 In the epoch of Big Data, organisations seem to be searching for needles in a bunch of haystacks when it comes to effective and relevant use of data available with the ushering in of social computing, mobility, cloud adoption, and the use of other collaborative platforms. Leaders have prioritised this issue as their success hinges on how they are driving value from both the unstructured and structured data. Though there is continuous advancement of search technologies, there is inherent complexity in the nature of language because it is full of ambiguity, contradiction, multiple meanings, and many contexts. Moreover, the complex IT setting, accompanied with the evolving trends within time periods as short as few months, have rendered traditional search and knowledge management solutions ineffectual and resulting in productivity loss. However, one should not confuse between Web/Consumer search and Enterprise search. Enterprise search technology provides a user interface for users’ queries to find and retrieve relevant, contextualised information in order to gain instant access from various public source (website, www) and enterprise sources such as content management systems, email archives, enterprise databases, and file servers to identify and, in the process, perform light analysis and since not all users have the same access rights, metadata files are created across different repositories of information. This search enables retrieval from heterogeneous sources of information and results are ranked based on a complex algorithm, which can be customized by many factors, for instance, industry taxonomy, business rules, date and author. With traditional keyword based searches, the scientific backbone is missing due to limited connectivity to diverse content repositories and different file formats, inability to address security requirements and user privileges, inability to reduce time to go-live, problems in scalability of plethora of information, and customisation to meet specific business and/or industry needs. A study by Grand View Research (2015) reveals that BFSI leads the enterprise search market worldwide and will continue to have double digit growth rate in future, as illustrated on the graph (left). Enterprise search is not a one-time activity. It is a process that the CTO team needs to continuously enhance to ensure that the workforce is not spending time on non-value added activities. Most of the large organisations concur with this thought which is why such organisations are estimated to have a significant growth, whereas SMEs are likely to exhibit a steady growth over the next six years, as indicated by the same study.  A few important suppliers in this market are IBM, Coveo, Concept Searching, HP Autonomy, Lucidworks, Attivio, Perceptive Software Incorporated. The vendors offer a bouquet of social, mobile, cloud and information and impact the information-centric enterprise search market substantially. According to a Gartner report, revenue in the enterprise search market is predicted to reach $2.6 billion in 2017 fuelled by a compound annual growth rate of 11.2%. The delivery models, including software for installation on customers' premises, hardware-based appliances, and installations on the infrastructure of cloud service providers are the differentiators among the vendors. The figure (on the right) shows the vendors placed in four quadrants based on Gartner’s two broad evaluation criteria , namely, ability to execute (includes completeness of products and their success in terms of customers' experiences, vendors’ Sales Execution/Pricing) and completeness of vision (agility and creativity). Buyers’ expectations are gradually hiking with an increased drive for contextualisation and connecting the traditional and unconventional data sources, both on-premises and in the cloud. Companies aim at strategic collaboration to offer a combination of mass market solutions along with serving niche markets. While choice of the product is of paramount importance,the value of implementation partner and service provider cannot be undermined. Hence the technology think tank needs to work closely with procurement to develop a process to measure the depth of the experience and skill that the vendor brings on the table.
Author: Debaleena Debnath Debaleena is a digital media consultant @ speradigital. To know more about our services, click here. Follow us Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter
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Six Sigma Methodology (SSM) prescribes a common language and method to address business opportunities and solve business problems. Although its use originated in manufacturing industry, it has been found to be effective in finance and service industries (called transactional industries) and in fields as diverse as health care and software development.
