The Power of Now – Paradigm shift in Digital Marketing

For the initiated, and those who have wet their beaks in Digital Marketing, today’s times are really exciting. And yet, there is constant pressure for marketing strategies to evolve constantly. There is a big shift happening in the way information is served and utilized.

Information is now all about “newness” and “nowness”. It is dynamic, constantly reinventing itself to stay in the rat race for attention. It is just not about standalone pages or browsers anymore. It’s more about streaming content, about relevance in constant churn, about adding enhanced value to your user segment, all of these building a conversation for a symbiotic relationship with a user segment.

Streams of Data, Not just static pools

Much water has flown under the internet highway since the advent of Really Simple Syndication (RSS). Social media networks have taken center stage and dynamic information is served and lapped up in myriad ways. The possibilities are endless – A chirpy tweet about an event real-time, a face-off with a corporate ambassador on face book, a stumble upon on your new proprietary IP micro site, a techno-rati-ing of your corporate blog, rank boost on a Wikipedia link etc.

Amid all this noise, it is quite important to make sense of the signals. Especially for B2B marketing which has to make sure that this shift in dynamics is effectively leveraged to generate awareness, drive leads and nurture relationships.

Swimming with the tide of dynamic information

The moot point here is whether this accent on immediacy of information holds intrinsic value for B2B marketing. Yes of course. Ignoring this new shift in information distribution would be a no brainer. The key here is to use these social streams to row people to your site and ensure the site is sticky enough for him to decide in your favor.

Social streams can help build reputation and trust that can help connect with your customers. In lots of ways it gives B2B marketers an easy way to participate in conversations that are about them. It is still early to tell though. Plunging into the stream would be the easy way to find out though.

This paradigm shift has come to stay and technology will be its prime driver. With Twitter going one up on Google on real time search stakes (an earthquake this minute appears faster in twitter than on Google) this information shift could forever change the way even a search result looks.

Read More about Digital Marketing

Digital Media Marketing

The power of digital media (usually referred to online media) has inspired me a lot through these years or rather never ceases to amaze me!

In today’s discriminating and techno-savvy world, with almost every business accomplished through the internet, a company’s presence over the web has become mandatory or should I say ‘a crucial factor’?

Here are some of my observations how online channels are used by businesses today.

Realize

Based on my experience in this field (I’m not a techie thoughJ), I have found that very few companies have exploited digital media through their websites. I think every company needs to realize the importance of their presence on the web with the ability to act fast, engage a lot of creativity and utilize resources capable of delivering innovative ideas keeping in mind their budgetary constraints.

Web metrics play a crucial role in determining the type of content that can attract and hold a customer’s interest, make them stay on the same website for a long time and make them come back for more – ideally meeting the user demand. Today, static images and plain text are replaced with streaming media and much more interactive applications providing the customer with a personalized experience. I feel many companies are struggling to develop their web presence in making it into more productive, virtual and a truly aggressive weapon.

Though a company has a string of issues involved in managing their web presence effectively, they also have to emphasize on the digital media’s potential in transforming the entire market scenario thereby ensuring greater ROI.

I would also add that opportunities are in abundance for any company willing to try out on these lines!

React

As I was digging through an article on digital media, a particular sentence caught my attention which in fact is apparently inevitable. It says, ‘A website has 10 seconds to draw a visitor or the person will “go back to Google”’! Well, are we talking here about “Love at first site”? Yes we are!

In this fast changing world, one has to face the reality that none of the above turns into a reality so easily. Companies have to think from the customers’ perspective, analyze and optimize his or her experience on the website by tuning their infrastructure, improve data center capability and effectively manage content delivery, thereby nurturing relationships.

It’s a do-or-die situation where IT organizations especially need to focus and react immediately on enhancing the digital business in line with their business objectives.

Reap

There’s nothing compared to reaping enhanced ROI through comprehensive digital media marketing in today’s world which is going through a major financial recession. Though I might daresay that it would be a silver lining amidst the gloom, a well defined approach with a strategic network, leveraged intelligence and the intent of providing a rich customer experience ensures improved business responsiveness and better cost control.

