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Angel Investing vs. Crowdfunding: How to Raise Money for Your Startup?
30 Sep 2019 Written by Admin AdminRaising capital is one of the biggest challenges any startup can face, but fortunately, entrepreneurs have more than one option for getting the funding they need.
Seeking out angel investors has its advantages, but crowdfunding is redefining how fledgling companies get off the ground.
Both have their pros and cons, and it's important to understand how they can impact your startup's long-term outlook before diving in.
Funding a Startup With Angel Investors
The typical angel investor is a high-net-worth individual who has an interest in helping new companies expand.
These accredited investors provide startups with seed money in exchange for an equity stake in the company.
The idea here is that once the company becomes profitable, the angel investor can sell their shares for a profit.
Angel investors can operate independently or as part of a larger investment group, sometimes known as a syndicate. In terms of how much money angel investors can bring to the table, it's not unusual for a typical investment to range from $25,000 to $100,000.
In some instances, angel investors may be willing to part with even larger sums to assist a startup.
- Angel funding is not a loan. Taking out a small business loan is another way to fund a startup, but it creates a legal obligation to repay what's borrowed. Angel investors, on the other hand, don't expect the money to be repaid. Instead, they're banking on the company increasing in value over time.
- Angel investors can provide more than just money. Angel investors are often established business owners themselves and they have years of experience working with startups. In addition to providing the financial backing you need to get your venture up and running, angel investors will often share their expertise, which can be invaluable to the business's long-term success.
- Angel investors are risk-takers. An unfortunate truth is that the vast majority of startups will fail to become sustainable and from an investor perspective, they're extremely risky.
- Without a solid track record, obtaining a bank loan or getting funding through a venture capitalist can be all but impossible. Angel investors, on the other hand, understand the implied risks, and they're willing to put their own money on the line to support a startup's growth.
- There may be more pressure to succeed. While the desire to help new businesses succeed plays a part in angel investors' decisions, it's not the only motivator at work. They also want to see their investment pay off in a tangible way. That can turn up the heat on startups to churn out a solid rate of return.
- Angel investors aren't hands-off. As mentioned earlier, angel investors receive a certain amount of equity in exchange for providing funding to a startup. Not only are you handing over a set percentage of the business's future profits but you're also sacrificing a certain amount of control concerning decision-making. That can be problematic if conflicts arise surrounding the angel investor's role in business operations.
Using Crowdfunding to Raise Capital
- Funding doesn't have to be equity-based. While startups can use equity to attract investors through a crowdfunding platform, it's not always necessary to give up any ownership control in the company to raise capital. Some platforms allow you to to use a rewards-based approach to generate funding. For example, if your startup centers on creating a specific product, you may make that product available to your investors before rolling it out the general public.
- Attracting investors may be easier. Bringing angel investors on board can be a time-consuming process because it typically involves pitching your startup's concept multiple times. Crowdfunding platforms, on the other hand, streamline the process by allowing startups to post their pitch in one spot where it can be viewed by a broad range of investors.
- Crowdfunding can increase visibility. Marketing can eat up a large part of any startup's budget but using a crowdfunding platform to raise funds is a low-cost way to spread the word. When a crowdfunding campaign is funded relatively quickly, it sends the message that the startup is one to watch. That can increase the brand's visibility and help to attract additional investors for subsequent funding rounds.
Fundraising is not unlimited. While $1 million may seem like a substantial amount of money, it may not go very far for some startups. Companies that require more funding may have to turn to angel investors or loans to fill the gap once they've exhausted the crowdfunding cap.
- Fees can be expensive. Crowdfunding platforms are focused on connecting investors with startups, but they're also in business to make money. Startups who use these platforms can expect to pay anywhere from 5% to 10% in fees to raise the money they need, which can detract from the amount of capital they have available.
The Bottom Line
Angel investing is a good option for startups to raise large amounts of capital without being constrained by the requirements that go along with taking out a loan. The main disadvantage, however, is the fact that it requires trading off a certain amount of ownership in the company. While rewards-based crowdfunding offers a work-around to that dilemma, the fees can quickly add up. Weighing the loss of equity against cost can make it easier for startups to decide which option is best.
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source: investopedia
When it comes to digital transformation it’s no longer a question of if you should do it, but when. According to global market intelligence firm IDC, 85% of enterprise decision makers say they have plans to embark on a digital transformation within the next two years, with more than a third (37%) saying they’ve already started executing one and nearly half (45%) saying they’re in the early stages of adopting one.
