Digitalization - the new mantra of success for futuristic Indian manufacturing industries

By Sandeep Shroff

Digitalization has definitely arrived. There is absolutely no doubt about this. What one need to know is how one needs to address and tackle this key area in our business.We definitely need to embrace and strategise a proccess of digitilasation and we show you how we do it.

Independent consulting companies, confederations of industries and international organisations confirm the importance of the digital world. They show us that most Indian industries have initiated activities of checking out on next generation of digital technologies. Some of them are the Internet of Things (IOT), Mobile Technologies, Robotics, 3D printing, Cloud Computing and Data Analytics as handles of digitization. As we are aware, these set of digital technologies are set to bring a major ‘Business Disruption’. They shall alter the way in which the product design , manufacturing, and equipment operation will be done in near future. Optimistic predictions suggest that IIoT Business will be in a range as high as $15 trillion of the global GDP by 2030. These sheer numbers and the initial successes obtained by the manufacturing setups of the developed countries are now creating a pressure on Indian industries to take the process of digitalization very seriously.

Hence, many of the Indian industries are banking on the domestic market to experiment and sharpen their digitalization strategies. Many organisations particularly in the automotive domain have initiated digitalization activities in partnership with their parent organisations.

Government initiatives

Even the government is supporting this. Conducive initiatives such as  ”Make in India” and “Adaptive Manufacturing” (Industries 4.0) of Government of India (GOI) have been launched. The government is also opening up large markets for companies to launch new-to-the market digitally enabled products with new scalable digitally enabled manufacturing techniques.

However, just copying the strategies of manufacturing setup of developed countries will not yield success. We need to consider the different scenarios of the typical Indian manufacturing setup and the different psychological factors involved. One needs to get in the depth of these subjects and then design one’s strategy of a suitable digitalization. I would like to caution the readers that there is no one strategy that fits all the manufacturing industries of different domains. Each of them will have to tweak it based on their digitalization maturity and needs.

Hence, we would like to outline a generic strategy which would generally suit the Indian manufacturing setups. Before this, we should clarify that the digitalization of a manufacturing setup is not a single domain problem and  cannot be handled by an expert with a single skillset.

The digitalization strategy recommended for a typical Indian manufacturing setup shall be as shown below. Instead of a two stage activity that is mostly adopted and followed in the developed countries for digitalization, we need a 4 stage one.

Four Step Process

The Indian manufacturing companies will need a four staged digitalization approach in order to register a high success and better sustainability of the digitalisation program. As recommended, the first 2 stages shall be very crucial phases. The entire success of the digitalization program will depend on the proper implementation of these phases.

Stage-1 à Digitalization Strategy & Implementation Planning

The kick-off this stage should be done with suggested several steps. One very crucial aspect that needs to done at this stage is identification of a champion within an organisation who is sufficiently motivated to entirely run the digitalization campaign.

It is also recommended that detailed study should be done in the form of prefeasibility and feasibility studies during this stage to find out the ‘as-is’ condition of the manufacturing setup. We would highly recommend that the organisation should not shy away from seeking external expertise if one may not be available within the organisation. This step is highly recommended as the external expertise shall bring experience and learnings of the previous implementations. It is recommended to take help from an expert who is vendor or product neutral in this study. This will help to obtain a critical and clear view of the ‘as-is’ condition. Based on the findings of this activity, and the vision of digitalization, a picture of ‘to-be’ manufacturing setup and the shape of the organisation’s digitalization plan should be carved out. 

It is also highly recommended to carry out psychometric survey at the organisation level to gauge the pulse of perception of Digitalization program within the organisation. The Human Resources (HR) department of the organisation can be roped in to perform this activity as they are best suited resources to carry out such a survey. Based on all the findings, a detailed digitalization strategy, the probable areas of digitalization and a roadmap along with time frame and required investments needs to be prepared.

Stage-2 à Organizational Awareness and Transformation:

As a part of the core strategy, the leaders of the manufacturing industries could prepare their organization and support functions for a cultural changes and skills upgradations during the journey of digital transformation.At this stage, more details of probable stakeholders, partners and their roles and level of engagements need to be identified. An organisational level awareness campaign and buy-in campaign can be kicked-off on the goals of digitalization and its benefits. It is also recommended that maximum organisation resources are made to be the stakeholders. The several levels of engagements and activities can be identified involving all the levels of organisation hierarchies. A separate level of engagements and enrolment in digitalization program be carried out where union and labour issues exist. Generally,  this could mean job reductions and hence is a very sensitive issue. It needs to be handled by industrial psychology experts. The successful roll out of this stage will identify the speed and momentum of the overall digitalization program within an organisation.

Stage-3 à Digitization / Computerization / Data Generation:

As a core strategic step, most of the manufacturing industries weave heir digitization plan by implementing automation (data generation) & connectivity as one of the basic step. Manufacturing industries connect and integrate its Information Technology (IT) Systems and Manufacturing Operations Systems (MOS), both horizontally and vertically such that it can allow data transfer to happen seamlessly amongst them.

