Big data technology is disrupting almost every industry in the modern economy. Global businesses are projected to spend over $103 billion on big data by 2027. While many industries benefit from the growing use of big data, online businesses are among those most affected.
There are many practical benefits of using big data to grow your online business. You want to educate yourself on the possibilities, so you can make the most of this remarkable new technology.
How Big Data Can Help Your Online Business Maximize Growth Opportunities
Running your own business can be one of the most rewarding career paths anyone can take. However, it doesn’t come without its difficulties. High risk means high reward but there are certain steps you can take that almost guarantee commercial success, particularly when it comes to an online business. Without the outlay costs of rent, utilities, and limited customer base that a physical business has, an online business is a great way to get your company off the ground to reach new heights in a fast, more efficient way.
The good news is that new advances in big data technology can help online entrepreneurs mitigate the challenges their companies will face, while also gaining the most of new opportunities that come their way. We’ve put together some ideas to help you along the way so that you can grow your business with big data. You can check them out below!
1. Build the Perfect Website
Your website will be the foundation for your triumph so making it great from the outset is essential. Hiring a professional is a good option, however, they don’t come cheap so unless you have a solid amount of seed money it’s not always possible. The good news is, you can create your own website online, using tools that can mean you can bring your vision to life. Look for free builders with drag and drop editors that will make the process easier without needing to understand how to code.
Big data has made it easier than ever to create excellent websites. Companies can use big data to better anticipate user needs and improve the user experience, automate updates, setup analytics systems to monitor traffic and test new landing pages more efficiently.
You should focus on the user experience, as well as the aesthetic. Since big data makes the process more efficient, it should be easy to do both. It’s all well and good having a beautiful website but if it’s not easy to use then customers and clients will be turned off and won’t use your services.
2. Establish your Audience
Part of identifying your brand is understanding who your audience is. You need to figure out who your product or service most appeals to and who you had in mind when creating it. Your key demographic will likely have a particular need for what you are offering and so you need to market your business in a way that caters to that particular group. Think TikTok marketing for the Y2K generation, or LinkedIn messaging if your services are business to business. Knowing who your audience is will make it much easier to develop and deepen your brand’s strength in your marketplace. The best way to do this is by generating a buyer persona or a model of your typical customer or client which helps you establish a clear way of promoting your services to the right people.
Data analytics has made it easier to identify the best audience for your online business. Tools like Quantcast use complex data analytics capabilities that to help companies get a better understanding of their target demographics. Advertising platforms like Facebook Ads also have sophisticated audience analytics features that help companies learn more about their target customer.
3. Use Analytics to Identify Points of Differentiation for Your Brand
With Google at our fingertips, it is easy to find yourself lost in such a saturated market. Even if your products or offerings aren’t particularly unique your brand should be. You need to make yourself stand out from the crowd with your content, logo, aesthetic, and message. Do your research and find out how you can make yourself appeal to the wider masses.
You want to take advantage of analytics to learn more about the pain points of your customers. You can use data mining tools to evaluate feedback from customer surveys and other resources that will help you get a better understanding of their expectations. You can also use your own data analytics dashboards to see what customers are telling you. This will help your company build a brand that aligns with their needs.
4. Use Data Analytics to Optimize Your Social Media Strategy
Social media is a powerful tool that will help you get your name out there for free. Set up business accounts on the appropriate channels and make sure you upload regular content. Build your follower count by creating content that is in line with current trends such as popular Instagram Reel audio clips or challenges. Of course, if your business is corporate you don’t want to come across as gimmicky, but never underestimate the power of viral trends that could send your profiles into the stratosphere. If you have products. Send them free of charge to influencers to review in exchange for promotion or ads. LinkedIn is a fantastic way to network with your target audience as you can have a huge reach right from your living room or home office. If you create a physical handmade product, film a short video about your creation process, or shoot a short piece of content about a day in your life as you’re working.
While social media marketing can be very beneficial, it won’t have a good ROI if you aren’t making informed decisions when creating content and optimizing your profiles. You want to use data analytics to monitor engagement on your social media profiles to make the most of your marketing strategy.
5. Use Data Mining to Hone Your Content Creation Skills
While you can pay for Google Ads on a Pay Per Click (PPC) basis, the best way to push your website up the ranks is by creating organic content that includes plenty of keywords that are Search Engine Optimised (SEO) appropriate. add a blog to your website and fill it with multiple blogs between 500 and 1000 words. Choose your topics carefully so that they relate to your business offering and think about the questions people may have about you and what you do. For example, if you run a corporate training company, write a piece of content about the importance of leadership. If you’re not a skilled writer, you can employ freelance writers from places like Upwork and Freelancer for a relatively low price.
If you want to create content yourself, then data mining can help immensely. You will be able to use data mining tools to do more efficient research, which will help create higher quality content. There are other data-driven content marketing ideas worth exploring as well.
6. Create Webinars
If you sell a service rather than a physical product, a free webinar is a fantastic way of reaching out to potential clients and showcasing a snippet of your work. Use video conferencing tools such as Zoom or Teams to speak directly with viewers and run workshops to give them a little taste of what you have to offer. They’ll be so impressed you’ll be leaving them wanting more.
7. Find A Mentor
Every good business leader has got to where they are with some help. Attend networking events that relate to your field and get to know people who are already running successful online businesses. Establish a relationship with them and ask them if they’d consider becoming your mentor. They will be able to guide you through your journey of business growth and help you avoid mistakes that they have already made while building their success.
