Cloud Computing SaaS

[salesforce-consulting-blog]

Data analytics: A look ahead for 2016

What’s in for analytics? With big data technologies moving ahead quickly data analytics is not just a trend but a new way of business life. The potential of analytics lies in speed and efficiency. It gives the opportunity to spot trends in customer behavior and respond quickly. With the amount of data expanding, the analytics and big data sector has seen a robust growth over the last five years. This will hold true in 2016 as well. Let us take a snappy peep at some of the significant analytics trends to look for in 2016. Internet of Things (IoT) Experts forecast the Internet of Things (IoT) will make progress as it becomes expansive. New technologies like 3D printing and virtual reality are poised to change the end-user experience as IoT continues to gain attention in the tech space. As we move beyond 2016, mobile devices, sensors and people will join the IoT. Data monetization The key challenge is to transform, enrich and repackage data assets into solutions that target customers’ needs for a solution that optimizes business performance and simplifies jobs. Many companies are already monetizing their data in order to increase profits. This trend is said to become widespread in the coming years. Simplifying big data Visualization of data enables better understanding of business and ultimately helps in making better decisions. Salesforce and Cloud technologies join in to simplify big data and improve analytics service. The latest tools can turn complex data to simple for sales. Cognitive analytics Organizations across the world are focusing on the high impact business applications of cognitive analytics, a new generation of solutions using advanced algorithms to learn directly and automatically from data.  Key trends include the adoption of cognitively enriched intelligent machines including mobile devices of IoT devices and cognitive agents like personal virtual assistants. Data democratization Data analytics is said to become democratized for businesses. With constant innovation in technology, data can be made available for anyone. Data security As more and more mobile apps collect considerable amount of data, there is a growing concern over security. This year will see cybercrime prediction powered by machine learning techniques to anticipate hackers’ activities and further detect and fix security holes in networks and applications. Business analytics is an important component of a successful business. While some trends continue, some others are evolving at a rapid pace.  According to analysts the big data market will be nearly $50 billion by 2019. The future will see many value added refinements that will ensure intelligent business decisions and more personalized service for customers. Source: Bodhtree Analytical Services and Solutions

[salesforce-consulting-blog]

The out-of-the-box customer support with Service Cloud

In today’s business environment, everything and everyone is connected to various devices and products. The 24/7 customer support has become a cliché. The next wave in customer service revolution is predicting support. Yes, you fix a problem before it happens. How do you deliver quick and more personalized service to your increasingly connected customers across multiple channels? Research reports indicate that by the year 2020, there will be over 50 billion connected devices. So how does one manage this complexity? Salesforce’s Service Cloud is your answer! Companies are turning to Service cloud, a complete toolkit to help you manage customer challenges. Connecting every customer, across multiple channels and on any device, was never easier. With its strategic vision, Salesforce Service Cloud puts all the benefits of cloud computing in a simple integrated solution that appeals to users across every channel from call centers to social network and beyond. You can automate service processes, streamline workflows and surface key articles, topics, and experts to transform the agent experience. Built on the Salesforce Customer Success Platform, Service Cloud gives companies a 360-degree view of their customers and enables them to deliver smarter, faster and more personalized service. What makes Service cloud the right choice? If you are wondering how Service cloud would benefit your business, here are a few key advantages you get by deploying Service cloud: • Significant reduction in costs and phenomenal increase in productivity and customer satisfaction. • Manages high volume social interactions and responds in real time. The platform allows you to prioritize and assign tweets or Facebook messages to the right people at the right time. • Mobile connectivity enables users to access Service cloud from anywhere and anytime. • Increases customer loyalty and improves customer retention. • Provides tools to anticipate customer needs. With constant improvement, you can expect several updates that help in delivering personalized customer service within any mobile app. For instance, Salesforce’s new service Field service lightning, to be available in the second quarter of the year, aims to provide more customization and accelerate business growth. Regardless of size and industry, companies are using Service Cloud to transform customer service. That’s because it allows faster and responsive service across every channel. The key business challenge to working productively is to deliver outstanding customer service because eventually customers’ success equals company’s success. Source: Salesforce Service Cloud

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Moving forward with digital enterprise

Technology is the heart of every business. And as this technology continues to progress, it becomes important to keep pace with the ever present change. This is the era of digital transformation where search for improvement is constant with every innovation. The true essence of a digital enterprise Does that call for understanding and mastering technological advances? Well, it is that and even more. Digital transformation is a step beyond technology. Many companies tend to invest in digital initiatives without understanding the true essence of DX (Digital transformation).  It is about leadership capabilities and making the right investments in the right technology. In addition, the management styles must co-exist. A true digital enterprise must move beyond ‘people-process-technology’ framework and adopt strategic models in sync with the digital behavior.  Eventually the focus is on the end user.   What drives the digital wave? Business operations get maximum value from social media, cloud computing and big data. A digital enterprise is not complete unless they adopt big data. This allows companies to minimize costs and maximize results. Incorporating big data technologies into business strategies is said to revolutionize business in the same way that the internet did. According to a study by Accenture, approximately two-thirds of companies worldwide have completed big data implementation so far. The company also foresees digital transformation as a $ 100 trillion opportunity for industry and society by 2025.   The force is strong in the digital space Digital enterprise is the buzz phrase today. Research reports indicate that the trend will go mainstream While Gartner emphasizes the rise of the algorithmic business and the programmable economy, Forrester charts a roadmap for companies that respond to digitally savvy customers and consumers.   Digital transformation is on the radar of many organizations especially in the sales and communications arena. In order to succeed, it is important to focus on harnessing the strengths and mitigating challenges. Old business models have paved way for radical new beginnings. Gone are the days of siloed teams in organizations. The emergence of all the new technologies ensures better communication and collaboration where all stakeholders are involved in the digital transformation process.   Embracing digital transformation in an enterprise has key benefits such as cost effectiveness, improvement in productivity and the most vital of all, improving customer engagement. Source: Digital Enterprise

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Tableau – making better sense of data

