Interesting facts about M2M

For people who have read about M2M or for who haven’t, this post will give an idea as to what the future holds when it comes to technology. M2M is a simple concept where two machines communicate to each other to achieve a common objective. The communication is done through complicated sensors that are installed in the machines. Here are some interesting user cases of M2m I found;

Entertainment
iLuminate essentially takes a simple M2M concept and turns it into art: dancers wear bodysuit and costumes that light up wirelessly to match the music and choreography. The difference with the iLuminate platform is that performers wear illuminated costumes that can be controlled without having to keep pressing buttons. Based on the sources they further said that, “the software's accuracy means cues can fire every 5 milliseconds, which is 1000 times faster than a human hand clicking a button.”

Home appliances
I think we’ve all seen this part of technology in future oriented movies where the entire household can be controlled by a click of a button. However in reality this kind of technology is coming true bit by bit. The introduction of Smart TV’s is one example. At a recent Consumer Electronics Show, LG has showcased a "Smart Refrigerator" prototype demonstrating various M2M-based "smart home technologies". One unique feature was a food management which allows consumers to check food items stored inside the fridge such as location and expiry dates via their smartphones or its built-in LCD panel. The appliance even recommends dishes that can be cooked using the ingredients that it happens to be storing. How convenient!! 

Big Data and the Telecom Industry

Mobile phones are already well on their way to replacing cameras, cash, tickets, calculators, maps, notepads and many more and they are becoming ubiquitous. Within the next five years smart phones are going to become the center of our world. The smart phone will start the car, make phone calls, check bank account balances, make payments and track locations. Literally people will not have to carry anything else but the smart phone. 

In the mobile network there are more than 6 billion mobile subscriptions in the world, and every day, 10 billion text messages are sent. Thus to facilitate great customer relationships, enterprises will want near real-time information on every kind of data emanating from consumer mobile devices in order to sharpen their understanding of consumer demographics and buying patterns. Not only enterprises, mobile operators can use these real time analytics in delivering a superior customer service. 

Based on a new IBM study on how telcos are using Big Data “85 percent of the respondents indicate that the use of information and analytics is creating a competitive advantage for them – a 124 percent increase in the last two years.” 

For example one of US major mobile operators is combining its customer record data with sentiment analysis where they are able to determine what type of people pass by a billboard at a particular time of day and what products they are interested in. This allows them to precisely target its billboard advertisements to the demographics.

What's so Big in Big Data?

Organizational leaders require analytics to exploit their growing data and computational power to be smart and get innovative in ways they never could before. Consider retailing for example. Physical bookstores could track which books they sold and which did not. They could tie some of those purchases to individual customers if they had a loyalty program. These bookstores had limited information and thus could not make informed decisions. Then the online shopping and e-commerce gained popularity moving transactions to the internet. This transformation resulted in businesses gaining better insights of who their customers are and their behavior. Now online retailers can not only track what they bought, but can gain information about what other items they looked at, how they were influenced by promotions and reviews. 

Every day business and consumer life creates 2.5 quintillion bytes of data so much that 90% of the data in the world today has been created in the last two years alone. This data comes from everywhere: posts to social media sites, sensors used to gather climate information, purchase transaction records, and cell phone GPS signals to name a few. This data is called big data. 

Big data is more than gathering data; it is about finding useful insights that can be used by organizations in making decisions. Leaders across countries consider big data as a management revolution where enterprises analyze massive amounts of data to identify valuable information. Senior executives now prefer to run businesses on data-driven decisions. They require scenarios and simulations that will provide guidance on the best actions to take. 

Children and Mobile phones

I accidentally came across this research on mobile phones and children carried out by GSMA. The statistics of the research are particularly shocking for a person like me who finally managed to buy a Smartphone at the age of 23 (my current age). I will list down few of the most interesting statistics;

• 65% of all children surveyed currently use a mobile phone; of those, 81% have a new handset.
• 12 is the most common age for children to get their first mobile phone.
• Nearly 24% and 20% of children in Indonesia and India respectively, send over 51 messages a day.
• 70% of all children who use the internet through their phone access it at least once a day.
• 70% of children have met or started to communicate with ‘new friends’ online.
• Over 70% of parents have concerns about children’s mobile phone use, with viewing inappropriate sites and overuse sharing the highest percentage at around 82%.

