Highly Competitive - software industry insights

The Resilience of Master Data Management

Final article of a six part series on the "New Age of Master Data Management"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For years there have been industry professionals and analysts who seemingly find pleasure in declaring some type of technology as "dead". This compulsion has been a constant in the software industry. Master data management (MDM) is no exception. Some have been convinced that MDM was DOA practically from the day it emerged as a distinct form of data management and data governance. Making such a declaration attempts to make the case that MDM no longer serves a purpose or that it never succeeded in its 'mission'.

The proof of what MDM can do to transform an organization is easy to find. Numerous case studies show how MDM successfully improved data management and data quality, took companies to greater use of data, and contributed to real value in support of goals and desired outcomes. Beyond case studies, the vendor landscape for MDM software solutions continues to grow and evolve. Both traditional and newer MDM software vendors have developed innovative solutions and approaches to master data management that offer improved alignment with business requirements and objectives, and faster paths to realizing value.

If MDM is so useless, why do we have all this activity over these many years? Why would new and innovative technologies continue to emerge continuously if organizations weren't finding that MDM helps them meet many data, process and business challenges?

 

If not MDM, Then What?

I'd hope by now that most organizations understand that they live and breathe data for just about every aspect of the business. And if these organizations want to at least ensure competent use of their data, they should also understand that data management is a must-have. But today companies have to do a great deal more with the avalanche of data that flows into, through and out of the organization. Data management moves several levels higher for meeting business needs when MDM and data governance initiatives are implemented. MDM practices and processes coupled with the right-fit technologies enable many business-critical objectives and contribute to competitive edge.

Those who denigrate MDM seem to imply that MDM serves no purpose. Without MDM, an organization will likely lapse into a sort of 'data anarchy' where there is no common standard for data and definitions, no confidence in the reliability and timeliness of data, no optimization of the systems and processes that run through every business function and activity. Such 'anarchy' can even infect the selection of technologies to handle data, due to the lack of an overarching framework based on corporate data strategies that would have been developed through MDM initiatives.

Organizations will always have to manage business data. But that's not enough. MDM introduces higher quality processes that are clearly aligned with business needs and objectives. Organizations benefit from master data that provides context for other sources of data to be able to achieve optimal results from comprehensive analytics, insights and improved decision-making. Master data processes can help identify missing data, inaccuracies and redundancies that will likely skew analytics results with potentially harmful consequences.

 

Unrealistic Expectations for MDM

If organizations have weak or no strategies around data usage for business, MDM initiatives and technologies can't fix what's already broken in organizations. MDM practices and processes combined with technologies do not deliver a 'magic wand' that will conquer all organizational ills. So-called MDM 'failures' have much more to do with difficulties and obstacles emanating from the politics and people aspects that are so critical to successful implementations of MDM and data governance initiatives.

For MDM to deliver value and benefits, management (often including the C-level) must have good comprehension of the important role that MDM plays across the organization. And management must deliver full backing of what it will take to successfully implement comprehensive MDM. There is now extensive guidance available through publications, blogs, consultants, and many other resources that show how to connect MDM to business value through means such as strategic business cases, and metrics that link MDM activities to desired business outcomes.

A well-implemented MDM initiative actually strengthens the strategic nature of organizations since such an initiative is clearly connected to business-drivers and to helping to achieve goals and objectives. The primary leaders of MDM-related activities should work to align managers across the organization as supporters of MDM. The benefits to each functional area should be clearly communicated, along with the strategic vision of how MDM contributes to specific business impact.

 

Why MDM Has Persisted

MDM provides a core platform of advanced data management and data governance capabilities that are essential for organizations building strategies around data and analytics. After all, master data comprises the consistent business-ready data that runs through many (if not all) processes, systems and applications. As data-focused organizations continue to evolve the use of data and analytics, MDM grows in significance and innovative substance. Master data has become the "rosetta stone" for highly disparate sources of data. When big data is connected to master data that provides context and relationships, organizations can now derive value and usability from big data.

MDM practices and technologies, and the development of reliable master data, are not the end objective, but are the means to enable organizations to realize strategic vision and achieve key objectives. MDM initiatives achieve success because they focus on specific business drivers and business-led initiatives, and are set up to change as organizations change. Such MDM success translates into organizations that continuously benefit from faster utilization of timely, reliable data.

MDM anchors many significant, even critical, functions:

• Real-time analytics / BI processes
• Big data analytics
• Automated processes for information and data processing applications
• AI and machine learning efforts
• Compliance and risk management 
• Improving customer experiences and interactions
• Cost reductions
• Ability to anticipate, analyze and adapt to market changes
• Agile responses to change for competitive edge

MDM has persisted because of what it tackles. MDM jumps into many of the messiest aspects of an organization: data silos, unconnected systems and processes, management turf wars, politics, and the organizational roadblocks to disparate people working together effectively for common purpose. What MDM takes on to achieve business-usable master data and better processes reflect many of the problems that organizations must solve to survive, adapt, compete, and achieve desired outcomes.

So it's about time for master data management to enjoy a 'New Age'. The creation and use of master data for business purposes has always been a good idea. The goal has been to make sense of all data that touches the organization: clean it up, add context, enrich it, and put it to work strategically as well as operationally.

 

Organizational Resilience in the Face of Business and Market Volatility

Many organizations continue to encounter increasingly volatile markets that have given rise to more complex business environments. Such volatility can become a hurdle for achieving financial success and often translates to significant risk. Organizations need more sophisticated analytics and decision-making processes to assess market conditions and to determine whether "risk" means opportunity, danger, or even both. Master data is an important component of essential processes for insight into market conditions, supporting functions like real-time continuous analytics and responsive decision-making.

