Hadoop and Apache Spark are seen as the competitors in the world of big data, but now the growing consensus is that they are better convention in together. Here is a brief look at what they do and how they are compared.  1. They do different things: Both are the big-data frameworks, but they do not serve the same purposes. Hadoop is a distributed data infrastructure. It also Indexes and keep track of that data, enabling big-data processing and analytics. On the other hand, Spark is a data processing tool. Secondly, both can be used individually, without the other. 3. Spark is faster 4. You may not need Spark's speed: Spark is fit for real-time marketing campaigns, online product recommendations, cybersecurity analytics and machine log monitoring. 5. Failure recovery: differently, but still good. Read more at: http://www.computerworld.com/article/3014516/big-data/5-things-to-know-about-hadoop-v-apache-spark.html

The purchasing decisions taken by the customers are more often the result of online reviews and various comparisons. After buying products they themselves become reviewers and express their views on web about the product. This significantly impacts the reputation of the product and hence the company. This expands marketing horizons, thus its measure can't be only limited to ROI (Return on Investment). Work of marketers is not limited to being just creative. It is important for them to be contributing employees to the organization. Testing of the marketing strategy should be done. All the influencing factors should be kept in mind. The marketing team should be aware of when to measure. Read more at: http://bloomreach.com/2016/01/measuring-marketing-roi/

In today’s sales world, personalization is an important aspect, especially sales campaigns and CRM make it easy to collect information about customers and to apply it. Personalization involves a balance between using information about the customer to build a relationship and an invasion of privacy. It is also one of the most powerful tools in the CRM toolbox and a way to build trust and inspire customer loyalty. Read more at: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/insidecrm/crm-personalization-not-intrusion-71092

The Internet of Things (IoT) is the network of physical devices using embedded electronics, software, sensors and network connectivity, which helps in enabling devices to collect and exchange data. Nowadays, fitness tracking devices count heart rate and daily step-count, and connected thermostats control the temperature of your house. Now in 2016, IoT is leading to many more innovations across the board, including a new concept called the CRM of Things. The trends in the CRM of Things are - Richer CRM profiles, Preempting customer needs, Dynamic pricing strategies, improved automation, and pattern analysis. Read more at: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/insidecrm/the-crm-of-things-71115

Before you approach a marketing automation vendor, there is always some necessary groundwork to do. This is not only important to prevent making fool out of yourself, but also to get best out of the vendor. A vendor can only provide what you want, if you have 100% clarity of it. It is important to highlight your needs. Add-ons are always good if they make your work better. Keep the strengths and drawbacks of your old system in mind. A clear goal must be decided before starting the automation. Read more about it in the article written by James A. Martin (tech journalist and bloggerz) at: http://www.cio.com/article/3023570/marketing/12-questions-to-ask-marketing-automation-vendors-before-you-buy.html

There is a prediction that by 2017, 33% of Fortune 100 companies will experience information crises due to lack of adequate testing measures. To prevent this, the robust testing approach must be used. Developing a well-planned data warehousing, testing process will help in minimizing such risks. And while moving to agile, we can do more testing in comparison to traditional projects. The testing being done during development in parallel aids to agile development, because development and testing can be completed in a single sprint. The roadmap for building agile data warehouse will consist of following steps-

·         Build business conceptual model

·         Grass roots Data governance

·         High-level architecture with repeatable design patterns

·         Strong testing tools

·         Robust data quality program

·          Self-managing teams.

Read the full article here http://www.cio.com/article/3012097/data-warehousing/take-testing-seriously.html

E-Commerce firms very well understand that data is a wealth. The data can provide very crucial and meaningful insights, if used properly. Data Mining is one such way. It is a field of computer science that discovers the patterns in large data sets. This is done using the methods of Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Statistics and Database Systems. Algorithms are made to act on the data set. This often reveals "game changing" results for the industry. Data Mining can be either done manually or can be automated. E-Commerce Firms use this to get to know more about customer's emotions, preferences, and other factors that impact their purchasing style. So they excel in offering a personalized experience through this. It doesn't stay limited to customers. Data Mining is done to keep an eye on the competitors. Read more about it in the article written by Arie Shpanya (contributor to Econsultancy)  at: https://econsultancy.com/blog/67360-why-data-mining-is-the-future-of-online-retailing/

Customer relationship management systems have become the standard platform for managing customer data in today’s business world. Focusing only on the organizational value of a CRM system is a good way to measure return on investment, but it might not give you the full picture of how well your system is really working. It's also important for you to evaluate the personal value of your CRM system. Read more at: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/insidecrm/how-to-get-a-read-on-the-personal-value-of-your-crm-system-71101

This year social media will play a bigger role in CRM strategy than ever before. 2016 is the year that will truly test the concept of customer relationship management and as the social scene grows, CRM solutions will need to integrate with other software platforms in order to provide a continuous experience for you and your consumers. A company should look for these tools and abilities before you make any decisions: Track social interactions, Capture profile info, View mutual friends, Collaboration tools, Social behavior analysis, Brand analysis, and convert to leads. Read more at: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/insidecrm/getting-to-know-you-is-your-crm-social-enough-for-2016-71102

Before we start discussing about Tools for Social Media Analysis, first of all we have to know what social media analytics is? Instead of thinking it as a noun, take it as a verb. Precisely, it's gathering data from social platforms to help guide marketing strategy.

# the process begins with the prioritizing goals.

# The second step is determining key performance indicators (KPIs) i.e. likes and shares your posts receives, replies and comments, and more importantly the clicks your links and content earn analysis.