Investments back this, with funding of digital transformation worldwide topping $1.2 trillion in 2019, up 18% from the previous year. With the ability to increase revenue, reduce operational costs, and provide enhanced experiences for both staff and customers, investing in a digital-first strategy seems like the best course to take.
Despite this, only 3% of enterprises complete their digital transformation projects, most attributing failure to either a fear of change, lack of cloud resources, or lack of agility. But by looking at the explosive growth in the automation space — 100% YoY for RPA and 72% YoY for iPaaS, for example — it’s clear what role automation will play in the digital enterprise. Investing in a pervasive automation strategy and a related platform that provides end-to-end solutions is crucial to breaking through the noise and succeeding in any transformative efforts.
There will, of course, be a learning curve when implementing such a strategy, but many organizations have no idea how to start – or where to start – and what immediate value (if any) they will receive once they adopt such a platform. Here’s what we see working for enterprises today when it comes to an automation strategy.
Overcoming the Initial Barriers of Digital Transformation
Forward-thinking enterprises recognize that in order to remain competitive, they must continuously evolve their culture, processes, data and technologies – and this won’t be easy.
Though 83% of IT decision makers say workflow automation is essential to digital transformation, a large number of manual processes still remain active in many companies.
Unfortunately, even the most dedicated IT teams can’t manage the optimization of thousands upon thousands of processes across the business.
Because of this, only certain processes will get prioritized for automation, meaning only a small number of users will reap the benefits.
For example, workflows critical to keeping the lights on will always be prioritized, while processes in lines of business (LOB) including HR, finance and marketing that could drastically improve with automation may sit on the backburner. This results in an increasing number of inefficiencies across business.
Automation Platforms that can be used by non-coders like Business Systems teams, analysts, and App Admins democratizes the process of integration and automation. This is key to actually achieving Digital Transformation goals: when bottlenecks prevent progress and automation projects are not agile, there is no way an organization can transform at scale.
Is the Platform Flexible and Secure?
The key to enterprise-wide adoption of automation is that it should be something that can be used by both your IT team and other players like business systems, app admins, MarketingOps, and SalesOps teams. Spreading this skill set out across groups is the only way to scale. However, you still need to ensure that the platform has enterprise security and governance capabilities.
The IT team and security team should be able to monitor everyone’s activity on a single platform.
On the business side, employees often want to use the tool they prefer for their job function.
While IT/business systems teams will want to ensure the tool fits in well with their infrastructure, LOBs will often drive tech purchases without their oversight. To avoid conflict, it’s best to invest in an automation platform that is agile enough to enable LOB to choose whatever technology and tools they prefer.
This, combined with an emphasis of time-to-value or an ability to build agile integrations quickly, makes a no-code solution the best choice.
Early-Stage Digital Transformation
Once a tool is selected, there are several steps you must take in the first stage of adoption to ensure your investment doesn’t go dead in the water, according to HubSpot:
- Use cases: The decision makers of your team now must identify what use cases they want to implement first. Consider the processes across your business that could use the most help — is it Order-to-Cash or Employee Onboarding and Offboarding? Could your organization use a virtual helpdesk to answer employee inquiries upon command, led by a bot-based protocol which uses ML to improve based on the feedback it receives? Whatever they decide, the right (and wrong) use cases must be identified at the very beginning, which may take a few trials given the amount you have.
- Change management – Part 1: Automation is going to change the way you work drastically, which is different from the typical business-as-usual (BAU) change management. Therefore, it may be necessary to involve additional planning and implementation tools to ensure a smooth transition. The first step should be examining the extent or degree to which change can occur with said adoption.
- Operations & IT strategy: When testing the functionality of a tool, it needs to be able to support the load of several use cases (hence the selection of use cases in a previous bullet). This will help gauge what’s necessary for scaling in the future and help build an infrastructure for your platform.
Mid-Stage Digital Transformation
At this point in your digital-first, automation-driven strategy, at least one use case should be actively in production. Now, the hard work begins.
- Cost-benefit analysis – Part 1: Your initial use case(s) will help determine high level/unnecessary costs in the first year of your program. This analysis will be refined later in an integration “playbook.”
- Gap assessment – Part 1: By using automation to eliminate manual, repetitive work, you’ll quickly see areas of improvement for other processes prior to applying automation. It’s best to consult with your IT/business systems team and designated LOBs to determine how to reengineer these processes before applying automation.
