SigmaWay Blog

To keep track with the increased competition in today’s business environments, business leaders look outward to find potential innovation. Facing competition from start-ups, established businesses are inclined to pursue mergers and acquisitions. Such outward looking attitude might cause leaders to overlook ideas of innovation available internally. With the help of digital collaboration tools, allowing for staff participation in innovation encourages teamwork and camaraderie. Inward looking innovation involves the following few steps:

1) Formalizing the program: Setting up innovation programs on whims leads to major failures and hence, such programs should be formalized with guidelines. Larger companies set up their own incubation centres where their teams operate as start-ups whereas smaller companies enable teams to embark on pet projects.

2) Breaking down data silos: Data silos decelerate growth and innovation programs should break down such silos. Participants should be allowed to tap on a variety of skills and perspectives by using collaboration tools like Trello, Slack and Conceptboard.

3) Track Progress:  There should be a time element in the program lest projects won’t progress. Making events out of program milestones is a good way to inject excitement.

4) Provide executive support: Leadership plays a critical role in any innovation program with the duty of keeping their efforts aligned with the business goals. The momentum should not break down. Proper planning is indispensable for efficient time and workload management. 

Such efforts bring concepts closer to reality and not only seek to generate bright ideas. 

Read more at: https://www.smartdatacollective.com/ways-nurture-employee-innovation-from-within-organization/

A Business owner wishes to know more about his/her's customers, wants them to keep visiting the business more, and increase the purchases. To achieve such goals, loyalty programs are created. So basically marketing strategies involve in getting the customers and getting them to return. Loyalty programs are structured marketing strategies. It is designed to encourage customers to shop at or use the services of businesses again and again. To know more visit at: https://www.business2community.com/loyalty-marketing/do-loyalty-programs-really-create-loyalty-02049183

Budding businesses often uses personalization processes that relies on accumulating customer data from third-party sources but that era is coming to a close. CRM systems can be significant sources of vision that empowers and enable companies to see their data from all angles but at the same time can be difficult to use and maintain. Few tips to convert CRM systems from potentially confusing resource into a powerful weapon are as follows:-

·         Tell the software what to streamline-

CRM automation is better than the manual processes in the sense that it can remove the obstacles involving tedious and time consuming works, by importing data, making smarter schedules and compiling related data.

·         Learn to spot at-risk accounts-

CRM software is the ideal instrument to track customer engagement as it allows employees to help clients when things look bad. For an example, it can set up the flags for different triggers, such as repeat complaints. The software can alert sales representatives when customers set off one of the triggers.

·         Use Robots to make CRM adoption-

Virtual assistants such as chatbots, powered by artificial intelligence, can network with CRM systems to set appointments, add client information to files, and locate information without forcing users to sieve through data manually. 

 Utilized efficiently and correctly, a CRM system can transform from an equipped essential into a competitive advantage.

Read more at: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/312994

How the Amazon is able to raise itself as one of the titanic disruptors in retail space? With its warehouses, full of robots is actually enhancing the speed and efficiency of logistics operations. FedEx is also tracing the footsteps of Amazon. The deployment of mobile robots inside FedEx is showing up how customer’s E-commerce habits are improving the retail and logistic sector. Commonly companies are making use of robots as store-service robots, inventory robots and delivery robots.

Robots are actually complimenting the human colleagues’. But the main objective of retail industry is to make profit margins and increase the productivity using robotic automation technology. 

For more information visit:

https://www.analyticsinsight.net/how-worlds-biggest-companies-use-robotics-in-supply-chain/

The implementation of Business Intelligence Tools have gained enormous importance, as there are terabytes of data incoming from many sources from all over the world. With such quantities of data at their disposal, these companies want to analyze and track sales dynamics, trends, and analyze the efficiency of their business decisions. It is vital to perform these operations in a timely manner, so that the analysts can work with these data. Big complex data can now be easily managed through the help of business intelligence tools by any small or big organizations. The collection of data are analyzed and are converted into simple reports, which helps the organization with valuable insights, which indeed helps them in earning necessary profits. To know more visit at:  https://financesonline.com/15-best-business-intelligence-tools-small-big-business/

Market intelligence is the process of gathering data from the company’s external environment to stay ahead in the competition. Outcomes of market intelligence are market opportunity, market penetration strategy, and market development. Building a solid market intelligent system is vital to having the information necessary to compete and win in the business battle ground. Market intelligence deals with a lot of insights. The main sources of raw data collection for market intelligence are sales log, surveys and social media. To know more, visit:  http://www.dobney.com/market_intelligence.htm

Nowadays, Artificial Intelligence is not new to this world. AI is used in almost every field, especially in the field of business. To make business related decisions, you need data. This data is analysed and then plans and actions are decided. From identifying the problem to discover actionable business insights, right analysis of data can transform business operations and take it to higher level. 

