The Face of Digital Disruption in the Mortgage Industry – Roadblocks and High Points

The industry is bursting with digital disruptions across verticals, whether its taxi services, accommodation providers or cinemas. Smart players who have spearheaded the digital revolution have done so by single-mindedly caring for the customer experience, as opposed to the resources fed into their service delivery.

How about the mortgage industry then? How far are we from crossing thisdigital chasm?

Key Roadblocks in Digitally Disrupting the Mortgage Landscape

Caring about your customers can profoundly control the extent and degree of innovation and eventual transformation for revolutionary market domination.But there is more to the mortgage industry,and it seems to lag behind. There are obvious reasons, inhibiting a welcome change:

  • Regulatory complianceis hard to traverse and mainly creates roadblocks in the way of innovation.
  • Complexities in mortgage products make them more costly and harder to convert into revenue generators.

Customer Experience is Still the Single Most Important Piece of Mortgage Processing

Here’s what’s preventing an excellent customer experience when it comes to mortgage products:

  • Customers find mortgage products and getting to their core featurescomplex, and determining the value they provide is a tough task for the average consumer.
  • When applying for a mortgage loan, they might want to take advantage of professional advice to exercise their best possible choices.

The attitude of innovation in the mortgage mindset itself has to undergo a drastic change, to unleash the right degree of force for digital disruption.

Traditional processes, underlying complications, the regulatory maze and most importantly, acceptance for the digital drive weighs you down considerably.

If you are in the mortgage space and creating a haven for your customers, then you are at your best by rolling out a plan that will care of the following:

  • The best digital and mobile experience on par with parallel industry verticals
  • An effective no-hassle plan to handle financial documents
  • Secure end-to-end processes with best in the industry security standards, audit and encryption mechanisms
  • High priority customer experience and an effectively guided path through your workflow

How Far Can You Get with Mortgage Digitization?

Digital technology can profoundly influence the mortgage process. You might empower the consumer by simplifying the mortgage process considerably, so your consumer feels empowered.

When getting your reliable and scalable product in the market, allowing your consumers to compare available options and getting through with the help of a pre-qualification tool and online application increases your efficiency.

Security is one of the most important aspects of the mortgage transaction and instils customer confidence. Encapsulating your digitization with the help of enterprise-grade technology helps effectively position your product on a global scale.

Competitive lenders must ensure that their technology solution must be extensible and flexible. Also, you must be easily able to configure technology for changing lending scenarios.

The digital world is pushing lenders to embrace digitization that matters to their consumers. Therefore, those who deploy meaningful solutions that create unmatched customer experiences are here to stay.

 

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What is Recruitment 3.0?

There has been a fundamental shift in the landscape of recruitment over the past decade. With a dwindling pool of talent to choose from, the global race for best talent is on. Recruiters feel that the current system of education leaves candidates unprepared to hit the ground running when it comes to work.

Recruitment 3.0 focuses on improving the quality of hires while reducing the time to hire ratio and cost per hire ratio. The aim is to build talent pipelines with transparent 2-way communication to keep people engaged.

The Process of Recruitment

As the needs of the market and the talent changes so does the process of recruitment and the expectations of recruiters.

Recruitment 1.0 – The era of Resume Databases from 1990’s to mid-2000’s. It encompassed traditional recruiting methods with a fairly large timeline.

Recruitment 2.0 – The Rise of Social Media due to the need for community-centric consciousness around 2005 onward. The recruitment process moved online with technology for online job boards.

Recruitment 3.0 – Web 3.0 pushed the recruitment process into the digital age of Contextual Web. Google’s update to its hummingbird algorithm in Aug 2013 was designed to help it derive both context and content from Google searches.

It is expected that in the near future a search phrase of “I want an accountant in Paris with 5 years’ experience” will give customized results as Google would have pulled all data relevant to the “I” from the relevant social media accounts, company blog and CRM to give a customized search result.

The Core Philosophies of Recruitment 3.0

1. Everyone is a potential candidate – Anyone volunteering to be elected by applying for a job post or being referred or willing to be considered could be a potential candidate. Research indicates that 90{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} of talent suitable for available roles is not looking for a change. The remaining 10{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} of active job seekers are being fought over by competing firms and talent acquisition companies.

2. Employment Brand is Pivotal to Success – The identity of a business, its core values and its promises to its employees and customers is the employment brand. The better the brand, the better they would look to potential recruits.
Relationships sell. Potential recruits are looking for honesty, authenticity, integrity and transparency in their workplace.

3. Relinquish control over what other people are saying – The digital age ensures that there are many avenues for people to get their views out through social media, blogs and other web boards. Businesses cannot extend any control over the messages being posted. However, PR and marketing departments can embrace this and open a channel to officially seek community inputs to get a better angle on the perception of their businesses.

4. Relationship building is key – Differentiating your social media from others is key. Building relationships, engaging the community and keeping them interested enough to build a viable pipeline of potential employees is vital to the recruitment process.