While more senior executives do see the value of data analytics and MDM, many organizations are still making critical decisions based on spreadsheets. These organizations aren't able to respond to market volatility with comprehensive intelligence rooted in the right data and analytics. Since MDM is tightly bound to business drivers and functions, it's already positioned correctly as the right partner for real-time analytics that support critical business decisions.

Organizational agility and adaptability are defining facets of competitive edge, particularly in the face of market volatility. The agile business requires continuous processing of data from many disparate sources that must be transformed into consistent and trustworthy data with relevant context. Speed to decisions and to actions of change is improved and better grounded in the right information when MDM processes are involved.

MDM can provide pathways to help 'future-proof' organizations. Being future-proof means harmonizing technology, people, and processes to tackle the challenges ahead. When implemented effectively, MDM greatly improves methods used to address the challenges that organizations face every day. MDM practices, approaches and technologies continue to evolve to help solve complex business problems.

 

The New Age of MDM

Master data management and data governance have indeed entered the 'New Age of MDM'. The practice of MDM has become stronger through building on common cause with business, rather than a sole focus on technology. Technology vendors have made advancements with MDM software solutions by understanding the critical nature of MDM aligned with business needs, objectives, optimal processes, and involved business users.

MDM provides the greatest benefits when practitioners embrace the strategic aspects of an organization and help to enact them through processes, practices, policies, and organizational changes. Strategic use of MDM also gives rise to cross-functional and cross-organization integrations of people and systems. A successful MDM initiative comprises a holistic endeavor to provide strategic organizational and infrastructure change, as well as manage complex data processing. Part of MDM holism is the intertwining of business, people and technology in the most effective mix possible.

On the software solution side, MDM is the "poster child" of the critical need for business strategy to 'meet and mingle' with technology strategy. In a sense MDM technology is a conundrum. The technology should take a back seat to all of the non-technical activities, objectives and requirements for MDM implementations. But technology can also be a game-changing component of MDM initiatives.

Now, on to the 'Next Age of MDM'!

 

Image source: nicholaspetrie.com

 

About the author: Julie is an independent consultant and industry analyst for B2B software solutions, providing services to vendors to improve strategies for customers and target markets, products and solutions, and future direction. Julie has expertise in several solution spaces including: data integration and data quality; analytics and BI; business process, workflow and collaboration; digital marketing, WCM and social media; and the pivotal importance of user and customer experiences. Julie shares her takes on the software industry via her blog Highly Competitive and on Twitter: @juliebhunt For more information: Julie Hunt Consulting – Strategies for B2B Software Solutions: Working from the Customer Perspective

 

Developing Mobile Business Apps – Navigating Data and APIs

 

Most organizations are well aware that mobile devices and applications are changing how they do business with customers and partners, and how their employees accomplish their work. Mobile business apps are developed to provide useful services that are designed specifically for mobile devices, focusing only on the most relevant streamlined capabilities. Well-designed apps also reflect an in-depth understanding of how different people use mobile devices.

The effectiveness of business mobile apps is ultimately about connecting users to the information and data that they need anywhere, anytime. Business data is frequently stored on multiple platforms, inside and outside the firewall, with varying levels of security and portability. End-to-end task workflows may even take place on multiple platforms. Savvy organizations are catching on that the mobile revolution cannot be stopped. It's best to proactively work out how to govern the mobile tools of the workforce.

Data management and governance, as well as flexible data integration processes, are key components of acquiring and integrating cloud and mobile data with on-premises data repositories. Data in the cloud has been a significant challenge for a while, with each cloud service providing proprietary APIs as the main means for connecting to data. But data residing on mobile devices introduces a whole new world of challenges, including serious security concerns.

As the use of mobile devices and apps for business activities continues to proliferate and fragment data, the standing of data integration as a mission critical technology escalates. What has changed for data integration solutions is the demand for more ways to create and use integration processes. To meet such demand, data integration platforms not only need to be high performance, they must continue to innovate ways to connect to data where it lives and then perform any number of actions to take data where it is needed.

 

Speeding Mobile App Development: API Management Platforms

Agility, flexibility and rapid development are key attributes for the mobile app creation process. Developers of mobile apps have an increasing number of cloud services and platforms that provide reusable components, including numerous JSON and REST APIs that enable data access, as well as the means for navigating security and authentication policies.

Mobile apps both generate and use APIs. On the generation side, APIs that are not well designed or properly built come with a high cost over long-term usage. On the API usage side, in the past, mobile app developers had to embed numerous SDKs directly into the app, which would require constant care and management. API management and integration platforms have been created specifically for mobile app development to orchestrate and enable data integration needs, so that mobile developers don't have to keep re-inventing the wheel when it comes to API creation and usage. These cloud-based integration management platforms cover many of the services that are needed for well-performing mobile apps. Indeed agile API management has become essential for smoothly-running mobile apps.

 

Governance and Security

As with any data-related functions, working with mobile / cloud data integration and APIs requires comprehensive governance and management, to ensure streamlined usability in mobile apps (or cloud services) while adhering to the overall data governance practices for the organization. If an organization doesn't address API management as a critical component of managing mobile app development and usage, many problems can and will result. Security guidelines are also critical for mobile practices.

