Big Data has always presented new avenues to make huge profit in almost every sector. However, it would be our short sightedness to associate big data benefits only for profit seeking organizations. Non-profit organizations are also increasingly using/gathering huge data to drive the social change they aim at. Sima Thakkar, content marketing manager at Umbel and founder of goodindiangirl.com, enlighten us about the big data projects carried out by different NGO's. To have a look at all these interesting big data initiatives driving the change we all want, follow the link http://www.smartdatacollective.com/sthakkar/323866/when-big-hearts-meet-big-data-6-nonprofits-using-data-change-world

How to make my content impressive and engaging- This is one question that haunts every brand now and then. With standard formatted blogpost becoming too common and dry to consume, the appetite for more creative and engaging content is increasing. Sylvia Jensen, marketing director at Oracle Marketing Cloud, shares 12 awesome ways to keep your brand message relevant and at the same time makes it stand out from the noise. Some of our picks are:

• Framing a quiz, it will be more engaging

• Examine a case study

• Explore different charts

• Put things in a comic strip

• Write a guide or glossary

For more, have a look at http://www.business2community.com/content-marketing/12-awesome-content-marketing-ideas-arent-blog-posts-01258747

Remote patient monitoring (RPM) is a technology (read wearable) that facilitate monitoring of patients outside the conventional clinical setup. This will basically help increase the intensity of care and decrease the cost of healthcare delivery. Jack Kreindler, MD is chairman, chief medical officer and co-founder of Sentrian, hopes that this technology will help in hugely cutting down avoidable hospitalization and dealing with the problem of chronic diseases which is a burden on every economy. In his special guest feature in Inside Bigdata, he elaborates on Remote Patient Intelligence (RPI). Till very recently this seemed to be a far dream but it seems to change in the near future. Cheaper wearable/bio sensors, omnipresent smart phones, more connectivity, highly evolved machine learning and big data analytics hold the keys for the realization of this dream. For more on the scope of this futuristic technology, follow the link http://insidebigdata.com/2015/06/10/the-promise-of-remote-patient-intelligence/

As more and more data pours in, marketers need to keep adjusting their strategies to be updated in this dynamic ecosystem of information. Thomas Begin, vice president of strategy in Targetbase, in his special guest feature in Inside Bigdata talks about the analysis paralysis in times when many organizations are turning to consumer centric strategies. He points out the major lags in this transformation:

• Inadequate internal collaboration

• The inability to act quickly

• More focus on reporting rather than action. 

To have a look at the recommended solution to these lags follow the link http://insidebigdata.com/2015/05/05/keeping-big-data-small-to-create-engagement/

With IoT becoming the norm rather than the exception, there is an overwhelming amount of customer data at the disposal of companies. But with huge data comes huge challenges. The challenge of combining, cleaning and shaping data before the analysis. Cari Jaquet, vice president of marketing at Paxata, in a special guest feature in Inside Bigdata talks about why data preparation solutions are important to make data more consumable. According to a recent Gartner report, it has been advised to use simple data preparation tools to first, save analysts time and second simplify the task of data preparation from diverse sources. For a deeper insight into data preparation follow the link  http://insidebigdata.com/2015/06/19/data-preparation-the-key-to-unravelling-the-big-data-opportunity/

We know how big data has helped organizations achieve big success in almost every field. Today, when everyone is in a race to establish a competitive edge over the other, businesses want their data and analytics to be real time or near real time so that they can act quickly. Mary Shacklett, president of Transworld Data, elaborates for us four ways real time analytics lead to competitive advantages. They are:

• Buying Preferences

• Network Intrusion detection and forensics

• Logistics Orchestrations

• Predictive maintenance

To know what these systems had in common follow the link http://www.techrepublic.com/article/4-ways-real-time-analytics-lead-to-competitive-advantages/

Marketing automation is software and tactics that enable companies to nurture prospects with highly personalized and useful content that helps convert prospects to customers and turn customers into delighted customers. It therefore makes for a highly profitable investment when it comes to adding value to the existing CRM solution. Eric Scott Johnston, analyst with Studio B, in an article on Inside-CRM blog talks about the takeaways from automated content marketing:

• Improve lead quality by reducing the number of unqualified leads.

• Develop great customer insights

• and finally when all things fall in place, companies retain their customers. 

For more on this piece follow the link  http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/insidecrm/3-ways-automated-content-marketing-can-benefit-your-crm-solution-67854 

The future of analytics seems to be brighter with IoT data, it's near real speed analysis and complex event processing systems. But, where exactly is IoT analytics going. Michael Hummel, co-founder and CTO of ParStream, talks future of IoT analytics. Daniel Gutierrez has summarized his talks in an article on Inside BigData highlighting the 4 predictions Michael made:

• Big data, fast data and more analytics

• Horizontal integration and vertical application 

• Decentralization

• Integration of advanced analytics and Machine learning

For more on this piece, follow the link http://insidebigdata.com/2015/05/28/and-this-is-the-future-of-iot-analytics/

Have you recently asked the right questions from your CRM application? If no then here is a piece of advice from Inside CRM blog to upgrade your CRM application. It will bring more business agility, efficient workflow and will improve customer relationship.