64{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} of hiring managers estimate that the best candidates are drawn from referral pools, and they have the added benefit of reducing the time to finalize recruitment from 39-45 days to 29 days. Furthermore, 47{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} of the candidates through referral are known to stay for more than 3 years on average when compared to compared to the 14{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} who come from job boards.

 References:

  1. “A Vision For The Future Of Recruitment: Recruitment 3.0” – Matthew Jeffery [ERE}
  2. “RECRUITMENT 3.0 | The best source of Hires” – Hicham Gharib [LinkedIN]
  3. “Recruitment 3.0: Looking Outside The Box” – Lalit Bhagia [Accountests]
  4. “Web 3.0 And What It Means For The Future Of Recruitment” – Irene McConnell [Workology]
  5. “Required Reading For Recruiters – Recruiting 3.0 & 4.0 Explained” – Jennifer McClure [Unbridled Talent]

 

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Fintech Trends in India

Socio-economic and demographic changes have increased the demand for innovative and secure Fintech in India. Fintech startups are piggybacking on the government’s initiative to reach the majority of the population with their tech-friendly regulations.

National Payments Corporation of India [NPCI], Digital India, Smart Cities, Startup India and Aadhaar are some of the prominent Government programs that help build and support this ecosystem.

The growing interests in Fintech Markets put the transaction value of Fintech sector $33 billion as of 2016, and it is expected to grow and reach $73 million by 2020 putting the annual growth rate at 22{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616}.

There is wide scope for development in the Fintech Sector, and they can be categorized into the following spheres:

 

Growing FinTech trends to watch for in 2017:

  1. Micro-Payments – Companies focusing on the FinTech Sector are capitalizing on the Unified Payment Interface (UPI) and NPCI (National Payments Corporation India) to expand the ecosystem of digital payments. The increased efficiency and security of digital payments systems have increased the adoption rate of transactions via smartphones. A growing acceptance in this space will enable the objective of a cashless society.
  1. Blockchain Adoption – Blockchain is the technology behind “Crypto Currency.” It is an innovative integration of cryptography, mathematics, and economics that helps create and maintain an expansive database of transactions. It resembles a single consolidated ledger of financial activities.

The scope of applicability is large as Blockchain also promises security and credentials. According to the World Economic Forum [WEF], 80{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} of the banks are expected to start Blockchain projects with big players like Goldman Sachs getting behind the concept.

Even the RBI is considering this as a means to mitigate cheque fraud.

Blockchain also guarantees operational simplicity, reduction in process & settlement time and risk mitigation.

  1. Marketplace Lending – Online lending platforms (P2P) are becoming very prominent. They primarily use non-traditional data to determine a customer’s creditworthiness. Given that almost 75{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} of the Indian population does not have an established credit report, this works well in their favor.
  1. These platforms data analytics backed by algorithms to make a risk assessment for lending.The categories predominant in P2P portfolios include personal loans, commercial loans, and microfinance.
  1. Reg Tech – Regulatory technologies are evolving to accommodate the barriers to business entry. The goal here is to provide the right tools and services that will enable automation of compliance tasks, improve the accuracy of identity management and reduce risks of fraud.

Delegating a lot of the redundant tasks to technology removes the burden of repetitive tasks and enables a lean business. This is a newly discovered market with promises to provide a lot of potential savings to organizations.

  1. Robo-Advisory – This market is expected to grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate [CAGR] of 68{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616}. The projected estimate for managed assets by 2025 is expected to be USD 5 Trillion.

Currently in India the apart from the wealth and asset management sectors, retail space is capitalizing heavily on robo-advisory services. Increasing investment in biometrics and security promises to enhance customer experience through digital transformation.

 

References:

  1. The India Fintech Market Map: 72 Startups Working Across Lending, Payments, Insurance & Banking” – CB Insights
  2. “#5 Fintech Trends That You May Want To Watch Out For in 2017” – Kumar Srivatsan [Entrepreneur]
  • “3 Ways Fintech Is Disrupting The Indian Lending Space” – Manavjeet Singh [CXO Today]
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Digital Innovation: Revolutionizing business processes in the con-struction industry (Content Strategi)

Digitalization through apps is transforming how we do business. Most organizations have adopted a digital system to handle their business processes. Such digital leaders experience up to eight times growth in their operating profits according to studies by McKinsey and Company.

Companies like Uber, Alibaba and AirBnB are few such supremely successful enterprises that rely purely on digitization.

While the adoption rate of mobile digitalization is quite high in most industry sectors, the construction industry seems to be slow on the uptake. According to a McKinsey and Company report, the construction industry is one of the lowest digitized sectors.


Source: Harvard Business Review

Research by JBKnowledge indicates that construction companies spend less than 1{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} of their revenues on IT, which is less than one-third of what other businesses spend on the same. It further shows that nearly 40{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} of construction companies do not even have a dedicated IT department.