Slow and rigid systems are now a passé. Quick and easy response to data is what drives today’s dynamic business environment. How does one get the most out of data? From barcodes at stores to information on the Web, spreadsheets and databases on mobile devices, everything is data driven these days. With data analytics and Business Information (BI) software gaining utmost importance, vendors like Tableau are leading the way. Data enthusiasts are keen on BI and analytics tools that address today’s concerns and tomorrow’s challenges. It is here that Tableau software is generating a lot of buzz. It is viewed as one of the main software vendors by many organizations seeking BI and analytics tools. What makes Tableau stand apart? A picture is certainly worth a thousand words as it is easier and faster for people to grasp an information when it is visually presented. From a simple chart to the most complex map, visual data leads to better insight and effective business decisions. Keeping pace with the evolving technology, Tableau transforms data into visually appealing and interactive dashboards. With industry experts at Gartner viewing it as the BI platform of choice, Tableau has been consistently a leader in the Magic Quadrant. Incorporating Tableau as your BI tool Basically designed to process and analyze data in an easy to comprehend manner, Tableau can connect any data source. It was founded on the idea that data analysis and subsequent reports should be integrated into a single visual application. A user friendly drag-and-drop interface eliminates unnecessary complications and combines multiple databases together without any hassles. The ability to offer appealing yet functional data is what gives Tableau an edge over its competitors. Besides, installation is as easy as a click as there is no requirement of wizards or complex scripting. Yet another interesting feature is that the software accepts formats with Excel, Access and text. In addition, you can access common databases like Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL and Oracle. The road ahead With a strong partnership growth, Tableau plans to invest more on Research and Development over the next two years. Tableau software’s focus is to combine databases and computer graphics and make it easier for the average user. With huge data accessible to many people, security becomes a grave concern. Tableau server provides security solutions with easy implementations. Following their successful investments in the mobile apps, the latest release, Tableau 9.1 app is an effort to put your content ahead and stay on top of your data. Some of the upcoming launches include an app for data driven notifications and alerts, Vizable app that uses touch-gestures to work with data. Tableau software is also planning to invest in optimized support for phones among other future investments. Research indicates that by 2020 the world will generate 50 times the amount of data as in the year 2011. Massive data means wider opportunities. And the challenge for Tableau lies in processing and analyzing data in a logical way that is not only easy to follow but also ensure subsequent action. Data continues to impact the daily work life to an extent that everyone needs to be familiar with data analysis. To accelerate your business growth, it is essential to employ the best BI tools that enhance business productivity. With over 15,000 organizations relying on Tableau, it is turning out to be the standard for quality data visualization. Organizations that make a better sense of data march ahead and those who fail are left behind. Source: Bodhtree Tableau Consulting Services

[salesforce-consulting-blog]

Cloud is here to stay

These days the world is moving ‘in the cloud’. You can build social, mobile and real-time employee apps and run them in cloud. From social media platforms to instantaneous access to information on smartphones, there has been a tremendous growth in the app economy. From a stand-alone app for salespeople to an essential front office platform focusing on every customer interaction, Cloud technology has evolved through a number of phases like grid and utility computing, application service position (ASP) and software as a service (SaaS).

So where is the cloud heading?

The cloud technology has transformed the computing landscape. The customers are ever connected and the range of mobile devices are ever expanding. People expect access to programs, data at any site anywhere. Cloud technology is helping to achieve this. Behind every device, app and product, the key element is the customer. Customer relationship management has never been more important than it is today. That makes the cloud a very good place to run business software like Customer Relationship Management (CRM) applications. Gartner predicted that Saas CRM solutions will reach a deployment rate between 80 and 85 per cent in the next nine years. While the CRM software market is growing rapidly, cloud-based systems are expanding as the ubiquitous tool in client management practices. There has been a phenomenal shift from desk based work to working on the go, meaning there is no more waiting to get to office to fix the job. One could do it either at desktop machines or tablets or smartphones when they are on the move. Besides there is no hassle of installation or managing a hardware as it is the cloud company that runs the app. However, security and data privacy remain the central challenge. Addressing this concern, Cloud companies have offered ‘hybrid’ models that allow clients to put sensitive data on their in-house clouds and the rest on public clouds. With real time businesses heading towards cloud, security concerns will be resolved soon. Salesforce marches ahead

With years of experience in managing the cloud infrastructure, Salesforce is rapidly progressing while making the cloud platform secure, reliable and collaborative.

As the business expands the volume of staff, data also spiral up. It is increasingly important to understand how much do you know about the customer. The cloud is the quick fix here as the technology enables connectivity beyond mobiles. Other benefits include increased storage, flexibility, cost reduction and efficient use of IT resources.

Cisco predicts that the average consumer will own five internet-enabled devices by the year 2017. According to market reports Salesforce is now marching ahead as the top most cloud-based CRM. To quote the MIT statement, 91 per cent of companies using Salesforce observed that their marketing teams have a ‘strong executive voice’. Marketers valued the existing clientele than acquiring new ones. After integrating Salesforce into daily workflow, businesses can expect better revenues, productive employees and most importantly better customer experiences.  

These indications emphasize that Salesforce is successfully transforming itself into a cloud platform business. However there has been concern over data complexity due to accumulation of data errors by users, data customization, business model changes such as mergers. While companies battle it out with data complexity, CRM apps offer solutions that make the challenge less daunting. Management of underlying data is crucial to enjoy the expanded use of Salesforce. And companies that have witnessed this fact are starting to be noticed by investors. Cloud computing provides a robust mechanism for the development of enterprise apps, increase productivity and ensure better customer service. Unlike some technologies that are in-here and out-tomorrow, Cloud is going to be the dominant platform for existing and new applications.

Source: Customer Relationship Management (CRM) applications

[salesforce-consulting-blog]