8. Check Your Metrics
There is no point in creating a fantastic website if you fail to measure its success. Checking your metrics will enable you to see at which point during your potential client or customer’s journey you may have lost the sale. If you use email marketing, you can discover how many clicks you received and compare them to how many sales you made. If you’re not making as much money as you would like, you can use your data to see at which stage in the sales process you may be going wrong and then you will be able to fix it.
Data analytics tools can help you monitor these metrics much more easily. Google Analytics and Crazy Egg are among the best analytics tools. They can help online businesses make the most informed decisions.
Which of these tips will you be trying to help grow your online business into a success? Share in the comments!
Are you interested in a career in data science? This is the best time ever to pursue this career track. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that there are over 105,000 data scientists in the United States. The average data scientist earns over $108,000 a year.
The interdisciplinary field of data science involves using processes, algorithms, and systems to extract knowledge and insights from both structured and unstructured data and then applying the knowledge gained from that data across a wide range of applications.
While much data science work is starting to become automated, there is still a high demand for data science professionals. There are a lot of great reasons to consider a career track in data science, but you have to know what paths are available. Experts in data science are needed in all kinds of industries, from companies developing dating apps to government security.
Businesses and organizations of all kinds rely on big data to find solutions to problems and provide better services, so there are lots of different types of careers you could pursue with a degree in data science.
If you are planning on getting a data science degree, here are nine careers that you could consider after graduation.
1. Data Scientist
Armed with a Master of Data Science, which you can study either online or at a traditional educational establishment, you could pursue a career as a data scientist.
In the role, you would find, clean, and organize data on behalf of an organization.
You would need to have the skills to analyze large amounts of complex data and find patterns that would benefit the business or organization you work for. The organization can then come up with effective and strategic decisions.
2. Data Engineer
In this role, you would perform batch processing or real-time processing on data that has been collected and stored. As a data engineer, you could also build and maintain data pipelines that create an interconnected data ecosystem that makes information available to data scientists.
3. Machine Learning Engineer
As a machine learning engineer, you would create data funnels and deliver software solutions. To work in this field, you will need strong programming and statistics skills and excellent knowledge of software engineering.
As well as designing and building machine learning systems, you could be responsible for running tests and monitoring the functionality and performance of systems.
The typical duties and responsibilities of a data architect include ensuring data solutions are built for design analytics and performance across numerous platforms.
The role could also involve finding ways to improve the functionality and performance of existing systems and providing access to database analysts and administrators.
5. Machine Learning Scientist
Working as a machine learning scientist, you would research new data approaches and algorithms that can be used in adaptive systems, utilizing supervised, unsupervised, and deep learning methods.
6. Business Intelligence Developer
A career in business intelligence development would involve designing and developing strategies that can assist users in quickly finding relevant information that can help them make better business decisions.
You will need to have a broad range of data expertise to work as a business intelligence developer.
7. Data Analyst
You would transform and manipulate large data sets to meet the desired analysis for businesses, working as a data analyst.
Your duties and responsibilities could include tracking web analytics, analyzing A/B testing, and preparing reports for organizational leaders that effectively communicate the insights and trends found from your analysis.
8. Enterprise Architect
The main duty of an enterprise architect is to align an organization’s strategy with the right technology to execute the required objectives.
That means enterprise architects must have a full understanding of the specific businesses they work for in order to design the systems architecture that meets those needs.
9. Applications Architect
As an applications architect, you would track the behavior of applications that are used within a business or organization and discover how those applications interact with each other and how users interact with them.
You would also focus on designing the architecture of applications, which would include building elements like the infrastructure and user interface.
Did you know that companies around the world spent over $641 billion on AI last year? One of the industries that is driving demand for AI is the design profession.
Artificial intelligence technology is profoundly changing the trajectory of the design profession. More designers are using AI to improve the quality of their designs and streamline the design process.
Some of the ways that designers take advantage of AI technology include:
Selecting the subject of a photo when the designer wants to remove a background or alter the subjectChoosing an appropriate color when modifying a photo in some way (such as colorizing a black and white photo)Adding interesting effects, such as pixelating a photo
AI technology is a breaking technology that is forever changing the design field. There are a lot of great reasons designers will leverage AI to improve their work.
AI is changing the game across all facets of the design profession. Both product and UX designers can find ways to take advantage of it.
Often used interchangeably, Product Designers and User Experience (UX) Designers roles might seem broadly similar. However, in reality, a Product Designer and a UX Designer are quite different. A comparative analysis between the two suggests that these digital product design roles can be confusing to people as they both focus on product development and follow the design thinking process for problem-solving.
However, despite the differences between the two professions, they both have discovered the wonders of using AI to improve the quality of their designs. We will give you a broad overview of the two disciplines, before delving into the applications of AI.
So, the question is – how is a Product Designer different from a UX Designer?
To begin with, Product Designers and UX Designers both play crucial roles in how technology or products are used on a daily basis. But they both serve different purposes. Product Designers are the ones responsible for ideating and thinking through each step of the product creation process. On the other hand, UX Designers are the ones in charge of how users interact with the product once it is introduced to them.
In other words, Product Designers and UX Designers focus on two entirely different areas in product development. Though there are some overlapping roles when it comes to both jobs, on paper, their roles are often interchangeable.
But had they been the same, they would not have been named different!
Let’s jump into a comparative analysis to figure out how a Product Designer differs from a UX Designer, and to what way do their roles overlap.
Who is a Product Designer?
A Product Designer is a full-stack designer who does UX, UI, coding, project management, and of course, problem-solving (most importantly). A Product Designer ideates and designs solutions to critical issues and problems that are found in the initial process of product development.
To solve these issues, product designers facilitate solutions, create multiple test plans, produce wireframes, and make rounds of A/B testing.
Product Designers also support developers during the launch process as well as work with marketing teams to offer a synergy between the brand and the product.
