For much of the past five decades, financial capital was considered a scarce resource. Today, however, capital is abundant and cheap, and the authors expect the same in another 20 years. Global financial assets have been growing faster than global GDP, and they explain why that trend is likely to continue. It is found that as the supply of capital has increased, the cost has plunged, making it possible for many large firms to borrow funds for next to nothing. Companies can no longer sustain competitive advantage simply by allocating capital skillfully. Now, business leaders need to lower hurdle rates and change their investment strategy, moving away from a few big bets and instead pursuing numerous small, varied growth opportunities. Organizations need to manage their work forces as carefully and rigorously as they manage their financial assets, unleashing and supporting the talent within their organizations. Read more at: https://hbr.org/2017/03/strategy-in-the-age-of-superabundant-capital

The prospect's intent is demonstrated by the frequency of searches on a particular topic from that particular account. Such data is called "Intent Data" .External Intent data( Third -party providers) and Internal data ( CRM and Contact Form) are the sources for such data. It eliminates all the guesswork and saves time by looking out for companies which are researching for our goods and services and then providing them quality content. Till now only 17% companies make use of advances marketing techniques such as intent data. Such knowledge will be a competitive advantage. One of the main advantages is targeting different buyers in the same organization. Overall it would generate more sales.Read more at : http://www.business2community.com/big-data/reach-buyers-matter-intent-data-01851493#d6OimfSHLPcfr9gb.97

Data and analytics capabilities have become a top priority for businesses. Many organizations use the discipline to gain a competitive advantage and improve the customer experience. Nowadays, organizations place a high value on data and analytics. Read more at: http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Marketers-Analytics-Strategies-Extend-C-Suite/1013901

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/

Like any other industry today, technology has become a must have feature of insurance industry. It not only adds value to the business, but also acts as a differentiating factor that provides competitive advantage to insurance companies. The better you make use of this valuable resource, the higher you stand on the competition ladder.

Anand Vyas, Head, Banking, Financial Services and Insurance, SQS Software Features, in his article at itproportal.com, has shared 5 best practice guidelines to ensure the technology is ultimately meeting the business need. They are:

1. Understand demand and business requirements

2. Create a strategic roadmap and business case

3. Analyze applications and business capabilities

4. Adopt a risk-based testing approach to implementation

5. Take an agile approach

To understand them in detail, please visit the following link:

http://www.itproportal.com/2015/06/08/technology-is-the-key-to-the-insurance-sector-and-heres-why/

Advanced analytics is considered as a game changer in all industries today. The benefits received from its application are tremendous. These benefits can also give the user firms – a competitive advantage- which further gives them a lead in their industry. Gavin Seewooruttun, in his article at abc.net, has listed five top applications of advanced analytics, that will prove to be a winning element for its users. They are:

• Gaining the whole customer view
• Customer micro targeting: upselling and cross selling
• Customer micro targeting: acquisition and churn management
• Customer micro targeting: value addition
• Proactive maintenance

To understand them in detail, please visit the following link:

http://www.abc.net.au/technology/articles/2015/06/04/4248646.htm

Organizations must to exploit social media – whether it is social media listening, online analytics, social media intelligence but few organizations do it. Claire Snook (Content Strategist at sixth sense) writes in her article writes about some tips on how brands, regardless of size, can gain competitive advantage. Read more at: http://digitalmarketingmagazine.co.uk/digital-marketing-data/how-to-derive-actionable-insight-from-social-data/1078

Successful companies in 2014 are expected to take Big Data Analytics and utilize it for growth and competitive advantage. Experts discussed how to use data strategically for a strong analytics culture at the webinar "Fine-tune your analytics strategy for 2014". According to Stephen Sharpe, Director of Global Strategic Analytics of Johnson & Johnson, companies need to start working on a cloud based system to integrate and broader integration and training across the various sectors to share best practices. According to Larry Seligman, VP, Advanced Consumer Analytics, Inter-Continental Hotels group, companies need a new definition of data integration and they need to learn how to value projects and programs and quantify the things which were previously not quantifiable. According to Mazhar Hussain, Leader Big Data Practices, HP, gives insight on the importance of analytics as a service. Mid-sized and small customers will take great advantage of analytics as a service which is going to take up big stream and it is important to have the right kind of strategy implemented in the company. Read more at:

http://www.modernanalyst.com/Resources/News/tabid/177/ID/2915/6-things-to-focus-on-in-2014-analytics-strategy.aspx

The benefits of cloud-based ERP systems are well known. These solutions involve far less upfront investment, can be implemented in weeks instead of months or years & can be treated as operating expenditure rather than capital expenditure. Scalability is another advantage of cloud based ERP systems. However, if cloud based ERP solutions had no snags, then premise-based solutions would have disappeared years ago. As this is not the case, it’s worth examining the drawbacks of the SaaS model in ERP, which translate to the strengths of the premise-based model.

For a detailed view on this debate, please visit Tracey Schelmetic’s article link as given below:

http://www.thomasnet.com/journals/techtrends/articles/enterprise-resource-planning-better-on-premise-or-cloud-based