- Integration playbook: Building upon your initial use case(s), you will need to deploy a large-scale integration playbook across LOBs and/or timelines. This will allow projection into your pipeline, and act as a primary input into your second cost-benefit analysis.
- Cost-benefit analysis – Part 2: As you build upon use cases, you will continue to identify unnecessary costs, lessons learned, and value received versus expectations. Continue to apply this knowledge as adoption continues, marking it for any future implementations.
Growth Stage of a Digital Transformation
At this point, you will have several use cases in deployment that lack enterprise cohesiveness. Here’s what to do next:
- Gap assessment – Part 2: If there are any reengineering techniques you’ve found successful at this point, now’s the time to apply them. This would also be the time to identify any other areas of improvement to ensure your automation footprint is sound.
- Power user program – Part 1: The power users, in this case, will be non-technical staff. Sure, IT and business systems need to be able to use the platform, but it’s the extent to which LOBs and other non-technical staff use the platform that’ll make the case for this clear.
- Identify a few LOB champions and assess how to scale and reduce costs based on their usage.
- Scaling IT: At the Growth stage, you will have learned enough to be able to make informed decisions that significantly impact cost, such as the use of on-prem versus cloud systems.
- Change management – Part 2: In adopting an automation platform that changes the way you work, you will impact every customer, employee and department in your business. Be prepared to launch any change management plans at this point, preparing your enterprise for transformation.
- Power user program – Part 2: As you begin to transition developers and LOB users, you will start to iron out the kinks of your platform. This is necessary before establishing a center of excellence (CoE) or distributing the platform as an end-user computing (EUC) model for the larger enterprise.
Mature Stage of a Digital Transformation
By now, your platform has completed development and you have a centralized program ready to scale. At this point, you’ll want to implement:
- Portfolio management of best practices: Your integration “playbook” is now mature. You will have experienced enough refinements, shifts, and digital transformation on a scale that requires you to apply business intelligence. We recommend getting ahead of the game and investing in warehouse tools like Snowflake and visualization tools like Tableau and integrating them into your platform.
- Modernize IT: As technology changes, so do the available options for automation support. Your company may have since moved to a cloud platform, leaving on-prem systems in the past. Be sure to integrate (or determine the availability of integration) of any new apps or processes.
- Thought leadership: When your business is ready to perform in a new way both internally and externally, this presents an opportunity to reach out to a matured network to leverage the best practices of others. Implementing a seasoned approach, or using it to validate your own, is a necessary last step in becoming a truly intelligent enterprise.
source: .workato
Digital transformation anticipated to bring businesses 17% ROI in the next year
30 Sep 2019 Written by Admin AdminCompleting digital transformation initiatives can place organizations well above others in the industry, according to an Avanade report.
Digital transformation is undoubtedly a priority for business leaders, with 66% of leaders saying they have plans for a digital business transformation, according to a recent Gartner report. However, only 11% of leaders admitted to achieving the transformation at scale, Gartner found.
While reaching that level of success with a digital transformation is difficult, the payoff is well worth it. Companies that have successful digital transformation initiatives can expect to see a 17% return on investment (ROI) over the next year, according to an Avanade report.
The report, conducted by Vanson Bourne, surveyed 1,150 global decision-makers to gain insight into the various impacts of digital transformation in the enterprise.
Almost all respondents (96%) said they have a digital transformation strategy in their companies, the report found. However, 43% of professionals said their organizations are becoming fatigued by the digital transformation efforts, resulting in fewer completed projects.
This fatigue is a result of many factors, the report found.
Some 46% cited hiring and training people in the skills as the biggest challenge, while 35% said they are struggling to modernize legacy systems.
Regardless of the obstacles, organizations expect digital transformation projects to reduce costs by 10%, increase productivity by 11%, and increase business growth by 10%, according to the report.
Some 83% of respondents said employee engagement, and customer experience solutions should have equal priority when planning these initiatives; and 88% agree that integrating innovation into business systems is necessary for agility and continued improvement.
source: techrepublic
Investment in digital transformation is a top priority for asset management says new survey
29 Sep 2019 Written by Admin AdminDigital transformation is a top priority for asset managers, according to a new report published by banking software company Temenos investigating the views and intentions of the asset management industry over the coming 12 months.
Significant constraints imposed by legacy technology systems however were cited by 54 per cent of respondents globally as a major problem holding them back.
The report entitled: “Digital transformation in fund administration: The road ahead”, delves into responses from over 150 asset managers, fund administrators and custodians across Europe, the United States and Asia.