Ultimately all data usage must in some way align to centralized management to ensure integrated policies, practices and processes across the organization. While the mobile device may be the activity point, the data used and created is still part of a bigger picture. On the other hand, data management practices and policies have to be balanced with enabling the workforce to make good use of cloud and mobile technologies, to more effectively perform work on behalf of the organization.

 

Image source: thisismoney.co.uk

 

This post was brought to you by IBM for MSPs and opinions are my own. To read more on this topic, visit IBM's PivotPoint. Dedicated to providing valuable insight from industry thought leaders, PivotPoint offers expertise to help you develop, differentiate and scale your business.

 

About the author: Julie Hunt understands the overlap and convergence of many business processes and software solutions that once were thought of as "separate" – and how this impacts software Vendors and Buyers, as well as the strategies that enterprises implement for how technology supports the business and its customers. Julie shares her takes on the software industry via her blog Highly Competitive and on Twitter: @juliebhunt For more information: Julie Hunt Consulting

‘Tech Savvy’ for Midsized Companies Means ‘Customer Savvy’

 

Technology is no longer simply back office automation or work productivity tools addressing the day to day of the business. Technology has become a core pillar for company strategies, as well as for change and success. The biggest transformation any midsized company can make to become a business that sustains growth over time is to strategically and proactively use technology to achieve the goals of the business. Such a transformation through technology often takes midsized companies into new markets and new ways of doing business. The strategic positioning of technology leads to strengthening the organization, improving competitive edge and opening new doors for growth and opportunity.

In parallel to technology considerations, the single most important success factor for most companies is The Customer. These days all activities related to the customer must be ramped up and more responsive to customer needs and desires. Companies must change how they function to better serve customers. Proactive use of technology in many areas is essential to ensure top notch customer experiences and interactions at any time and place.

Midsized companies that make the customer a core focus will achieve better outcomes. When deciding on how to best leverage technology, companies should use customer strategies to drive and define technology strategies. When companies combine technologies with effective practices and processes around meeting customer needs on every level, competitive edge and revenue growth usually follow as natural outcomes.

The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) completed a global study focused on midsized and smaller companies to assess the impact of technology on business performance and growth:

Adopting technology in an intelligent way is critical to the future business success of many SMEs. More than 90 percent of leaders said that IT is important to their business's future, and almost two-thirds said that new technologies will lead to higher revenues and profits or more jobs at their company.

The study presents clear evidence that midsized and smaller businesses with higher rates of technology adoption grow faster and create more jobs than their counterparts that maintain low levels of technology adoption. Looking at U.S. SMB companies, BCG projected that if 15 percent of technology 'laggards' and 30 percent of technology 'followers' evolved into high technology adoption companies, the result would be the addition of more than two million jobs and an additional $360 billion flowing into the U.S. economy.

 

Midsized companies that want to be top competitors should evaluate all functional and operational areas that help the company shine as a customer-responsive organization to see how improvements can be made with the right technologies:

• Marketing and business interactions through mobile devices and digital channels
• Customer service and support
• eCommerce and payment services
• Gaining insight from data analytics for everything Customer
• CRM and Marketing Automation platforms
• Customer onboarding and education channels
• Deployment of Cloud / SaaS solutions for enterprise capabilities that keep up with customer and market trends

 

The goal should always be to wow customers. There are many robust technologies that can help midsized companies do that every day, in every interaction and channel. Companies that are "tech savvy" quickly show how they are "customer savvy".

 

Image Source: Sabre Travel Network

 

This post was brought to you by IBM for Midsize Business and opinions are my own. To read more on this topic, visit  IBM's Midsize Insider. Dedicated to providing businesses with expertise, solutions and tools that are specific to small and midsized companies, the Midsize Business program provides businesses with the materials and knowledge they need to become engines of a smarter planet.

 

About the author: Julie Hunt understands the overlap and convergence of many business processes and software solutions that once were thought of as "separate" – and how this impacts software Vendors and Buyers, as well as the strategies that enterprises implement for how technology supports the business and its customers. Julie shares her takes on the software industry via her blog Highly Competitiveand on Twitter: @juliebhunt For more information: Julie Hunt Consulting – Strategies for B2B Software Solutions: Working from the Customer Perspective

The Learning Organization Goes Mobile

                                                                                                                Originally published on CMSWire

 

Many organizations overlook one of the most significant ways to improve competitiveness, ramp up performance and sustain growth: continuous, varied and dynamic learning programs for their employees and leadership teams. As mobile has become an important channel for many business activities, it is emerging as a preferred platform for just-in-time learning and knowledge sharing. Mobile platforms are disrupting all kinds of activities and processes, and putting a whole new twist on employee productivity, customer interactions and partner collaborations.

Ubiquitous mobile access in this interconnected world means instant collaboration for company employees anytime anywhere -- but only if companies reduce the obstacles for such collaboration to take place both on mobile and social platforms. Organizations have to make significant internal changes to take advantage of social technologies, collaboration and mobile learning. Policies, processes and "culture" must engender an open environment where employee contributions to knowledge sharing are encouraged and where employees have the tools to quickly find the knowledge they need.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Source: Cisco Consulting Services, 2013

 

mLearning – The New Kind of eLearning

Most articles that mention eLearning as an aspect of knowledge management, social business, or collaboration usually only show eLearning as a 'check list item', rather than exploring how eLearning can enhance overall corporate collaborative strength and performance improvement for employees. Like other disruptive mobile apps, mLearning has hurled corporate eLearning onto a whole new trajectory.

