Why Data Is Important for Companies and Why Innovation Is On the Way

By AJ Agrawal CEO, Alumnify 

Data seems to be on everybody's lips these days. People are generating more than ever before, with 40 zettabytes expected to be created by 2020.

Data seems to be on everybody's lips these days. People are generating more than ever before, with 40 zettabytes expected to be created by 2020. It doesn't matter if you are selling to other businesses or ordinary members of the general public. Data is essential for companies and it's going to spell an era of innovation as companies attempt to balance privacy concerns with the need for more accurate targeting.

So why is data so important for companies and what's driving this new era of innovation?

Better Targeting

The number one role of data in business is better targeting. Companies are determined to spend as few advertising dollars as possible for maximum effect. This is why they are gathering data on their existing activities, making changes, and then looking at the data again to discover what they have to do.

There are so many tools available to help with this now. Nextiva Analytics is one such example of this. Based in the cloud industry, they provide customizable reports with over 225 reporting combinations. You may think this is a first, but it's become the norm. Companies are using all these diverse numbers to refine their targeting.

By targeting only people who are likely to be interested in what you have to offer, you are maximizing your advertising dollars.

Knowing Your Target Audience

Every business should have an idea of who their perfect customer is and how to target them. Data can show you two things.

1. It can show you that your target audience has evolved and you have to evolve with them.
2. That you are not reaching your target market, or your target audience isn't who you thought it was.

This is why data visualization is so important. Tomas Gorny, the Chief Executive Officer of Nextiva, said, "Nextiva Analytics provides critical data and analysis to foster growth in business of every size. Stakeholders can now view, analyze, and act like never before."

Data allows you to act on your findings in order to readjust your targeting and ensure that you are hitting the right audience again. This can't be underestimated because so many businesses are wasting their time targeting people who have little interest in what's available.

Bringing Back Other Forms of Advertising

One takeaway of data is that it's shown people that traditional forms of advertising are as relevant as ever before. In other words, they have discovered that telemarketing is back on the agenda. Companies like Nextiva have been instrumental in demonstrating this through customized reports, dashboards, and a whole host of other features.

It's meant companies can now try out these techniques. Previously, things like telemarketing were extremely unreliable because it was hard to track and make sense of the data, much less think about anything actionable.

A New World of Innovation

New ways to gather data and new metrics to track means that both the B2B and B2C business worlds are preparing to enter a new world of innovation. Businesses are going to demand more ways to track and report this data. Then they are going to want to find a clear path they can follow to actually use this data within their businesses to advertise to the right people.

But the main obstacle will be balancing customer privacy and the need to know.

Companies are going to have to tread carefully because customers are smarter than ever before. They are not going to work with a business if it's too intrusive. It may very well become a marketing issue. If you gather less data, customers may decide to choose you for that reason.

The tradeoff is that you have fewer numbers to work with. This is going to be the big challenge of the coming time. Furthermore, software providers have a major role to play in all this.

Conclusion--Big Data for Everyone

Perhaps the biggest change people are going to notice is that big data is no longer the arena of huge corporations with large amounts of resources. With companies like Nextiva offering tools for a small subscription fee per year, or a one-time fee, even small businesses can start using big data.

This is going to make it not only an advantage to be using data but a necessity. If you have not yet taken your business into the area of big data, you are missing out, and its time to change that if you are going to stay ahead of the competition.

What are your views on the role of data in business?

SOURCE

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Entreprise et Tableau de bord

L’entreprise est souvent dotée d’un dispositif de guidage et de contrôle : un tableau de bord aussi pratique et aussi perfectionné que celui d’une centrale nucléaire ou un avion de ligne.

L’entreprise est un ensemble complexe qui met en œuvre des facteurs variés dans des procédures élaborées. Elle évolue dans un environnement mouvant et agressif dans lequel ses actions rencontrent des obstacles. Et comme tout les grands ensembles technologiques modernes, elle est souvent dotée d’un dispositif de guidage et de contrôle : un tableau de bord aussi pratique et aussi perfectionné que celui d’une centrale nucléaire ou un avion de ligne.

En effet, la notion du tableau de bord d’entreprise est apparue aux Etats-Unis dès 1948. Au début, le terme de tableau de bord a souvent été utilisé pour décrire l’élaboration et la mise en circulation au sein de l’entreprise d’une masse de documents, dont la teneur s’écartaient sensiblement de la définition initiale de cet outil de gestion. Et ce n’est que dans un passé récent que certaines firmes, parmi les plus importantes, ont crée un système de saisie, du traitement, et de diffusion interne d’informations quantitatives, correspondant réellement à la notion du tableau de bord.

Ainsi, le tableau de bord ne peut être que l’expression d’un réseau d’informations, c’est-à-dire, d’un ensemble cohérent au sein duquel les informations sont collectées, traitées et diffusées de manière systématique et rationnelle.

