SigmaWay Blog

A B2B based Cloud network called AutoDX (Auto Data Exchange) was recently implemented by IBM for Indian Auto industry. This electronic data exchange platform reduces the auto industry's transaction costs by 80%. This is useful because until this deployment the whole auto industry was using manual processes which were very inefficient. AutoDX is an example of how organizations in the same domain can come together and share cloud to reap benefits. Such cloud platforms can be useful as cloud has potential to reduce costs. To know more, go through Vipin Chandran (Member of Integration Services team of IBM DemandTec)'s article link: http://www.indiaonward.com/how-beneficial-could-a-multi-tenant-private-cloud-be/

According to Ajay Kulkarni (the development leader of Social Business and Digital Experience portfolio at IBM India Software Labs) there are numerous challenges in reforming the Retail sector even though it is currently going through an incredible change technology-wise. The first one is FDI in Multi-Brand Retail. The main argument against Retail FDI is loss of jobs. The second is the co-existence of global supermarkets and small Kirana shops. Traders in Kirana stores, vegetable shops and even consumers use easy Social Media tools like Skype and WhatsApp. However, they need to be more equipped to face competition. The e-retail business in India is still nascent but is growing at a fast pace with the help social media platforms. Read more at: http://www.indiaonward.com/social-business-will-transform-the-indian-retail-industry/

Enterprise cloud computing provides a clear path to CRM success. Today, however there are at least two major problems in operating with highly data-driven intelligence. Firstly, CRM databases start empty and secondly it isn't very intelligent. It is therefore time to re-imagine how businesses operate. In a world where we have lot of data points, outcomes should be accurately predicted. The next generation of CRM should monitor website updates, news, public filings, social networks, technology vendors, job openings and new hires. To know more, go through Jamie Grenney (Vice President of Marketing at Infer)'s article link: http://gigaom.com/2013/09/02/what-will-crm-look-like-in-2015/

According to Sorcha Corcoran(Managing Editor at Whitespace Publishing Group), around eight years ago a division within Irish Life in Dublin decided to embrace Six Sigma which turned out to be a key driver of innovation. Six Sigma is a set of techniques and tools required for process improvement.The company found Six Sigma training useful because they came up with loads of fresh ideas.  Opportunities and problems are then picked up by the innovation team. This combined with market and customer research has helped them to drive specific innovations. Read more at: http://www.isixsigma.com/share.php?site=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.businessandleadership.com%2Fleadership%2Fitem%2F47367-six-sigma-driving%2F

What is the requirement of the IT certification skill? It is a recognized benchmark based on standardized skill, which shows a person's knowledge and dedication on a particular technological platform. This certification helps to group the person with a selected group of individuals. Having an IT certification gives a person an edge over others when it comes to hiring. In a volatile economic environment it helps a person to retain his/her job. Also helps a person to climb up the corporate ladder in his/her career. With the help of the certification a person can join a group of unique members which will improve his/her networking skills. It also enhances professional credibility. In some cases, organizations require certified associates and staff, so having a certificate will also be helpful for the company. In some scenarios, customers only want to work with companies that have certified individuals. Earning an IT certification on a new product can make a person a subject matter expert in his/her organization. Certifications may be the best way of rewarding one's efforts. IT certification ensures that corporate professionals are up to date with existing and new technologies. Read more at:

http://www.informationweek.in/informationweek/news-analysis/297740/certifications-benefits/page/1

63% of IT pros said that they would not consider a candidate for employment if they saw one to five social media comments about that company and 68% IT leaders said they would not consider a candidate if they saw a single negative social media post about his or her current employer, as seen by the TEKsystems survey. Social media plays a very important role in IT hiring. 68% IT leaders use social media to search for candidates and 82 percent use it to screen them. LinkedIn was rated as the top source for finding prospective employees. Facebook was second with 9%. 75% of IT pros rely on social media with 67% citing LinkedIn as the best source for finding jobs. Facebook came in second at 12%, followed by Google Plus at 7%. Read more at:

http://www.informationweek.in/informationweek/news-analysis/297739/social-media-matters-hiring

Internet of things (IoT) is helping in monitoring the weather by gathering as much data as possible about the weather so that some idea is obtained about how the weather is evolving in different regions. IoT provides detailed data and makes it feasible to locate hundreds or even thousands of sensors per square mile in populated areas. Many weather forecasting apps are also available. One such app comes from Weather Signal, a brainchild of Open Signal, producing a live crowd source weather map which can be viewed by anyone. The BloomSky Tian is used for a more consistent set of measurement in weather forecasting. It uses Wi-Fi to connect to a home network and also has a camera to take pictures. Both these options are there for consumers, but IoT options are also there for civic and professional use. One such option is available from Envirologger. Read more at:

http://www.informationweek.in/informationweek/news-analysis/297673/monitoring-weather-internet

