Author: admin

4 Must Haves on your Cloud Security Checklist

Posted on by admin

As per Gartner, “Through 2020, public cloud infrastructure as a service (IaaS) workloads will suffer at least 60% fewer security incidents than those in traditional data centers.”

Cloud Security primarily has been divided into two major parts – Security of the Cloud and Security in the Cloud.

While Security of the Cloud refers to Infrastructure Level Security, Security in the Cloud refers to the Application Level Security.

Here are 4 must-haves for a customer to have on their Checklist while ensuring Cloud Security:

1. User Tracking

The Identity and Access Management helps ensure which people can have access to what data and from what devices. There are different degree of access also that can be given to different users like view only, edit, etc.

A unique username for every user helps map every activity that has been carried out and can be tracked through which username.

This gives one complete control over who can do what, puts limits on what they can do & tracks every action of the user.

2. Traffic Monitoring & Management

Monitoring activities of each and every IP accessing the application to ensure any sort of malicious activity happening is monitored and taken care of in time. The monitoring is done through monitoring IP.

While monitoring these IPs, the ones that are not under suspicion are Whitelisted while the ones that are suspected of malicious activity are blocked.

For example – For a particular website, if there is any IP with any suspected malicious activity, it shall be blocked while the ones which are clean are Whitelisted and can access the website at a given point in time.

3. Threat Intelligence

Threats in this context can be at multiple levels and in multiple forms right from Infrastructure to the Application level. Monitoring at every level helps with alerts for threats and ensuring action is taken at the right time.

4. Risk Mitigation

Mitigation of DDoS, SQL Injections and other malicious activities through Web App Firewalls, etc. This can be done and tracked in real time through dashboards to ensure one has every minute detail of the what traffic is coming on the application, where it is originating from, updated policies etc. to ensure proper security measures are taken and any malware attack is avoided.

Think you need an expert to manage your Security piece?  Get in touch with us at cloud.sales@teamcomputers.com or +91 8860716613.

Best Practices for an Optimized Cloud

Posted on by admin

Did you know that as per Industry reports, 30-35% of the Cloud spend goes wasted (Source: TechBeacon).

Switching to a Pay-as-you-go model is the right beginning. You get rid of capex and can address your growth uncertainty to an extent. But it’s quite likely that you’re paying more by not having the right sizing on the cloud.

Managing your Cloud expenditure is easier said than done. In this blog, we’ll take a deeper insight into challenges faced in Managing Cloud spendings and how one can overcome them.

1. Tap on Utilization

As you evolve in your Cloud journey, it gets more and more difficult to keep a tap of the numerous Cloud services you’re using. You do get to know your Billing at the end of the month, but do you monitor how much utilization has actually happened at the server level.

2. Shadow IT

In organizations, apart from IT, there are a lot of other departments that use Cloud services which go largely unchecked. The most common concern across organizations is that they use the services for a while that they have provisioned and then leave them idle only adding up to the charges without utilizing them.

3. Rightsizing & Automation

The biggest advantage of using Cloud is to Semi-Dynamic and Dynamic applications since they are unpredictable in nature and can be scaled up and down depending on usage.

In such a scenario, you cannot follow a set it and forget it approach.

How to overcome such challenges?

Proactively keeping a tab on utilization is one the keys to optimizing your Cloud. But what all do you need to monitor?

Well, here’s a checklist to begin with –

  • Utilization of unused and underutilized resources
  • The timing of resources utilized, especially development resources to ensure they’re switched off while not in use
  • Resource utilization by departments, especially idle resources
  • Pricing structure of the Cloud Solution Provider

While you monitor all these parameters to begin with, necessary and corrective action of terminating resources needs to be taken timely to ensure you’re actually paying for only resources you’re using.

These activities will also help Forecast your usage and plan better.

Think you need to optimize your Cloud? Get in touch with us

at cloud.sales@teamcomputers.com or give us a quick call at +91-8860716613

Do you really know your customers?

Posted on by admin

Your business has been growing at a steady rate. Your sales reps are able to close deals and you’re pretty much satisfied with the way things are running.

But are you certain this growth will prevail year on year?

With more and more competitors entering the market, delivering a customized and consistent experience to your customer is the only solution to retaining them.

You ask how?

The technology landscape at most growing NBFCs comprises of a system developed in-house on a database (like Oracle) for handling processes like Customer Onboarding, Loan Disbursement and Money Transfer while other process like HR and Finance are managed on ERP.

With the proliferation of data from multiple sources such as social media, mobile application usage and clickstream data, it has become imperative to integrate internal channels with external sources to get a 720 degree view of the customer, and allow it to delve into each customer’s interaction sequences, needs and current life events to serve them better and benefit from actionable insights in their operations.