Product Designers have been around longer than UX Designers and are often considered the guardians of the product, since they are responsible for relevant, cost-effective, and functional products.
Who is a UX Designer?
A UX Designer is the one who focus on user satisfaction for a particular product. They keep in mind user interaction as the prime concern and work on the design accordingly. They also ensure that there is a consistent improvement in the usability and accessibility of the product.
A UX Designer takes control of the full scope of the design thinking procedure – right from research to ideation and keeps focus on user satisfaction. In other words, they are responsible for ensuring that the product created is optimized exclusively for the user.
Product Designer Vs UX Designer: Similarities!
Well, of course – there are indeed some similarities between Product Designers and UX Designers. Both of them are responsible for the design thinking process and consider human-centered approach in designing.
In fact, both of them use the same wireframing tools like Balsamiq and Sketch during the design process, as well as user mapping software like Lucid Chart and Overflow.
But, what are their differences?
Product Designers and UX Designers majorly differ in the way they ask questions! A UX Designer would ask if the product is easy to use, while the Product Designer would ask if the product adds to any sense in the current economy.
A UX Designer is concerned if the product is user-friendly. And a Product Designer is focused on making it cost-effective.
In other words, their priorities are different, and hence their roles are different.
Additionally, for obvious reasons, their skillsets and pay scales also differ. And so are their strategies and team focus.
How Does AI Technology Affect Product and UX Designers?
There are a lot of ways that product designers are using AI technology. One of the biggest benefits is that they can use machine learning to create digital twins. In essence, this means that they can replicate a product in an AI-driven ecosystem. They can see how a product would operate in a theoretical scenario. They can also use AI for predictive maintenance and to optimize the assembly process.
How UX Designers Use AI
There are just as many benefits of using AI in UX design. UX designers can anticipate how customers will respond to many visual elements based on past customer engagement data. They can also use AI to ensure the website runs smoothly by optimizing loading times and other factors. There are some misconceptions about AI-driven design, but it is very effective nonetheless.
Read here to know further about how a Product Designer and a UX Designer are different (or similar).
Cloud technology is becoming an increasingly important part of modern business. Global companies are projected to spend around $495 billion on cloud services this year. One of the biggest reasons cloud technology is becoming important is that it is helping companies make e-procurement possible.
Cloud Automation Helps
Many offices have started taking their business practices remote and operating online. This new trend means these offices now work from remote locations. This is all made possible with cloud technology. Employees also work from home or other remote locations but stay in touch with the team through online means.
Many companies have started sourcing online. This is the key to the successful management of any organization through remote mode. Many recent breakthroughs in cloud automation have made it possible. This process is also called e-procurement.
Cloud automation helps firms procure to pay for various goods and services that they buy online. Companies can invest in specialized cloud software that provides essential data that helps give them real-time access to suppliers, electronic invoices, and other information. The process is prompt and transparent. You can easily use these cloud solutions to get in touch with new suppliers through this process.
Here are some of the advantages that every firm should leverage through the process of using cloud technology to implement an e-procurement system.
Meticulous Implementation of Procurement Strategy
E-procurement is all about automated document management. It relies on cloud technology to handle everything from selecting suppliers, signing contracts, and furnishing them with new orders. It enhances the overall execution speed of the business with the help of timely decisions.
At the same time, through cloud automation, you can avoid unnecessary business interruptions and costly errors. The use of such software facilitates many important processes and helps companies make easy comparisons between supplier prices and terms and conditions. Since information on suppliers is usually readily available in the cloud, they can tap this data and make timely decisions.
Leverage the Potential of Diversification
As a growing business, you should have a diversified supplier base. It makes your procurement process more transparent and smooth. You also get a competitive advantage with the help of diversification. When you have a diversified base of suppliers, you can easily procure goods and products at their best-buy rate.
This arguably one of the most important benefits of cloud technology in the modern economy. The cloud helps expedite the procurement process at your firm. E-procurement is the only process, which helps the production and logistic process run even in times of international health emergency-like situations such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
ROI-Driven Concept
E-procurement technology gives you an opportunity to enhance your ROI. All you have to do is use cloud solutions to implement online sourcing in your business and see how the automation process reduces plenty of risks associated with the manual procurement process.
Through the use of e-procurement, you will have greater control over your accounts, finance, cash flow, and business-related data. Collectively, these will help you improve the productivity of your business while giving you more insight into business forecasting and budgeting.
Some of the relevant concepts that come under e-procurement include e-ordering, e-sourcing, and e-bidding. Each of them directly helps in saving your money while improving your ROI and profitability.
In Conclusion
Cloud technology is at the heart of modern e-procurement practices. Online sourcing or e-procurement helps firms furnish their order or request through a transparent and secured online platform. The owner and purchase manager can easily analyze various suppliers’ quotations and prices to finalize one of them. All of this data can easily be stored on the cloud, so the process can be handled very quickly.
Everything happens in real-time and such decisions are implemented within a few hours instead of weeks. This is one of the wonders of cloud technology. You can get some better insights by studying case studies of companies that have benefited with cloud computing. Thus, it improves the productivity of firms and lets the production process move smoothly without any interruption.
E-procurement also gives you significant business-related insights, which will help you improve the quality of your business or services in the long run.
Data breaches are becoming more common than ever. The International Association of Privacy Professionals reports that there were 1,862 data breaches in 2021 alone. This figure is growing by the year.
Organizations must make data security a top priority. Those that do not risk bankruptcy, as the costs of data breaches are horrifying.
Rising Data Breaches Have Made Greater Data Security a Necessity
Data is often dubbed as a digital gold in the modern era. No organization or business can function without processing relevant data. Additionally, in many countries, corporations are legally obliged to maintain certain data security standards to ensure that their employees’ and consumers’ data are safe.