However, with the power of AI you can automate this task of data analysing, transforming raw data into actionable business intelligence. One thing for which Artificial intelligence is hungry for is data! The more data you feed it, the better results it gives to you. But with the vast amount of data that AI requires, it also follows the concept of “Garbage in, Garbage out.” Feeding the right thing to AI should be the up-most priority to get results. For this reason, many companies are making changes in their data management space.

Read more at : https://www.technotification.com/2018/05/ai-changing-enterprise-data.html

Chatbots are proving to be far more effective than people had thought of. They are acting as a personal assistant without any additional needs. They are completely virtual so they don’t need any physical space. They are great tool for gathering and processing feedback from customers and other parties involved. They even provide latest news, and reminders set by the user. They are very user friendly. In process automation, chatbots play a big role. Along with a feedback system, they even act as a research system, providing data on what customers require. Chatbots are easy to create and establish. Read more at: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/303554

Digital marketing has become a possibility and now they are being measured in terms of magnitude. There is a constant change in the digital marketing trends. Mobile phones have become a key part of our daily lives, so businesses have to take care of the mobile element of their business. Chatbots are also taking place in the world of technology. A new emerging trend is of Everything Videos. These are videos which contain description of everything that the customer would want to know. Companies take to social media platforms to engage in one to one chat with customers. Marketing is also done via influencers who have considerable level of influence over people. Read more at: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/305549

Email marketing has been on the rise lately. There are few email marketing myths that are absolutely untrue. There is no single good day to send marketing emails. Unsubscribers are not a bad news. It gives a chance to the company to further tailor the message as per the target market. Email marketing does not take much time and is not an expensive proposition. The biggest myth that no one actually reads the mails is simply a incorrect. Research has shown that a majority of people do read the emails.  Read more at: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/305948

Transparency in companies, publishing dashboards to everyone to keep everyone updated of the progress and not being able to adjust data can be scary for some people. A BI fail in a large corporation, we often consider faulty process or management to be the reason but it might be due to lack transparency between managers, board members and shareholders. Managers always refer to preferring  accuracy over speed, but accuracy takes months to implement so managers tweak the data which makes it useless. Nowadays, new generation managers are politics free and depend on technology and SaaS apps for improvement and speedy delivery of data. They don’t mind sacrificing 100% accuracy to 80% if they can get the job done 5-10 times faster. Read more at :

http://www.business2community.com/business-intelligence/dark-side-business-intelligence-01845255#7ot2lqmRUYVhQfAj.97

Organizations are evolving from a traditional environment to  digital workplace reveals that gaining competitive advantage and improving business process are among the top goals of digital transformation strategy. Today, the digital workplace is no longer just made up of managers and co-workers collaborating with one another to complete projects, It’s increasingly populated by ‘virtual employees’ who do not exist in a physically , but play an important role. While AI technology is still in its infancy, it is sufficiently advanced to be working its way into companies in the form of virtual assistants, in certain industries such as banking, virtual tellers and advisors. Embedded into  applications, virtual assistants draw on AI engines and machine learning technology to respond to basic queries. 64% use analytics to improve their customer services, 58% use analytics to benchmark their workplace technologies. Read more at :

http://www.dataversity.net/artificial-intelligence-analytics-accelerate-pace-digital-workplace-transformation/

Internet has opened up new possibilities for communicating, from emailing and blogging to mobile video chatting. Most businesses now communicate with their customers through multiple online channels. As brands prioritize this digital experience, they often overlook communicating by voice is faster, easier, and more effective than typing messages. According to the advertising and marketing advisory firm BIA/Kelsey, calls to businesses are expected to exceed 169 billion per year by 2020. These calls are 10-15 times more likely to generate a successful sale or follow-up activity than digital form submissions, which means they are more efficient in generating revenue. Voice is central to communication, and because it’s not strictly an online channel, it presents a challenge for brands that treat digital transformation as a matter of generating clicks and website views. The challenge is particularly acute for businesses that operate in categories such as insurance, lending, travel, or healthcare. In these “considered purchase” categories, consumers typically reach out to a brand after conducting preliminary research online, and are thus well qualified to buy. Read more at https://hbr.org/2017/07/your-customers-still-want-to-talk-to-a-human-being

