SigmaWay Blog

Process manufacturing industries such as food and beverage, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, chemicals etc has four unique ERP features. They are:-

1. Maintaining product quality:-An ERP application used in process industries should have a strong quality control suite.

2. Vast traceability:- Tracking raw materials as well as the final products is very important in such industries. A process manufacturing ERP is able to provide such a vast traceability.

3. Robust bill-of materials (BOM) capabilities.

4.  Good Managerial capabilities:- this forms the most essential component of any ERP application.

As process manufacturing has higher requirements and legislation the ERP application used in these should be different from other manufacturing verticals.

To read more:- http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/inside-erp/4-musthave-erp-features-for-process-industries-73956

In recent times enterprise resource planning or ERP is largely replacing manufacturing execution system or MES. But this has certain drawbacks. Thus, for better results it is important to integrate the two. There are three benefits of this integration:-

1. It helps to manage the resources more efficiently.

2. It provides detailed supply chain information.

3. It gives a comprehensive view of the business processes.

MES and ERP complement each other, performing better and more completely. The outcome of this integration is much more than expected. Read more at:- http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/inside-erp/3-benefits-of-integrating-erp-and-manufacturing-execution-systems-73955

At the 10th anniversary of the original iPhone, Apple has decided to do something unique. To tell the design changes bought on the iPhone, which can include edge to edge LED and many more. According to the sources, more changes can be bought like eliminating the home button by building the fingerprint sensor into the display. Read more at: http://tech.firstpost.com/news-analysis/wwdc-2016-siri-imessage-and-maps-open-to-third-party-devs-320457.html

Twitter will now be shaking hands with a machine-learning startup that specializes in working with images, to deliver better video and picture content to expand its Machine Learning and AI parts. According to the sources, nearly $150 million is invested in this machine learning startup. A team of engineers will help Twitter by letting the users explore new experiences and share them. Read more at:  http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/small-biz/startups/twitter-allows-users-to-share-140-second-videos/articleshow/52848116.cms

An image speaks a thousand words but a video speaks thousand sentences. May be this is the reason one should pounce on the opportunities like Periscope, Blab and Facebook Live Video that allows you to reach out to your customers using video livestreaming. You can use Facebook Livestreaming to Livestream either with the entire audience or just the selected followers. It also allows you to save the video for later use. Using the mobile app Periscope you can broadcast to your twitter account (it’s a must) followers. However, you need to ensure that you save the Periscope’s stream or the autosave broadcast setting is enabled. Whereas, Blab.im saves you from any such obligation to integrate with any social media sites. These apps can be used to launch a product, give live training, build customer support and to boost the live events in your business. Read more at: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/279538

Ever since its launch in 2012, Snapchat has been growing its customer base massively.  In the competitive environment in which a startup constantly strives to prove itself it becomes necessary to have transparent and clear communication. A startup can build transparency and trust by leveraging useful snapchat features. Using the short lasting snaps one can establish brand persona amongst targeted audience. Using geo-filters and 3D tickets to tell stories about your brand that leaves a longer impact on the customer’s mind is also a good way to keep your customers glued to you. Startups can also use the app in order to campaign or receive customer feedbacks. Read more at: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/279635

In today’s world, Mobile CRM is becoming important as it helps business to grow and succeed. Mobile CRM helps in decentralizing sales force who are out on the road meeting clients and making deals. The advantages of Mobile CRM are - Selling on the go, you can up-to-date information, easily integrates with mobile devices, provides powerful insights and analytics, and IT costs are reduced. Read more at: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/insidecrm/5-ways-mobile-crm-can-boost-your-small-business-73844

Expansion of business means leveraging client relationships. CRM helps to achieve business growth, CRM provides a solution for achieving business growth and developing client relationships. This article explores how CRM grows your business, which includes boosting agility, increasing revenue and improving efficiency. Read more at: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/insidecrm/3-ways-crm-helps-to-grow-your-business-73820

Pokemon Go is all set to revolutionize the online game world. Unlike other apps which requires sign-up into the google accounts, Pokemon Go needs no personal information. Once Pokemon Go is signed in through one's Google Account, he can read your emails and send emails from your account; view, edit or delete his google drive documents, browse your search history. Read more at: http://www.news.com.au/technology/pokemon-go-gives-the-developers-full-access-to-your-google-account/news-story/b30294207a44933c698a14f40f357c3c

Although smartphones have helped up to engage with various brands, a gap still remained between the top and bottom app publishers. Pyze, a business intelligence platform have seem to bridge this gap. The most important reason why small app publishers seems to lag behind is because of lack of intelligence. It is here where Pyze comes in to provide a Growth Intelligence Platform for the small app publishers. Read more at: http://smallbiztrends.com/2016/07/pyze-mobile-analytics.html

The UK government is bringing up smart card facilities to induce and increase education across the country. This facility is also going to be an incentive for the rural families to send their daughters to school. These cards will help to keep accurate attendance and will be providing conditional payments to the families of the girls. The main motive behind such initiative is to increase girls' education, specifically in the Sub-Saharan countries as this would decrease child deaths, child marriages and induce faster economic growth. Read more at: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-36734525

The internet makes the world a small place. It brings everybody and everything closer and helps in communication. Customer Relationship Management or CRM as we call it is getting revolutionized by the Internet of Things (IoT). They are now being able to access data from IoT to enhance customer experience and improve services. Companies are able to shift strategies, change decisions in a flick of a second, because all information is now available at the tip of their finger. Read more at: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/insidecrm/crm-joins-the-internet-of-things-73690

Network monitoring software (NMS) is useful to increase productivity and security of business networks without increasing the workload. Few features of NMS include: monitoring the device on the network, gathering information and metrics on various devices, identifying traffic, analyzing performance, minimizing the threats related to security and alerting if any problem arises. This allows to focus more on building of network and managing the business. Freeware tools and open source software are two ways to get free network monitoring software.  Few network monitoring tools are solarwinds, ntopng, cacti, icinga, nagios core, zabbix, etc. 