Le système d’information assure en effet la collecte et le traitement des informations. De son bon fonctionnement dépend donc la convergence vers le tableau de bord d’informations fiables. La nature des traitements subis par les informations relève des différentes disciplines de la gestion des organisations : marketing, finances, comptabilité etc.… Ces disciplines gardent évidemment à l’égard du tableau de bord toute leur indépendance.

Par contre, on peut s’interroger sur la relation entre le tableau de bord et la gestion d’entreprise. Sommes – nous en présence de techniques indépendantes ou bien le tableau de bord n’est –il qu’un aspect de la gestion d’entreprise ? On est là au cœur d’un débat concret.

Le tableau de bord est un outil privilégié du contrôle de gestion, mais sa vocation est plus large. Il est un instrument de mesure de tous les aspects de la vie de l’entreprise. En définitive, la forme et les conditions

d’utilisation du tableau de bord sont propres à chaque entreprise et expriment l’originalité de sa structure et ses objectifs.

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Use These Six Simple Decision-Making Metrics To Kill Meetings And Emails

By Erik Larson 

If what gets measured gets managed, and what gets managed gets better, then it’s no wonder the decision-making process in most companies is slow, frustrating and stuck in the past.

The fact is you have to measure decision making to make it better.

Leadership and management are largely about judgment and decisiveness, so it’s no surprise a Bain & Co study found that decision making drives 95% of business performance.

The real surprise is that decision making is one of the most poorly tracked business activities. Think about it: your company’s most important business process is also the most poorly measured. This is truly remarkable in today’s data-driven world.

If what gets measured gets managed, and what gets managed gets better, then it’s no wonder the decision-making process in most companies is slow, frustrating and stuck in the past. And since decision making is much of what managers and executives do, it’s no wonder our calendars are crammed with ineffective meetings and our inboxes are flooded with burning email threads.

The fact is you have to measure decision making to make it better. Without metrics, you won’t get your decision-driven work done better and faster this year. Instead of showing good business judgment and high-performance decisiveness, you’ll spend another year cramming in more meetings and firing off more emails.

Six Simple Decision-Making Metrics

How do you measure decision making, especially if you’re starting from scratch like most companies? Keep it simple with these six metrics:

1. How many people participated in each decision? 

Count everyone who attended a meeting or was part of a significant email/chat discussion related to the decision. Research shows that decision making works best with 5 to 6 people, so you can create a quick dashboard:

Number Of Participants	Dashboard	What To Do
1 to 2	YELLOW	Involve more people who are affected by the decision.
3 to 7	GREEN	Way to go, team!
8 to 12	YELLOW	Find a better way.
13 or more	RED	Seek professional help.

2. How many alternatives were considered? 

Only count alternatives that were written down somewhere – in an email, a presentation, meeting notes, a whiteboard. Research shows that doubling the number of alternatives reduces failure by 50% increases the chances of a good decision by 6 times, so you can create another little dashboard:

Number Of Alternatives	Dashboard	What To Do
1	RED	Seriously? Hey, don’t feel bad! This happens for about 40% of business decisions.
2 or 3	YELLOW	Almost there.
4 or more	GREEN	Bingo!

3. How aligned were decisions with business goals?

 Decisions are how goals get done. So start by writing down your top business goals. Then for each decision, count the number of goals that will be positively affected. Framing decisions too narrowly is one of the worst decision biases, so use goals to take a broader view. Here is a simple dashboard, based on data from the Cloverpop business decision database:

Number Of Goals	Dashboard	What To Do
0 to 1	RED	Think more broadly about the goals of your team.
2 to 4	YELLOW	Think more broadly about the affects of the decision.
5 or more	GREEN	Like a boss!

4. How well were decisions communicated? 

Decisions never happen in a vacuum. If communication doesn’t fill the vacuum, then rumors will.   Score each decision with one point for each of the following:

- It was communicated in writing

- It was communicated to everyone affected

- It included the reasons why

- It included the goals affected

- It included the names of the people involved

Communication Points	Dashboard	What To Do
0 to 1	RED	Unless you're a jedi, you're in a tough spot.
2 to 3	YELLOW	Do. Or do not. There is no try.
4 to 5	GREEN	The Force is with you!

5. How much are people bought into decisions? 

Decision making happens in teams, and decision execution does, too. Buy-in is critical for execution. To track this, either do a simple poll immediately after each decision, or do your own rating of how well people buy into the decision, on a scale from 0 to 10:

Buy-In Rating	Dashboard	What To Do
0 to 4	RED	You may think you made a decision, but it ain’t happening. Try again.
5 to 6	YELLOW	Keep your ears open and prepare to adjust.
7 to 10	GREEN	Full steam ahead!

6. How did decisions turn out? 

Here’s the key step – checking the results of your decisions. To track this, look back at decisions after about six to eight weeks, and rate whether they missed, met or exceeded expectations. This is also a great time to write down what you learned, reinforce the decision if it’s going well or change direction if needed. Once you track ten or so decisions, you can start another dashboard:

Results Meet/Exceed Expectations	Dashboard	What To Do
0 to 49%	RED	Uh oh. Most do better than this...
50 to 69%	YELLOW	Not perfect. Not bad. Figure out why.
70% or higher	GREEN	Gold star!