But what are the right questions to ask:

• How old is your CRM solution? And if you can’t remember then here is your cue to upgrade.

• How many applications are you using to support your CRM?

• Does it grow with your business? 

To find your answers, click on the link: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/insidecrm/how-to-tell-its-time-to-upgrade-your-crm-solution-67836

Maximizing ROI has become the ultimate goal for Marketers. Increasing visibility, likes, followers and tweets seems to be the major indicators. Daniel Newman, author of The Millennial CEO and a Forbes contributor, in an article in Forbes term these indicators as vanity metrics which distract marketers from the actual story. Rather than measuring likes, focus should be on how many of the likes were converted into new customer and other measures which go beyond customer acquisition and sales that will help discern their real growth story. 

He lists out 7 things that marketers should measure: 

• Top of funnel conversions

• Engagement

• Customer satisfaction

• Customer Retention 

• Employee satisfaction 

• Employee retention 

• Attributable Revenue

For more on this, follow the link http://www.forbes.com/sites/danielnewman/2015/05/12/7-things-marketers-should-measure-big-data-can-help/

Now big data will help diagnose climate change. Shalene Gupta from Fortune talks about five big data projects that are on verge of changing the way we look at the problem of climate change. From tracking deforestation in Amazon, graphing animal life in African Savannah, tracking illegal forest fires to telling people how much energy they consume compared to their neighbors, we have it all in these 5 big data projects-

• Google Earth Engine

• Madingley Model form Microsoft

• Data.gov’s climate

• Global Forest Watch

• Opower

For more interesting insights follow the link http://fortune.com/2015/02/14/big-data-climate-change/

Fascinating, the first word that comes to the mind. Drones and big data are bonding pretty well these days and can be a successful recipe for innovations. 

Jonathan Buckley, senior vice president of marketing at Qubole, gives us a glimpse of this promising combo but not without the challenges. 

Agriculture, disaster relief and anti-poaching are some area where the combination has worked wonders. Needless to say more such wonders are in pipeline. But, yes there is a ‘butt’ of challenges attached here. The data gathered by drones is immense, it will require real time big data analytics and ad-hoc analysis to improve. But, one can feel optimistic about the future.

Have a look at  http://smartdatacollective.com/jonathanbuckley/316611/growing-relationship-between-drones-and-big-data

Don't ignore your supply chain risks if you love your profits, that's the advice Keith Peterson, president and CEO of Halo, is giving in his article. He talks about:

• Various supply chain risks
• The department they affect
• Its financial impacts
• Finally! Solution. 

Solution to all the problems these days is in analytics. Right software and analytics programme will increase your profit generating abilities to multiple folds. Intrigued? Follow the link at:http://smartdatacollective.com/keith-peterson/322401/solving-supply-chain-risks-infographic

The success mantra for a perfect digital strategy is to deliver the right message (RM) to right person (RP) at the right time (RT). But we are often overwhelmed by popular trends and forget to look beyond them. Here is an inventory of strategies one can follow to find an optimal solution (might not be the trendiest one). Avinash Kaushik (author) in his blog Occam’s Razor talks about the 5 myths of digital marketing and analytic:

• Programmatic Platforms are a panacea.
• A data first strategy is a winning formula.
• All we need is Facebook, forget our websites.
• The web is dead. Mobile web is dead. Apps are the past present and future.
• Cookies! Cookies are all we need.

For more insight into this piece don’t hesitate to follow http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/digital-marketing-analytics-deadly-myths-de-mythified/

Need a big data solution for your project? The 3 V's of big data will bail you out. In an article by Paul Holland (Consultant), he talks about the 3 V dimensions of big data initially discussed in 2001 by META group (now Gartner) analyst Laney Douglas in a research report. Fourteen years hence, big data challenges and opportunities have acquired 8 V dimensions. The author exclusively focuses on the 3 V's:

• Volume
• Velocity
• Variety 

Volume talks about zettabytes of data generated every second. For example, if we look at airplanes they generate 2.5 billion terabytes of data every year. Velocity is about the speed with which data moves around. Unlike earlier times, data is created in real time or near real time. Variety is basically the different types of data. Gone are the days when data used to fit neatly in tables. Today 80% of world data is unstructured (text, images, videos, voice etc.). Read more at:http://makingdatameaningful.com/2015/05/26/characteristics-of-big-data-part-one/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=characteristics-of-big-data-part-one