Category: Uncategorized

Business growth should be celebrated, as it’s indicative of a successful organization. However, that doesn’t diminish the need to meet new challenges spurred by a growing company, namely increased data requirements.

One of the most universally accepted answers to accelerated data growth is the procurement of stronger IT infrastructure. Buying more physical servers or switching to a virtualized environment can improve the manner in which information is backed up and stored. It can allow organizations the flexibility to hold greater data volumes and mitigate the risk of losing anything pertinent to the company.

Infrastructure improvements can only go so far. Finding better ways to physically process information and store it is helpful, but the best solution is one that can sort data in a way that allows users to manage it in a more efficient and effective manner.

An article in Tech World examines this further.

“As an organization evolves over time, its ability to manage existing data and to incorporate new data management demands grows in importance,” the article says. “Data cleansing becomes fundamental to business’ continuity in order to preserve the integrity and quality of data for migration when deploying new systems or retiring legacy systems.”

FileMaker can help with this effort. By using the platform to build a custom database software system designed to keep information organized, companies can minimize their infrastructure improvement needs because the only information being processed will be essential. The mitigation of duplicated data can go a long way toward solidifying a company’s overall operation.

FileMaker development allows organizations to create scalable systems as well, a key ingredient in a successful growing company. This will allow businesses to adjust their systems to accommodate new needs brought on by more employees, new procedures and, most importantly, increased data.

In recent years, the farming industry has become increasingly receptive to advanced technology, after decision-makers came to understand the benefits of adopting new solutions. As is the case with most businesses, even today's farmers are relying on data to manage all components of their operations.

Precision farming, the act of observing systems as a whole and generating strategies and procedures geared toward building efficiency and ensuring returns on farm-related investments, relies on big data. In order to generate the best possible strategies, farmers need a clear, real-time view of their information, which is best obtained with innovative technology. 

John Fulton, an Alabama Extension precision farming specialist and Auburn University associate professor of biosystems engineering, believes the farm management concept is the future of the industry, and he has taken it upon himself to introduce farmers to new technologies that will help them manage their information. 

Fulton spoke with the online publication AG Professional about his efforts.

"For our part, I think we have done a good job helping our producers adopt the right technologies for their operations," Fulton said. "Likewise, I think we've done a really good job helping them understand how they grow with this technology over time to maximize benefits."

Managing big data in the farming industry is an important process that must be handled correctly. Some systems can actually hurt the process if they are built improperly or simply aren't a right fit. Organizations need solutions designed to allow them to view, manipulate, process and report on information in a way that is both efficient and accurate. FileMaker can help on all of these fronts. 

By using this solution to build a custom database software system, farmers can benefit greatly and enhance virtually every aspect of their business.

Information and marketing are two crucial components of business and, in any corporate environment, the two should go hand-in-hand. Marketers need information to create more focused strategies, generate stronger leads and increase overall sales and profits. This level of collaboration should start all the way at the top, which means the chief information officer (CIO) and chief marketing officer (CMO) must work closely together.

CXO Talk – a web-based show conducted via Google hangout – produced a recent episode titled "Can a CIO and CMO be friends?" In the show, it was established that the two sides must be on the same page. The CIO is tasked with keeping data organized. The CMO must use that information to develop marketing strategies based on a number of factors pertaining to current and prospective customers. In return, much of the data obtained by the marketing team goes into the corporate system, which must be managed the the CIO and the workers they manage. It's a cycle that requires effort and teamwork from both sides.

Steve Mann, CMO for software provider Lexis Nexis and guest of the show, spoke about the marketing company's role with all C-level executives – including the CEO – and explained that his position must manage the intersection between creativity and corporate strategy.

"The CEO's strategy comes to life in the various strategies and channels the CMO uses to touch the market," Mann said. "The company's branding, communication efforts, demand generation, pricing and packaging are all manifestations of translating a business strategy into a marketing strategy."

Ultimately, for businesses to increase their outreach and build a customer base, they must rely on information and marketing. While executive collaboration is key, so is having the right tools to bring the two sides together. For example, developing a custom database software system in FileMaker allows organizations to organize pertinent marketing data and make the lives of both the CIO and CMO easier. 

As social media becomes an increasingly vital component of an organization’s marketing efforts, it’s becoming more important for companies to ensure they are receiving a strong return on their respective investments. This applies in a number of industries, including finance.

Earlier this year, the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) released proposed regulations on how banks, credit unions and other financial organizations manage their social media. Ultimately, the FFIEC believes financial institutions engaging in digital conversations with potential and current customers could affect their risk profile, particularly if they receive a bevy of negative feedback via their various social platforms. These risks include those pertaining to security, reputation and legal compliance, among others. Given the massive impact the financial crisis has had on the economy these past five years, the FFIEC is doing what it can to ensure no financial-related operations go unnoticed.

