Inventory optimization (IO) solutions are meant to help managers match supply volume to customer demand over a large number of stock keeping units or SKUs. One significant drawback of single-echelon solution is that safety stock can only be managed at the individual facility level, which can result in excessive inventory if a company operates in multiple functions. Multi-echelon solutions allow safety stock to be managed and optimized over the entire network & are required for complex situations in which facilities are considered as parts of a network. With the time, business houses had realized the value of inventory optimization for improving gross margin. The potential benefits are substantial, albeit many managers had conveyed that cutting back too much on inventory can cause delays in order fulfilment and hence, there is a high chance of increased customer attrition. However, a recent survey revealed that best-in-class firms actually improve service levels and financial performance through their use of inventory optimization solutions. Hence, balancing inventory and service levels doesn’t have to be a win/lose exercise.

Author Al Bredenberg had given a detailed view on this aspect in his recent article. To read, visit the following link:

http://www.thomasnet.com/journals/techtrends/articles/inventory-optimization-helps-straddle-the-line-between-shortage-and-excess

Whether it is elections in India, or a service delivery model of a market leader in any sector, the incumbent is always at a disadvantage. Be it their government, their services like banking or healthcare, or their retail experience, the consumer wants them to continuously evolve in a direction which they perceive as beneficial to them. As time bound service contracts become passé, disruptive technology becomes available at affordable prices (think 3D printers, e-books, digital content, Google fiber, multi-core smart phones) today’s consumers and clients are exposed to a plethora of choices. With lowered exit cost barriers it is becoming imperative that a business does all it can to retain their customers.

Organizations realize that they not only have to ward off direct competitors but also cope up with tangential attacks from substitutes powered by disruptive technology. The choice between a successful well proven business model and a new idea is never easy. In the first case the organization risks its immediate client base by diverting significant funds and effort for turning an innovative idea into a winning product. This strategy has a high probability of failure which might cost them a significant market share. HTC lost a large portion of its small-medium priced phone market share in its bid to create a premium flagship smartphone model. In the second case, it believes in its business model and tries to take incremental steps to make it more robust till it is too late for them. Blockbuster, Blackberry and Borders are examples of organizations which could not counter the threat of new market players like Netflix, Android (Samsung, LG etc.) and Amazon. There is also a third case of the likes of Barnes & Noble and Nokia where the incumbent tries to play it safe by not going all out for the new technology but yet has a back-up plan to survive. So what’s the magic mantra? To me it remains the quintessential quest.

Though one thing I firmly believe in, is that the fickle consumer / client has become even more choice aware and will try out the new flavor of the month if they feel that their implicit or explicit objectives are not being met in the vendor-client relationship. Thus it is essential that organizations know the pulse of their clients and consumers and be geared towards meeting their changing demands. Analytics can play a key role here. Predictive analytics can help organizations preempt attrition by taking mitigating measures while social media and web analytics can help them know what some of their consumers are thinking and provide insights into their future behavior.

While the objective of analytics i.e. to provide actionable insight, remains the same, the demands of the information consumer have drastically changed. They want a lot more data crunched in much shorter time frames and yet presented with all the bells and whistles. With today’s scalable cloud computing infrastructure like AWS available and tons of reporting packages which play well with them it’s almost possible. It is also possible for the security conscious to invest and manage the requisite infrastructure in-house. The JIT (Just in time) lean principle applies here as well. An organization should only generate information and insights at the speed which it can take action on. Anything more could be a waste of resources.

Thus at the end of day, know the customer’s pulse, make an informed choice between evolutionary and revolutionary changes to your business model and be prepared to be blind-sided by someone your organization may have never heard of. To be or not be is an incumbent’s curse but making an informed choice and being prepared for change must never be a dilemma.

In this era of advanced analytics, there are many new challenges involving privacy and security of individuals, as computing power allows nonprofits, businesses, and researchers to gather ever-larger troves of information. Though it can be observed that there is a colossal increment in the amount of available data, we still only have two eyeballs and one brain! How a traditional library will look without a librarian, or an encyclopedia without an index? Scale that prospect up to the realms of web analytics, astronomy, high-speed finance, or even basketball statistics, and the problem becomes clear.

Research scientist Fernando Pérezof, University of California, Berkeley, recently spoke about it at a symposium titled “Weathering the Data Storm: The Promise and Challenges of Data Science,” hosted by the Institute for Applied Computational Science (IACS) at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS).