Low IT Resource, No Problem – Low-Code/Codeless app building tools to the rescue

There is a rising demand for mobile digitalization, especially in the construction industry. Business units in the field need access to real-time data on resources, materials, logistics and more.

For instance, the greatest benefit of digitalization in logistics services is from crowdsourcing. A report from the World Economic Forum indicates that trucking companies can improve their utilization levels by 20{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} and greatly improve profits.

A digital transformation in this sector offers the convenience of real-time tracking and lower costs leading to savings of up to $789 billion to the customers in the logistics industry.

Fast Tracking app development

Gartner’s framework for Bimodal IT recognizes that traditional app development practices are no longer sufficient for organizations looking to digitally transform their business. It is necessary to democratize app development so business users who may not be technical experts can still design fully functioning apps without heavily relying on the IT department.

Gartner predicts that by 2018 more than half the mobile apps will be created using codeless tools. Digitalization is the key to providing improved customer experience, increased employee productivity, agile IT and business operations.

AppGyver’s Composer – Gearing towards Bimodal IT

Gartner’s concept of Bimodal IT expounds the need for organizations to have 2 modes of IT – traditional IT with a focus on efficiency and safety (Mode 1), and Agile IT to support prototyping, fast iterative development and rapid delivery (Mode 2).

AppGyver’s Composer is a platform that has a lot of options out-of-box, but it also supports the need for tech-savvy users to write their code. This allows for iterative testing to get the desired results while building their apps.

The Composer also integrates with enterprise authentication protocols, all standard business databases and data sources such as Oracle databases and Salesforce, thereby increasing their flexibility of use.

AppGyver’s Composer – Digitally transforming the construction sector

The construction industry usually has multiple projects at any given time. There is the key requirement to have up-to-date information, tracking and visibility on ongoing projects, materials, sub-contractors and more.

Mobile digitalization makes the information more transparent. It can help prevent design clashes, issues in construction and hence avoid costly rework. Central databases can be continually updated, so users have real-time data on the field.

A study by the Boston Consulting Group shows that full-scale digitalization in the case of residential construction enables cost savings 0.7 trillion to 1.2 trillion dollars. That is 13-21{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} in the Design & Engineering phase and Construction phase of Building Information Modelling (BIM). In the Operations phase of residential construction, it enables a cost saving of 0.3 – 0.5 trillion dollars; i.e. 10-17{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616}.

Reaping the benefits of Composer’s visual app development platform

AppGyver’s Composer has one of the most extendable visual app development platforms on the market. It is easier to build advanced app logic while the Composer platform rapidly builds the requisite backend.

The business data is secure inside the company firewall and Composer allows for any custom authentication methods with full ACL for app data.

AppGyver’s Composer helps reduces the go-to-market time for apps considerably. Customized apps to suit the needs of architects, tech consultants, contractors, real-estate companies, clients and end-users can be ready for use 10 times faster.

Fast track your business innovation projects using Composer’s high productivity platform from AppGyver.

References:

  1. “App development should be democratized” – Burley Kawasaki
  2. “Which industries are the most digital?”- Prashanth Gandhi, Somesh Khanna, Sree Ramaswamy
  1. “Software and digitization are leading business transformation”- John Brigden
  2. “The battle is for customer interface”- Tom Goodwin
  3. “Imagining construction’s digital future”- Rajat Agarwal, Shankar Chandrasekaran & Mukund Sridhar
  1. “Construction industry needs to embrace digital revolution” – Alexandria Cain
  2. “Digital transformation in the construction sector isn’t just about BIM” –Daria Taylor
  3. “What’s the future of construction industry?”Santiago Castaginino, Philipp Gerbert, Christoph Rothballer
  1. “What Gartner’s Bimodal IT Model means to enterprise CIO’s”Bernard Golden
  1. Forklift manufacturer Rocla delivers a 3 month App project in 2 weeks – Jeff Alonzo
  • Digitization in the construction industry – Roland Berger
  • Bimodal IT – Gartner
  • The 5th Annual construction technology report – JBKnowledge
  • Opportunities of the digitalization for construction – Jan Byfors
  • Shaping the future of construction – World Economic Forum
  • Digital transformation of industries: Demystifying digital and securing $100 trillion for society and industry by 2025 – World Economic Forum
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6 customer / sales enablement tools you need right now (Content Strategi)

Market and consumer needs are constantly evolving and with it the need to change the sales and marketing approach. Reports from DemandGen indicate that opportunities for sales can increase by 20{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} if prospective leads are nurtured carefully[i].

Organizations at present find that almost 67{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} of the sales personnel never meet their targets[ii]&[iii], either due to lack of productivity, proper tools, or the right content.

This is where sales enablement tools come in. They bridge the gap from lead prospecting to closing the sale and help boost revenues and profit.

Empower your sales reps through technology

37{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} of sales teams win less than half their potential sales2 leads either due to lack of proper content or persistent follow-ups.

A well-defined sales strategy backed by the right content and presentation can increase your chances of meeting your sales quotas by 33{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616}.