Most non-advocates are skeptical about the ability and effectiveness of the standardised methodology as they view it as a hindrance to creativity; however, believers refute these claims on the basis that creativity comes through the content and the ability to reach a solution that speaks success and is implementable, not in the tools that are used to reach the outcome. For example, in manufacturing, improved techniques and machineries have been driving higher sales and no need was felt to improve the sales and marketing. Nonetheless, SSM has been used for process improvements and reengineering as it provides a roadmap by using the data and statistical analysis to show the path for identifying and eliminating “defects” in business processes and has generated profits in a wide variety of industries worldwide. In the process, it can measure and further improve a company’s operational performance. Six Sigma professionals and Sales and Marketing professionals have similar objectives in mind – finding the path of least resistance and sticking to what works best. The difference is that Sales and Marketing often rely on intuition and judgment, while Six Sigma relies strictly on scientific analysis of data**. So, we now know about the method, but, people often wonder about the roots of the term “Six Sigma”. To elaborate on that, “Sigma” is a statistical term for the measures of variability. “One” Sigma is a very high degree of variability (Seven “mistakes” out of ten opportunities). “Six” Sigma means a process/technique where the degree of variability would be as low as 3.4 “mistakes” out of 1 million opportunities. If you have a close/hit ratio of 30%, your sales process can be said to be operating at one sigma! The traditional Six Sigma problem-solving approach, consisting of define, measure, analyze, improve, control (DMAIC), offer a unique tool for employing Six Sigma methodology to enhance the marketing processes for enabling a business to attain strategic, tactical, and operational growth*. SSM can be applied to any work that is goal-directed and where the problem can be explicitly defined and organised. In marketing and sales, it revolves around the value proposition (from the point of view of the customer rather than the organisation) and market segmentation**. The trends have shifted from the metrics of customer satisfaction to the metrics of customer value as there is plenty of evidence (Gale, Reidenbach, Reichheld, among others) that the metrics of customer satisfaction do not correlate well with business performance. The metrics of customer value, on the other hand, have proven to be the best leading indicators of market share – leading to both high levels of customer acquisition and customer retention (loyalty/stickiness). To create a value model of the targeted market for products and services, SSM is used. This is called the voice of the market (VOM) model which is driving both the strategic and operational initiatives that are needed to organise a business and its marketing strategy. The model uses the SSM by using facts and statistical theory for decision making and replaces strategic guessing, hunches, and agendas. As a result, a superior value which propels growth within the market and targeted product delivery areas is created. During its analytical phase, Six Sigma marketing uses numerous tools to steer the delivery of the value model which will transform the survey data into meaningful metrics. These tools often include the competitive value matrix, the competitor vulnerability matrix and the customer loyalty matrix. The matrices are based on the two main drivers of value, namely quality and price. Each tool is specifically designed to help the following three elements which further aid market share growth in the following manner:- 1. The acquisition of new customers is achieved with the incorporation of the competitor vulnerability and competitive value matrices. 2. Retention of current customers and increasing sales revenue by pursuing customers to buy upgrades, renewed contracts and more is attained by the customer loyalty matrix. Thus, using SSM in marketing results in metrics that enable prediction of future business performance, and provide managerial direction as well. Author: Debaleena Debnath Debaleena is a digital media consultant @ speradigital. To know more about our services, click here. Follow us Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter. Source: * Creveling, C. M. et. al (2006).Six Sigma for Marketing Processes: An Overview for Marketing Executives, Leaders, and Managers. ** Asefeso, A. (2013). Six Sigma Marketing  Tangible benefits achieved as a result of data-driven marketing The business atmosphere has gone through a rapid transformation over the past decade — technology is maturing every day, plethora of information is available from various sources and a new corporate mandate to create actionable insights from data, big and small, that drive value for brands and consumers alike—has changed the fundamentals of marketing and have propelled the marketer into a powerful new role as an agent for change. The discipline of Marketing has increasingly become a data-driven approach. Research has shown that marketing driven by data or insights has boosted higher returns on the investment by using the customer information in a way that gives businesses a competitive edge over their rivals. So, what exactly is data driven marketing? According to Gartner, “Data-driven marketing refers to acquiring, analyzing and applying information about customer and consumer wants, needs, context, behaviour and motivations “. The result is that it will help organisations to make time-bound decisions, which in turn leads to improved products and enhance customer experiences, along with higher operational efficiency and competitive advantage (the chart on the left depicts how businesses achieved tangible results with data-driven marketing in some of the areas). In a research initiative, Global DMA report, 2014, represented by 3,000 thought leaders representing all segments of the advertising, marketing, media and technology industries across 17 global markets, a remarkable 80% of them reported that data is positively important to the deployment of their marketing and advertising efforts. Therefore, it doesn’t come as a surprise that nearly three-quarters (74%) of marketers (out of a total of 331 responses from senior executives in a Turn and Forbes collaboration survey in 2015) expect to increase their data marketing budgets this year. In the study by Forbes, 2015, some important industry-wise insights revealed that:-
 Competitive advantage attained in customer experiences through data-driven marketing- by industry group To sum up, organizations that are “leaders” in data-driven marketing have these practices ingrained into the culture of their organizations, and are able to move swiftly between engagements with effective and highly efficient cross-functional collaboration. Thus, “leaders” also record far higher levels of customer engagement and market growth than their “laggard” counterparts.
Author: Debaleena Debnath Debaleena is a digital media consultant @ speradigital. To know more about our services, please click here. Follow us on Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter. |
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