With the help of predictive analytics, marketers can predict future sales. With this prediction information, companies can now decide on their campaigns. Analytics is mainly used for correlation and causation. A lot of vendors pay maximum attention towards correlation but causation underlying a pattern is important to predict a customer’s purchase behavior. Thus predictive analytics analyzes customer behavior and offers them promotions according to their behavior so as they intake those. Hence if used properly, it can be of great importance. Predictive analytics can help marketers across the entire customer lifecycle, said Fern Halper, director of TDWI Research for advanced analytics. Read more about this article by Katherine Noyes (IDG News Service) at:  http://www.computerworld.com/article/2934086/business-intelligence/marketers-are-betting-big-on-predictive-analytics.html 

Marketing has undergone transformation over years. Marketers can now measure every aspect of what customers do with a variety of metrics. Engaging with my audience to convert to sales is the key to marketing. While promoting products and services, marketers should be aware of how their brand is perceived by the audience which indicates how to communicate with them. Knowing how demographics react to different promotional strategies will help marketers formulate targeted marketing campaigns. Marketers should use social media to check what people are saying about a particular campaign and thus capture the customer sentiment. Thus the best marketing campaigns are those that are edgy and experimental. Read more about this article by Gabrielle Morse (Global Events Director) at: https://channels.theinnovationenterprise.com/articles/the-4-golden-rules-for-collecting-marketing-data

Predictive analytics make use of statistical or machine-learning techniques to analyze current and past facts to predict the future. Companies, by using predictive analytics, can make better and decisions at low-cost. Predictive analytics can help companies to get an idea of every possible event, thus allowing for risk management and calculating potential ROI. Using predictive analytics, companies can remove politics from the decision-making process. There is a growing awareness among companies about predictive analytics and companies that adopted this method have reported success and increased ROIs. Optimizing predictive analytics to produce better choices leads to decision modelling. Through decision modelling companies can gain insight into how predictive analytics can add value and how ROI can be measured. Read more at:https://channels.theinnovationenterprise.com/articles/making-faster-decisions-with-predictive-analytics  

The global consumer packaged goods sector is expected to double by 2025. This growth has especially been observed in BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China). Along with growth, competition has also increased in these countries, which has led to companies looking for expansion avenues elsewhere.

An analysis by McKinsey has revealed three myths surrounding the growth in the Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) sector. They are:

• The United States isn’t a growth market
• It’s too late to enter China or India
• Emerging-market consumers don’t buy premium products

These myths need to be discarded as they are certainly not true. And for better growth opportunities in this sector, Rogerio Hirose, Renata Maia, Anne Martinez and Alexander Thiel, in their article at McKinsey Insights have listed out few questions that companies need to answer before entering new cities.

To know more about these myths and the above mentioned questions, please visit the following link:

http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/consumer_and_retail/three_myths_about_growth_in_consumer_packaged_goods

Movies are big businesses where a lot of money needs to be spent so that box office hits. Prediction of this hit is an impressive science. So studios nowadays depends on its blockbusters by making early prediction to carry their less profitable films. So, companies uses a number of different metrics to predict the sentiment towards a movie. Analytics has spread its arms from Hollywood towards the World’s Biggest Film Industry, Bollywood. Social Sentiment Index (SSI) reveals measures about successful films. It is argued that it might hamper creativity and risk-taking factor in the movie industry. Thus it might affect small films to even take a chance. Read more about this interesting article at: https://channels.theinnovationenterprise.com/articles/can-social-media-analytics-help-end-box-office-flops

When it comes to Data Analytics, failure is a very important part of the innovation process. A part of the data scientist’s job is trial-and-error and assumptions to vet data for new insights. Pushing the analytical process to uncover new uses of data and new ways of applying analytics necessarily involves risk and failure. Leading websites embrace this by testing hundreds or thousands of both minor and large scale changes to their site daily. Nothing is rolled out broadly on a major website today unless it has gone through rigorous testing. An organization based on rapid experimentation, exploration of new ideas and educated in doing analytics right is one destined to succeed. Read more at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/teradata/2015/05/27/why-being-wrong-is-the-best-way-to-get-your-analytics-right/ 

The developments in data storage and analytics, combined with advancement in technology and medical research will completely change the future of healthcare and medicines. With the evolution of modern genomics along with analytics, healthcare sector will undergo a complete metamorphosis. According to a famous doctor, this change is being driven by three factors. Digital revolution- the use of mobile devices and apps through which information about actual human behavior can be obtained. Genetic revolution- which has identified large number of genetic variations which contribute to a large number of human traits and risks of various diseases. And finally Data revolution- which allows to get insights not only into individual patients but also the entire population. To know more read: http://blogs.wsj.com/cio/2015/03/20/the-promise-and-challenge-of-health-analytics/?KEYWORDS=analytics

