Nowadays, most contact center uses cloud technology and a report by Frost & Sullivan forecasted that this number will increase to 90% by 2016. The reason for shifting to cloud solutions are that they are cost-effective, easier to scale alongside a growing business, and can be deployed in days or weeks, provides flexibility and enable them to be more responsive to customers. Read more at: http://www.callcentertimes.com/Home/tabid/37/ctl/NewsArticle/mid/395/CategoryID/1/NewsID/957/Default.aspx
According to a report from Gartner, it was found that 40% of CRM applications are hosted in the cloud and nowadays businesses outsource their customer relationship management (CRM) software to another company. But, question arises that do businesses outsource CRM operations like customer care or sales programs? The answer is no because it is always better to manage CRM operations internally than outsourcing to another company. But, if you don’t have that option, you have to weigh the pros and cons of outsourcing. Petra Jorgenson (Studio B Analyst), writes in her article link about the pros and cons of outsourcing customer relationships to a third party. Read more at: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/insidecrm/outsourcing-crm-do-the-risks-outweigh-the-benefits-65986
Data is important in any business and customer relationship management (CRM) systems collect volumes of data, plan for the future, learn from the past, and is also a target for hackers. The most important reason that hackers are target CRM data is that it allows them to conduct fraudulent transactions. Phishing is another reason. Hackers target CRM data for the purpose of social engineering, also called masquerading. Jerri Ledford (Analyst with Studio B), writes in her article about why hackers want CRM data. To know more, follow: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/insidecrm/3-reasons-hackers-want-your-crm-data-66053
The Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is responsible for giving rise to the current trend in enterprise mobility. Mobility improves employee productivity, employee satisfaction, and decision making and is an extension of customer relationship management (CRM). Petra Jorgenson (Analyst with Studio B), writes about some points which one needs to consider before one allows employees to access system from their personal devices. Read more at: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/insidecrm/3-things-you-need-to-consider-to-support-mobile-crm-in-a-byod-environment-66153
Technology had an impact on customer service. Social media have augmented the voice of the customer and created a space for dialogue and discussion among consumers. The key to win customer service in this landscape is intelligently using the technologies. Forrester Customer Index, which was published last year showed that companies with a strong focus on the customer experience has gained in performance accounts to 43 percent, while those that did not focus on outcomes had a drop in performance by 33.9 percent. Read more at: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/insidecrm/seven-ways-technology-is-changing-customer-service-in-2015-66154
Accounting ratios provide insight into multiple factors. Nowadays, database interactivity has become better and the increasing use of centralized data stores are increasing. So, accounting ratios also need some re-evaluation. David Gillman (Analyst with Studio B), writes about some metrics that an accountant must take into account in a CRM system. They are: Close Rate, Cost per Sale, True Profit per Customer, and Salesperson Effectiveness. To know more, follow: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/insidecrm/top-4-metrics-for-accountants-from-the-crm-system-66155
Many companies are focusing on the mobile site as new devices and new operating systems are coming up. But, they don’t consider performance of the mobile site. Companies must ensure that their mobile sites are both quick to load and reliable and if a mobile site loads quickly, organizations will not only have a new avenue to reach customers, but they will also have more data about customers. The ability to collect and analyze these huge amounts of data will create an opportunity for companies to create a personalized experience for their customers. Read more at: http://digitalmarketingmagazine.co.uk/mobile-digital-marketing/capturing-the-mobile-content-opportunity/1729
The investment banks are now looking at how they can use big data to do what they do better, faster and more efficiently. Senior executives at the banks want to enhance how they use data to raise profitability, map out markets and company-wide exposures, and ultimately win more deals. Big data is also a fundamental element of risk-profiling for the banks, enabling data analysts to immediately assess the impact of the escalation in geopolitical risk on portfolios and their exposure to specific markets and asset classes. Specifically, banks have now built systems that will map out market-shaping past events in order to identify future patterns. There lies the requirement of big data talent!
The banks are actively recruiting big data and analytics specialists to fill two main, but significantly different roles: big data engineers and data scientists. Data Scientists are responsible for bridging the gap between data analytics and business decision-making, capable of translating complex data into key strategy insight, while Data Engineers typically come from a strong IT development or coding background and are responsible for designing data platforms and applications. The competition between banks and fund managers to hire big data specialists is heating up. Data scientists are expected to have sharp technical and quantitative skills. They are in highest demand and this is where the biggest skill shortage exists.
To read more, visit the link given below:
http://www.computerweekly.com/opinion/Investment-banks-recruit-for-the-rise-of-big-data-analytics
Some 2 billion people continue to live on less than $2 a day! Millions of women and girls around the world lack basic human rights. A slew of initiatives address these and other intractable social issues, yet often, even the most successful ones only address a fraction of the problem. The good news is that a number of cutting-edge leaders and organizations are shifting their focus to ask: "How can we help to have impact at a scale that actually solves the problem?" And they are finding that technology, particularly information tech, offers answers. According to Ray Kurzweil, Google’s director of engineering and a renowned expert on artificial intelligence, "Once any domain, discipline, technology, or industry becomes information-enabled and powered by information flows, its price/performance begins doubling approximately annually." This phenomenon opens up the potential for exponential growth in reach and impact.
Here are six ways that information technology is breaking through scale barriers:
· Empowering with information.
· Teaching and engaging.
· Making matches.
· Crowdsourcing hotspots.
· Reaching the under-served.
