According to Markets and Markets research the Cloud-based business analytics market is estimated to grow from 5.25 billion in 2013 to 16.5 billion by 2018. It appears Big Data and the move by companies to cloud computing is fuelling this growth. As a result Vendors in Business Intelligence Analytics are scrambling to find new ways to deliver their services over the cloud platform so that their enterprise customers can collect, access, monitor and share key business performance indicators in a way that is accessible through any platform or mobile device.

Major players delivering cloud computing solutions include: IBM, Oracle, Google, HP, Cloud 9 Analytics, Good Data Microsoft and Host Analytics.

There is no question that operational efficiencies can be derived through the integration of analytics into the operational fabric of a business but there are security issues that need to be addressed, and at the onset.

In a security survey conducted by Flying Penguin Consultancy and One Login the major areas of security concern are in the use of unsanctioned apps (71%) and the management of passwords. 43% of respondents in the survey shared passwords via sticky notes and spreadsheets and 20% experienced logins from departed employees. Password security is serious considering the changes in how we access applications. It is reported that 80% access applications through smart phones, 71% through tablets, and 80% through non-company computers.

Two-thirds of organizations identified security as their top concern when considering the move to the cloud according to “Driving Profitable Growth through Cloud computing” IBM Study (conducted by Oliver Wyman, November 2008) and it is no wonder because apart from identity management, and the plethora of devices accessing the web, there are concerns with software vulnerabilities and audit and assurance issues.

At the end of the day the move of an organization to embrace cloud computing as a strategic initiative is not just a technical challenge but a challenge of governance and compliance. I would not be at all surprised if enterprise companies chose to revert to supplying all-inclusive devices for company operations. Remember the old days when we had “our personal laptop” and “the company laptop”? This is an option to consider as the internet still is, and always will be, the Wild, Wild West.

Computational power is rapidly transforming every industry and device on the planet. From power grids, cars, appliances and waterways, the global transformation of processes and supply chains is underway. Going “Digital” refers to joining the list of some trillion devices that are making our planet smarter. And smarter means: keen business intelligence and analytics on the flow of markets and on how to be more efficient and more productive. It is also about meeting the needs of customers in real-time.

So what companies are leading this new brigade? Google? Apple? Microsoft? Well there is a surprise here. One of the players is IBM.

IBM was founded in 1880 and has been a survivor for decades. It began selling scales and clocks then evolved to developing powerful computers and global networks. What is extraordinary is that while many companies in the information age have come and gone, IBM has continued to evolve. They have kept up with the rapid pace of change by contributing innovations throughout the decades. And now they are a front runner in cloud computing solutions showing their customers hot to “Think IT, and Re-invent their Business”.

IBM’s Smart Planet Initiatives have resonated with leaders around the globe. They have reached out to more than 50 countries, both established and emerging, to public and private sectors, all to challenge the development and implementation of smart systems. IBM has even become fun. Yes, they use games as a way to educate their clients on how leading IT solutions can transform business.

But the real impact of IBM’s Smart Planet initiatives has been in the developing world. Thanks to IBM Dubai can now market themselves as safer and cleaner because they have integrated their systems and operations with more intelligence software and analytics to monitor public works, emergency and government services.

Here is a short video to show you how our new activities are leading also to new social interactions. The Internet of Things is no longer an idea but a reality.

With the global popularity of online communities such as Facebook and Twitter, as well as the growing passion for blogs and real-time conversations, customers have become very powerful in their ability to share their experiences. These social media platforms have turned customers into “influencers”, bringing word-of-mouth to a whole new level and making responding quickly to customer needs – and especially their dissatisfaction – a crucial key to any business’s success.

The objective of text analytics is to pool together – through linguistic, statistical and machine learning techniques – a structured analysis of information and word frequency distribution, in order to turn text into data to better understand the mindset and experience of customers.

Text mining goes beyond simple keyword searches. In the same spirit as the old adage, “knowledge is power”, text analytics essentially gives companies an edge by letting them know what customers are saying about their services and products. This allows a company to tap into cost savings, revenue drivers, and deliver greater profitability in all aspects of its operations.

“We have one customer that took 2 weeks with a 5 person team to manually sift through 10,000 comments. Using text analytics . . . we did the same thing in 1 day and were able to come up with the same conclusions they did and a few more. That’s a pretty dramatic display of the power of text analytics to save time by an order of magnitude, while still being sure you get the insights you need to head off issues before they become problems,” stated Sid Banerjee, chief executive officer of Virginia-based Clarabridge, recently about the efficiency of text analytics.

On June 15^th IBM announced to the press that they had agreed to purchase Coremetrics, a leader in web analytics software and advanced in the area of text analytics.

IBM understands that organizations are increasingly looking for ways to optimize their marketing processes and gain deeper insights into client demands in order to drive brand loyalty by executing more personalized customer interactions. However, companies are faced with an increasingly complex set of digital outlets to interact with customers, ranging from websites and mobile applications to e-mail and social media sites. By offering comprehensive solutions geared to unlock the value of unstructured content IBM is positioned to help its business customers respond quickly to marketplace changes to differentiate themselves for competitive advantage.

“Results from IBM’s 2010 CEO Study showed that 88 percent of CEOs will focus on getting closer to their customers in next five years, 82 percent of CEOs want to better understand customer needs and 85 percent of CEOs require more visibility into their businesses.”

With this understanding, it’s easy to see how important it is for businesses to listen to their customers. Text analytics is both a critical and powerful tool that provides businesses with a forward-thinking opportunity to not only manage customers’ experiences, but also predict their behaviour.

Text Analytics is a fascinating and emerging science in taking the ambiguity out of keywords by placing them in their contextual environment – perhaps even a silver bullet in unlocking our semantic web.

Technological change has irrevocably altered the behavior of customers. Today people are approaching the tasks of planning a vacation, buying a car, shopping for clothes or choosing a restaurant in ways where they can have instantaneous access to service information – online.  They are also powerful influencers of others as they are embracing the use of social media technologies at an astounding rate.

For marketers the challenge is to capture the hearts and minds of the new feisty, in-control consumer. Apart from finding new ways to participate with them in their online world, web analytics has jumped to the forefront putting a focus on the importance of segmentation and the business intelligence gathering of actionable insights. The old measurement tools of the past have gone by way of the buffalo. Today its about real-time metrics that meet the need for marketing efficiency, accountability and profitability.

In fact Marketing is all about ROI. It can be determined. It is the engine of organic growth if aligned with corporate objectives. (Though, it is important to note that creative experimentation will always lie at the heart of the discipline).

We are living in a new frontier that is ever-changing and the race is on as I type. Impression metrics, message metrics, attitudinal metrics, behavioral metrics, transactional metrics…if your head is spinning it is perfectly normal. Determining what metrics are right for you is not an easy task. However, the best way to cut through the clutter is to reduce the noise by focusing on well-defined marketing objectives and the measurement of ROI. The interactive nature of new media offers a perfect environment to calculate ROI because customer’s actions can be tracked along the funnel. ROI is transforming the effectiveness of the marketing cycle.

Determining the journey down the ROI funnel is not an exact science. Gathering the correct data at the onset is a challenge and requires continuous testing. But, the good news is that in the digital environment testing is real-time so determining “insights” is possible. From there you can develop the creative, communicate to the target, and measure success. While there is no black box that spits out answers, the journey to collect and fine-tune data is worthwhile as it in turn fuels sophisticated analytic models that can ultimately predict ROI results.

The new Marketing Mindset is here. The discipline is no longer based solely on “intuition, art and what may stick” but in turn is based on data, analytics and factors that deliver profitable growth.