As India is growing, the e-waste being dumped from the West is leading to generation of more e-waste. India has seen a dramatic change in laws for handling e-waste in India.In 2010 Indian lawmakers passed an e-waste policy that included Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), before this there was an absence of e-waste recycling infrastructure to manage the country's wealth. EPR means that several business houses such as Apple, Dell and Hewlett Packard will be required to take financial responsibility for recycling their products. The Indian EPR law involves electronic manufacturers join hands with Indian recyclers (including the informal sector) to set up collection centres. In India this is the first time that a law includes informal sector participation. This means that informal sector recyclers who establish a legally recognized association and/or cooperatives will have an opportunity to participate in collection, refurbishing and dismantling of e-waste. To know more about e-waste and EPR go to:

http://svtc.org/blog/e-waste/what-does-indias-e-waste-law-mean/

Continually changing markets affect all industries; sooner or later the world will move on. Any product or service will eventually become obsolete if it is not refined to keep up with these ever-changing market demands. Staying still is not an option. A good Continuous Improvement process will deliver rapid evolution into any business. If one can improve faster than their competitors then they will be able to secure more of the market in future. The four basic requirements needed to develop a flourishing Continuous Improvement culture are stating your intention to improve, harvesting opportunity ideas i.e. initiating a continual improvement process, empowering the workforce i.e. deploying a continuous improvement culture, which is easy where the staffs are empowered to improve and measuring the improvement culture by the number of identified success and celebrating the success. To know more about these four requirements go to:

http://adaptivebms.com/How_to_establish_a_Continuous_Improvement_Process/

Business intelligence is certainly a good area to be in right now. It is expanding faster than any other area of the enterprise application landscape. According to Gartner (an American information technology research and advisory firm), the business intelligence market (including data warehouses and CRM analytics) is growing nine percent per year. While it was worth $57 billion at the end of 2010, it will surge to $81 billion by 2014 and as high as $136 billion by 2020. Because analytics is the "combustion engine of business," organizations invest in business intelligence even when times are tough. Gartner predicts the next big phase for business intelligence will be a move toward more simulation and extrapolation. Gartner surveys show most users still focus on measurement of the past, with only 13 percent of users making extensive use of predictive analytics. Less than 3 percent use prescriptive capabilities such as decision/mathematical modelling, simulation and optimization. "This trend is changing as organizations express an interest in increasing their use of advanced styles of analytics," said Sallam (analyst at Gartner).To know more go to:

http://www.enterpriseappstoday.com/business-intelligence/gartner-taps-predictive-analytics-as-next-big-business-intelligence-trend.html

The biggest fallout of the big data revolution -- where every type of business gathers and analyzes data -- is a massive human resources shortage. Across the globe, thousands of data analytics jobs are not filled up because of a shortage of qualified manpower. Data analytics is not coding work but thinking work, described Dinesh Kumar, a professor of quantitative methods and information systems at the Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore. "The potential is huge, but we are behind in creating a talent pool," he said. Quality is a worry, and companies are finding it difficult to recruit top-class people, Kumar said. Data analytics as a job discipline became mainstream almost a decade ago, and the demand for trained professionals has been growing steadily since. Given India's reputation for the availability of professionals in varied disciplines at reasonable costs, global banks and financial services firms were the first to migrate their analytics work to India, followed by pharma and life sciences companies. Global retailers, consumer firms, logistics firms, consultancies, and engineering firms have all begun routing their data analytics work to IT services providers and specialized analytics service providers in India. In India, which has long been a hub for outsourced technology services work, the scarcity of analytics talent is particularly acute, as global companies send increasing numbers of data-related tasks to the country. To know more about this go to:

http://www.techrepublic.com/article/indias-high-demand-for-big-data-workers-contrasts-with-scarcity-of-skilled-talent/ .

