Shawn O’Neal is VP of Global Marketing Data and Analytics at Unilever, part of the Consumer & Marketing Insights (CMI) team, and he leads the company’s Global People Data Program.
The ultimate objective of the program is to enable 1 billion relationships through digital data analysis and new ways of
connecting with people.
In his 12 years at Unilever, Shawn has worked across a range of roles in customer development
and consumer & marketing insights, with a particular focus on strategy, analysis, and the optimal use of information for
decision-making.
#DTR8: The New Innovation Paradigm for the Digital Age: Faster, Cheaper and O...Capgemini
In this edition of the Digital Transformation Review, we examine how organizations can create sustainable and successful innovation strategy, drawing on our global panel of industry executives and academics.
We focus on four key themes:
Which digital innovations should be on organizations' radar screens?
How should companies promote innovation and embed it into their culture?
What lessons can we draw from organizations that are stand-out innovators?
What is the role and impact of innovation centers, including the Capgemini Consulting-Altimeter Group report, "The Innovation Game: Why and How Businesses are Investing in Innovation Centers".
When Digital Disruption Strikes: How Can Incumbents Respond?Capgemini
Digital innovation is shaking the core of every industry and incumbents are struggling to respond. The emergence of startups such as Uber – which disrupt entire sectors with their agile, innovative business models – is worrying traditional incumbents. Venture funding to startups is at historic highs. In just one startup hotspot, Silicon Valley, venture capital investment in the first three quarters of 2014 was around $17 billion, a figure that is only surpassed by the peak of the dotcom era in 2000. In recent research by GE, two-thirds of respondents agreed that businesses have to encourage creative behaviors and must disrupt their internal processes in order to do so. What does a successful strategy for responding to disruption look like? How fast have companies responded to digital disruptions? To understand more about how traditional incumbents respond to digital disruption, we conducted research spanning 100+ companies.
n the new digital economy, we are in the midst of a third industrial revolution comparable in scale and impact to the introduction of electrification. Digital technology has the potential to improve corporate performance and reach radically, leading to demonstrably better financial performance. However, while the potential of digital is clear, how to practically deliver on a digital vision is less so. In this third Digital Transformation Review, we aim to help business leaders understand more about the managerial and change challenge that they are facing. We look at how an organization defines its digital vision, how to drive change through effective governance and a people strategy, and how to seize the opportunity offered by big data.
We also offer a fresh perspective from pioneers across the globe, looking at an Indian organization’s approach to innovation in healthcare. One company that has defined an ambitious digital vision is Pfizer. We interview Kristin Peck, executive VP of worldwide business development and innovation, and John Young, president and general manager of the primary care business unit, who share the opportunities they see in the digital space as well as their journey in transforming their organization to create more value for their customers.
Digital Leadership Interview : Gavin Starks, CEO of the Open Data Institute (...Capgemini
"Large organizations should think about releasing their data and rely on third parties to innovate on their behalf rather than trying to innovate internally."
Turning AI into Concrete Value: The Successful Implementers' ToolkitCapgemini
A Capgemini study of nearly 1,000 organizations implementing Artificial Intelligence highlights the growth opportunity of AI and counters fears that AI will cause massive job losses in the short term.
#DTR8: The New Innovation Paradigm for the Digital Age: Faster, Cheaper and O...Capgemini
In this edition of the Digital Transformation Review, we examine how organizations can create sustainable and successful innovation strategy, drawing on our global panel of industry executives and academics.
We focus on four key themes:
Which digital innovations should be on organizations' radar screens?
How should companies promote innovation and embed it into their culture?
What lessons can we draw from organizations that are stand-out innovators?
What is the role and impact of innovation centers, including the Capgemini Consulting-Altimeter Group report, "The Innovation Game: Why and How Businesses are Investing in Innovation Centers".
When Digital Disruption Strikes: How Can Incumbents Respond?Capgemini
Digital innovation is shaking the core of every industry and incumbents are struggling to respond. The emergence of startups such as Uber – which disrupt entire sectors with their agile, innovative business models – is worrying traditional incumbents. Venture funding to startups is at historic highs. In just one startup hotspot, Silicon Valley, venture capital investment in the first three quarters of 2014 was around $17 billion, a figure that is only surpassed by the peak of the dotcom era in 2000. In recent research by GE, two-thirds of respondents agreed that businesses have to encourage creative behaviors and must disrupt their internal processes in order to do so. What does a successful strategy for responding to disruption look like? How fast have companies responded to digital disruptions? To understand more about how traditional incumbents respond to digital disruption, we conducted research spanning 100+ companies.
n the new digital economy, we are in the midst of a third industrial revolution comparable in scale and impact to the introduction of electrification. Digital technology has the potential to improve corporate performance and reach radically, leading to demonstrably better financial performance. However, while the potential of digital is clear, how to practically deliver on a digital vision is less so. In this third Digital Transformation Review, we aim to help business leaders understand more about the managerial and change challenge that they are facing. We look at how an organization defines its digital vision, how to drive change through effective governance and a people strategy, and how to seize the opportunity offered by big data.
We also offer a fresh perspective from pioneers across the globe, looking at an Indian organization’s approach to innovation in healthcare. One company that has defined an ambitious digital vision is Pfizer. We interview Kristin Peck, executive VP of worldwide business development and innovation, and John Young, president and general manager of the primary care business unit, who share the opportunities they see in the digital space as well as their journey in transforming their organization to create more value for their customers.
Digital Leadership Interview : Gavin Starks, CEO of the Open Data Institute (...Capgemini
"Large organizations should think about releasing their data and rely on third parties to innovate on their behalf rather than trying to innovate internally."
Turning AI into Concrete Value: The Successful Implementers' ToolkitCapgemini
A Capgemini study of nearly 1,000 organizations implementing Artificial Intelligence highlights the growth opportunity of AI and counters fears that AI will cause massive job losses in the short term.
Leaders spend billions on digital transformation. How to keep up?N-iX
Digital disruption is like a giant white shark hunting businesses in the deep waters of the global economy. Industry leaders respond with digital transformation initiatives and we can learn a lot from their examples..
Cracking the Data Conundrum: How Successful Companies Make #BigData OperationalCapgemini
There is little arguing the benefits and disruptive potential of Big Data. However, many organizations have not fully embedded Big Data in their operations. In fact, our research shows that only 13% have achieved full-scale production for their Big Data implementations. The most troubling development is that most organizations are failing to benefit from their investments. Only 27% of respondents described their Big Data initiatives as “successful” and only 8% described them as “very successful”.
So, how can organizations make Big Data operational? There are many factors that go into the making of a successful Big Data implementation. However, the single biggest factor that we observed in our research was that organizations that have a strong operating model stood apart. This operating model has multiple distinct elements, which include, among others, a well-defined organizational structure, systematic implementation plan, and strong leadership support. For instance, success rates for organizations with an analytics business unit are nearly 2.5 times those that have ad-hoc, isolated teams. The report highlights the key factors for successful Big Data implementations.
Proper forecasting is a key factor that decides a company's survival in the market. Companies that are good at forecasting can win over the market quickly because they are ready for every uncertain situation. Companies now have started relying on digital methods of forecasting for better and genuine results.
A Framework for Digital Business TransformationCognizant
By embracing Code Halo thinking and a programmatic approach to business process change, organizations can better engage with customers and deliver mass-customized products and services that drive differentiation and outperformance.