Additionally, when we classify the data that these corporations hold, we find that some of them are so sensitive that they are central to the operation. Therefore, data security has become the need of the hour. With the evolution of digital technology, cybercrime has also evolved.
Hackers have advanced tools and equipment to get into the company servers and extract crucial information. Such information is openly traded in the black market leading to a huge loss of profit. In this article, we will try to decipher the reasons behind organizations’ newfound obsession with data security.
A cyber-attack can hurt your company’s image in the market. Today, it is crucial for businesses to have an online presence, which means they collect tons of consumer data. Therefore, loss of data due to a cyber-attack would mean that your company does not value its consumers’ privacy and does not implement the necessary steps to ensure data protection.
Usually, we find that the majority of cyber-attack victims are small businesses that are complacent with their data security measures. Small companies tend to think they are not under the radar, so they can’t be the target of cybercrimes, which is not true. Cybercriminals attack small corporations because it is easier to gain access to all the sensitive information.
Moreover, it is hard for such businesses to recover from the financial loss due to cyber-attacks. However, we are not implying here that large corporations with enough funds at their disposal are safe. Even if you have a cushion in place to recover from financial loss due to cyberattacks, why waste your resources? Also, we cannot forget the social implications of a data breach in the modern world.
Data is a crucial company asset
As stated earlier, data is the digital gold in the modern era. Your business’s success or failure depends on your collection and processing of relevant data. Companies use data to develop their marketing and pricing models and gain access to a larger consumer base. As the threat of data breaches grows, companies must raise the bar with their data security measures.
Moreover, companies that interact with consumers directly rely on their data to provide them with better services and products. Additionally, a lot of sensitive business information is exchanged digitally.
Such information includes financial data, quarterly reports, upcoming business strategies, marketing strategies, etc. A well-established corporation would not want such data to fall into the hands of its competitors. A leak of such data could result in irreparable losses.
Other crucial company information includes risk mitigation procedures, revenue optimization, etc. Needless to say, a company relies on such data for its present and future performance. Therefore, it is safe to say that data is a crucial company asset.
To avoid unnecessary expenditures
A company’s success is based on the principle of profit maximization. So, it is the goal of every business to improve the margin on their products and services. Margin expansion is not always done by selling more goods and services and market infiltration.
A business also needs to bring down its operations costs to improve the annual net profits. Data loss could cost a company a fortune, especially when we focus on the fact that data loss will hurt the company’s image.
Employee and consumer confidential information is the responsibility of the company. Any loss of such data to stunt the growth of an organization in the future. Therefore, it is crucial to invest in robust data security posture management solutions.
Hackers are one step ahead of you
Many companies hire a dedicated cyber security team to ensure that they align with government regulations and compliances. However, it has been observed that cyber security teams are often helpless if they do not have proper infrastructural support.
Today, hackers have automated the attack mechanisms. They use bots to constantly attack a system. These bots gain access to the system the moment the cyber security team falls short of action.
Also, the bots are also used to create a diversion so that access to other sensitive information could be gained. Seeing how the hackers have evolved with the technology, it is only fitting to invest in data security solutions irrespective of the size of the company.
The company’s reputation is at stake
We have constantly emphasized the importance of company image. When a consumer interacts with an organization’s portal, he furnishes sensitive information such as personal and financial details. That is to say — the consumer trusts the corporations to take good care of his data. This trust is important if an organization wants to have a stable business. Now, a reputable organization would not sell its consumers’ data for some short-term gain.
However, a data leak is bound to put the company into the spotlight, which is not good for its reputation. A data breach has the potential to adversely affect a company’s future. We cannot assign a monetary value to a reputation that takes years to build. Therefore, it is crucial to have a proper data security solution in place.
Data integrity is important
Data integrity refers to the originality of data. If data is compromised, it can lead to some variations from the original, which is not good for business operations.
Data security solutions ensure the consolidation of data on a centralized server, which ensures proper protection and easy accessibility.
Machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) have certainly come a long way in recent times. Towards Data Science published an article on some of the biggest developments in machine learning over the past century. One of the most remarkable changes has been the Named Entity Recognition tool, which can differentiate between the capitalization rules of German and English.
A number of new applications are making machine learning technology more robust than ever. Not only are these applications capable of processing vast amounts of data per second, but they enjoy many practical applications. These have likewise impacted the average consumer as well as the business community. One extremely innovative and far-reaching advancement can be seen in the form of an annotation tool platform (such as that which is offered by Kili Technology). As the majority of readers might not be familiar with this concept, it warrants a closer look.
What is the relation of data and image annotation to machine learning? What are its primary applications and what specific benefits does this approach have to offer? Let us examine each of these questions in greater detail immediately below.
Data Labeling and Annotation at a Glance
As the term may already suggest, this type of data annotation involves the process of assigning a value to specific portions of a piece of data. It is a great way to use data for quality control purposes. These metrics are then used to aid machine learning processes. In other words, the system in question is able to better understand what it is being presented with. Note that annotation can interpret various file types. These include (but are not necessarily limited to):
ImagesAudio filesVideosTextPDF documents
There are several ways in which this labeling can be performed. In-house methods through the use of proprietary software systems may be used. Automatic scripts could also be used (although these normally require additional human intervention). Alternatively, data annotation can be outsourced to trust third-party platforms.
What Advantages Does this Technique Offer?
There are several reasons why data annotation is becoming commonplace. As this article observes, some primary benefits include:
Data labeling allows machine learning systems to be better trained, and therefore more efficientAccurate data helps to “train” algorithms, ensuring greater degrees of precision in the future.Cutting-edge annotation packages drastically reduce the amount of human intervention required. This helps to streamline many processes.