Well, these were only the few stats I selected as interesting for me. To discuss more about the parental concern over mobile phone usage of children, it states that parents allow their kids to use mobile phones is for the purpose of staying in daily contact. As mentioned before 70% of the parents are concerned about their kids’ phone usage. Well, the first question that comes to my mind is “why do they give a phone to a 12 year old kid first of all”. Maybe I live in a culture of closely knit families where parents are constantly looking out for us, but I still don’t get it. 

As always there’s an upside and a downside to any situation. But in my opinion the downside of kids using mobile phones is far greater than the upside. Ok, I agree in a case of an emergency you can call your parents and let them know that everything’s alright but what about the negatives? When I go a friend’s house I tend to go out and play or do whatever. But the latest generation of kids has almost forgotten how to play. They go for a play date and end up playing games on their phone or iPad. They do not get any physical exercise and fall into the category of “children with diabetes or obesity”. 

How will it be in another 5 years time? Will kids come out of a mother’s womb holding a phone? or will they be so mobile phone literate that at the age of one they will know how to use their dad’s iPad?

Here is the link for the research I found. 

http://www.gsma.com/publicpolicy/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/GSMA_ChildrensMobilePhones2012WEB.pdf 

Benefits of using loyalty as a service

The benefits of using loyalty-as-a-service will not only be in financial terms but they will also be in the form of non financial long term benefits such as improved customer loyalty and satisfaction, strong referral market and excellent reputation.
Strategic and tactical benefits of Loyalty-as-a-service are;

Greater productivity
The business can benefit from superior productivity because the level of investment is inferior when compared to the output of the program. The output far outweighs the monthly payment or fee when adopting a loyalty-as-a-service platform. The capital expenditure and operating expenses will be significantly lower since the company will not be purchasing any dedicated hardware components for the program.

Differentiation
The organization can differentiate its loyalty program because it can address and reward customer needs real time with unlimited amount of flexibility to test and implement far more superior campaigns than its competitors. This is done because of the use of Cloud technology.

Integration with third parties
Loyalty-as-a-service has the capability to integrate with third parties when offering a loyalty program. For example in a points system the members can redeem points with selected merchants and this service can be used to integrate with such merchants and communicate with them. Moreover the amount of third parties can be extended based on the company’s requirement.

Loyalty as a service continued...

The loyalty program can be viewed as a service to the firm and this enables organizations to gain competitive advantage because the loyalty program will grow to be more robust, more creative, and more intuitive. Cloud services provide infinite amount of flexibility and this gives the businesses the capability to be more creative by testing different types of campaigns that appeal to its customers. Further, with the popularity of the program and growth, the firm can extend the capacity of its package without much effort. It also has the capability to connect to businesses’ backend systems and deliver real time campaigns. Real time campaign creation facilitates companies to identify a sudden change in consumer demand and modify its loyalty program to address such changes.

For example Virgin America provides just one example of how Cloud services can be used to create competitive differentiation through their frequent flyer program. Its frequent-flyer population of 1.8 million is the industry’s fastest growing at over 40 percent a year and they are also the most engaged.

Loyalty as a service

Businesses can use Cloud services to deliver new capabilities and experiences. The potential of Cloud based solutions is unlimited. Thus, IT savvy organizations seek to gain a competitive advantage by improving their efficiency and overall profitability. Cloud services can be used in numerous ways to improve customer care, information sharing, and sales transactions. Companies turn to loyalty program service providers for support across the loyalty value chain from program strategy, technology, and program management.


One way of delivering new experiences for both the customer and the business through the use of Cloud services is to adapt loyalty programs that are hosted in the Cloud. These are called as “loyalty-as-a-service”. Organizations can implement loyalty programs without the need for heavy infrastructure. All necessary hardware and software components will be hosted in the Cloud. Any business irrespective of the size can execute customer loyalty programs with the benefit of Cloud computing.
All features that are available under traditional rewards programs will be available under this Cloud based service. Firms which offer loyalty-as-a-service have different packages, and businesses can select the package most suitable for them. This will require the business to pay a small upfront payment together with a monthly fee for the continuation of the service.

More information in my next post.

The reason for the chasm

My previous post was about the different types of customers that can be seen in technological industry. In this post I will be discussing about the so called "chasm" based on the book 'Crossing the Chasm'. 