The mobile ecosystem – devices, carriers, app markets – has become one of the fastest growing technology industries, which means great opportunities for learning accessed through mobile devices. Wearable mobile devices will likely become more prevalent for mLearning, particularly for on-the-spot interactions and collaboration, environmentally interactive sessions, and knowledge searches.

 

Learning goes mobile (2013)

 Mobile devices are being used to:

62%  - access learning content to reinforce formal learning

54%  - support communication and collaboration

53%  - provide an alternative mode of delivery to PC-based learning content

43%  - support application of learning back in the workplace

37%  - access performance support at the point of need

27%  - support generation and sharing of user generated content

 

Mobile learning isn't just learning dumped into a mobile device. It has become a new world of possibilities for at-your-fingertips knowledge. mLearning usually targets situational or contextual learning, which means the content has to be an exact fit for what is needed in the moment. Experiential m-learning leverages the environment in which the learner exists. mLearning augments employee performance and productivity in very real ways. It is continuous learning that is patterned on the way people work.

 

Brandon Hall Group's 2013 Mobile Learning Survey

The study found that those organizations that are higher performers—defined as companies that increased revenues and improved a majority of their key performance indicators over the previous year—are doing more with mobile learning than organizations in general.

89 percent of (all) respondents whose organizations have been delivering mobile learning for more than two years say mobile video is either very or extremely effective.

 

Mobile learning can complement more "mainstream" learning services, but also provides an opportunity to transform how learning is done on the job. mLearning has been a major force for breaking learning into bite-size but meaty pieces that can be consumed in 10 minutes or less. Information design for mobile access is the focus, instead of formal course design.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    Source: Mobile Learning: Driving Business Results by Empowering Employees in the Moment

 

Continuous Learning: Transforming Employee Performance Management

Just as companies must become agile and dynamic in response to constant change – they have to include employees in the preparations as well. To meet ever-present change, continuous learning is essential. The tenets of such continuous learning also must change frequently to stay relevant. Mobile becomes a transformative technology to keep learning relevant and to help employees apply learning and knowledge to daily work.

Traditional employee "performance management" has been broken for some time. This approach has been responsible for driving away employees, stalling contributions to company success, and frequent failures to identify true top performing and innovative employees. Performance appraisal processes have deteriorated into ridiculous busy work that mostly angers and bewilders everyone involved, from employees to managers.

The focus must turn to enabling pathways to improved employee performance through education, development, and mentoring or coaching. This is not a new approach, but an old one that harkens back to when many companies became directly involved in career development for all employees who were willing to do the work for advancement and improvement.

In some ways, employee performance management is akin to customer experience management: companies can't manage the experiences of their customers – but they can manage how they interact with customers in a consistent way with up-to-date intelligence in order to help customers, not hinder them. There's a similar conundrum for "employee performance management". For employees to perform well, companies need to "get out of the way" and provide an environment that encourages career growth and the tools to help employees perform well. This calls for new ways to develop, grow, and proliferate the capabilities of employees.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Source: m-Learning: Mobile Learning Is Finally Going Mainstream – And It Is Bigger Than You Might Think

 

 

Empowering Employees with Interconnected Learning Tools

The always-on mobile world of interconnectedness can invigorate opportunities for social collaboration and informal learning. These forms of learning can build up smarter workforces to respond to changing business needs and unexpected circumstances. Mobile enables new modes for searching and collecting information related to job needs. People-to-people communication and sharing improve, which yield upticks in performance and attainment of goals.

 

Next-Generation Knowledge Workers - Accelerating the Disruption in Business Mobility

Workers are becoming more comfortable with the value of constant collaboration. Currently, 24 percent use mobile collaboration, and an additional 31 percent are interested in adopting it. Some forthcoming mobile enhancements could drive further interest in constant collaboration. These include touching mobile devices to share information (51 percent were interested); finding and connecting relevant subject-matter experts (48 percent); and wirelessly sharing a presentation via a virtual whiteboard (48 percent).

In addition, there is interest in location/recognition-based enhancements, such as GPS navigation and maps for indoor locations (53 percent); having a device provide relevant location-based information (49 percent); and having a device notify a user when an important person enters a location (48 percent).

 

Winning Companies are Learning Organizations

There are many articles and reports that make clear that the very real value of 'Learning Organizations" results from companies improving employee knowledge and skill expansion, to take on more challenges and proceed successfully through their careers. With mLearning, employees can directly apply knowledge and training to their jobs every day, quickly and effectively.

Learning Organizations are those companies that repeatedly outperform other vendors because of investments made in deep skills and knowledge for employees and leadership. Continuous investment is made in developing staff abilities and knowledge, no matter the economic conditions. As a result, these companies have a more developed level of effective innovation, and are more agile when responding to new opportunities and challenges. Not surprisingly, employee loyalty is much higher because these companies make clear that they believe in their employees and want to help them make a difference for the company.

Customers are the eventual big winners when dealing with Learning Organizations. All company employees are well prepared to take customer interactions to higher levels, as well as provide high quality products and services. Better prepared, engaged and committed employees are invaluable catalysts for propagating exceptional customer experiences.