Pictures speak louder than words

Have you ever wondered why pictures, images, visuals captivate us? There is an ancient saying, we see - we do, we feel, and we understand. Psychologists say, that 93% of human communication is non-verbal. Our brains react differently to visual stimuli. Since time immemorial, images have been our means to understand the whys, when’s and how’s of existence. Ancient cave paintings were perhaps the first means of visual communication that was established even before any language existed. We humans think using pictures. In this age of multimedia and mass communication, the potential of visual communication is slowly but surely being realized. With the rise in social platforms, blogging, live-tweeting and video streaming, the way you reach your audience is never going to be the same. Recent technological innovations with the advent of specific platforms have enabled creative and the non-creative associated with visual communications to present, learn and exchange information.  For creative people many of these platforms have been a manna! Artists and virtual marketplaces Artists and virtual market places together have offered the connoisseurs of art a bounty! Never before in history has art ever been seen, appreciated and purchased on such a large scale. And never before in history have artists commanded the price and received it without any hassle.   Online marketplaces offer convenience and flexibility to consumers and businesses alike. These companies have made the process of buying and selling art anywhere in the world a cakewalk. These    ecommerce sites not only showcase new and varied artistic mediums they also empower artists to take charge of their business easily. Thanks to a potent combination of social networking and online shopping - amateur artists can now showcase their art, cultivate their own followers and achieve sales. Web presence an integral part of business   With the advent of digital era the percentage of people going online to fulfill their needs right from grocery or a movie ticket to booking a doctor appointment and buying a high end electronic item is exponentially increasing by the day. Social presence of the organizations, mobile compatibility of their websites, innovative thought process with the use of analytics and a deep dive into the daily needs of the customers based on the business process areas would be the corner stones of success in the upcoming years. According the Gartner by the end of 2015 organizations would be generating around 50% of web sales via social presence and mobile applications.   Given the context with every other organization adapting mobility as their most coveted weapon in the digital arena, next biggest challenge would be how they would be molding themselves to be the leading market share winners in their respective business processes. Visual communication would be playing a pivotal role in grabbing the attention of people and would be one of the most intriguing, conjuring and dazzling ammunition to hit the bull’s eye with respects to sales targets. Interactive, innovative and illustrative web page designs would be the crowd pulling factor for each organization. Of course as this would help grabbing the first attention of the customers, it would be the optimal business methodologies and the grass root analysis of the areas of interests of the end users which is finally going to decide the market share of the organization. In an era where the markets are witnessing revolutionary ways of attracting the customers and innovative market capturing capabilities it is mandated that the organizations revamp their web sales capabilities to ensure that the “ presentation layer”( the look and feel of the home pages of the organization) are visually appealing and interactive. Also they should be indulging the look feel factor across the social software, mobile compatible applications and should be evangelizing innovative ideas that might be a trend setting online revolution an organization might possibly bring about.   Revamping the face of the organization via alluring interactive and visually galvanizing pieces on the home page is quite challenging, interesting and thought provoking. In fact, we recently helped our client redesign their website with an interactive layout without missing the technical robustness. In this journey we had umpteen opportunities to go through many innovative thought processes on turning a website into a visual spectacle. Right from an html tag to Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, every art piece has been a source of inspiration and innovation as it seized our customer’s enthralling expertise to the next level. Websites happen to be the face of business today, and apart from being visually attractive, it should be thought provoking, feature rich and should convey the core motto of the business in a very novel way. Source: Digital Customer Experience

[salesforce-consulting-blog]

Faster access to insights with Tableau

Today, sighting data is an emerging technology trend as the focus of analytics sector is been shifting from enterprise to innovative philosophy. Organizations across industries understand the importance of providing the opportunity to their employees to conduct day to day data analysis regardless of technical background. Companies don’t need the number of people instead they need more access to the information across various levels. The better the employees equipped with the data the efficient the decisions will be. As a result, tools that efficiently and instinctively analyze all types of data are in demand. Organizations and individual users are inclining toward visual analytics tools as one of the effective ways for the user to control data and maximize its insights.

What is Visual Analytics? Visual analytics pairs graphical illustrations with specialized interaction to divulge underlying patterns in data. The good news is visual analytics isn’t something that’s only available to IT professionals. Today’s visual analytics tools are designed keeping everyday user in mind, providing information earmarked for analysts and data scientists. Imagine your project manager asks you to give a break up on how this quarter’s marketing campaigns are performing. Or why the north regional sales team is lagging behind the others. Or what percentage of Facebook fans interact with your organization’s Facebook posts, and which type of posts receives the largest response rate. With the help of a visual analytics tool, you can excavate and analyze these questions in real time. For example, using your company’s Facebook metrics, a visual analytics tool will enable you to create a visualization that intrigues each post’s level of engagement as it progresses. With a simple click of mouse the tool allows you to drill down on specific types of posts so that you can compare success rates. Within no time you will be able report back to your manager with the statistics on Facebook interactions and most popular posts, and you will be able to support proclamation with numbers and graphic representation. Why excel sheets and PowerPoint decks fall short All organizations are driven by decisions – and the best decisions are driven by data. But data analysis can be confusing or overwhelming for many people; particularly those without a background in statistics. That’s why it is essential to understand the three main challenges visual analytics users face. Visual analytics  has the ability to take data analysis to the next level, but it isn’t a magic bullet. What you know is very limited value if you are unable to use clean data, leverage the most powerful visuals and continually share and refresh your findings. • Understanding the data and its structure. • Presenting the data effectively. • Sharing the data We’ve all pulled our hair out while trying to pull Pivot  Tables out of Excel for weekly status updates, or attempted to come to a group consensus via a lengthy, multi-pronged email chain that leaves participants more confused than they were at the outset. Visual analytics tools make it easier than ever before for non-technical business users to navigate and overcome these challenges. But it’s not enough to have the technology—you need to use these tools effectively. Here are some visual analytics best practices. • Identify your goal for analysis • Get more mileage with dashboards • Use design effectively • Remember that more isn’t always better • Set appropriate limits • Don’t limit your data coming in or going out Building effective data visualization requires much more than just technology. Very few business analysts have a background in data visualization best practices to answer questions like: Is a data set best visualized using a scatter plot or a bar graph? How many different colors should a single graph use? Can we put two graphs with different scales next to each other on a single dashboard? Tableau can answer these and many other questions about best practices based on the psychology of human visual perception. Its graphical user interface and library of white papers clearly show that this is Tableau’s specialty. Source: Bodhtree Visual Analytic Solutions

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Tableau helps people to reach insights and collaborate meaningfully

2015 was a year of momentous change in the world of data and business intelligence. People started exploring their data with visual analytics. Companies are recognizing the fact that interactive data visualization as one of the top five trends cited by Gartner is changing business intelligence. New conferences and events have started to promote research and best practices in this area, including VAST (Visual Analytics Science & Technology), organized by the 100,000 member IEEE. Technologies based on visual analytics have moved from research into widespread use in the last five years, driven by the increased power of analytical databases and computer hardware. The IT departments of leading companies are increasingly recognizing the need for a visual analytics standard.

With the rise of “big data,” information visualization is emerging as an area that no one can ignore. Institutions are finding that key stake holders want to be provided with metrics when being asked to make decisions. There are challenges in this data-rich environment: providing the proper amount of information for each stakeholder in the organizational hierarchy and finding a way to translate data into easy to understand terms.

Visual Analytics aims at turning the data overload problem into an opportunity. Its goal is to make the analysis of data transparent for an analytic discourse by combining the strengths of human and electronic data processing. Visualization becomes the medium of a semi-automated analytical process, where humans and machines cooperate using their distinct, complementary capabilities to obtain the most effective results. The user has the ultimate authority in determining the direction of the analysis.

The greater emphasis on the ease of use and visualization when it comes to business intelligence software has fueled growth for Tableau. Most traditional business intelligence platforms only help people answer predetermined questions. They are report-centric and focus on enterprise IT requirements. This mindset is changing, and data discovery is gaining strong traction in the market. Data discovery involves exploring data freely, discovering insights from a set of data and analyzing and presenting those insights in an interactive and visual format. Data discovery makes it easy for business users without any technical skills to run queries and analysis. The users can learn at each step of the process and can come up with the next steps on their own. Tableau has been a leader in data discovery with its business discovery platform and has been featured as a leader in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence and Analytics Platforms for the last three years. Tableau’s in-memory computing technology is complementary to data discovery. It reduces the number of data transactions required while analyzing data by storing the entire database in random access memory which is more accessible to the processor. According to Markets and Markets, the n-memory technology market will increase from $2.2 billion in 2013 to $13.2 billion by 2018 due to decline in the cost of semiconductor technologies and rising need for real-time data analysis and managing voluminous databases.