The first crack

This is the difference between the innovators and the early adopters. The reason for the difference is that early adopters cannot easily relate or understand the benefit of the product. Technology enthusiast loves the product for its architecture, but nobody else can figure out how to start using the product. One product that has fallen from this crack is "desktop video conferencing". There were many versions of the product. However customers didn't really understand the purpose of the product.

The other crack

This is the difference between the early majority and the late majority. The reason for this difference is the differing demands of the end user. By this time the market is already well developed and the product has entered the mainstream market. For people who are not frequent users of the product / system, the protocols of that system was too hard to remember or use. Thus mature markets find it harder to cover up their R&D costs because the end user cannot capture the benefit of the product. 

The chasm

The chasm exists between the early adopters and the early majority. The below table will explain the reason for the existence of the chasm;

Technology adoption lifecycle

The concept of technology adoption life cycle needs to be understood by any technology related organization in order to survive in the industry in the long term. In this post I will be explaining a model for understanding the acceptance of new products.

Innovators
These are the people who pursue new technology aggressively. You can associate people like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates to understand the characteristics of this category. They seek out new technology even before a formal marketing plan is being launched. Technology plays a significant role in their life and they would purchase technology simply for pleasure. However winning innovators for your organization is key because they will reassure other players in the market place that your product actually works.

Early adopters

People who belong to this category are not technologists as innovators. They understand and appreciate the benefits of new technology and relate these benefits to their organizational concerns. Whenever there is a strong match between these two aspects early adopters would base their buying decision upon it. However they do not place significant importance on references, thus base the buying decision on their own vision. Early adopters are the key to opening up the high tech market segment.

Early majority
The early majority shares some enthusiasm to new technology as early adopters, however they are driven by practicality. They require well established references prior to any investment decision. This segment comprise of one-third of the whole adoption life cycle, thus winning this segment is key to any substantial profits.

Late majority

As the book says "shares all the concerns of the early majority, plus one major additional one". This additional concern is because unlike the early adopters, people in this category are not comfortable is using technology. Thus, they wait till until the particular technology becomes an established standard. Also they require a lot of support and prefer to buy only from established companies. This group comprises about one-third of the total buying population in any given segment and winning this segment will be highly profitable for the company

Laggards
This segment simply doesn't want to take part in any technology due to personal and economic reasons. The only time they buy a technological product is when it is buried so deep inside another product. For example a microprocessor is embedded in a breaking system. They will not even know that such a product exists. This segment however is not worth pursuing. 

The new social marketing tool..

I came across this great social media tool which could be used for marketing and for personal use. It's called Pinterest and it's based on images and videos. It is the up and coming social media tool nowadays and businesses could use it to build brand image and awareness. Here are some of the things I found on how businesses can use Pinterest for marketing purposes;


1. Pin pictures of clients and their testimonials
2. Create Boards for your products and Pin pictures related to the product
3. You can turn traditional case studies into visually engaging stories, since images evoke emotion
4. Take pictures of customers engaging with your product or service, then develop an entire pin board dedicated to customers.
5. If you're attending a conference or a trade show, Blog about the event before you go—the who, what, when and why you’re going. Then take pictures at the event, and create a Pinterest board for them.
6. You can also use the tool for lead generation. The Pinterest account can be used to drive traffic to the company website. This could be achieved by creating catalogs of pin boards and pins based on your products.
7. You can encourage your website visitors to pin your content
8. You can also have "pin-to-win" contests in your Pinterest account and this can create a tremendous amount of viral excitement around your Pinterest presence.
9. Create a board that tells the story of your company and communicates your core values.
10. Allow your customers to join in on certain boards and pin ideas and suggestions about how to use your product, or themes that go along with your products and services
11. It can be used to promote the company blog

For all this to be done you need to ensure that all your social media tools are integrated. You should also add a Pin It button to your website to enable visitors to easily Pin your content.





 

Benefits of loyalty programs

These are some of benefits that businesses can get by having their own loyalty program;

Greater customer knowledge

A loyalty program facilitates a company to gain detailed knowledge about its customer base. The information will give useful insights as to the lifestyle of the customers and their preferences. This information could be used in creating targeted promotions or reform services around high-value customers’ needs.

83 percent of hotel guests say that personalized service and attention to their needs provides value while staying at a hotel

Customer retention

A well-defined loyalty program improves customer retention rates by increasing the member’s “switching costs”. These are costs associated with changing from one alternative to another competitor. Loyalty programs that create high switching costs to its members will have high retention rates because these members will be reluctant to move into another competitor due to the costs associated in the transition.

