Month: November 2012

This blog has reported on the rise in big data and how many businesses across industries have used it as a way to improve operations and work more efficiently and effectively. But, a recent Time article has outlined the way President Barack Obama was able to, essentially, base his 2012 re-election campaign on the aggregation, analysis and dissemination of big data and turn it into actionable results.

“We were going to measure every single thing in this campaign,” Jim Messina, President Obama’s campaign manager, told the source.

Immediately after taking the position as campaign manager two years ago, Messina hired an analytics department that was five times larger than the one President Obama used in 2008. Rayid Ghani, who used to analyze big data to optimize supermarket sales promotions, spearheaded the technical department.

The campaigns data analysis was huge. During every day of October, engineers ran the election 66,000 times over night, preparing for every possible outcome. When managers arrived the next morning, the computer spat out the chances of the candidate winning in every state. The data used during these tests was updated constantly.

Furthermore, while campaign workers were able to model exactly which type of person was likely to donate or what public figure they may be most swayed by (Obama held major charity events with George Clooney and Sarah Jessica Parker), secrecy was the utmost priority. So much so that the analytics department worked in a separate room from the rest of the campaign and most tasks were given code names. One senior aide described the data sets as their “nuclear codes.”

It’s clear that one of the advantages to President Obama’s victory on November 6 may have been from the massive amounts of information it was not only able to possess, but also process and articulate to major decision makers. For small businesses, this can be accomplished by consulting FileMaker developers that can create custom database software molded to fit the needs of specific businesses.

With President Barack Obama re-elected on November 6, the impacts of his landmark healthcare law – Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) – will continue to be felt in hospitals, physicians’ offices and insurance companies.

As such, these healthcare companies will surely be adjusting the inner workings and daily operations of their businesses. This marks a period that has the potential to be rather unorganized and inefficient should the affected businesses not have the capabilities to remain on task and productive during times of great change.

According to technology company hCentive, insurers and healthcare companies may need to take additional technological efforts to maintain order and workloads while making the changes necessary to comply with PPACA laws as these mandates make it increasingly harder for health insurance agencies and hospitals to meet goals for performance and efficiency.

“Insurers need a product that can integrate not only with state exchanges, but also billing, claims and federal hub and exchange,” Manoj Agarwala, president and COO of hCentive, said in a press release.

Using technology in times of change to ensure stability

By consulting FileMaker developers, insurers and healthcare associates will be able to make sure their operations are kept organized and efficient during times of change and innovation.

These professionals can help businesses create custom database software that can be used to manage and access whatever aspects of the company they feel needs the most security. For example, should an insurance agency need additional support maintaining subscriber information and data, the database can be used for that. Likewise, a healthcare facility can use the software to maintain an efficient and well-ran facility, while the inner-workings of the system undergo major changes.

The traditional nine-to-five, cubicle farm workplace of old is quickly being filtered out by the rise in many non-traditional companies and a younger generation beginning to enter the workforce. In response, many companies are implementing alternative work schedules and cultures, which can lead to organizational issues that can be solved by custom office management software.

According to Harvard Business Review, many companies are using alternative methods to increase productivity. For example, technology and engineering giants Google and 3M will grant engineers sabbatical to work on personal projects and develop their skills, known informally as "innovation time off."

Another software company in the United Kingdom called Red Gate started a "coding by the sea" project, where a group of software engineers took out a beach house for a week to fix problems and bugs in their products and advance on new ideas. That idea expanded to "down tools week," where every employee puts their regular routine on hold and commits to a new project or issue about the company that's been bugging them, attempting to solve it within the week.

Other businesses have begun to give employees more loosely defined roles, which allow executives and managers to partner up with other departments and add a variety of skills and experiences to solve problems in more unique and creative ways. According to the source, "truly innovative companies avoid giving people job descriptions, or they find creative ways of encouraging them to join multiple projects."