The global asset management industry is experiencing fundamental shifts that will shape its future.
The report shows that digital transformation is set to play a large part in this future.
The survey found that investment in new technology and digital transformation is the number one focus in asset management, with 38 per cent of respondents saying it will be their firm’s biggest focus over the next 12 months.
Digital transformation is followed by a focus on investment in product development (19 per cent), operational efficiency (16 per cent) and distribution (12 per cent).
An overwhelming majority of respondents, more than 90 per cent of those surveyed, also said that investment in operational systems is now essential for asset managers to improve efficiencies and reduce costs.
29 per cent of respondents cited data analytics as the highest priority for investment.
Despite the imperative to digitally transform, nearly a quarter of respondents (23 per cent) said asset servicers, such as fund administrators and custodians, are not currently keeping pace with the changing requirements of asset managers.
54 per cent of respondents globally cite legacy technology as a major problem holding asset management firms back from delivering high quality services through digital channels. In the US, this problem is even more exacerbated, with 60 per cent of respondents saying that legacy systems remained a major problem.
The survey also highlighted that outsourcing of functions to asset servicers is set to narrow, with over two-thirds of those surveyed (68 per cent) saying it was important to have one strategic service provider who can support all outsourcing requirements.
Many respondent firms are already moving in this direction, with more than half (55 per cent) saying that they have a single provider in place or will do so within three years.
source: institutionalassetmanager
ضمن الحملات الترويجية للحدث فريق عمل القمة العالمية للتسامح يختتم سلسة من الزيارات الناجحة لدول أوروبية
22 Sep 2019 Written by Admin SAE(English)
اختتم فريق عمل القمة العالمية للتسامح في نسختها الثانية، سلسة من الزيارات شملت عددا ًمن الدول الأوربية هي " هولندا وبلجيكا وفرنسا “، جرى خلالها التعريف بفعاليات القمة وأبرز المشاركين والمتحدثين ومحاور الجلسات، وتشجيع المختصين والمؤسسات ذات العلاقة على المشاركة فيها باعتبارها منصة متخصصة لهم بالدرجة الأولى.
وتنظم القمة العالمية للتسامح برعاية كريمة من صاحب السمو الشيخ محمد بن راشد آل مكتوم، نائب رئيس الدولة رئيس مجلس الوزراء حاكم دبي، في الفترة من 13 إلى 14 نوفمبر المقبل، حيث ترصد القمة التي تحمل شعار "التسامح في ظل الثقافات المتعددة: تحقيق المنافع الاجتماعية والاقتصادية والإنسانية وصولًا إلى عالم متسامح “، سبل الشراكة والتعاون البناء مع بعض المؤسسات العالمية المختصة بالسلام والتسامح.
وأكد الدكتور حمد بن الشيخ أحمد الشيباني-العضو المنتدب للمعهد الدولي للتسامح-، رئيس اللجنة العليا المُنظمة للقمة العالمية للتسامح على أهمية هذه الزيارات واللقاءات في توسيع نطاق المشاركة في القمة التي تعتبر أكبر وأهم حدث يعنى بتأصيل قيم التسامح والتعايش ونشر ثقافة السلام، كما دلت على حرص اللجنة على تفعيل وتوسيع علاقات التعاون والشراكة التي تربطها بين كافة الأطراف الفاعلة في هذا الشأن.
وقال: "تترجم الزيارات حرص المعهد على تعزيز العلاقات مع الهيئات والمؤسسات والجهات المحلية والعالمية، بما يتماشى مع خطط المعهد الرامية إلى نشر وإرساء قيم التعايش السلمي والتعددية الثقافية وقبول الآخر لبناء عالم يسوده التسامح في مجتمع متعدد الثقافات."
وأضاف الدكتور حمد" نؤمن بأهمية السلام والتفاهم بين الأمم والشعوب وندعم كل جهد دولي يسعى إلى توجيه الطاقات البشرية نحو البناء والازدهار، وعليه نسعى عبر جولتنا إلى تسليط الضوء على جهود دولة الإمارات وكونها بيئة خصبة لإنجاح الحوارات وتبادل الأفكار التي من شأنها خدمة الإنسان."
