Communication has evolved a lot since the discovery of telephones. The invention of smartphones and OTT (over the top) messenger apps, along with the emergence of social networks, have changed the face of communication. At the same time, improvements in collaborative technologies have sent video-conferencing through the early motions of commoditization, making it a reality for businesses of all sizes. Now the time has arrived to move from Unified Communications to Universal Communications. While unified communications has been focused on integration and streamlining of all the communication and collaboration tools within a business; universal communications is about making communications possible anywhere, between anyone and nearly across any device. The main factors driving the emergence of Universal communications are changing work life balances, social networking, and constantly improving devices, changing uses of synchronous vs. asynchronous and mainstreaming of the cloud. Read more at:

http://www.informationweek.in/informationweek/perspective/297528/journey-unified-universal-communications

Master Data Management (MDM) programs often start with the analysis of the available technology and products but not the business problem they tend to solve. Three primary categories of MDM benefits are operational efficiency, better business intelligence, and regulatory compliance. The following are ten things one can do now to prepare the organization for  MDM initiative:

• Set goals and success criteria.

• Prepare a business case.

• Build a governance process.

• Choose the first subject areas to attack.

• Carry a data inventory.

• Recognize executive sponsorship.

• Identify business champions.

• Set up an educational forum.

• Educate yourself about products and approaches.

• Develop a business model of the data to be handled.

Read more about this article at: 

http://esj.com/Articles/2008/06/25/Ten-Tips-for-Master-Data-Management-Success.aspx?Page=1

The healthcare analytics market is expected to grow at a CAGR of more than 25% over the forecast period 2014-2019. Increasing healthcare IT adoption, centralized healthcare mandates across the globe, emerging fields of predictive, prescriptive analysis and venture capital are the factors driving the market growth. Digitization of world commerce, the emergence of Big Data and increase in the number of advanced technologies are other growth providing factors. Factors hampering the growth of the healthcare analytics market include lack of skilled labor with analytical skills, data securing and patient data privacy. North America holds the largest share of healthcare analytics market driven by US centralized healthcare mandates such as Meaningful Use and The Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act (PPACA). These initiatives assist to improve the acceptance of Electronic Health Records and Healthcare Information Exchange, thus improving the usage of analytics to influence the generated data. Read more at:

http://www.fortmilltimes.com/2014/07/21/3616557/research-and-markets-healthcare.html

The desire to be mobile and make a mark is not new to us. Today we use GPS for wherever we go and communicate on a variety of devices. Big data is the phenomenon which has helped in generating and sharing information. The difference between data in ancient times and now is that before, only humans created and collected data whereas now with the rise of sensors and other technology that creates and collects data. However, the big thing about big data is the self-organization i.e. without human intervention and awareness, data is organizing itself.  But, this leads to a big question that-Are we playing with fire? With big data revolutionizing, there comes a new responsibility, because the purpose of managing data is not to predict the future but to shape it which is a huge responsibility. However, revolution hasn't stopped. Changes took place slowly in the evolutionary manner. Using technology that provides insight into data, today's business leaders have a unique opportunity to make thoughtful decisions that will have long-lasting impacts. But along with all this, disruptive changes are happening in every industry around the world which increasingly making us concern about whether today's leaders rise to the challenge of shaping the future in a responsible way or not. Read more at:http://analytics.theiegroup.com/article/53c3f6413723a87216000156/Shaping-The-Future-With-Big-Data-Are-We-Playing-With-Fire

 According to a survey of 900 business and IT executives from 70 countries by IBM Institute for Business Value study, Eighty percent of respondents are evaluating the impact of their analytics investments, 60 percent already have predictive analytics capabilities, and "leaders" who were perceived to be proactive in engaging analytics in their organizations were more than two times likely than average to have formal career paths for analytics professionals.The next generation of IT workers will work in highly automated environments that combine both in-sourced and out-sourced technologies that businesses will expect to get immediate value from. “We hire many of our people right out of college," said the CEO of a healthcare cloud analytics vendor. The intuition behind is that the company already possessed the internal analytics expertise to train these recruits, and the added advantage of hiring freshers is that it also gives the company an opportunity a to train these recruits in to customer service that is valuable to the company. To know more about this, go to: http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/big-data-analytics/better-training-in-search-of-next-generation-it-workers/

