Surviving Digital Disruption | IT

A good look at today in information technology.  With changes and new requirements, what will survive and grow, what will become obsolete and die?

Excerpt:  As a result, “20 to 40 percent of businesses at this conference won’t be here in five to 10 years,” said Forrester Research VP and Principal Analyst Bobby Cameron. “The ones that disappear are the ones not able to stabilize back office activities that don’t differentiate them competitively.”

As technology practices struggle to align with changing competitive business practices, they must also incorporate the arrival of big data, analytics, social, mobile and cloud technologies in their processes and architecture.

Whether through planning or as a result of the evolution, captive enterprise IT skills are migrating from blue collar to white collar.

Read full article via Surviving Digital Disruption – Information Management Online Article.

Get Started with Big Data: Tie Strategy to Performance – HBR

Good read and takeaway how-to.  Big Data for many is overwhelming, particularly when it comes to management and utilization.  However, in order to remain competitive, we need to develop best practices and the more information we have of “discovered” tips and advice, the better.

Excerpt:  Large-scale data gathering and analytics are quickly becoming a new frontier of competitive differentiation. In a recent Harvard Business Review article we explore how companies require three mutually supportive capabilities to fully exploit data and analytics: an ability to identify and manage multiple sources of data, the capacity to build advanced analytic models, and the critical management muscle to transform the organization.

Getting started on a successful data and analytics journey, however, is a continuing challenge for many leaders and they often struggle for a clear strategy that ties data and analytics to improved performance. We took a close look at companies that have recently launched big data strategies to shed further light on the tough road C-level executives face. From these experiences, we have distilled four principles to defining a strategy and getting started:

Read full article via Get Started with Big Data: Tie Strategy to Performance – Dominic Barton and David Court – Harvard Business Review.

Forrest Breyfogle on Taking Six Sigma to the Next Level

This is a re issue of a podcast that is definitely worth your time.  The tips and how-to included in the podcast are valuable to all small business owners in transitioning to today’s challenges.  Leadership and management tools

Excerpt:  Problem-solving or assessment methodologies such as Six Sigma, Lean Six Sigma, or ISO may not provide a business framework so that organizations can move toward achieving the three Rs of business: everybody doing the Right Things the Right Way at the Right Time.

In The Integrated Enterprise Excellence System: An Enhanced, Unified Approach to Balanced Scorecards, Strategic Planning, and Business Improvement , Forrest Breyfogle introduces a new organizational governance system that integrates analytics with innovation. The IEE system shows business leaders what to measure and report; when and how to report it; how to interpret and use the results to establish goals; how to orchestrate work activities; and how to develop strategies that is consistent with established goals. These strategies ultimately lead to specific projects that enhance organizational focus and success.

Download podcast here via Forrest Breyfogle on Taking Six Sigma to the Next Level.  From American Management Association

Effective Measurement and Analytics in a Multichannel World

The white paper is by a brand solution but over and above that the content offers very valuable insights, defined issues and how-to fixes.  Recommended for all marketing management.

Excerpt:  Taming the many headed marketing beast.

Read white paper here http://anametrix.com/gary-angel-white-paper-read-now/  From Anametrix

The Three Minute Guide to Supply Chain Analytics | Deloitte Analytics

Supply Chain Analytics: The three-minute guide
This three minute guide to Supply analytics will explain ways companies can fine-tune their supply chains in ways that weren’t possible in the past.

Read full guide The Three Minute Guide to Supply Chain Analytics | Deloitte Analytics – United States.

What Is Analytics (Infographics)

What is Analytics? Analytics – also known as “business analytics” or “data analysis” – refers to the software and methods that organizations use to understand data. Organizations generate and collect large amounts of data in many forms (for example: text, statistical data, qualitative data, big data) and from many internal and external sources including social media. Organizations use predictive analytics and other kinds of analytics softare to gain insights into their financial and operational performance and from their customer behaviors. With these insights, they can make accurate predictions and better-informed decisions about emerging opportunities, competitive threats and shifts in their markets to increase competitive advantage. Studies show that organizations that apply analytics outperform their peers. Further, those with a broad-based, analytics-driven culture perform, on average, three times better. Not only do they drive more top-line growth and control costs, they take timely corrective action to reduce risks that derail their plans. With 9,000 global consultants and the largest math department in private industry, IBM is the world’s analytics leader. Learn more at bit.ly/NGOxwA

Learn about data visualization tools.

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Rethinking Pinterest…

Here is some good insight into social media, Pinterest, for business marketers.  I agree Pinterest, at first exploration,  appears to be a mostly personal exchange, but the return for businesses marketing are impressive stats and should not be ignored.

Excerpt:  Simply put, Pinterest leaves marketers dumbfounded.

According to a study about Pinterest benchmarking by Pinsights, an analytics platform for Pinterest, pins by a brand that come from another site are 50% more “viral” than posts from its website.

At the same time, a sustained stream of content is the only way to gain a following on Pinterest.

This can leave companies in a bind since pinning a majority of content from other places is a risk some brands won’t take

Read full article via Rethinking Pinterest….  From Contently

The 10 Smartest Web Analytics Tools : Innovation :: AMEX

A list of useful tools for website analytics, some offer a free version.

Excerpt:  Trying to understand your Web visitors can be a bit, well, confusing. Each individual visitor brings his own set of data that has to be collected, measured, analyzed and reported. If you don’t know what you’re looking at, it can feel a bit like being handed a Rubik’s Cube.