Who is adopting visual analytics?

Visual analytics is being adopted by the world’s leading companies, universities and government agencies. From the world’s largest and most innovative organizations – Proctor & Gamble, Apple, Pfizer, Microsoft, Coca Cola, Google, Cornell University, Progressive Insurance, Amazon, Georgetown University, the VA (Veteran’s Administration), Blue Cross Blue Shield – to one-person consulting shops, visual analysis tools are now mainstream.

Eventually to have an overview of your data and get the meaningful insights visual analytics can be the best choice.

Source: Bodhtree Visual Analytic Solutions

[salesforce-consulting-blog]

5 Steps to choose Salesforce consulting partner

Once you are decided to make the move to Salesforce for CRM. Or possibly you’re already using Salesforce CRM but are looking to take further advantage of the system to generate required ROI. The next big step is figuring out the best way to implement it. Choosing the right business partner is not just about making the implementation process as smooth as possible; it's also setting up a productive professional working relationship that should last well into the future - from initial project scoping through deployment, training, support and future upgrades. Bodhtree's Salesforce implementation services help you get up and running fast to deliver better experiences for your customers and make life easier for your staff. But what happens once you’ve made that decision? What’s the best way to get the solution running as quickly and effectively as possible? The answer is to work with an implementation partner who can escort the entire process by industry best practices. Here are five key points to consider. 1) EXPERIENCE The importance of experience simply can’t be understated. Let us think in this way: who would you rather have your doctor, someone just passed out of a medical school or someone who has a few notches on their belt? While the recompenses might not be as high, the benefits of experience are just as great when it is about implementing Salesforce. With experience comes innate knowledge about how to overcome some of the common challenges, eventually providing a faster implementation and a better end result. 2) CERTIFICATIONS Salesforce has a number of certifications for developers, administrators and more through to certified technical architects. To receive these Salesforce certifications, people must undergo arduous testing to prove their knowledge of the solution and their ability to cater to the relevant situations. Working with the partner whose team is highly certified means that you are in very skilled hands. 3) SATISFIED CLIENTS Once you are assured about the experience and certifications, it’s always important to do your due diligence and see what the partners existing client have to say by the means of their success stories. You will be working closely with your implementing partner, so it’s always smart to check in with their customers to be sure that they can provide what you are looking for in terms of project deliverability, responsiveness, etc. After all, would you buy a new product on Flipkart without reading the reviews first? Probably not. 4) INDUSTRY EXPERTISE Now that you have analyzed on the experience, certifications and satisfied clients, the next step is to determine if they have any expertise specific to your industry. The industry expertise can prove to be a big advantage when it comes to delineating capabilities, mapping them back to business needs and following implementation best practices. A partner with varied industry expertise will have deeper understanding into your specific pain points and can offer more educated, well - researched solutions on how to use Salesforce to solve respective problems. Additionally, the partner’s experience implementing similar solutions for others in your industry should be a ready reckoner enabling your implementation faster and smoother. 5) GEOGRAPHIC PRESENCE Last but definitely not the least, it’s important to consider partner geographic presence. If your business is in Germany, does it really make sense to work with a partner who is only located in the Singapore, even if they outstrip all the other considerations? Not really. If you are planning for a global implementation, working with a partner who also has global presence can easily provide team members to your different locations which will be a huge benefit and can really help push-start your implementation and use of salesforce. PARTNERING FOR SUCCESS These five points are very important to consider while looking for a Salesforce implementation partner as Salesforce itself uses them to guide its partner program. Indeed, these are important five of a number of other key requirements that partners must validate in order to achieve Salesforce’s partner designation. I’m proud to share that Bodhtree is one among the Cloud Alliance Partners worldwide. Source: Bodhtree Salesforce Implementation Services, Salesforce Consulting Partner

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Retail intelligence to delight your customers

You don’t suffer from a lack of data. But you no doubt face an avalanche of questions about how that data can be used to drive your site. According to the PwC report Future of India - The Winning Leap, emergence of new technologies, especially mobile, in India has sparked a social change that’s difficult to quantify. While mobile, internet, and social media penetration and growth can be quantified, describing the changes in social values and lifestyles that have accompanied those trends is far more challenging. E-commerce Industry growth potential in India Currently, eTravel comprises 70% of the total eCommerce market. ETailing, which comprises of online retail and online marketplaces, has become the fastest-growing segment in the larger market having grown at a CAGR of around 56% over 2009-2014. The size of the eTail market is pegged at 6 billion USD in 2015. Books, apparel and accessories and electronics are the largest selling products through eTailing, constituting around 80% of product distribution. The increasing use of smartphones, tablets and internet broadband and 3G has led to developing a strong consumer base likely to increase further. By 2020, eTail in India is expected to account for 3% of total retail. Further, orders per million are expected to more than double from five million in 2013 to 12 million by 2016, which will mean more opportunities for both consumers and eTail companies. Analytics an integral part of e-commerce The rise of Internet, smartphone and social media users have made analytics an integral part of any digital business. There is abundance of customer data in every business including e-commerce and analytics helps in deriving meaningful insights to help the business in growing and serving the customers better. Massive increases in the volume of data and the complexity of information from CRM, ERP, point of sales (POS) data and other systems make it difficult to have customer behavior insights without a focused analytical interface. The e-commerce industry generates data from several sources like e-tailer website, IT systems, review and ratings providers and social media sites. E-tailer need to have real-time access to information to measure return on online investments and optimize the channel mix. There are basic analytics capabilities available with the e-commerce players like basket size analysis, average order value and conversion ratio, but with the changing scenario and increasing customer base the organizations need to deploy deeper analytics solutions that provide actionable insight around overall digital customer experience. The analytics solution should include end to end process starting from the vendor management and supply chain to customer satisfaction. It should have holistic view of the data spanning across all departments such marketing, sales, customer service, finance and the supply chain for gaining better insights and making strategic business decisions. How interactive visualization works One important element that’s been missing from BI and analytics platforms is a way to bridge human language in the user interface to machine language more effectively. User interfaces have included features such as drag and drop for decades, but drag and drop historically has been linked to only a single application function—moving a file from one folder to another, for example. What a tool such as Tableau does differently is to make manipulating the data through familiar techniques (like drag and drop) part of an ongoing dialogue with the database extracts that are in active memory. By doing so, the visual user interface offers a more seamless way to query the data layer. Across the world companies are leveraging tableau to view real-time customer’s shopping basket and to optimize campaigns in real-time. The interactive visualizations are used to create detailed reports on consumer buying habits across the major outlets. Retailers use data to: • See and understand multi-channel information in a single location • Monitor operations and track inventory in real-time mobile dashboards • Zoom in on consumer segments to understand their behavior • Spot top-performing locations and opportunities on a map • Transform product and ad placement from an art into a science Analytics is the future of the online business but it needs a focused study of the organizational objectives and goals for effective implementation and cost savings. Tableau makes it easy for you to create and share dashboards quickly and effectively. In a matter of minutes you can connect to nearly any data source, use an intuitive interface to analyze your data visually, and then drag-and-drop to create dashboards. No programming expertise is required. Source: Tableau Data Visualization, Digital Customer Experience

