Why Web Analytics Is Failing!

  "Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted." - Albert Einstein

Curiously I Googled ‘big data’ vs Web Analytics Post ’ to understand a coherent relationship between the two. 

The interest for ‘big data’ search over a time has taken a steep rise that may be attributed to unpresented hype. However, what is more surprising is that “the search interest” for ‘web analytics’, appears to be flat. Notwithstanding the fact that big data originated from the internet, web analytics, which is essentially a study of tracking visitors’ behavior, does not scale up as much as big data. Ideally, there should have been progression in web analytics since both complement each other, but I don’t see this happen if we look at the trend.

With artificial intelligence, cognitive computing, and deep learning, big data is advancing with lots of promises. Web analytics too is getting smart as analytics has gone through a significant improvement in data collection process over a period of time. Both have the same objective – to help workforce take more informed business decision. Nonetheless, web analytics is crawling while big data is taking leapfrog.

What really warrants the growth of web analytics? To my understanding, one of the important reasons among others is – lack of technical understanding in using analytics, and our inability to interpret the findings aligned with a business goal. In other words, there is an obvious gap between privilege of recommendations/suggestions and power of decision, possibly due to “complex hierarchy” of an organization. If I were granted one wish, it would be a “holacracy” model that I want for a data-driven company to adopt like Zappos has embraced despite all criticisms. This may bring in a fair understanding and acceptance of analytics, which I believe, an integral part of progression to the web analytics to the next level.        

I’ve worked with both good and bad web analytics team all through my experience. To my utter surprise, I could not see the best ones were ever empowered enough to provide business insights at tactical level. They were asked to “support” a business. They get locked in their cubical circle to perform KRAs. Sorry, but it’s an astute reality that these poor guys, like express mails, are only used to deliver the data and messages! 

Inevitably, exasperation prevails on them for their “under-ability” tasks juxtaposed to those awful analysts whose “extra ability” looks exaggeratedly ‘extra’ than necessary. In our industry, its unfortunately true that many professionals in digital marketing don’t understand the data collection process, real time analytics, cohort analytics, attribution model, interest level, heat map, tagging, market segmentation, and so many other real metrics which are of paramount importance today. 

All they fathom is traditional metrics such as sessions, page views, bounce rate, time spent, etc., which I believe, are losing their grounds, as browser is becoming smarter and so is analytics tool. Add to this apathy, they feel comfortable by looking at numbers, graphs and share insights based on their prediction of the future impacts? The basics descriptive metrics can no way lead to predictive and prescriptive analytics, and an organization should never pin its hope on such analysis. 

In gist, web analysts can never become the trailblazers of big data, nor do big data complement the growth of web analytics unless these bottlenecks are eliminated, or at least minimized.  

Medical Knowledge Graph- What This Change Means To A Healthcare Marketer!

Recently, Google has brought a major overhaul of its semantic search updated with health information. Google’s knowledge graph, a system that the giant search engine launched in May 2012 can now provide a fact-checked information about any disease you search for at a glance. It is quick, easier and more visually appeal. Not only this, Google also provides ‘a Download PDF’ link so you can easily download and print without visiting a website. Google may possibly display more “assets” in Knowledge Graph as it moves further by adding more entities and context.   

I have searched “diabetes type 2” on Google, and I was amazed at the semantic display of results in the form of Knowledge Graph.

So, what prompted Google to apply semantic display of disease information in Knowledge graph? 

According to Google, 1 in 20 Google searches are for health-related information. Google in one of the blogs says – 

“We’re making sure to include Leishmaniasis of neglected tropical diseases, a set of infections that affect over 1.5 billion people including 500 million children in poorer regions. We think it’s important for people to have facts on these diseases, such as Dengue Fever (already included), Chikungunya, and Leishmaniasis (to be added soon).” 