Digital Transformation Drives 2021 IT Investmentsrun_frictionless
Digital transformation efforts continue to dominate the technology landscape as more IT leaders recognize the need to update hardware and software infrastructure to accelerate strategic products and services for the business. SoftwareTrends conducted a survey of some 1,020 IT executives, directors, and managers between August and November 2020 to better understand the current state of digital transformation efforts across companies of all sizes—and forecast the technology investment plans for 2021.
https://runfrictionless.com/b2b-white-paper-service/
The Work Ahead in Utilities: Powering a Sustainable Future with DigitalCognizant
Utilities are starting to adopt digital technologies to eliminate slow processes, elevate customer experience and boost sustainability, according to our recent study.
Ctrl-alt-del: Rebooting the Business Model for the Digital AgeCapgemini
Our research with the MIT Sloan Management Review reveals that only 16% of organizations are leveraging digital technologies to develop new business models. Most organizations follow traditional approaches to innovation that focus on new products and services, rather than on business models. However, research suggests that the returns from traditional approaches have been diminishing with time. As Serguei Netessine, Professor at INSEAD Singapore says, “Pharmaceutical companies spend as much as 30% of their revenues on R&D, trying to develop new products or technologies. But the return from this enormous expenditure has been very elusive and it is a common problem across industries.” Business model reinvention can be as good a route as technology, product or service innovations. This research highlight five different approaches that organizations can adopt to reinvent their business model with digital technologies.
I made resume ini shareable format (PDF) from article Tangui Catlin, Jay Scanlan, & Paul Wilmoot (they are from McKinsey) titled "Raising Your Digital Quotient".
I hope this file can be shared to anyone that need it. You can read how McKinsey can estimates your company related to DQ (Digital Quotient).
---------------------
With the pace of change in the world accelerating around us, it can be hard to remember that the digital revolution is still in its early days. Massive changes have come about since the packet-switch network and the microprocessor were invented, nearly 50 years ago. A look at the rising rate of discovery in fundamental R&D and in practical engineering leaves little doubt that more upheaval is on the way.
For incumbent companies, the stakes continue to rise. From 1965 to 2012, the “topple rate,” at which they lose their leadership positions, increased by almost 40 percent1 as digital technology ramped up competition, disrupted industries, and forced businesses to clarify their strategies, develop new capabilities, and transform their cultures. Yet the opportunity is also plain. McKinsey research shows that companies have lofty ambitions: they expect digital initiatives to deliver annual growth and cost efficiencies of 5 to 10 percent or more in the next three to five years.
Successful implementation of predictive analytics can feel unpredictable. There are risks that need to be consciously addressed, and successful implementation requires the right strategy. Join Anita Lauper Wood, Product Strategist, for a valuable session for product and technology leaders.
The Internet of Things: Are Organizations Ready For A Multi-Trillion Dollar P...Capgemini
The Internet is expanding. And this is not just in terms of getting accessible to more people; it is expanding beyond humans. Machines are becoming connected. Machines are talking to humans, but increasingly, they are also talking to one another. And this interconnectedness of machines, or the Internet of Things (IoT), is a potential multi-trillion dollar market that organizations can now tap into.
However, do organizations realize the scale of the opportunity? Capgemini Consulting conducted an extensive survey of IoT products and services of over 100 leading companies across North America and Europe. We also spoke at length with several industry executives at companies developing IoT solutions to understand the challenges companies face. This article presents the results of the survey and highlights the key hurdles companies are facing.
Taking the Digital Pulse: Why Healthcare Providers Need an Urgent Digital Che...Capgemini
Digital technologies are altering the very fabric of the traditional healthcare delivery model. Consumers are actively embracing digital tools to take charge of their health.
Consider this: no less than 86% of respondents in a survey reported that they wanted to take a more proactive role in their healthcare decisions, and 76% reported that they have the tools and information to do so. Social media and mobile platforms are becoming increasingly important channels for consumers. A survey found that 45% of respondents search for health information and close to 34% ask for health-related advice on social media. channels. The four million mobile health app downloads that occur every day also give consumers an easy way to track their health.
So how is the healthcare industry responding to these new opportunities? Are the industry and the current healthcare delivery model adapting to changing consumer needs rapidly enough? To obtain a clearer picture of current digital readiness, we conducted a survey of global healthcare players. We also compared the digital maturity of the healthcare industry with that of other industries, based on a previous study conducted jointly with the MIT Center for Digital Business. The results will probably not come as a surprise to many of us.
We found that healthcare is significantly less mature than many industries in the adoption of digital technologies. Our survey also revealed a wide disparity in the digital maturity of healthcare providers. Only 33% were found to be digitally mature or Digirati, while the majority were found to be lagging in the use of digital technologies.
Big Data Alchemy: How can Banks Maximize the Value of their Customer Data?Capgemini
This document is a point of view on how banks can maximize the value of their customer data using big data analytics. While the volume of data has been increasing in recent years, many banks have not been able to profit from this growth. Several challenges hold them back. The PoV explores these challenges and suggests actions for banks in order to scale-up to the next level of customer data analytics.
PwC: New IT Platform From Strategy Through ExecutionCA Technologies
Glenn Hobbs, PwC’s technology consulting director, shares how PwC’s new IT Platform can provide the framework to transform IT organizations so they can quickly incorporate the right technology and focus on collaboration and innovation to help solve the most-critical business problems.
For more information on DevOps solutions from CA Technologies, please visit: http://bit.ly/1wbjjqX
Vital Trends in Digital Experience and Transformation in 2016 | Dreamforce 20...Dion Hinchcliffe
Here's the deck I presented at the Emerging Tech Trends track at the Hilton Union Square at Dreamforce 2016 last week. Updates on trends from last year and new trends both are included. A thorough list of what your organization should be considering from both a technology standpoint and as a business.
Data-driven cognitive technologies will enable personalised education and improve outcomes for students, educators and administrators. Ultimately, education experiences will be transformed and improved when data can accompany the students throughout their life-long learning journey.
What is the future of education? Find out soon from our next #IBMfuturEd study.
Stewarding Data : Why Financial Services Firms Need a Chief Data OfficierCapgemini
The C-suite could soon start to feel a little crowded, with Chief Digital Officers, Chief Innovation Officers, Chief Risk Officers
and Chief Data Officers joining the more established functional leaders. To avoid C-suite proliferation, companies need to
decide whether to elevate a new functional role to “chief” based on the strategic importance of the issue for the organization and its sector. For example, in many organizations, marketing will be so essential to performance that few would deny the need for a CMO. In financial services, data has become so mission-critical that the role of Chief Data Officer is simply essential.
The Greek philosopher Heraclitus said, “The only thing that is constant is change,” and nowhere does this seem truer than in the world of marketing. Change seems to happen more frequently and with more severe consequences than ever before. Learn about five key factors driving complexity in today's marketplace.
Leaders spend billions on digital transformation. How to keep up?N-iX
Digital disruption is like a giant white shark hunting businesses in the deep waters of the global economy. Industry leaders respond with digital transformation initiatives and we can learn a lot from their examples..
Cracking the Data Conundrum: How Successful Companies Make #BigData OperationalCapgemini
There is little arguing the benefits and disruptive potential of Big Data. However, many organizations have not fully embedded Big Data in their operations. In fact, our research shows that only 13% have achieved full-scale production for their Big Data implementations. The most troubling development is that most organizations are failing to benefit from their investments. Only 27% of respondents described their Big Data initiatives as “successful” and only 8% described them as “very successful”.
