http://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesinsights/2015/06/25/4-ways-analytics-are-helping-media-companies-sell-outcomes-over-eyeballs/

As the amount of data being generated daily is increasing, sales teams are now using analytics to boost sales. Several factors should be kept in mind while doing this like choosing the right set of data. The sales team may be lead astray when wrong data sets are chosen leading to drawing wrong conclusions. Choosing the right metric and making correct assumption is also crucial. Data on compensation can also provide insights into how sales can affect individuals or a group. Using this data and applying predictive analytics, one can easily forecast future performance and accordingly plan sales process. Read more at:http://www.cmswire.com/digital-marketing/dont-let-data-blind-your-sales-team/

Data is the most important thing for marketing today and most marketers understand this pretty well. Simply collecting data won't help. It should be able to tell a story. Insights derived from data are very important. Data should be able to help marketers identify their customers and the appropriate offers for them. In an organization, every department holds some data on customers. The first task of the marketer is to get rid of data silos and gather all the marketing data at one place. Once this is done, robust analytics tools can be applied to the data to generate a singular customer view. Read more at: http://www.business2community.com/big-data/marketers-big-data-worth-01263023

Gaining insight from marketing databases is proving to be a tedious task for today's marketers. A recent survey has revealed that applying the accurate solutions to analyze and interpret data is the biggest challenge being faced by businesses today. To mitigate these problems, marketers can consider using marketing data management services. With the help of these services data consistency and completeness can be achieved without putting in much manual effort. Extracting insights from marketing databases leads to improvement of clarity and insight on target buyers. Once marketers are able to identify prospective consumers, they can create content that are personalized in nature and hits the targeted consumers. Read more at: http://www.business2community.com/big-data/you-love-data-but-your-teams-not-so-hot-for-it-three-tips-to-get-them-on-board-01259909

With increasing number of data breaches, companies should now take necessary steps to combat it. Phishing, though a fairly old method, is the most common method of attacking companies. Emails which contain phishing methods should be identified, filtered and prevented from hitting inboxes. Spam filters are already doing this task to a great extent, but creating flagging system that can filter out the necessary emails through human logging works better. Systems should be upgraded to prevent from being vulnerable to malware and malicious cyber-attacks. Misuse of system and human error should be prevented to prevent hacking. The most important way of protecting system from attacks is by educating people who use it in the best ways to protect it. Read more at: https://channels.theinnovationenterprise.com/articles/data-breaches-aren-t-changing-but-you-should

Analytics are now being deployed by sports clubs to buy new players. With the huge amount of data being generated, selling clubs are now looking for ways to increase the chance of their players being bought for more money and buying clubs are looking for ways to assess the potential of new players. Analytics comes into play here. Clubs are now using data to assess the potential of new players, with efforts being devoted to developing data programmes to accomplish this task. There are several companies who offer this kind of service, but a significant number of clubs have outdone, these companies with their hiring process by carrying out deeper analysis and using metrics. Read more at: https://channels.theinnovationenterprise.com/articles/data-in-player-transfers-in-the-premier-league

Big data and big data analytics has been a trend setter in recent years. Unlike the traditional cause-effect analysis, big data analytics generate predictions based on huge volumes of data, using statistical tools and advanced computing techniques. An interesting case study on the use of big-data analytics was the prediction of a flu pandemic in the United States by simply analyzing Google search data. The spread of the disease was detected before any medical organization or national agency, simply on the basis of people frequently searching Google for the symptoms and remedy of flu. Big data analytics enables us to generate reliable analyses, even in the absence of clear links or causes. To know more read:http://www.forbes.com/sites/huawei/2015/02/24/how-do-big-data-analytics-enhance-network-security/

The emergence of analytics in business has also contributed extensively in the field of talent management. Talent analytics has become an important area in both consulting firms and corporations. Not only it helps in acquiring and attracting new talent but also helps in talent utilization and maximization of organizational performance. In earlier days talent management was done by managers who trust their “intuition” or “common sense”, which led to bias and wrong decisions. But thanks to the development of information technology and availability of expertise in the field of data analytics, talent management is following a scientific path and a better system of workforce management.To know more read:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/edwardlawler/2015/05/20/talent-analytics-old-wine-in-new-bottles/

According to Narendra Mulani (senior managing director of Accenture Analytics), to survive in this competitive world organization need analytics to analyze opportunities and threats to their business. But now the question arises how to use analytics into their organization. Most of the organizations get stuck in applying analytics. So, the author discussed about the steps to simplify their analytics strategy and generate real outcomes. Some of them are:

• Accelerate the data.
• Delegate the work to your analytics technologies.
• Recognize that each path to data insight is unique.
Ways to delegate the work to your analytics technologies are: Next-Gen Business Intelligence (BI) and data visualization; data discovery; analytics applications; machine learning and cognitive computing. Read more at: https://hbr.org/2015/06/simplify-your-analytics-strategy