وقدم خليفة محمد السويدي المنسق العام للقمة العالمية للتسامح، ورئيس الوفد المشارك في الرحلات الترويجية خلال زيارته والوفد المرافق عرضاً للجهات التي تمت زيارتها عن آخر الاستعدادات لإطلاق النسخة الثانية للقمة، كما أبدى ترحيبه بالشراكات الفعّالة مع الجهات التي سيتم العمل معها والتي قال إنها ستؤدي بالتأكيد إلى تحقيق المزيد من النتائج الإيجابية، وتسهم بشكل مباشر في تحقيق المنفعة العامة في ظل مجتمع متحاب ومتسامح.
وقال السويدي" تحرص اللجنة المنظمة للقمة العالمية للتسامح على اتخاذ كافة السبل والإجراءات التي من شأنها تعزيز ودعم الاستعدادات لفعاليات الدورة الثانية من القمة العالمية للتسامح، لتظهر بأبهى صورة بما يتناسب مع مكانة الحدث، حيث نسعى من خلال هذه الحملات الترويجية إلى رفع نسبة الوعي لدى المجتمع الدولي بأهمية انعقاد القمة العالمية للتسامح في دبي، والتي تعد المنصة الأولى من نوعها عالمياً وتجمع أكثر من ألفي مشارك تحت مظلتها، لتدعيم مبادىء التسامح وتعزيز التفاهم المتبادل وسبل الحوار الإيجابي البناء لتبادل المعارف والتجارب والخبرات، التي من شأنها تعزيز القيم الإنسانية القائمة على احترام وتقبل الآخر ونشر مبادىء الحرية والعدل والمساواة وتحقيق الأمن العالمي من خلال إيصال رسالة محبة وسلام للعالم أجمع".
شملت الجولة الترويجية زيارة إلى مركز لاهاي الإنساني، المعهد الهولندي للعلاقات الدولية في لاهاي، مكتب منظمة ماستر بيس في الاتحاد الأوروبي، (هولندا،) معهد السلام الأوروبي، منظمة الرؤية العالمية لممثلي بروكسل والاتحاد الأوروبي، مكتب الاتصال الأوروبي لبناء السلام (بلجيكا)، منظمة الأمم المتحدة للتربية والعلم والثقافة (اليونسكو، فرنسا).
وأبدت العديد من تلك المنظمات والمؤسسات رغبتها في المشاركة بفعاليات القمة العالمية للتسامح 2019، إما كمتحدثين في الجلسات الحوارية ومجالس التسامح، والفعاليات التي تقام على الهامش، أو عبر إبرام سلسة من مذكرات التفاهم والشراكات للعمل مع المعهد الدولي للتسامح على المدى البعيد، فضلاً عن استعداد البعض الآخر للمساهمة في ترويج فعاليات القمة من خلال إرسال دعوات لأعضائهم للمشاركة فيها.
UAE delegation concludes a series of visits to European countries ahead of the World Tolerance Summit on 13-14 November 2019
22 Sep 2019 Written by Admin SAE(العربية)
A UAE delegation comprising officials of the second edition of World Tolerance Summit (WTS) concluded a series of visits to a number of European countries like Netherlands, Belgium and France as part of its efforts to promote the event across the globe.
Held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice- President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, the World Tolerance Summit will be held from November 13 to 14 under the theme ‘Tolerance in Multiculturalism: Achieving the Social, Economic and Humane Benefits of a Tolerant World’.
Dr Hamad bin Sheikh Ahmed Al Shaibani, Managing Director of the International Institute for Tolerance (IIT), Chairman of the Higher Committee of the WTS, said, “The visits underline the Institute's keenness to strengthen relations with local and international institutions to spread awareness on establishing the values of tolerance in a multicultural society.”
Dr Hamad added: “We strongly support cooperation between nations, and every international effort that channelises human energies towards building tolerant communities across the world.”
He stressed the importance of these visits and meetings in bringing more participation to the unique summit that stands for spreading a culture of harmony and peace.
During the visit, Khalifa Mohamed Al Suwaidi, General Coordinator of the WTS, and the head of the delegation, presented the latest preparations for launching the second edition of the summit.
Al Suwaidi said, "The Higher Committee of the WTS is keen to raise awareness on the summit, which is the first platform of its kind in the world, and brings more than 2,000 participants together to strengthen the principles of tolerance, promote mutual understanding and constructive positive dialogue."
The UAE delegation visited The Hague Humanitarian Centre, Institute for International Relations in The Hague, Office of the Master Peace Organisation of the European Union in Netherlands; European Peace Institute, World Vision for Brussels and EU Representatives, European Liaison Office for Peacebuilding in Belgium; and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation in France.