In the present world, advertising is shifting towards digital media, and experts say that small business owners should keep up with that trend in spite of prevalence of billboards and newspapers ads. Whatever the product is, marketing the product to target customer is critical. With the limited budget advertising decisions should be taken wisely. According to Eric Schiffer (head of marketing firms' digitalmarketing.com and socialmediamarketing.com) "You can easily throw a lot of money down the drain if you don't think about the right strategy and right platforms". Owners can build a local business profile on either Facebook or Twitter, and they will be presented with buttons to "promote" or "advertise" their page. Using this process will enable the owners to identify and convert customers at far less cost compared to search based advertising. According to Sidney Smith "E-mail is still king, and building out your e-mail list is so important". Services such as ConstantContact, Vertical Response and iContact can be used to manage an e-mail marketing list. Companies uses GPS data to push coupons and deals via text messages to individuals near a store. To know more about usage of social media, e-mails, text messages and loyalty cards for advertising visit: 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/on-small-business/small-business-guide-how-to-invest-your-digital-advertising-dollars/2014/04/20/67f5ad6c-c4a7-11e3-bcec-b71ee10e9bc3_story.html  .

It will take several years for banks to implement the necessary changes to become customer-centric. They need to assess their operations, identify what needs to change, and then implement the changes and the systems to support them. After the 2008 crisis, customers have eschewed “too big to fail” institutions in favor of local banks. Customers realize they have multiple banking options, often selecting different institutions for different services. A customer with a credit card from a multinational may keep savings and checking accounts locally. Attracted by competitive interest rates, the same customer may apply for a loan or mortgage with a regional bank – or even an online institution.To increase their share of wallet with customers, banks must address three fundamental areas: organization, processes and technology. However, once they crack the code on how to deliver a better experience to customers, they will position themselves to seize phenomenal opportunities to engage with customers. Ultimately, that translates to higher revenues. To know more on why banks should embrace a customer-centric model go to:

http://www.banktech.com/business-intelligence/banks-must-embrace-a-customer-centric-mo/240166955 .

Today, companies have the option of collecting information about consumers which was never available in the past. This information is collected through internal sources, such as company websites and sales records, and external ones, such as social media, smartphones and tablets. This vast amount of information on consumers is increasingly referred to as big data. When a consumer visits a website for the first time, cookies are sometimes uploaded on his browser containing a unique ID, making it possible for the company to identify him during his next visits. Once identified, it will be possible to link the consumer to all information the company stored about his profile, which makes personalized marketing possible. Today, because of prescriptive analytics models embedded into their operational systems, websites and apps can analyze consumer information in real time in order to offer personalized travel options instantly. In the next few years, we will witness a gradual move to 1-to-1 marketing in the online travel category, with each consumer treated in a different way in terms of the whole marketing mix. To know more about this visit:

http://blog.euromonitor.com/2014/05/big-data-unique-ids-and-prescriptive-analytics-revolutionising-online-travel-marketing-part-1.html  .

Today's big data and analytics efforts bring welcome relief to banks, insurance companies, healthcare agencies, non-profits, and other organizations that have habitually struggled with finding the most profitable customers and then selling to them. A new set of analytics reports can move these companies forward in connecting with their best customers. According to a research by Fractal Analytics, banking users are struggling in an industry where 40% of cardholders are inactive and 60% are unprofitable. Banks want to increase spending in its existing credit cardholder base, so that it can implement customer analytics framework that was once targeted at improving first-hand understanding of these customers' needs. Once the bank understood who its most profitable customers were, it developed a "genomic" understanding of how these customers spent their money and found that insurance and food expenses were among the leading "spend" categories. This enabled banks to plan and target promotions built around these major spend areas. By doing so, banks increased its value per customer while decreasing expenses on marketing campaigns, likely because the campaigns were better targeted. To know more about this go to: http://www.techrepublic.com/article/genomic-analytics-build-sales-by-finding-your-most-profitable-customers/ .