 

 

About the author: Julie Hunt understands the overlap and convergence of many business processes and software solutions that once were thought of as "separate" – and how this impacts software Vendors and Buyers, as well as the strategies that enterprises implement for how technology supports the business and its customers. Julie shares her takes on the software industry via her blog Highly Competitiveand on Twitter: @juliebhunt For more information: Julie Hunt Consulting – Strategies for B2B Software Solutions: Working from the Customer Perspective

Mobile Data and Security Challenges

     

Mobile platforms are flooding into enterprises, whether it's through BYOD "consumer" apps like Dropbox, or from internal development teams creating apps for on-the-go employees. Just like SaaS and Cloud solutions, we now have more data in silos. And the same goes for security issues, with the added kicker that an entire device full of data and other compromising information can be easily lost or stolen. Quite frankly, the very people who want mobile platforms available for work also present the biggest security risks to enterprise data assets.

The knee-jerk reaction of many enterprises has been to try to block or limit the use of mobile devices and applications. This is not an option – the floodgates are open. In fact mobility is critical in enabling a distributed work model for a global workforce. It's clear that not only do many employees want to work this way -- for many corporate roles, mobile empowerment is essential.

There is a deluge of mobile data being created by mobile apps, that is stored on devices or in the cloud. Many times this data must be integrated with on-premises systems, which introduces new proprietary APIs and challenges for integration processes. Employees, including upper management, also want all kinds of data from internal systems available on a mobile interface, including complex data visualizations. Data is definitely at risk as mobility proliferates:

• Loss or theft of smartphones, tablets, and laptops compromises corporate data and access to enterprise systems
• Many people mix professional and personal usage on a single mobile device, such as a single consolidated "Inbox" for all email accounts -- this opens the door to sending proprietary corporate information to and from non-corporate accounts, and even to the wrong recipients

• Mobility can lull people into forgetting whose data and information they are handling. Without physical corporate walls to remind them, they can inadvertently expose data and credentials

• Malware on mobile devices is on the rise with obvious implications for data security

 

Proactive Policies - Fluid Security

In anticipation of potential mobile security issues, enterprises need to lay out plans to manage the associated risk. First, upper management should develop a realistic strategy for mobility. Then data security and management strategies must be created that map into the corporate mobile strategy, and also align with corporate data governance practices. Finally the enterprise must put policies and practices into place, with straightforward education for employees about how mobility will work.

As with on-premises and cloud data sources, enterprises must proactively develop thorough data management and governance plans to secure the data sources themselves, as well as guidance for the bi-directional movement of data and integration processes.

A mobility security plan must be flexible to allow high volumes of interaction, but extensive enough to moderate risk and meet compliance standards. Enterprises can turn to advanced security tools to provide coverage for the internal and external sides of the mobile data equation. Mobile technologies are rapidly evolving along with employee usage – enterprises must keep pace by adopting ever-changing approaches to sophisticated protection and risk management.

 

 

 

 

 

Image source: IdroidWeb

 

 

This post was written as part of the IBM for Midsize Business program, which provides midsize businesses with the tools, expertise and solutions they need to become engines of a smarter planet. I've been compensated to contribute to this program, but the opinions expressed in this post are my own and don't necessarily represent IBM's positions, strategies or opinions.

 

About the author: Julie Hunt understands the overlap and convergence of many business processes and software solutions that once were thought of as "separate" – and how this impacts software Vendors and Buyers, as well as the strategies that enterprises implement for how technology supports the business and its customers. Julie shares her takes on the software industry via her blog Highly Competitiveand on Twitter: @juliebhunt For more information: Julie Hunt Consulting – Strategies for B2B Software Solutions: Working from the Customer Perspective

 

 

Competitive Fitness: Becoming Learning Organizations

       

Tech-savvy companies continue to reap serious benefits from eLearning initiatives, particularly as the variety of development and management tools and services expand, and the costs of eLearning decrease. With many more SaaS options in the mix, midsized companies can now more easily set up and manage eLearning programs.

If done well, eLearning becomes an agile productivity tool and aligns with overall business needs.eLearning is not just about on-ramping employees or compliance and regulatory training. eLearning supports what employees need to know to do their jobs, and to increase their skills and effectiveness. All sizes of organizations now have employees who "grew up" on eLearning and blended learning programs, and who have expectations of more of the same for their professional careers.

eLearning must center on device-defined learning, since there are significant differences between providing training on laptops / tablets, and on smartphones. Mobile learning (mLearning) for smartphones focuses more on just-in-time knowledge while on the job -- so the learning experience has to be specifically designed for smartphone access. Somewhat due to increased tablet and smartphone usage, corporate learning is becoming more 'bite-sized' -- to take less time to set up courses and to fit more easily into the schedules of busy employees.

Many companies realize that they should develop the skills of their current employee base, rather constantly trying to hire in new talent, to remain competitive and meet new business demands. Across most industries, learning / training functions are tasked with finding ways to provide relevant, cost-effective education services – while exploring new ways to speed up training, and build in more tactics to ensure that employees retain and utilize what was learned. Companies can also work with outsourced learning services, tapping into many different subject matter experts to provide timely training for employees, without the overhead of trying to create and maintain the courses themselves.

 

Jack Welch: An organization’s ability to learn and translate that learning into action rapidly, is the ultimate competitive advantage.

 

Companies that create and maintain dynamic eLearning initiatives for the entire organization are making the move to becoming Learning Organizations. Common traits of Learning Organizations include:

• Continuous learning opportunities, with 'anytime anywhere' access
• Upper management support for all employee learning
• Planned, well-organized learning programs that align with how employees work
• eLearning strategically connected to corporate goals at all levels
• Commitment to the value of learning and knowledge sharing
• Cross-organizational communication and collaboration
• Continually measuring the improvements to: all customer interactions; innovation; achievement of company goals; agile responsiveness to change

 

Peter Senge: The only sustainable competitive advantage is your organization’s ability to learn faster than the competition.