So, how can organizations make Big Data operational? There are many factors that go into the making of a successful Big Data implementation. However, the single biggest factor that we observed in our research was that organizations that have a strong operating model stood apart. This operating model has multiple distinct elements, which include, among others, a well-defined organizational structure, systematic implementation plan, and strong leadership support. For instance, success rates for organizations with an analytics business unit are nearly 2.5 times those that have ad-hoc, isolated teams. The report highlights the key factors for successful Big Data implementations.
Proper forecasting is a key factor that decides a company's survival in the market. Companies that are good at forecasting can win over the market quickly because they are ready for every uncertain situation. Companies now have started relying on digital methods of forecasting for better and genuine results.
A Framework for Digital Business TransformationCognizant
By embracing Code Halo thinking and a programmatic approach to business process change, organizations can better engage with customers and deliver mass-customized products and services that drive differentiation and outperformance.
Digital Transformation Drives 2021 IT Investmentsrun_frictionless
Digital transformation efforts continue to dominate the technology landscape as more IT leaders recognize the need to update hardware and software infrastructure to accelerate strategic products and services for the business. SoftwareTrends conducted a survey of some 1,020 IT executives, directors, and managers between August and November 2020 to better understand the current state of digital transformation efforts across companies of all sizes—and forecast the technology investment plans for 2021.
https://runfrictionless.com/b2b-white-paper-service/
The Work Ahead in Utilities: Powering a Sustainable Future with DigitalCognizant
Utilities are starting to adopt digital technologies to eliminate slow processes, elevate customer experience and boost sustainability, according to our recent study.
Ctrl-alt-del: Rebooting the Business Model for the Digital AgeCapgemini
Our research with the MIT Sloan Management Review reveals that only 16% of organizations are leveraging digital technologies to develop new business models. Most organizations follow traditional approaches to innovation that focus on new products and services, rather than on business models. However, research suggests that the returns from traditional approaches have been diminishing with time. As Serguei Netessine, Professor at INSEAD Singapore says, “Pharmaceutical companies spend as much as 30% of their revenues on R&D, trying to develop new products or technologies. But the return from this enormous expenditure has been very elusive and it is a common problem across industries.” Business model reinvention can be as good a route as technology, product or service innovations. This research highlight five different approaches that organizations can adopt to reinvent their business model with digital technologies.
I made resume ini shareable format (PDF) from article Tangui Catlin, Jay Scanlan, & Paul Wilmoot (they are from McKinsey) titled "Raising Your Digital Quotient".
I hope this file can be shared to anyone that need it. You can read how McKinsey can estimates your company related to DQ (Digital Quotient).
---------------------
With the pace of change in the world accelerating around us, it can be hard to remember that the digital revolution is still in its early days. Massive changes have come about since the packet-switch network and the microprocessor were invented, nearly 50 years ago. A look at the rising rate of discovery in fundamental R&D and in practical engineering leaves little doubt that more upheaval is on the way.
For incumbent companies, the stakes continue to rise. From 1965 to 2012, the “topple rate,” at which they lose their leadership positions, increased by almost 40 percent1 as digital technology ramped up competition, disrupted industries, and forced businesses to clarify their strategies, develop new capabilities, and transform their cultures. Yet the opportunity is also plain. McKinsey research shows that companies have lofty ambitions: they expect digital initiatives to deliver annual growth and cost efficiencies of 5 to 10 percent or more in the next three to five years.
Successful implementation of predictive analytics can feel unpredictable. There are risks that need to be consciously addressed, and successful implementation requires the right strategy. Join Anita Lauper Wood, Product Strategist, for a valuable session for product and technology leaders.
The Internet of Things: Are Organizations Ready For A Multi-Trillion Dollar P...Capgemini
The Internet is expanding. And this is not just in terms of getting accessible to more people; it is expanding beyond humans. Machines are becoming connected. Machines are talking to humans, but increasingly, they are also talking to one another. And this interconnectedness of machines, or the Internet of Things (IoT), is a potential multi-trillion dollar market that organizations can now tap into.
However, do organizations realize the scale of the opportunity? Capgemini Consulting conducted an extensive survey of IoT products and services of over 100 leading companies across North America and Europe. We also spoke at length with several industry executives at companies developing IoT solutions to understand the challenges companies face. This article presents the results of the survey and highlights the key hurdles companies are facing.
Taking the Digital Pulse: Why Healthcare Providers Need an Urgent Digital Che...Capgemini
Digital technologies are altering the very fabric of the traditional healthcare delivery model. Consumers are actively embracing digital tools to take charge of their health.
Consider this: no less than 86% of respondents in a survey reported that they wanted to take a more proactive role in their healthcare decisions, and 76% reported that they have the tools and information to do so. Social media and mobile platforms are becoming increasingly important channels for consumers. A survey found that 45% of respondents search for health information and close to 34% ask for health-related advice on social media. channels. The four million mobile health app downloads that occur every day also give consumers an easy way to track their health.
So how is the healthcare industry responding to these new opportunities? Are the industry and the current healthcare delivery model adapting to changing consumer needs rapidly enough? To obtain a clearer picture of current digital readiness, we conducted a survey of global healthcare players. We also compared the digital maturity of the healthcare industry with that of other industries, based on a previous study conducted jointly with the MIT Center for Digital Business. The results will probably not come as a surprise to many of us.
We found that healthcare is significantly less mature than many industries in the adoption of digital technologies. Our survey also revealed a wide disparity in the digital maturity of healthcare providers. Only 33% were found to be digitally mature or Digirati, while the majority were found to be lagging in the use of digital technologies.
Big Data Alchemy: How can Banks Maximize the Value of their Customer Data?Capgemini
This document is a point of view on how banks can maximize the value of their customer data using big data analytics. While the volume of data has been increasing in recent years, many banks have not been able to profit from this growth. Several challenges hold them back. The PoV explores these challenges and suggests actions for banks in order to scale-up to the next level of customer data analytics.
PwC: New IT Platform From Strategy Through ExecutionCA Technologies
Glenn Hobbs, PwC’s technology consulting director, shares how PwC’s new IT Platform can provide the framework to transform IT organizations so they can quickly incorporate the right technology and focus on collaboration and innovation to help solve the most-critical business problems.
For more information on DevOps solutions from CA Technologies, please visit: http://bit.ly/1wbjjqX
Vital Trends in Digital Experience and Transformation in 2016 | Dreamforce 20...Dion Hinchcliffe
Here's the deck I presented at the Emerging Tech Trends track at the Hilton Union Square at Dreamforce 2016 last week. Updates on trends from last year and new trends both are included. A thorough list of what your organization should be considering from both a technology standpoint and as a business.
Data-driven cognitive technologies will enable personalised education and improve outcomes for students, educators and administrators. Ultimately, education experiences will be transformed and improved when data can accompany the students throughout their life-long learning journey.
What is the future of education? Find out soon from our next #IBMfuturEd study.
Stewarding Data : Why Financial Services Firms Need a Chief Data OfficierCapgemini
The C-suite could soon start to feel a little crowded, with Chief Digital Officers, Chief Innovation Officers, Chief Risk Officers
and Chief Data Officers joining the more established functional leaders. To avoid C-suite proliferation, companies need to
decide whether to elevate a new functional role to “chief” based on the strategic importance of the issue for the organization and its sector. For example, in many organizations, marketing will be so essential to performance that few would deny the need for a CMO. In financial services, data has become so mission-critical that the role of Chief Data Officer is simply essential.
