The 10 best enterprise CRM solution providers 2018 by Insights Success Media

www.insightssuccess.com March 2018

The

10 Best Enterprise

CRM Solution Providers 2018

Industry Insider Backend-As-A-Service for Payments-As-A-Service

Tech Evolution Emerging Technologies: A Revolution with Challenges

Mark Wright President & CEO

Targetbase

Putting Customer Intelligence at the Core

Editor’s Note

CRM: Helping Organizations Since its Origin

RM software has numerous benefits to small businesses. It can save a lot of time when it comes to customer communications, to can also offer personalized communications for different customers.

However, choosing the right CRM is not an easy job. A business must choose such a CRM which can help it to grow and meet all its needs. So, now comes the question, do we really need CRM? and the answer is a big yes! Without the ability to accurately track and manage sales and marketing campaigns, an organization can’t nurture its leads and optimize its sales pipeline. A single lead can be a particular person or business that can have the potential to business, perhaps which can be a biggest customer ever. So, maintaining a consistent lead management is very critical part of a company’s sales pipeline. CRM applications provide a comprehensive picture of leads. The main advantage of data driven lead management is much stronger sales and marketing productivity and a much more streamlined and controlled sales pipeline. CRM software automates the process of managing, tracking, marketing and selling to new and existing clients. It also helps to create, track, and manage marketing campaigns eﬀectively. Be it email marketing, social media campaigns or outbound calls, CRM automates the process and provides data riven reports. CRM stores all the data of the leads creates lead reports that eventually shows the components that makes up leads and how leads can be best ﬁt for a sales pipeline. CRM solutions also allow its users to customize lead reports, all the while providing clients with automated, end-to-end lead tracking designed to manage

leads accurately through a sales pipeline. One can even automate the follow up activities for much better efficiency in cultivating and nurturing lead relationships. CRM solutions also drive employee productivity and knowledge exchange with social style collaborative tools, including peer to peer learning and employee engagement. Mobile access, which is an increasingly critical functionality in business productivity software grants a team round the clock access to vital customer information. So, by keeping all these in mind in this issue Insights Success has listed “The 10 Best Enterprise CRM Solution Providers, 2018” which are changing the market with their innovative products and service offerings. Featuring as the cover story is Targetbase, which is a part of Diversified Agency Services, a division of Omnicom Group Inc., a leading global marketing and corporate communications company. Analec, a leading global financial technology company that empowers broker-dealers and banks to their investment research and client servicing functions with greater efficiencies and better customer engagement; Centra Technologies, is involved in delivering cutting-edge solutions to bring together people and processes through effective, yet easy-to-use CRM and HCM software systems; AgentCubed which is a lead distribution, and CRM software solution specifically designed for health/life, Medicare, and P&C; Nippon Data Systems Ltd, is a provider of IT enabled business solutions which provide our clients competitive business advantage. We partner with our customers to deliver business solutions to their satisfaction and help them ’Live Your Enterprise Potential™’; Point of Reference, is a pioneer in providing leading-edge customer reference management solutions along with program consulting services, content development services, and supplemental staffing services; Journey TEAM Technology Solutions which is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner that focuses on providing accounting, financial management, enterprise resource management, customer relationship management, and e-business solutions; Complete XRM is Customer Relationship Management solution provider that develops a suite of software products to evolve organizational culture. Also while flipping the pages of the magazine don’t forget to go through Industry Insight, BackendAs-A-Service for Payments-As-A-Service by Eliad Saporta, Managing Director of Coriunder; Tech Evolution, Emerging Technologies: A Revolution with Challenges by Kizzy M. Dominguez, President of K. Parks Consulting, Inc. (KPC); Insider’s Perspective, How AI and Machine Learning Transforming Human Lives by Rajiv Saran Sharma, CEO of Virgosys. Happy reading!

Kaustav Roy

CONTENT y r o

r e v

Targetbase: Empowering and Streamlining Operations Since Inception

32 16

Mentor’s Insights Backend-As-A-Service for Payments-As-A-Service

Insider’s Perspective How AI and Machine Learning Transforming Human Lives

Industry Insider DevOps - Bridging the Gap between Dev and Ops

Tech Bytes “Spatial Intelligence”, Making Inroads into Diﬀerent Sectors

Tech Trends The Digital Phase of Document Management Solutions

20 AgentCubed: CRM Software Solution Speciﬁcally Designed for Insurance

40 JourneyTEAM: Microsoft’s Go-to-Partner for Oﬃce 365, Dynamics 365, and Power BI — in the Cloud.

22 ANALEC: Helping Clients Boost Competitiveness and Productivity

42 Nippon Data System: Spearheading a new wave of Transformation in the CRM

Software Development Space

Centra Technologies: Facilitating Superior Customer Service through Centra CRM

46 Point of Reference: Pioneer of Cutting-Edge Native Salesforce Solutions for Customer

30 Complete XRM: Building a Culture of Productivity™

Reference Management

Pooja M. Bansal Anish Miller Kaustav Roy Jenny Fernandes Kedar Kulkarni Assistant Editors Brian Smith Sourav Mukherjee Visualiser David King Art & Design Director Amol Kamble Associate Designer Vijaykumar Dudhbhate Co-designer Karan Gaikwad Art & Picture Editor Paul Belin Jayant Khanna Senior Sales Manager Passi D. Business Development Manager Peter Collins Marketing Manager John Matthew Business Development Executives Steve, Joe, Alan, Kshitij Sales Executives David, Kevin, Mark, Manish Technical Head Jacob Smile Technical Specialist Amar, Pratiksha Digital Marketing Manager Marry D’Souza Online Marketing Strategist Alina Sege, Shubham Mahadik, Vaibhav K SME-SMO Executives Prashant Chauhan, Uma Dhenge, Gemson, Irfan Research Analyst Chidiebere Moses Circulation Manager Robert, Tanaji Database Management Stella Andrew Technology Consultant David Stokes Editor-in-Chief Senior Editor Managing Editor Executive Editors

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Cover Story

Mark Wright President & CEO

Targetbase Putting Customer Intelligence at the Core

â&#x20AC;&#x153;We fuel our creative experts with insights. Then, we design and develop solutions that enable us to create compelling experiences and smarter interactions.â&#x20AC;?

Cover Story

onsumers are using technology more than ever before, and they generate an ocean of data every day. Most brands understand the importance of collecting that data but lack an action plan. However, just because data exists does not mean an organization needs it; deciding what data is relevant, and how to leverage it for business is the crucial factor. This relevant, actionable business intelligence is provided by a digital CRM agency named Targetbase. Targetbase is an expert at understanding customers’ needs, wants, desires and pain-points, and delivering personalized marketing programs at scale. It does this by connecting data, insights, strategy, and creativity into compelling and intelligent experiences built on modern, cloud-based marketing platforms. As a trusted partner to several Fortune 500 clients, Targetbase is relentlessly focused on delivering value for its clients by solving persistent business challenges. It is a part of the Omnicom Group, a global leader in advertising, marketing services, specialty communications, PR, interactive/digital media and media purchasing services. Groundbreaking Products and Services Today’s rapidly changing customer preferences and behaviors, fueled by a dynamic media and technology landscape, can overwhelm marketing teams with their complexity. Targetbase oﬀers an integrated suite of products and services to help its clients navigate this labyrinth, and to activate simple and agile marketing programs.

The company’s innovative products and services have won many awards and it has consistently rated as a leader in customer engagement by Forrester Research. Targetbase’s core product and service oﬀerings are aligned across ﬁve disciplines: Ÿ

Data and Technology: One of the pioneers in 1:1 marketing, Targetbase has a strong heritage in transforming massive, complex and disconnected data sources into a connected data engine to mine insights and drive customer experience (CX) design. Its solution is cloud-ﬁrst and built on an open and ﬂexible tech stack to allow rapid integration and deployment across any type of client environment.

pace using interactive dashboards, live reporting, advanced statistical modeling, machine learning, deep learning and AI techniques. Over the last 3 years, Targetbase has accelerated its analytical techniques to blend both structured and unstructured data in real time to amplify its insight gathering to keep pace with changing business needs. Ÿ

CX Design: Armed with deep insights and a true customer-level understanding, Targetbase’s strategists develop robust customer experiences through journey mapping, communications planning and messaging hierarchies that are bespoke to every client need and business challenge. It has also developed a methodical approach to evolve clients’ business strategies through its Value Creation Plans (VCPs) that constantly challenge the status quo to drive continuous growth.

Digital Creative: Targetbase’s award-winning creative team brings these CX designs to life through powerful and culturally relevant communications that drive the company’s content and storytelling across all media channels. It activates high-volume and high-velocity marketing programs that are intelligently delivered across channels to drive strong business results for clients.