 

 

Image Source: designingdigitally.com

 

This post was written as part of the IBM for Midsize Business program, which provides midsize businesses with the tools, expertise and solutions they need to become engines of a smarter planet. I've been compensated to contribute to this program, but the opinions expressed in this post are my own and don't necessarily represent IBM's positions, strategies or opinions.

 

About the author: Julie Hunt understands the overlap and convergence of many business processes and software solutions that once were thought of as "separate" – and how this impacts software Vendors and Buyers, as well as the strategies that enterprises implement for how technology supports the business and its customers. Julie shares her takes on the software industry via her blog Highly Competitiveand on Twitter: @juliebhunt For more information: Julie Hunt Consulting – Strategies for B2B Software Solutions: Working from the Customer Perspective

 

Customer Experience Innovation: Aligning Business with Customer

 

 

Responsive and accurate support for customer interactions points the way for the kind of management that organizations can apply to foster positive customer experiences, through the people, practices, and processes of the enterprise. But organizations must recognize that management doesn't mean attempting to control and dictate to the customer what the 'experience' will be. It does mean managing how well the enterprise provides a consistent experience across channels, how well it fulfills the needs and desires of customers based on customer terms, and even how well it delivers the right products and services.

Agile and effective business processes are instrumental to providing a sophisticated means to respond well to customer needs, while navigating many complex variables, moving from customer to customer. Well-designed and customer-oriented processes make a big difference when integrating multi-dimensional touch points for a harmonized view of customer interactions.

When measuring the effectiveness of business operations and initiatives, organizations usually derive success metrics from KPIs related only to internal business process performance and inward-focused business outcomes. Unfortunately these metrics are frequently out-of-synch with customer perceptions of how well the organization met customer expectations. Business and customer metrics can be mismatched in other aspects of the customer experience:

For instance the business may define the process cycle time – the length of time the process takes to run – as measured from when the customer places the order to when the products are dispatched. The customer, on the other hand, may well perceive the time taken to be from when they first went on to the website to look for a product, to the point at which the product started working. Clearly there can be a substantial difference between the two measures.

Ideally we want to ensure that our measures of process effectiveness (the Voice of the Process) are the same as the customer's measures (the Voice of the Customer), albeit the customer's measures are informal measures.

 

 

                

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Source: BP Trends

 

Aligning customer and business views of process, experience and success using customer journey / touchpoint diagrams can reveal the disconnects between the perceptions of the organization and what customers are likely experiencing. Organizations are still working on finding more ways to capture an understanding of the actual customer experience. Direct intelligence is not easily attained. Insight is pieced together with data from many sources including customer surveys, content from social sites, customer repeat business, customer transactions, and interactions with customer service.

The customer perception of interactions with an organization is often the heart of the customer experience. In most cases, companies cannot truly manipulate what customers actually experience, and really shouldn't be thinking that way. But companies do have control over providing high quality interactions in many channels, and making sure that a consistent positive experience carries over from one channel to another. Organizations have the power to overhaul their business focus and processes to engender an internal "culture" where the customer is the high priority for all functions, and where excellent customer service frames every interaction with the organization.

 

 

This post was written as part of the IBM for Midsize Business program, which provides midsize businesses with the tools, expertise and solutions they need to become engines of a smarter planet. I've been compensated to contribute to this program, but the opinions expressed in this post are my own and don't necessarily represent IBM's positions, strategies or opinions.

 

 

About the author: Julie Hunt understands the overlap and convergence of many business processes and software solutions that once were thought of as "separate" – and how this impacts software Vendors and Buyers, as well as the strategies that enterprises implement for how technology supports the business and its customers. Julie shares her takes on the software industry via her blog Highly Competitive and on Twitter: @juliebhunt For more information: Julie Hunt Consulting – Strategies for B2B Software Solutions: Working from the Customer Perspective

 

Inside-Out Change for an Outside-In Customer Focus

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Source: successwithcrm.com

 

Organizations continue to be challenged to deliver positive customer experiences that are mutually beneficial and crafted from the customer perspective. Unfortunately many companies just tack on aspects of monitoring customer interactions to existing processes, instead of designing business processes integrated with a customer experience strategy. For many companies, the main focus is still on their own needs, their own problems to be solved by the business process. And frequently when organizations say they are customer-focused, they really mean they are trying to engineer upsells and cross-sells for their own benefit, without necessarily delivering real value to the customer.

For mutual benefit, the focus for all business processes has to shift to customers: to embrace what they want from companies, how they view companies and how they want to work with them. Agile business processes can connect all parts of the enterprise to the individual points and stages of the customer experience journey. Enterprise business processes also map directly to desired business outcomes – which now must align with customer desired outcomes.

Most internal systems in companies should incorporate factors like customerexperience and engagement, rather than functioning solely from a product, service or departmental perspective. Processes play a key role inbringing these factors together to achieve customer focus and relevance. Integration internal to the organization means cross-functional / cross-department teams to envision and implement customer strategies, translated into business processes that holistically connect the enterprise.

To harmonize a customer focus with business strategies and operations, there is serious work to be done:

• Aligning business process integration with the customer leads to creating consistent customer experiences across the enterprise and across communication channels.
• Integration of interaction data with operational data provides a more complete view of the customer in real time.
• Integration of channels leads to understanding of touch points in individual channels as well as cross-channel.
• Individual department and program goals across the enterprise must be also integrated and related to customer experience excellence.