Now, as the definition is clear, we will directly come to the social media analytic tools. To read more, follow: https://keyhole.co/blog/list-of-the-top-25-social-media-analytics-tools/

It's no more difficult to shop at a new place with Location Based Marketing. We often look for the unique and best products, when we visit a new place. A common practice is to inquire about the best deals, with the people around who are aware of the new place. But with everything becoming techy we have Location Based Marketing to rescue. It integrates mobile marketing with location based services. The motive behind this is to make mobile users aware of your presence, while they are in the areas nearby. Most relevant display ads as per user's location are sent. Their interest can be pulled by either providing some discounts or some other perks. This benefit both the user as well as the business. Read more about it in an article written by Jack Simpson (a Writer at Econsultancy) at: https://econsultancy.com/blog/67418-what-is-location-based-advertising-why-is-it-the-next-big-thing/

In today’s world, organizations whether big or small from every industry rely on CRM solutions to support their contact centers. It’s not always easy to determine what to look for when sourcing a new CRM solution. Some offer more than others when it comes to supporting contact center operations. Every contact center is unique, this article link explores some qualities that should be considered essentials when evaluating options. They are – Integration, Ease of Use, Understandable Analytics, Campaign Management, List Management, Customization, Scalability, Follow-Up and Follow-Through, and Survey Capabilities. Read more at: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/insidecrm/the-best-qualities-of-a-contact-center-crm-tool-71058

CRM systems are mainly designed to make sales management easier and to enforce regimented selling process and the secondary reason is to make selling easier and more efficient. Companies during purchasing a new CRM system, examine the analytics features. Analytics is the summarization and presentation of information from the CRM database in such a way that salespeople and management can gain insight by looking solely at individual records and varies from company to company. Read more at:  http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/insidecrm/building-analytics-into-or-onto-old-crm-systems-71056

We all have heard Time is money. Speed is one of the most important factors which determines cost in IT industry. So here are the five actions which will increase speed and productivity and will result in great potential success.

1. Integrated service play.

2. Establish a new strategic intent driven by business rather than function.

3. Reorganize the computer structure by making cross functional teams that work across different disciplines.

4. Invest in the appropriate and technologies.

5. Consider options for renting with technologies like cloud. Read the full article here: http://www.cio.com/article/3022757/it-strategy/5-moves-to-make-your-it-group-more-responsive-to-business-demands.html

Finding suitable talent for your workplace is a difficult process. It is much more difficult to retain talent, if the workplace conditions are not suitable. Most of the organizations use annual feedback system to know about the employees. But the better way is to have a continuous check on the performance and behavior of employees. This helps in getting a better picture. Big Data helps in identifying the relation between engagement and retention. Cloud based solutions provide access to all the data at one place and this can be used for further decisions by HR. Data can be collected, measured, analysed at one place. And accordingly solutions can be thought of to eliminate the problem. Organizations who use big data solutions have observed a better turnover. Read more at: http://www.cio.com/article/3023311/careers-staffing/how-big-data-can-drive-employee-engagement.html

A research was done in 2015 where purchase decisions of 20,000 European citizens, across 30 product areas and more than 100 brands in the year 2013 and 201 were examined. They were asked how social media influenced their purchasing decisions.  It was observed that social media recommendations induced an average of 26% of sales. It was found that consumers made 10% more purchases on 2014 in comparison to 2013. Moreover, the choice of product also played a vital role. For example, 40 to 50% of consumers look for social recommendations for categories like travel, investment services, etc., whereas only 15% recommendations were looking for low end utility services. So we can see that Social media does play a vital role in brand awareness and hence end up converting to the sales. Read the full article here: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/marketing_sales/getting_a_sharper_picture_of_social_medias_influence

We've been thinking about the Internet of Things all wrong. According to various predictions by various companies, there were various statements specifying volume and amount of money, number of connections. These are just numbers, Numbers, more numbers. If we believe in the predictions, there is no way that current analytical solutions can manage that level of information. In the immediate future artificial intelligence capabilities are required. Which means all companies who have an analytics platform play will have to invest in A.I. research, acquire and finally emerge with solutions based on methods beyond machine learning. Or risk being left behind. If this sounds vaguely familiar, it's because right now all efforts are pointing towards machine learning and algorithms as the goal for analytics. To read more visit on: http://www.forbes.com/sites/theopriestley/2015/12/08/a-series-of-unfortunate-tech-predictions-artificial-intelligence-and-iot-are-inseparable/#39f25ec8523a1253d985523a

Customers nowadays expect much more from organizations. So, every business must provide a world class customer experience that wants to win and keep customers. Hence, more and more contact centers are using analytics to collect both structured and unstructured data – from phone conversations to e-mails to social media to buying habits. This helps companies are to customize the experience for each customer. Analytics, can help organizations to go far beyond offering personalized support to each customer and also help you to understand what your customers want from you at the product and service level. Read more at: http://www.tmcnet.com/channels/call-center-management/articles/416191-benefits-customer-analytics-go-beyond-customer-relationship.htm

The trend of wearables is growing hotter each day. BYOD (Bring Your Own Devices) and IoT (Internet of Things) clubbed together, is adding more efficiency and flexibility. It's no surprise that smart wearables are already passé for fashionistas. On the counterpart, these trends are attracting the attention of hackers. Wearables are being profoundly used for both business and personal purposes. Thus making them a rich source of information. This could act to the disadvantage if the information gets into the wrong hands. Though the wearables have not revealed any big disadvantages, so far. But as always, with evolving technologies, there always exist weak points. The hackers find these weaknesses and exploit it to their benefit. So it is essential to do proper research on the wearable, before handling it a prominent portion of your information. Read more about it in an article written by Jen A. Miller (a freelance journalist) at: http://www.cio.com/article/3022059/wearable-technology/how-secure-are-wearables-anyway.html