[salesforce-consulting-blog]

Digital highways lead industry still unexplored for “Success”

These days we wake up in to a totally new digitally transformed world. We start our day checking for the daily activities, office emails, alerts on the smart phone. World is at our hands and we feel everything is possible with the advent of digital transformation the world has experienced in the recent past. The experiences we have in our daily walk of life are renovating into an interactive digital world.   Organizations are struggling to get in terms to the digital extravaganza the market has been experiencing. The in house business models are not serving the purpose. They are not engaging enough to cater for the digital needs of the customers. Recent trends indicates that 43% of the exiting organizations use digital ways of marketing and the industry has witnessed a 5% paradigm shift towards digital thought process in comparison to 2014. The emphasis on mobile, social networks and analytics has been revamping the customer preferences. We are currently in the digitally engraved world where your personal preferences turn out to be the business opportunities for the organizations you interact with in your daily walk of life. Gmail pops up advertisements of your interest based on your emails, banks offer credit cards with attractive incentives based on the spending patterns. Organizations across the globe are making huge strides reading into the customer’s choices. The analytics empowered authentic probing techniques peep into the life style of the customer’s right from hair style to foot wear. The social networking comments made, the apps installed on the smart phone, the stores visited, the multiplexes used, the cab services availed have unique patterns. Analysis of each and every pattern is a potential business opportunity. Consequences are the personalized credit cards, discounts on cab rides; redeemable reward points etc., the diversified interests of the customers could instigate a business thought process. Digitally enlightened organizations have been monetizing their analytics driven pattern studies pretty efficiently. Organizations are in a desperate need to refurbish the business model and operational process based on the needs of the customer’s customer. We need to evolve a framework which has the basic building blocks to create appealing, relevant and reliable digital experiences across all the possible avenues of enhancing the user experience. The barrier to entry in any market has significantly reduced, and the focus is on time to value. It is pretty evident from the recent evaluation performed that the call for the digitally biased outlook is mandated for each and every organization. Revisiting, renovating and reinforcing the business models to capitulate the most populous pet area for any industry right from a grocery store to an IT firm is the digital arena. Research by Capgemini substantiates this. Organizations investing in digitally driven business opportunities are amassing 9% extra revenues in comparison to their digitally paralyzed competitors. To get the right speed on the digital-highway, the leadership should provide the right strategy and consider the aspects of Culture, Skills, Technology and Data as the four wheels. As per Forrester’s report passive reporting was more preferred while active search is a game changer. Investment in new technologies like data analytics is highly preferred as it enhances customer experience. Likewise quality changes in the skill set of IT wherein value creation is more preferred and leads to a long term benefit. Finally, Safety and security is an integral part of our d-highway and creates the faith factor in the customer. A bad experience will be a big loss in the digital world as this will deter customer to adopt digital platforms.   Positive futuristic approach, envisioning the changing trends, novel thinking with a digital mindset and re-strategising the basic ploys of the organization has turned dismal performances into industry benchmarking achievements. Starbucks has recruited a VP (digital ventures) to galvanize the zeal of the company which was witnessing a severe down trend. His brand new idea of free Wi-Fi and free content from reputed publications has instilled life and turned the tables in terms of the monetary fortunes of the company. Adam Brotman is now the CDO of the company. Industries across the globe may have to think in terms of recruiting digital think tanks into their strategic initiatives. Customer is a gullible commodity as long as you make legitimate choices in engaging him. Winning the trust of the customer would be corner stone of any successful firm. A new culture needs to be woven with the help of cutting edge technology, thought leadership and a precise understanding of the customer needs across the organization. Inquisitive mindset, competitive thought process, real time experience, a window into the recent happenings into the digital world amalgamated with robust leadership can work wonders and help us thrive in the global digital arena. Making the right choices of skill set, comprehending the customer needs to precision, etching the business cases to perfection and implementing the requirements using robust technical platforms would build best in class user engaging, enthralling and enriching applications via which the lives of customers are digitalized impeccably. As the world embarks on a cardinal journey which alleviates the human intervention and enhances a self-driven experience in every aspect of life, we need to transform ourselves to the hassles this amendment is going to bring about. I am obliged to leave as my smart phone threw an important meeting alert, the thing we have to remember is that “Change is the only thing constant in life and we need to equip ourselves to get in terms with it”. Source: Digital Customer Experience

[salesforce-consulting-blog]

Cloud adoption to increase by 50% by 2020

The majority of public cloud deployments are generally used for web servers or development systems where security and compliance requirements of larger organizations and their customers is not an issue. Private cloud computing, on the other hand, by definition is a single-tenant environment where the hardware, storage and network are dedicated to a single client or company. According to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Cloud IT Infrastructure Tracker, total cloud IT infrastructure spending (server, storage, and Ethernet switch) will grow by 26.4% in 2015 and will reach $33.4 billion, accounting for a third of all IT infrastructure spending, up from 28.1% in 2014. Private cloud IT infrastructure spending will grow by 16.8% year over year to $11.7 billion, while public cloud IT infrastructure spending will grow by 32.2% in 2015 to $21.7 billion. In comparison, spending on non-cloud IT infrastructure will remain flat at $67 billion. For the five-year forecast period, IDC expects that cloud IT infrastructure spending will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15.6% and will reach $54.6 billion by 2019 accounting for 46.5% of the total spending on IT infrastructure. At the same time, spending on non-cloud IT infrastructure will decline at a -1.4% CAGR. Spending on public cloud IT infrastructure will grow at a slightly higher rate than spending on private cloud IT infrastructure – at 16.5% vs 14% CAGR. In 2019, IDC expects cloud service providers will spend $35.3 billion on IT infrastructure for delivering public cloud services, while spending on private cloud IT infrastructure will reach $19.2 billion. Almost 70% of business and technology executives in APAC believe that cloud computing will be at least as disruptive to the technology landscape as the impact of virtualization or the internet, according to Coleman Parkes Research’s survey findings. Commissioned by HP, Coleman Parkes’ survey, titled: The Future of Cloud, revealed that senior business and technology executives expect public and private cloud delivery models to increase by 50%. The other key findings of the study include: Currently, only 27% of enterprise delivery models are cloud-based. The top three barriers to cloud services adoption are security concerns (35%), transformation concerns (31%), and compliance or governance concerns (16%). Business and IT executives recognize that cloud implementation will be critical to driving successful outcomes and innovation. About one in two CEOs and CFOs are currently setting cloud strategies for their organizations.