Data, information and intelligence are the fuel for effective business processes that support and promote successful customer experiences and interactions. By considering business processes and business information in parallel to customer-focused strategies and initiatives, business outcomes are likely to improve. Data + process must reflect the customer perspective rather than the internal systems architecture. Data directly related to customer-focused processes is likely to get closer to providing the integrated multi-dimensional view of the customer that most companies seek.

A good many customer interactions or touch points are increasingly fleeting due to the proliferation of digital channels and their use by customers. The opportunity for organizations to meet customer desires and needs is becoming shorter-lived for each interaction, and increasingly difficult to capture, analyze and understand. To keep up, business processes must become a dynamic, intelligent and highly integrated interface for internal and external interactions.

 

This post was written as part of the IBM for Midsize Business program, which provides midsize businesses with the tools, expertise and solutions they need to become engines of a smarter planet. I've been compensated to contribute to this program, but the opinions expressed in this post are my own and don't necessarily represent IBM's positions, strategies or opinions.

 

About the author: Julie Hunt understands the overlap and convergence of many business processes and software solutions that once were thought of as "separate" – and how this impacts software Vendors and Buyers, as well as the strategies that enterprises implement for how technology supports the business and its customers. Julie shares her takes on the software industry via her blog Highly Competitiveand on Twitter: @juliebhunt For more information: Julie Hunt Consulting – Strategies for B2B Software Solutions: Working from the Customer Perspective

 

Where’s My Magic 8 Ball? -- Customer-focused Analytics

                                                                                                         Cross-posted on CMSWire

 

Your customers know that they have handed you a lot of their personal information through a variety of interactions and channels. And your customers fully expect that your company has done its job and processed all that information to know what they want, how to give them excellent customer service and streamline doing business with you.

Customers don't really care that you need to work through heaps of data to continuously update your customer intelligence. Customers only want you to shake the Magic 8 ball and have the right answer pop up. If the wrong answer materializes, customers know you aren't taking advantage of their information. Customers quickly conclude that you haven't bothered to get to know them, meaning you really don't care about them.

But you should care -- and how you interact with your customers should show it.

 

 

Source: thestrong.org

 

From Big Data Analytics to Relevant Customer Intelligence  

Surprise! -- big data analytics is not a Magic 8 ball that you can just shake for the answers. Indeed, it would take a lot of different "big data" Magic 8 balls – testing, experimentation, creating different analytical and data models – to reach insight from the analytics.

Big data comes in many shapes and sizes; all kinds of big data sources can have value for marketing and sales. Besides social media and eCommerce data, sources such as machine-generated data (sensors, GPS and location, automated operational and digital networks) point to interesting possibilities. But it takes time and resources to explore and amplify those possibilities.

Certainly many companies have the resources to set up dedicated marketing science functions to include big data analytics in decision-making and innovation processes. But for many companies it may be just as likely that marketing can't do this alone, due to budget and staffing limitations. Many companies may be better off centralizing all of their advanced analytics functions. Centralizing analytics requires a strategic approach where data scientists and analysts collaborate extensively with the experts in different business functions – this is what is needed anyway to improve the accuracy and usefulness of analytics. Centralizing advanced analytics efforts will also spread intelligence benefits across the enterprise.

 

Centralized Customer-Focused Analytics

The starting point for customer-focused big data analytics shouldn't be Marketing strategy, programs or campaigns. It has to start as an initiative for the entire enterprise to learn more about current and potential customers and what they want and need. First the organization should find out if it is even creating products and services that customers want, if it understands how customers want to interact with the company and make purchases. Key activities like customer segmentation isn't just for marketing – it is important for corporate customer strategies, innovation, product groups, and sales.

Centralizing analytics can eliminate redundant effort to glean intelligence from big data and other sources. Adjunct analytics functions can be set up for individual departments like Marketing that fine-tune specific analytics and carry out special objectives that support departmental programs. Marketing and sales find the best success when all functions across the enterprise work in harmony. Centralized customer-focused analytics also contribute greatly to engendering consistent customer experiences across channels by sharing the right insight with all customer-related functions.

Another reason to centralize big data analytics is that big data alone is not enough. Big data is often fragmented and difficult to connect to specific customers or customer segments. Context, corroboration and relevance have to be introduced to link big data analytics to what the enterprise needs for customer strategies. So many other data sources are needed, including master data which can provide what is missing from big data sources by making the connection to mission critical data across the enterprise. Master data management also connects analytics to the business processes that should be consuming intelligence and integrated data views.

Often marketers (and other departments) rely too much on their own silos of data and don't include a wide variety of data sources. Centralizing advanced analytics should dynamically work to eliminate data silos in the enterprise and bring different perspective into the formulation of analytical models and a wider breadth of benefit to the enterprise.

 

Big Data Analytics Mistakes Don't Just Belong to Marketing

A bit too many articles are popping up on "what marketers are doing wrong for big data analytics". Big data and advanced analytics are still very new – you could point to every business function in the enterprise for taking wrong steps with various analytics. A lot of hard work has to happen before significant and reliable results emerge – particularly those that lead to expedient decisions and actions. But that doesn't mean it isn't worth doing. Marketing can gain a great deal from advanced analytics.

Focusing on the customer and the customer's perspective will help steer marketing and other business functions along fruitful paths. Outside-in perspectives keep activities connected to what matters most and should keep functions from detouring into internal-facing concerns that offer no value to customers. Advanced analytics based on customer big data won't deliver value if the insights are diverted into "business as usual": building marketing messages that try to persuade customers to buy products, instead of working from the customer perspective for buying journey preferences. Marketing might successfully use analytics to identify the right customers for the company's products -- but fail by taking the wrong course of action when communicating with customers.