We can therefore see that data annotation is capable of reducing the costs associated with past techniques that would have required manual intervention.
A Host of Interesting Applications
We have already taken a decidedly abstract look at data annotation. It is now prudent to examine some of its numerous real-world applications. Perhaps the most prominent involves business automation. As many CRM (customer relationship management) systems now rely upon artificial intelligence, accurate data and image labeling make it much easier to identify important documents and files. However, the benefits are not limited to the business community. Labeling and annotation services can be used to recognize specific images (such as the license plate of a vehicle or even individual faces). These are some of the more tangible applications.
While data annotation will often occur “behind the scenes”, its impacts upon AI and machine learning cannot be denied. It will therefore be quite interesting to see what the future may have in store.
Make the Most of Data Annotations
Data technology is changing significantly significantly. One of the biggest trends has been in the realm of data annotations. Companies need to know how annotations work and how to use them.
Analytics technology has shaped many aspects of modern business. According to a report we cited last year, 67% of businesses with revenues exceeding $10,000 a year use data analytics. One of the most important reasons companies are investing in analytics technology is to improve their understanding of their customers.
However, now all customer analytics technology is created equal. Some tools do an exceptional job understanding the mindset of customers as they make decisions, while others struggle to get more meaningful insights.
One of the better customer analytics tools on the market is CCAAS. This platform makes it easier for companies to communicate with their customers. This, in turn, allows them to aggregate data on their customers and use it for future decisions. What is this platform and how can it help companies understand their customers?
What is CCAAS and How Does it Work
Any firm must now prioritize customer experience. Even with the best features and prices, you won’t engage your audience without engaging experiences. Here comes the call center. Contact centers are the hub of company-customer interactions. Traditional contact centers may not be as effective as they previously were. They must use reliable customer analytics tools to better understand their customer behavior and optimize the buying process. In addition to analytics tools, they must use contact management services to make it easier to accumulate data.
A typical contact center as a service makes it tough to evolve quickly as your marketplace and customers’ needs change. Growing companies can be hampered by cumbersome, expensive equipment. CCaaS cloud-based contact centers ease rapid transition. Let’s understand in this article what is ccaas.
What’s and How’s of CCAAS?
Contact Center as a Service is referred to as CCaaS. This is a cloud-based solution for offering all of a company’s contact center software without complex infrastructure or provisioning. CCaaS systems are frequently intended to operate with your existing technology and external devices for remote workers.
CCaaS technology also provides all necessary tools for any contact center, such as call routing, recording, and management systems. However, it allows you to expand your functionality and even add more personnel to your contact center whenever you want.
This may imply gaining access to:
Call analytics and customer experience trackingCall recording and management systemsArtificial intelligence and virtual assistantsIntelligent IVR and call routingCRM connectors and other essential add-onsWorkforce management and optimization
While CCAAS is not an analytics tool itself, it is necessary for companies trying to create a sufficient customer analytics platform. By making it easier to stay in touch with customers, companies can easily build a repository of data on them.
What is the evolution of CCaaS technology?
Contact centers were previously constructed on software platforms hosted and maintained on-premises. These systems necessitated significant human capital investment as well as ongoing maintenance costs.
Early CCaaS solutions allowed contact center agents to access systems using a web browser, which decreased maintenance expenses while increasing scalability and flexibility. These systems are based on Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology, enabling internet-based calls to traditional phone numbers. However, there were other limitations, including the systems’ inability to interact with some third-party programmes, slow-release upgrades, and lengthy development cycles.
Advantages of CCaaS for Customer Analytics
You have a better understanding of what CCaaS is now. But what are the benefits for companies trying to use it to improve their customer analytics platform?
As the cloud technology that enables CCaaS continues to grow, so do the experiences that organizations can create in this environment. Leading industry suppliers are developing new technologies that are more intuitive and informative than ever before to improve both user and the customer experience in the cloud.
In some cases, providers are merging other cloud-based as-a-service technologies to provide a more comprehensive single-pane-of-glass environment for the contact center. Among the most appealing CCaaS developments right now are:
The entire aaS environment:
Contact Center as a Service is a solution that is increasingly being offered as an add-on to the UCaaS (Unified Communications as a Service) environment by business leaders. As businesses strive to reduce the number of tools that employees must switch between to be productive, we can expect to see an increase in configurable as-a-service stacks, aided by technology such as CPaaS and APIs for more modular control.
Workforce Optimization and Management:
Workforce optimization and management tools are becoming more popular as business leaders investigate remote and distant working possibilities. WFM and WFO technology integrated into the contact center provides a complete picture of how all teams are performing, whether they are inside or outside the office. These tools can also facilitate gamification, using scoreboards and leaderboards to keep team members engaged.
Analytics and customer journey mapping:
Analytics have the potential to be an interesting new addition to the contact center experience. As businesses continue to collect massive volumes of data through omnichannel engagements in the cloud, analytics tools will provide important insights. These insights could help determine clients’ distinct processes when completing a purchase from your company. Analytics enables organizations to trace client journeys and offer better experiences from beginning to end.
AI and Virtual Assistants: We’re still far from artificial intelligence replacing human contact center agents. However, in the CCaaS environment, corporate leaders can use AI technology to empower their workforce. Speech recognition services, for example, can track the sentiment of a voice and identify when an agent requires additional assistance. AI can also track trending inquiries or use speech biometrics to surface helpful information agents need to contextualize a discussion. Increased security: The introduction of new biometrics and speech recognition technology may open the door to new techniques of contact center security. Toll fraud and other similar issues have long plagued the call center industry. Business executives might limit the danger of letting the wrong persons access critical consumer information by using unique voice fingerprints and other analytical tools.