Luckily, there are plenty of tools out there that can turn all of that collected information into an easy-to-understand report that gives you much-needed insight into your unique Web visitors. When you are armed with this knowledge, you get to see how effective your website is and what changes you need to make in order to make it even better.

Here are some of the top 10 tools that you can use to gain more understanding about your website traffic.

Read full article via The 10 Smartest Web Analytics Tools : Innovation :: American Express OPEN Forum.

What the Gaming Industry Knows About Digital Intelligence

Gamification to tame the overwhelmng data load.   Perhaps the two marry well?

Excerpt: Digital intelligence is appealing to many, but it’s equally daunting because no simple solution exists for handling massive volumes of diverse data, tracking visitors across digital channels, and directly connecting insights to actions. But one industry does stand out as an early adopter: the gaming industry.

Gaming firms have significant incentives to master analytics because game usage data is their first and best feedback loop into the health of their businesses and the needs of players. Don’t believe it? Consider this:

Read full article via What the Gaming Industry Knows About Digital Intelligence.  From Mashable

Integrate Data into Products, or Get Left Behind – HBR

Over the past two years, we have read a lot about data mining and data management to include Big Data.  For the small business, much of this is yet beyond their means (although there are now companies trying to make it small business do-able).  The author here has good suggestions of an important aspect that I believe is do-able for the small business.

Excerpt: Over the last several years, interest in and excitement about analytics/big data/data mining has grown exponentially. Count me among its biggest enthusiasts, as I firmly believe the potential for the “this changes everything” discoveries are real!

I’m just as excited about “informationalization,” a concept that’s been around for a while but has been gaining speed in recent years. The basic idea is simple: Make existing products and services more valuable to your customers by building in more data and information.

Every company must have an informationalization strategy. In a relative sense, it is easier than big data, appears quite profitable, and may be a competitive necessity.

Virtually every product and service can be made more valuable through informationalization

Read full article via Integrate Data into Products, or Get Left Behind – Thomas C. Redman – Harvard Business Review.

Google Shows Startups How to Master SEO in 10 Minutes [VIDEO]

So, if you are saying – just WHAT is the most important, read this and see this video.  Google is going to make it easy!!!   Yippee comes to mind!

Excerpt:  Worried about how to fill out your meta keywords tag so your startup ranks best in Google results? Don’t bother, the company says. Google search ignores it.

Google released on Tuesday a video that provides startups tips and suggestions about how to master search engine optimization in just 10 minutes.

The video features advice catered to small businesses with main web content on less than 50 pages looking to rank only a handful of related search terms. From how to add the best keywords and including analytics code on your site to how to approach marketing in general, Google aims to make it easier for startups to get their brands ranked higher on search result pages.

See video and read article here via Google Shows Startups How to Master SEO in 10 Minutes [VIDEO].  From Mashable

SEO Keeps Changing So Why Haven’t The Analytics To Measure It?

Good points in this article…….the change of search engines demand a new strategy on how-to.   SEO and websites

Excerpt…….Analytics are like pixels; the more you have the clearer and sharper the whole image is. However, if the picture is missing just the right pixels the whole meaning of it can be distorted.No longer can unknown keyword phrases, their relationship to known keyword phrases, and branded keyword phrases be ignored. They must be acknowledged in a much more robust, graphical and easy-to-access fashion in order to make the best inbound marketing decisions. Let’s hope the developers and programmers that build analytics systems agree. If so, we’ll be seeing these changes soon. In the meantime, watch this video to learn how Kuno increased organic search leads 633%.

Read full article and access link to a video example……..via SEO Keeps Changing So Why Haven’t The Analytics To Measure It? | Business 2 Community.

Big-data analytics – where next?

Big data is for small business also…….read how-to with small budget starts.  Data management and analytics

Excerpt………..But if you don’t happen to have the IT budget of Tesco to leverage big data, what is new and different about the technology available today is that any business, even those with very small budgets, can start to reap the benefits of big-data analytics

Read full article…….via Big-data analytics – where next?.  From CGMA

Technology Forecast: Reshaping the workforce with the new analytics: PwC

Good read……… with great small business takeaways.   Information technology

Excerpt……..Reshaping the workforce with the new analytics
What effect will the new analytics have on your organizational change strategy?

Technology Forecast: Reshaping the workforce with the new analytics explores the impact of the new analytics and a culture of inquiry enterprises can foster with the help of emerging data analysis tools and services.

Download pdf here…….via Technology Forecast: Reshaping the workforce with the new analytics: PwC.

Morning Advantage: It’s a Big Data World, and Puny Humans Just Mess It Up -HBR

Data management……this is a great read, and if you are one of the few that do not fit the criteria (s) listed you are indeed the exception ……OR you are blind to the facts.  Granted this new world of better manage the data and the analytics needed from it has a learning curve for most of us….. but isn’t time to address the issue?

Excerpt……The data you mine is only as good as what you do with it — and therein lays the problem. As the authors write, “We have encountered many organizations that, often out of a combination of inertia, competing priorities and culture of skepticism” about business analytics, spend years deliberating before taking the first step. “Others eagerly embrace the notion of analytics but treat it as an ‘all-or-nothing’ proposition requiring data or algorithmic perfection before actions can be taken.” Indeed, some companies swing from one extreme to the other. If any of this sounds familiar, take heart: you are in good company. Dig into the article with the goal of developing a company-wide vision of the role that analytics play in decision-making — and how data can complement the expertise of individuals, not compete with it.

Read full article……via Morning Advantage: It’s a Big Data World, and Puny Humans Just Mess It Up – Paul Michelman – Harvard Business Review.