Imagine This

This whole story, from its beginning to its end, illustrates what can be done when a bank or NBFC has comprehensive visibility into their full relationship with their customers. Too many companies have increased costs from flying blind in seemingly routine, every day customer interactions.

Treating all customers as equal doesn’t work so businesses have a choice:

Take control of the problem or leave these decisions to simple chance?

Data is your biggest asset, leverage it.

After the complete implementation, the MDM can be leveraged in a variety of ways to drive its value and maximise the RoI:

– Achieve better, faster analytics and insights by identifying conflicting or redundant customer information across enterprise applications in less time

– Reduce the time and effort needed for data stewardship by improving the accuracy of automated merging processes – Accelerate ROI from growth-based initiatives like mergers and acquisitions by making it easier to integrate master data from new sources

– Simplify and automate accurate regulatory compliance reporting with more trusted visibility into business-critical master data

Get in touch with us at analytics@teamcomputers.com to brainstorm on how to start your MDM journey.

4 Questions to ask before selecting an Master Data Management Solution

Posted on by admin

Are you looking to drive better, faster analytics and insights by identifying conflicting or redundant customer information across enterprise applications? Do you want to reduce the time and effort needed for data stewardship by improving the accuracy of automated merging processes? Has a merger or acquisition in the recent past led to disconnected data sources?

Get a 720 degree view of your customers, products, suppliers with Master Data Management. There are a plethora of Master Data Management solutions available in the market today. Informatica and Orchestra Networks have been named leaders in this space in the 2018 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Master Data Management Solutions. But before you go ahead to fixing on a platform, here are 4 aspects you need to define:

1. The Business Problem to be solved

Be Specific about what isn’t working clearly and concisely, so as to know exactly what is to be fixed. There is no point going out looking for a solution if the problem is not central to your business or you see so significant benefit in solving it. Ensure that you have clearly identified the specific impact the project should have in terms of business results to be measured throughout the entire project.

2. The Data you require

These are all the new subject areas about the customer that matter for the business and would be needed to feed the customer profiles. For example, we may need data about the products, employees, retail locations, branches, channels, and distribution partners to enrich the understanding of the customers and the business they do with the company. To fulfil the goal of using the customer profiles to improve the quality of cross-sell and upsell recommendations, clean, consistent, and connected data on products is needed to determine customers’ past purchases.

3. Your Data sources

Particularly the ones that are going to be used for enriching the Customer Gold Record. Example, external data sources like third-party data providers for demographics, income, education level, and the social networks that the customers are using.

4. Your Target Applications

Once the foundation of clean, consistent, and connected data would have been built, it needs to be shared with the business and analytical applications that run the business. To deliver great customer experiences, it is important that the customer profiles fuel target applications like CRM, the point of sale, customer service help-desk, campaign management, and marketing analytics. It’s the only way to make sure everybody’s working with great customer data that’s come from a single trusted source of truth.

Once you have these four in place, you can good to go ahead and evaluate the best-fit Master Data Management Solution. Get in touch with us at analytics@teamcomputers.com to brainstorm on how to start your MDM journey.

Build a culture of Analytics

Posted on by admin

Without the required organizational change, your analytics project will not fly

Companies are looking to leverage the benefits derived from analytics tools to enhance decisions and performance at all levels of their organisation. However, merely investing in analytics is not sufficient to obtain the desired results.

Merely layering technology on top of existing operations is not sufficient in itself. It can be hard to persuade end users that the solution deployed adds value to their work, rather than adding complexity. This added value may range from something as simple as saving hours of routine work to the generation of strategically valuable insights.

Users need to start demanding data to make decisions rather than relying on their gut feeling or untested assumptions. They should be both excited and aware of the opportunity to save hours of time wasted on slow methods so that they can do more productive tasks. This can happen if they see how the new tools make their day-to-day work more efficient and effective.

“A common issue is that end-users continue to
use the old methods despite the availability of
productivity enhancing tools at their disposal.”

Adoption issues are not uncommon

Organisations build large data warehouses, hire right talent, and deploy advanced analytics only to find that decisions are still made with the help of inefficient (and sometimes even ineffective) old methods. No matter how advanced the technology underlying the analytics program, adoption and change management is necessary”

Common problems with adoption According to a 2017 Forbes Insights-EY report on Analytics:

38%

Lack of support from senior leaders

46%

Lack of collaboration between IT and Users

38%

Inability to change organizational culture

Problem

Lack of support from top management

Insufficient engagement of business users

Inability to Adopt a Data Driven Culture

Questions to be asked

Are top leaders encouraging the use of BI tools?

Is there a mechanism to drive change towards the new system?

Was there top management and business user buy-in before and during the adoption of the solution?

Are business users aware of the benefits of the new tools?

Do they have trust in the information generated from these tools?

Are users receiving the desired information from the tools?

Has the program facilitated a change in the manner of decision-making?

How often are the users leveraging the BI tools to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of their work?