Many of these organisations have expressed interest in participating in the WTS 2019, either as speakers, joining tolerance councils or through a series of memorandums of understanding and partnerships to work with the IIT in the long run. Some of them have even expressed their willingness in contributing to the promotion of the summit.
There's a misconception that keeps those with dreams of owning their own business from following their dreams.
It's a misconception that's not only false but dangerous to the small business community.
It's not true that every entrepreneur sits in a rundown apartment somewhere in Silicon Valley, eats boxes of cheap mac-and-cheese and stays up all night building the next big startup.
Most entrepreneurs aren't living in poverty hoping to someday sign the papers for millions of dollars in funding only to see their dreams become the next worldwide craze.
The real landscape of entrepreneurship is much different and more mainstream than the model seen in the movies. According a Kauffman Foundation study, entrepreneurs are more likely to be between the ages of 45-54 and of minority descent. They may be starting businesses as second careers, but even those entrepreneurs don't fit the stereotype.
Another misconception is the notion that businesses have to start with a "bang," which translates to lots of time, quitting your day job, sacrificing family time and taking a big personal and financial risk on a dream that may not succeed and could burden you with large amounts of debt.
In fact, many business owners start their businesses as side ventures. They don't quit their day jobs, but instead use the skills they've learned to start that side business.
They aren't expecting these businesses to pay the bills, but they don't limit themselves on growth either. Starting small keeps the startup costs low. If it does fail, they have lost very little. How do you start a side business? Here are a few tips.
Make It Scaleable
So you love to cook? You could start a restaurant that will take a full-time commitment and a lot of money – or you could start a weekend catering business or a mobile food truck.
A business where you provide small services on your own schedule can grow as much or as little as your time allows. Look for those opportunities while you're starting out.
Limit the Formal Marketing
You want to gain business, but investing in large marketing efforts could have two negative effects: You could waste a lot of money on a campaign that produced very little business or it could produce so much business that you don't have the time to handle all of the orders.
Instead, focus on word-of-mouth advertising and let the business grow debt free.
Compartmentalize
If you're going to keep your day job, try not to mix the two businesses.
The job that pays the bills and offers health insurance and a retirement package deserves the bulk of your time and energy, even if you've lost some of the passion for that position.
After work, when you get back home, concentrate on your side business.
Don't Expect It to Be Easy
Before starting your side business, consider your expectations. If it's going to be a part-time effort, expecting to rival your full-time competitors in the first few years is unrealistic.
You don't have to be the biggest to find fulfillment. Expecting to do something you enjoy while making a little extra money is a healthy and appropriate goal.
The Bottom Line
If you dream of starting a business, don't fall for the misconception that you have to quit your job and put all of your time and money into your idea.
Instead, start small and see where the business takes you. Launching a business for the enjoyment of doing what you love is just as noble as being a Silicon Valley entrepreneur starting a dotcom.
source: investopedia
Brands have embraced automation to help them carry out a spectrum of everyday tasks.
According to a recent survey published by Social Media Today, 75 percent of marketing teams use some form of an automation tool. However, with growing popularity, there are growing concerns.
The same survey reports that 61 percent of marketers are concerned about the lack of personalization due to automation. Likewise, a global study by PWC found that as technology advances, most consumers want brands to use technology as a tool for increasing personalized support.
Put simply, customers want more human interaction, not less.
That's why it’s vital that today’s businesses find the right balance between automation and personalization. Companies that go overboard on automation can come across as detached and generic. On the other hand, those that get too personal with customers can come off as intrusive and creepy. Brands need to get it right to maintain a trusting relationship with their customers.
Here are ways marketers can successfully balance automation and personalization.
Offer Timely, Valuable Content
Email campaigns are an effective, low-cost way to leverage automation and personalization, but marketers need to be careful not to clog consumer inboxes. Instead, they should focus on offering relevant and valuable content that doesn’t involve using intrusive data.
Most consumers are familiar with receiving personalized content based on an action, such as an online purchase, that features a related product or service.
Using transactional data to send automated, personalized emails can be less intrusive since it’s a natural, and at this point expected, component of the relationship.
Marketers can also use geographical data, such as a customer’s zip code or address, to deliver personalized content, like creating a segmented list of customers and offering them discounts to nearby events. Although consumers dislike when brands bombard them with irrelevant, generic messaging, they also don’t like overly personal messages that infringe on their privacy.