Well I do want to write more on the other areas of digital media in the forth coming posts. I would honestly need your comments and suggestions.

Read More about Digital Media Marketing

Informatica Upgrade Challenge –Default SQL Join for a Source Qualifier in 7x vs. 8x

Default SQL Query Generation for a Source Qualifier:

When relational sources are joined in one Source Qualifier transformation, the PowerCenter Server joins the tables based on the related keys in each table. This default join will be an equijoin like below

Source1.column_name = Source2.column_name

For Default joins to work, the columns in the default join must have:

• A primary key-foreign key relationship
• Matching data types

In current scenario, Most of the Datawarehouse are designed such a way that the primary key – foreign key relationship are designed in the logic instead of physical tables. In scenarios, where the fact tables are joined with dimension tables, the developer writes the join condition specifically in user defined join property present in source qualifier. This can be also done by default joins by creating relationships between the tables in Informatica instead of creating physically on the tables.

Creating relationships between the tables in Informatica are simple, just by dragging and dropping the column from one source definition to the other in Source Analyzer.

PowerCenter Server and SQL Query Generation

When a session is executed, Powercenter Server has two options

1. Use the SQL Query typed by the developer if the ‘SQL Query’ property text window has ‘some text’ which is not blank
2. If the ‘SQL Query’ property is blank then the PowerCenter Server generates a query for each Source Qualifier transformation when it runs the session.
3. The SQL Query generation process for option 2 is bit different in PowerCenter 7x and 8x.

The Default query from Powercenter 7x is built in the below order

1. SELECT keyword
2. Field/Port Names which are linked to the next transformation from Source Qualifier
3. FROM Keyword
4. List of table names from the source definitions connected to the Source Qualifier separated by Comma
5. WHERE Keyword
6. [Value Present in the “User Defined Join” property ]
7. [AND Keyword]  combined with Default Join Condition formed by Powercenter based on the relationship (If the User Defined Join is not present)
8. [AND Keyword]  combined with Value present in the “Source Filter” property
9. [ORDER BY keyword By Default, It selects the first field which is being selected after the SELECT clause.]

Where as in the Powercenter 8x, the default query is built in the below order

1. SELECT keyword
2. Field/Port Names which are linked to the next transformation from Source Qualifier
3. FROM Keyword
4. List of table names from the source definitions connected to the Source Qualifier separated by Comma
5. WHERE Keyword
6. [Value Present in the “User Defined Join” property ]
7. [AND Keyword]  combined with Value present in the “Source Filter” property
8. [AND Keyword]  combined with Default Join Condition formed by Powercenter based on the relationship (If the User Defined Join is not present)
9. [ORDER BY keyword By Default, It selects the first field which is being selected after the SELECT clause.]

The Default join condition in 8x is appended next to the Source Filter where as in 7x the default join is appended before the source filter.

I came across an issue in a recent upgrade project because of this difference in behavior. The mapping that ran properly in 7x which extracted the required data from the source, actually ran into problem 8x. The upgraded mapping in 8x created a Cartesian SQL join. When analyzed found that the source filter had the last line commented with ‘—‘. This made the default join condition to also get commented in 8x which resulted in Cartesian product of the source tables.

So the key is to determine how many of the Informatica mappings/sessions have Source Filter property set with a comment ‘—‘, this could help identify this issue much earlier in the upgrade.

Thanks for reading, share any other upgrade challenge that you have faced.

To know more about Informatica Upgrade Challenge

Don’t Let the Economic Slowdown Stall Your IT Projects

Right now, the primary issue on everyone’s mind is the slowdown of the global economy. Corporations of all sizes are estimating its short-term and long-term effects on the health of businesses, and organizational spending — especially IT spending — is coming under heightened scrutiny.

However, because IT is a critical enabler of business, Companies cannot simply eliminate IT spending. Instead, they are re-evaluating and redefining their strategies and IT investments, looking to demonstrate improvement in efficiency and to achieve tangible results. CIOs are now asking, “How can IT deliver more with less? And what will put us on a fast track during this slowdown?”