CCaaS Vendors
The great majority of current CCaaS vendors are communication firms that seek to give their customers the ideal combination of internal and external communication alternatives. More manufacturers and service providers are beginning to incorporate CCaaS into their offerings as part of a comprehensive cloud-based portfolio.
Remember to check for the following characteristics in a CCaaS vendor:
Migration assistance: If you’re transitioning from an on-premise contact center to a cloud solution, you’ll need a vendor to make the transition as easy as possible. Look for a company that can give a phased approach if necessary and hybrid technology and software that works on any endpoint. Flexible provisioning: The best cloud-based contact center environment for you will be determined by your business and the type of experience you want to provide to your audience. There is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all solution, so ensure that your vendor offers the best plan for you. This could include considering hosted solutions, multi-tenancy, and other options. Reliability: Keep in mind that your contact center is at the heart of your customer experience strategy. You must ensure that it will continue to function correctly regardless of what happens. Any growing firm must look for a vendor with high guaranteed uptime and a commitment to robust reliability and redundancy.
Why do I require CCaaS?
The global cloud-based contact center market is expected to be worth $20.93 billion by 2022. That implies several opportunities for both existing vendors and new players entering the CCaaS industry. As the market demand for cloud contact centers to maintain business continuity and growth grows, there will be a plethora of CCaaS companies to select from.
Our CCaaS evaluations can help you learn about the features and benefits of some of the most popular systems on the market today. We’ll walk you through the industry’s top performers so you can make a better-informed decision for your team.
Feature set:
A modern CCaaS infrastructure is more than call management. You may also need to think about a variety of different disruptive qualities.
Security:
All contact center systems require appropriate security measures. Some businesses will provide encryption for all of your communications and discussions. However, you’ll also need to consider where the information collected in your contact center is maintained and how you’ll stay in compliance with your industry’s requirements. You might also look into technologies for combating toll fraud and reducing data breaches
Integrations:
Integrations are vital in making the modern contact center more appealing and versatile. Your contact center may require integration with your collaboration tools or your existing UC stack. The more everything works together, the easier it will be to keep track of all your devices and preserve labor productivity. A contact center that interfaces with your CRM is a fantastic starting point.
CCaaS is Vital for Companies Trying to Create a Customer Analytics Platform
A number of new technological developments are helping improve customer analytics technology. CCaaS is among them.
By 2022, the worldwide cloud contact center industry is expected to be worth $20,93 billion. That implies that there’s a lot of opportunities out there for both incumbent vendors and new players entering the CCaaS industry. As the demand for cloud contact centers to maintain business continuity and growth rises, you’ll have a number of CCaaS vendors to choose from.
FAQs
What is CCaaS in cloud computing?
CCaaS refers to a Contact Centre as a Service. This is a cloud-based method for supplying all the software that a firm needs for its contact center, without the need for complex hardware or provisioning.
In what ways does a call center hosted in the cloud operate effectively?
A provider owns and operates contact center technology as part of a network-based service called cloud-based call centers. Thereby giving its services remotely to businesses on a subscription model. Cloud-based call centers are presenting an innovative solution to handle the challenges of your business.
What’s the difference between UCaaS with CCaaS?
UCaaS connects an organization’s employees to one another, whereas CCaaS connects customer support and sales agents to the company’s clients. UCaaS can be used to replace existing private branch exchange phone systems, as it provides more channels than only cloud calling for businesses.
Is it profitable to run a call center?
According to firstresearch.com, US call centers bring in a total of around $21 billion yearly, with an average revenue of $4 million. To get an exact estimate, you’ll need to know how much each contract is worth, but once you’ve landed several high-profile customers, you can expect to start making money.
How much does a call center owner earn?
Senior Call Center Executives make an average of 2.4 lakhs per year and are paid on par with mid-career executives who have 4-9 years of experience, earning an average of 2.2 lakhs per year.
Small businesses are facing more challenges than ever. The recent economic crisis is not showing any signs of abating any time soon. Fortunately, companies can use big data to optimize their business models.
One of the most important ways for brands to improve their profitability with data analytics is through conversion rate optimization. They can use data to get a better understanding of their customers and future trends, which will help them create the best offers and reach the most interested buyers.
Data Analytics is Invaluable for Companies Trying to Improve their Conversions
Big brands always had and will tend to overshadow local businesses. Companies like Amazon and Walmart dominating the e-commerce and land-based business territories is a classic example of it. But, does it have to mean you, as an owner of a local business, don’t have any resort for continuing and thriving your venture?
Indeed, there’s one. The good news is that data analytics technology can help level the playing field. The ROI of data-driven initiatives is very high, which helps companies improve their profitability.
The most effective way to rejuvenate your local business is by strengthening your lead generation endeavor, Data analytics technology can help in the following ways:
You can use data from CRMs, social media and other sources to better understand customer needs. This will help you create more targeted offers to entice new leads.You can procure data from analytics tools to optimize your landing pages to maximize conversions.You can use data analytics dashboards on your digital advertising platforms to focus on the best converting traffic, such as the PPC keywords that drive the most sales.
Paying close attention to the right metrics in Google Analytics can help a lot. Various digital marketing strategies would give you with the option of positioning your brand on a global plane. But, the approach we will discuss in the following section is more focused on your targeted market and is helpful in receiving high-impact leads. You can use data analytics to make the following strategies more effective.