While many businesses are beginning to use these alternative ways of pairing employees, it's critical that an organization is still able to stay efficient during these innovative times. By consulting FileMaker developers, companies can create custom database software that allows them to manage and organize employees and task lists so supervisors can gain a clear look at the productivity and performance of workers and how well these techniques may be working.

As this blog has reported, big data is becoming a critical element to maintaining an effective business. This is because the information that is being used by companies can be beneficial to every department, should they have the means to store and analyze this information.

According to CIO, an IT blog, companies can use big data to answer key questions that will provide insight into their clients. These questions ask customers about their motivations, the appeal of certain products and the factors that would lead them to prefer one brand over another.

The companies that can use big data to thoroughly answer these questions will be able to set themselves apart from the competition, according to Walt Hauck, the chief information officer of Dun and Bradstreet, a consultant and research firm.

“I think big data is the beginning of the ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots,'” Hauck told the source. “You’re either going to be able to take your data, manipulate it and understand it at scale, or you’re going to follow those that do.”

The benefits of managing big data

By consulting FileMaker developers, companies can create custom database software that allows them to store, manage and analyze the specific sets of data that affect their business, product and customers.

Using this technology can help businesses implement more effective strategies into their sales forces that will create a higher percentage of conversions. Companies can also use this information to aid customer service representatives or account managers in their effort to gain greater insight into client issues and concerns and address those more thoroughly.

As citizens gear up for Election Day on November 6, political campaigns are doing what they can to reach potential undecided voters at the last minute. According to On The Media, a New York City-based radio show, this often includes sifting through mounds of data about undecided voters that campaign managers obtained through businesses and other organizations.

“They’re running algorithms that are basically looking for patterns between that big mass of data they have about each of you with the information that their polling tells them about specific attitudes about the election that’s underway,” Sasha Issenberg, a political journalist, said during the show.

PJ Vogt, a producer for the On The Media, mentioned that when Republican candidate Mitt Romney was campaigning for governor of Massachusetts, his team used big data to learn that undecided voters were also most likely to be premium cable subscribers. This information gave campaign managers a way to pivot marketing tactics and appeal to this single audience.

Using custom software to maintain customer data

While running for a public office may be much more intense than advertising a new product or service, it’s essentially the same. By using big data to cultivate information about loyal customers, but those that are on the bubble but likely to be persuaded, companies can find a common denominator that will allow them to form a foundation for their marketing or advertising campaigns.

But in order to do this effectively, companies will need the technology to house and manage all this data. By consulting FileMaker developers to create custom database software, marketing departments will be able to more effectively aggregate and analyze this information to find the strongest connections between potential customers.

As reported by this blog, data analysis has become an increasingly necessary part of running a successful business. According to Harvard Business Review, this concept fits right in with customer service and relations, allowing representatives to engage and satisfy customers much more effectively.

The source states that there are a few tactics companies should adhere to in order to get the most out of customer data. For example, businesses should be systematic in their approach. Analyzing large amounts of data isn't something that can be done on the fly, it requires a careful and comprehensive system and process to go through before any decisions can be made.

Furthermore, it's critical that companies focus on the most vital data. While using as much as possible can help, it can often leave departments overwhelmed and inundated with numbers and graphs. By keeping it simple and focusing on the critical statistics, companies will leverage their data analysis much more effectively.

"Research shows that personalization can deliver five to eight times the ROI on marketing spend and lift sales 10 percent or more," writes Josh Leibowitz, Kellungerman and Maher Masri, authors of the article and major executives at McKinsey and Company.

Custom software can aid with customer relation data

Companies looking to increase their efforts in maintaining customer relations data should consult FileMaker developers to create custom software that can be molded to their specifications and needs.

For example, if a business needs to place more effort on discerning between the different groups and demographics that make up their client base, it can be helpful to use database software to create graphs and charts depicting what clients do and don't have in common. Furthermore, with this information, companies can share the graphs and charts with other necessary departments, such as sales or account management, which can then make additional adjustments to support the breakdown in customer demographics.

With the combination of custom database software and big customer-centric big data, businesses will be able to pivot themselves for a more client-oriented experience and deliver better results.