The Greek philosopher Heraclitus said, “The only thing that is constant is change,” and nowhere does this seem truer than in the world of marketing. Change seems to happen more frequently and with more severe consequences than ever before. Learn about five key factors driving complexity in today's marketplace.
What Big Data Means for PR and Why It Matters to UsMSL
Invited to sit on a panel together with Paul Holmes at the PR Forum held in Bucharest March 26, Pascal shared thoughts about the Big Data tsunami which is deeply transforming marketing, communications and PR. What is "Big Data" exactly, what does it mean to businesses, why does it matter to us, and what potential issues could arise from it?
Andrew Challier, Director, Client Relations at Ebiquity spoke at Ad:Tech in October 2014. With the evolution in digital marketing very much on the Ad:Tech agenda, here Andrew looks at the current digital landscape and argues that there's still some growing up to do.
A presentation I gave at Digital Summit: Mass publishing is the lowest form of value the internet can provide you. Relying on a content publishing model for lead generation, and relationship building will not give you the sustainable, or scaleable competitive advantage you need to succeed in this new world of infinite noise. Nobody cares about your content because you’ve missed the true reason people consume content, because it fulfills their inner purpose. Learn what the five pillars are and why they must be new foundations for the future marketing organization.
The State of Digital Transformation in Marketing and CommunicationSocial Embassy
Extensive study amongst CEO's, CMO's and top brands on digital transformation. What is digital transformation and the impact? How do brands organise? How much are they investing? And what skills do marketeers need to develop? This report basically describes the future of Marketing and Communication.
27 digital marketing trends predictions 2015Fresh Egg UK
In this presentation Fresh Egg’s digital experts look back at their predictions from last year, and let you in on the key trends you should be looking out for in 2015.
8 page, quarterly customizable newsletter for printers and mailers. You customize, print and distribute. Great content to make your company stand out from the competition. Includes email, blog and social media components.
Going Beyond the Empowered Buyer: The Next Five Mega Marketing Challenges Demandbase
In the modern B2B buying cycle, control has moved away from businesses and into the hands of their buyers. This challenge has inspired a wave of marketing innovation, but there are even bigger challenges ahead. Follow along as Mathew Sweezey reveals the next Five Mega challenges facing B2B marketers – and how to confront them.
We are all living through a period of exciting, widespread
technological change. We need to be prepared to take on
the challenges and embrace the many opportunities that
the data revolution brings.
COVID-19 heightened chronic challenges within the global healthcare industry. It became a catalyst amid fierce competition and tight regulations for health providers and payers to focus on digital health, cybersecurity, patient data transparency, and a variety of customer-centric and operational enhancements. As a result, we found the 2022 trendline pointing to improvements in access and quality of care.
Healthcare challenges such as optimizing the cost of care while simultaneously enabling personalized interventions and consumer-friendly shoppable services are long-standing − but, historically, the industry has been slow to react.
Read our Top Trends 2022 report to examine the lingering ramifications of the pandemic, responses from medical and insurance organizations, and the worldwide impact of ever-changing regulatory standards and mandates.
A combination of factors − the pandemic, catastrophic weather events, evolving policyholder expectations, and insurers’ drive for operational efficiency and future relevance − are sparking P&C industry changes.
In a post-COVID, new-normal environment, the most strategic insurers are building resilient, crisis-proof enterprises poised to take advantage of emerging and future business opportunities. They are leveraging advanced data analytics and novel technologies to assure agility and achieve positive revenue and customer satisfaction outcomes. Competitive advantage will hinge on accelerated digitalization and faster go-to-market. Therefore, win-win partnerships and embedded services with InsurTechs and other ecosystem players are critical.
Read Capgemini’s Top P&C Insurance Trends 2022 for a glimpse at the tactical and strategic initiatives carriers are undertaking to boost customer-centricity, product agility, intelligent processes, and an open ecosystem to ensure profitable growth and future-readiness.
This analysis provides an overview of the top trends in the commercial banking sector as they shift to technology high gear to boost client efficiency and battle a volatile, uncertain, competitive, and evolving landscape.
First, it was retail banking. Now, advanced technology is shifting to – and disrupting − the commercial banking space. Many commercial banks, known for paperwork, red tape, and branch dependency, were unprepared to support clients during their post-COVID-19 ramp-up. But now, the digital pivot to new mindsets, partnerships, and processes is in overdrive.
As commercial banks grapple with competition from FinTechs, BigTechs, and alternative lenders, their inability
to fulfill SME demands and pandemic after-shocks necessitates transformative process changes and a move
to experiential, sustainable, and inclusive banking models. We expect banks to strive to meet the demands
of corporate clients and SMEs by digitally transforming critical workflows and improving client experience.
Additionally, incremental process improvements in the middle and back-office that leverage intelligent
automation will keep the competition at bay because engaged clients are loyal.
Adopting newer methods to mine data and moving to as-a-Service models will prepare commercial banks
to flexibly respond to newcomers and find ways to co-exist through effective collaboration. The time has come for commercial banks to put transformation on the fast track as lending losses in wallet and market share could spill over to other functions!
How incumbents react and respond to 2022 trends could determine their relevancy and resiliency in the years ahead.
The Covid-19 pandemic necessitated the payments industry undergo a facelift, sparked by novel approaches from new-age players, fostered by industry consolidation, and customers’ demand for end-to-end experience. Crossing the threshold, the industry is entering a new era – Payments 4.X, where payments are embedded and invisible, and an enabling function to provide frictionless customer experience. As customers make a permanent shift to next-gen payment methods, Digital IDs are critical for a seamless payment experience. The B2B payments segment is witnessing rapid digitization. BigTechs, PayTechs, and industry newcomers are ready to jump in with newfangled solutions to help underserved small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs).
As incumbents struggle with profits, new-age firms are forging ahead to take the lead in the Payments 4.X era by riding the success of non-card products and services. The new era demands collaboration, platformification, and firms can unleash full market potential only by embracing API-based business models and open ecosystems. Data prowess and enhanced payment processing capabilities are inevitable to thrive ahead. The clock is ticking for banks and traditional payments firms because the competitive advantage is not guaranteed forever. As industry players seek economies of scale, consolidations loom, and non-banks explore new territories to threaten incumbents’ market share. While all these 2022 trends are at play, central bank digital currency (CBDC) is emerging globally and might open a new chapter in the current payments landscape.
As we slowly move out of the pandemic, financial services firms have learned the criticality of virtual engagement to business resilience. Wealth management firms will need capabilities to cater to new-age clients and deliver new-age services. This report aims to understand and analyze the top trends in the Wealth Management industry this year and beyond.
A year ago, our Top Trends in Wealth Management report emphasized how the pandemic sparked disruption and digital transformation and changing investor attitudes around Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance (ESG) products. As we begin 2022, many of those trends continue to hold as COVID-19’s wide-reaching effects continue to influence the wealth management industry.
As wealth management (WM) firms supercharge their digital transformation journeys, investments in cybersecurity and human-centered design are becoming critical to building superior digital client experience (CX). Another holdover trend − sustainable investing – is gaining mainstream attention and generating increasingly sophisticated client demands. Data and analytics capabilities will become ever more essential for ESG scoring and personalized customer engagement. As large financial services firms refocus on their wealth management business while new digital players make industry strides, competition is becoming historically intense. Not surprisingly, client experience is the new battleground.
This analysis provides an overview of the top trends in the retail banking sector driven by the competition, digital transformation, and innovation led by retail banks exploring novel ways to create and retain value in evolving landscape.