1. Use Data Mining to Find the Best Strategies for Local SEO
Search Engine Optimization is a method of acquiring higher ranks in search results of engines like Google. A higher ranking means more visitors to your website, resulting in more leads. However, local SEO is much different than its global counterpart. In this case, search engines find appropriate results from social profile pages, citations, local content, and links.
To ensure your local SEO efforts, you need to check whether your web presence’s internal linking is well-structured, mobile-friendliness, rate of social media engagement and other factors.
There are two very important ways to use data analytics to get the most of your local SEO strategy. You can use data mining tools to find the best keywords to target. Tools like SEMRush and Ahrefs also have data analytics tools to help you reverse engineer your competitors’ linkbuilding strategies by analyzing their link profiles.
2. Positioning Localized Lead Magnet
A lead magnet is a sort of incentive that can acquire the contact information of prospective leads. Now, when it’s considered one of the most effective ways of generating quality leads, it won’t come to your benefit if the lead magnet isn’t localized. It means you won’t be able to convert leads residing in the UK if your business is based somewhere like Dallas-Fort Worth. Hence, when creating a generic lead magnet, it is important to stay focused on the very local market you are interested in.
An outsourcing agency like Pearl Lemon Leads is capable of feeding your business with convertible leads with their well-devised lead-generating campaigns. Therefore, local businesses tend to outsource their lead generation Dallas-Fort Worth to such agencies.
If you want to create your own lead magnets, data analytics can help. Many people want to download spreadsheets or reports that have useful data, such as keywords for their own marketing campaigns. You can use data analytics tools to create these reports.
3. Use AI to Promote a Local Giveaway Program or Contests
Running a contest in your area and offering prizes to winners is considered one of the most effective utensils for lead generation for businesses. It might seem fairly similar to lead magnets, as both of these measures give valid reasons to people for sharing their contact information. However, they become competitive to win a prize they want to have in this case. Always ensure to give prizes related to the products or services your business offers in this case.
You can use AI technology to help promote your giveaway. You will be able to streamline promotional messages on social media through tools like Hootsuite.
4. Use Data Analytics to Optimize Your Landing Pages
Keeping a form on your business website’s landing page is very important for lead generation. Therefore, you should make necessary changes to keep a form asking for visitors’ contact information on your website.
Regardless, as you know, nothing is available for free. Therefore, accumulating leads from your website form will also require you to offer something to visitors in exchange. For it, you can give away webinars, eBooks, whitepapers, and more.
Artificial intelligence technology is becoming more important with each passing day. Companies in every industry from finance to manufacturing to hospitality are investing in AI to improve their business models. Companies around the world are projected to spend nearly $1.6 trillion on AI by 2030, as they discover the countless benefits it offers.
Software developers are taking advantage of the sudden booming market for AI. They are creating a number of AI applications that are specialized to serve a number of different purposes.
Agile technology has been a very important part of the software development process. AI has helped create SCRUM teams to improve Agile development, but the same technology has in turn helped create new AI applications as well.
If you are an AI software developer, you are going to want to understand the best practices for using Agile to streamline the process. Keep reading to learn more.
Guidelines on Using Agile to Create AI Applications
Agile software development combines flexibility with speed. It’s about delivering projects and bringing apps to life to provide customers with quick but consistent results. Development teams might focus on one project or app at a time. However, these groups do it with a heavy emphasis on collaboration, cross-functional skill sets, and customer-centric mindsets.
The versatility and flexibility of Agile practices make them ideal for creating AI applications. Carlo Appugliese of IBM has a great guide on creating great AI projects with Agile. Appugliese says the launch of an Agile team is the first initial sprint needed to create a great AI application.
However, using Agile to create an AI project won’t be easy. You need to assemble the right team and make sure the right processes are in place.
As a leader of an agile development team, your job is to reinforce and facilitate their work. The unique structure and approach your group uses to get things done also demands a distinctive leadership methodology. You won’t be able to create quality AI programs without
This article outlines three ways to effectively support an agile team.
1. Implement Your Chosen Agile Methodology With Intention
By definition, an agile software development team uses an agile development methodology to define and shape its workflows. You can choose between the Lean, Kanban, and Scrum approach, among others. One of the most popular agile methodologies is Scrum, and for good reason. It breaks down the group’s tasks into sprints, letting them focus on completing chunks of a project at a time.
Thinking about the nature of a sprint from a runner’s perspective demonstrates why the Scrum approach can be so effective. A runner covers a short distance with incredible speed and energy. A software development team does the same by working in sprints under Scrum. They focus on designing and bringing one product feature to life. Then it’s on to the next one. This is how most AI applications are born. They require a number of AI features to work optimally, so they must be carefully honed.
Leaders can ensure sprints are well organized and go as planned by efficiently separating and allocating tasks. You can start with a list of your product’s priorities and see where your backlog exists. AI applications are very sophisticated these days, so you need to identify them carefully.
Then you can make a separate list of assignments that consist of unfinished tasks from your backlog. Use the list to plan out what your team will tackle during their next sprint. As you check off each priority one at a time, be sure to communicate your expectations and timelines when creating the next big AI application.
2. Build Up Trust and Camaraderie
Agile groups work at a fast pace. But one thing that doesn’t move at the speed of light is trust. It takes a bit of time and trial and error to build team members’ faith and confidence in each other. They have to get to know one another, each member’s work ethic, and what each excels at.
Simultaneously, trust starts with leadership. A Gallup survey found that only one in three employees have faith in their leaders. Dishonesty, a lack of interaction, finger pointing, and refusal to own up to mistakes can negatively influence how your team perceives you.
When team members can’t put stock in what you say and do, they’re less likely to follow your direction. Productivity takes a nosedive, and animosity can spread like wildfire. It’s not just you the team doesn’t trust; it’s each other.