A comprehensive Sales Enablement platform (SEP) serves as an integrated multi-functional system that allows for content management and integrated communications. More importantly, CRM integration and predictive analytics help improve sale pipeline management.

Sales enablement solutions – Arm your teams with the tools to succeed

There is a wide range of sales enablement platforms available in the market today that address the keys issues of marketing and sales automation, Business Intelligence, CRM, and more. Although their core features would be similar, they each have extra features that will fill the gaps to suit your unique business needs.

6 most important features of sales enablement tools that will help grow your client base, increase customer retention and improve sales.

  1. Content Management – Research indicates that 88{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} of sales opportunities are missed[iv] because sales teams waste 30{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} of their time looking for internal resources and content to share with their potential customers. Furthermore, almost 90{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} of the accumulated goes unused according to an IDC survey[v]. Tools such as Microsoft Dynamics, Sales Force Sugar CRM provide the sales teams with real-time data and help the teams deliver the right content at the right time. 95{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} of the buyers tend to choose a vendor that provided them with the right content at each stage of the buying process1.
  1. Marketing Automation – A study by the ANNUITAS group indicates that an organization that uses marketing automation to nurture their prospective leads experience a 451{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} increase in qualified leads1. Sales enablement tools such as Mindmatrix or SharpString helps teams identify leads that require immediate attention, the content they require, and provide overall help in personalizing the prospective asset. Real-time prospect tracking can increase customer retention and research by Bain & Company indicates that even a 5{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} increase in customer retention would help boost profits anywhere from 25 {ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} to 95{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616}1.
  1. Sales Management – Forrester Research shows that 25{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} marketers who adopt mature lead management process have better response and follow-up rates1. Customer & sales enablement tools such as the Pipeliner or Sales Seek integrate marketing and sales functions to provide customized sales pipelines with visual intelligence that help close more deals.
  1. Sales Analytics – Studies by Marketing Sherpa indicate that only 25{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} of leads are legitimate and require a follow up1. Sales personnel waste almost 50{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} of their time on unproductive prospecting. Advanced analytics in sales enablement solutions such as 6Sense, Amacus or Infer[vi] use predictive modelling that prioritize leads and provide intelligence on talking points based on the customer needs.
  1. CRM – According to market research by CSO Insights, Sales reps spend less than 33{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} of their time on core selling1. Automating repetitive, mundane tasks would divert more time to nurturing leads and selling products or services. Microsoft Dynamics, Salesforce, and CRM Next are sales enablement tools that encompass features of cross departmental team collaboration, managing workflows, automating marketing & content generation, and more, to boost productivity and sales.
  1. BI – Business Intelligence tools offer key insight that helps drive better decision-making. Oracle[vii], SharpSpring and Spectate are three organizations that offer BI tools for sales enablement.

With these smart predictive tools, never loose an opportunity again. Let your sales teams be best equipped to handle all customer needs.

Citations

[i] “107 Mind blowing sales statistics that will help you sell smarter” Scott Tousley

[ii] “10 things every sales manager should know about sales performance”  TAS Group

[iii] “The cost of missing quota” – Janelle

[iv] “Sales execution trends” Qvidian

[v] “7 Signs you need a sales enablement solution” Shelley Cernel

[vi] “Top 70 sales enablement tools to boost your business” Knowledge Tree

[vii] “Top 54 sales enablement tools” Fergal Glynn

References:

  1. State of Inbound Sales Report [2016] – Hubspot’s 8th Annual report
  2. Sales Enablement plan – Knowledge Tree
  1. “What is sales enablement? 3 definitions that help tell the story” Brendan Cournoyer
  2. “Sales Enablement tools grow up, as forrester releases first wave report” Barry Levine
  3. “10 surprising stats about sales rep performance” Leslie Ye
  • “5 ways Sales enablement tool adds value to an account-based selling strategy” – Shelley Cernel
  • 18 sales enablement software tools to boost productivity & sales” Twila Grissom
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6 customer and sales enablement tools you need right now(Content Strategi – SEO)

Businesses inherently are customer driven. Irrespective of the business model (B2B, B2C or B2G), the client is the key to enduring business results.

Customers these days are tech-savvy, and 93{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} of them begin the purchasing process through an Internet search. This increases an organisation’s need to be more proactive, targeted and customer-centric in their sales efforts. In fact, 87{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} of them prefer that approach according to studies by inContact.

Sales enablement tools pave the path to operational efficiency by providing the right insights, analytics and talking points tailored to each customer.  They are a smart mix of training and technology that reinforce knowledge & critical skills and enable guided selling for the right product positioning and value proposition.

Sales Enablement tools: The various types

Sales enablement is an all-encompassing term that includes a wide range functionality impacting all areas of the business. It helps bridge the gap between business vision and strategy implementation.