Agile Delivery: The company takes pride in its ability to rapidly launch and execute complex client engagements in the market. Targetbase’s experienced teams across client service and delivery disciplines are focused on

Predictive Analytics: Most clients come to Targetbase with a “datarich, insight-poor” challenge. The organization solves this by uncovering insights at a rapid

“With Targetbase, clients no longer need to lose sleep trying to wrap their heads around technology and data. Instead, we focus them on connecting data—generating intelligence, and applying it to the experience.”

ﬂawlessly and eﬃciently executing its programs to achieve optimal results.

The Passionate Leader Mark Wright, started his career in Direct Marketing with Harlequin Enterprises. For more than 25 years, Mark has been using customer intelligence to transform the way brands acquire, retain, and grow customers by understanding what it takes to engage customers and motivate behavioral change. He developed his skills at some of the leading marketing agencies in Canada - Rapp, Wunderman, and McCann MRM before joining Targetbase as its President and CEO. Mark’s leadership has led to Targetbase doubling its revenues. He attributes his success to the talented group of individuals in his powerhouse leadership team, who are able to identify opportunities, innovate and ideate, problem-solve and move the best possible talent forward to help clients win. Mark motivates, challenges the status quo, inspires with enthusiasm and, most of all, enjoys what he does. The Foundation Stone Targetbase is on a mission to make marketing more useful to diﬀerent brands and to diﬀerent consumers. The organization truly believes that by being personal and relevant, brands can be more valuable to consumers and vice versa. In todays’ opt-in culture, brands that adopt a mass-marketing approach in lieu of delivering a data-driven, personalized 1:1 experience will struggle to keep their place – both in

“Intelligence tells us things like where the opportunities are to

trusted advisor and business partner rather than merely being a marketing services vendor. Ÿ

People-First Culture: To fulfill its promise of a client-centric model, Targetbase puts people first at its agency. It understands that, ultimately, talent and attitude helps Targetbase win with its clients. From resource planning to career road-mapping to training and coaching, the organization always ensures that its employees come first, while serving Targetbase’s business in a prudent manner. The organization believes that one of the reasons for its long client tenures is the length of Targetbase’s employee tenures. When employees on a team are happy and free to purse their growth goals, the organization will inevitably see client relationships grow and thrive as well.

Open Partnerships: Targetbase has built a modern platform that helps clients activate marketing programs with great agility. The organization’s modular, cloudbased, open approach to marketing technology helps it to integrate and partner with a widevariety of ﬁrst-, second-, thirdparty data sources, DMPs, DSPs and media platforms. Targetbase has also adopted a ‘complement not compete’ approach to maximize existing technology investments its clients have made, and augment only the missing elements to enable marketing maximization.

drive business impact, how a consumer engages with the brand, what their needs are, what channels to leverage, and how the brand needs to respond to meet the consumer’s needs.” their industry and in their customers’ hearts and minds. Targetbase believes that to be a true CRM agency, a company should be able to retain its own clients longer than the competition. It also invests in cultivating long-standing client relationships in an industry where one-off projects and year-long engagements are increasingly common. There are three differentiators that sets Targetbase apart from other datadriven marketing agencies. Client-Centric Model: Targetbase wraps its data, intelligence and creative solutions with an experienced client team that truly understands its clients’ needs and priorities and executes at a high-level of precision. In addition to keeping the focus on revenue and profit growth that matters to most clients, Targetbase helps its individual clients and their teams achieve professional growth goals. This sets it apart as a

Awards and Accolades Targetbase’s work is always focused on achieving results that matter to

Cover Story

“It’s not enough to simply be present when a consumer engages with your brand. It’s about using the intelligence we’ve uncovered to be extremely relevant, and that relevance is different for each and every consumer.” clients. Not surprisingly, it has been recognized for its excellence both by its clients and by premier industry forums. Some of the most notable accomplishments over the past few years include the Honda Premier Partner Award in 2016 and 2017. These awards were established in 1998 to recognize suppliers who embrace American Honda’s philosophy of exceeding consumer expectations. Targetbase has been recognized as a Premier Partner 14 times over the past 17 years. The organization is proud to have been selected from over 65,000 eligible suppliers by American Honda Associates nationwide. “Targetbase makes us smarter. They know our business and our customer as well as we do,” said Director at the American Honda Motor company. Additionally, the organization has won the 2016 and 2017 DTC Perspectives Agency Vanguard Awards in the Healthcare vertical, the 2016 DTC National Advertising Award for “Best Disease Education digital/social campaign”, the 2015 advertising award for best customer support via program or event, and the 2014 best CRM agency awards.

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Company Name

Management

Brief

AgentCubed agentcubed.com

Chad Hogan Senior Vice President

A lead distribution, and CRM software solution speciﬁcally designed for health/life, Medicare, and P&C.

Analec analec.com

Indy Sarker CEO

A leading global ﬁnancial technology company that empowers broker-dealers and banks to their investment research and client servicing functions with greater eﬃciencies and better customer engagement.

Centra Technologies focussoftnet.com

Nisith Naik CEO

Centra Technologies, is involved in delivering cutting-edge solutions to bring together people and processes through eﬀective, yet easy-to-use CRM and HCM software systems

Complete XRM planplusonline.com

Keith Norris CEO & Founder

Complete XRM is Customer Relationship Management solution provider that develops a suite of software products to evolve organizational culture.

edrone edrone.me

Rahim Edrone CEO & Founder

Helping to increase sales using ready-made scenarios that meets most marketers’ expectations.

Hatchbuck hatchbuck.com

Don Breckenridge CEO

Today, small businesses around the globe leverage Hatchbuck every day to generate more leads, win more customers, and prevent golden opportunities from slipping through the cracks.

Journey TEAM Technology Solutions journeyteam.com

Brian Tenney President & CEO

Journey TEAM Technology Solutions which is a Microsoft Gold Certiﬁed Partner that focuses on providing accounting, ﬁnancial management, enterprise resource management, customer relationship management, and e-business solutions.

Nippon Data Systems Ltd nippondata.com

Harish Kumar Saraf CEO & Founder

A provider of IT enabled business solutions which provide our clients competitive business advantage. We partner with our customers to deliver business solutions to their satisfaction and help them ‘Live Your Enterprise Potential™.

Point of Reference point-of-reference.com

David Sroka President & CEO

A pioneer in providing leading-edge customer reference management solutions along with program consulting services, content development services, and supplemental staﬃng services.

Targetbase targetbase.com

Mark Wright President & CEO

Targetbase, is a part of Diversiﬁed Agency Services, a division of Omnicom Group Inc., a leading global marketing and corporate communications company.

Insider’s Perspective

About the Author: Mr. Rajiv Saran Sharma, CEO, Virgosys Software Private Limited. Virgosys was started with the sole view to cater to elite customers who are looking for bespoke solutions and have the vision to use custom built stuff. We also believed as our customers grew we would follow the path with them, their requirements ever growing. Started in 1994 as a true startup, Virgosys Software Pvt Ltd has grown from strength to strength and serves clients worldwide. We offer a mix of products and services, we have a few premium products viz Schookee – a premier ERP for educational institutions, ELMS a learning management framework which can help impart any companies training requirements. Both products are flexible to scale any enterprise requirement and functional requirements. Our core focus is to deliver solutions in Web and mobile space in various verticals. Rajiv with almost 24 years of experience, is always looking for opportunities to contribute to the welfare of the society through his skills and capabilities.

March 2018

How

AI and Machine

Learning Transforming Human Lives

nnovation and technology has exploded over the past couple of years and India has seen the boom of startups especially coming up leaps and bounds in Bangalore, India. It has 35% of the startup share in India. Well I am specifically going to be talking about Artificial Intelligence or AI as it’s popularly known. AI and machine learning are already driving innovation and transformation. They are embedded in how we sift through large volumes of data and content and how we enhance, organize, connect, and deliver content and information. They are the engines underlying many of the products and services. AI can be defined as “the capability of a machine to imitate intelligent human behavior”. Huge amounts of research is going in to imitate the human behavior and March 2018

use that information for various purposes from Marketing Campaigns and understand your purchasing/decision making patterns. This would be disruptive in terms of new products which can then be focused on a speciﬁc group of people and convinced more easily to buy them. Some of the advantages of AI: Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ

Error reduction Diﬃcult exploration Daily Application Digital Assistants No breaks Increased Eﬃciency Reduced costs of training and operation

Insider’s Perspective Some examples of AI Ÿ Virtual Personal Assistants Ÿ Siri Ÿ Tesla Most of them are well known and used by most of us in daily lives. How much they have impacted its up to us to decide. Sophia deserves a special mention, she is the first humanoid robot created by Hanson Robotics, Alphabet Inc and SingularityNET which powers her brains. Sophia uses artificial intelligence, visual data processing and facial recognition. Sophia also imitates human gestures and facial expressions and is able to answer certain questions and to make simple conversations on predefined topics. This shows how AI has progressed to create a robot that can behave like a human, have a conversation and show facial reactions. Saudi Arabia has granted her citizenship. How AI will improve our lives in future: Œ Improved Geriatric care: With the shortage of medics and paramedics elder patient care has been a pain point for most countries and governments. In near future home robots would help in patient care and help in monitoring their vital signs and informing the hospital so proactive measures can be taken allowing them lead a good life.