Differentiated Service and Brand Equity

While consumers agree that price is important, they’d choose a slightly higher rate for added service. – Forrester, April 2002

Most companies have identified that competing based on cost brings in no or less results. Rather, providing value beyond customers’ expectations is more rewarding. Even those businesses established upon providing a low-cost service (for example low-cost carriers such as Southwest Airlines and JetBlue Airways) find that focusing beyond factors such as price provides them better results. All of the benefits discussed above lead to improved profitability for the business.A loyalty program provides this detailed information on demographics, transactions and personal preferences required to successfully identify groups of customers and then develop products or services that suits those segmented members’ needs.

Improved profitability 

All of the benefits discussed above lead to improved profitability for the business. Greater profits are a result of;

·         Higher customer retention

·         Higher prices paid for products / services

·         Increased average purchase size

·         Reduced marketing costs

·         Decreased unsold inventory

• 
  

Benefits of Cloud computing

These are some of the benefits of businesses using Cloud computing for their operations;

IT decapitalization

Cloud computing eliminates the need for businesses to acquire high-priced servers, software and also the people required to maintain systems. The solutions required by the enterprise can simply be outsourced to a Cloud computing vendor specialized in handling such requirements. With the use of Cloud computing companies can save money because the vendors possess the resources, servers, software, and infrastructure. Firms can sign up with the vendor and outsource the service to a third party.

Integrate part of a disaster recovery solution

Firms can integrate with Cloud computing as a type of storage device that can integrate with their disaster recovery plan and save the data. It can also be used to provide additional safeguard procedures to ensure that customer data will be safe and the organization will continue to operate based on any type of event.

Improve efficiency

Cloud computing allows any organization to buy into the service because the infrastructure is hosted with the vendor. Companies can pay for the Cloud services as the business grows. Better flexibility and cost effectiveness allows businesses to improve their efficiency. 

Eco-friendly

Cloud computing help firms save the environment because they need not acquire any hardware. It is simply outsourcing the infrastructure requirement to a Cloud computing vendor. Companies do not need to have their own data centers; they can have their application hosted with the Cloud computing provider and this enable the firm to save energy.

Network API

API's (Application Programming interfaces) are available for application developers to create features that enables their apps to standout in the market place. Mobile operators are offering API's to enable their network cater to enormous diversity of customer interests. There are many organizations who offer API's including mobile operators and other businesses. These organization possess their own developer community who uses the given API's to develop their apps. 

Network API's as the name implies is where API's use network based resources as opposed to only software on the smartphone or tablet. This provide developers with access to information such as location, messaging and device status. The benefit of network API's is the ability for developers to access all of the services without the need to maintain a unique connection to each back-end network element.

The info graphic suggests that there is a potential of 94 billion API transactions for a tier one mobile operator by 2016. Further, companies on average are releasing about 70 API's each week. 

The point to note from the above information is that there is a tremendous amount of potential for network API's. 

Audio Content Management Systems (CMS)

In simple words CMS is a computer program which allows publishing, editing, modifying and maintaining content from a central interface. It can be used for audio, video, images or anything you want. There are organizations that specifically provide such services for users who does not have the capacity or knowledge in such systems.

Recently I was asked to carry out a research on audio CMS to see the potential of such products. It's similar to an app where users can listen to a small clip of the latest song and if the user likes it he/she can download the entire song by visiting the site.

I identified that there are several organizations that are doing it, but in a small scale. Personally I think that there's a lot of potential in such apps because mobile apps are the most famous and talked about technology nowadays. When I want to download or listen to a song first I need to visit YouTube and see the entire video or I get to know about it through a friend. But if I could have an app which will send the latest albums or songs and if I could listen to it I think I'm gonna buy it paying whatever the price. All because it's convenient. Also I have a basic smartphone and with that I can't go to YouTube. So it's necessary for me to go my laptop and do whatever I want.

This is my opinion. Let me know yours.

Kite Runner

Today I'm going away from my usual blogging style and I'm going to tell you about a book i read a few years ago and is still in my mind. The book's name is The Kite Runner written by Khaled Hosseini. The book was later turned into a movie.  The kite runner is a story about two childhood friends Hassan and Amir who lives in Kabul, Afganistan. The two friend's days are spent picking juicy Pomegranates, munching dried mulberries and walnuts and running across street markets in the suburbs of Kabul during time prior to war.