The 6 major types of sales enablement tools that will integrate your sales and marketing functions and make your approach more customer-centric include –

  1. CRM
  2. Marketing Automation
  • Lead Management
  1. Content Management
  2. Sales Intelligence
  3. Customer Experience

I. CRM: Customer Relationship Management tools

As of 2017, 91{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} of sales organisations use CRM to track their interactions with potential and existing customers. Gartner forecasts that it will be a USD $37 billion industry this year.

While it is not an all-inclusive tool, CRM does cover one important aspect of sales enablement; it includes the functionality of a database and productivity tool. Providers like Salesforce allow third party developers to supplement their programs with add-ons to improve the scale and scope of their programs.

Some features to look for in a CRM include –

  1. Software as a Service (SaaS) – Research from Software Advice indicates that 81{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} of CRM users access CRM from multiple mobile devices. It lowers the initial cost, it is a lot quicker to rollout across the business, and it provides the all-important mobile compatibility.
  1. Mobile features – Statistics from Innoppl indicate that 65{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} of salespeople who adopt mobile CRM achieve their sales quotas. Businesses that adopt mobile CRM have shown an 87{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} increase in productivity and a 73{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} increase in business process efficiency according to research by Forrester.
  1. Customer Experience Management (CEM/CXM) – The growing trend is towards a customer-centric engagement approach; connecting with customers through multiple channels. A forecast by Walker indicates that Customer Experience will influence buying decisions by more than 50{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616}.

Categories of CRM

  1. Enterprise CRM
  2. Mobile Applications
  3. Social CRM
  4. Small Business CRM
  1. Enterprise CRM: It is more large scale and includes features of contact management, sales process automation and data analytics. It helps make meaningful decisions out of massive data dumps. It empowers the transformation of information into strategy.

The Market Leader in Enterprise CRM is Salesforce.

It has a cloud platform and the most comprehensive features package. It comprises of mass emailing, customisable dashboards, web services API and more. It also includes opportunity and contact management, lead management, marketing automation, and forecasting, reporting and mobile compatibility. It allows for custom app building and add-ons as necessary.

Comparable products: SAP, Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics.

  1. Mobile applications: Most sales forces are mobile these days, so the top-tier brands already offer mobile compatibility for their products. There are, however, CRM products specifically designed for mobile use. They include features like geo-location that helps the rep in charting the best routes to their clients and optimising their trips. They are particularly useful in the real-estate and energy or utility industries.

The Market Leader in Mobile CRM is Base.

It is an app lauded for its effectiveness. It offers the full functionality of a desktop-based platform with added extras like geo-location, route planning, offline access and push notifications. It combines functionalities of sales tracking, analytics, phone and email with navigation to provide one-touch driving directions, trip optimisation and territory management.

Comparable products: Saleslogix, SugarCRM

  1. Social CRM: Nucleus Research suggests sales productivity can increase by 26{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} with social media integration. 95{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} social media users expect organisations to have an online social presence and 85{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} expect to communicate with companies through social media. The more advanced products encompass features like data tracking to record likes, comments, followers, mentions, text analysis, and lead suggestion.

Market Leader in Social CRM is Nimble. It includes functionality of social listening tools, contact importing and monitoring social selling tools

Comparable products: Zoho, Batchbook, Astute Solutions

  1. Small Business CRM – This is custom made for niche industries and Small businesses. It is not as feature rich as the enterprise CRM and is lighter on the budget.

The Market Leader in Small Business CRM is Insightly. Its free version allows access for 2 users. It has Project Management features. It is Cloud based and integrates with other programs like Outlook, Office 365, Quickbooks, Google Apps, Evernote, Box, DropBox and many others.

Comparable products: Mothernode, Salestrakr, Sellsy

II. Marketing automation

55{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} of B2B marketers use Marketing Automation tools in their marketing strategies. It has led to 68{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} more customer engagement and 58{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} more opportunities according to reports by Adestra.

Marketing Automation tools harness customer data from multiple sources, enable audience segmentation and help marketers build campaigns to match each stage of the buyers’ journey. They also tailor content to specific customer needs and help nurture potential customers and build more meaningful relationships. Studies show that organisations that focus on lead nurturing produce 50{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} more qualified leads at a lesser cost.

Marketing Automation tools include several categories of functionality – email, social media, web marketing, analytics and more.

The leading contenders in each category are

  1. Enterprise – Eloqua, Marketo, Pardot, Siverpop
  2. SMB – Infusionsoft, Hubspot, Salesfusion, Act-on
  3. Email only – Mailchimp, GetResponse, ActiveCampaign, Aweber

III. Lead management

It is related closely to marketing automation. It involves tracking prospect interactions, qualifying inquiries and distributing qualified leads to appropriate sales team members.

Taking only to the right leads improves productivity and reduces time spent on qualifying leads. Lead quality is a priority for 74{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} of B2B marketers.

Types of lead scoring

  1. Traditional /Rules-based – Involves assigning a value to a prospective lead’s behaviour.
  1. Predictive lead scoring – Involves predictive modelling to qualify leads. The system uses internal data in CRM and marketing automation systems and supplements it with data from external resources to create acomplete profile for the lead.