Are users comfortable with accessing and navigating through the solution provided to them?”

Things to do

Appoint a change sponsor who owns the transformation process

Regular communication with management on the progress of usage and RoI

Train managers so that they can promote new behaviours in their teams

Engage all users to build trust and acceptance

Enable the IT team to handle queries of business users

Identify the top users and what they are doing as against the low performers

Recognise the users who are doing their best in driving the change

Establish incentives to drive new behaviour

Team Computer drives adoption as an essential component of its analytics implementation. We work closely with our clients to help them realize high returns from their analytics investments. Get in touch by writing to us at analytics@teamcomputers.com to know more.

4 Reasons you need Enterprise Mobility right now!

Posted on by admin

So what is Enterprise Mobility? Enterprise mobility, to put it simply, is an approach to work in which employees can do their jobs from anywhere using a variety of devices and applications.

The term commonly refers to the use of mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, for business purposes. But it also covers the mobility of corporate data and of workers themselves. As an example of enterprise mobility, an employee may upload a presentation from their desktop PC to a cloud storage service, and then access it from a personal Apple iPad to show at a client site. It’s that simple.
Now, let’s look at the four major reasons that might help you understand that important can enterprise mobility to be for you;

1. Increasing number of mobile workers

According to a survey, by 2020, 60% of your workforce will be mobile for work.

If you’re surprised at this number, reflect on the following facts:

  • From 2010 to 2017, internet usage on desktop and laptop devices stayed fairly flat while mobile usage increased by 700 percent.
  • Smartphone ownership has grown from about 30 percent in 2011 to nearly 85 percent in 2017.
  • The majority of millennial smartphone users, 87 percent, say their phone never leaves their side, day or night.
  • Thirty-seven percent of workers telecommute regularly.
  • More than half, we’re talking 68 percent, of business emails, are now opened on smartphones.

Imagine the productivity rise if they could perform all their routine tasks with the same comfort as in office with full access to desktops and applications. According to a recent survey, 40% of businesses are working on improving their mobility strategy for individual productivity gains.

The millennial workforce demands flexibility to work remotely. Organizations that have understood this have policies such as work from home or work anytime anywhere and are building processes and systems to support this.

2. Real-time Management and Analysis

Enterprise mobility enables executives to access current and historical data literally anytime and capture data on the go to make better decisions when required. Transparent enterprise management and reporting platform can further reduce dependency on the IT teams for problem-solving.

At Team Computers. Employees now use an in-house mobile app as against biometric cards to punch in. This app further serves as a one-stop shop to apply for leave, report incidents & almost anything on the go from their mobile app. Pretty cool. right?

3. Provide an improved customer experience

71% of the companies moving towards business mobility are developing and deploying customer-facing apps focused on improving the customer experience.

What is the benefit these companies expect to achieve? The survey revealed that customers who execute business mobility plans have an average 150% return on investments (ROI) – the largest being the ability to bring new revenue streams online more quickly.

An automotive giant, in partnership with Team Computers, is using Apple iPads at their dealerships. The sales person at their showrooms can easily access and share vehicle details like specifications, colors, prices, etc. instead of the traditional brochures & leaflets.

4.Process Efficiency and Reduced Costs

Furthermore, the usage of interactive maps or the recording/logging of location-specific data can help improve processes, reduce costs and deliver value faster and better to customers. Uber has created one of the best use cases here. Isn’t it?

With an enterprise mobility management solution in place to provide access to corporate systems through mobility devices, overall adoption rate and productivity from employees can be achieved.

Think you need enterprise mobility? Get in touch with us

at social@teamcomputers.com or give us a quick call at +91-9350593984

Converting Visitors Into Customers

Posted on by admin

The term ‘predictive analytics’ has been thrown around for a while now but the adoption has been relatively low.
Every E-Commerce Retailer has a few common questions when it comes to their business: What is the maximum price a customer will pay for a product/service? How to proactively solve customer queries before they become issues? How to optimize costs?
Companies which make use of predictive analytics are able to to get answers to such questions. So, how can this analytics really help?

1. Price Optimization

The key agenda of optimizing price is to maximize profits. Usually, retailers set prices manually by using different traditional methods which take a lot of time and have a high probability of errors. By using predictive analytics, retailers can optimize prices automatically by looking at previous trends, product performance, consumer behaviors, historic price patterns etc.

2. Customized Product Recommendations

Pitching the right product to the right customer has always been a priority for E-Commerce retailers. Predictive Analytics tools help retailers to optimize these personalized recommendations for their prospects based on purchase history patterns, browsing history patterns, product placement on the website etc. These predictive tools help retailers to maximize the probability of conversion of a sale.

3. Customer Lifetime Value Analysis

The Customer Lifetime Value of any customer is the total revenue that the company can expect from a customer over his entire lifetime. It can help the company take important decisions such as the amount you should spend to acquire a customer, which customers to focus on, and how much should the company spend on servicing and retaining customers.