The supply chain is a great place to use analytical tools to look for competitive advantage, because of its complex nature and also because of the prominent role supply chain plays in a company's cost structure and profitability. Data analytics is the science of examining raw data and drawing conclusions about information. It is used by many business houses to facilitate better business decisions and verify or disprove existing models or theories. Relying on traditional supply chain execution systems is becoming increasingly more difficult, with a mix of global operating systems, pricing pressure and increasing customer expectations. There are also recent economic impacts such as rising fuel costs, global recession, supplier bases that have shrunk or moved off shore, as well as increased competition from low cost outsourcers. All these challenges potentially create waste in the supply chain that is where data analytics steps in. To know more about the role of data analytics in supply chain visit:http://www.industryweek.com/blog/supply-chain-analytics-what-it-and-why-it-so-important .

In recent times, the quickest and the easiest way to reach out to the huge market is through paid search marketing like advertising on Google AdWords or through other engines. Research shows that almost 75% of the North American population remain online. Marketing Analytics allows you to monitor campaigns and their respective outcomes, enabling each dollar to be spent as effectively as possible. According to a study in 2008 by the Lenskold Group "companies making improvements in their measurement and ROI capabilities were more likely to report outgrowing competitors and a higher level of effectiveness and efficiency in their marketing". In search marketing, one of the most powerful marketing performance metrics comes in the form of keywords. It is the keyword data contained within each click which can be utilized to inform and optimize business processes, monitor industry trends, provide customer support and identify the product design. A successful online marketing strategy relies on a winning AdWords campaign. The strength of your AdWords campaigns will dictate how well you rank in Google; without a decent ranking, your site will never be seen by prospective clients. As was published by E-Consultancy Research, it's generally well known that "a paid search campaign will add prestige and credibility to an organization. To know more about marketing analytics go to: http://www.wordstream.com/marketing-analytics .

Companies can maintain customer support department to answer customer doubts and problems in social networking websites like Twitter and Facebook. Answers to customers should be quick and within few hours of posting. We can implement softwares that can be synchronized with Facebook, to manage private messages and posts, and to keep track of customer service questions & problems and also to serve requests. Some of these softwares are Sales Force Desk, Happy Fox etc. One can use the Facebook page to spread the problems associated with that particular product and other product issues. Social space provides a platform to make people aware of the product defects. It will demonstrate the business house's willingness to take responsibility for mistakes making fans aware of the present business scenario and maintaining transparency. Some brands often offer their fans monthly exclusive deals and some host frequent giveaways. To know about this aspect follow Jim Belosic (CEO of ShortStack)'s link: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/social-customer-service-facebook/ .

Sampling error can cause problems if they are not taken care of. Errors in judgment about sample size can be fixed easily and sample sizes must be considered seriously if big data is being used for predictive analysis. A leader trying to use big data in predictive analysis should always consult the data scientist. The way to understand whether enough data has been collected or not for the purpose of prediction involves understanding the tolerance of the risk associated to accept the assumptions drawn from the sample size characteristics. There are two types of risk: the risk that you're going to take some action when you shouldn't and the risk that you are not going to take some action when you should. Also enough information should be available about the sample variation and precision of measurement to know whether enough data has been collected to make prediction. To know more about importance of sample size in predictive analytics, go to John Weathington (President and CEO of Excellent Management Systems, Inc.)'s link: http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/big-data-analytics/why-samples-sizes-are-key-to-predictive-data-analytics/ 

Nowadays, social media customer care represents a tremendous growing opportunity for businesses to foster strong customer relationships. According to Bianca Buckridee (presently the vice president of social media operations) JP Morgan's twitter page enables customers to see the individual with whom they are talking which in turn restores some of the intimacy and comfort that is lost in a phone conversation.   Katy Phillips, a senior analyst for American Airlines, identifies social space as an important factor which has helped them build customer loyalty and brand reputation and will continue to create some "wow'' moments for customers. In spite of such boons of social media customer care, not many businesses have exploited it. Evolve24-a Maritz Research company, found in 2011 that approximately 70% of customer service complaints made on Twitter were unanswered. The panelists at the recent Wharton Social Media Best Practices Conference believe that the percentage has not changed significantly. Read more at: https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/ignored-side-social-media-customer-service/