According to Brian Cantor (Managing Editor and community Director of IQPC's Customer Management IQ), businesses develop and put into operation strategies without truly trying to understand who their customers are and what they want, thus producing suboptimal customer experiences. The question is does a customer actually want to engage in long, personalized calls to identify and resolve a business issue?  A customer may not be supportive in all cases.  But a business that ignores the desires of their customers cannot be called customer-centric. Being alert of this problem, the author discussed this situation and was exposed to some of the factors that "normal people" value when it comes to customer service.  They are as follows: availability of full service 24/7 and quick resolution-because time is money and effort is money.  Read more at: http://www.callcenter-iq.com/customer-experience/articles/what-normal-people-think-about-customer-service/

IMS Health, a leading international information and technology services company, provides clients in the healthcare industry with comprehensive solutions to measure and improve their performance by using anonymous healthcare data to deliver critical, real-world disease and treatment insights. Recently, it announced the immediate availability in the U.S. of IDN Impact - a solution to measure, compare and prioritize the influence of Integrated Delivery Networks (IDNs) on life sciences brands. Combining a unique data set of IDN influence metrics with business intelligence software and local market analysis, IDN Impact enables life sciences organizations to effectively shape and execute their commercial engagement actions. Read more at: http://www.imshealth.com/portal/site/imshealth/menuitem.c76283e8bf81e98f53c753c71ad8c22a/?vgnextoid=3edfb0cfe6228410VgnVCM10000076192ca2RCRD&vgnextchannel=5ec1e590cb4dc310VgnVCM100000a48d2ca2RCRD&vgnextfmt=default

According to author Avneet Gupta (Country Manager, IBM Collaboration Solutions, IBM India), with advancement in technology and workforce dynamics, organizations today are totally focused on socially-enabling business developments. By rethinking and reworking the existing processes through a social business lens, the workforce gets more involved, operative and productive thereby delivering great returns for organizations. The biggest concern is therefore to better understand employees along with supervising the transformational changes required for constant innovation and alteration of the workforce. The progressive organizations globally have already invested in adapting to social changes for smarter workforce. Read more at: http://www.indiaonward.com/the-power-of-rethinking-the-work-through-a-social-business-lens/

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

A European Telecommunications company wanted to lower its customer service operation costs but worried from the loss of revenue by doing so. In investigating its options, the company learned that 70 percent of existing customer-service contacts could be delivered through digital solutions that had proved effective in other industries. E-care involves the delivery of customer service via web-based user accounts, social networks, mobile phone, and the Internet rather than call centers or facilities open to the public. Such digital services are increasingly demanded by customers, who are already using digital platforms to research and review products, as well as broadcast their service frustrations. And it makes sense from a financial perspective, too. It has the potential to significantly lower the cost of customer service operations while increasing customer satisfaction. Not only this, but e-care also brings a company closer to its customers. Adopting e-care is worth the effort and that virtually every consumer-facing industry that has high customer-relationship needs can benefit from it. Read more at: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/marketing_sales/why_companies_should_care_about_ecare

Social media screening has become common among recruiters and hiring any official and also in many college admissions. It is primarily focused on job candidates and employers, but it can be applied to students, athletes, admissions offices and coaches as well. Employers are "googling" job candidates and searching social networking sites as part of their pre-employment background checks, and admissions counselors and coaches are using similar practices to make acceptance decisions about prospective students and athletes. An article in New York Times reveals that the reasons to reject - and accept - students based on their social media activity are similar to those used by employers. Read more at: http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/social-media-screening-guidance-individuals-and-organizations-slideshare

A computer technology company wanted an automatic solution to classify customer problems and complaints that were posted on the company's Tech Forums as well as agent transcripts associated with customer calls that were stored in databases. It wanted a "text mining and codification engine" to which Natural Language Processing could be applied to categorize conversations automatically and thus aid Microsoft in analyzing text data objectively and quantitatively. The solution provided had four major milestones: Data Access, Data Loading, Classification Design, Development Accuracy, and Validation Accuracy. The text mining framework provided was able to categorize the texts automatically into five stages of classification. Thus with the assurance of accurate results, the company was able to take quick informed decisions based on customer feedback. Read more at: http://analyticsindiamag.com/advanced-text-mining-by-extracting-insights-from-various-forums-helps-in-addressing-and-analyzing-customer-feedback/

