Happy Monday!
Skills is such a hot topic. Business analytics is required not just for its insight but is a cross road for social and mobile value as well.
See what you can do!
Tag: big data (Page 4 of 14)
Holiday season is upon us! Black Friday is one week away. I am already planning my Thanksgiving dinner, my Christmas cards and caroling, and New Year’s Plans!
So let’s start thinking about this holiday season!
Did you know that people use social differently during the holiday weeks?
They increase their searches on social networks around products and potential gifts, recipes, and fun. This typically occurs starting now through early January. Their use of mobile goes up using the mobile device to show online and compare when they go into the store.
And don’t discount Twitter it plays such a role! So get ready!!!
Today represents a milestone in the IBM Watson journey: the IBM Watson Ecosystem!
As you may recall, the Watson Technology is at the forefront of the next generation of cognitive computers: systems that can mine vast amounts of structured and unstructured data and share insights using natural language. Now, through the IBM Watson Ecosystem, you will have the opportunity to leverage this technology in the Cloud to build your own disruptive applications. We are initially focusing on the healthcare, travel and retail industries (in English language) but will be expanding this over time.
So, how exactly can you partner with us to develop ground-breaking solutions?
We offer three options:
1) Application partners can leverage the Watson Developer Cloud to build solutions using the IBM Watson technology
2) Content partners can deliver knowledge and expertise through the Watson Content Store
3) Partners with strong skills in the areas the Watson Ecosystem covers can offer these through the Watson Talent Hub.
Organizations that are interested in collaborating with IBM to develop Watson-powered applications can learn more here.
Last week, IBM co-hosted the Big Data & Analytics EdCon event (with Syracuse University School of Information Studies (iSchool) and University of Ottawa Telfer School of Mgmt), bringing together leading academic thinkers who are pioneering curriculum in the Analytics space. All are wrestling with how to strike the right balance among interdisciplinary topics to achieve the right blend of market-ready skills in their students.
Data is exploding!
We all experience the explosion of data from my fav social to sensors in factories. Due to this explosion,all companies need more data scientists, analytics professionals and Big Data trained decision makers who can not only crunch data, but turn it into effective strategy.
Creation of a skill gap.
There is a widely-discussed skills gap between the growing number of jobs being created to support Big Data & Analytics and the available talent pool to fill these jobs.This “skills gap” is a significant concern across industries. Our research uncovered a dramatic gap in analytics skills, with only 1 in 10 organizations believing it has the skills it needs to be successful.
Collaborate to win!
To narrow this gap, IBM is collaborating with more than 1,000 academic partners to develop curriculum that reflects the mix of technical and problem-solving skills that is necessary to prepare students for Big Data and analytics careers, across all industries.IBM has a unique, hands-on model for collaborating with universities to build degrees and coursework from the ground up via the Academic Initiative ( this is part of my new role as the IBM General Manager of Ecosystem Development! )
- We provide schools with access to IBM Big Data and analytics software
- We help faculty develop curriculum materials
- We build case study projects for students based on real-world business challenges
- We offer IBM experts who visit classes as guest lecturers
- We make available faculty awards, whose funding fuels new coursework on Big Data and analytics
- Faculty members become part of a global community of educators working together to educate the next generation
Announcing the Analytics Talent Assessment!
The Analytics Talent Assessment offers insight from IBM clients (see the press release below showcasing both Boeing and Nationwide) on what analytics skills drive positive business outcomes.
Using the IBM Analytics Talent Assessment, university students can now gauge their readiness for public and private sector Big Data and analytics careers and gain guidance on ways to develop and position themselves for these in-demand jobs through a simple online questionnaire.
The eight universities piloting the assessment (Fordham University, George Washington University, Illinois Institute of Technology, University of Massachusetts Boston, Northwestern University, The Ohio State University, Southern Methodist University and the University of Virginia) are pioneers teaching Big Data & Analytics skills”
— Fordham’s dual track degrees, which are designed to train marketing analytics professionals
— GWU’s career-track courses support fields such as sports and marketing
— IIT integrates Big Data and Analytics courses in their Stuart School of Business
— UMass Boston offers an undergraduate and a graduate concentration in Business Intelligence
— Northwestern University offers an MS in Analytics as well as an online MS in Predictive Analytics
— The Ohio State University is partnering with IBM Academic Initiative to develop undergraduate and graduate big data and analytic programs
— SMART projects with schools like SMU bring bring together a commercial entity with a real world problem that students can then apply analytic skills to solve
— University of Virginia McIntire School of Commerce offers an undergraduate Business Analytics track and they continue to broaden their Big Data and Analytic programs.
This focus is essential for winning the war for talent. With the access of the technology and expertise for the assessment, this initiative provides the insight into today’s state-of-the-art curricula, and provides the client insight, technology, and proven outcomes these skills can drive.
You have to watch this one! This behavior way of blending recommendations will have a major impact on the market!
