Customer-relationship management tools, or CRM tools, provide an important way to connect better with the customer base. In a study, it was found that 71% of telecommunication companies stressed the importance of integrating customer data across the entire organization. An old CRM strategy can become obsolete and cost you new customers and customer retention also become a problem; it could even decrease the overall quality of your customers' experiences. To overcome his problem, software companies are offering modern CRM solutions. Read more at: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/insidecrm/dont-let-your-crm-go-stale-71154

Customer relationship management systems expands the value and impact of content, capture lead intelligence, improve conversion rates, and drive repeat purchasing and in turn enhances the overall customer experience. But, analytics that CRM system delivers from customer interactions, delivering a quantifiable platform for reviewing the value of your business processes is often overlooked. CRM presents a real-time breakdown of data that can help in increasing sales, make better decisions, and empower sales force to increase profits. This article describes how CRM can help you improve overall visibility, communication, and profits across your organization. Read more at: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/insidecrm/driving-revenue-through-crm-integration-71060

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

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

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/

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

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

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

Firms often spend a huge amount of money on display marketing. But as a consumer, do you remember at all the last display ad you saw. The answer is NO. Display Marketing can be very effective if targeted. It is important to know which item should be placed on which site and what part of the site. Most vendors don't go into details of the strategy, thus shelling out more money out of those interested in display marketing. Algorithmic attributions can be used to determine how the impressions will impact the ROI. Learn more about it in the article written by Sandy Martin (Sr. Business Consultant) at : http://blogs.adobe.com/digitalmarketing/analytics/how-to-get-more-from-display-marketing-with-analytics/

There are many CRM software and this actually increase project risks. The CRM solution you pick must align with your business goals and it is true for any industry. According to a research, it was found that the most important criteria for a successful implementation include: Creating measurable goals, Aligning business and IT, Letting business goals drive features, and Maximizing out-of-the-box functionality. This article link describes some risks of "too much" software and other common CRM implementation mistakes. Read more at: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/insidecrm/when-more-spells-doom-the-risks-of-too-much-crm-software-70962

Business must coordinate according to the target audience and must be aware of what the customers’ needs. Communication with your potential customers will enable you to create loyal fans, who will then become your most valuable brand ambassadors. Every business should put effort into exploring your CRM options. They are- Operational CRM, Sales Force Automation, Marketing Automation, Service Automation, Analytical CRM, and Collaborative CRM. In short, the idea to implement CRM is to automatize the overall communication with each customer. Read more at: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/marketing-strategies/how-to-approach-crm-use-the-basics-70973

The internet has changed all aspects of our lives, including planning a vacation. Online research gives us ideas while planning a vacation and helps us with the logistics too. It is found that on an average, a normal person searches 5 to 6 websites on either a laptop or mobile device when planning their travel and if you are a frequent traveler, then that number increases based on the amount that you travel. All of this online research leaves hundreds of data points for marketers and marketing organizations. Analysts are now using this data to market to potential travelers at each step of your trip, from planning to inception. Read more at: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/accessible-bi/how-the-tourism-industry-is-using-big-data-to-its-advantage-70977

Cybersecurity is a very important and is becoming one of the biggest worries for companies. According to various surveys, companies are investing a lot of money in cyber security and training their employees in it. It is estimated that till 2020 investment in the cybersecurity will be around $170 billion. In today’s world as the data is rising, so the risks on it are also increasing. The pattern classification systems that machine-learning algorithm rely on themselves exhibit vulnerabilities that can be exploited by hackers. As we know machine learning algorithms train themselves with the training data set so it may be manipulated according to the needs as hacker wants. For example, Search-engine-optimization algorithm was trained and manipulate website content to boost results in the search ranking or senders of junk emails try to fool spam-filtering algorithm. Even the results of the public election can also be affected by 20% or more as it is found that the order in which candidates appear in search results can have significant impact on perception. To read more about Cybersecurity risks, follow the article by Dr. Kira Radinsky (CTO and Co-founder of SalesPredict) at: http://blog.kiraradinsky.com/author/kiraradinsky/

Predictive models are used to predict future outcomes on the basis of data collected from past. Many organizations take their crucial decisions based on the foundations laid by the predictive models. But what if the model goes wrong? "BOOM"- crash of a significant part of the strategy! Though each predictive model has some scope of error. There are chances that the input variables considered for the model were not appropriate. But we need to find out what kind of error and to what extent it is acceptable. There is a need to work on the foundation of the predictive models to prevent failures.  Read more about it in the article written by John Bates(Senior Product Manager for Data Science & Predictive Marketing Solutions) at: http://blogs.adobe.com/digitalmarketing/analytics/what-to-do-when-your-predictive-marketing-is-wrong/