Leading vendors for Lead Scoring are LeadMaster CRM, Bpm’Online and LeadSquared.

IV. Content Management

Research by RO innovation indicates that 65{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} of sales reps cannot find the right content to send to prospective clients at the right time. A content management system is a single repository of all sales content.

Categories of Content Management Systems and the leading vendors:

  1. All encompassing and feature rich – BlackMOnk, ARALOC
  2. Sales focused – Docurated
  3. Content function focused – LiveHive

V. Sales Intelligence

Sales Intelligence is defined as any insight, data or automation that improves the sales process. It enables increased productivity and better follow-ups that lead to faster lead to client conversion times.

Sales Intelligence systems track buyer engagement through email content and user engagement through web content. They capture contact information from emails, fill incomplete contact information in the CRM and have predictive models for customer behaviour.

Overall they increase the depth and scale of prospect information available to the sales teams.

Categories of Sales Intelligence tools

  1. Data Enrichment and Maintenance: Experian, Netprospex, Datanyze, Reachforce.
  2. Sales Reporting and Forecasting: Tableau, SAS, Sisense, Spotfire
  3. Pipeline management: InsightSquared, Pipeliner, Close.io
  4. Behavioural analytics: LiveHive, Yesware, Marketo

VI. Customer Experience

Since customers these days connect with organisations on multiple platforms it is necessary to analyse the interactions and detect behavioural patterns and emerging trends. Customer Experience and Customer Engagement tools collate the unique and disparate customer experience data. These tools of analytics combine features of contact sequencing, contact reasoning, journey mapping and predictive analytics to give the organisation a complete picture of the customer’s experience.

Market Leaders in Customer Experience and Customer Engagement tools include IBM Customer Experience Analytics, HubSpot Analytics, Site core and Zuora.

Keywords: Customer enablement, Sales enablement, business vision, business growth, customer-centric engagement, Customer experience, customer engagement, Sales intelligence, Sales analytics, content management, CRM.

References:

  1. Technology Advice: Buyer’s Guide to CRM Software
  2. Technology Advice: Buyer’s Guide to Marketing Automation Software
  1. Sirius Decisions: What is Sales Enablement
  2. Hub Spot: 107 Mind blowing sales statistics that will help you sell smarter
  3. Super Office: 18 CRM statistics you need to know
  • CRM Next: Why your business needs a mobile CRM strategy
  • Super Office: CRM Mobile App – The rise of CRM
  1. Walker: Customers – The future of Customer Experience 2020
  2. inContact: US Consumers Want Today’s Companies to be Proactive in Customer Service
  3. VeInteractive: 11 Marketing Automation stats that will surprise you
  • The Drum: Marketing automation growth is unprecedented, yet B2B marketers agree it is time-consuming
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The Importance of Free Learning Content for the Individual and Society (Content Strategi – SEO)

Education is necessary for helping society and the individual self-thrive to its fullest potential. With greater access to free learning content for people, we can see more of our important ideas come to life.

An ancient Indian proverb states, “Let noble thoughts come to me from all directions.” But what are noble thoughts?

Noble thoughts are ideas that, like seeds, can grow and blossom into wonderful things. Art, science and all good things in this world started out as someone’s noble idea.

Where do noble thoughts come from?

These vital and important thoughts come from everywhere and can strike at any time.

You can have them on the bus, at work, in bed before you go to sleep at night. You never know when a brilliant thought will come to you. But where do they come from, exactly?

They come from what you know.

Education is important for this reason. A stifled mind cannot flourish. But when you open your mind to new learning opportunities, great things will happen.

The more you know, the more powerful knowledge you can apply to the world and your life. When you do this, you not only improve upon yourself but the world around you, too.

Before a thought blossoms into action, it starts as a seed inside your head.

Every day, whether you realise it or not, you’re applying what you know about the world. Your opinions, actions and even your relationships with others are based on what life has taught you so far.

This is why it is important to learn something new and interesting every single day. If you arm yourself with knowledge, you can do anything.

If a topic interests you, it is important to water that seed of intrigue. You never know what will come of it.

Why is free learning content important?

Sometimes you might be particularly interested in one or more topics. This is like a tiny spark that, if fed enough, can become a roaring fire.

So you have the idea. But what happens now? This is when research begins!

You must delve deeply into your thought, find important concepts and nurture your mind. This can’t happen if there is no access to learning content.

Education is vital to great ideas becoming something bigger.

Information is all around us. We process it all the time, every day, whether we realise it or not. But sometimes, we need to know more than just what we see and experience.

This is where educational tools come in. At school, you can learn a great many things, but this is not where learning opportunities end. If you have the right learning content in front of you, you can become an expert on anything through day-to-day actions outside of any classroom.

Unfortunately, the cost of education can keep people away from the information that they need.

No-cost learning materials bridge the gap between those who can afford higher education and those who cannot. Lack of personal, financial wealth should never prevent a mind from growing.