COVID-19 caught banks off guard and shook legacy mindsets to the core. With 20/20 (2020) hindsight, firms are more aware, digitally resilient, and financially stable as they head into 2022. The trials of the past 18 months forced firms to shore up existing business and consider new models and revenue streams.
Customer-centricity remains at the top of most FS agendas and is a 2022 focal point. Banks will focus on achieving operational excellence as diligently as delivering superior CX. In 2022 and beyond, it will be paramount for FIs to explore and invest in new technologies to remain relevant and resilient.
Banking 4.X will arrive in full force in 2022 with platform-supported firms monetizing diverse ecosystem capabilities and aggressively harvesting data to create experiential customer journeys through intelligent and personalized engagements. The new era will compel future-focused banks to finally abandon legacy infrastructure and collaborate with third-party specialists to solidify their best-fit, long-term roles. Increasingly, open platforms will make banks invisible as banking becomes embedded into customer lifestyles. At the same time, banks will shed asset-heavy models and shift to the cloud for greater agility, speed to market, and faster innovation. The shift will act as a precursor to adopting new technologies on the horizon – 5G and Decentralized Finance.
The recent past was filled will extraordinary lessons for financial institutions. Now is the time to act on those learnings and move forward profitably.
While COVID-19 has sparked the demand for life insurance, it has also exposed the operating model vulnerabilities in distribution, servicing, and customer retention. In a post-COVID, new-normal environment, insurers need to enhance their capabilities around advanced data management and focus on seamless and secure data sharing to provide superior CX and hyper-personalized offerings. Accelerated digitalization and faster go-to-market are vital to remaining competitive, and win-win partnerships with ecosystems are critical in the journey.
Read our Top Life Insurance Trends 2022 to explore the tactical and strategic initiatives carriers undertake to acquire competencies around customer centricity, product agility, intelligent processes, and an open ecosystem to ensure profitable growth and future readiness.
Property & Casualty Insurance Top Trends 2021Capgemini
The Property & Casualty insurance landscape is evolving quickly with the changing risk landscape, entry of new players, and changing customer expectations. The ripple effects of COVID-19 on the P&C insurance industry and natural disasters such as forest fires have adversely impacted insurance firm books.
In this scenario, to ensure growth and future-readiness, the most strategic insurers strive to be ‘Inventive Insurers’ – assuming a customer-centric approach, deploying intelligent processes, practicing business resilience and go-to-market agility, and embracing an open ecosystem.
Read our Property & Casualty Insurance Top Trends 2021 report to explore the strategies insurers are adapting to remain competitive amidst the evolving business landscape and how they can explore new ways to enhance their profitability.
A combination of factors such as demographic changes, evolving consumer preferences, and desire to become operationally efficient were already spurring changes in the life insurance industry. Enter 2020 – the COVID-19 pandemic is having a significant impact on the industry.
At the peak of disruption, the focus was on ensuring business continuity, but new initiatives are cropping up to tackle the challenges as the industry is adapting to the new normal.
Furthermore, COVID-19 has acted as a catalyst, pushing life insurers to prioritize their efforts on improving customer centricity, developing go-to-market agility, making processes intelligent, building business resilience, and embracing the open ecosystem.
Read our Life Insurance Top Trends 2021 report to explore the strategies insurers are adopting to manage the changing market dynamics.
The uncertainty of 2020 is setting the global tone for the immediate future in the financial services industry. So it is no surprise banks are laser-focused on business resilience, emphasizing both financial and operational risks. The need to adapt quickly to new normal conditions through virtual customer engagement is clear.
Customer centricity continues to drive commercial banks’ solution designs. And, the pandemic compelled products that deliver immediate client value ‒ quick digital onboarding, seamless lending, and support for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The onus is now on banks to go to market more quickly, which requires the implementation of intelligent processes and integrating corporates’ enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems with banking workflows.
To achieve go-to-market agility, banks across the globe are investing in and collaborating with FinTechs. Many of these partnerships are focused on boosting digital lending and providing seamless support to anxious small-business clients in need of assurance.
With newfound impetus for FinTech collaboration, commercial banks have picked up their step on the path toward OpenX. COVID-19 made it evident that survival during turbulence is manageable through collaboration with ecosystem players.
Read our Top Trends in Commercial Banking 2021 report to explore the strategies banks are adapting to transform their businesses from a product-led, siloed model to an experiential and agile plan.
When we published the Top Trends in Wealth Management 2020, little did we foresee the pandemic that would sweep through the world and disrupt life as we knew it. Yet, when we reviewed last year’s trends, we found that many still hold and some have taken on even greater relevance. One such trend is sustainable investing, which had begun to gain prominence as investors became more aware of ESG considerations, and firms rolled out more sustainable investing offerings. Another trend that has accelerated in the post-COVID world is the importance of investing in omnichannel capabilities and technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance personalization and advisor effectiveness. The pandemic has driven wealth management firms to accelerate their digital transformation journey, with some immediate focus areas being interactive client communications and digital advisor tools.
There is no denying that time is of the essence. Yes, budgets are tight, but the Open X ecosystem offers wealth management firms opportunities to reimagine their operating models and deliver excellent customer experience cost-effectively.
Top trends in Payments: 2020 highlighted the payments industry’s flux driven by new trends in technology adoption, innovative solutions, and changing consumer behavior. The pandemic has tested the digital mastery of players, who are already grappling with transition. Non-cash transactions are on a robust growth path, accelerated by increased adoption during COVID-19. Regulators are working to instill trust and address non-cash payments risk amid unparalleled growth as players collaborate to quell uncertainty. Regional initiatives, such as the P27 (Nordics real-time payments system) and the EPI (European Payments Initiative), are gaining traction in response to country-level fragmentation and competition.
Investment in emerging technologies is looked upon as an elixir to mitigate fraud, data-driven offerings are being considered for providing value-added propositions, and distributed ledger technology is in focus for digital currency solutions, efficiency enhancement, and cost gains. New players, such as retailers/merchants, are integrating payments into their value chains while technology giants are upscaling their financial services game by weaving offerings around payments as a center stage. Constrained by budgets, firms consider business models such as Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) to provide cost-effective and superior customer experience.
A combination of factors, including demographic changes, evolving consumer preferences, and regulatory and compliance mandates, were already spurring change in the health insurance industry. Enter 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic, which is having sweeping implications for the industry.
At the peak of disruption, the focus was on ensuring business continuity, but new initiatives are cropping up to tackle the challenges as the industry adapts to the new normal.
Furthermore, some changes are here to stay, and it will be prudent for the industry players to be resilient to the market shifts by being agile, improving member centricity, making processes intelligent, and embracing the open ecosystem.
Read our Health Insurance Top Trends 2021 report to explore the strategies insurers are adopting to manage the external pressures.
The banking industry’s resilience is being tested as banks navigate through a remarkable 2020 filled with uncertainties. The impact of COVID-19 has been about setting the tone for future operational models. Retail banks have shifted focus towards integrated risk management with a more holistic view of operational risks. Adapting to the new normal, banks have prioritized cost transformation while engaging customers virtually. Incumbents sought to be more responsible within fast-changing environmental conditions and ESG remained a critical focus.
To provide more experiential services, banks are leveraging techniques such as segment-of-one to hyper-personalize offerings while aiming to humanize digital channels for increased engagement. Banks are also revamping middle and back offices, going beyond the front end leveraging intelligent processes. Open X is enabling banks to play on their strengths and use the expertise of ecosystem players. Going forward, banks are poised to become an enhanced one-stop shop by providing consumers value-adding FS and non-FS experiences.