 

Most of the Time Your Gut Isn't Enough But…

Marketers are still relying heavily on intuition and past experience, and still lag on including well-crafted integrated advanced analytics in their decision-making processes. In most cases your gut alone doesn't make a very good Magic 8 ball:

Our latest survey of 358 marketing professionals confirms – and expands on – these findings. Only 23 percent claim to be highly effective at uncovering new insights to generate additional business value. Only 25 percent claim to be highly effective at identifying and capturing new markets. And only 32 percent claim to be highly effective at engaging with individual customers.  

82 percent of Traditional Marketers still rely largely on hunches and experience

  

But big data analytics alone won't get the job done either. Combining advanced analytics with marketing experience and creativity is where marketing can shine. Making use of advanced analytics is not meant to replace creative vision and innovative ideas that come from the human element. Just as big data alone isn't enough to connect to context and relevance, the same goes for marketing endeavors. Marketing functions need advanced analytics to keep the customer in full focus as the most important piece for context and relevance.

The "gut factor" for decisions still matters. 'Gut+Data' adds intelligence behind brainstorms and fresh ideas. This combination connects the gut to what's going on in markets and how customers are behaving.

The 'Pure Gut' road is a riskier path, but sometimes trumps 'Gut+Data', if the idea is disruptive and, of course, succeeds. In many cases, creativity is made better with insight from analytics for validation and amplification of the creative spark, as well as indicators of how to apply creative thinking.                                                             

 

 

 

 

Source: consciouslifenews.com

 

 

Related Links

How Master Data Management Improves Your Understanding of the Customer  

Business Priorities Point the Way for MDM

Information, Intelligence and Process: Combining Forces to Better Answer Business Needs

Goals and Metrics – Measuring Customer Engagement on the Web

The Ever-Expanding Importance of Analytics–True Intelligence for Business

Connecting Data Governance to Business Outcomes That Matter

Symbiosis: Customer Experience and Business Process

Perception: The Customer Journey and Business Success

 

 

About the author: Julie Hunt understands the overlap and convergence of many business processes and software solutions that once were thought of as "separate" – and how this impacts software Vendors and Buyers, as well as the strategies that enterprises implement for how technology supports the business and its customers. Julie shares her takes on the software industry via her blog Highly Competitive and on Twitter: @juliebhunt For more information: Julie Hunt Consulting – Strategies for B2B Software Solutions: Working from the Customer Perspective

 

Always-On Brand Experiences

 

Midsize firms often adopt newer technologies faster and change strategic direction more agilely than larger enterprises. Both of these actions can provide competitive edge over the increasingly commoditized worlds of their larger competitors. Fast and agile strategies are also needed to respond to the ever-changing nature of customers. Customers are more proactive about their purchases, which calls for right-time brand experiences, often over multiple channels. Marketers now must be dynamically responsive to change and must more quickly decide what to do.  

Source: bigthink.com

To provide a unique brand experience for individual customers, companies and their marketers have to target real people and their desires of the moment, not statistics or generalities. Adaptive marketing, a new version of direct marketing in today's digital era, is a promising approach for crafting such individual brand experiences. Companies become customer-focused organizations that are committed to constantly re-crafting product offerings, sales initiatives and marketing tactics to match individual customer needs and wants.

Marketing technologies and processes have to be transformed to meet the fluid requirements of being "always on". Media and agency relationships have to evolve to handle constant change. Digital asset management has new importance as a management piece for customer-responsive images, marketing calls-to-action, and other personalized and time-sensitive content.  

Customer intelligence drives adaptive marketing processes, and ultimately the goal of continuously individualized brand experiences. Right-time analytics are invaluable to all marketing solutions, constantly reflecting changes in customer behavior and market trends. Analytics help unlock the essence of social and customer interactions: synchronizing the organization with customers, their interactions and their communications related to the organization and its products.

Data is now strategic, and data management initiatives must ensure accurate and timely data for fast-moving adaptive marketing. The data and analytics that support adaptive marketing initiatives are also key tools for the midsize enterprise anyway: intelligence to better serve customers, develop the right products, and discover new opportunities and markets. This is where competitive advantage emerges from how well a company tracks and measures customer behavior and interactions that will help them understand and interact with customers on an individual level.

Companies will never "own" the customer or the customer experience, but they can proactively provide and nurture the right brand moments that can attract and influence the customer to make purchase decisions. The best outcome for adaptive marketing is when the company meets customers on their terms, and crafts a positive brand experience every time. The best outcome for the customer beyond quality brand experiences is the value received in every interaction and purchase journey.

 

 

This post was written as part of the IBM for Midsize Business program, which provides midsize businesses with the tools, expertise and solutions they need to become engines of a smarter planet. I've been compensated to contribute to this program, but the opinions expressed in this post are my own and don't necessarily represent IBM's positions, strategies or opinions.

 

 

About the author: Julie Hunt understands the overlap and convergence of many business processes and software solutions that once were thought of as "separate" – and how this impacts both software Vendors and Buyers, as well as the strategies that enterprises implement for how technology supports the business and its customers. Julie shares her takes on the software industry via her blog Highly Competitive and on Twitter: @juliebhunt For more information: Julie Hunt Consulting – Strategies for B2B Software Solutions: Working from the Customer Perspective