SigmaWay Blog

A data lake is a storage repository that holds a vast amount of raw data in its native format until it is needed. According to Gartner, the advantage of Data lakes is: helps in addressing the old and new problem by providing the relevant set of data for analyzing the situation. Disadvantages are:

• Lack of data quality.
• Security and access control.
• Data Lake requires proper infrastructure.

But using purpose built cloud systems security, access control and scalability problem can be solved, but data quality is not good.
 To know more about Data Lake and its advantage and disadvantages, read an article Data Lakes: Emerging Pros and Cons by Joe Panettieri. Link: http://www.information-management.com/news/Big-Data-Lakes-Cloud-Computing-Analytics-10026889-1.html

According to Kevan Lee (Content Crafter, Buffer), testing phase in a social media marketing is an important phase, which include "What to test" and "how to test." Some questions you should ask yourself while testing are:

• Which one thing you will be testing?
• What metric will be my best measurement of success?
• Do I have enough data to assume this result will be true and repeatable for everyone?

In this article, the author writes about some tips for improving social media marketing test. They are: testing one variable at a time, look at the right data, compare consistently and check for statistical significance. 

To know more about the test used for various social media marketing sites, read on: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/245478

For any business, demand forecasting is an important function. Demand Forecasting is the activity of estimating the quantity of a product or service that consumers will purchase in near future. It helps you to order inventory and arrange staff for fulfilling customers need.

According to Peter Daisyme (Co-founder of Hostt), some ways to make demand forecasting more accurate are:

• Use the right set of data for making decisions.
• Consider the variables like the seasonal trend, random trend, economic conditions, etc.
• Know your customers and business.
• Each year, you should refine your demand forecasting technique.
Read more at: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/244823

For long term survival of an organization, they need regular and loyal customers. According to Brian Horn (Author and Co-Founder of Authority Alchemy), for building long term relationships with your customers, an organization needs to build trust. Following are the ways to build relationship and brand loyalty: • Offering returning customers a discount on services.
• Giving rewards for references.
• Offering updates.
• Really caring about your customers.
Read more at: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/245439

According to a survey, for hiring a customer service worker, an employer approximately spend $8800 on hiring and training and 70% of customer service worker leave a job within 1year. Some steps for employee retention are: • Provide training to workers and motivate them.
• Evaluate the performance of the employees and give feedback.
• Implement the customer service training software.
• Give employee work from home choice, this will reduce cost per employee up to $2000.
Read more at: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/245524

According to Gideon Kimbrell (CEO of InList.com, Founder of Syragon), for developing a successful multi marketing strategy an organization need to follow some steps: • Take a decision with influencers or consultants who have experience. You can also choose social media influencers for posting information.
• Have complete knowledge about your customer’s behavior, which can be used in making marketing strategy and use CRM
• Business earns loyalty by engaging customers, so use high visibility placements.
• Asses your present and potential customers value.
For building a good marketing strategy, an organization needs to focus on the customer. Read more at: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/245360

Big Data as a Service (BDaaS) means outsourcing various big data functions to the cloud, which includes supply of data, analytical tools to interrogate and analysis the data. Advantages of outsourcing your analytical activities are:

·         Organizations can save money spent on components and infrastructure and time.

·         Storing large quantity of information requires an ongoing investment of time and resources.  But by using BDaaS, organizations can concentrate on business only.

·         When data is stored on a BDaaS service provider server they are responsible for it.

·         Pay only for services you use on the basis of time used or the cost of compliance and data protection.
Read more at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2015/04/27/big-data-as-a-service-is-next-big-thing/

Procurement officer works in the field of purchasing and focus on reducing costs for purchased material and services and thus ensuring timely delivery of goods and services. But, now their role is becoming more complex. They need to guard the brand name, use sustainable business practices and find innovative ways to develop new products and services. They also need to adopt a holistic strategy. Procurement officers need to establish collaborative outsourcing and service acquisition models and also need to find & nurture the next generation. Read more at: http://www.industryweek.com/procurement/procurement-2025-10-challenges-will-transform-global-sourcing

Change management is a systematic approach while dealing with change, both from the perspective of an organization and on an individual level. For successful change management an organization needs the satisfaction of employees. According to Jeffrey Liker (President, Liker Lead Advisors), most of the organizations are looking for lean transformation and they are facing problem while transforming as they focus in reasoning process. Read more at: http://www.industryweek.com/change-management/change-management-and-lean-transformation

According to Sujan Patel (Contributor), companies before analyzing big data, must understand the company's goals and mission. In a survey by Price Waterhouse Cooper, only 44% of companies feel that they have the right talent to capitalize big data. When any company chooses tool for data analytics, focus should be on team needs and solution and the team must know how to use that tool. Read more at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/sujanpatel/2015/04/22/how-fortune-500-companies-are-building-big-data-teams-and-how-startups-can-too/

According to Brian Sutter (Director of Marketing, Wasp Barcode), small business owner need to think strategically for long term survival. They should know how to use employee's time and skills effectively. Business should use CRM software for accessing customer data and analyze performance and business metrics for spotting pattern and trends. Small business owner need business intelligence tools for quick decision making, analyzing business opportunities and threats and improve management of the business. According to a recent report, 56% of small businesses plan to invest less than 3% of revenue on marketing. But, small organizations should use email marketing for maintaining long term relationship with customers. Read more at: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/245386