The evolution and advancement of modern technology has led to a remarkable development of how business is done. With this rapid progress, the complexities in terms of how these technologies are used, has increased largely. Often the names and terms are clubbed together, and it becomes difficult for non-technical business leaders to understand and identify the independent usage of these technologies. "Big data analytics", "marketing analytics", "social media analytics", "audio stream analytics", etc. are some of them. It seems that analytics are often clubbed with other words, many of which are associated with storage and inflow of large volumes of data. If the volume of the sample is adequate enough to give a statistically valid output, then analytics can be executed without resorting to big data .To know more read: http://www.mytechlogy.com/IT-blogs/7973/does-analytics-need-big-data/#.VXE5WM-qqko

In today`s world, data has become a comparative advantage and an integral part of product development. It is a vital component when it comes to enhancing business performance. The most crucial role played in this context is the role played by the data scientists. The data scientists are shaping and building the future of business through modern techniques for data analysis and forecasting. An important reason in such remarkable progression in this field of data analytics is due to the accessibility of the data. The rise of online community, e-commerce, mobile and overall digitization of the society has contributed enormously. According to industry experts, companies are realizing the potential benefits of data analytics and are using it as a powerful tool for business development. To know more read: http://thenextweb.com/dd/2014/11/23/data-scientists-changing-face-business-intelligence

The key to successful digital marketing lies in its content. Original, interesting and varied content will catch customer’s attention. Digital marketing campaigns should be both written and visual, rich in information, images, videos etc. One should keep an eye on metrics to make a note of most attracted posts so as to improve one’s content. As almost every individual now possesses a smartphone, marketers should make sure their advertisements are mobile friendly. Social media, with its rising popularity, can be used as a platform for marketing to specific demographics. Customer’s trust might show up the brand loyalty, increasing the chance of sharing and promoting their marketing on social platform. Read more about this interesting article by Maria Maguire (International Events Director) at: https://channels.theinnovationenterprise.com/articles/5-ways-to-improve-your-digital-marketing

With the rising importance of big data, organizations are now collecting and storing data, but many don't put it to good use. Retailers can leverage customer data to make personalized recommendations about offers and promotions thus providing a shopping experience customized to individuals. Analyzing customer data can help companies to identify customer preferences for products and the prices they are willing to pay. Customer data can be used to identify the most relevant users to ask for feedback, create new products or services and provide better customer services. By analyzing customer data, companies can identify patterns of behavior of customer data and thus formulate targeted marketing strategies, improve organizational effectiveness and reduce risk and fraud. Read more at: http://www.cio.in/feature/8-ways-to-make-the-most-out-of-your-customer-data

Content is king, when you try to get connected with the public. - Rachel Wolfson (Content Marketing Manager at Moogsoft). Content can help you in generating leads, increase ROI and brand awareness. One thing that distinguishes between good content marketers from exceptional one is the ability to notice their content. 5 keys takeaways as to how a content marketer can get their content noticed: • Start with a clear content marketing strategy.
• Understand your target audience.
• Practice the “3 C’s” – Create, Content, Consistently.
• Know how to correctly promote content via social media.
• Recognize the value in repurposing content.
Read more at http://www.business2community.com/content-marketing/5-best-practices-ensure-content-gets-noticed-01251751#WdvE0oR3cCZs4h2p.99

According to Sushant Saini (An owner of Eyewear), branding is one of the most important functions of the marketing team. And to make branding effectiveness, marketing team need to connect with their target customers.  Essentials to make brand effective are:
• Story
• Content Marketing
• Brand association
• Creative communication
• Influential outreach
To know more about these essential, follow this link:  http://yourstory.com/2015/06/brand-building/

According to KC Claveria (Marketer from Vancouver, B.C.), if social media used rightly, can help you in maintaining better relationships with customers. According to the Mckinsey & Company report, “email conversion rates are 40times higher as compared to Facebook and Twitter combined.” This shows that for generating leads, email marketing is very important. Email marketing is better than other marketing channels because:
• With email, you’re reaching an audience that already knows you.
• There’s too much noise on social.
• People are more likely to see (and click on) your email.
• You get to say more on email.
Read more at http://www.business2community.com/email-marketing/why-email-marketing-beats-social-media-in-lead-generation-and-what-you-can-do-about-it-01246702#5FUji2OQheQ8LXzA.99