On using network monitoring tools, businesses will improve their productivity and security and thus will be able to expand their networks efficiently.

To read more: http://www.business2community.com/cybersecurity/free-network-monitoring-software-organization-01600210#aTu1iyegOpdIiJWb.97

Most of companies are facing problem with big data. The top 5 Big Data problems are: - To get correct insights from the data, Data silos make it time consuming to draw conclusions from it, Unreliable data, Speedy technology, and Lack of skilled personnel. Thus, if decisions are not taken at a high pace it can affect the outcome as Big Data is fast data. The solution to the above problem is Data Integration. This allows to get deeper insight from Big Data. This will also increase the trustworthiness of the data. Now to integrate data it is of utmost importance to use clean data. This can be done by removing duplicates, verifying and updating data on a timely basis and implementing consistent data entry.

To read more follow: http://www.business2community.com/big-data/top-5-problems-big-data-solve-01597918#f8ZXhxxChp3ySQwP.97

To protect a company’s valuable data it is of utmost importance to know about cyber attacks and cyber crime. Most industrial and manufacturing firms are victims of practices such as a/c hijacking, SQLi attacks, Distributed denial of Service Attacks(DDos)and maladvertising. Thus, they should keep these 8 points in mind:-

1. Hackers steal the data primarily for monetary gains.

2. Cyber criminals are interested in debit and credit card numbers.

3.  Instead of internet they access Darknet(also known as deep web) so that they do not leave any digital footprint behind.

4. Companies make huge losses due to these cyber attacks.

5. All the company data must be protected by purchasing breach insurance and by using cloud storage.

6. Companies can take prevention by training staff members on basic and critical policies.

7. Efforts must be made in the field of cyber security. This can be done by identifying the baseline( i.e., identify normal network activity before an intrusion). This is helpful as it makes the identification of attack vector easier and also helps to improve the data security.

8. New threats keep evolving.

By keeping these points in mind company can take prevention against the unfortunate cyber crimes or network breaches to some extent. To read more follow: - http://www.business2community.com/cybersecurity/cyber-attacks-8-things-company-need-know-01601714#WhGV91IDu2rTGu9V.97

There are three reasons why specialized CRM must be implemented in business. They are: - 1.It requires less customisation. 2. Provides a more intuitive explanation. This is truly beneficial in case where the industry requires a deeper insight into their customer behaviour and thus improving their products. 3. Expertise in the industry plays a key role when selecting the CRM platform.

Thus, vertical CRM solutions can be considered as a boon to industries looking for an innovative idea to grow and prosper. To read more, follow: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/insidecrm/vertical-crm-systems-and-your-business-3-reasons-to-consider-a-specialized-crm-implementation-73898

A provider of loan portfolio and risk management solutions to bank and credit unions, has declared the integration of the solutions to their clients with the popular CRM systems. This reduces the no. of errors made by the loan departments as they no longer will enter the same data into multiple systems. U.S banks and credit unions are already taking advantage of these applications like Workflow, Credit Analysis and Loan administration which enables them store and analyse all loan and borrower information. To read more follow: - http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/insidecrm/crm-system-integration-offered-by-bank-software-provider-73886

Customer relationship management (CRM) plays an important role in the sales department. 

The B2B CRM features include:

1. Vast lead development:-this feature allows easy delivery to build a strong relationship between the customer and the company.

2. Provides a platform for multiple decision makers rather than creating separate records for each individual.

3. It helps to deal with the complexities of sale processes.

4. Provides tailor-made products to satisfy the customers

5. To maintain and maximize the client lifetime value, one-to-one account management is an important feature.

The B2C CRM features include:

1. The amount of leads dealt with in B2C CRM is far greater than B2B CRM.

2. It also provides integrated customer service.

3. B2C prospects can be viewed easily by the latest social media updates from the CRM

4. Quick follow-ups with the consumers.

5. It requires real time data to stay updated about their customers. 

Both B2B and B2C CRM has its own advantages so the application must be selected which is best suited to the requirements.

To read more: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/insidecrm/the-differences-between-b2b-and-b2c-crm-solutions-73757

Columnist Mike Sands reveals three retail strategies which may help the retailers:-

1. Use first party data to get better customer insights. These data helps the retailers know their customers well and plan their strategies accordingly.

2. Provide omnichannel shopping experience. This makes the shoppers life easier when they shop in a very busy time schedule.

3. Digital advertising plays a key role in promoting sales. But it should be kept in mind that the ads should be designed based on the known facts of the customer. This will help to attract customers in a short span of time.

To read more follow: http://marketingland.com/3-retail-strategies-beat-amazon-holiday-season-182228

Domain Level Metrics has released a beta version of its tool for mining aggregate metrics and provides an API (Application program interface) aggregate data from marketing analytics provider Moz, search analytics firms SpyFu and SEMrush and web stats provider Alexa. The benefit is that one does not require subscription to access the data on these platforms. To use this data it can be exported to a .csv file as the domain metrics itself is not available via an API. To read more: http://marketingland.com/new-dashboard-offers-metrics-selected-search-web-analytical-tools-184464