4. RFM Analysis

Recency Frequency Monetary) uses only past purchase behavior into segments customers basis the comparative recency, frequency and monetary value from the customer pool. The segments can range from Loyal customers to those most likely to churn.

A comparison of Customer Lifetime Value Analysis versus the RFM segments that the customer falls into can provide a good insight into the customers you want to focus on ASAP! A better understanding of your customer buying patterns, purchase history, likes, dislikes, browsing history can really help an E-Commerce retailer in having an edge over competitors which in turn will generate a better market share.

Large E-commerce sites such as Flipkart, Amazon and Book My Show are already ahead of the game It’s time for others to catch up if they want to remain a part of the game.

5 Ways To Bank Happy Customers

Posted on by admin

Now that you’ve got your Management Information System with Business Intelligence, have you been wondering “What next?” With a lot of buzz around technology like Big Data, Predictive Analytics, Business Intelligence, Data Science etc. that are floating in the market, it has become increasingly difficult to figure out how to apply these to your business.As an avid user of the banking system, here are 6 things I wish banks would and would not do; also, a few cents on how it can be addressed:

  • Stop the Standardized, non-personalized, non-relevant communication
    I’m actually done receiving multiple calls about how I am eligible for a credit card or that I should pick up a home loan. While these spark my interest once in a while, I am as quickly put off by the fact that the person calling me follows up with questions around my income or what kind of account I hold with the bank when I’ve already provided this information before!What you can do:
    This can be resolved easily by getting a Single View of the Customer using a Master Data Management solution to:Maintain a Golden record per customer that will provide a 360* degree of each customer and his/her relationship with the bank. This data can be further enriched by using social media data. Deliver personalized messaging in marketing campaigns: Segmentation of your customers and an analysis of their behaviour in terms of what are the products most suited to their profile and what they are likely to buy next can help you communicate only the most relevant messages to the customer.
  • Protect my identity!
    Identity theft scares me. I am afraid that, at any point, my money from my bank account might be stolen, or that my credit card may be swiped. While a lot of banks take the necessary actions to reimburse the lost amount to the customers, the stress, tension and inconvenience it causes knows no bounds.What you can do:
    Predictive analytics is at the cutting edge of fraud detection. Analyze your customer’s past transactions, what, where and when they have been using their credit and debit cards and internet banking and pick out the anomalous activity to save your customers some precious time and effort.
  • Help me when I need it!
    More often than not, when I call a bank, post going through an unpleasant IVR process, I reach out to a support executive who does not have the answer to my questions. He/She then promises to get back to me via email, or redirects me to another customer service agent to whom I have to explain the problem to all over again. Sigh!What you can do:Two things.One, get a chatbot in place for customers who prefer self service. A chatbot, powered by AI and with real time access to information, will be indistinguishable from humans. Or more efficient. In a recent survey by PwC, about 27% of customers were unsure whether their last service interaction was with a bot or human.Two, monitor the types of queries each of your call centre agents are most effective in resolving and use analytics on pass on only those queries to the agent. No more forwarded calls! Tada!
  • I don’t get reminders on my Credit Card payments!
    There are months when I am late to pay my credit card bills and run into trouble later. I tend to forget about it and I end up spending more interest on my debt. I get very few reminders for paying up my credit card debt.What you can do:
    Machine Learning offers clear benefits in this area. Banks can integrate various modules of Machine Learning in the collections process and send automatic reminders to their customers. The frequency of the reminders can be set according to the history of payments behaviour.
  • I want to apply for a home loan and I don’t know my credit score!
    I have recently decided that I want to buy a house in one of the metro cities. I am in mid level management position at my firm and currently have a car loan and some credit card debt. I called up the my bank to inquire about my credit score so that I know how much loan can I apply for and at what interest rate. My call just kept getting transferred without anybody giving me a concrete answer.What you can do:
    Credit scores are based on behavioral data, whether the consumer pays on time, amount owed and so forth, and the factors used are public. Some scores may use other factors, such as where you went to school, previous year’s earnings and whether you have dropped a phone number. Predictive Analytics can help with drawing insights into this behavioral data and give a valid credit score.

So, what about you? What are some of the biggest pain points you have as a customer? Or the biggest pain points you’ve identified as a bank? Do let us know in the comments section below.

Also, stay tuned or reach out to Team Computers to know more on the nitty gritties of the solutions mentioned in this article.

Team Cricket Premier League

Posted on by admin

Team Computers organized In-House cricket tournament “TPL North’18” on 10th March’18 at Sports Fiesta Club, Chattarpur. 4 knockout matches were played for which the winners are – Kockpit, INS, BA, IMS.
Semis and Finals are planned for 17th March’18. We are eagerly waiting to know the winner of TPL North’18