Wall Street Journal

Showing posts with label Wall Street Journal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wall Street Journal. Show all posts

Wednesday 25 June 2014

How Valuable Is the Data Economy with SAAS - B2B


In business, data has quickly gone from being a mere asset to being a potential revenue stream—a substantial one. The result: a burgeoning market for data. Capturing its scope and opportunity, though, isn’t easy.

Like other financial assets, data can be created, accessed, traded, transferred and monetized. For this reason, it’s increasingly being viewed as a commodity. Unlike other commodities, though, its value is “TBD.”

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"When people say data is a commodity, it's because they see statistics about huge pools of data out there," says Randy Giusto, an analyst with Outsell Inc., a research and advisory firm focused on media, information and technology. "It feels like a commodity because of the huge number of companies in this space.” However, estimates on the actual value of that commodity can be tough to pin down.

The Data-Value Disparity 
For example, last year, a data analytics company serving the auto industry used software code to track websites visited by consumers. Using a technique called “history sniffing,” the data company tracked user browsing histories. It transferred the data—400,000 consumer names, phone numbers, e-mail addresses and vehicle preferences—to a data broker for a mere $2,500 payoff (which would eventually go to a $400,000 settlement to the State of New Jersey, since “history sniffing” is illegal).

On the flip side, a survey of large companies last year, conducted by Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), found that those selling their digitized data earned, on average, a hefty $21.6 million in 2012. The survey also revealed that telecoms and utilities, in particular, are likely to monetize their data, while insurance companies get the biggest return.

Getting a true handle on the value of data as a commodity is made even more difficult because most data isn't sold: TCS discovered that only 27% of its survey respondents were selling their digitized data (though that number is expected to jump to 43% by 2015). Plenty of companies still barter their data, swapping with other companies to mutual advantage—something not considered in most valuations of the data economy.

Where the Growth is
So for many companies right now, the core of the data economy is a small but growing segment—the information two billion-plus global Internet users create when they click "like" on a social media page or take action online. Digital customer tracking—the selling of “digital footprints” (the trail of information consumers leave behind each time they surf the Web)—is now a $3 billion segment, according to a May 2014 Outsell report. At the moment, that's tiny compared to the monetary value of traditional market research such as surveys, forecasting and trend analysis. But digital customer tracking "is where the excitement and growth is," says Giusto.

Real-time data that measures actions consumers are actually taking has more value than study results that rely on consumer opinions. Not surprising, businesses are willing to pay more for activity-based data.

Striking it Richer
Outsell Inc.'s analyst Chuck Richard notes that the specificity of data has a huge affect on its value. In days past, companies would sell names, phone numbers, and email addresses as sales leads. Now, data buyers have upped the ante. They want richer data—names of consumers whose current "buying intent" has been analyzed through behavioral analytics. Beyond the “who,” companies want the “what” and “when” of purchases, along with “how” best to engage with prospects.
"Some companies are getting a tenfold premium for data that is very focused and detailed," Richard says. "For example, if you had a list of all the heart specialists in one region, that’s worth a lot."

Tapping into New Veins
Moving forward, marketers will increasingly value datasets that they can identify, curate and exploit. New technology could increase the value of data by gleaning insights from unstructured data (video, email and other non-traditional data sources); crowdsourcing and social media could generate new types of shareable data; predictive modeling and machine learning could find new patterns in data, increasing the value of different types of data.

Given all this, the data economy is sure to keep growing, as companies tap into new veins of ever-richer and more-specific data.


NARRATIVES by WSJ. Custom Studios for SAS

The Guest Post Blogger organization was not involved in the creation of this content.

Thursday 15 May 2014

U.S. telecom regulators divided on Sprint, T-Mobile deal: WSJ


(Reuters) - Democratic members of the Federal Communications Commission may be divided over how they view the possible Sprint Corp (S.N) merger with T-Mobile US Inc (TMUS.N), the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

Democratic Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel has acknowledged that Sprint and T-Mobile may not remain viable as independent companies in meetings with people on Wall Street and in the telecom industry, the people said.

Though Rosenworcel's sentiment about the future of the companies may indicate a schism with FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, her comments may not necessarily translate into willingness to vote in favor of the deal, if a merger is proposed.