Customer relationship management deals with all types of interaction between a company and a customer, whether it is sales or service-related. Customer relationship management is generally used to explain the relationship between business houses and customers. CRM systems are also used to manage business contacts, clients, contract wins and sales leads. Technology Advancement have changed consumer buying behavior, and today there are many alternatives in which a company can get in touch with its customers and collect data about them. Technology and the Internet have changed the way companies approach customer relationship strategies. There are various benefits of CRM strategy like it helps  understanding the customer, retaining customers through delivery of better customer experience, attracting new customers, win new clients and contracts, increased profitability, decrease customer management and helps the companies to know what the customers and the general market want. To know more about CRM go to:http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/C/CRM.html

Healthcare industry has changed a lot from what it was five years ago. Thanks to influx of technology, policy reforms and care model innovations. Patients, today, are better informed by instant access to health information sources. According to a recent study by Intel, patients today are ready to see technology play a greater role in their care. Technologies like ingestible monitors can collect valuable health data and also the providers are eagerly using mobile devices and telemedicine tools to better care for their patients which in turn helps to increase operational and administrative efficiencies. Health systems are also dependent on big data to improve and better manage population health. Physician and hospital use of health IT has already more than doubled in 2013, and 2014 is going to see another exponential innovation. Cutting costs and broadening access to quality of care and also emphasizing on patient's experience, providers are refining ways to better serve their patients. Apart from such innovations, use of sensor technology, relying more on big data will increase. Health systems will become more transparent. Read more at:http://www.informationweek.com/healthcare/leadership/healthcare-in-2014-innovate-or-be-left-behind/d/d-id/1204285

Disruptive technologies are technologies that will transform existence, commerce, and the worldwide economy. According to a report, there are twelve technologies that could bring massive economic alterations and disturbances in the coming years. The report also states how these technologies could modify our world, their profit and confront, and propose rule to help leaders’ .Business leaders should update their organizational strategy continuously with the developing technologies, and use technologies to progress inner presentation. Disruptive technologies can change the strategy for businesses, create completely fresh yields and services, and changing team of value between creators or from producers to customers. Organizations use business model improvement to arrest that value. Leaders need to presume from where risks are coming from and should look further than confirmed models. Organizations also need to make sure to keep their workers’ abilities advanced.Read more at:

http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/business_technology/disruptive_technologies

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 .

Cloud is the most scoring buzzword in technology and business spaces. Everyone is talking about the business benefits of cloud - benefits like cost, affordability, storage, etc. It is known to all of us.

Cloud has a flip side also. While there is no problem with data storage, but retrieving and uploading them is a problem. The problem is because of limited bandwidth. But, the way everything is now becoming connected – from jet engines in airplanes to mobile devices in your hands, we cannot reject data connectivity. It is not possible either – because predictive analytics has gained prominence where real time data serves as input and the analytics tools are located remotely. Third and fourth generation cellular networks are simply not fast enough to stream data to and fro. When there is a problem, there must be a solution to it. Experts are saying to stop concentrate on cloud and look at an alternative approach. Christened as ‘fog computing’ by Cisco, it has some edges over cloud computing. In cloud computing, where devices are distant and remote, in fog computing, it is just the reverse. Things are done near to the devices that are not so much powerful, but can make decisions.

So, the next time you go for cloud computing, give a thought over fog computing. Know more about it at: http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304908304579566662320279406?mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052702304908304579566662320279406 .

Wearable technology is the latest trend in healthcare industry. This technology helps doctors, by assisting them in the operating room and providing real time access to electronic health records. By collecting information through this technology, healthcare providers now have more complete and essential real-time data to treat patients. David Peterson - CMO Emdeon Inc., believes that the adoption of wearable healthcare-related devices could indeed be a significant step in patient engagement and improving population health. Not only doctors, now patients can also monitor their own health continuously. Read more about this technology at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/vala-afshar/wearable-technology-the-c_b_5263547.html

For emerging markets, exploring data to predict trends is not an easy option, mostly because of less availability of data in new fields. However, organizations in the emerging markets have the option of gradual progress. They have to start with analysing small data and then there will be scope to move into big data in near future. Problems for companies trying to do business in these areas are limited access to information and appropriate analytic modelling techniques. Gartner reports that companies are predicting 40 to 60% of their growth in revenues will come from emerging markets over the next decade, and McKinsey & Company predicts that in 12 years, 57% of the nearly one billion households with earnings greater than $20,000 a year will live in the developing world. "Companies need analytics to cope with these new markets," said Richard Howells, vice president of Go to Market for SAP. To know about this aspect, please visit the following link: http://www.techrepublic.com/article/start-with-small-data-in-emerging-markets-to-get-to-big-data-analytics/#. 