Evil strikes on the most important day of their lives, tearing them apart and leaving behind an emptiness, a guilt that will haunt Amir for life. Taking the easy way out Amir lives a life full of regret. Amir leaves Kabul to have a better life and lives in California until the death of his father and return back looking for his loyal friend. But finds out that he has passed away leaving his only child behind.

Amir trying to right his wrongs adapt this lost child and return back to California. The Kite Runner is not only a heart warming story of love, friendship and 'blood', but also a reflection of the ways of the people of Afganistan and the dark and bitter history of their nation.

Technical presentation - part 3

This is the last part of my preparation for technical presentations. This is the day of your presentation? Excited or nervous? Well you shouldn't be nervous if your prepared well right? If you followed all the steps in my previous parts, the hard parts are over. So now you need to concentrate on the delivery of the presentation. These are the steps you need to follow on the day of your presentation;

1. Practice talk
Practice your presentation in front of a mirror or record it. This will help you not only to be prepared but also will help you to see your body language. There should be a certain level of body language but do not overdo it. If you can practice talk in front of your family or friends to see whether they understand what the hell your talking about.

2. Presentation venue
Make sure you go to the presentation venue before the audience arrive. Prepare all your equipment, test the mike and get the slides ready. Go to the podium and just have the feel of the audience (you have to do this before anyone comes in). Also ensure that your dressed suiting to the occasion.

3. Delivery
So here comes the exciting part. Keep in mind all the preparation you did and be CONFIDENT. People will not take you serious if you have shaky hands and a sweaty face. Delivery can be stressful especially if your trying to sell a product to a customer but you need to stay calm. 

4. Answering question
So obviously there would be a Q&A session, you need to be prepared for it. If you have time maybe before one day for the presentation you could develop some questions which you think the viewers will ask and prepare the answers yourself.

Now your ready to do your presentation. If you need more inspiration go to you tube and look at Steve Jobs presentations. They are the best.
GOOD LUCK with your presentations.

Technical presentations - part 2

I hope your'll went through the first part as to how to conduct a technical presentation the easy way. This is the second part of it. In this post I'l be discussing about the slide preparation. So follow the simple points and you will have the perfect set of slides for your presentation.

1. Choose your tools 
There are so many tools that can be used for presentations except the ordinary Micrsoft presentation. I learnt about a new tool called Prezi which is available in the following link; http://prezi.com  . It's a cool tool which helps us to think out of the box and create new kinds of presentations.

2. Slides
So if you choose PowerPoint slides you need to make sure that the titles are descriptive, so that readers will know what your hoping to talk about.

3. Use pictures and audios
To avoid clutter and too much of texts in the slides, attractive pictures can be used to explain your point. When viewers see the texts they tend to read the slide without listening to your presentation. So the best way to avoid that happening is to use pictures or audio video clips. This will not only interest the listeners but also they will be engaged.

4. Conclusion
Here you need to emphasize on the unique selling points to again remind the viewers as to why they should buy your product. Remember to give your contact details for them to clarify any doubts and end the presentation on a high note.

So if your done with all this that means your ready for the presentation. The only step that is left is the things  that you need to do in the day of the presentation. It will be in my next post.

Soltura, the next generation mobile app platform

The UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development) ICT report is a component in the World Investment Report which is responsible for dealing with issues related to investment and enterprise development in the United Nations System. The ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) section mainly promotes international dialogue on issues related to ICTs for development and contributes to building developing countries’ capacities to measure the information economy and also to design and implement pertinent policies and legal frameworks.

hSenid Mobile provided its platform to one of Sri Lanka’s leading mobile service providers to enable the company to build their own culture in app development. The company built their own developer community by providing the necessary resources. This humongous task was carried out by hSenid Mobile who identified the potential for such products. The platform enabled the service provider to change the culture of the IT industry by providing the opportunity for all interested developers to create their own mobile applications. The UNCTAD report addresses all the above aspects mentioned above. It further acknowledges hSenid Mobile for providing Supplier support, App development support, app quality and marketing effort for the service provider, which was considered a prestige for the firm.

However hSenid Mobile’s Soltura product is a further evolution from the product mentioned before. The innovative ability together with the tech experts in the organization came up with a newer and a revolutionary product concept which will benefit not only the service providers but also the end subscribers. Its future potential is yet to be known. Soltura not only facilitate mobile service providers to build their own developer communities but also to develop partnerships with other businesses.