When it comes to health related information, “trust” is one of the most important factors. Let me cite my personal experience to add more context here.  A few years back, I saw rashes on my fingers. Someone superficially examined and told me it looked like “Scabies”. To my ignorance, I did not know anything about the disease. So, I turned to Google to research more about it. Literally, I was horrified with the kind of terrible information topped the search results. I was confused and a bit scary too. The next immediate step was to visit a dermatologist for counselling. He categorically asked me not to Google, because he did not see all fact-checked search results. 




But those days are history now. Today, the semantic display of medical information on search results will certainly win the hearts of HCPs and patients alike, who did not believe Google until a few days back. A post published on ‘Time.com” -Here’s What 6 Doctors Really Think of Dr. Google – checks physicians’ response on Google’s medical knowledge graph.

Mayo Clinic, ScienceDirect, Medscape, Nature, WebMD, Government agencies (eg: NIH, FDA, CDC) and a team of exceptionally skilled physicians and HCPs help Google curate and validate the much needed information at your fingertips. The current list of verified sources is limited today from where Google takes the information. However, as the Knowledge Graph in health-related search results becomes more prominent, the search engine will likely expand the sources over time for inclusion in this coveted search.    

What this change means to a healthcare marketer?

It’s too early to assess the short-term and long-term impact of this update on health-related paid and organic search; nevertheless there are a few initial observations that can be considered. At time when a big chunk of medical content is afloat digitally, this update may pose a threat to “cheap” content factory. The new format of medical search result (Knowledge Graph) about diseases is an early signal of a deeper change that has profound implications on publishers.  

By connecting verified information to the real world entities, the search engine is able to create a much richer set of results for its users. This will certainly bring in drastic change the way we produce and market health related content and design products. 

With the change like this, a more pragmatic approach, however, would be to explore how our existing and future healthcare digital products can be adapted and marketed to keep up with this changing landscape of semantic search.   

Google Wants to Kill Apps? Yes

Today, our mobile screen occupies many apps. In fact, we have a screen full of different apps. While it may not transpire exactly I’m about to share, undoubtedly we’ve been led to believe that there is an app for almost everything. Healthcare is not an exception to this. According to ‘Markets and Markets’ report, free apps constitute almost 90% of the download market of healthcare applications, and the global mobile healthcare market is poised to reach $20,683 million by 2018 at a CAGR of 26.7%.

Is there any business opportunity? Yes, there is. It is projected that over 268 billion apps downloads may generate near about $77 billion worth of revenue. Notwithstanding this business opportunity, the future of apps looks very bleak. Hardly do I think the apps will ever hit the goldmine. Bear with me as I run through my context behind making such a sweeping statement.

So, where exactly the future is heading towards?  

We already see too many apps being launched every now and then. There’s an app for everything, but now, with more than 1.5 million+ apps in the iTunes store and another 1.6 million in Google Play, users are getting app overload and over bored. There are many people like Vijay Anand who believe that apps providers may eventually turn into API providers, and the operating system on whose platform everyone has built their base on, wins the game. However, I differ, because one of the major problems I see is- how long those apps have to keep up with an ever-expanding landscape of APIs and wireless protocols of IoTs. Not really, Google may want those apps to become API providers.

In fact, Google wants to scrap apps altogether and get back to the web through Eddystone-URL. Yes, you’ve guessed it right. I’m referring to “The Physical Web”, a new project from Google’s Chrome team, which is believed to change everything we are connected to each other digitally.  Eddystone-URL is a new beacon technology that has a huge potential to impact everything from healthcare to self-care. This essentially means Google thinks URLs, not apps, are the future of the Internet of Things (IoTs).  

“The Physical Web isn't about replacing native apps: it's about enabling interaction when native apps just aren't practical. People should be able to walk up to any smart device - a vending machine, a poster, a toy, a bus stop, a rental car - and not have to download an app first. Everything should be just a tap away,” reads The Physical Web. 

To my understanding, the contextual discovery of our physical world to access information and content would be a browser-based, not an app based. This may allow users and local businesses in particular to provide relevant content and more targeted advertisements based on their physical locations. 

