...In my last article, Digital Transformation Matters, we looked at the accelerating pace of change, the case for digital transformation, and our evolving interactions with technology. We also asked a simple question: Are you ready to do business in a digital way for the digital age? Read More...

...2016 has well and truly begun! and as is customary of this time of year, many are asking for the future...for predictions on the next 12 months, for product roadmaps, and for clarity on the direction of the industry. Read More...

...Every day my LinkedIn feed is full of advice on how to implement a new CMS for more agile marketing outcomes. It’s as if marketing automation is the holy grail that’s going to deliver transformation and spare us the challenges of disruption. If only. Read More...

...Why Spark? Because Spark is a general-purpose framework for cluster computing, it is used for a diverse range of applications. Spark will add significant value to the increasingly hybridized world of big data tools and platforms. Spark and its component technologies—as a unified stack or as discrete components—will quickly find their spot of use cases, applications and deployment zones where they sparkle brightest. Read More...

...A segmentation strategy has been a necessity of marketing plans for decades. A segmentation strategy is used to identify and define a target industry and often includes personas, which are used to define the traits of an organization’s ideal customer. Much has been made over the last decade or so about how Marketers can improve the definition of their market segments by gathering behavioral and demographic data from digital and online activity. The obvious conclusion is that the more information you gather, it results in better audience targeting, which will lead to increased engagement and thus higher sales conversions. Read More...

...Again today in the news is another Oil & Gas company posting a profit loss, a rig operator scrapping two rigs and predictions of shortfalls in supplies by 2020, plus major retrenchments of staff across the globe. With all of this going on the signs are that we are going to have to sweat the assets and do more with less. How then are we going to do more with less? Read More...

...During the course of 2015 and on into 16 I have been studying, researching as well as working. My study, research has been on various topics from IoT, Sustainability, Environment, Food Security, Complex Decision making, Supply Chain Management, Cyber Security, In memory Computing, Statistics to name but a few(FutureLearn). Work wise I have been a Consultant for Enterprises Solutions(Trobexis), Enterprise Asset Management, Enterprise Content Management (OpenText) in a variety of Industries, which include, Oil & Gas, Utilities, Construction, Maintenance even Banking. Here is the thing though, what do all these study, research and work all have in common? Simple BIG DATA!!!! That’s getting bigger everyday. Read More...

...Below are just two examples of questions marketers around the world ask themselves every day.    “In spite of our strong marketing support, sales of our brand are flagging. Why? What should we do?” “If we launch this new product, what will it do to our bottom line? Will we just cannibalize our flagship brand?” Unfortunately, there are rarely simple answers and organizational politics and other factors, such as the state of the economy, also come into play, further complicating matters. While some marketing researchers seem to take for granted that marketing is now well-embedded in most companies and that the value of marketing research is universally accepted by marketers themselves, even in Western multinationals these assumptions are tenuous. In the words of one of our contacts, a marketer with extensive brand management experience at MNCs, “Marketing is regarded as fluff” even at many large corporations. The perception that the real work is done by production, sales and engineering is very common. Read More...

...In one of our last posts, we talked about the advantages of choosing a cloud BI provider. But, with so many emerging solutions providers, how do you choose a qualified vendor that can meet your business needs? One of the options that is gaining traction is Microsoft Power BI, a cloud-based solution that combines connectively with multiple sources and integration with familiar Microsoft products. Let’s detail four reasons why the Microsoft Power BI stack has an edge over other BI tools currently available on the marketplace: Read More...

...People Transformation is essential and bedrock for managing and driving business transformation, and preparing for Digital Transformation. The purpose of People Transformation is to help deliver the improvements and benefits that business seeks for employees: Build their capabilities Increase their capacity Intensify their engagement Develop deeper connections between purpose and meaning Organizations, business & HR partners, should co-develop a consistent theme to: The transformation process Methods and tools for sustaining changes in the long-term Read More...

...In the last five years there are two topics in which I have been focusing on in a really passionate way: Digital Strategy and Gamification. I went through this topic last week at the 2015 Gamification World Congress in Barcelona and here is a transcription of my speaking note.  “the holy grail of Gamification is  to unlock the secret of motivation and engagement. Maybe Digital Strategy has the key”  -- @b_crespo Read More...

...This case study is based on a fusion of recent consulting engagements. EuroBank was embarking on a major change programme aimed at reinventing the core of the organisation over the next 5 years. Business Challenge The Bank had been relatively successful in avoiding the financial meltdown – mostly as a result of some cautious risk management in the early 2000s. Following previous rounds of M&A, the Bank had multiple overlapping systems and products. With strong functionally-organised business units, there was no effective way of challenging their dominance; each department set its own budgets and employed their own IT resources. To set up the Bank for a successful, long-term business simplification change initiative, the Bank started to explore a combination of a centralised Business Architecture initiative and CX programmes. It had to develop both the muscles and reflexes it would need for the transformation ahead. Read More...