IBM and Social Analytics : Kenexa

This is quite a buy.  We took a look at IBM's offerings in social technology nearly a decade ago.  Their early efforts included intelligent directories that could consolidate internal intelligence.  I was impressed by their early work for social in the enterprise, and now they are doing quite a bit more.  The integration of their  systems is worth watching.

" ... IBM further solidified its commitment to Big Data with the buyout of Kenexa Corp., a developer of social analysis software for use in human resources decision making. The $1.3 billion acquisition bolsters Big Blue's competitive standing among rivals Oracle and SAP, and, according to the company, will serve as a platform for the development of more enterprise social media applications ... "

Design vs Functionality

An interesting view.  With the obvious example of smartphones converging on a rectangular design.     " ... In a pre-iPhone age, mobile phones came in all shapes and sizes. Remember the clamshell, candy bar, swivel, backflip, slider, dual-slider, lipstick, and, of course, the taco? Nowadays, most phones have a touch screen, rows of icons and are rectangular. ... " .  So does strong consumer accepted design trump functionality?

Wal-Mart uses Semantic Search

It is likely we will continue to see more efforts like this in retail, the claim for immediate improvement is particularly interesting:  " ... Walmart like many online businesses sees the search engine as a key element in boosting online sales. Online marketplace eBay for example said in November it is updating to a search engine, code-named Cassini, which will replace the Voyager technology that has been used since the early 2000s.  Built in 10 months by a small team @WalmartLabs, the research and technology hub at the retailer, the new search engine called Polaris is based on the lab's Social Genome project, which uses public data on the Web, proprietary data, and social media, to identify interesting entities and relationships, and add them to the Social Genome.... " 

And more on this topic.

Improving Packaging Through Collaboration

In Innovation Excellence:  General Mills example of using open innovation by working closely with suppliers, increasingly common in industry today.

Business Analytics

New book by a long time colleague:  Business Analytics: Methods Models and Decisions.  by James R Evans

This book provides readers with the fundamental concepts and tools needed to understand the emerging role of business analytics in organizations. Evans also shows readers how to apply basic business analytics tools in a spreadsheet environment, and how to communicate with analytics professionals to effectively use and interpret analytic models and results for making better business decisions.

On my list to read.

Measuring Supply Chain Performance

A very good piece on the topic.  Deals with the strategic, operational and especially financial aspects of the problem.  If we can't measure we can hardly improve. And usual visuals to understand the problem. Note also the links to other writing on the subject.  Following up now.

BOI Solutions: Groundbreaking Business Intelligence Delivery

Brought to by attention again.  The excellent and unique work done by BOI Solutions. Addressing  enterprise needs that have been expressed by executives and employees for many years.



" ... Procter & Gamble’s groundbreaking Business Sphere environments enable rapid response to changes in the marketplace and uncover new opportunities to improve the lives of consumers. 
Business Sphere built and powered by P&G’s Global Business Services (GBS) is a visually immersive data environment that transforms decision-making at P&G by harnessing real-time business information from around the globe. By eliminating the delay of manually collecting and aggregating data, this patent-pending business intelligence system improves productivity and collaboration, simplifies work processes, reduces the decision-making cycle time, and enables P&G to focus on innovating for the consumer. ... " 

Why Stores Stock Items that Don't Sell

Correspondent Byron Sharp sends along this informative link:

If you have ever wondered why stores are willing to stock many items that barely sell....

Professor Byron Sharp, Director  Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, University of South Australia
For the past eight years some of the world's leading marketers*, have been funding a special research program to answer fundamental questions about buyer behaviour and how brands grow.

See http://MarketingScience.info for information on the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute's findings.
* including Unilever, P&G, General Motors, Kraft, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Turner Broadcasting, and AkzoNobel.

Ask Fewer Questions

Michael Schrage talks about a fundamental  tool of our industry:  Asking questions.  Sometimes its verbal, sometimes via an email or a store survey. It happens a lot.   I have frequently been horrified by the length and numbing complexity of even professionally constructed questionnaires.  He makes a good case for simplification.    Bottom line for us, don't ask, but observe behavior in context.