Simple, open, and frequent communication can go a long way toward preventing a toxic culture. Something as easy as daily stand-up meetings builds in face time and encourages the group to interact. Each team member says what they’ve accomplished, the tasks they’re currently working on, and whether they need help.
As their leader, your job is to demonstrate open communication and coordinate the collaborative process. When someone in the group needs help, match them with the appropriate resources. These include others on the team with the experience and expertise to help their colleagues overcome their obstacles.
3. Cross-Train Employees
Because everyone on the team brings something different to the table, group members can learn from each other. Cross-training and pair programming help employees build and expand their knowledge. This strategy also prevents information silos and ensures projects keep moving while someone is out of the office.
In some teams, cross-training and knowledge sharing are formalized. Employees are paired as backups to each other. They learn the other team member’s responsibilities by working side by side and exchanging information.
When one person is out sick or on vacation, their backup assumes responsibility for their tasks. While the backup may not get to everything, they handle the most urgent requests and priorities. This way, nothing critical falls through the cracks.
Less formal cross-training might involve digital resources, including collaborative knowledge bases. Employees contribute to these resources as they stumble upon questions that impede workflows and the solutions that resolve them. Or team members might come to you, expressing interest in learning more about a technique or subject area. You could then pair employees with others who are already skilled and knowledgeable in those methods and subjects.
Either way, you’ll support flexibility within your team’s skill set. Plus, you’ll be providing employees with learning opportunities. One of the top things software developers look for and value in an employer is professional development. When you invest in them, they’re more likely to stay committed to each project and the organization.
Remaining Agile While Developing AI Applications
There’s a saying that a team is only as strong as its weakest link. Your goal is not to be that link! Without solid leadership, a team of software developers is essentially a bunch of individuals trying to accomplish uncoordinated tasks. This is especially true when developing AI applications, due to their complexity.
To be successful, the group needs you to provide an overall direction and a method for getting there. Along the way, honest, frequent communication combined with knowledge sharing is essential to the collaboration agile teams are built upon. You also have to have a system for testing your AI software before releasing it to market. Incorporating these approaches into your leadership style can help your team become more adaptable and efficient.
Big data technology is having a huge impact on the state of modern business. The technology surrounding big data has evolved significantly in recent years, which means that smart businesses will have to take steps to keep up with it. One of the biggest breakthroughs for data-driven businesses has been the development of data activation.
What is Data Activation?
Data activation is a new and exciting way that businesses can think of their data. It’s more than just data that provides the information necessary to make wise, data-driven decisions. It’s more than just allowing access to data warehouses that were becoming dangerously close to data silos. Data activation is about giving businesses the power to make data serve them. That entails a lot of different things, from orchestration and access to automation and tracking.
Data activation is an exciting tool for companies to take advantage of to use their data to its fullest potential. If you have been wondering what data activation is and how it could be helpful. Here is everything you need to know about data activation, which is one of the biggest big data trends of 2022. .
It Started Reverse ETL
Companies will spend over $55 billion on big data this year in the United States alone. This is driving the demand for new data management technologies, which has spurred the need for data activation. ETL is the source of its origin.
To understand how data activation is unique and where it can help your business in powerful ways, you have to start with reverse ETL. ETL is a form of data integration into a warehouse. When a company begins to create data, and it accumulates in a way that is either inaccessible or so disparate that it cannot be useful, it aggregates in what is known as a data silo.
These silos have valuable data that either isn’t in the right format or is just not accessible to the company and poses a problem to companies that wish to use their data productively. The age-old solution to a data silo has always been the data warehouse. This is a solution for taking data out of a silo, transforming it into a uniform, usable format, and then placing it in a warehouse where it is accessible.
ETL itself stands for Extract, Translate, Load. This title mirrored the steps of extracting data from a silo, translating it into an accessible format, and then loading it into a warehouse where it becomes a source of truth across an entire company.
Over time, however, data warehouses and lake houses began to suffer from the same problems that silos did. As a result, this data became hard to access and, in some cases, even impossible for a company to use as a source of truth. There were several factors for this, one of them being that only people who knew SQL could even access this data in the first place.
That is when Hightouch developed a solution that would come to be called reverse ETL. Put simply, this solution helped to move data out of a warehouse and across a company’s departments. This allowed different departments within a company to have access to data vital for making good, customer-based decisions.
Because reverse ETL was so successful, it began to be something that unlocked new possibilities for companies. As they continued to use it, Hightouch was able to stay up to date with how to reverse ETL was impacting a company’s data usage. This led to understanding how things could be improved and what could be added to improve this system.
From Reverse ETL to Data Activation
After nearly two years of working hand in hand with reverse ETL, Hightouch was able to produce what is now being called Data Activation. Data Activation has all the great benefits of Reverse ETL. Still, it continues to give developers, engineers and departments the tools they need to get the most out of the data that belongs to their company.
The shift from reverse ETL to data activation came through operational analytics. Operational analytics focused on not only getting data to a department but giving those departments the ability to make data work. That meant allowing for automation of tasks based on customer interactions.
There was confusion over semantics. Operational Analytics sounded like a solution for retroactive decision-making. Collecting data and looking back over it and using this information to make decisions. Data Activation is more in line with what Operational Analytics is meant to be.
This allowed companies to set automation in motion that helped departments see a clearer, more precise view of their customer in real-time. In addition, this tracked data across an entire company to give departments the ability to improve customer relations as they happened and not only have the looking back at accumulated data.
Conclusion
Hightouch continues to work closely with its clients to make the best tools on the market for helping businesses use their data effectively. Giving companies the tools to use their data to help improve customer experience, win over potential customers, and grow is what Data Activation aims to do.