Sprint's parent, SoftBank Corp (9984.T), has been waging a campaign to promote consolidation in the U.S. wireless sector while seeking to buy T-Mobile. Investors are closely watching for a possible merger, and how it might affect the two larger carriers, Verizon Communications Inc (VZ.N) and AT&T Inc (T.N).

Both Wheeler and U.S. Justice Department antitrust chief William Baer have been skeptical about the potential merger between the No. 3 wireless provider and No. 4 rival T-Mobile.

(Reporting by Mridhula Raghavan in Bangalore and Alina Selyukh in Washington)

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Friday 25 April 2014

Kat Cole - Address Women in Transportation



Kat Cole, Cinnabon, to Address Women in Transportation

Kat Cole, the 35-year-old president of the cinnamon roll brand, Cinnabon, has been confirmed as a keynote speaker for the 2014 annual conference of WTS International, the association for the professional advancement of women in transportation that will take place May 14 - 16, 2014, in Portland, Oregon.

“Kat Cole is an incredible role model for business leaders in any industry, particularly for women. What she has done for the companies she’s worked for since a young age and the odds she’s defied as a woman in business make her story and the lessons she’s learned universally appealing,” said Margaret Mullins, director of the WTS Annual Conference. “Ms. Cole’s presentation is sure to resonate with each of the conference attendees, both women and men, from those just beginning a transportation career to our executive-level members.”

Read Kat Cole's Blogs - 

“WTS helps its members develop professionally and climb through the ranks of the transportation industry in both the public and private sectors, and we take pride in knowing that we are helping to build the world’s infrastructure through the advancement of women, and shaping future generations of transportation leaders,” said Marcia Ferranto, WTS International’s President and CEO. “Ms. Cole’s leadership in business is representative of WTS International’s guiding principles that are the tenants of how we work to achieve our goals; WTS is committed to ethical leadership, integrity and respect for all. The WTS spirit of community, inclusiveness, and mutual support is one of our greatest assets.”

The Annual Conference is WTS International’s flagship event. It attracts corporate and governmental industry leaders worldwide, including executives, CEOs, government administrators, and leading transportation authorities. Attendees at the conference gather to network, discuss the state of the world’s transportation infrastructure, strategize on advancing professionally through glass ceilings, and explore the local city’s successful municipal and private transportation and transit projects. For the full duration of this year’s Portland conference, private corporations, public agencies and government officials invested in every transportation mode will exhibit, present, learn, and network.

Kat Cole is the president of Cinnabon, Inc., where she is accountable for leading, evolving, and building the team and multi-channel brand. Her story is often shared for inspiration as she moved up from working as a hostess at 17 years old in restaurants to traveling globally to help open new franchises. At the age of 19, she dropped out of college, advanced to various management and leadership positions, and at 26 became a Vice President at Hooters making her one of the youngest executives in the hospitality industry.

Cole’s personal story, business approach and perspective on leadership has been the subject of feature articles in The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Fortune, and many other business publications and she has been a featured guest on CBS, CNN, CNBC, MSNBC and more. She was recently featured on the show Undercover Boss and was named one of Fortune’s “40 under 40.” She’s a speaker and consultant on leadership development, women in business, change management, and brand innovation and growth, and she is widely known for legacy business-model innovation, building brands, humanitarian work in the U.S. and Eastern Africa and mentorship and development of emerging leaders.


Washington, DC (PRWEB) March 06, 2014


For more information on the 2014 Annual WTS Conference, contact Margaret Mullins, Operations Director, at 202-955-5085.

Sunday 28 April 2013

First look: BlackBerry Q10 smartphone


The BlackBerry has finally caught up to the world of touch-screen smartphones. It took time - six years, from the launch of the firstiPhone - and it may be too late to save the company that makes it. But the BlackBerry deserves to be taken seriously again.

Why? Because the new BlackBerry Q10 is a successful marriage of the modern touchscreen smartphone and the iconic BlackBerry keyboard.

Though it can be hard to remember, the keyboard used to be a standard feature on smartphones, before the iPhone wiped our minds with its vision of touch-screen Utopia.