The FFIEC understands the importance of social media in the business realm – whether that includes Facebook or Twitter engagement, online video creation, blogging or any other form of potential interaction – and doesn’t want to discourage marketers from utilizing this valuable strategy. It does, however, want to see what organizations are paying for such endeavors and learn just how much they are receiving in return. That’s why one of the components of the plan is regular ROI reporting.

The FFIEC is asking financial organizations to draft reports and send them to regulatory officials, “enabling a periodic evaluation of the effectiveness of the social media program and whether the program is achieving its stated objectives,” according to the proposed guidance.

Without the right tools, this could be a complicated process. Financial organizations are already receiving a tremendous amount of pressure from a variety of governing bodies, so throwing an additional layer of regulations on top of standard operations will require extra tools to improve efficiency and organization. Using FileMaker to develop a custom database software solution would go a long way toward accomplishing this.

By implementing a similar system, companies can stay on top of their social results and track data pertaining to their ROI as a way to better prepare themselves for inspection.

The “as a service” model has grown exponentially over the past few years. Today, instead of using their internal resources to manage computer systems, data management, storage and backup systems, more companies are outsourcing their efforts to service providers. For example, software as a service (SaaS) allows organizations to run applications without having to implement them into their own systems.

The need for services on demand will continue to grow and will likely branch out into additional areas. Infrastructure, for example, is something many companies are struggling to keep in​-house, so infrastructure as a service (IaaS) is becoming increasingly popular. Essentially, organizations are using other services to host applications and data outside of their premises. This is most commonly done with cloud computing.

A study conducted by Gartner indicates that IaaS is the fastest growing sector in this area. An article in the online publication Midsize Insider suggests this indicates just how popular and effective the cloud has become in recent years.

“The powerful growth of cloud computing illustrated by this analysis reinforces the benefits and necessity of distributed IT resources,” writes Joe Hewitson, the author of the article. “Data demands and the hardware on which to accommodate them will continue to increase irrespective of a business’s current size, and as such a scalable solution like IaaS will remain at the forefront of IT.”

When companies start to feel the weight of growing volumes of information, it’s best to construct a custom database software system to help manage it. FileMaker is an ideal solution because not only will it let organizations develop solutions quickly, it also allows them to store their systems and data in a cloud environment. By following the IaaS model, businesses can free up physical space and reduce overhead costs without compromising data management operations.

At the beginning of each year, CEOs have a major responsibility. They must look at their respective companies as a whole and make important decisions pertaining to operational spending, with each decision designed to achieve the ultimate goal of improving the organization and increasing profitability. As the years pass and technology evolves, CEOs have adjusted some of their decisions accordingly, but the underlying principle remains the same.

According to a study conducted by Gartner, CEOs have placed improving customer interaction as their top priority in 2013. This is certainly a timeless goal. Business executives always want to improve customer service, the way they market to potential buyers and manage the sales process. Customers equal revenue. However, the way CEOs intend to improve customer management show just how far business technology has evolved.

Gartner’s research indicates that CEO’s intend to increase investments into data management tools and procedures as a means to better service their customers and, ultimately, increase revenue. According to the survey, 71 percent of CEO’s intend to increase spending in data and business analytics.

Gartner Vice President and Research Fellow Ken McGee gave a recent presentation about the study’s results and said that the research indicates a trend in the way businesses are working to improve their handling of customers. Instead of concerning themselves with customer-facing solutions, the focus is shifting to the back office.

“The back office has been a big black hole of gravitational pull for IT spend, but that’s beginning to change, “McGee said. “Companies and executives are asking, ‘What is the business process?’ Customer-facing, front-office areas like marketing and sales were given ‘explicit mention’ in CEO investment priority while technology itself is an explicit priority for only a few.”

Most CEO’s will likely opt to invest in database software solutions designed to give key insights into customer behavior, trends and other pertinent information. Using FileMaker can help organizations develop solutions designed to streamline the data management process, allowing businesses to drastically improve customer management practices.

No organization owns a magic crystal ball, so industry trend predictions, especially in an area as erratic as fashion, will never be perfect. However, using data to forecast both the immediate and long-term future can allow companies to adjust their strategies to comply with any needed future changes.

An article in the online publication Information Age features a number of organizations that are using technology to improve business projections. One of the featured companies is German catalog shopping leader Otto. The clothing distributor is making major strides toward projecting customer behavior with greater accuracy, all with the help of its database software system. By using an analytics solution to determine the validity of its information, Otto is able to gain some crucial insights such as future product demand.

Thomas Friese, senior product manager for forecasting at Otto, spoke with the news source about the benefits of accurate projections, particularly as they pertain to reducing spending. By knowing what clothing items are going to be in demand, Otto can organize cost-effective shipping schedules.