As a part of the connectivity sub-strategy, most of the manufacturing industries need to upgrade their existing standalone automation systems into sophisticated Cyber Physical Systems (CPS) / Internet of Things (IOT) solutions. Special efforts need to be made to integrate geo-spatially separated facilities so that all the data is brought to a centralized locations for better decision making.  The latest technological advances like Hardware Virtualization, Cloud Computing, Internet Protocol Version-6 (IPV6), Micro Electro – Mechanical Systems (MEMS), faster and reliable microcontrollers, ubiquitous internet connectivity and better bandwidths are needed here. This can provide a major boost to the Indian industries and particularly their IOT plans. An important booster to the IOT is advances in the field of wireless and mobile connectivity. These technologies need to be leveraged in a right way to reap its benefits. It is advised to the digitization leadership that a meticulous study of the existing systems by vendor independent experts is done. This can help prevent unnecessary removal of brownfield manufacturing setups and can help in saving a sizable expenditure.

The industries need to boost their production numbers and qualities by integrating Robotics and Plant Automation. There is a vast variation in the amount and level of automation in the Indian Manufacturing setups. The increase of level of automation and integration of it with IT systems should be one of the core element of the digitalization plan. With recent advances in the field of MEMS sensors, Vision based systems, navigation systems and Algorithms, Robotics as a technology has got major boost in emergent areas of Swarm Robotics and Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs). Coupled with these technologies and RFID, manufacturing industries can bring in automation of the stores, warehouses and distribution channels. Incorporation of these technologies in the digitization plan can substantially improve the business efficiencies of the Indian manufacturing industries. Another important thing which should be made the cornerstone of the Automation and IT enablement is the standardization of Automation Systems, their Interfaces and their expandability. Deep thinking during the planning and design phase needs to be done on these aspects. Attention paid in the initial phase on these factors can help reduce the implementation hiccups.

One important aspect to be taken care during the horizontal and vertical integration of the Information Technologies (IT) and the Operational Technologies (OT) is the definition of the ownership and responsibility of work. Until now, in most of the Indian industries, the IT and the OT worlds have been physically isolated and had very minimal overlaps. Both these fields operate differently and are governed by different operational criteria’s. IT-OT Integration also brings in the additional responsibility of managing and mitigating the risk of Cyber Security. Hence the Digitalization leadership needs to think deeply and understand the organizations operation, the skills of the resources and the existing state of the IT-OT Convergence before handing over the IT–OT integration responsibility.

Last but not the least, I would suggest is the inclusion of the Mobile and Internet technologies in the Connectivity sub-phase of digitalization. The mobile and Internet technologies can be effectively utilized by the manufacturing industries in various areas like sales, support and after sales support. These technologies can be used for effectively coordinating with their movable staff. Further, mobile technologies can be used as an aide to a mobile workforce. The front line Sales team can be effectively connected to the IT systems by integrating mobile sales application. This could enable them to create opportunity details, track Sales follow-up and help in sales and production planning.   Mobile applications using heuristic trouble shooting algorithms can be effectively be used for first hand troubleshooting and remote hand holding of the customer’s by the after Sales support teams. These kinds of mobile technology adaptations can reduce the sales and support cycles and can effectively improve the customer satisfaction. 

Stage-4 à Industry 4.0:

Now there is seamless transmission of data across the industry layout. This provides immediate visibility of the entire manufacturing setup. This can help the decision makers get new insights and can help bring in transparencies. The available real-time data can be collected in big databases and then can be provided to data analytical /Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML) and Deep Learning tools to build insights about the behavioural patterns and signatures and thus help in improving predictability and cognitive actions.

In Sum

Thus the entire Digitalization program can help the Indian manufacturing industries to usher in the fourth industrial Revolution. It can help face threats of ‘Increasing the Productivity Gaps’ and superior quality aside from the competition of developed countries.

During my various interactions with responsible authorities of the Industries on the impact of digitalization on the Indian businesses in upcoming years; I understand that many leaders are seeking for right guidance from plethora of confusing data available on the net and jargons of new technologies (Automation, Networking, IIoT, Big data / Clouds tools, Machine Learning, Deep learning, Robotics,) and Cyber Security concerns to handhold them during their journey of digitalization.

All in all, it seems that the good times are just about starting with industry-4.0 and Digitization. Initiatives like C4i4 labs is one such step towards demystifying the Digitalization / Industry 4.0 and make it easy to understand and implement it.

About the Author

Sandeep Shroff has more than 22+ years of experience. He core expertise is in architecting, design and development of real-time systems in the Industrial Automation, Embedded Systems & Software space professional. 

He possesses a very rich experience of IOT and has successfully conducted various projects, sessions and credit courses on Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), Process & Plant Automation, Embedded system design, Instrument Detail Designing & Software Engineering areas in various reputed institutes.

Essentially, he is an IIOT evangelist. He has a unique advantage of having end-to-end design and implementation experience of IIoT and Industry 4.0 projects and has wide spectrum expertise spanning from right Sensors selection to right Intelligence tools. He provides consultation in the prefeasibility/ feasibility /proof-of concept and hand holding for IIoT and Industry 4.0 projects. Presently, he is a part of the C4i4 Lab core team.