Automated Transport: Well all of us are aware of the driverless cars testing going on and soon that big stress would be taken oﬀ our shoulders allow us to utilize that travel time in a more productive way.

Cyborg: Humans will be able to selectively add on computers and add capabilities to one self to perform beyond limits and enhance our capabilities.

Dangerous Jobs: Advanced robots will be able to replace humans in dangerous jobs and hazardous jobs like bomb defusing etc.

Friends: People who are lonely and ﬁnd it hard to make friends may end up having robots as friends with whom they can share their feelings.

and patient monitoring and care, among others. Healthcare remains the top area of investment in AI as measured by venture capital deal flow. AI will play a big role in the way Medical records are used in the future. It will collect, store normalize and tracing its lineage, revolutionizing the existing healthcare systems. Another aspect is it will help in designing specific treatment plans for patients based on the available data. Assisting in repetitive jobs, cognitive assistants are being built to assist doctors in decision making processes. Precision medicine -With AI there is going to be a huge impact on genetics and genomics. Genomics would help at finding patterns and looking for mutations so gene specific medications can be given for treatment various diseases and would be more effective. Cons of AI: With the growth of AI, that could also boost the Cyber crimes and the rates of cyber crimes would go up. Also people stand to loose jobs to AI, in UK its estimated 1 out 3 stands to loose a job to AI. In India a leading IT company deployed AI and some 900 jobs were lost in the process. That shows that the workforce must constantly keep upgrading themselves to be employable. In conclusion every coin has a flip side and its up to us to regulate the negatives and absorb the positives for a much better life style where can focus on the family and continue to enjoy the benefits of IT doing the mundane jobs even ordering food when you need it.

AI and Healthcare: AI programs have been developed and applied to practices such as diagnosis processes, treatment protocol development, drug development, personalized medicine

March 2018

AgentCubed: CRM Software Solution Speciﬁcally Designed for Insurance

ata is a crucial component to a successful sales operation. Insurance carriers and agencies rely on data to manage marketing spend, track agent performance, nurture leads, maintain compliant processes, and retain membership and clients. However, organizing and accessing data is not an easy task without technology. Insurance call centers, agencies and health plans rely heavily on sale’s data to successfully manage the success of their operations. That’s where customer relationship management (CRM) software comes into play. The subsectors of Healthcare like Insurance Carriers and Brokerages are challenged to succeed without the help of CRM technology. AgentCubed is a lead distribution and CRM software solution, speciﬁcally designed for health/life, Medicare, and P&C. The software solution provided by the company improves lead conversion and customer retention by enabling automated lead distribution workﬂows, integrated quoting, realtime campaign tracking, and detailed policy management tools. AgentCubed

provides intelligent lead distribution workflows to both call centers and field agents. Integrated Quoting and Enrollment Especially Designed for Insurance The company has specifically designed its services for the Insurance industry. It offers integrated quoting and enrollment within its platform, which accelerates clients’ lead conversion and customer retention. In addition, the robust reporting by AgentCubed enables its clients to access the data they need in real-time. AgentCubed offers a wide range of eminent services that allow insurance carriers to transform their business with resounding swiftness. Lead Management and Distribution: AgentCubed integrates with over 200 lead vendors for real-time lead posting to automate workflows with business rules defined by the client. These workflows allow for intelligent lead distribution based on geography, lead priority, agent licensing and agent skill level. Lead distribution does not stop in the call center environment;

AgentCubed clients are able to configure business rules to distribute leads to field agents and require status updates on those leads to make sure no lead falls through the cracks. Quoting, Enrollment and Policy Management: AgentCubed provides agents in both the call center and field the ability to quote and enroll health, life and Medicare products within the platform. The number of carrier integrations continues to increase providing agents even more opportunity to complete a consolidated enrollment without ever leaving the AgentCubed system. The online enrollment system allow the client to get real-time access to application status and sales performance. Customer Relationship Management (CRM): AgentCubed’s industry leading platform eliminates the need for multiple systems by accessing all lead and client information in one easy-touse customer relationship management platform. The platform was built with features like automatic distribution of follow-up tasks, built-in calendar and event reminders for clients, and agent access to their book of business to

March 2018

Our insurance software combines a powerful CRM, Lead Management & Distribution, and Agency & Policy Management into one easy-to-use platform. ― Chad Hogan Senior Vice President

continually nurture clients. AgentCubed is designed for insurance therefore the CRM features are designed for lead management and policy management as the focal point of the solution.

Kyal Moody, SVP HealthCompare states “Before AgentCubed, we didn’t have a true line of sight into our day-to-day analytics. Additionally, we experienced a larger number of qualiﬁed leads, quicker conversions and an increased conversion rate after onboarding AgentCubed.”

The Technology Leader Driving Success Chad Hogan is the Senior Vice President of Quotit Corporation® and AgentCubed. In June 2017 AgentCubed was acquired by Quotit. Both companies are excited about the collaboration and aim to bring-forward amazing system solutions in the market together. Chad has more than ten years of experience in technology leadership. Prior to AgentCubed, Chad was the president of a computer consulting ﬁrm that focused on networking and Internet solutions for small to mid-size companies, including several insurance organizations. This experience allowed Chad to recognize the industry future. At AgentCubed, Chad oversees all the aspects related to general business operations, including product development, technology development, and customer service. Chad’s compassionate leadership and professional astuteness is an undeniable aspect behind AgentCubed’s fast-paced growth. Notable Clients and Valuable Feedbacks The company has been recognized as one of the best CRM solution providers. Its solutions are adopted by many carriers and agencies across the country. HealthCompare, HealthPlanOne(HPOne), ASI Property Insurance and VelaPoint Insurance are among a few.

March 2018

HealthPlanOne (HPOne) drives enrollment and engagement outcomes for the nation’s leading insurance companies. Tom Wicker, SVP, Sales and Operations HealthPlanOne, also recognizes AgentCubed a valuable partner and says “AgentCubed’s lead distribution and the compliance aspect on outbound calls have had the largest impact to our business. At the end of the day, it’s about identifying what’s working and what isn’t. The analytics and reporting ﬂexibility is really second to none.” Jana Bell, Operations Leader, ASI, a Property Insurance company, admires AgentCubed and its solutions. She asserts, “AgentCubed is the complete solution for managing your agency. In addition, their support is fantastic.” Premium Products and Exemplary Customer Services AgentCubed has witnessed exceptional growth since its inception. The company has always emphasized providing premium products to its clients while building trusted partnerships and delivering results on target. Additionally, it aims to continually enhance the system, oﬀering innovative solutions to increase the success of sales and marketing. AgentCubed envisions expanding its capabilities further, in support of the Property and Casualty Insurance industry and strives to make a mark across various verticals with its reliable CRM solutions.

ANALEC: Helping Clients Boost Competitiveness and Productivity

NALEC is a leading global financial technology company that empowers broker-dealers and banks to their investment research and client servicing functions with greater efficiencies and better customer engagement. The company combines deep domain knowledge of the capital markets space with its ability to leverage the most appropriate technologies to design workflow and process automation solutions to get the best results for its customers. It has been playing the role of a change agent in the stockbroking and capital markets theatre since its inception, relying on technology to drive business process efficiency while enhancing its clients’ customer engagement capabilities. ANALEC’s research management and CRM software solutions allow clients to become more productive internally and more competitive externally in the market place.

continuously drive innovation. Indy started his investment research career in the UK and also worked for Deutsche Bank out of Hong Kong. His extensive knowledge of client servicing and investment research was accumulated over a 10-year period working for global investment banks. Indy was a top ranked analyst by Institutional Investor magazine during his time as an equity analyst.

ANALEC’s product suite consists of: ANALEC ResearchWise: An investment research management platform that caters to the specific workflow challenges of an investment research organization. It delivers the following capabilities and benefits: Ÿ

Indy has been a regular contributor to various forums and Round Table discussions on issues and challenges facing the investor community (i.e., MiFID II regulations, digital engagement of customers, sustainable broker-dealer business models etc.). He holds a Master’s degree in Economics from the University of Cambridge (UK) and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Delhi (India).

Engaging Customers with Deeper Insights Ÿ

Indy Sarker, the CEO of ANALEC, has over 20 years of experience in the industry. He is responsible for general management and strategic business developments, while striving to

ANALEC’s range of outstanding product suites has been designed to help its clients engage their customers in ways that lead to proﬁtable and long-lasting relationships.