To acquire customers in cost-effective manner, retail banks are tapping value-based propositions ‒ such as POS financing and mortgage refinancing. Further, Banking-as-Service provides incumbents a way to provide their high-value offerings to other players. In preparation for the future, banks will be looking to improve their go-to-market agility by leveraging the benefits of cloud. This analysis outlines the top 10 trends in retail banking for 2021.
Explore how Capgemini’s Connected autonomous planning fine-tunes Consumer Products Company’s operations for manufacturing, transport, procurement, and virtually every other aspect of the supply-value network in a touchless, autonomous way.
Financial services is undergoing a paradigm shift that is forcing incumbent retail banks to rethink growth strategies as they struggle to remain relevant. Growing competition from BigTechs, FinTech firms, and challenger banks has added to the complexity created by increasingly stringent regulatory and compliance requirements. Customers now expect a seamless customer journey and personalized offerings because they have become accustomed to top-notch individualized service from GAFA giants Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon. The changing ecosystem offers established banks new, unexplored opportunities and encourages a transition beyond traditional products to meet the exacting requirements of today’s customers. Bank collaboration with FinTech and RegTech partners is becoming commonplace. Incumbents are exploring point-of-sale financing and unsecured consumer lending, while they also boost their digital channel competencies to reach a broader customer base. Banks are beginning to accept open APIs and are working with third-party specialists to create an open shared marketplace. Technological advancements such as AI are fueling efforts to evolve customer onboarding and touchpoint processes. Increasingly, banks are turning to design thinking methodology to understand the customer journey, extract deep insights, and develop a more refined user experience across the customer lifecycle.
Our analysis of the top retail banking trends for 2020 offers a glimpse into the fast-changing banking ecosystem and explores the tools and solutions being used to face new-age challenges.
Aspects of the life insurance industry have remained constant for years – and so have premiums. Traditional savings products have taken a huge hit in terms of attractiveness because low interest-rates prevail. Meanwhile, the risk landscape is shifting, and insurers need to align better with the emerging business environment, manage changing customer preferences, and improve operational efficiencies. Within today’s scenario, industry players are undertaking tactical and strategic shifts in attempts to manage unpredictable market dynamics. Insurers must develop alternative products to breathe new life into policies and leverage emerging technologies (artificial intelligence (AI), analytics, and blockchain) to improve efficiency, agility, flexibility, and customer-centricity.
Read Top Trends in Life Insurance: 2020 for a look at the innovative steps future-focused insurers are considering to meet industry challenges and opportunities.
The health insurance industry is evolving and undergoing significant changes. As the risk landscape shifts, insurers are working to improve operational efficiencies, meet evolving customer preferences, and align better with the changing business environment. Accordingly, payers must adapt and align business models and offerings. An incisive tactical approach is required to accommodate members’ needs and related emerging risks — medical, health, and environmental. Advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, analytics, automation, and connected devices are enabling insurers to manage these changes proactively, partner with members, and help to prevent risks, all the while continuing to fulfill payer responsibilities.
Read Top Trends in Health Insurance: 2020 to learn which strategies insurers are adopting to navigate and align with today’s challenges.
Similar to other financial services domains, payments is evolving into an open ecosystem. The EU’s Payment Services Directive (PSD2) pioneered open banking by encouraging banks and established payments players to securely open the systems to foster competition, innovation, and more customer choices. In tandem with non-cash transaction growth, regulations are driving banks and payments firms to expand their array of payment methods and channels. Governments are encouraging financial inclusion by also promoting the adoption of non-cash payments. Increasingly, merchants and corporates seek to offer alternative payment systems because of widespread popularity among consumers. Alternative payments also enable merchants to provide real-time and cross-border payments to boost business efficiency.
Banks, payment firms, card firms, BigTechs, FinTechs, and other players are continuously developing new technology to cash in on market changes. However, data breaches and fraud continue to hinder innovation as firms devote countless resources each year to address security issues. Many governments are also designing new regulations to reduce ecosystem threats. All these measures are expected to make the current ecosystem much more secure and simple for players as well as customers.
Top Trends in Payments: 2020 explores and analyzes payments ecosystem initiatives and solutions for this year and beyond
Accelerate your Kubernetes clusters with Varnish CachingThijs Feryn
A presentation about the usage and availability of Varnish on Kubernetes. This talk explores the capabilities of Varnish caching and shows how to use the Varnish Helm chart to deploy it to Kubernetes.
This presentation was delivered at K8SUG Singapore. See https://feryn.eu/presentations/accelerate-your-kubernetes-clusters-with-varnish-caching-k8sug-singapore-28-2024 for more details.
Neuro-symbolic is not enough, we need neuro-*semantic*Frank van Harmelen
Neuro-symbolic (NeSy) AI is on the rise. However, simply machine learning on just any symbolic structure is not sufficient to really harvest the gains of NeSy. These will only be gained when the symbolic structures have an actual semantics. I give an operational definition of semantics as “predictable inference”.
All of this illustrated with link prediction over knowledge graphs, but the argument is general.
GraphRAG is All You need? LLM & Knowledge GraphGuy Korland
Guy Korland, CEO and Co-founder of FalkorDB, will review two articles on the integration of language models with knowledge graphs.
1. Unifying Large Language Models and Knowledge Graphs: A Roadmap.
https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.08302
2. Microsoft Research's GraphRAG paper and a review paper on various uses of knowledge graphs:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/blog/graphrag-unlocking-llm-discovery-on-narrative-private-data/
Generating a custom Ruby SDK for your web service or Rails API using Smithyg2nightmarescribd
Have you ever wanted a Ruby client API to communicate with your web service? Smithy is a protocol-agnostic language for defining services and SDKs. Smithy Ruby is an implementation of Smithy that generates a Ruby SDK using a Smithy model. In this talk, we will explore Smithy and Smithy Ruby to learn how to generate custom feature-rich SDKs that can communicate with any web service, such as a Rails JSON API.
Encryption in Microsoft 365 - ExpertsLive Netherlands 2024Albert Hoitingh
In this session I delve into the encryption technology used in Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Purview. Including the concepts of Customer Key and Double Key Encryption.
Software Delivery At the Speed of AI: Inflectra Invests In AI-Powered QualityInflectra
In this insightful webinar, Inflectra explores how artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming software development and testing. Discover how AI-powered tools are revolutionizing every stage of the software development lifecycle (SDLC), from design and prototyping to testing, deployment, and monitoring.
Learn about:
• The Future of Testing: How AI is shifting testing towards verification, analysis, and higher-level skills, while reducing repetitive tasks.
• Test Automation: How AI-powered test case generation, optimization, and self-healing tests are making testing more efficient and effective.
• Visual Testing: Explore the emerging capabilities of AI in visual testing and how it's set to revolutionize UI verification.
• Inflectra's AI Solutions: See demonstrations of Inflectra's cutting-edge AI tools like the ChatGPT plugin and Azure Open AI platform, designed to streamline your testing process.
Whether you're a developer, tester, or QA professional, this webinar will give you valuable insights into how AI is shaping the future of software delivery.
Elevating Tactical DDD Patterns Through Object CalisthenicsDorra BARTAGUIZ
After immersing yourself in the blue book and its red counterpart, attending DDD-focused conferences, and applying tactical patterns, you're left with a crucial question: How do I ensure my design is effective? Tactical patterns within Domain-Driven Design (DDD) serve as guiding principles for creating clear and manageable domain models. However, achieving success with these patterns requires additional guidance. Interestingly, we've observed that a set of constraints initially designed for training purposes remarkably aligns with effective pattern implementation, offering a more ‘mechanical’ approach. Let's explore together how Object Calisthenics can elevate the design of your tactical DDD patterns, offering concrete help for those venturing into DDD for the first time!