Since then, keyboards have been disappearing from smartphones. Physical keyboards just didn't fit into the design mold set by the iPhone. Palm Inc. created a credible, innovative smartphone with a physical keyboard, but it was a slide-out version, which made the keyboard seem like a burden and an afterthought. There have also been Android phones with physical keyboards, but they haven't been very good, and they've mostly disappeared.

Meanwhile, BlackBerry has continued to make well-designed phones with physical keyboards. But until now, it hasn't gotten the software running them quite right. Even with physical keyboards, modern phones need touch screens to control movies, games and other tasks beyond the BlackBerry's roots in messaging. The company has experimented with touch screens, but has been partly hamstrung by the pre-touch foundations of its operating system.

After numerous delays, the company finally came out with a modern operating system this year, the BlackBerry 10. The company considers it crucial to its future, as the BlackBerry seeks to recapture relevance lost to the iPhone and Android devices.

BlackBerry's first phone with the new software, the Z10, is a touch-only device. With the Q10, we really get to see how it works with a keyboard.

On BlackBerrys, the keyboard has always been about more than filling in text fields, and the new operating system takes that further. If you want to send a tweet about what you're eating for lunch, just pick up the phone, unlock it and type "tweet Turkey sandwich again today." Hit Enter, and now the world knows about your boring fare before you've even had a bite.

Just as you can on some older BlackBerrys, you can also launch applications by typing. If you want to play "Angry Birds," instead of flicking through screens to look for the icon, you can just start typing "Ang" and the game icon pops up. Again, that's fast.

The keyboard is handy for music, too. If you're in the apps screen, just start typing the name of the song or artist you're looking for, and up it comes.

I haven't used a keyboard-equipped phone in years, but the Q10 makes it very tempting. There's no getting around it: it's a faster, more accurate way to type, even compared with innovations such as Swype, which lets you "type" by swiping your finger from letter to letter.

The keyboard eats up space that could be devoted to a bigger screen, of course. But BlackBerry has saved some space by eliminating the big buttons that resided between the screen and the keyboard on older BlackBerrys. This results in a larger, square screen. It's very sharp and colorful, too. To some extent, the 3.1-inch screen compensates for its small size with a high resolution, which allows it to present a lot of information, as long as you're willing to hold it close and read small type.

US phone companies haven't yet said when they'll sell the Q10, but expect it by the end of May for about $250 with a two-year contract. It's coming to country's home country of Canada on May 1.

The BlackBerry 10 software made its debut a few months ago on the touch-only Z10. The new operating system is a welcome change, not just for BlackBerry users. It's very quick to get around the phone, and it seldom leaves me baffled the way many incarnations of Android do. It's laser-focused on giving you access to email, texts and other means of communication, as opposed to music, movies and games.


One of the coolest features is the "peek." From any application, you can swipe your thumb up from the bottom of the screen, then right, to slide the application slightly off the screen. That reveals the messaging "Hub," which gathers your communications. At a glance, you can see which accounts have new messages. If you want, you can slide the app farther to the right, getting you into the Hub to read and write. Swipe left, and you're back to where you were.

The interface takes time to get used to, and it doesn't have the simple immediacy of the iPhone. But once you learn it, you can positively zip between tasks.

The downside to the new operating system is its relative dearth of third-party software. There are applications for Facebook, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. A Skype app out will be out soon. But there isn't any app for Netflix, Amazon or eBay. There are no Google apps, either. The selection of games is particularly poor. There's only one incarnation of "Angry Birds," and that's "Star Wars."

I also encountered one glitch while using the Q10 for a few days: I was unable to type my response to one email. Leaving it and going back into it did not help until the next day. That's the kind of problem that's going to frustrate BlackBerry users, so I hope it's a rare one, and one the company fixes soon with a software update.

That aside, the Q10 is likely to be attractive to the BlackBerry faithful. It deserves to lure some people over from Androids and iPhones as well. The keyboard makes the Q10 a good complement to a tablet. Use the bigger screen for entertainment, surfing and gaming, and the BlackBerry for messaging.

When I reviewed the Z10 model in January, I found I couldn't point to anything about it that would make me say: "Forget those other phones: you have to buy this one." I can for the Q10. If you value a keyboard, this is the one to get.
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