So while the IoT is growing with a large collection of smart objects and millions of devices connecting to the Internet, the Physical Web aims at becoming the ubiquitous layer of our interaction that makes it possible for all of to use all those things in a smooth, intuitive way through web and links, not through apps!

Content Marketing – Hype & Hypocrisy!

It’s been a decade since I started my career in the digital media. It’s an industry where Google rules and is everywhere and is in everything. With SEO hype come marketers. They have eyes bigger than their stomachs. The way they chase Google reminds me of Mickey Mouse cartoon of my childhood. And, I really mean it. 

From time to time they repackage their strategy and thus make a whopping business. Their biggest revenue comes from patented SEO tools/software they sell, that never guarantees anything beyond some insights. Different subscribers tell different stories while trying to decipher the anatomy of a website. This too reminds me of a folk tale of the blind men and the elephant. There is so much similarity, isn’t it? 

Two Sides of the Same Candle: Despite frequent changes in algorithm, however, Google’s effort to promote good information on the web has not yet proved to be a major success. The avalanche of articles, videos, audios, press releases, blogs, etc. is enough to bore anyone to their death. 

Frankly, I don’t believe in content marketing. In fact, such marketing does not exist, and it very much latches onto the hype. However, if they think content marketing is the secret sauce of all success, they are looking at the brighter side of a candle from one angle, but I wear a different spectacle to look through the candle burning at both ends. Be careful, the darkness is approaching very soon!

Content Factories’ Resistance Power: After Hummingbird, various content factories are believed to have died off. But some of them have developed resistance to the powerful “spray gun” of Google; and they are virtually alive. They think the usage of keywords in content is still very important to bait Google. I don’t remember when and how ‘keyword density’ has become a standard parameter to rank on Google, and why any sensible marketer should care for it today! Inevitably, their purpose of developing content reveals their “intention” for Gamification. If a site’s ranking is poor, they have a hunch that the site is not optimized and content is not great.

Can their theoretic recommendations to develop so-called "quality content" be worth considering? Blame my poor digestive system, I could puke! I’m sorry, but everyone knows the secret recipe and has tasted the sauce. Tell us, what next? 

We see a big chunk of content being produced on a daily basis; some are really great, while most are not. Further, I have also noticed that sometimes, great content does not spark any conversation or controversy, nor do users ‘like’ and ‘share’ them. May be what I think as great, other think as substandard and vice versa. It is very subjective to measure the ‘quality’, while a quantitative measurement does not prove a content to be good or bad. Regret how the dirt across digital media buries some amazing content of lesser known people.  Thanks to Google for retiring ‘Author Rank’, else it would have been f##### off. 

Use or Misuse! Everyone in the industry is made to believe that ‘content is king’. They always produce so much, which is beyond one’s digestion capacity. Every hour, every day, every week and every month they create, with the hope of getting into the golden triangle of Google. They also syndicate and distribute across different channels including Facebook, Twitter, G+, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc. I pity LinkedIn in particular, about how it is professionally being abused with promotional emails/loads of execrable content. Jeff, wake up! 

Image Source: 1000heads.com

Wikipedia is another example which is full of rich content and quality information. It has dominated Google search results for a long time, but now it is seeing a sharp decline in traffic from the search engine. Reason - change in algorithm, or a direct answer to a query? At this point of time, any reason that I mention looks a like a theory, but intuitively we all know why Wikipedia is losing traffic from Google, don’t we?  

Address My Questions: Those who believe, content is a gateway to all success, I have a few questions to which I would like an answer:

Q 1: If the content, they produce, is expected to get them the desired results, then why email open and click rate are not going up beyond 25-30% and 3-4% respectively across verticals. Why is the subscriber’s growth always a concern for any marketer? Don’t say they don’t produce great content!

Q 2: How do you measure the success of great content? Using any standard KPIs, Bounce rate or page views? For God sake, don’t say you use “website engagement” metrics! May be, ranking on Google is a “great” measure to consider great content, but is it?  