Choosing Social Network Models

From Wharton:  An extensive piece on the topic.  " ... Recent downturns in the stock price of several social media companies -- several of which debuted to much fanfare -- may be due, in part, to investor worry over whether these firms are successfully monetizing their services. Social media is a relatively new concept, and business models are still being fleshed out, experts note, adding that Facebook, Groupon, LinkedIn, Zynga and others must find ways to make money without alienating their most valuable assets -- users. .... "

Connect and Development Opportunities: Unstructured Data

I just received a list of needs from P&G's Connect and Development outreach via P&G's alumni network that may be of interest to this group.  The all have elements of the use of unstructured data, typically textual data.  Here are the titles, click through here for much more information about the request and application details

Determining Emerging Segments using Unstructured Data

Using Digital (Unstructured) Data to Track New Product Awareness

Tiny Machines

Via the Foresight Institute Richard Feynman's seminal 1959  talk on nanotechnology: Tiny Machines. And also a talk: There is Plenty of Room at the Bottom.  Foresight Institute is good place to follow nano developments.

Network Wide Inventory Reduction

As part of my continued look at supply chain technologies and measures I found this excellent article:  Supply Chain News:  How Do Companies Perceive Opportunities to Reduce Inventories Across the Supply Chain  Few Companies Believe they are Excellent at Managing Inventories Network-Wide; What are the Top Barriers to Improved Performance?  Good thoughts and stats.  Reviewing this for application now.

Big Data Meets Cloud

Forbes article on how big data meets the Cloud.    A good piece by Forrester on the use of many resources, internal and external to drive business intelligence.   And how Software as a Service will be the engine.  Useful statistics as well.

Full Scale Virtual Research

I had the pleasure of visiting John Milby's Full Scale Virtual Research Lab today.  Got a great tour and technical discussion of work underway there.  I worked with John at our enterprise retail laboratories for years.

He is the consummate consumer research professional using years of experience to apply to brick and mortar retail, mobile environments and the interaction of retail and mobile devices.

He leverages a laboratory that displays full scale product images and shelf environments where shoppers interact with and compare products.  The data is then gathered and analytically combined with other captured behavioral information.   Certainly impressive technology, but it is more  valuable yet to apply years of consumer behavior experience to improve shopper experience and engagement.  John continues to build partnerships with many other expert practitioners in the field to further enhance these abilities.  Good work.

" ... his guiding principal was “consumers will know it when they see it; the challenge is to remove the limitations on what we can show them. Virtual packaging and shelf design is the path to our future.” ... "

Contact information at this link.

Further Rise of the Visual

In Fast Company:   All is becoming more visual, shorter and simpler.  Pinterest and Video.  Info graphics.  With an emphasis on entertaining rather than informing?  So where is language going?  Will this result in an  ideogrammatic change of new proportions?

Hollowing of the Middle Class?

M J Perry reports on the recent PEW report on the 'Hollowing of the Middle Class'.  " ... But 150 Americans Moved Up for Every 100 Who Moved Down Between 1971 and 2011 ... " .   Matches some interesting work we are doing that includes econometric contexts of purchasing decisions.  Addresses the context requirements of predictive analytics.

What to do First

In FastCompany. What to do with the first hour of each day to be most productive.   Not your Email.

Gauging Facebook Measurement

In Adage:   " ...  As Facebook urges big advertisers to boost their spending, its measurement team is playing an increasingly prominent role, trying to articulate the value of paid and earned Facebook impressions in terms media buyers know, such as GRPs, or gross ratings points .... " 

Mining Medical Records

A view with data visualizations.   In particular, linking unexpected associations. " ... Big data analytics have enabled researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's SENSEable City Lab and colleagues at GE Healthymagination to create a powerful visual of the relationships between medical conditions based on the frequency of co-occurrences. The researchers combed through 7.2 million electronic medical records to create an extensive disease network, which they called the Health InfoScape. Their first analysis shows the numerous and sometimes unexpected associations that exist for any given condition.... "