The world never knows when the next great idea will come along to change all of our lives. We all deserve the opportunity to let these ideas become something great.

Everybody should have access to free learning content. Without it, life-changing thoughts might just stay inside the mind of the thinker, stagnant and craving to be nurtured.

Primary Keyword: learning content

LSI Keywords:

Variants: access to learning content,  right learning content,  free learning content important,  free learning content for all individuals

Antonyms and Synonyms: No-cost learning materials, classroom learning,  independent learning,  at-home learning, High-cost education, private education, tuition, education availability, at-home learning, educational tools, free education

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‘He Who Studies Understands, Not the One Who Sleeps’ – From the Wisdom of Rigveda 5.44.13 (Content Strategi – SEO)

Ancient Indian wisdom asks the following of knowledge: ‘let noble thoughts come to me from all directions’. For noble thoughts to exist, though, you need to have a baseline of education already. Without the availability of free, quality learning content, there is no platform for forward-thinking minds to grow.

Education as a Right, Not as a Privilege

Education should be thought of as a right for every person. The most influential people in our society are the most educated.

For individuals to innovate, debate, and make tough decisions, they must first have had the freedom to learn what inspires them. Education provides this freedom, and so it should be available for everyone.

If all learning content were free, people from every walk of life would have the opportunity to be the best that they can be. To develop wisdom, knowledge and experience is key. Education can become a metaphorical springboard to boost someone up the societal ladder.

Without the freedom of knowledge and education, there is no chance for the social mobility that is so crucial to a healthy society.

Do We Ever Stop Learning?

Education is often compared to the lighting of a flame, rather than the filling of a vessel. This is because people always have the capacity to continue learning if they’re given the opportunity. By denying access to learning material to those without the ability to pay for it, we lose out on a vast portion of potential talent.

Every Day is a School Day

Every day we have the opportunity to learn something new. To utilise this, we must be willing to make an effort. If an individual is hampered by the excessive cost of quality education, studying becomes much harder.

Benefits of Free Learning Content

Having free learning content and education means:

  • We gain a diverse and thriving community, filled with innovative people.
  • People can earn a higher wage so that they will pay more in taxes.
  • The rates of unemployment decrease.
  • More educated people report higher levels of health and happiness.

The Messages of the Vedas

The benefits of open and inclusive education, with freely available learning materials, are exemplified by the Vedas. Rigveda, where the above quotation is found, was created as part of collaborative work. It has been proven that the Vedas were formed by numerous different scholars, whose combined wisdom is as relevant today as it was so long ago.

The importance placed through the lessons of Rigveda on the benefits of learning, and working together, is applicable even now and shows that education never ceases to be vital.

Wisdom in Life is Necessary for a Successful Existence

Thoughts can be thought of as seeds. Once they’ve been planted through education, we can allow these seeds to germinate and bloom into creative ideas. If we shut them away without the possibility of inspiration, they will never grow.

Without the wisdom provided by studying, our society would be far less advanced. We wouldn’t have the progressions in medicine and science that we do today. We wouldn’t be leading the way in technological advances. Ancient texts like the Vedas would never have been written.

In short, our civilisation would be bland and boring instead of the wonderful and thriving place it is today.

Primary Keyword: wisdom – used 4 times including title

LSI Keywords:

Variants: Without the wisdom, Ancient Indian wisdom,  combined wisdom,  develop wisdom

Antonyms and Synonyms: knowledge, understand, education, educated, learning, studying, scholars,  learning material,  potential talent,  inspiration, Thoughts

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Why good WiFi is just the beginning (Content Strategi – SEO)

Wi-Fi is now expected to be ubiquitous with IoT devices everywhere. Travellers expect seamless integration and connectivity for their typical tasks such as checking email, taking work-related video calls, logging onto social media and so on.

The importance of Wi-Fi for your guests

Mobile professionals are actively counting on Internet connectivity for their everyday needs.  Studies by Roomzzz indicate that nearly 67{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} of hotel guests attempt to connect to Wi-Fi within 7 minutes of arrival. Nearly 33{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} of the hotel guests ask for Wi-Fi passwords during check-in, and 25{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} of the guests ignore the TV and focus on connecting to Wi-Fi as soon as they enter their rooms.

Wi-Fi has surpassed being an amenity and turned into a necessity and integral part of life. More than 66{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} of US travellers place Wi-Fi as their deciding factor when it comes to choosing accommodations.

Quality of your Wi-Fi influences guest’s choices

The iPass Mobile Professional report of 2016 indicates that 72{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} of people choose hotels based on their Wi-Fi experience.

Good Wi-Fi leads to better guest experiences and better reviews. And reviews impact revenue, especially since 81{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} of the travellers find hotel reviews important when choosing their accommodation.