Content Marketing – A Gimmick! The hype behind content marketing is nothing but a marketing gimmick. Rarely do I think engagement, lead generation and brand awareness are the core objectives for many search marketers. A simple app, for example, could be a darling of millions of users. So, I’d rather vote for some key metrics that matter such as users’ experience, convenience, friendly usage and ability to address their needs. 

These are a few ingredients required to make a tasty sauce, and trust me there is no secret about it. There are many who keep asking -how Google measures user experience as a ranking signal. Dan-Petrovic has debunked the mystery and elucidated in detail –how does a search engine interpret user experience.  

To my understanding, users experience is a behavioral data, which is on Google’s key objective to rank a website, not content with a bunch of keywords. Digitally, users are scanners, not readers.  

Image Source: expresswriters.com

How Much Is Too Much? Relying on the old way and repackaging the same tactic appears to be shallow. I believe, these gimmicks will settle soon, because informed users know how to separate the sheep from the goats. Producing a ton of content and recycling the same will never let anyone to be on the top of minds forever. By the way, how much content do you think is too much for content marketing?   

Conclusion: In my opinion, what works today are– brand value, uniqueness of a product, enhanced digital persuasion, great architecture of a website/an app, etc. I’m not saying you need to reinvent the wheel, but there is no point too to repackaging the old wheel with an optimistic belief that it is sustainable. Nothing is sustainable for a very simple reason - the law of the diminishing marginal returns. 

Content for all marketing promotions is needed, but it is important ONLY if it addresses the users’ needs, rather than the algorithm of some lifeless bots! May be, ranking gets you all smiles, but it’s not necessary that your customers will smile too. So, rack your brains logically than being hooked on to content creation and content marketing for ranking hunch.  

Why Web Design Is One Of Your Best Bets For Getting Rich In 2015?

If you are looking forward to get rich using your skill of web designing then you are on the right track, at least for the present. The importance of web designing has been growing in the market especially because of the expansion of ecommerce all around the globe. Web designing is the act of developing a website. Therefore, web designers are often also known as web developers.

Outline: A web designer’s profession gives a lot of advantages including doing what you love, helps use your own creativity, work from anywhere, work anytime and above all make a lot of money. Here are some of the reasons why web design is one of your best bets for getting rich in 2015.

Growth of ecommerce websites

A large number of ecommerce websites are being launched every year. Business owners generally do not depend on inexpert hands for development of their website. They tend to rely only on skilled and experienced web designers for development of professional business websites. They also give adequate remuneration to these web designers. However, they expect great quality of work. So, the demand for quality web designers is on the rise at present in 2015 and would continue to be so in 2015 as well. The online crowd is growing at a rapid pace each year to the delight of the designers.

Expansion of IT industry

The information technology industry is expanding like no other in this age of computers. Therefore, web designing gives you the chance to enter this growing industry and make yourself comfortable there, when a dearth of skilled IT experts is still prevailing in the market. If you are having the skills of web designing then this is the right time for entering the IT solutions industry and gaining experience, before it is too late to get even a foothold.

Strike while the iron is hot

Sometimes back, a dearth of engineers in the market prompted the need for new engineers. Accordingly, educational institutions offering engineering studies cropped up in plenty and created many engineers. However, now when there is an excess supply of engineers, they are falling behind others. On the other hand, those engineers who entered the industry long back, during the initial days of engineering boom, are now earning a lot, sitting in top positions of companies, with lots of experience. Since, the boom of the IT is still in its initial phase, it is the best time for entering the industry as a web designer and become a veteran by the time the market gets saturated with webmasters.

Earn superlative income

Just as discussed above, there is still a dearth of skilled web designers in the market. This makes the web designing profession the best for earning super profit. The market rate of web designer’s compensation is at a high level at present due to the lack of supply. This would help you to earn a lot by working as a web designer than many other professions.