To read more, Please visit Harvard university article link given below:

http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2014/01/the-promise-of-big-data/

By engaging more people in conversations/discussions related to company offerings via social media, organizations are creating brand awareness among mass. Today, creating hype for a soon to be launched product is easy & convenient with the help of social media, as it saves promotional cost as well as it helps in understanding consumer sentiment beforehand. By indulging in various social media conversations, people are actually acting like brand ambassadors & reviewers. Though chances of negative publicity cannot be ruled out entirely, still with a good structured online marketing strategy, immense benefits can be achieved. Few notable real time online advertising strategies deserve to be mentioned, such as following conversations and then joining them, saying no to discipline, getting legal permissions to use material, ensuring that the brand is never silent on social media, moving on when content gets stale, never ignoring negative feedback etc.

To read more, visit wall street journal article link given below:

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303801304579407284034257414?mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052702303801304579407284034257414.html

Communication is an absolute essential entity to allow successful improvement in healthcare industry. Effective communication will allow relevant and correct flow of data through the organization. With more relevant data, analysis will also be more accurate and will automatically lead to improvement in the healthcare industry.

Please go through the link for more details http://healthcareanalytics.info/2012/03/successful-healthcare-improvement-requires-analytics-and-effective-communications/#.UyhlIqIyX4s

An article by Carolyn Sokol, President of CompareHRIS.com, talks about how a Professional Employer Organization (PEO) can give your Human Capital Management function a more strategic perspective, rather than your in-house HCM team. The usual perspective of an HCM team is to provide services like recruiting and hiring, new hire on-boarding, training development, performance management, regulatory compliance, payroll and benefits delivery. A PEO would provide more strategic inputs like strategic staffing, policy development, career development, transition planning and company-wide communication.

CompareHRIS.com puts companies in touch with vendors who offer Human Resource Information Systems, Human Resource Management Software, & Payroll Software that most closely match their needs. 

For more information:

http://blog.peocompare.com/blog/bid/69688/What-s-Your-Human-Capital-Management-Team-Really-Accomplishing

SigmaWay has experience in delivering operational efficiency across processes in Human Capital Management, by applying Analytics and Lean Six Sigma methodologies. For more information on how we can help your HCM team achieve their full potential, reach us at contact@gosigmaway.com 

Six sigma can help healthcare providers to improve patient care and reduce uncertainty for care givers. This article speaks about how six sigma can be introduced in healthcare industry and improve the quality of care givers.

For more details please visit http://www.isixsigma.com/industries/healthcare/applying-six-sigma-patient-care

With the advancement of new technologies, big data and internet, young professionals are getting opportunities for new career options. With the growth of facebook and twitter, different organisations of BFSI sector require more professionals for their work like collecting data, prediction and forecasting revenue. So doors for new jobs are being opened in front of the young pool of talents.

For more information, please go through: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/jobs/rise-in-demand-for-social-media-experts-in-fmcg-bfsi-pharma-companies/articleshow/29500508.cms

Balancing privacy, policy, and innovation is important to achieve harmony in health care, but, it is also difficult. While both population health and patient centered care seek to improve health care, at some level they are fundamentally at odds. Managing the health of population in a sustainable and scalable way requires uniformity of care across large groups for prevention, wellness, resource utilization, etc. Often, the most predictive clues about our health, exist in information that lives outside of traditional health care. This can be unearthed with the help of new innovations in Big Data. With the right policies and safeguards in place, trust can be established that will give individuals greater comfort and confidence to share information with their healthcare providers.

Harry Greenspun, MD and Senior Advisor for Health Care Technology and Transformation at the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions talks more about it here: http://blogs.deloitte.com/centerforhealthsolutions/2014/03/balancing-privacy-policy-and-innovation-to-achieve-harmony-in-health-care.html?id=gx:2sm:3tw:chsblog:awa:chs:032214:deloittehealth#

In the recent years, social media has become a place where emotional roller coaster of the stock markets can be captured. How the Twitter and Facebook users are reacting to different business news can foretell where the index is heading. Knowing this information can help the companies in predicting their market price, top line, etc.

To know more on how social media can help in predicting in stock prices read http://www.investopedia.com/articles/markets/031814/can-tweets-and-facebook-posts-predict-stock-behavior-and-rt-if-you-think-so.asp .