Ensures quality control and consistency in branding and presentation. Centralizes ﬁnancial and other data across the organization. Facilitates content authoring and its automation to aid analyst productivity. Ensures workﬂow approval discipline along with regulatory compliance around disclaimers and disclosure management, and internal checks and controls. Promotes content distribution to multiple channels and captures analytics on readership across the client base, ensuring compliance around MiFID II criteria around “research inducement”. Controls digital access rights in innovative ways to protect clients’ intellectual property embedded in their research products and drives user analytics to gauge readership and consumption patterns.

March 2018

The primary goal of our research management and CRM software solutions is to make our clients more competitive and productive and, above all, help them engage their clients in ways that lead to longerlasting, proﬁtable relationships. ― Indy Sarker

CEO

Enhances the organization’s ability to deliver on bespoke client service requests with minimal eﬀort and resource investment.

ANALEC ClientManager: A CRM that is speciﬁcally geared to address the client servicing challenges of brokerdealers and investment banks. The platform delivers the following capabilities and beneﬁts: Ÿ

Ÿ Ÿ

Intelligent Contact Management capability at the individual service provider level ensuring each research analyst, and sales and trading professional has easy access to their individual client lists and tasks around them. Proactive and insightful Account Management capabilities ensuring close alignment of the service organization to a client’s needs and priorities. Integration across all communication platforms for a seamless experience – email, telephony and mobility. Management of high touch services like Roadshows and Corporate Access with the appropriate checks and balances with respect to MiFID II compliance. Integrated buy-side database from Thomson Reuters providing intelligence around portfolio holdings and contact information on the client base. Powerful management reporting capabilities to ensure proactive client servicing as well as transparency in resource allocation initiatives.

Delivering Superior Customer Engagement

through increased business value to its customers. The world of capital markets is rather unique and, therefore, needs more than the one-size-fits-all approach of most standard CRM solutions like Salesforce.com or Microsoft Dynamics. ANALEC’s CRM solution delivers significantly greater capabilities to its clients, especially in the context of the competitive shifts taking place in the world of capital markets driven by technology and regulatory changes. Not only does it fare well in terms of capabilities compared to similar products in the marketplace, but also delivers a significantly better (ROI) and total-cost-of-ownership. A Unique Organization ANALEC is rather unique in the market place for its integrated investment research management and CRM offering. It helps clients on both sides of the investment research production process (and its related digital content management capabilities). Collated information is fed into a CRM platform which helps its clients engage their own clientele through a world-class range of tools and analytics to boost the customer service experience. Over the last 5 years, ANALEC’s services and contributions to the industry have been recognized through a series of awards and commendations at the company level as well as for individual product suites. The organization is extremely grateful to all its customers for their continuing patronage and continues to strive each day to deliver an increasingly stronger value proposition to them.

According to ANALEC, its domain-centric capabilities and ease of use at the business user end is driving adoption

March 2018

Tech Trends

The

Digital

Phase of Document Management Soutions S

ince the inception of cloud strategies, that brought the ability to store and access data at anywhere, and any time, the concepts such as Time Management gained a high value, Resource Allocation & Relocation became feasible and the overall market value of the practitioner organizations increased tremendously.

Among-st various provisions of the high technology innovation of our age, we can identify the thronging arm of Document Management. In the past, we all know how hectic the management of numerous data that are disseminated on daily basis can be. Many organizations always loose valuable data, just because they were written on a paper. Papers can easily burn in ďŹ re, metals can rust, but the codes that make up cloud and digital peripherals of document management are eternity.

March 2018

The secret behind the growth of the document management organizations of our age is the ability to incorporate digital strategies. This includes the relocation of organizational and clients data to the cloud, and providing high-sense security for the same. There are 3 key factors that will facilitate the innovation of Digital Document Management; Considering the increasing rate of investment that is ﬂowing into the Document management industry, and the over-all return that is expected to surface in the near future, the organizations whose major responsibility to help the masses to manage their data are expected to be regularly innovative, they should always implement new ideas and also integrate strategic methods to fortify the thoughts of their clients and the corporate world with surety of capability. 1. Demand Response and User Friendly Technologies: To avoid staying miles behind in the competitive market such as we have today, organizations must as a matter of fact shift from paper to digital. They should change their management strategies to incorporate everything technically possible. If you are in healthcare, then you must implement the EMR / EHR concepts. You must help your patients to access their health-related data ondemand. Cloud integration is a term that must be keenly available to the every nook and cranny of your organization. When you have done the needed of migrate from paper based to cloud and digital mediums, then you should ensure that the accessibility of your valuables is easy and friendly. It is important to watch the improvement of your organizational provisions while incorporating the digital tendencies so that every angle of your organization will grow unanimously.

feasibility in your migration and data management, you might want to involve some other organizations who are experts in this process. Digital strategy is not just about technologies, but also the ability to think fast and implement effective ideas when necessary. This validates the need to involve the creative strategies that may come from your internal employees. Teach them how to corporate better at work, so that the response rate to the clients will also improve. Digital Document Management is on the virtual platform, but there are people who regulate the requirements of the organic users. So encourage an environment that will ease their workflow. 3. High Security and Customer-Focused Innovation If you have the technology, infrastructure and storage space, but there is no one that is ready to pay for your services, what will you do? Making your provisions to be customer-focused will enable your organization to reach higher goals that they may have set. While you are expected to make your storage solutions to be much affordable, easily accessible, and socially engaging, the need for high security and surety is also rising to the peak. Digital document management strategy incorporates more of easy communication, and on-demand response to disaster and that is the reason, the new age approach to this provision will continue to lead the industry. Competition in this industry is obvious, but your model of approach and business presentation can make the difference. You do need to implement the unknown, but considerable integration of the tested and trusted principles of digital strategies can do the miracle. The above listed areas of concentration, if effectively considered, will steer your organization via a lucrative route in document management concern. Take action while the time abounds.

2. Merge Strategies, Partner and Collaborate When Needed: It is much appreciated that your organization can handle the requirements to manage numerous data at a go, but if you would like to experience a higher speed and possible March 2018

Omnichannel Agent and Customer Engagement Solutions Simplify and personalize the customer experience, empower agents and achieve business success with one workspace for all channel interactions, application integrations, and CX reporting.

Centra Technologies: Facilitating Superior Customer Service through Centra CRM

he success of a business is driven by the relationship it maintains with its customer base. Clients do not need to work too hard to learn about a business since information is readily available over the internet nowadays. On the other hand, for a company to gather information pertaining to its customers is a difficult task. If and only if the company knows its customer base well, it could facilitate a working relationship between the both. This is why an effective CRM tool is inevitable for any business. Centra Hub aka Centra Technologies is a digital transformation solutions vendor operating in the space of business process automation solutions for vertical-specific domains as well as in the generic businesses space. As a solutions vendor, the company works exclusively through the Channel Partner network in delivering its solutions to the client markets. Centra Technologies was established in 2015 with a vision to further enhance the CRM and HCM platforms and bring the latest technology into the current era through the cloud, SaaS, and integration-friendly solutions. Its

portfolio of solutions include systems across various industries, but not limited to real estate (sales, leasing, facilities management, owner’s association management, etc.), automotive (dealership sales, leasing, car rentals, workshop, and garage systems), education, healthcare, Human Resource Management Systems, and CRM systems for sales, presales, and service as well. Centra’s Peerless Tools Selecting and investing in an efficient CRM tool helps any business to take customer satisfaction factor to a whole new level. Centra CRM offers multifarious features that help in identifying, understanding, and analyzing relevant client data. Centra Hub offers numerous tools that enable companies to stay organized. Some of the tools offered by the company include:

Centra CRM – It addresses presales and marketing, sales, and services domains for most industries. Centra HCM – It addresses the entire journey of human capital management from recruitment to separation including Employee Self-Service Online Portals. Centra EDU – It addresses the education industries’ operational management aspects. Centra Studio – It provides a platform on which vertical-speciﬁc solutions can be quickly and easily designed, built, and rolled out. Centra Solutions Suite – It is a panel of solutions that covers over 27 verticals and industries, within which Centra solution is currently assisting its users. A Brief Look at the CEO

Centra Auto – It addresses dealership management systems (vehicle sales & leasing), car rentals, and garages & workshops. Centra REMS – It addresses real estate business operations management.