Work as a freelancer

If you are still studying or engaged with some other activity then you can simply start working part-time web designer as a freelancer. Freelancing is a great way to increase your skills and experience, and at the same time earn a lot of money. If you work as a freelancer you get the advantage of working from home at your own convenient time. It could be very tiring to take up on-site jobs where you will have to attend office for eight to ten long hours at a stretch. Web designing gives you the chance to work from home; only if you have a computer with stable internet connection!

Gain new skills

If you are willing to get rich fast, without even having the skill of web designing you can start from the scratch. Being able to design websites does not require lengthy formal education. You can simply search the web to learn the basics and then advance your skills by reading some books. Graphic designers can also consider designing websites as one of their options. If you apply to a graphic designer job currently you can go on to be promoted as web designer in future. This would not take much time and you can start off with your practical web designing works in just few months. If you are looking for growth in future, you can opt for a formal training after you start working as a freelance web designer.

Conclusion

Working as a web designer could be really exciting as it does not require you to attend long hours at offices. You can simply work from home as a freelancer. Moreover, it gives you the scope to find clients from across the globe and deliver them their work online.

Author’s Bio: Saurabh Tyagi is a freelance web designer working around four hours a day and earning decently. He is also a regular writer for his own blogs and few other websites. He also loves to listen to old English songs.

Is Your Website a Semantic Search Engine Friendly?

There is a ton of post we see on semantic SEO. Many of us even blindly fall prey to these pieces without even realizing whether or not a website we build is a semantic search engine friendly (SSEF). I don’t see any logic for a semantic SEO if a website lacks all the nuts and bolts required for a semantic search engine. This is analogous to people riding bullock carts and aim high at winning against the super racing vehicle riders. Verily, stupidity has no bounds!   

We go behind some industry stalwarts’ tips and tricks to bait the search engine. Nevertheless, we don’t see the demigod - Google flourishing its blessings onto us. To make life harder, Google’s wrath comes in the form of some new updates thwarting our previous SEO tricks. This makes many of us even more desperate. SEO’s desperation is the dark reality, isn't it? :)  

Image credit: The High Performance Marketer

Google has been very vocal about user experience for a long time. Since beginning, the search engine has been conducting many experiments to fine tune its search results. On and off, we are astounded to see some awesome results for our queries. We even get direct answers, but sometimes we also get frustrated with crappy blue links on the top of SERP.

These days, we have a “mixed” search experience. Apparently this is a “transition phase” (from a traditional to a semantic search) Google is passing through.   

We voice the search engine, and it gets us what we ask for. It also sets an alarm for us, and heads up with a variety of information needed for our daily life. The magic of ‘OK’ is really whoopee and riveting.  All these changes in bits and pieces, we see, make us belief that Google is metamorphosing from a traditional to a semantic search engine. We follow Google, and we do almost everything to get in there in semantic search results, don’t we? Yes, we do. The biggest question, however, is - are we applying a semantic logic to our websites/apps? Yes, a semantic friendly website for a semantic search engine!

Image credit: Mit Edu

As the adage goes, beauty hides ugly truth.  We are spellbound by a beautiful interface of a fully functional website, but fail to see a complex and technically flawed code hidden behind the HTML. Humans may not see this, but Google never misses to see it.   

Image credit: Layout Sparks

Let’s get back to find out where the search giant is heading towards. Certainly, it’s riding high on semantic and contextual searches. In fact, Google is becoming our virtual robot/assistant to help or guide us in our day to day life. Despite these changes, we see the same boring Google interface every day, right? Yes, we do see it, but one can also observe a sea change in Google’s search behavior over a decade behind the same bland interface.  

Google’s “smart algorithms” are being written over behind its “boring interface” that drives the key initiatives of a semantic search.  If we really want Google to extract information of our websites as much as possible, we need to build a SSEF website for a semantic search engine and for our own audience. It’s therefore important to lay emphasis on both aspects of a website –front end and back end for a seamless execution of functionality that pleases both user and user-agents. 