“Many of the clothes we sell are manufactured in China, so a substantial portion of their retail cost is shipping,” Friese said. “If we can order enough in advance, we can ship the items across on cargo ships. But if we need more than we’d bargained for, we have to fly them over, which costs much more.”

As this blog has mentioned in the past, simply collecting data will not give businesses the resources they need to conduct accurate projections. Otto’s success stems from its database system. Companies in a similar situation would be wise to develop a FileMaker-based solution that can effectively collect and organize data, weed out non-pertinent information and present appropriate valuable insights that businesses can use to their advantage.

As companies evolve and adapt to growing data volumes, there are two factors that each organization must consider: how can they use their information to their benefit and how will they store all of it. 

Whether one is more important than the other is debatable. Depending on the business, one might carry greater weight than the other. Companies that thrive on data analytics will want to ensure they are getting the most out of their information. Sales and marketing professionals use data to generate more effective messaging and target more specific audiences.

Meanwhile, companies that process massive volumes of information have to be able to store it all. This is particularly important for businesses in financial industries that process terabytes worth of data each day while trying to maintain compliance with various regulations.

Tom Mendoza, vice chairman for data management firm NetApp, spoke recently with Business Today and said, "Efficient data storage a bigger issue than analytics." Mendoza stressed the importance of proper data storage management. 

"The amount of data has been enormous for a long, long time," Mendoza said. "That's not new. One of the things I'm careful about is when people get behind a buzzword. Storage grows five to 10 times every five years for an average enterprise and it's important to slow that growth. Why? Because for every dollar you spend on one megabyte of storage, you spend $6 to manage it. Even if it's cheap or free, you spend $6."

To slow the growth of data, companies need to manage it more efficiently. This includes finding and eliminating unnecessary and duplicate data files. By using FileMaker to develop a custom database software system, organizations can allow themselves the ability to properly monitor volumes and take appropriate action to alleviate any issues pertaining to data size. Additionally, organizations that place a greater emphasis on data analytics can use a system of this nature to properly monitor information and gain new, valuable insights.

Regardless of how you prioritize usage, having a custom-built system will help all operations pertaining to data management.

Integrated marketing is one of the fastest-growing practices within the industry, mainly because advancements in technology have made it increasingly simple to combine various channels into one focused campaign.

Time once was that marketing campaigns consisted of multiple professionals managing different channels in order to obtain inroads into new industries and marketing mediums. However, that was proven to be a risky venture, as unsuccessful channels were causing companies to waste valuable resources that yielded unfavorable results. Today, many marketing campaigns can be integrated and consolidated, which alleviates the negative ramifications of failed channel campaigns.

According to an article in Customer Think, this will become even more important in 2013. Tony Zambito, the article's author, suggests more organizations integrate their channels to help obtain maximum value from each campaign.

"Campaigns can be costly," Zambito writes. "When they do not add up, this can be painful – in the sense that you have shot your allocated resources on the wrong channels. Look for more focus in 2013 on how to leverage different channels and integrate campaigns. When developing campaigns, how integrating social media, content marketing, mobile, web, and newer emerging channels into the campaigns will leverage cost yet yield more results becomes a key driver."

This practice does have its fair share of new challenges, namely in data analytics. Organizations must find ways to better manage the information they glean from their campaigns, which could become quite the chore if data is all being funneled to one centralized location. Creating a custom database software system will give professionals proper insight into the value of their respective data and make appropriate decisions. By developing a system designed to accommodate their integrated marketing, companies can ensure they maximize the potential of each channel and campaign.

Let's face it, digital data growth is not going to slow down anytime soon. In fact, the amount of content either being created digitally or converted from traditional to digital format is increasing at breakneck speed. 

According to analysis from IDC, the volume of digital content in the world grew 48 percent from 2011 to 2012, coming in at around 2.7 billion terabytes by the end of last year. While that number may seem large, it is relatively tiny compared to IDC's projections. The global market intelligence firm predicts that by 2015, the amount of global digital content will reach 8 billion terabytes.

This data will be spread out through a multitude of organizations in various industries in different countries and continents so no one entity will be burdened with this much information, but the fact that data will nearly triple in the next two years is an alarming thought. It shows that companies cannot rely on traditional data management techniques and solutions if they want to succeed in the future.

They key to an organization's future survival is implementing systems designed to simplify and speed up that data management process. Companies will have a virtually endless supply of information to wade through, which could prove to be problematic if decision makers are tasked with finding specific data. Implementing a system designed to expedite the data management process will alleviate this concern.

Using FileMaker to design a custom database software solution can give companies the ability to better store and manage their information. It can also allow professionals to find what they are looking for without having to sift through duplicate or unnecessary data.

Digital information will continue to grow long after 2015, and those equipped with flexible and scalable solutions will be prepared to handle future challenges.