Nisith Naik, the CEO of Centra Hub, brings with him a wealth of expertise within the IT solutions space through an illustrious career spanning over 25 years. His journey across the sales and implementation of ERP solutions, specialty projects, and delivering

March 2018

Our key objective is to facilitate digital transformation journey of clients across the globe. ― Nisith Naik

CEO

vertical specific best practices has polished his technocommercial prowess. His track-record, particularly within the Middle East, SAARC, and APAC regions, have showcased his strength in building region-specific best practices, while at the same time, keeping the global picture in mind. Facilitating the Digital Transformation Journey of the Clients Centra Hub was incorporated with a key objective of facilitating digital transformation journey of clients across the globe, exclusively through a channel partner network in the realm of business process automation. The journey of the company already boasts hundreds of customers, and thousands of users have already benefitted from the transformation that the product suite provides. The company’s philosophy started with the fundamental principle of providing this platform as a vehicle for the channel partner network to transform its clients’ digital ecosystems and add value to the top lines and bottom lines of their businesses, while at the same time maximizing the potential of the services they provide. Awards, Clientele, and more Centra’s core USPs include, quick and easy deployable solutions, vertical-specific ready templates of processes & best practices, integration-friendly system architecture, SaaS & perpetual license offerings, and cloud & onpremise deployments, among others.

ICT Emerging Vendor of the Year Award 2017 from “The Integrator – ICT Champion Awards.” Centra holds an illustrious client base, which includes reputed brands such as Shapoorji Pallonji Group, Scania Trucks, Bajaj Group, KTM Motorcycles, and Suzuki Dealers. Future Outlook The short-term objectives of Centra Hub include an aggressive plan through a highly structured, globalstandard Partner Program with extremely engaged partners in penetrating and providing impeccable solutions to the MEA, APAC, SAARC, and North America regions. This, in turn, will amplify the product capabilities and further hone in on highly evolved standards of process-centric business governance in the realms of real estate, automotive, healthcare, education, retail and trading, and project management. In the long-term, Centra will further expand the range to cover a larger variety of industries, many of which are already beneﬁtting from Centra’s solutions, to create highly standardized products in those domains as well, including aviation, government, professional services, and manufacturing, among others.

The company has continually been conferred with recognition and awards; the most recent of which is the

March 2018

Complete XRM: Building a Culture of Productivity TM

very business unit relies on creating and maintaining longterm relationship with its customers to raise its stability in today’s cut-throat market. Customer expectations are not limited to the products or services they receive; they also need a face-to-face business in which they can receive exactly what they demand in quick time. Customer Relationship Management is a decent concept that solidifies relations with customers. At the same time, it reduces cost and enhances productivity and profitability in business. A CRM system is a vast and significant platform which can be implemented in small businesses as well as large enterprises. An ideal CRM solution assists the customers efficiently and facilitates the concerned services with adaptability. These solution providers, most of the times, emphasize on providing various communication departments, which further accords in developing customer relations. However, cultivating such Omnichannel solutions to different types of industries is a sweating task, and begs for endurance in terms of sustaining in market.

Complete XRM is one of the few companies that understand the expectations of its clients with its acute CRM platform. The culture-ofproductivity experts, based in the heart of Silicon Slopes, Utah, develops a suite of software products that combine technology, including Pocket Informant, PlanPlus Online, EBSuite, and CRMRealEstate. Its main goal is to help associate organizations and individuals, align their purpose and activities. Complete XRM has and continues to deliver services with acknowledgeable swiftness. A Complete CRM with Reliable Culture of Productivity Complete XRM’s software solutions are based on task and timemanagement methodologies, helping its customers connect productivity with purpose. It offers customizable PlanPlus Online CRM service for sales professionals and business start-ups, which bids the ability to manage customer and vendor relationships through an effective communication. Software Advice has named PlanPlus Online as a“best-of-breed” Salesforce alternative. For customer significance,

the software solutions have been divided into two simplified categories. PlanPlus Online Essentials: It is productivity-based system software, especially designed for business leaders and globally rousing individuals. The clients can manage their communications, build, and maintain their database and can even have indications about concerned sectors with approaching opportunities. PlanPlus Online Business: The platform facilitates customizable CRM for small, medium, and large organizations. It customizes and standardizes sales of enterprises, and improves their business processes by utilizing communication and other management facilities. PlanPlus Online Business software chiefly focuses on building and maintaining team accountability. Such effective team accommodation can wing organizational performance and accelerate sales growth subsequently. The PlanPlus Online CRM can scale from single-user to sales team productivity and can further be transformed to multi-department sales and operations workflow.

March 2018

We strive to provide a suite of software-as-aservice solutions that help companies as well as individual leaders to deﬁne their culture and processes, and empower them to perform with maximum productivity and eﬀectiveness ― Keith Norris CEO & Founder

In addition to these prime software facilities, Complete XRM also offers equally important advancing features, Pocket Informant and KPI Fire:Pocket Informant: It’s a mobile centric calendar and task application with a GTD (Getting things Done) methodology. The application manages annual Calendar and organizes tasks, contacts, and notes, which uplifts action plans with better agility. Pocket Informant has been awarded as the Best Business and Productivity App of 2016 by popular tech organizations. KPI Fire: It’s a Strategy Execution Software particularly developed for companies with over 100 employees. The collaborative tool creates cascading goals for company and its departments, and further transfigures them into accomplishments with its effective management. Resourceful and Versatile CEO Facilitating Completeness Keith Norris, CEO and Founder of Complete XRM, is the Chief of the Culture of Productivity tribe. He is an advocate of process improvement, goal planning, and platform management in the organization. He boasts an extensive experience of over two decades as an entrepreneur, sales manager, and operational head within the startup environment. Keith has a resourceful knowledge in business engagement processes from extending to recruiting, and has a managerial astuteness in event production, sales, marketing, and software development. The profound capabilities of Keith have aided Complete XRM with

March 2018

substantial completeness. The comprehensive visionary is also a successful author, realtor, triathlete, hockey player, and a lifelong entrepreneur. He exclaims, “When you can connect what you do all day with why you do it, you’ll discover new energy, focus, and determination.” Mission to Add Unequaled Perception through Evolved Culture The unique Software as Service (SaaS) platform believes that atmosphere of workplace evolves when group of people gather together to evolve in the culture of workplace. The lack of positive culture in company often results in high turnover, low quality work, and increased stress. Hence, it is important to have a culture in the company which motivates and empowers employees, and enhances productivity. Thus, smart global companies invest in building cultural productivity. Complete XRM helps organizations thrive by identifying, articulating, and improving the building blocks of culture such as: Shared Values, Effective Communication, Habits of Effectiveness, Rituals and Routines, and Systems and Processes. These features evidently hold a credible impact on customer relationship. The company aims to add unequaled perception to such concerned features and spur the growth of corporate culture with maximum productivity and effectiveness.

Mentor’s Insights

Backend-As-A-Service for Payments-As-A-Service T

he growth of the Fintech ecosystem brought with it an inﬂux of Payment Service Providers (PSP). These new arrivals are changing the way the industry is serving and interacting with its customers.

Growth Triggers Fresh Challenges It doesn’t matter if you are a B2C or a B2B company, you are now facing a more informed, savvier Customer/Merchant who is looking not just for the best pricing but for the best value for their money. This evolution of the customer required the service provider to evolve as well, simply to keep up. Providers have had to consider additional services as part of their value proposition – not always an easy task for companies with limited resources and legacy systems. The market became more accessible to young, fresh brands oﬀering agile and innovative approaches to payments. Many veteran players have been left to follow their lead or risk losing business. Customers today are looking for faster onboarding, fewer questions and more services oﬀered instantly, from “one-click-checkout” to the ability to login with social networks and even easy ways to share expenses on the go. Square Gets it Right Payment Service Provider Square is an excellent example of a PSP who acted quickly to respond to customer demand. Square started out with their card reader and MPOS, then quickly expanded their services to ecommerce, scheduling and many more options designed to help SMBs (Small Medium Business) expand and scale their own enterprises. Square’s ease of use has helped thousands of merchants improve revenues and take control of their day to day activity. At Coriunder, we have been focused on the PSP-As-AStartup (PAAS) approach, where the PSP is changing their strategy and allocating their budgets to become more

competitive with newer, more agile providers; this led to another PAAS approach. This one has been around for a while but wasn’t considered as an alternative; PaymentsAs-A-Service. This option paves the way for white label gateway providers that have been enabling the quick setup of a Payment Service Provider without the need of a large technical team and the security certifications that come with it. The majority of providers are focusing on the large network of acquiring banks and alternative solutions instead of on the flexibility needed for the PSP to build his client base. But it’s not just about the payments. Our Solution for the PAAS Dilemma Our approach is slightly different; we built a BAAS (Backend-As-A-Service) model that gives our clients tools to manage Customers (Card holders/Users), Merchants, Affiliates and even their own employees. This provides our clients with a way to build apps and services as part of their offering and to manage the billing and “standard” services all within one, PCI Level 1 certified, management suite. This approach made Payments an “Add-on” to the PSP’s service and not the main service; we see some clients expanding our Merchant Management Portal to allow scheduling and invoicing. Other users are building risk and fraud tools to extend the KYC checks and transactions monitoring they have in place. We serve as a hub that provides the PSP with the options they need to integrate to every service provider they wish to. Together, they can create intuitive workflows that better serve their business logic. BAAS and Fraud Prevention An evolution of a customer comes hand in hand with the evolution of the “Fraudsters”. In many cases, the PSP is left exposed on both fronts; they need to both cater to the March 2018

About Eliad Saporta Eliad Saporta is the Managing Director of Coriunder. With a background in law and an MBA in finance, Eliad has always been drawn to product management and design. He worked as a consultant for various companies, assisting them in their efforts to build products in the payments ecosystem. Today, he helps entrepreneurs not only by assisting them, but also by offering the right tools and services for building their vision.