Connect is coming! YEA!
With Halloween behind us, it’s no surprise we’re seeing Black Friday previews online and Christmas tree displays in stores. (I’ve actually seen displays as early as September!) This abrupt change of season is a reminder that 2014 is quickly approaching, bringing more changes. But as far as I can see, the changes on the horizon look very good.
For starters, the Connect 2014 Conference, January 26 – January 30, is expanding to reflect the growing breadth of what it means to be a social business. In addition to the strategic social business content we saw last year and the Technical Program, Connect 2014 will include the Kenexa World Conference – focused on empowering HR, your workforce and your business. This addition addresses exactly what we are seeing in the marketplace; in order to be competitive, your business strategy needs to consider social, mobile, cloud, a smarter workforce, digital, smarter commerce and analytics. And even more importantly, businesses have to figure out how to integrate these game-changing technologies into a seamless customer experience.
We’re also getting an earlier look at the sessions for Connect 2014. The content team recently shared some IBM abstract submissions we can expect to see on the agenda, including IBM Sametime 9: From On-Premises to Mobile, Cloud and Beyond, Getting Beyond Theory and into Practice: Deploying Mail and Social Business in the Cloud and IBM Digital Experience Platform: Strategy and Roadmap. I’m told they will continue to release additional session titles on a regular basis. So stay tuned!
And in keeping with the theme of early holiday shopping, the conference team recently extended the early bird discount until December 13, 2013. With news like this, maybe Santa will want to start his shopping early too!
Top 5 Questions on Social!
I was just looking at the Top 5 questions companies have about Social Media and in the Top 5 is “How do I create a social strategy?” In fact 83% say this is THE most important question to answer.
Companies around the world are now focused on becoming Social Businesses, estimated to be a $100B market by 2015. In the past, Social Media was top of mind for marketing and PR executives, with the focus on leveraging social tools like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and communities as a new form of media. As these social techniques have advanced, businesses are now applying their value to more than just marketing and public relations but to all processes in a business – including Human Resources, Marketing, Sales, Customer Service, Supply Chain and more. A Social Business is one that uses these social techniques in all of its business processes.
It’s GLOBAL!
As I have traveled around the globe to over 78 countries, this trend is a global one. According to the GlobalWebIndex Survey of over 51K web users, use of social tools is now mainstream in all countries but Japan having over 50% of their population using the tools. Communities are the number social tool being used, with Facebook is the dominating communities, except in Russia, Netherlands, Japan and China where local brands dominate. So with this major focus, how does your company start the journey?
So how do you do it?
Based on working with thousands of clients, below is a way to create your personalized Social Business Agenda.
A – Align your goals and culture to be ready to become more engaging and transparent. Do not underestimate the task ahead of you. Culture eats strategy for lunch. Take a look at IBM’s Social Computing Guidelines as a way to get started!
G – Gain Social Trust focuses on finding your fans, friends and followers, and forming best friends from your tippers or most influential clients or outside parties. It dives into what social trust is all about and how you instill it.
E – Engage through experiences focuses on how a company can engage its clients and employees and dives into gaming, virtual gifting, location based, mobile, or other stellar experiences to drive that engagement.
N – “Social” Network your processes. Since this is about business, figuring out how to add social technqiues to your processes is critical. Think about customer service — adding in Twitter to address your customer’s concerns. Or Crowdsourcing for product innovation, or Communities for incrementing your marketing processes around Loyalty!
D – Design for Reputation and Risk Management! This is the #1 areas of focus for the C level — managing the risk of having your brand online, your employees being your brand advocates, and even your clients becoming your marketing department! I think the value outweighs the risk .. but see how to develop a Disaster Recovery plan as you plan for the worst, and expect the best!
A – Analyze your data! Social analytics are the new black! You need to see the patterns of sentiment, who your tippers are, and listen daily !
This video blog is the last in the series of our Social Selling series.
This infographic is courtesy of Masters in finance and researched by Merrill Cook.
My mom used to tell me that God gave me two ears and one mouth because I was to listen more than talk. In Social Media, listening acts as a guide, through the magical and interesting world of the blogosphere.
Listening should be a passion and an ongoing process that is necessary to keeping your strategy fresh and competitive. It enables you to find opportunities, potential new stakeholders and enables you to proactively manage Social Trust.
The value of listening is that it assists you in understanding your prospects, clients, and of course, your competitors. It leads to action and awareness of conversations which will compel your company to respond.
Since your URL isn’t just your website anymore, but everywhere you are on the web, listening is important to your digital presence. You are building a brand through images and test, and your head is on the “guillotine” everyday if you just rest and don’t stay totally tuned in a systemic approach. Business, corporation related and societal events and basically everything is simply interconnected and needs dedicated listening all at the same time.
How do you listen? I use IBM Connections internally, and IBM Analytics externally and also set google alerts, Hootsuite and check Tumblr for trending topics. What do you use?