Nobody sets out with a plan to fail, but so often people let obstacles get in the way of their success. They start off towards their goal, full of energy and ambition, and then years later we may find them still stuck in the same dead-end job or dreaming of the life they could have had. The author here, Daniel Milstein, CEO of Goldstar Family of Companies mentioned here that through his own successes in starting up four companies, he figured out a few things that can stall us. They are Time, Lack of Focus, Holding Back, Attitude and Fear. According to the author, one should obliterate the obstacles and move ahead. Read more at https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/297278

According to authors, innovations in the areas of Artificial Intelligence(AI),Machine Learning and Deep Learning are beginning to dominate the technology landscape but the actual user experience and concerns about privacy and security are obstacles that can prevent AI from reaching its potential. Despite it’s negative implications, a Consumer Intelligence Report by PwC, revealed, that most consumers believe AI will help humankind, by solving complex problems, like fatal diseases, city traffic, cybercrime, infrastructure and fraud, that plague modern societies , thereby helping people to live more fulfilling lives. AI could revolutionize  personalized healthcare by analyzing data thus helping in maximizing life expectancy and enhancing wellbeing.AI will expand access to financial, medical, legal and transportation services to those with lower incomes thus emerging  both as a process and a product that instills trust and transparency in consumers. Read more at https://aitrends.com/security/consumers-welcome-ai-despite-lingering-privacy-concerns/

According to authors, modern-day marvels are the result of machine learning, which are programs that combine through millions of pieces of data and start making correlations and predictions about the world , by using machines that uses cold hard data to make decisions that are sometimes  more accurate than a human’s, thereby reducing biases. Computers don’t hold any inherent biases, as machine  knows only one approach i.e. the objective analysis and are capable of analyzing massive amounts of information, thus having  a distinct advantage over humans. Utilizing the data for machine learning, can uncover contradictory and surprising results by making data more accessible, more understandable and  enabling the organization to achieve a new level of business intelligence, thus empowering decision makers at all levels with a powerful tool. Read more at https://aitrends.com/machine-learning/machine-learning-cure-decision-bias/

According to authors, the development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) creates several opportunities for retailers to improve their customer services , insights and business processes. AI makes it possible to generate insights on a scale like never before, it does this by combining customer data  across all platforms( from social media to CRM) like past purchases, search habits, click behavior, age, gender, season of the year and various other variables and self learning algorithms. By crawling the web and aggregating various forms of customer data, AI gives retailers the opportunity to engage with customers on a more personal level. Through chat applications such as Facebook and Messenger and by using chat bots on websites, the potential customers can communicate with the retailers using speech or text, that will assess and answer customer queries, thereby assisting in the selection process and helping in the execution of simple tasks. Read more at https://aitrends.com/retail/robots-ai-retail-8-things-must-know/

Business analytics and business intelligence are like two sides of a coin. But there is a difference between them. Business analytics is like an umbrella term and intelligence is a part of it together with other aspects of business applications. Once a person runs a business, that person will be able to understand the difference between them, that is, business intelligence is like accessing to all kinds of business related data and software's and put them into the analysis. Business analytics is something using your business intelligence into your data and optimizing the performance of the business. To have a successful business, it is important to follow both. Business intelligence is generally used to look over the previous data, whereas business analytics look to the future needs of the business. It's necessary for a businessman to understand its difference for making any business decisions or predicting for the future. Read more at: http://www.analyticbridge.com/profiles/blogs/business-analytics-and-intelligence-compared

Marketing the contents those appeals to the customer or the client is best method to attract them. For this purpose, a good and catchy title having numerals and adjectives could do a lot good to the firms. Giving incentives and offers can help to identify the genuine customers and give many details about them. Also creating market content has 3 stages i.e. awareness among customer about your firm, consideration about other competitors and decision of the customer to select your brand or some other, hence care must be taken for each stage to attract the targeted customers.

Read more at: http://www.business2community.com/customer-experience/3-marketing-tactics-land-dream-customer-01832390#2uJv11PDEbHeKFVm.97