Kubernetes & AI - Beauty and the Beast !?! @KCD Istanbul 2024Tobias Schneck
As AI technology is pushing into IT I was wondering myself, as an “infrastructure container kubernetes guy”, how get this fancy AI technology get managed from an infrastructure operational view? Is it possible to apply our lovely cloud native principals as well? What benefit’s both technologies could bring to each other?
Let me take this questions and provide you a short journey through existing deployment models and use cases for AI software. On practical examples, we discuss what cloud/on-premise strategy we may need for applying it to our own infrastructure to get it to work from an enterprise perspective. I want to give an overview about infrastructure requirements and technologies, what could be beneficial or limiting your AI use cases in an enterprise environment. An interactive Demo will give you some insides, what approaches I got already working for real.
Securing your Kubernetes cluster_ a step-by-step guide to success !KatiaHIMEUR1
Today, after several years of existence, an extremely active community and an ultra-dynamic ecosystem, Kubernetes has established itself as the de facto standard in container orchestration. Thanks to a wide range of managed services, it has never been so easy to set up a ready-to-use Kubernetes cluster.
However, this ease of use means that the subject of security in Kubernetes is often left for later, or even neglected. This exposes companies to significant risks.
In this talk, I'll show you step-by-step how to secure your Kubernetes cluster for greater peace of mind and reliability.
JMeter webinar - integration with InfluxDB and GrafanaRTTS
Watch this recorded webinar about real-time monitoring of application performance. See how to integrate Apache JMeter, the open-source leader in performance testing, with InfluxDB, the open-source time-series database, and Grafana, the open-source analytics and visualization application.
In this webinar, we will review the benefits of leveraging InfluxDB and Grafana when executing load tests and demonstrate how these tools are used to visualize performance metrics.
Length: 30 minutes
Session Overview
-------------------------------------------
During this webinar, we will cover the following topics while demonstrating the integrations of JMeter, InfluxDB and Grafana:
- What out-of-the-box solutions are available for real-time monitoring JMeter tests?
- What are the benefits of integrating InfluxDB and Grafana into the load testing stack?
- Which features are provided by Grafana?
- Demonstration of InfluxDB and Grafana using a practice web application
To view the webinar recording, go to:
https://www.rttsweb.com/jmeter-integration-webinar
Transcript: Selling digital books in 2024: Insights from industry leaders - T...BookNet Canada
The publishing industry has been selling digital audiobooks and ebooks for over a decade and has found its groove. What’s changed? What has stayed the same? Where do we go from here? Join a group of leading sales peers from across the industry for a conversation about the lessons learned since the popularization of digital books, best practices, digital book supply chain management, and more.
Link to video recording: https://bnctechforum.ca/sessions/selling-digital-books-in-2024-insights-from-industry-leaders/
Presented by BookNet Canada on May 28, 2024, with support from the Department of Canadian Heritage.
Designing Great Products: The Power of Design and Leadership by Chief Designe...
Digital Leadership Series : Shawn O'Neal
1. Driving the Data Engine: How
Unilever is Using Analytics to
Accelerate Customer Understanding
An interview with
Transform to the power of digital
Shawn O’Neal
VP of Global Marketing Data
and Analytics, Unilever
2. Shawn O`Neal
VPofGlobalMarketingDataandAnalytics
Shawn O`Neal
Shawn O’Neal is VP of Global Marketing
Data and Analytics at Unilever, part of
the Consumer & Marketing Insights
(CMI) team, and he leads the company’s
Global People Data Program. The
ultimate objective of the program is to
enable 1 billion relationships through
digital data analysis and new ways of
connecting with people. In his 12 years
at Unilever, Shawn has worked across a
range of roles in customer development
and consumer & marketing insights, with
a particular focus on strategy, analysis,
and the optimal use of information for
decision-making.
Using Data to Convert Business
Needs into Action
What is the primary role of the CMI
team?
The fundamental role of the CMI team is
to understand people, their needs and
wants, and their thought processes about
brands. The team provides insights about
consumers. This is not only on how they
shop and how they interact with us, but
also on how they live their lives. These are
things that are going to be important in the
future for us as a business.
As the use of analytics has
evolved, what has been the
impact on how the CMI team
operates?
Previously, when the analytics team
received a question and a brief on the
problem, they went away for six weeks
and then came back with an answer.
You would then tinker with it for another
three to four weeks. And then, finally,
you have a sliver of usable information.
This model is passé.
The future of analytics in our space is
to ask the question once and get an
answer if not within hours, then in days,
and definitely not weeks.
Every day is a new answer, a new
build, and a new tool. We use the
knowledge gained from each of these
to build our knowledge base. We seek
to consolidate every piece of data,
analytics, infrastructure and resources
that we have available in one platform.
We then industrialize this for the entire
2,100 cells of Unilever. By industrializing,
we can ensure repeatability, lower costs,
speed of response, and richer insights.
What are some typical questions
that brands bring to the CMI
team?
Questions can be as straightforward
as “Do people talk about packaging
in social media commentary on Ben &
Jerry’s Ice Cream?” Or, brands might
want to know how consumers talk about
eating Ben & Jerry’s. These might seem
like very simple things, but they are the
ones that drive purchase decisions. Do
consumers talk about being with friends
or watching a movie when eating Ben
and Jerry’s? Or do they talk about the
weather — sunny or rainy — when they
want to have it? Or are the conversations
linked to their mood and tone? About
85% of all the conversations on Twitter
are about stuff like this.
What use cases are there for
analytics that show how the CMI
team can help brands?
Within marketing, we have a range
of use cases for analytics. These
include innovation, forecasting, media
optimization, pricing, trends (social or
otherwise),andthevalueassociatedwith
them. Targeting and content creation is
extremely important. When, where, and
how to connect with consumers, what
device, what time of day, what medium
— is it Twitter, Facebook, email, SMS,
or just traditional? These are questions
that are top of mind for marketers.
We have also tried to build a service-
oriented capability, by standardizing
the information that is commonly used.
So, when a media person or a brand
person comes to us with questions,
we direct them to this standardized
repository, which we call the People
Data Center (PDC). On top of the base
information, they can create their own
specific queries and requirements. We
are trying to build more efficiency and
transparency in all that.
The future of analytics
in our space is to ask
the question once and
get an answer if not
within hours, then in
days, and definitely not
weeks.
3. Can you walk us through how you
can identify precise insights for a
brand such as Ben & Jerry’s?
We’ve seen that about 80% of all Ben
& Jerry’s gets sold on Saturday. Week
after week, we see a consistent spike
on Saturday. However, we observed
that most of the conversations on
social media happen on Thursday and
Friday, not on Saturday. Now, for the ice
cream category, that is rather intriguing,
because ice cream is typically a point of
purchase sale. That is the preconceived
notion on which brands and advertising
usually works. But Ben & Jerry’s
appears to be a little different. People
actually think about their Ben & Jerry’s
purchase a couple of days ahead on
Thursday, which means they are open to
digital influence on that day. Therefore,
why run ads on a Monday or Tuesday,
when probably 99% of impressions are
wasted? But on Thursday and Friday,
the value of impressions may go up 5%
or 10%. That is a dramatic difference on
the same level of advertising spend.