Eliad Saporta Managing Director Coriunder

customer and combat fraud. Clients adopting BAAS are using the Backend solution to manage both transactions and customers, so they now have the ability to integrate Risk and Fraud tools. In many cases, they can even build their own custom tools to define workflows that help them better mitigate risk and more effectively fight chargebacks and fraud. We see the struggles of our customers as a shared challenge, so we offer a C2C (Client-to-Client) integration as part of the core functionality, brands can help one other find solutions more quickly. With C2C integration, additional revenue streams can be established, as clients developing new services or expanding to new territories can assist one another with growth and opportunity.

helping clients create innovative custom solutions, BAAS can resolve the dilemma faced by the average PSP. About Coriunder: Coriunder is a Backend-As-A-Service platform for ﬁntech and ecommerce companies. Whatever your services might be, Coriunder provides you with reach management tools to monetize your solution and enables you to expand globally with our Payment optimization tools and a single point of integration for all of your services. With over 300 available integrations to acquiring banks and service providers, Coriunder is the logical Backend-As-AService for the Payment Service Provider.

When we launched our service we aimed it at startups looking to build their idea on top of our Backend; we soon we learned that the PSP market was in dire need of a service like ours. We are now serving Payment Service Providers globally, with partners based in Hong Kong, the United States, Cyprus, Malta, Costa Rica and more. By addressing the needs of this rapidly growing industry and

March 2018

Tech Bytes

Making Inroads into Different Sectors

hether moving in a driverless car or deliver an e-commerce product at customers doorstep. “Location” plays an important role. There is a significant dimension of “Location” in every business transactions. Location can be an address, a service boundary, a sales territory, or a delivery route. Therefore location-specific data and its analytics are high in demand among various enterprises. Analytics of location-based data helps an organization to earn more profit and also contribute in making operational activities much more efficient and faster. Enterprises from different domains, therefore, now started using location-based data analytics application. “Spatial Intelligence” is one of them. Spatial Intelligence Spatial Intelligence (SI) is an application of GIS and is also known as Location Intelligence. Spatial Intelligence is the process of deriving meaningful insights from geospatial data captured by GIS. With many different observations, patterns get discovered which help a business to

take better decisions, optimize their business operations and increase their proﬁts. Eminence of GIS GIS stands for Geographic Information System. GIS is a system, which is designed to capture, store, manipulate, manage and present “Location” speciﬁc data to its end users in graphical format. It is a system which comprises of software, hardware, people, data, and methods. GIS software lets an organization to produce maps and other graphic displays of geographic information for analysis and presentation. GIS is much more than a container of maps in digital form. GIS hardware helps to capture an image and other digital data for a particular location. People are the end users of GIS; it can be GIS technicians, managers, administrators, etc. Spatial Intelligence for Businesses Transformation It is generally known fact that more than 80% of all data has a location

element to it and that location directly affects the kind of insights that you might draw from many sets of information. By carrying out a spatial analysis of this data using varied business intelligence (BI) tools, decision makers will able to better understand the past, current and forthcoming aspects of business operations to derive valuable insights and make most effective decisions for their businesses. Most of the time enterprises require customer’s data related to specific locations to know income levels, educational background, buying habits of persons residing in a specific area which helps a business to find a probable location where that particular business get flourished. Spatial Intelligence derives meaningful observations for an existing business as well. In which areas an organization is performing well? Which are the underperforming areas? Which are the areas where a company needs to focus immediate attention? There is a series of many important questions related to

March 2018

a business growth. Spatial intelligence has the potential to derive meaningful answers to these questions. Spatial relationships, patterns and trends reveal priceless business intelligence and bring easy-tounderstand visualization to business applications. The power of location intelligence enables companies to identify and increase where business performs stronger and cut down on failing assets.

March 2018

Spatial Intelligence is Getting Recognition among Diﬀerent Enterprises Companies from diﬀerent verticals are taking Spatial Intelligence very seriously and investing huge money on it. Traditional players of the geospatial industry like Esri, Hexagon and Pitney Bowes are working with spatial data on a large scale. Apart from these companies many hard-core IT corporations like Oracle, Microsoft and IBM are also venturing into spatial analytics at full throttle. For instance,

by integrating Esri’s technologies into Azure IoT Suite's preconﬁgured solutions, Microsoft is empowering customers to gain valuable insights about where their assets are and what they are doing at all times, anywhere in the world. Which sectors are gaining from Spatial Intelligence? There are two categories of businesses which are using Spatial Intelligence. The ﬁrst set is of those businesses which are naturally embedded in

Tech Bytes

geographies like transport, telecommunication, or real estate, which absolutely depend on locationbased information. The second set comprises of the group of users who not essentially use geospatial data on an everyday basis but they still depend on it for better performance. These would be retailers, insurance companies and banks. Let's enlighten how these sectors are gaining with Spatial Intelligence: Logistics: To check the consumption rate of a particular product on a particular location help warehouse management to determine, which stock is needed on a priority basis? Thus it helps a logistic company to maintain demand-supply ratio without any caveat. Companies like United Parcel Service and FedEx are augmenting delivery routes using spatial analytics. Transport: To determine the shortest and fastest transportation routes for delivery, SI is very helpful. Apart from this, it also provides direction to travellers while driving. Real State: Many people buy a house based on the location. People prefer a location which is near to a hospital, a railway station, schools etc. Spatial analytics provides research, analysis, and presentation of each prospective site. It helps in determining ideal sites for development. Telecommunication: In analyzing rivals network coverage, actual bandwidth, potential area to tap new business opportunity, SI is really helpful for telecommunication.

Energy: Spatial Intelligence is helping energy industry to identify the potential location for energy exploration. Retail: Spatial analysis is helping the retail industry to maintain stock delivery, store management, inventory management, marketing and sales. Advertisement Industry: SI helps Advertisement and PR agency in order to find potential location, to install billboard so that it gets maximum views. Healthcare: To identifying those locations, which are more prone to a certain disease, SI provides valuable inputs to the health officials to make policy and administrative decisions to control epidemic diseases. Airports and airlines: Air traffic control use SI to track flight operations with greater accuracy and efficiency. SI helps airlines to reroute flight path in case of an emergency. It also helps in optimizing fuel and staff cost.

Insurance Company: Climate is not under anyone’s control but policies are. Drought and hailstorm have become a common phenomenon since last few decades. Drought and hailstorm contribute to large-scale crop damages. Crop insurance has gained popularity due to drought and hailstorm. SI helps insurance company to predict in advance about future climate behaviors for a particular location and helps them in making crop insurance policy and promotion as well. Humans think visually, therefore spatially. Due to visual decoding, comparison of data and invaluable business insights, SI has already made inroads across various enterprises. With many emerging technologies like crowdsourcing, human geography and visual analytics, dominance of Spatial Intelligence will only grow further.

Government agencies: Not only private companies but many government agencies are also using SI. Defense agencies, town planning department or public distribution system all are using SI for better administration and eﬃcient operations.

March 2018

JourneyTEAM: Microsoft’s Go-to-Partner for Oﬃce 365, Dynamics 365, and Power BI — in the Cloud.

he digital world is advancing at amazing speed — and it’s all connected to the cloud. To succeed, business leaders must embrace digital transformation and ﬁnd new technology to connect people, data, and processes. Organizations need the right data, in the right hands, at the right time to make their mark in rapidly-changing markets. To make these crucial decisions you need the technological tools that can comb through the data clutter and provide your organization a complete end-to-end solution.