Soltura, the Spanish name for ‘freedom’ in reality gives the app developers the freedom to launch their apps. The subscribers are not restricted but can use their imagination to create and earn revenue for their applications. Soltura is an evolution from the product mentioned in the UNCTAD report because this platform facilitates all subscribers irrespective of their technical knowledge to build new apps. This is a tremendous opportunity for both subscribers and service providers as both technical and non-technical subscribers can be part of the developer community. Thus, the revenue generation aspect is not limited to one specific segment. 

Easy way to prepare for technical presentations

So for all the tech beginners out there here is a small guide as to how to conduct presentations for the general public. This post will be followed by 2 more giving your'l a detailed guide as to how to conduct a great presentation. Some tips are what I've learnt and very few are from the web.

Here goes the list,
1. Identify the purpose of the presentation
Before we prepare for any kind of presentation we need to first understand the purpose of it. It maybe to sell a product, share knowledge or bring awareness. Whatever it is you need to see why you have to do the presentation overall.

2. Know your audience
You can easily figure out this step when you have done the first. Say for example if the presentation is to sell your product to a potential customer then, the company marketing manager and operations manager will be present. Make sure that you know who it is before hand.

3. Create a story
This is common for any kind of presentation irrespective of the type. You need to create a presentation that can be used throughout or at least for a part of it. Make it interesting so that listeners will not be bored and they will listen to your presentation until it ends. Avoid Technical jargon. Know that all listeners will not understand all the technical aspects related to your topic. You need to ensure that there are no technical information and even if you have to put, make sure you explain what it is.

These tips are only for prior preparation for a technical presentation. I will explain other tips in my next post. 

Big data

As a promised I would give a brief intro about the concept behind big data. Did you know 30 billion pieces of content were added to Facebook this past month by 600 million users? Did you know that the average teenager sends about 4762 text messages per month? Did you know that there is a 40% projected growth in global data?

So how do businesses process such an enormous amount of information? This is where big data comes in. Big data practically enable companies to process and store large amounts of data in the database. This enable organizations to actually process and identify trends in data. I will explain this using an example.

Tesco is one of the world's largest grocery chain. It has achieved successful results through the use of this "big data" concept. The giant retail chain has achieved the following financial gains;

"£6 million less food wastage in the summer, £50 million less stock in warehouse, optimizing store operations to give £30 million less wastage".

As you can see the financial savings are not small numbers. So how have TESCO done this? 

It has a loyalty card which tracks all the customer information and analyzes the information. These customers are then segmented and individually targeted by way of newsletters and other targeted promotions. It further analyzes weather conditions to evaluate perishable goods like vegetables and fruits. 

Also there is a Depot Stock holding app that monitors all goods that pass through all the depots and Tesco's largest depots hold around 12,000 products. So you yourself can understand how much of information it should hold to process this information. Finally it has the ability to reduce waste in stores by selling products at half the price in the right time. 

There are several business models around big data. But to decide the best model for you, you need to understand the ultimate goal for your organization.

 . 

Constant learning...

I found out that using cloud services for a loyalty program is a cost effective way to retain customers. Even small scale business can offer loyalty programs which are hosted in the cloud because it is cheaper. Customer retention and attracting new customers is the way for modern businesses to survive. Loyal customers are an asset to the firm. Thus, organizations should take necessary measures to retain them. So these loyalty management campaigns are one way forward.

Analyzing information from a business perspective takes time and require extensive research. That is exactly what I'm doing now.

Now my task is to critically analyze the concept of big data and identify how business use big data in day to day activities.

In my next post I will discuss the concept behind big data from a business perspective....

Tech, tech, tech. etc.

I realize I was gone for a few days. That was because I was stuck up with one work after another to complete. I thought I was a pro in time management but now it seems to be gone. So this is what I've learnt and I've been learning during my absence.

How loyalty management campaigns work
So they gather data from all different places and identify the types of customers that need to be rewarded. Some products has the ability to profile but some do not. It's all up-to the marketing manager to decide what kind of campaign that needs to be created.