The sheer proliferation of new online devices and digital consumer channels is pushing leading-edge companies to rethink how they connect and engage their customers. Connection between business and customers in digital channels is known as customer journey. An integrated portfolio of technologies including self-service mobile apps, customer communities and open product development can reshape today's customer journey. To know more about the change in customer journey, go through the article by Dion Hinchcliffe, expert in information technology, business strategy and next-generation enterprises.

http://www.zdnet.com/the-new-digital-customer-journey-cross-channel-mobile-social-self-service-and-engaged-7000015570/

Chief Information Officer of any organization should realise the change in technology and making enterprise software attractive should be the part of their strategy. Strong, responsive, high-energy, customer-focused service is what delivers value and makes a company attractive and this is being enabled by the digital transformation. To know more about the points which CIO should keep in mind while entering the digital age, go through the article by Vala Afshar, Chief Marketing Officer of Extreme Networks.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/vala-afshar/do-cios-need-passion-to-s_b_4802303.html

Nowadays technology has thoroughly engulfed the workplace. Its strategic adoption and meaningful application by the typical worker is just the beginning. The shape of digital workplace will change in recent days. To know the change of the digital workplace, go through the article by Dion Hinchcliffe, an expert in information technology, business strategy and next-generation enterprises.

http://www.zdnet.com/examining-the-digital-workplace-in-2014-7000026781/

When it comes to businesses and increasing their profitability, it is of no doubt that Big Data has brought in revolutionary changes. With proper handling of Big Data and data management, companies are trying to increase customer satisfaction and increase customer retention. Now, let's take a different look. 

Consider trading - capital market is one industry, where millions and millions of data float around. Regulatory bodies, banks, financial institutions store and analyze all these data that range over a large time horizon. They also need to study risk management practices and create new trading strategies. In capital market where focus has shifted from high frequency trading to discovering patterns and insights from financial data that can be used as case studies, big data can be made to its use. Financial services organizations are needed to invest in data management software that can harness the power of big data technology and extract hidden information.

How can they do so? Read them at: http://www.bankingtech.com/221932/big-data-and-data-management-in-capital-markets/ .

Docker is an open source Linux containerization technology which lets an admin run multiple apps with all their dependencies in secure sandboxes on the same underlying Linux OS. It makes an attractive alternative to typical virtualization. Hadoop community is working on patches that will bring Docker into the data management system. To know more, go through the article by Jack Clark, World's only Distributed Systems Reporter.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/05/02/docker_hadoop/

Dialogic Inc. (the Network Fuel company), announced that CreaLog (a telecom platform provider), is using its PowerMedia™ XMS media server software. This software allows customers to have face-to-face conversations with agents through its call center. The WebRTC capabilities of the PowerMedia XMS let CreaLog add real-time web conferencing over an Internet browser, accessed through a PC, tablet, or smartphone.

To read more, visit the following link:http://www.prweb.com/releases/2014/05/prweb11869403.htm

Mortgage Returns, a provider of TRUE CRM technology and automated marketing solutions for the mortgage industry, has added new features to their TRUE CRM system. It provides companies with new marketing materials, content control and advanced reporting capabilities.

To read more, visit the following link: http://www.contactcenterworld.com/view/contact-center-news/plumchoice-establishes-new-training-facility-to-support-growing-subscriber-base.aspx 

In an article by Anuradha Divakaran, ‎marketing executive at Harbinger Knowledge Products, we get some insights about how technology has radically transformed the way of human capital management. The inundation of technologies like cloud, mobile, social media, big data and analytics in various HR processes has streamlined and automated workforce acquisition and management. Analysis of crucial data on employee remuneration, performance, learning and development helps organizations to draw a connection between employee efforts and business success to enhance performance management.

To read more, visit the following link:http://blog.harbinger-systems.com/2014/05/technology-revolution-in-human-capital-management/