In my money, a search engine may not prefer a website merely based on its beautiful interface, which is technically flawed and not all a semantic friendly . Obviously, a legacy template model fit in all sizes does not work. With depreciated codes and ready template, one cannot aim too high with some superficial touch on addressing a site's compliance issues. 

A website must have “entities” for a clean structured data. Unfortunately, we see people are less trained of developing and auditing code compliance and performance testing of a website, and more trained of functional testing to ensure the "outer beauty" should not suffer. Sorry guys, but such workflow/delivery certainly gives an undue liberty to a developer to create all mess without any accountability. Dare not trespassing their obfuscating territory, you'd be 'SHUT UP'! After all, they are the bread and butter of a company they work, aren't they?

Who do we pin the blame on- people, process, technical expertise, or all? Think!!

Image credit:  Wpmudev

Example: We see rich snippets, a wonderful application of RDF or micro-format. Intuitively, Google shows it on search result that surely gets a higher CTR. Nevertheless, I believe this would be a bit riskier to go with it down the years due to spams. Semantic search engine demands a fine tune approach to add more contexts to rich snippets. And I must say JSON-LD best fits in here to fulfill this need. It is a lightweight data-interchange format that provides additional mappings from JSON to an RDF model. With this notation, it is easier for both users to read and write, and for machines to parse and generate. This will certainly make a website more semantic. By default, JSON is the language of the new semantic web and is becoming an integral part of the web for a generation of developers. Google has endorsed JSON-LD as a way of providing schema.org information. It has now become an official recommendation of the W3C.

Image credit: Groups Drupal

Not only for developers, but for digital marketers too, a SSEF website opens lot of new avenues. Mike on Swell Path has written – “Google is using JSON-LD structured data to create Event-based rich snippets in SERPs and Knowledge Graph features; products, people, recipes, breadcrumbs, etc.”   Thanks to GTM, a platform or tool Google has already provided to marketers to push JSON-LD data to track the effectiveness of semantic analytics. I certainly see a growing use of this tool in near future that may help Google index a website’s info more semantically.  

As search is going more semantic way, search experience optimization (SEO) and analytics too must adapt to keep a good pace. Therefore, it is indispensable for us to decipher - a semantic website structure, a semantic SEO, a semantic analytics, and finally a semantic search engine.  

Closing Thoughts:

UX is a key, but it lacks glitz to go for a long from a search engine perspective as long as serious technical flaws are hidden behind the obfuscating HTML codes. Making a website user friendly or mobile friendly is a basic and minimal requirement today, but one should not bet high on its sustainability going forward. It’s high time all stakeholders (marketing, development, and analytics et al.) must align themselves in a process to get the hang of building a SSEF website for the next generation search engine. Alas, lack of technical expertise and legacy process thwart our attempt for a sustainable and consistent organizational growth.      

The Internet of Things (IoT) And Bottlenecks Within Organizations

Is 2015 a year of digital transformation (DT)? More often than not, we hear people saying the whole digital experience is changing. Users’ behaviors and customers’ expectations are changing too. Is there any ounce of truth, or just a hype? Yes, there is absolute truth what they say. 

We are seeing how usage of social media is grown and so is our behavior to share every minute update. In reality, social media has jump-started the sharing and collaborative economy. E-social bonding and tons of data being updated on the cloud every second are occupying a larger space than ever before.  We too see this trend going upward if we trust analytics, don’t we? So, the answer is- Yes. 2015 is a year of digital transformation, which I believe, is expected to bring a radical change in IT, people, and process (IPP).

By and large, all bricks and mortar, especially health care regardless of their shapes and sizes, are forced to ponder over this virtual transition they are seeing in a hyper connected digital world. Thanks to the Internet of Things (IoT) for setting this momentum, we are seeing a firm commitment among different companies and VCs for seamless integration of multiple devices across homes, retail stores, automobiles, healthcare, and physical machinery. 

Source: cbinsights

IoT and digital transformation have brought in ample business opportunities. Unfortunately, organizations across the globe are constantly failing to capitalize this due to various bottlenecks. 