According to author Shreya Sharma, with Big Data becoming an essential part of an organization, it is getting harder to balance it with data privacy. Marketers should be clear about the data they are collecting and make sure that data storage and security infrastructure are safeguarded, otherwise it can have serious effects on the company as most consumers expect a company to protect their personal data, and their consuming behavior depends on this. It is therefore crucial to bear a high level of awareness with regards to the significance of data privacy and protection. The responsibility should be seen as norm and not just be restricted to people who are directly involved in mining big data. To know more, please follow: http://analyticsindiamag.com/in-action-how-companies-should-follow-a-data-centric-security-approach/

According to Tracey E. Schelmetic (TMCnet Contributor), many small organizations with contact centers that could have improved their services to customers by using analytics were earlier forced out of competition. They were unable to bear the high capital costs of instigating such solutions unlike big companies with greater access to large amounts of data resources that have been able to use analytics solutions to run their businesses more efficiently. However today, cloud-based analytics solutions are helping even the smallest contact centers by turning all the communications with customers into useful data that can be used to provide better analytical solutions in the customer support operations thereby, leading to superior customer satisfaction ratings. Read more at: http://www.tmcnet.com/channels/workforce-optimization/articles/383244-smaller-companies-reaping-large-rewards-from-contact-center.htm

 A number of companies are creating new avenues for revenue generation by thinking out of the box and encouraging amateur-made catchy videos on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. This approach helps to nurture talent. Famebox, a company supported by Malaysia's Astro Group, is on a project where it aims to create "webstars" and make profits in an unconventional way, by making videos go viral so that they bring in at least a million hits. Revenue can also be generated by sharing with YouTube but it depends on the sponsorships from brands that are looking to advertise on social media. According to Kunal Rao, co-creator of The East India Comedy, the shift to online media for satire and commentary is due to the rising censorship on TV channels. To know more, read at: http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2014-08-16/news/52873607_1_video-online-social-media-viral

Ideas like appointment and dimension mean lots to several public. We listen to experts asking us  to interrelate with all our admirers, that social media is concerning one-on-one communications in order to be winners. So, can big brand make social media meeting? Are the experts practice  similar for the brand with 500 admirers as for the brand with five million or more? The answer may be yes and no. The solution to the conversation has to do with level, which is the most misread concepts in advertising. level has to deal with percentage and size. When a little school tries to duplicate a social media movement by a superior school, it possibly doesn't be unsuccessful because the audiences are dissimilar in demographics, requirements, or online behavior. So what happens when we are too big to help with every admirer? The key is to range the plan and not the tactic.Read more at:http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/how-big-brands-build-social-media-engagement

Facebook along with market research agency GfK commissioned a study, according to which more than 60 percent of adults in the US use at least two devices every day, and more than 40% start an activity on one device and finish it on another. Facebook announced this week that it will track users' actions between devices and share with advertisers when an ad or promotion leads to a purchase. Facebook plans to capitalize on the multi-device trend. This will give marketers valuable information to make more informed advertising decisions, it does not pose any threat to users' privacy, said Rebecca Lieb, analyst at Altimeter Group. The information Facebook shares, is neither personal nor personally identifiable, she explained. Facebook is the first company to offer this type of information to marketers. Marketers can find the new cross-device conversions for campaigns within your Facebook Ad Reports. Read more at:

http://www.informationweek.in/informationweek/news-analysis/297575/facebook-track-shopping-habits

According to some people branding is equivalent to ranking but actually you can position yourself at different times in different markets as different things. Branding is a hard-core recognition factor. We are a generation and a nation wanting to be special. We want to be richer, more beautiful, better dressed, and more effortlessly gorgeous than any other generation that we know. Contrary to how many people think branding is not just a logo and brings with itself benefits of it. Branding your business ensures that consumers will know what you're about and so you are remembered. Secondly, people build close bonds with brand identities. Consumers want quality products that they can trust and you gain customer loyalty easily. While Internet branding offers huge opportunities for business, in order for it to be effective, one needs to attract and engage its customers and that is not easy on the Internet. Your Internet branding strategy should make your online brand noticeable and apparent. Think of the message you want to convey and the image you want to be formed and that is your brand. Read more at: http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/understanding-branding-importance-marketing-your-business