Cloud computing is transforming the enterprise IT security market. Gartner expects 10% of IT enterprise security products to be delivered via the cloud by 2015. The research firm predicts that the cloud-based security services market will surge to US$4.2 billion by 2016. Cloud-based security services are having a particular impact on buying behaviors in segments including secure email and web gateways, remote vulnerability assessment and IdentiCloud boosting profits, helping start-ups start. A majority (56%) of cloud computing adopters believe the technology has helped them improve profits, while nearly nine in 10 report it has helped them save costs. These are among the key the findings of a survey by the University of Manchester’s Business School, commissioned by Rackspace.

Your developers and business leaders are going around you to the public cloud because they value the autonomy, agility, and productivity they get from cloud services, not because it is cheaper. Your private cloud objectives should align to the experience they desire. Can you achieve greater cost efficiencies by operating a private cloud? Yes, private clouds come with a long list of associated benefits (e.g., scalability, cost savings, and developer enablement). However, most of these benefits are not inherent to all cloud deployment types and strategies. Why do enterprises struggle with private cloud? Technology management teams must become a credible cloud services provider and adjust their view of the business to that of a free-market customer. This transition isn’t easy. The natural tendency of internal technology management teams is optimization and cost-saving prioritization rather than using cloud as a new technology to accelerate business success. Before designing your private cloud strategy, Forrester recommends that all tech management leaders familiarize their teams with the following 10 private cloud facts to help set expectations and focus their team’s efforts to maximize private cloud value.

To share more details on your cloud strategy write us at [email protected]

Source: Cloud Application Integration Solutions

[salesforce-consulting-blog]

Comprehensive and smart integration strategy allows companies to unlock the potential value of their cloud investments

Cloud computing is a vision that is increasingly turning to reality for many companies. Enterprises, both small and big, are evaluating cloud computing and, in increasing numbers, are moving their IT infrastructure to the cloud. As a matter of fact 91%1 of IT organizations allocate at least some portion of their budget to the cloud as they continue to focus on service responsiveness and cost flexibility. Depth of deployment has also increased, with more than 33%1 of companies allocating at least 6% of spending to cloud solutions up from just 23% in 2014. Forrester Research predicts that, by the year 2020, enterprises will be investing more than $241 billion in cloud computing each year – that’s six times what they’re spending today. But where does that leave our current investments for information management solutions, our existing relational data stores, data warehouses, business intelligence systems, and business applications that consume data? What impact will cloud have on the world of connecting your data sources? The benefits of cloud computing range from lower data center costs, to significantly reduce environmental impact, to the ability to capture more of the opportunities that markets present through increased agility in resource deployment and dramatically reduced time to market. While the promised benefits of cloud computing can be immense, achieving them requires much more than simply connecting via an adapter to a software-as-a-service (SaaS) offering. These may be useful steps towards moving to a cloud computing blueprint, but on their own do not deliver cloud computing for the whole enterprise and its associated benefits. When embarking on a cloud journey organizations face multiple challenges in data movement and access. Some of the key ones are: • How to move the data in legacy systems to the cloud environment without interrupting business operations? • How to integrate multiple SaaS apps with different standards for analytical or transactional systems • How to ensure timely data movement between cloud and on-premises systems to support business requirements • How to ensure data quality when moving data between on-premises systems and cloud Cloud application integration is growing quickly in importance. Industry experts often cite integration as one of the barriers to adoption of cloud services, especially for apps that need to exchange messages and data. Computerworld’s 2014 survey with IT professionals with public and private cloud experiences revealed an 11% increase in interest in technologies for cloud integration over the previous year. These organizations want to avoid rigid point-to-point connections between cloud-based services and on-premises infrastructure, which often ignore well-established integration principles. Custom interfaces among cloud apps are difficult to maintain and tricky to upgrade when endpoints change. When it comes to enterprise applications and systems of record, synchronization between on-premises and cloud-based apps must be orchestrated in a consistent way. Customers need a simple yet powerful cloud integration platform that includes out of the box adaptors for ERP as well as for cloud apps like Workday, NetSuite, and Salesforce.

Changing Patterns of Information and Integration Integration is changing around the evolving needs of information processing within the enterprise. For instance, what used to be well-structured data in applications, data warehouses, and other more traditional systems has given way to larger unstructured and structured data stores that may exist inside or outside of the enterprise’s firewall. These changes, or, evolutions, are apparent, in terms of their place in enterprise IT. There is no going back to simpler times when the data was structured, took up much less space, and was loaded on traditional servers within the enterprise data center. Those days are long over. Older approaches to data integration, as well as older technology, can no longer provide the value that they once did. IDC predicts that the total volume of enterprise data is expected to grow at the rate of 50% each year. By 2020, IDC predicts that the volume of data will reach around 40 Zettabytes (1 billion terabytes equals 1 Zettabyte). Another important fact about this gigantic amount of data is that 1 90% of it will be unstructured data. The clear reality today is that mass data storage is something that enterprises must manage, along with integration services. This is something that most traditional data integration technologies are ill-prepared to do. At issue is the sheer volume of the data, and thus the ability to effectively process it. Traditional approaches to application and data integration focused on simple extraction of data, and then the transformation of data, in terms of structure, so the data appears to be native to the target. This process was not designed for the massive amount of data that is presently stored and managed. Indeed, this approach to integration won’t be able to keep up with the volume of data that needs to be brought together to obtain the value of the information. It’s not a matter of “if” we’re moving in new directions that will challenge your existing approaches to data integration, it’s “when.” Those who think they can sit on the sidelines and wait for their data integration technology provider to create the solutions they require will be very disappointed. Indeed, the likely case is that your legacy data integrating provider may not have viable technology to take them into the next generation, and thus they may join the world of dead technologies, as enterprise IT progresses too fast for them to keep up. Source: Cloud Application Integration Solutions

[salesforce-consulting-blog]