JourneyTEAM is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner that fulfills the technology needs of small, medium, and large organizations. The company’s expert consultants dive deep into the dynamics of an organization, and solve complex issues to improve sales, marketing, productivity, collaboration, accounting, and security. Founded in 1993, JourneyTEAM is headquartered in Utah, with other offices around the country. Office 365 and Dynamics 365: The Perfect Match As innovative technologies emerge, the world of business continues to

shift and evolve. Keeping up with these changes isn’t easy. To succeed, your organization needs the right tools. The Microsoft Office 365 suite is far and away one of the best tools for maximizing your company’s productivity. There are a lot of things to love about Office 365: you can access it from any location, collaboration between team members is easy, and your data is always secure. And, most of all, Office 365 connects seamlessly with your existing Dynamics 365 CRM. JourneyTEAM has deep experience in helping organizations integrate these tools into how they currently do business. Let’s look at why Office 365 is the right choice for your organization. Then, we’ll explore how it can integrate with Dynamics 365 and how JourneyTEAM can help you leverage the maximum efficiencies out of these tools. Access Office 365 from Any Location One of the best things about Office 365 is its portability and accessibility. You don’t need to worry about syncing between different devices and

locations, Office 365 does it for you. Whether you’re working on a document in Word, an Excel sheet, or an Outlook email, you can rest assured that you’ll have access to it anywhere and everywhere. Need to throw together a presentation? Simply grab a PowerPoint file from the cloud, and you’re in business. Collaborating is Easy Whether your organization is large or small, your team’s ability to collaborate efficiently and effectively can mean the difference between success or failure with any given project. Office 365 understands this, and Microsoft has made it easy for your team to work side-by-side, even if its members are separated by thousands of miles of physical distance. Thanks to Skype Meeting Broadcast, Delve, SharePoint, and other Office 365 apps, you can collaborate with ease. Top Notch Security No matter what field you’re in, running a business can be a challenge. That’s why it’s so important to choose a software solution that minimizes the number of things you have to worry about, like the security of your data. Office 365 offers built-in security

March 2018

JourneyTEAM is your Microsoft Go-to-Partner that advances businesses and the lives of others through technology and digital transformation. ― Brian Tenney CEO

features, including privacy controls and compliance tools. With Oﬃce 365, you’ll never have to worry about the safety of your data.

efficiency and workflow. Are you ready to learn more about how Office 365 can work for you? Contact JourneyTEAM now to set up a free consultation!

Integrate Business Analytics Power BI allows you to use any data, from hundreds of sources to easily create compelling, interactive visualizations. Customize your visuals to ﬁt your brand and your audience. JourneyTEAM has local consultants that can help you along the way. Edit, update, or refresh visualizations easily. Choose when and what you share—and empower your company with real time information.

A Stand-out Executive When it comes to stand-out execution, Brian Tenney, CEO of JourneyTEAM tops the list. He is an inspiring leader who has been a face of change in the tech industry. Brian has the tenacity to win, and takes a smart and strategic approach to problems while empowering others to achieve more.

Integration with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Of all the reasons that Office 365 is such a great choice for your business, this has to be at the top of the list. Office 365 integrates quickly and easily with Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM, Finance and Operations, Field Service, Talent, Customer Service, Sales and Marketing, and the entire Microsoft stack. What does this look like? Let’s take an example. You get an email delivered to your inbox, and you need to track the customer data it contains. Whether the email comes from a lead or a current client, all you have to do is select the CRM tracking option in Office 365. As a result, customer data is automatically synced with Dynamics 365 CRM. It doesn’t matter what device you’re using, either. Whether you’re on your laptop, your office computer, or your phone, all it takes is the click of a button to integrate new customer data with your Dynamics CRM.

Brian has the gift to grow organizations. He has helped JourneyTEAM bolster up into Microsoft’s go-to partner for digital transformation. Brian has a knack for creating a compelling vision that sets a clear technology roadmap to empower companies to accomplish their short- and longterm goals. The end result is improved business eﬃciency, the power of cloud solutions, and a client list of awardwinning businesses. Brian has worked in the technology industry for years, with roles in marketing, sales, operations, and consulting. He is a regular contributor to technology focus groups and sits on various boards, including at Microsoft, Okta, SharePoint, CRMUG, Cybersecurity, Azure Cloud Strategies, Utah Technology Council, and ERP Solutions. Contact JourneyTEAM today for more information and a Free JourneyMAP (Technology Mapping Assessment) of your current systems. We have solutions that work. Journeyteam.com

Thanks to its seamless integration with Dynamics CRM, Oﬃce 365 can dramatically improve your organization’s

March 2018

Nippon Data System: Spearheading a new wave of Transformation in the CRM Software Development Space

s businesses seek higher returns on their marketing budgets, their investments in sales and service programs and customer relationship management (CRM) software is seeing dramatic growth. Modern enhanced offerings including data analytics and social CRM applications, mobile functionality, as well as gamification features. Rapid, continuous advancements in information technology have led to the creation of dynamic, real-time Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems that increase the quality of interaction between clients and customers. Transforming Customer Experience When it comes to transitioning businesses from legacy CRM solutions to the digital age, few companies can match Nippon Data Systems Ltd. Nippon Data is an IT-enabled business solutions provider which delivers clients competitive business advantages. It has built a strong foundation of success with sustainable growth accompanied with the yearly incremental development of their IT solution offerings. Nippon’s revolutionary ERP product, NEWTON Enterprise Suite, helps clients to adopt Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) that can be

implemented faster than any other solution available at the price. An Industry Veteran Leading the Voyage A myriad of limitations of traditional ERP systems have led to their increasing inability to meet the needs of today’s disruptive business environment. These shortcomings pushed Harish Kumar Saraf, a serial entrepreneur, to consider how to make ERP systems easily manageable. Harish Kumar Saraf is today the CEO & Founder of Nippon Data Systems. He holds a B. Tech degree in Computer Science and is a gold medal holder in academics. Fueled by the motivation of service to humanity, the keen entrepreneurial spirit in Harish Kumar drove him to return to India from the US to establish Nippon Data Systems. He set up NEWTON ERP with his team and later built other business applications with a unique approach. Exclusive Array of Services Most firms offer products from only the companies with which they partner as the best solutions for their clients. At Nippon Data, which considers the expertise of its consultants its most important asset, they offer the very best objective solution to their client, not just what they have on hand.

The company’s in-depth experience with leading ERP and CRM cloudbased products enables them to create tailored solutions for clients from all industries. Nippon offers a complete system for analytics visualization, enabling customers to identify relationships and patterns in data that aren’t otherwise readily evident. The company’s industry-specific solutions include: NEWTON ERP - This software is available in both on-premises and oncloud versions. It can handle the information management needs of enterprises operating in diverse business segments ranging from singlelocation, single-product operations to multi-location, multi-product, multifactory, and multi-division operations. NEWTON CRM – Also available in onpremises and on-cloud versions, this is the solution to automate all financial and non-financial needs of a business which consume disproportional resources and hinder growth. NEWTON SCM - This is the combination of art and science that goes into improving the way a company finds the raw components it needs to create a product or service and deliver it to customers. Technical Professional Services – Nippon provides technical and

March 2018

We all crave high-end professionalism when it comes to looking for development of the organization. Be it outsourcing or development within the ﬁrm, it is important to get the best results to retain existing clients and attract newer ones and let the business ﬂourish without boundaries. ― Harish Kumar Saraf

CEO & Founder

engineering personnel to its clients. The company has an extensive database of pre-screened candidates and one of the highest retention rates in the industry. Cloud Infrastructure Services - Their cloud consulting providers give a cloud road-map that moves the customer from pilot to production, helping them compare deployment options like public, personal or hybrid clouds for their cloud assistance range, including IaaS, PaaS and SaaS. Business Intelligence & Analytics - Nippon Data specializes in Business Analytics and enables various companies to manage their clients’ data and leverage it to make business decisions. Distinctive Strategies for Success Nippon Data Systems was established with an objective to provide Business Software solutions and IT Consulting to its customers and serve as a one-stop shop for all their IT requirements. Its mission is to enhance the business enterprise growth of its clients with creative development to deliver marketdefining, high-quality solutions that add value and give its clients a reliable competitive advantage over their competitors. The company strives to provide the best software program solutions with quality services at affordable prices. Next-Level CRM Systems Nippon is dedicated to helping clients achieve their goals with smart, effective, and scalable cloud solutions. Two specialized services have been created to help its clients achieve business improvements such as improved metrics, monitoring, and leveraging opportunities:

transactions with suppliers from budget planning to requisitions to purchase order to supplies. It provides Auction and Reverse Auction functionalities as well. The SIMPPLIFY Platform is unique in the sense that it provides integration with your back-end ERP and other software applications where required to make the interactions with suppliers completely seamless. Newton E-Skilling: - The NEWTON Skill Management and Development System (SMDS) provides an end-to-end solution for implementing and managing the entire Skill ecosystem. Some of the features of the system are: Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ

Affiliation and accreditation of training partners and training centers Sector skills council management Job roles definitions Schemes definitions Continuous monitoring of training centers

Future Outlook of Opportunities Nippon sees that the industry is developing rapidly, which means customers will be looking for process enhancements to become more eﬃcient and productive. The company has set goals to keep pace with technological advancements. Their short-term goals include hosting promotional events, expanding into new markets, more team building and increasing brand awareness, while the long-term goals include objectives like increased sales, wider brand recognition, the creation of a stellar reputation and an enhanced social media following.