What are the challenges in doing
this at scale?
The challenge is not in getting the data
or combining the multiple data sets.
The automation tools that we use are
increasingly getting better at A/B testing
content in hundreds of positions. The
challenge is further downstream for us.
Our media teams are not prepared for
a real-time feed of consumer insights.
Our agencies that partner with us
are not fully prepared to deliver us
content for sunny days versus rainy
days, for example. At this point, we
are industrializing the back-end. Our
creative agencies haven’t yet warmed
up to the idea that we would have a
hundred different creatives and deliver
those at the same day. There is not a
mindset around that concept yet.
Moving Analytics from
‘Push’ to ‘Pull’
What is the operating model of the
team?
We have a complete demand-driven model
for social listening. While we have made the
core investment in the technology, anyone
that wants to participate in its findings
needs to pay for resources. If people are
not willing to pay for something, then it is
not that important. This model ensures you
create something that lives or dies on its
merits, not on sponsorship or politics.
Shawn O`Neal
By industrializing
analytics, we can ensure
repeatability, lower
costs, speed of response,
and richer insights.
Our analysis found that
people actually think
about their ice cream
purchase a couple of
days ahead of purchase.
We have a complete
demand-driven model
for social listening.
If you let IT build
solutions in silos, you
can end up building a
bridge that somebody
may or may not use.
What kind of data sets do you look
at in order to achieve this?
We combine three different data sets
– weather, sales and social data. The
first time we do this, it is done manually.
However, as we go forward, the idea is
to have weather data pumped into the
system through an API with a weather
channel.
How did you manage the
relationship between business and
IT that is critical to analytics?
Aswithmanylargeorganizations,therewas
a gap in the business–IT relationship. And
we solved the problem by turning it upside
down. I come from the business; I am not
an IT person. So, I constantly reached
back into the IT organization to have them
build things that were relevant directly to
business questions. This approach creates
pragmatic solutions that people use. If you
let IT build solutions in silos, you can end
up building a bridge that somebody may
or may not use. Being demand-driven is
the key – I have employed this concept in
creating all our solutions.
4. Source: Brandwatch, “Social Media ROI: Lessons from eBay, McKinsey and Unilever”, September 2015
Sales is a Social Activity:
Targeted Social Media Drives Sales Over Other Media
Unilever found that, typically, only one-in-a-thousand TV ad impressions prompts a sale.
Yet, a major pet food brand generated sales from four-in-a-thousand digital ad impressions by targeting pet owners. This
increased to forty-in-a-thousand digital impressions by targeting cat and dog owners specifically. This demonstrates the
impact of social media’s ability to target.
Source: Adage, “Unilever Finds Social-Media Buzz Really Does Drive Sales”, September 2015
What is the revenue impact of each ‘share’ on major social networks?
Estimates from Eventbrite
Shawn O`Neal
Pounds per share in th U.S. Pounds per share in th U.K.
2.58
1.21
0.47
2.25
1.80
1.24
5. What are the key challenges you
face in this journey to an insight-
driven organization?
Given our size, our biggest challenges
are speed and agility. Most people
still do not understand analytics, and
that hinders decision-making speed,
because you don’t have a consensus.
Without a consensus, it is hard to
allocate resources, and it is hard to
move with precision or urgency.
In terms of demand, we are beginning
to see the solution sell itself. There are
brands that have bought our services
and are doing well, brands that are
planning to try our services because
they are impressed by the success of
others, and brands that haven’t bought
our services. Things are therefore a bit
uncertain, but that is natural for a big
company like Unilever.
How do you see new technologies
impacting what CMI does?
I think cognitive computing will be one
of the big areas. We are just beginning
to experiment, but the possibilities
are limitless. Take, for instance,
personalization engines. Using them, I
can watch everything that goes on in an
environment, and in a machine-learning
way, constantly adjust what is served,
advertised and messaged inside that
environment. And, all of it is highly
customized to the individual, so they find
it interesting.
As an example, take Google’s site “All
Things Hair”. When people search
Google for hair, hairstyles or hair
products, Google will put All Things
Hair at the top. Inside the site there are
blogs, e-commerce, special op-eds,
sponsored areas — everything about
hair. It is all presented to users in a
very customized manner. Within this
environment, we can log every click and
understand how long consumers spend
time on what asset. That gives us a
comprehensive profile of the individual,
how to connect to the person, what kind
of ads to run and how we bring them
back again.
The Future of Analytics
in CPG Companies is
Bright
What impact do Unilever’s own
forays into ecommerce have on its
relationships with retailers?
To date, retailers know everything
about a customer shopping in-store.
At Unilever, e-commerce is limited to a
handful of countries — the U.S., U.K.,
France, China, and a few others – and
is not a big plan for us at present. But,
ecommerce helps us understand what
goes on outside the store. This ability
balances the tables with retailers in
terms of understanding consumer
purchase cycles. Because when I
understand that, I could theoretically
drive consumers to one store or another.
For instance, I can partner with specific
retailers for a targeted promotion and
drive consumers there directly. All of a
sudden, the balance of power between
us and the retailers is shifting. That is the
impact of e-commerce — it introduces a
whole new level of data and information
that can be accessed and used by
anyone.
Most people still do not
understand analytics,
and that hinders
decision-making speed,
because you don’t have
a consensus.
E-commerce introduces
a whole new level of
data and information
that can be accessed and
used by anyone
Skills shortage is a
concern since more
people are beginning
to see the value of
analytics now
Are you concerned about a
shortage of skills in analytics?
In our people data program, almost all
of the team members have different
skill-sets than CMI would have hired in
the past. After they spend time with us,
I expect them to go out to other teams
and educate the rest of the world on
the power and impact of analytics.
Ultimately, that increases the demand
back into our team! But yes, the skills
shortage is a concern since more
people are beginning to see the value of
analytics now.
Shawn O`Neal
6. If you are an internal
research group, and
you aren’t adopting
and exploring new
techniques…you are
going to be a dinosaur
in five years.
If you are not searching
for new people, and if
you are not growing
your own people in
this space, you are
going to be massively
disadvantaged three to
five years from now
What advice would you give
to organizations that would
like to become insight-driven
companies?
The key advice is to stay demand-driven.
You do have to guide some of that
demand. You have to educate to create
some of that demand, but you need to stay
close to it. You won’t get the underlying
support to grow what you are doing in
that space, unless you are meeting some
fundamental need of the business.
75% of what we are
today will get changed
in five years because of
the extent of disruption
in this whole space
The second piece of advice is that 75%
of what we are today will get changed
in five years because of the extent of
disruption in this whole space. If you
are an internal research group, and
you aren’t adopting and exploring new
techniques — or you don’t have people
on your team who have passion and
capability — you are going to be a
dinosaur in five years. Agencies will just
start replacing you because their stuff
will be so much better than what you are
doing inside the organization.
A third point to bear in mind is the
need to not commit to one technology
or platform too early. In the past three
years, Unilever hasn’t signed a single
contract with a new data or systems
supplier that lasts longer than a year,
because of the rapid pace of technology
change. Don’t let IT sell you a big data
program that costs over $1MM because
it will be obsolete before it’s built.
And, lastly, focus on the people factor.
If you are not searching for new people,
and if you are not growing your own
people in this space, you are going to
be massively disadvantaged three to
five years from now. You will not be able
to attract the talent that you need. You
are not going to have people who have
been through it for a few years, who can
sell it to other people and bring them
into this environment.
Shawn O`Neal