Companies now are emphasizing on converting data into action as quickly as possible. This is being done by unifying the databases used for operational applications with those used by analysts. This leads to continuous up gradation of models and adjustment of business functions as things are happening. Information is essential in a number of areas, targeted marketing being one of them. Due to the advent of online shopping and real-time processing of data, retailers are now being able to sell their goods at unadvertised low prices, without loss of profits, to customers who leave their website without purchasing the goods in their cart. In these cases, data handling and extracting data to deliver real-time actionable analytics is a challenge. Read more at: http://channels.theinnovationenterprise.com/articles/driving-real-time-decision-making-with-business-analytics

When it comes to the Internet of Things (IoT), one of the biggest challenges is managing the data created by devices and their flow in and out of the system a developer creates. This data is vital for an efficient system. The initial step is where the data is created and enters the Internet. In the second step, a central system holds on to this data, organizing it constantly. In the third stage old data is sore for future needs. NoSQL platforms like Cassandra are a suitable fit for IoT systems. Distributed database systems like Cassandra have no 'primary' server that controls the rest. Each node in a cluster can handle the incoming transactions. Read at:  http://www.wired.com/2015/03/internet-things-data-go/

According to the NetProspex report based on the analysis of 223million records in the database of B2B companies, most of the their marketing and selling database lacks in providing key information about prospects and customers. According to the report, 84% of the records don’t have revenue information. 82% of the records were missing with employee information. 72% of the B2B companies didn’t include website domain. 54% of the records did not include a phone number of customers and many were inaccurate. To know more about NetProspex report, please follow this link: http://www.marketingprofs.com/charts/2015/27711/the-state-of-b2b-marketing-data

According to Jason Bowden (a contributor to Business 2 Community), branding is a means by which a company is able to build their own identity and to communicate what their products and services are. In order to promote branding, brand managers always try to point out that their marketing campaign's focus is on consumers. These brand companies can learn more about their target customers with the help of big data analysis. The entry of data provides plentiful information that helps these companies in determining the various aspects that will yield better profit. Big data provide a window of opportunity for brand companies to know what products their target customers want. By instilling big data analytics, it is easier for marketers to know about their competitors and thus improve their digital marketing. There are other benefits in using big data. To know more about these benefits, follow: http://www.business2community.com/big-data/infusion-brand-marketing-big-data-analytics-0994537

Several financial services clients currently are successfully building a robust suite of information platforms to offer a superior variety of resources for its researchers. With a unique platform that offers value to users, the job of researchers to help clients with current, assorted needs for market data is enhanced. The need for robust information platform is clearly due to a continual demand for market data. Other than the immediate availability of the data, researchers also need the data to be presented in a complimentary layout that boosts the usability of the data, which is a principal requirement of platform functionality. Read more at: http://blog.marketresearch.com/how-market-research-solutions-complement-financial-services-firms%E2%80%99-existing-data-resources

Cloud computing has become very popular in the last few years and many of the market researchers believe it to be the future but only if the security problems are eradicated. Not only businesses but also regular internet users are looking forward towards cloud computing through various ways like that of Dropbox, Google Docs and more to access their files in a fast, cheap and efficient manner. But this is one side of it. On the other hand experts are worried about the lack of data security it offers and the high risks of hacking involved. A recent survey reveals that 80 percent of the experts are suspicious on using cloud computing due to its security reasons. Cloud computing is at its nascent stage and it shall be given time so that the providers can improve over its security issues and to expand its usage freely in the coming future. Read more at: http://www.techtimes.com/articles/8449/20140615/cloud-computing-is-the-future-but-not-if-security-problems-persist.htm http://www.techtimes.com/articles/8449/20140615/cloud-computing-is-the-future-but-not-if-security-problems-persist.htm

Want to know more about future car! The car of the future is going to drive itself, brake itself, park itself and it will be a part of a worldwide communication system which will be based on 4G. It will gather and communicate data. It will be more like a Facebook-style personalized experience to drivers. Gil Golan, director of GM's Advanced Technical Center (ATC) in Israel, has also come up with a prototype of the future car. GM is aggressively pursuing the smart car market. To know more details on General Motor's future vision, go through the article by David Shamah, writer about Israeli technology.

http://www.zdnet.com/big-data-4g-and-life-saving-sensors-gms-vision-of-the-smart-car-future-7000023029/

"This is the dirty secret of the analytics world - that there are so many errors" - Velamakanni, CEO, Fractal Analytics. Company politics, bad data and inefficient analysis are affecting many organizations, leading to some wrong conclusions. To know more about this aspect, follow the article by Toby Wolpe, senior reporter at ZDNet in London:

http://www.zdnet.com/lies-damned-lies-and-big-data-how-firms-get-analytics-wrong-and-how-to-get-it-right-7000023476/

While various Analytics softwares help you to track & get basic traffic and visitor data, they also have few yet hazardously significant holes. There are many reasons for getting irrelevant, non required and Null/missing data. Some examples of the areas from which you might be getting conflicting data are Internal Traffic, Direct Traffic, Mobile Traffic, Private Browsing Traffic, Keyword Traffic, Social Media etc.

To know more, visit the following link:

http://blog.kissmetrics.com/what-analytics-is-hiding/