Reduce costs and risks for Data Migrations

"Migrations represent 60% of all large enterprise IT projects, and only 60% are completed on time," according to IDC. Meanwhile, nearly half of enterprise IT budgets are devoted to operating costs, per a recent research study. Organizations need to accelerate innovation and reduce operating expenses to increase their competitiveness or maintain their current market position. CIOs are under pressure to identify and adopt best practices to lower their IT operating expenses and redirect the savings in support of new investments, initiatives, and IT as a Service. Major drivers of growing data center operating expenses include ongoing power, cooling and labor costs. IT organizations are in a constant flux, handling change management due to storage growth, consolidations, mergers and acquisitions, vendor product life cycles, and interoperability and supportability requirements. For example, most enterprise IT shops have to plan for their storage platforms' end of life and migration before the end of the 4 to 5 years of the storage products' useful lives. The 2 major concerns that organizations face during data migrations are: • The risk of downtime or extended downtime and impact to the business • The budget overrun of the migration project Why migrate your data? Accurate data is the raw material that maximizes the value of enterprise applications. However, when existing data is migrated to a new target application, it can become apparent that it contains inaccuracies, unknowns, and redundant and duplicate material. And although the data in the source system may be perfectly adequate for its current use, it may be wholly inadequate, in terms of content and structure, for the objectives of the target system. Without a sufficient understanding of both source and target, transferring data into a more sophisticated application will amplify the negative impact of any incorrect or irrelevant data, perpetuate any hidden legacy problems, and increase exposure to risk. Key drivers of data complexity? A combination of trends is accelerating the need to manage data migration activity more effectively as part of a corporate data quality strategy: • Corporate growth: Mergers, acquisitions, and restructuring of disparate systems create new data and new datasources. • Compliance: Data must be validated against regulations and standards • Data volume: Escalating amounts of data are increasing the burden of data management. • Data diversity: Introduction of data in new formats—such as RFID, SMS, and e-mail— increases complexity. • Data decay: Data is volatile; customer data typically deteriorates at a rate of 10 percent to 25 percent per year. • Data denial: Organizations are often unaware of their data quality issues and lack the expertise or a senior sponsor to champion decisive action. • Technical advances: Proliferation of new data devices, platforms, and operating systems also contributes to complexity. • Economic factors: With pressure on margins, all corporate data must help organizations. compete more effectively Bodhtree’s data migration services streamline and accelerate your transition from on premise applications, other cloud CRM systems and spreadsheets to Salesforce.com while ensuring you don’t lose valuable time and information in the process. A Few Sample Use Cases Data migration from Salesforce to SQL Server for a leading air conditioning solution provider Bodhtree leveraged Midas to enable seamless data flow between Salesforce.com and their ERP system. We also created a scheduler to extract data in bulk from Salesforce.com and migrate to SQL server. Midas performed cleansing and de-dupe steps before the data was transferred into the ERP system. Data transfer empowered business users with complete insight into their business.  

Migration from Google Docs to Salesforce.com for a renowned global training firm The firm’s primary objective was to use Salesforce.com along with Google Docs for content management. Bodhtree created custom connectors to download documents from Google Docs and upload them into Salesforce.com. Further, we migrated the tags from a CSV file, which resides in a SFTP server. We extracted the tags from SQL server and associated them with uploaded documents in Salesforce.com.

Data migration for a leading university in APAC   Migrated data from PeopleSoft to Salesforce using Midas and custom connectors. The data was captured in PeopleSoft and migrated to web server in CSV format. The solution enables users to transfer CSV files using AES encryption standards to secure content. Additionally, all users and stakeholders are notified about integration milestones via email alerts. Midas archives the CSV file before execution for audit purposes                                                                               .                        

Source: http://bit.ly/1NneeWg

[salesforce-consulting-blog]

Enterprise platforms to support integration requirements

In the enterprise iPaaS market, organizations are adopting a semi outsourced approach to integration, whereby responsibility for integration projects is maintained in-house (or delegated to a trusted system integrator). The implementation, provisioning, operation, monitoring, management and maintenance of the enterprise-grade integration platform are instead delegated to an external service provider delivering the platform as a cloud service. An integration platform in the form of a cloud service that targets enterprise requirements and use cases is indeed an enterprise iPaaS. Gartner estimates that the enterprise iPaaS market expanded notably in 2014, approaching a quarter of a billion dollars and growing over 60% in terms of providers' subscription revenue. However, some providers far exceeded this growth and, in some cases, registered a triple-digit growth rate, thus notably winning market share. However, Gartner estimates that several enterprise iPaaS providers generate less than $10 million from their offerings; some collect higher amounts, but only one exceeds $50 million. iPaas Market Trends As per Gartner iPaaS market is poised to dramatically grow over the next five years because of several factors, including: • The explosion of CSI, MAI, API and IoT requirements • The emergence of the adaptive integration approach and citizen integrators — for whom traditional integration platforms are generally unsuitable • Adoption by SMBs that so far have often been unwilling to embrace integration middleware because of its high cost and complexity, but are now interested in iPaaS offerings due to their low entry cost and ease of use • Entry in the market of megavendors and influential software players that can deploy powerful marketing and sales machines to sustain their iPaaS ambitions This expected growth and increasingly strategic relevance of iPaaS have attracted investments from startup companies, megavendors, established on-premises middleware players, providers of other forms of platform as a service (PaaS), and SaaS players. All the vendors are eager to get their fair share of this new, fast-growing market and, most importantly, to establish control in user organizations' crucially strategic next-generation integration infrastructure. Emergence of hybrid integration platforms As per Gartner report during the next three to five years, this tension will gradually be resolved, because of the emergence of hybrid integration platforms and bimodal approaches that will: • Combine iPaaS and traditional integration middleware characteristics • Enable multiple deployment models • Empower citizen integrator, adaptive and traditional approaches • Support a wide range of business requirements Fast growth of the enterprise iPaaS market, combined with the rapidly expanding penetration of public cloud services in large enterprises, not only appeals to newcomers, but also attracts investments from the traditional integration middleware powerhouses. These vendors see their entry in the enterprise iPaaS market as a way to: • Address SMBs (a segment most of them have neglected) • Cross-sell to their established clientele • Counter the penetration of enterprise iPaaS pure-play providers in large organizations, especially at the LOB/departmental level • Revamp and reinvigorate their integration platform businesses, still primarily based on previous-generation on-premises integration technology and currently characterized by slow (if not negative) growth rates One of the biggest barriers to effective cloud adoption is connecting, synchronizing, and relating data, applications, and processes between cloud and on-premise systems—more than 64 percent of companies indicated they face this challenge today. The added complexity makes it difficult for you to effectively share and use business data throughout your organization. According to Senior Analyst, “enterprises need to undertake integration infrastructure modernization to effectively exploit the quartet of digitalization, mobility, cloud, and IoT for driving business growth. There will be less inertia to a shift toward agile approaches to integration and/or cloud-based integration services, and this will translate into a growing market opportunity for both established and specialized integration vendors.” Source: http://bit.ly/1IVDPRN