Benefits
The obvious benefit would be to build customer loyalty while attracting new customers to the business. Giving free stuff for people is the best way to keep them with you because that is human nature. Where there are gifts and other giveaways people are present. This is not the only good thing about loyalty management but it is one main benefit. Also it would integrate all different data sources of the business to give optimum results.

mChoice Rewards
This is the product I'm supposed to sell and what I'm currently working on. Well I can't give much information because it's confidential and I don't want to loose my employment before 1 month. But I can tell that are many features that differentiate the product from other competitors. It integrates an unlimited amount of data sources to enable people to make better and effective loyalty campaigns.

Human race..

It is a common fact that everyone in the 21st century is running for their life. I mean literally they run. I can't help but wonder whether this race is good or bad for people. Some say good some say bad. Me too cannot arrive at a final conclusion. I had so many things in mind (fun stuff) to do even while I'm working but now that I'm actually working I just can't find the time.

Things that I wanted to do even when I'm employed

1. Go to Gym
2. Play badminton
3. Go swimming
4. Meet my friends as often as I can
5. Be sociable

As of now I haven't done anything in the list. Time just FLIES. It actually do. I come to work at 8 go home by 7, then I'm dead tired to do anything at all so I go to sleep and come back to the same place.

Holy Shit....now that I'm thinking about it, that freaks me off. Once I'm comfortable with my schedule I'm determined to make time to do at least few of those. This will go in my to-do things list.

Working...good or bad?

After going to work for a full week the weekend I got was amazing. Well not amazing as such I still had presentations and assignments to do but the fact that I get to stay at home with my kitten alone is enough to keep me happy the entire day. I'm not a maniac lonely cat lover but i DO LOVE and ADORE cats. I miss my other 3 kittens and their mam but the one I have is a handful. He's bigger than all his siblings coz he needs to eat more than 4 meals a day. He's the reason I rush and go home and the reason I smile early in the morning when he needs his full body massage.

I didn't get much work done but I learnt what cloud computing is. First i thought it was complicated but the more i read the more I realized that it is a simple concept. I don't know the entire theory behind it but I do know how it works and that's progress. The stuff I've learnt up-to now is invaluable. After being stuck in books and exams, the real world is certainly different. The application of models and theories is entirely different than what's mentioned in books.

The advice I give for my sisters and younger friends - Work as soon as you can. Don't get lost in books and 100 year old models because your work place (no matter how crappy it is) is the best place to learn. 

Insomnia or sleeping problem?

I got bed and lay there thinking what I'm going to do at work tommorow, what work do I have left, what do I have to study for the exam etc. and my thoughts just stopped and I'm wide awake. So I made my mind for a sleepless night but expecting that I would fall asleep and as usual I didn't. So here I am at work trying to be happy with the few hours of sleep I got.

Just now I read an article that we need to make peace with the sleepless nights and that's exactly what I'm gonna do. Fingers crossed it would work!

Now I have to get back to work and be prepared for my exam. 

Maybe today or tommorow or later I would get a good nights sleep.

Making mistakes

Life is about making mistakes and learning from them. But why do we keep on doing the same mistake which gives the same outcome? Why do we do things knowing the result of it? Maybe not everyone but most. Well maybe only me. Last night I did the same mistake I've been doing in the past 2 years. Why the hell aren't  I learning my lesson? Am i a Dumbass like the jackass?
I think I know the answer to this one....

I need to take a life changing decision today or at least think about it. I've got so much of work and responsibilities to do. I can't let the past come back to me all the time. It's time for the future. I just do not have the liberty to waste time on such stupid things. I miss watching TV, I miss playing with my kitten, I miss everything....but life has to go on.

Change

Well.....what people say about resistance to change is all true. Learning about new things scares people off, even me. I told myself when i was young that I'l adapt change whenever it comes. But now I'm finding it hard. Staying at home and going out with my friends all this time and now suddenly I've to wake up early morning get dressed and come to an office. Is this good change or bad change?
True, I wanted to be a successful corporate women and I'm a workaholic. But is this what it takes? Will this be my daily routine for the rest of my life? Will I be able to take the pressure? I will be waiting till the day comes carrying the answers to these questions...
On a positive note I learnt some new things today like what USSD means and what it does. It's complicated and never in my life I thought I would be learning these tech stuff but I think I'm OK. OK is not enough either but i guess that is better than hating it. Hopefully with time I will be comfortable with all these and in that day I'm going to read this blog and think how much I've changed. I can't help but fell jealousy of housewives whose life seem so predictable.

A new life, a new beginning.Fell overwhelmed with all the new stuff to do and to learn. But have  to be strong and hang on as much as i can......