Big data is the buzzword and messenger, but not the whole story. Yes, tons of telecom use cases will fit the so-called 3 V’s of big data: volume, velocity of analysis and variety of technologies. But today, a rise of fourth V can be observed in the big data equation: Value, referring to optimizing performance, maximizing revenue & monetizing the telecom business in more sophisticated ways.

The Telecom Analytics & Big Data Market, a breakthrough analysis report by Dan Baker, editor of the Black Swan Telecom Journal & research director of Technology Research Institute, gives us new insights about telecom big data analysis. In an interview with Craig Galbraith, Mr. Baker speaks about competition, barriers of market entry, customer experience, network analytics, integration with cloud, outsourcing & big data.

Read more at...

http://www.billingworld.com/articles/2014/03/telecom-big-data-analyst-report-explores-solution.aspx

The government of NSW has released their long awaited integrated care strategy. This strategy emphasises on greater collaboration among the big players in health care industry and motivates partnership between hospitals and community based service. The article by Darragh O’ Keeffe, Editor of Australian Ageing Agenda, speaks about this strategy and its benefits.

For more information please visithttp://www.australianageingagenda.com.au/2014/03/20/nsw-takes-lead-connected-healthcare

Healthcare organizations are becoming proficient at creating and storing terabytes of data each month. Unfortunately, their skills to transform that data into knowledge and useful information are not quite so impressive.

The major primary obstacles to widespread analytics adoption are:-

·         Culture does not encourage sharing information.

·         Lack of understanding how to use analytics to improve the business.

·         Ownership of the data is unclear or governance is ineffective.

Please go through the link for more details:

http://healthcareanalytics.info/2013/11/three-main-barriers-to-widespread-analytics-use-in-healthcare-organizations/#.UyhkhqIyX4s

As most manufacturing firms know, Lean Six Sigma is a proven way to improve operations. It works best when initiatives are aligned with the broader strategic goals of the company.  However, Six Sigma initiatives must be aligned directly to a company's business goals. Senior leaders face a lot of challenges as they try to connect day-to-day activities with strategy. Lean Six Sigma initiatives address these strategic gaps and issues, generating breakthrough performance. Leading companies, that have adopted the Six Sigma methodology, have seen major improvements in their processes. Initiatives are originally sought by adopting what we call a Focused Lean Six Sigma approach. This approach takes a different perspective to create long-lasting change.

For call centres too, to make your task easy, there are different performance management solutions that you can put to use to know various aspects – out of which you can make out areas of improvements. But for this, you have to know how to use your performance management solution. Read more at:  

http://www.callcentrehelper.com/trade-secrets-getting-the-best-from-your-performance-management-solution-60462.htm

GoSigmaWay Consulting Services [www.gosigmaway.com] offers various training programs on “Lean six sigma”, apart from their arsenal of cutting edge consultancy solutions to enable your organization achieve its performance goals.

Big Data was the talk of the town in 2013 and the trend is likely to continue in 2014 as well. Though Big Data has been used in the finance domain earlier, it has been limited.But this year it is expected to take a giant leap in terms of its applicability.

Using the power of social media and analyzing the vast amounts of data generated by them, financial companies can directly interact with their retail clients to provide them with an insight to the customers’ experience. Finance sector being data-centric, Cloud technology will help companies store large volumes of data which was otherwise not feasible given the cost and technological setup constraints. The sophisticated mobile technology will help in generating more data from the customers within an exceptionally short span of time. And finally, Analytics will do the most interesting part – forecasting and predicting results with the help of Predictive Modeling and beyond. Together, the Social, Cloud, Mobile and Analytics (SMAC) will close in and will redefine the financial sector operations.

Additionally, Big Data and Analytics will be used more and more in solving different financial cases and also studying investment practices with the help of Semantic Analytics.

 For more information,read http://www.wallstreetandtech.com/data-management/big-data-use-cases-across-financial-serv/240165075 to know on how Big Data is about to change the Financial world.

While various Analytics softwares help you to track & get basic traffic and visitor data, they also have few yet hazardously significant holes. There are many reasons for getting irrelevant, non required and Null/missing data. Some examples of the areas from which you might be getting conflicting data are Internal Traffic, Direct Traffic, Mobile Traffic, Private Browsing Traffic, Keyword Traffic, Social Media etc.

To know more, visit the following link:

http://blog.kissmetrics.com/what-analytics-is-hiding/