What Happens If You Track These Decision-Making Metrics

Managers make 40 to 50 significant business decisions each year,so you have plenty of chances to measure your decision making, learn, and make it better. Our research shows that best practices improve overall manager performance by 20%.

We’ve kept careful track of these and other more advanced decision making metrics at our company for the past year. Here are the metrics from our last 10 decisions:

Decision-Making Metric	Dashboard	Average Score
Participants	GREEN	6 people involved
Alternatives	GREEN	6 alternatives considered
Goals	GREEN	9 goals affected
Communication	GREEN	5 points - perfect score!
Buy-In	GREEN	10 out of 10 (ok, really 9.8)
Results	GREEN	83% meet/exceed expectations

That clear green dashboard does more than drive better decisions. It also drives a big benefit in terms of fewer meetings and emails, as well as better alignment and teamwork.

It turns out if you measure and improve a fundamental activity like decision making not only does the process itself get better, but your entire work life improves.

You might not start out all green, but you can get there. We did.

So start measuring your decision making, and work better!

SOURCE

Erik Larson is CEO and founder of Cloverpop. He explores how the decision revolution is changing business leadership.

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Enterprise Risk Management | Thomas H. Stanton | TEDxJHUDC

Tom Stanton talks about the importance of enterprise risk management in organizations and how it is crucial for avoiding a disconnect between top management and lower management. Thomas H. Stanton is a Past President of the Association for Federal Enterprise Risk Management (AFERM) and a former member of the federal Senior Executive Service. He teaches as an adjunct faculty member at Johns Hopkins University, is a Fellow and former board member of the National Academy of Public Administration, and formerly chaired the Academy’s Standing Panel on Executive Organization and Management. With a career that spans the practical and the academic, Mr. Stanton’s work has led to the creation of new federal offices and approaches to delivering public services more effectively. Mr. Stanton has written several books including A State of Risk: Will Government Sponsored Enterprises Be the Next Financial Crisis? and Why Some Firms Thrive While Others Fail: Governance and Management Lessons from the Crisis

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Managing your RTD project. Horizon 2020. European Commission

Guidance is available

Once the grant agreement is signed, your project must be carefully managed until completion. Guidance is available at each step of the way, in the form of reporting templates and deadlines to keep to throughout the project.

Factors to take into account

• reporting - you must submit regular technical and financial reports to the Commission
• deliverables - you may have to submit deliverables (information, a special report, a technical diagram brochure, list, software milestone, etc.) identified in the grant agreement

Checks, audits and reviews

The Commission will monitor the implementation of project (during or afterwards) to ensure its compliance with the grant agreement. The process of checks, audits and reviews may involve:

• checking the action has been properly implemented in accordance with the grant agreement, including assessing whether deliverables and reports are consistent with the description and work plan
• financial audits on your accounts as the beneficiary, to verify the eligible costs incurred

Amendments

Your grant agreement may need to be amended if there are any changes to its terms and conditions.

Keeping records

It is important to keep records and other supporting documentation to prove that your project has been properly implemented. This includes keeping records on eligible costs and corresponding accounts.

SOURCE

Our products allow you to keep control of your RTD project financial reporting.

Feel free to reach out to us. MAIL

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L'impact de l'information sur la performance des entreprises

La réussite de l’entreprise passe d’abord par une surveillance intelligente, continue et globale de l’information pour s’adapter aux différents changements.

En effet, cette vigilance ne peut être garantie que par la mise en place d’une stratégie de veille permettant de disposer à tout moment d’informations synthétiques et exploitables car l’information revêt une importance stratégique pour une entreprise qui cherche à accroître ses parts de marché, assurer la qualité de ses produits et étendre les produits existants.

Les sources d’information sont de deux types :

- Sources formalisées : les études, les brevets, les ouvrages, les catalogues techniques…

- Sources informelles : ce sont les sources qui ne deviennent utiles qu’après un traitement approprié.
En outre, l’information joue un rôle important pour assurer la performance économique des entreprises. Elle est utile pour diminuer l’incertitude dans la prise de décision, elle est aussi un facteur de production et un outil de création des synergies dans l’organisation.
Pour augmenter ces performances, l’entreprise doit procéder à l’identification des informations et la collecte de l’information.

L’identification des informations :

L’identification des informations nécessaires à une entreprise pour se développer est un processus se basant sur l’étude des objectifs et des priorités de l’entreprise et utilisant des méthodes scientifiques, essentiellement applicables dans le cas de la veille technologique et environnementale, telles que : la méthode des courbes en S, les méthodes de prospective « la méthode des scénarios, la méthode MICMAC… », l’approche filière etc.

Les différents types de veille et leurs composants :

La collecte de l’information doit être organisée par l’entreprise et l’ensemble du personnel doit donc participer activement à la recherche de renseignements et d’informations.

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