Secure, stable and speedy Wi-Fi – A fundamental requisite

Wi-Fi is now emerging as the centre of a new ecosystem. It has become an indispensable component of innovative applications such as facial recognition apps for keyless entry, robotic bellhops [Yotel – New York City], and mobile mission control systems [Mood Pads] to control guest services like room service, housekeeping, room temperature [Peninsula hotel group, CitizenM] and more.

Endless Possibilities

This is just the beginning of visionary applications that will make a guest’s experience exceptional.

From a management perspective, effective Wi-Fi helps develop a leaner and more efficient way to manage the hotel.

How Qlicket can help you

JD Power’s “2016 North America hotel guest satisfaction index study”, shows that despite the increased demand for Internet access across all hotels, almost 31{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} of hotel guests experience Internet issues.

Qlicket can help solve such concerns and facilitate a consistent Wi-Fi service for your guests.

Qlicket is an enhanced Wi-Fi system that finds your dead spots, sets up access points and ensures uninterrupted connectivity for your guests. We have 99.9{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} uptime with complete bandwidth management and 24/7 customer support.

We also have free on-site evaluations and a 30-day trial with no contracts or lock-ins. More importantly, we hold a 100{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} retention rate of our US clients.

Talk to our consultants today to see how we can get you more out of your Wi-Fi with features like instant guest feedback, management dashboards and more.

Make your guests brand loyal with a Superior Guest Wi-Fi experience from Qlicket.

 

Keywords: Qlicket, superior guest Wi-Fi, importance of Wi-Fi, hotel guest connect to Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi amenity, secure stable Wi-Fi, uninterrupted connectivity, better guest experience, enhanced Wi-Fi

References:

  1. “Hotel Wi-Fi more important than breakfast and parking for US guests”PJ Cunningham [Lonely Planet]
  2. “Wi-Fi trends: What to expect in the next five years” – Robert Brown[CIO Review]
  • “Rules for successful hotel Wi-Fi” – Keith R. Parsons [WirelessLAN Professionals]
  1. “Study reveals the importance of Wi-Fi” – Casey Gale [Lodging]
  2. “Even the super rich want free Wi-Fi in Hotels” – Justin Bachman [Bloomberg Pursuits]
  3. “Exceeding Customer Expectations: The Importance of Wireless and the Wi-Fi Password” –Hospitality [Samsung Insights]
  • “Hotel Guest Satisfaction Plateaus as “Perks” Become Standard Expectations, J.D. Power Study Finds” – D. Power
  • “What’s More Important than Sex, Chocolate or Alcohol? Wi-Fi, According to a New iPass Report” – iPass Inc.
  1. “Internet Travel & Hotel Booking Statistics” – Statistic Brain
  2. “Check into the futuristic hotels that push technology beyond free Wi-Fi” – Les Shu [Digital Trends]
  3. “The citizenM room has affordable luxury coming out of its ears” – Citizen M
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“Green” is Attractive for Young Lawyers (Content Strategi – SEO)

The energy and environment offer new challenges for lawyers and the courts as many current statuses are not appropriate for the standards and legal issues that are raised by this ever-evolving commerce sector. The “green sector”, as the energy and environment are sometimes referred to, are most attractive to young lawyers as the advancements in this area are easily understood by the fresh minds of the young lawyers.  This sector does not disappoint recent graduates as it offers a significant number of placements and opportunities.

Sustainability is another word for opportunity in the energy sector as green jobs are a growing sector of the economy as many laws are passed to prohibit builders and commercial companies from using environment harming materials in their buildings and pursuit of commerce. Since most of the population is in favour of protecting the environment as best we can for the future, a large section of consumer protection and other issues dealing with the preservation of the environment have opened the ranks of jobs for lawyers.

Since sustainability is important for the future, it involves the production of the materials that are used for building materials. The area of law gets involved with the growing and manufacturing sectors as well as the commercial sector. Therefore the flow of work for lawyers is a wide and far reaching field. The world in which the environmentalists and the commercial efforts work in unison is not yet reached in this century. The future holds promise, though.

Project development in the gas and electric sector is a specific area that has kept many lawyers employed in India.  Depending on the location of the practice many lawyers in India have clients involved in the building of roads and especially ports in cities where they are accessible for trade. Depending on the size of the firm the amount of business that can be handled expeditiously in the business many times determines the opportunity available to the lawyers. All will have some sustainability or clean environment issue on the table.

The average lawyer involved with the pipeline most likely received a salary that is slightly above average.  For other lawyers in the clean energy and sustainability sector, the pay varies quite substantially.  Based on the report in NaukriHub (http://www.naukrihub.com/salary-in-india/lawyer.html), the salary range is from INR 19,50,000 to INR 1,76,874. The differential is the size of the firm. Most firms specialise so the clean energy sector would have large, medium, and small firms with the representative salary.  For young lawyers fresh out of law school the amount will vary again depending on the size of the firm. Clean energy and sustainability firms are attractive to young lawyers because of the futuristic nature of the cases as well as the attractive salary that can be obtained at a large firm. 

LSI:  lawyers, green, sustainability, energy, environment

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