According to David Shulman (CEO of Digital Agency Organic Inc.), nurturing young talent is important. Young talent is important because the investment you make today will pay you in future. There should be a connection between all executives and employees. Juniors also should get a chance to work with senior staff. It's good to have a clear regulatory for employees, but the organization should promote and reward fresh and innovative ideas. Read more at:  http://adage.com/article/agency-viewpoint/effectively-manage-talent-life-cycle/298136/

According to Nicole Fallon (Assistant Editor of Business News Daily, there is a change in technological trends, health care and labor laws. According to Denise Lage (vice president of channel sales and strategic alliances at Condeco Software), generation Z doesn't want the distraction and value being productive and they are different from generation Y and cannot be treated same.  Further Claire Bissot (PHR and HR consulting manager at CBIZ) said that
“HR managers need to engage with staff not in paperwork, but also become real strategic thinkers”. Read more at: http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/7930-4-big-issues-affecting-tomorrow-s-workplace.html

According to Rick Frascona (senior content manager with MadValorem), digital marketing is one of the parts of real estate marketing strategy. Event-driven marketing and predictive analytics can lower costs of direct mail marketing. A Real estate agent can find customers who have a maximum probability of buying or selling houses with the help of predictive analytics.  According to the National Association of Realtors, 92% of homebuyers in 2014 used the internet to search for homes. Read more at: http://www.inman.com/2015/04/21/can-predictive-analytics-breathe-new-life-into-direct-mail-marketing/

According to McNett (CMRP, Life Cycle Engineering), KPI (key performance indicators) should contain objectives, source, performance criteria and action plan to be effective. KPI helps managers to evaluate a company's performance and spot weak points which need manager's attention. According to Michael Porter (strategy professor at the Harvard Business School), KPI should be related to organizational goals and strategy, so that an organization can have a sustainable growth. Strategic asset management plans help to convert organizational goals into asset management objectives. Asset management functions support the company's goals and objectives. So, KPI helps to achieve organizational asset management objectives. Performance and evaluation of assets not only include technical performance, but also the performance of the physical asset portfolio. Read more at: http://www.industryweek.com/maintenance/monitoring-asset-management-strategy-execution-kpis

According to a survey, the Indian fashion industry is likely to touch $77 billion in a next five year. To understand the changing customer behavior and have a competitive advantage, e-commerce firms and retailers can use analytics. In a research from Technopak, the share of apparels and lifestyle in e-commerce is likely to increase by 30% and e-commerce will contribute about 6% of apparel sales. Fashion industry faces a challenge of understanding customers want and require quick access to market dynamics.  E-Commerce in retail is increasing, and all channels, firms are looking for advanced analytics to understand consumer behavior. Read more at: http://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/data-analytics-can-help-retailers-know-consumer-behaviour-115042000358_1.html

According to Collen Jones (CEO of Content Science and co-founder of ContentWRX), big data help to identify new market opportunities and customers. But, most companies are facing problem with analyzing big data. Therefore, before analyzing big data, an organization also needs to analyze small data. • Understand your situation by collecting and analyzing the data.
• Interpreting the data you collected in a clear and compelling way
• Searching what to do next?
Collected Data should be focused on content and customers and should be accurate and reliable. And while searching what to do next try to find opportunities and threats.
To know more read at: http://www.cmo.com.au/article/573077/thinking-big-data-marketing-get-small-data-right-first/

According to Mary Shacklett (president of Transworld Data), organizations need big data and analytics capabilities for immediately transferring big data into actionable decisions. According to a Gartner September 2014 report, there is an increase in investment in big data by 64% from 2013. Jeff Kelley (Big data analytics analyst from Wikibon), says that “customers expect personalization when they visit websites, so companies need to develop analytical capabilities and in the long term apply real-time will grow as Internet of Things.” Preventive maintenance analytics can be developed, if data on the Internet to thing can be analyzed. To know more about real time analytics and Internet of Things read on:  http://www.techrepublic.com/article/surge-in-real-time-big-data-and-iot-analytics-is-changing-corporate-thinking/

Punk in Punk Analytics means working fearless and having an approach to ‘do-it-yourself way’. In the last few years with the rise of new technologies, we entered into the era of punk-style analytics. Some characteristics of punk analytics are:

• No barriers for information search, as you can download easily and free of cost.
• Mistakes are part of the process, but we can overcome by using analytics software and by having familiarity with the data.
• Fast and to the point is good.
• Idea should be transparent and it should have less processed time.
• Punk Analytics are basically concentrating on the issues of the moment, as it is the starting point for active exploration.
•   Working collaboratively is important to achieve a common goal.
To know more about punk analytics follow the article link of James Richardson (Business Analytics Strategist at Qlik): http://www.itproportal.com/2015/04/19/rise-punk-analytics/

According to Mike Proulx (Executive VP-director of Digital Strategy), social media marketing is also known as advertising. Social media marketing is also called paid marketing, as brands have to pay for showing the messages to target audience. Dick Costolo (Twitter), say that out of 20 tweets 1 is an advertisement. Brands are using social media for marketing as it more automated, targeted, instant, shareable and optimized. There are several ways to use social media marketing for advertising which are as follows:

• Open your wallet
• Play Blackjack
• Show Restraints
• Measure what matters
• Connect the dots
Read more at: http://adage.com/article/digitalnext/social-media-advertising/297841/