Accomplishing these goals rests on the basics of outsourcing — that is, creating a long-term IT Optimization strategy and picking the right partner to help execute this strategy. For example, one international bank was able to enhance the quality of its customer interactions while increasing operational efficiency and lowering costs. And it was the bank’s partnership with Hexaware that helped it reach its optimization goals.

A Beneficial Partnership in Action

The bank in our example wanted to accomplish seamless integration and communication with the accounts payable system of both its corporate and retail customers. To do so, the bank selected SAP NetWeaver Exchange Infrastructure (SAP NetWeaver XI) as the platform of choice to address business challenges and create a robust application roadmap. The key features of SAP NetWeaver XI include:

• Synchronous, real-time transmission of data with immediate message delivery notices
• The ability to “push” messages at delivery time or at a scheduled interval, from customer to bank or vice versa

And with SAP’s solid partner ecosystem, the bank had many options for finding a partner that would be able to implement this solution for it. In this case, what the bank sought specifically was an SAP-certified outsourcing partner to:

• Provide a holistic virtual integration between the bank and its customers
• Provide a seamless link from customers’ ERP systems to its own
• Enforce strong security at the communication, transport, and data levels, in accordance with accepted industry standards
• Ease the implementation, while minimizing disruption
• Integrate message channels and formats to further secure communication channels

The bank chose Hexaware for its implementation expertise and its ability to create optimization strategies. Hexaware is also a premier SAP gold partner that has helped with more than 500 implementation, upgrade, and support engagements.

Following Hexaware’s nearshore-offshore model, the bank was able to achieve 30% cost savings. Hexaware’s implementation of SAP NetWeaver XI was seamless and efficient, and it demonstrated tangible business results, including an improved customer approval rating. In addition, the implementation was successful on both the IT and business levels, reaping continuous solution benefits for the bank.

Learn More

Hexaware provides global rollout, implementation, upgrade, testing, and support services to industries worldwide. Our SAP-specialized teams ensure service delivery excellence and deliver innovative strategies for clients. Hexaware also generates value through a range of solution accelerators and tools.

Virtual Reality and Marketing

Its interesting how (and how fast) certain things get adapted.

There have been these virtual reality worlds – SecondLife being the most prominent – that have caught on recently. They mostly serve the purpose of entertainment. Some “gurus” talk about how such virtual worlds will become a more intrinsic part of every person’s life.

So while that evolution is going on and all attention is focused on SecondLife and similar avatars (pun intended ), there is this tangential development that happens in, of all the places, in B2B marketing! Now you can host and attend virtual events, virtual tradeshows!

Fascinating, but will it really stick? This is the question I had when I saw the first versions of these virtual event platforms come out a couple of years ago. Well it seems it has. There seems to be quite some activity in this space. And especially in these cost-conscious, budget-slaugthering times, attending a virtual tradeshow seems like a great idea!

There are a few platforms that are fast gaining pace. And at Hexaware, we are participating in our first virtual tradeshow

SAP HR 2009 Virtual Conference (a virtual version of the real-life SAP HR 2009 conference that we took part in earlier this year). There is a registration fee (similar to the fee you would pay for the live conference, but there are no travel costs and hassles!).

See you at the conference! Link here -> http://www.hr2009.com/homepage.cfm?s=

Read More about Virtual Marketing

Some great conferences coming up!

Hexaware is participating in some really great conferences in May. May 4th to 6th we are at the Gartner Outsourcing and Vendor Management Summit in Las Vegas and May 3rd to 8th we are at the TDWI Global Conference in Chicago. While the Gartner conference is the definitive conference for the Outsourcing space, the TDWI conference is THE conference for Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence/Analytics. Should be an exciting week.

Am looking forward to attending some insightful sessions at the Gartner Conference. And meeting Fran Karamouzis, Allie Young, Partha Iyenger – key Gartner analysts in this space. Will also attempt to tweet while at the conference.

And then the third week is again tradeshow time. We are participating at the LOMA/ACORD Insurance Systems Forum May 17- 19 in Orlando, Florida and at Eye For Travel’s Travel Distribution Summit, May 19 – 20 in London, UK. Another exciting week. I plan to tweet from the LOMA/ACORD conference too.

Follow Hexaware on Twitter here -> http://twitter.com/hxmktg

Read More about Great Conferences