Respect Consumer Privacy
Research shows that 81 percent of consumers want brands to get to know them and understand when to approach them, but not at the expense of their privacy.
There is a fine line between highly relevant content and tactics that take marketing personalization too far.
For example, sending mass emails to consumers with the same promotions or offers isn’t an effective strategy. Consumer interests vary significantly.
Marketers should pay attention to their target audience and consider whether the interaction will make them feel special or unsettled.
Customer data can be used effectively, but content that’s too personalized can disturb customers, thus putting them off the brand.
Enhance the Customer Experience
It’s crucial that marketers use technology to improve the consumer experience, rather than eliminate the human touch. For instance, British grocery chain Sainsbury’s delivered an exceptional customer experience with its “This Time It’s Ultra Personalized!” campaign.
The store used smartphone location data to provide personalized offers to customers through their mobile devices as they walked around the store.
Not only did the campaign promote in-store offers, but it helped the company gain insights about how people navigated the aisles. As a result, Sainsbury’s was able to make better merchandising decisions and improve its in-store customer experience. Marketers must remember that relationships are crucial in business and that automation tools provide additional support.
Combine Automation and Human Touch
There are many ways marketers can mix automation and personalization, such as inserting tags to add customers’s names in emails to make them feel like the message addresses them individually.
Going a step further, marketers can encourage team members to interact with potential customers by making calls, sending emails or requesting a connection on social media.
For example, if a visitor downloads content from the brand’s website, it’s a good idea to have someone on the team reach out personally, immediately.
According to an oft-cited Lead Response Management Study, waiting more than 10 minutes to follow up decreased the odds of securing a lead by as much as 400 percent.
If automation and personalization are going to be effective, it's important to find a way to balance the two.
Overdoing automation can make brand messages seem robotic and irrelevant. Likewise, getting too personal can overwhelm consumers.
A successful relationship between consumers and brands ultimately relies on the right blend.
source: entrepreneu
Looking ahead to the new year, innovation leaders should take note of these hype-worthy tech trends.
Gartner's Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies report, released on Thursday, detailed which future tech trends are more than hype.
The report found that these technologies show great promise in producing significant competitive advantage for companies over the next five to 10 years.
Deciding which emerging technology to use in your company isn't easy and vary by company, said Brian Burke, research vice president at Gartner.
"Each of these emerging technologies are advancing at different rates, but within each are a number of generic use cases," Burke said.
"Technology leaders in organizations need to look at the technology and identify if it is mature enough to deploy in their specific use case."
It all comes down to what your business needs.
If a business has a specific use case for the technology that aligns with a generic use case, then the business has found the technology worth investing in, Burke added.
Here are the five emerging technologies, along with examples of each:
1. Sensing and mobility
"Sensing and mobility sound like two very different things, but they are actually very closely related, in that it is sensing that is enabling mobility" Burke said.
Organizations considering sensing and mobility technologies should check their personal use cases to see if there is a need for 3D-sensing cameras, AR cloud, light-cargo delivery drones, flying autonomous vehicles, and autonomous driving—all of which are emerging under this trend, the report found.
2. Augmented human
Emerging technologies in the augmented human realm include biochips, personification, augmented intelligence, emotion AI, immersive workspaces, and biotech, the report found.
"When we talk about augmented humans we are talking about providing people with immersive experiences," said Burke. Whether this is through immersive workspaces, which allows you to work virtually from anywhere, or physical experiences like prosthetic limbs, he added.
3. Postclassical compute and communications
Classical core computing and communication technologies have been going on for the last 30 years, predicted under Moore's Law, Burke said.
However, "Post Classical communications and compute cover how the underlying technologies are being deployed in entirely different ways, which is really giving us a step-change in compute and communication power," Burke noted.
An example of this is low earth orbit (LEO) satellites, Burke added. "Satellites have completely changed how we are going to connect and commute globally, especially in underserved areas," he said.
Enterprises should consider postclassical compute and communications technologies if they have use cases for 5G, next-generation memory, LEO systems, and nanoscale 3D printing, according to the report.
4. Digital ecosystems
"We've had ecosystems since businesses started, but digital ecosystems are about how digital technologies are reducing friction in business ecosystems," Burke noted.
On top of becoming more digital and reducing friction, he said, these ecosystems are also becoming more decentralized, which will allow users to have control over their own data and reduce the power of internet giants.
Examples of digital ecosystem technologies include DigitalOps, knowledge graphs, synthetic data, decentralized web, and decentralized autonomous organizations, the report found.
5. Advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and analytics
"AI is a pervasive trend," said Burke; it not only pervades the enterprise, but also all of these trends.
The most significant emerging uses of AI include adaptive machine learning, edge AI, edge analytics, explainable AI, AI platform as a service (PaaS), transfer learning, generative adversarial networks, and graph analytics, according to the report.
"We are seeing significant advances in AI algorithms, where AI is being used, and how AI is being democratized, so that it's not just strictly in the realm of giant tech companies, but are now available to end user organizations," Burke added.
Additional analysis on emerging technologies will be presented duringGartner IT Symposium/Xpo 2019
source: Techrepublicechrepublic
Why are only 0.05% of startup companies funded by investment companies and only 1% reach unicorn status?
23 Aug 2019 Written by Admin SAEBy : Abigail Calcott
A groundbreaking survey among 2000 investment companies and business owners sheds light on it.
The term unicorn (finance) was coined by Aileen Lee in 2013 and means a privately held startup company valued at over $1 billion. In 2013 only 39 companies fell into this category, however, by the beginning of 2019 the Unicorn Leaderboard listed 452 companies. The bright examples of these successful startup companies are Airbnb, Ant Financial, Uber, Zoom, Epic Games, Robinhood, Farfetch, Meizu, WeWork and many other companies. The unicorn leaders countries are the USA with 196 companies and China with 165 unicorn startups.
According to data compiled by Fundable only 0.91 percent of investment projects are funded by angel investors, while an insignificant 0.05 percent are funded by VCs. In contrast, 57 percent of startup companies are funded by personal loans and credit, while 38 percent receive funding from family and friends. Based on the analysis of 1,100 tech companies in the USA carried out by CB Insights it is seen that 70% of companies end up either dead or become self-sustaining (which is not positive for investors). And only 1% of investment project that raised seed rounds, reached unicorn status of $1B+ valuation.
Despite the lower number of successful companies that continue to develop with financial injection from investment companies, it is absolutely possible to attract needed investments to a reliable investment project whether it is at the seed stage of seeking funding or has already made it through to the C funding round. Nevertheless, there are some obstacles that might get in the way and interfere with your success. According to the survey conducted among 1000 project owners and 1000 investors from the USA and Europe who have been engaged in the process of seeking or providing financial resources the fundamental reason that leads even credible companies to failure, is the lack of personal connections between project owners and investment decision makers. Middle level executives do not have substance to back up investment projects and if relying on them, the most likely scenario is it will just be a waste of a project owner’s time and money, with zero results, and the project will unfortunately be consigned to the history books.
Claudio Cancio, the owner of an Italian hospitality business says: “When I was seeking funding, I decided to take part in two funding events. At the first one I presented my project onstage and a few representatives of investment companies got interested, they approached me after my presentation and we exchanged contacts, I send sent them all the information about my project and even had a meeting with them one more time, but it did not lead to anything, despite their initial interest and eagerness. The second event I visited was an investment conference and a family office advisor took my project to pitch it further to investors. I’ve been waiting for a few months now but sadly there is no deal in sight.”
Business owners agree on the opinion that if a project owner pitches an idea to investment decision makers directly and investors endorse it, it opens the way to obtain funding and increases the chance of attracting investments by almost 100%. But if a project is presented to lots of middle level executives (such as portfolio managers, asset managers, analytics from investment companies funds, VC or family offices) and they like the project, it only means that the rigmarole of financing this project has just begun.
Angelina DiLarosa from Switzerland shares her experience: “My project was presented to an investment company by their employee, and of course it was pitched in a completely different way from how I would have done it, but unfortunately I cannot reach investors directly…”
Why do these situations keep occurring? Why despite going to funding shows and investment conferences do people not find the needed investments?
Andrew Crawley the head of an investment company from the UK says: “Usually people who we send on behalf of our company are in charge of relationship matters, however they are not responsible for making decisions regarding analysing and funding projects. I usually attend investment or business events either as a speaker or as a participant, choosing events that only consist of decision makers such as The World Economic Forum and Private Investment Forum Worldwide.”
The feasibility of taking a part in The World Economic Forum has been questioned by many businessmen in connection with the high price which is $72,000 for the an ordinary package and $358,000 for the a premium participation package.
Consequently, the best way to plough money into a project is to establish personal connections with investors, present your project and negotiate with investors by yourself. How to do so can be read here How to get investors in a Rockefeller way.