Newton SIMPPLIFY - a complete supplier network management solution. The solution covers entire

March 2018

Industry Insider

DevOps

-Bridging the G A P between Dev and Ops

or centuries, humans have had a propensity to pit two or more teams with distinctive functionalities against each other – even when they are on the same team. This dynamic can be witnessed even in traditional business enterprises, between software developers and operational staﬀers.

The rivalry between Dev and Ops has been prevalent for decades causing one of the most prominent challenges for organizations to manage their IT capabilities. Overcoming from this rift and identifying each other as partners rather than rivals, can be crucial for a business to attain success. But due to opposing priorities, a friction gets created when they are combined, making it even harder for dev and ops to communicate in an efficient manner. Conflict between Development and Operations Although there isn’t any doubt concerning the various technical as well as business advantages that an organization can reap upon combining Dev and Ops, but they comprise of entirely unique goals, metrics, and approaches. Development primarily lays focus on producing new systems and applications and ensures that customers get to use the same as fast as possible. On the contrary, operations look from a different aspect altogether; wherein they primarily focus on ensuring a speedy and bug-free stable system. Additionally, both dev and ops strive towards achieving a similar goal of making their customers feel happy and satisfied, yet they utilize completely contradicting approaches to reach that purpose. On one hand, development aspires to impress its customers with their new enhancements. Whereas on the other hand, the operational team wants its customer base to use a stable and tested system – free from bugs and operability inconveniences.

March 2018

The Battle Scenario – Before and After the Advent of DevOps Before DevOps came onto the scene, both Development and Operations worked in an isolated manner. The only time they crossed-paths were during the release phase. The development team, already notified about the release date, intended to interject some new and additional features before the time of release. Whereas the operational team knew from beforehand whether the current release version had any new or additional features interjected. This way, before deploying the release to the customer’s site, the Ops team performed rigorous testing to be satisfied with its stability and operability and only then permitted its deployment. The arrival of DevOps and its rise in adoption led to a paradigm shift from this culture. Developers now no longer need to wait for a release date to bring-forward new and enhanced features. Instead, they have the capability to release new features on a regular basis by using the concept of Continuous Integration and Delivery. This has prompted developers to emphasize that the operation team must manage this regular flow of new features imperatively before it gets deployed to the customer’s site. But this approach gave rise to a new problem, as Ops have to deal with a pipeline of releases at a regular interval due to this. They now need to be extremely attentive and careful about the quality testing of the systems as the deployed builds on the customer site may or may not be entirely free from bugs. The Resolution The most feasible and obvious solution to this opposing friction is the synchronization between Dev and Ops, popularly termed as DevOps. Coined by Patrick Debois, known as “the father of DevOps,” DevOps is an operational philosophy that helps to bridge the gap between Development and Operations by emphasizing upon integration, collaboration, and communication.

March 2018

It is the most salient methodology through which an organization can check and assure a balance between development and quality. In order to reach an equilibrium point in this resolution, both Dev and Ops need to embrace the DevOps methodologies by modifying their outlook and their way of working, as follows: From the Operations Perspective Ÿ Extensive monitoring of all running environments such as staging or production, so as to react and prevent any issues from cropping up and spreading, respectively. Ÿ Operations need to be much more flexible in their approach in accepting regular or frequent changes. Ÿ Operations should facilitate an effective and healthy collaboration with the Development team. From the Development Perspective. Ÿ Sound engagement needs to be performed to assess the quality metrics that Ops emphasizes on, to track customer production systems and quality. Ÿ Dev need to be more involved with the testing of their own code in the production phase instead of leaving out from the field after writing the system or application code. Ÿ Developers should facilitate an effective and healthy collaboration with the Operations team. Hence, it can be safely exclaimed that both Dev and Ops team need to change substantially in their functioning and outlook to successfully adopt the DevOps methodology. Adapting to DevOps culture is by no means a silver bullet, as it brings with itself a considerable amount of changes. But upon successful communication between developers and operators, an organization will be able to reap significant advantages through the same. The battle between Dev and Ops may continue for years, but DevOps has the distinct capability to bridge the gap between the two.

Point of Reference: Pioneer of Cutting-Edge Native Salesforce Solutions for Customer Reference Management

n the software industry, customer references are vital for revenue growth, but at the same time, the reference request can become a big hassle and source of inefficiency for the salesperson. To address this customer reference dilemma, companies need to refine the entire process of recruiting, qualifying, and maintaining customer reference information so that good reference matches surface within each opportunity. To be on the cutting-edge in the industry, a software solution provider should have deep domain experience and develop products that are intuitive to use and highly configurable to meet the specific needs of advocate programs. A vendor also must listen to customer feedback and refine its products to meet client requirements as quickly as possible. Last but not the least, client service and satisfaction should be in a company’s DNA, then and only then will a software provider flourish. Denver-based Point of Reference® is one such firm that is flourishing and gaining prominence as an essential component of a CRM solution. The universal anxiety felt by B2B salespeople when they cannot easily find the most relevant customer references in a timely fashion led to the

birth of Point of Reference in 2003. “Could I speak to some of your references,” is one of the most important questions in the buyer's journey, but one that launches a lot of inefficient activities that often fail to produce the desired result. With the advent of Point of Reference and its targeted solutions for customer reference management, that chaos can be transformed into a smooth, repeatable process that is a prerequisite for growth. Point of Reference is a B2B customer advocate management software and services company that assists businesses with centralizing customer advocate information and content such as videos and case studies. It also automates for clients many processes including searching, requesting and sharing compelling customer perspectives with buyers to boost win rates. Flagships offerings and Support Services that are Winning Clients’ Trust The flagship offering of Point of Reference is ReferenceEdgeSM, the only Salesforce® native customer reference application present in the market today. ReferenceEdge delivers a sophisticated and easy-to-use app that automates all

aspects of the reference process. It automates the reference recruiting workflow, and automates the maintenance of customer reference information to ensure reliable search results. All the customer data and reference management functionality are seamlessly accessed through Salesforce CRM. The superiority and efficacy of ReferenceEdge can be gauged from client feedback. “Lowering the barrier of entry of any additional technology is extremely important for user adoption. To have something like ReferenceEdge that is an extension of the Salesforce UI helps with the adoption. We fell hook, line, and sinker for ReferenceEdge. Our users don’t typically know it is a different application.” -Erin Traudt, Sr. Marketing Manager, Global Customer Engagement, Amazon Web Services. Apart from ReferenceEdge, they also have expertise in delivering supplemental staffing services, program consulting services, and content development services. The organization empowers its clients to become more proactive, strategic and align advocate program activity with company goals through clear attribution of program activity to revenue influenced.

March 2018

The measure of our success is our customers’ success: time saved and more deals closed faster. ― David Sroka

President & CEO

Distinctiveness Acknowledged by Industry Leaders and Clients Ÿ

Recognized among the “20 Most Promising Salesforce Solutions Providers” by one of the leading technology magazines for two consecutive years (2016 and 2017).

Point of Reference holds a distinction of being the only company to offer a Salesforce native application and is also among one of the first to receive Salesforce1 Mobile and Lightning ready designations from Salesforce. They also take pride in having introduced peer-to-peer request management functionality to streamline the request process and scale programs. Exemplary user experience has received accolades from its clients as well. “To say that I would probably start losing my hair without ReferenceEdge would be an understatement. Having all of this knowledge in one place lets me sleep well at night.” Daniel Palay, Manager, Global Customer Programs at Elastic. “Sales is extremely happy about the turnaround time on a reference request and how easy it is for them to work with each other to complete reference approvals.” - Alyse Chiariello, Director, Customer Marketing, InContact. Fanatically Customer-Focused North Star of the Organization David Sroka is the President & CEO of Point of Reference. He has over 20 years of experience dealing with and solving the customer reference equation. During his career, he has worked as a professional services manager and held positions in sales, marketing, and technical training. His vast experience has given him first-hand knowledge of all

March 2018

facets of customer reference needs and challenges. Sroka’s passion is helping sales and marketing professionals realize the full sales potential of customer references. Entrepreneurial and fervently customer-focused by nature, his goal is to nurture a company that his employees feel proud to be part of and deliver a valuable service, which makes his customers “stars” in their own organizations. Insiders Take on the Current Trend in the CRM Industry CRM is ﬁnally beginning to reach its potential as the hub of the Martech stack. Rather than siloed functions, savvy companies are now recognizing the interconnectivity of a client’s NPS score, service tickets, campaign responses and how these indicate potential reference-ability. AI will play a much more signiﬁcant role in predicting some of the most critical aspects of the customer lifecycle. The key here will be in using this information intelligently and improving all vital interactions within their organizations and with customers. Mission for the Future Point of Reference's on-going mission is to help their clients close opportunities faster by streamlining the entire customer reference management function. By consolidating and automating every aspect of a customer reference program, they enable companies to inject authentic and credible customer insights throughout the buyer’s journey. At the end of the day, Sroka measures his company’s success by its customers’ success; time saved and more deals closed faster.