According to the Eyal Hilzenrat (Vice president of products and partnerships at YouAppi), mobile marketing is the future of marketing and installing the app is the beginning of this journey. And to the performance of your mobile marketing, use the Engagement metrics, Revenue metrics and Interest Metrics. KPI to mobile marketing are:
• Number of times the mobile app was accessed during the first 24 hours / first week (after installation)
• Permission granted to the app
• Time spent in-app
• Number of screens/pages accessed during in-app visit
• Number of subscriptions / registration
• Purchases
• Number of items placed in a shopping cart
• Number of articles read
• Number of pages visited
• Social Shares
• Retention rates
• Brand awareness
Read more at: http://www.adweek.com/socialtimes/top-12-key-performance-indicators-for-maximizing-mobile-app-revenue/621659

Focused market research is imperative for building of brands and foundation for market research is laid down by market intelligence. In broad terms, market intelligence collates three types of information- business, market and competitive. For distribution of information, social media is playing a huge role. Thus integration of marketing intelligence with social media monitoring and digital space opens up many channels of opportunities to address specific business issues and enhance performance significantly. However, this requires intense understanding and customization of data. Also, digitization of field resources poses certain challenges. On a concluding note, the authors, Stephen Dale and Melissa Chue are of opinion that market intelligence should ultimately serve as be the backbone of any organization and more investment should be made to expand digital resources and data. Read more:- http://www.marketing-interactive.com/events/intelligence-bedrock-good-market-research/

Faced with challenges of bureaucratic vices and realities, government agencies often let things slip through the cracks, including fraud. It is disheartening to learn that huge losses are incurred by many public facing agencies due to fraud and such losses are regarded as expected operating costs. Yet, no measures are being employed. Thankfully, investments are being made in predictive analytics tools by agencies and some progress has been achieved in detecting preventing and prosecuting fraud. However, to tackle crimes effectively the tools need to be comprehensive, flexible and affordable. For example, dynamic case management solutions can be applied to tackle the mammoth challenges faced by the agencies. Read more: http://gcn.com/articles/2015/06/10/fraud-control.aspx

Digital workplace is the new norm today. We don’t do our work at one place today or on only one device. We carry our work with us as we move by transferring it to the device that’s most accessible. Smartphones, laptops, desktops, tablets etc. are some of the devices where ore work is saved. This is called Enterprise Mobility. But, with the increase in enterprise mobility, security has again become a big problem.

Dionisio Zumerle, Research Director, Gartner, has pointed out three key factors that need to be addressed to bridge the gap between enterprise mobility and effective security for business information. They are:

• People
• Process
• Technology

Thus, efforts need to be focused on developing information security models applicable for this multiple device systems while keeping in mind the above stated factors.

To know more, please read the following article at Forbes:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/gartnergroup/2015/06/10/mobile-security-challenges-in-the-age-of-digital-business/

Companies can use data scientists to prepare data sets, business analysts to develop models using both statistical and machine learning algorithms, application developers can be used to deploy and manage predictive analytics life-cycles, and tools. There are many vendors in the categories of customer analytics, cross-selling, smarter logistics, e-commerce etc. Open source software community is driving predictive analytics into the mainstream. Many Business Intelligence platforms also offer “some predictive analytics capabilities."  Rapid Miner’s predictive analytics platform can also be integrated into the cloud. Read more about this article at: http://www.cmswire.com/cms/big-data/3-vendors-lead-the-wave-for-big-data-predictive-analytics-028684.php?mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRomrfCcI63Em2iQPJWpsrB0B/DC18kX3RUnJb6Wfkz6htBZF5s8TM3DVlJGXqlI4UEKTLE%3D 

From Software and Platform as a service to data as a service, the trend has always been to evolve to the requirements of the current generation. The next step is mixing them all together and mass upscaling of the data in the system to provide Big Data solutions as a service (or BDaaS). Multiple businesses in the past have sprung up and are offering cloud based Big Data solutions. Big Data refers to the large, mostly unstructured information created and stored, and the analysis and use of this data is called Big Data Analytics. BDaaS is a term used to describe the outsourcing of Big Data functions to the cloud. It includes the supply of data, providing the analytical tools and the actual analysis of the data. BDaaS can also include consulting and advisory services. Read more at : http://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2015/04/27/big-data-as-a-service-is-next-big-thing/