Highlighted below are a few gridlocks that demand immediate attention to cut across for building a scalable business model.    

 DT’s Key Components:  If an organization wants to accommodate a new landscape of digital ecosystem, it has to embrace -Agility, adaptability and alignment (AAA) - the key components of the transformation. However, encouraging a well-established practice and legacy workflow of organizations to adapt to these changes the way they work is a challenge.  Attitude, culture, business silos and standard operating procedures all get in the way.  Things are even more taxing when mid-level management play their safest game to stay secured and bully their subordinates who question their process and skillsets. I know, trying to be a catalyst in such an organization is a hard nut to crack. Dare being a vocal, the middle management do pull things in their favor with no such information being passed to the higher hierarchy. This is what I call a dirty “Vicious Circle” to flush out a talent. 

Image Source: miebach

Notwithstanding a good vision of top management, an organization fails to get into the much needed “transition phase”. Its therefore important to break the “vicious circle”, which is possible  only when a fair transparency policy is pursued with some good governance.     

Google Mobile Search – A Flop! Google has many flops and failures. Their 'Mobile Search' appears to be yet another one in doldrums, possibly on the verge of collapse. Most users even on androids hate using search on their handsets due to poor experience they end up with.   

At time when the search giant  is struggling hard to capitalize the growing mobile audience, Vurb, a mobile search engine, has got off to a flying start. In a very short time, Vurb has been able to garner positive word of mouth, giving a tough fight to the monopolistic search engine. That being said, it would be interesting to see if Vurb braves to challenge Google or just a delusional.  

Image Source: smallbiztrends

Given this virtual reality, sooner or later the biggest challenge for a business is not only to create an out of box app, but also an innovative marketing strategy to put forth.    

Is UX the Holy Grail? Notwithstanding a flawless digital product, lack of its findability across multiple devices fails to create initial momentum. This results in “a lower reach” that does not go beyond a segment, basically does not touch a long tail. In a highly crowded digital economy, even a great UX does not proffer much help especially in creating positive vibes. 

Image Source: usabilitygeek

Gone is the era of R. W. Emerson - “Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door”. His wisdom is no longer applicable to the kind of digital era we are living in. Unfortunately, an organization's false belief of creating a great product has ugly truth hidden behind HTML. A technically flawed product if wrapped under a “cosmetic makeover” pleases human, not bots. Further lack of ability to go beyond analytics basics is another challenge an organization is burdened with.   

Apps Optimization – A Big Marketing Opportunity! Another key trend that we are seeing is a growing “search for apps” on multiple devices. Apps optimization is something that demands our attention then never before. I stumble upon various resources flooded on Internet with lots of valuable tips and tricks on apps/apps store optimization, but practically I see a different scenario. An organization cares more for a desktop compatible product with no or less attention being given to test apps compatibility. Sad, this is a missed business opportunity.

Image Source: pureoxygenlabs

A Disconnect Team in a Hyper-Connectivity World: It’s no wonder I find a disconnect among workforce. Looks a bit strange, but it’s a reality. On one hand, a big chunk of users are connected through multiple devices across the globe, but on the other hand, a team within an organization remains disconnected until the last minute of a delivery of a project. This is a serious alignment issue.    

Lack of seamless integration among sales, marketing, analytics, development teams, project managers, account managers, and senior management pose a challenge for the digital transformation in an organization. Apparently, they work together for a client outside their offices, but they are not in realty within their own premises. One of the important reasons for this disconnect among team is the lack of technical and marketing knowledge of a digital product!       

Closing Thoughts: As IoT evolves, it continues to bring in lot of change in IT and digital ecosystem. In such a scenario, an organization must look into a few areas such as - “Legacy Infrastructure and Workforce Connectivity”, “IT, Marketing, Sales & Analytics" skills, and “Functional & Administrative' knowledge” to set the 'matrix' right for a sustainable business model. In short, they must update their periodic table of the elements to keep a pace with the changes being imposed.