[salesforce-consulting-blog]

Improve clinical, operational and financial performance

The United States spends more on health care than any other country in the world, at an estimated 17.7 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2013. U.S. health care spending is outperforming revenue as a percentage of GDP, and is projected to grow by an average of 4.9 percent a year in 2014-18, to 17.9 percent of GDP by 2018. There has been a major transformation in Healthcare due to the new Regulatory laws to ensure patient centric care which focuses on accountability and affordability, increase in quality care and reduce cost. Healthcare organizations are going through a technology and data revolution. Both Health plans and Providers have to look at their data and technology investments in new and innovative ways to gain competitive advantage as well as satisfy regulatory requirements. Patients are leading the way, bearing more of the cost of their own care – and making more care decisions. Patients are no longer satisfied with just meeting with their doctors. Increasingly, they expect to access lab results on their phones soon after leaving the medical center. Technology has long been a valued resource in healthcare, but adoption has been slower than in other industries. Now, more than ever, it is critical to embrace technology, as it has become a must-have tool for transforming patient engagement, enabling personalized medicine, augmenting labor and contributing to better outcomes. The healthcare IT leaders of today are doing more than just talking a good digital game. They are fundamentally changing the way technology is used for care delivery. Healthcare consumers, providers and payers are embracing the transformational power of technology, and it’s paying off in unprecedented efficiency and effectiveness across the care ecosystem. Having said that, it is worthwhile to look at factors that these reports highlight that could be impacting the adoption rate in healthcare analytics today. Healthcare analytics has tremendous potential. The market has been estimated to be over 20 billion by the year 2020 according to industry research firms, and the promise of improved population health, reduced healthcare costs, and patient safety seems very attractive.  A recent survey on healthcare analytics by CDW indicated that over two-thirds of healthcare decision makers considered analytics among their top 3 priorities, with rising costs of healthcare being the biggest motivating factor. The report highlighted that 82 percent of the respondents saw improved patient care, with 63 percent seeing reduced readmission rates. A separate study by HIMSS and Jvion, specifically on the use of predictive models in healthcare, indicated that readmissions, along with sepsis, were the top use cases for predictive modeling. If we look at some of the research findings most healthcare organizations are extensive users of descriptive analytics. They are using reporting tools and applications descriptively to understand what has happened in the past and to classify and categorize historical, usually structured data. The CDW study highlights interoperability between technologies as one of the major factors impacting the adoption of analytics. Interoperability remains one of the healthcare sector’s top technology issues, if not the top one today. There is a whole separate debate under way about the usability of electronic health record (EHR) systems and data errors that I will not go into here, however it may well be that adoption levels for analytics are directly impacted by this issue. Data breaches and data security may be a lesser factor when healthcare enterprises are analyzing their own data within their firewalls, it does become a consideration when data has to be transferred to external environments such as the cloud. The most encouraging finding from these surveys is that analytics, defined in any manner, is a top priority for healthcare today. The coming years promise to be very exciting for professionals committing themselves to this space. Source: http://bit.ly/1UpBfbS

[salesforce-consulting-blog]

Self-Service BI - Empowering business users

Traditional business intelligence (BI) and analytic models are being disrupted as the balance of power shifts from IT to the business, according to Gartner, Inc. The rise of data discovery, access to multistructured data, data preparation tools and smart capabilities will further democratize access to analytics and stress the need for governance. Gartner predicts that by 2017, most business users and analysts in organizations will have access to self-service tools to prepare data for analysis. Last week when I was going through research reports I found some interesting facts that I would like to share in this article. The transformation of Business Intelligence (BI) from an IT-centric, centralized process to a self-service, decentralized process is clear: • According to Gartner, “By 2017, most business users and analysts in organizations will have access to self-service tools to prepare data for analysis” • Forrester’s top prediction for BI is, “Managed BI Self-Service Will Continue to Close the Business and Technology Gap.” • Forbes reported, “Visual data-discovery, an important enabler of end user self-service, will grow 2.5 x faster than the rest of the market, becoming by 2018 a requirement for all enterprises.” What is surprising is the form that self-service BI in the hands of end users will ultimately take. Traditionally, self-service analytics options were based on Data Discovery tools: search, visualizations, dashboards, data mashups, etc. Self-service BI provides an environment in which it is easy to discover, access, and share information, reports, and analytics. Information workers want to be able to personalize their dashboards or have automated BI capabilities so that the information becomes actionable for their particular situations. It must also be in an easy-to-use format and delivered to a device and user interface of their choosing. The efficacy of discovery tools such as interactive visualizations and dashboards has helped to shift the focus of self-service BI from numeric representations to graphic images. 2015 will see the natural progression of this shift from images to data-driven narratives that explicate analytics results. Doing so requires a greater amount of specificity of visualizations and their settings, as well as the inclusion of textual accompaniments of analytics results. Self-service BI offers an environment in which information workers can create and access specific sets of BI reports, queries, and analytics themselves—without IT intervention. This approach extends the reach and scope of BI applications to address a wider range of business needs and problems. At the same time, this extension must support the information workers’ need for a personalized and collaborative decision-making environment. Information workers must become more self-sufficient by having a BI environment that is more usable and more consumable. It is these two themes—usability and consumability—that play crucial roles in a fully functioning self-service BI (SS BI) environment. Self-service BI shifts the emphasis away from the processes required to manage data in a centralized store and toward a process for finding, accessing and integrating pertinent information as needed. With self-service BI, decision makers are better able to respond to changes in business conditions quickly. As per forester report Tableau Software continues to set the standards for self-service advanced data visualization. Self-service and intuitive data visualizations go hand in hand, and Tableau has been the vanguard of advanced data visualization for years. Late last year, Tableau closed a functionality gap with the introduction of an in-memory engine for data discovery and exploration. The new capability gives two important options for business users: the ability to load the entire data set into memory and perform highly responsive data exploration or, if the data set is too big, leave data where it is — in a relational or multidimensional DBMS — and analyze it with Tableau’s patented and intuitive VisualSQL. It reminds me our recent Tableau implementation for a leading insurance company where we helped them eliminate 20% of the legacy reports. Not all integration tools that expedite the data preparation process accompany Business Intelligence offerings; there are a number of standalone options as well. However, 2015 will definitely see the assertion of self-service BI and the gradual receding of centralized, IT department based models. To know more about our analytics practice and share your data needs email us at [email protected] Source: Business Analytics Solutions, Tableau Data Visualization