Abe Grindle, famous author, speaks about the ways technology is breaking the barriers to social change. To read more, visit the following link:
A combination of customer relationship management (CRM) and marketing automation can make an organization understand how to make effective marketing campaigns and what needs to be improved to make them even more effective. Marketing automation is ineffective if the integration of CRM and marketing automation is not correct. For CRM–marketing automation integration to be successful, all the parties i.e. from the sales team to the automation vendor must be at par and if data are inconsistent or duplicated, it can create problem in a marketing strategy or campaign. Read more at: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/insidecrm/3-factors-to-consider-when-integrating-marketing-automation-and-crm-66138
Artificial intelligence (AI) is important nowadays. Marketers and advertisers need to understand that without the help of AI, it is difficult for any business to sort through all the data and then take day-to-day strategic decisions, and ensures that there is no wastage and thus increasing ROI. Marketers also use AI to look at a customer’s past behavior and predict what they are going to be interested in future. But, the main risk is that many of the jobs that require human attention may be performed better, faster and even cheaper in the future by robots or AI software systems. Read more at: http://digitalmarketingmagazine.co.uk/digital-marketing-data/unlocking-the-potential-of-data-through-artificial-intelligence/1723
Cricket and Analytics are hot topics today. With the help of technology Analytics, the interest quotient of cricket has gone up exponentially. High definition telecasts, data visualisation have really made cricket exciting to watch nowadays. Vijay Sethi, VP and CIO at Hero MotoCorp Ltd, speaks about how he sees his favourite game today that comes with a generous dose of analytics. To read more, visit the following link:
Marketers use thousands of tools and techniques to deliver their messages. It is forecasted that $2.3 billion will be spent on email marketing this year. Interesting content is one of the top 3 reasons why people follow brands on social media and 90% of consumers find custom content useful, 78% say organizations providing custom content are interested in building good relationships with them. Liga Bizune (blogger and public relations manager at Mailigen), writes in her article link about some email trends that will define email marketing in the years to come. Read more at: http://www.marketingprofs.com/articles/2015/27328/top-six-email-marketing-trends-you-need-to-keep-pace-with
Gartner predicts that by 2025 up to 85 percent of all CRM systems will be in the cloud and CRM market is expected to grow by 14.8 percent annually through 2017. Cloud computing helps CRM software with better and faster data, ease of access, and is simple to deploy and use. Mae Kowalke (journalist and communications professional) writes in her article link about some major changes in CRM systems. To know more, follow: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/insidecrm/six-ways-that-crm-has-changed-since-the-cloud-66116
CRM vendors are trying to differentiate themselves from one another to provide a higher level of business value. They have realized that it is not sufficient to offer a well-designed system with application programming interfaces; one must also offer analytics and business intelligence capabilities, as well. CRM systems are predicting based on past data collected, future sales opportunities or marketing campaign results. One of the major trends anticipated for the CRM market this year centers around mobile access and all the CRM players are working on enhancing mobile CRM apps so that they can support the workers who work outside an office set up. Read more at: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/insidecrm/crm-analytics-for-a-better-business-insight-what-can-we-expect-for-2015-66119
Social media has become one of the most important tools for consumers who wants to file complaints or questions. But, the question is how a brand handles their customer care team. Sofie De Beule (Community Manager at Engagor) writes in her article link about some of the top 2015 trends for organizing your social customer care team. Read more at: http://www.socialmediatoday.com/social-business/2015-03-24/top-trends-organize-your-social-customer-care-team
Many cricket teams are using Big Data Analytics to make important decisions about how to play and attack. There are sensors in the pitch and therefore we get loads of data per match which gives an opportunity to analyze this data with legacy data to make a very meaningful perspective. For example, we get data like- what % of balls by a bowler in a match are short pitch resulting in what % of total wickets or runs attributed to that type of balling in this match compared with past matches which makes the application of Big Data Analytics more meaningful. Read more at: http://tyronesystems.com/cwc/?p=1144
A hybrid cloud is a cloud computing environment in which an organization provides and manages some resources in-house and has others provided externally. For example, an organization might use a public cloud service, such as Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) for archived data but continue to maintain in-house storage for operational customer data. The hybrid approach allows a business to take advantage of the scalability and cost-effectiveness that a public cloud computing environment offers without exposing mission-critical applications and data to third-party vulnerabilities. This type of hybrid cloud is also referred to as hybrid IT. The hybrid cloud has the potential to transform enterprise IT completely and shift the cost/benefit emphasis from cost to benefit.
Matt Watts, Netapp, speaks about how hybrid cloud can bring this transformation. To know more, please visit:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/netapp/2015/03/18/hybrid-cloud-cost-benefit/
Google Analytics is one of the best tools one can use for the purpose of analyzing the audience. With the right insights, one can modify the approach, anticipate customer needs, and create a superior user experience. It is also possible to measure a tremendous diversity of data on your web users, and using that data, you’ll be able to make meaningful change to your branding and marketing strategies. The acquisition insights and behavioural insights will help you explore more details and trend understanding. This information is especially useful in determining which of your marketing strategies is the most effective, but it’s also useful for determining what types of people are visiting your site and why. For example, if you find that the majority of your users are finding your site through content you’ve syndicated on social media, you could double your content writing and syndication efforts to attract an even greater number of users.
To read more, please visit the following link:
This is the age of digital medium where telephones may not be of prime importance in a content planning meeting. But, according to a recent research, it was found that more than half of consumers still prefer to talk to a person over phone when they decide to interact with a company. Phone presence can be critical for small businesses that are just getting established and forming a brand identity. Tristan Barnum (CMO of Voxox), writes in her article about some points which marketers must keep in mind when they're developing their communications strategy for the voice channel. Read more at: http://www.marketingprofs.com/articles/2015/27298/three-ways-to-make-your-phone-presence-a-key-driver-in-your-marketing-mix