His additional details are mobile: 9922573482 / 9511892140        Email: shroffsp@gmail.com www.linkedin.com/in/sandeep-shroff

AUTOINTELL Services  -- (Proprietor). In brief, he is a S/W, Embedded Systems, Control & Instrumentation and IIoT e vangelist, consultant and technical mentor

Now, the digital world has made a great difference to healthcare too

The digital world is present in all areas of healthcare now. Most healthcare professionals know this and ensure they are present there. For, they certainly don’t want their patients not to avail of all the benefits it offers. There are certainly benefits but one does need to understand it completely so that all aspects are taken care of. For, this is a sacrosanct relationship that cannot be ruined due to wrong application of technology. On the other hand, the right application could and does offer a lot of benefits to all the stakeholders. So, it does help to spend time in seeing all aspects.

The digital world is now very pertinent to all of us today. We are now experiencing a paradigm shift from thinking in terms of closed systems to thinking in terms of open networks. We live in a “networked” world that is characterized by networks both online and offline. Networks are non-hierarchical, inclusive, connected, complex, and open. They are constructed out of both humans and nonhumans. They are now a kind of blueprint for the way in which society is being organized. This includes healthcare that is part of all of us.

Healthcare is no longer something that is confidential and takes place in the intimacy and confines of the doctor-patient relationship. This is spread quietly maybe with a thread of privacy all over technical platforms.

Today, health care is distributed throughout a complex network of both human and nonhuman actors. The other new entrants are databases, hospital information systems, digital health records, electronic health cards, online patient communities, health related apps, smart homes with ambient assisted living technologies and so on. Networks operate most efficiently when they conform to certain norms. 

There are connectivity, flow of information, communication, participation, transparency, and authenticity. Here, authenticity is most important and relevant, both in the interest of the doctor and patient, for this is how one grows in knowledge and experience. While sitting at home, patients may even now what to do next because of the information that is passed on to them. These indeed is the new era that we all need to embrace and make optimum use of.

The new digital world guide the both the doctor and patient. This is due to the fact that they play a major role in the production and uses of health related information and knowledge. They condition how health related knowledge can create value both with regard to efficiency and quality of care.Today’s healthcare consumers are very different than the healthcare consumers of the past. They are usually more aware of the trends and diagnosis. As patients are often doing extensive research online, which means they are more particular about the services they receive. This has increased the need for an efficient healthcare digital marketing strategy. This needs to help medical practices and organizations find their customers via digital and social media to generate more business online. If earlier is was word of mouth, today the same world spreads rapidly through the internet. We cannot ignore this trend.

Now, about 47 percent of internet users are searching online for information on treatment options and about healthcare providers. This has been stated by Pew Research. It's time that healthcare providers take optimal measures to make use of the digital domain in the most optimum manner. For, the digital world has arrived and one cannot ignore it. If we do, we shall become irrelevant and obsolete.

Digital marketing for healthcare has increased the loyalty of current patients and educates prospective patients about their healthcare options. In all cases of business, it has  always been about connecting with your audience in the right place at the right time. And today, the right place is on the internet and the right time is right now.

For this, we definitely need to understand healthcare and its new avatar in the digital marketing trends.Let us consider the following statistics from PewResearch. One third of adults in the United States say they have gone online to research medical conditions. Of everyone in the country who uses the internet about 72 percent say they have looked online for health related information. These could be health issues or medical procedures,Nearly half of all internet users search for information about physicians online.Nearly forty percent of all internet users search for information about hospitals, clinics and other healthcare providers.

These trends aren't likely to change anytime soon, so if you want to connect with people in the right place at the right time (which you do), you're going to want to be active in healthcare digital marketing. Till today, Twitter and Facebook are incredibly effective ways to connect with patients, both current and prospective. Other than this, social messaging apps such as Snapchat, Messenger and WhatsApp are emerging as effective tools for reaching out to one’s audience. Delivering the content in the format that our audience wants is also incredibly important. That might explain the explosion of videos and even podcasts as a digital marketing tool, especially in health care .  This is real fact. According to data gathered by Insivia  online video will account for nearly 75 percent of all online traffic this year, 55 percent of people watch videos online every day, and using the word "video" in an email subject line increases open rates by nearly 20 percent.

Podcasts are another area worth exploring:

Over a million (112) Americans listened to a podcast last year.Around three quarters (67) million people in the United States listen to podcasts monthlyPodcast listeners are growing in numbers. This again is likely only to increase as the number of people going digital are only increasing.

In Sum

We can indeed see the importance of the digital world everywhere. As health is a necessity for all of us, it is indeed relevant here too. We are certain it is here to stay and only increase with time.

Let us learn a digital strategy that is truly international NOW!

Everyone needs to learn how to form a strategy that is completely encompassing of all regions for only then can it be called an international one.

Image Source : graduateinstritute.ch

In a world that is becoming completely global, is important that individual institutions craft their  own  internationalization strategy in order to enhance the attractiveness of their institution   and   programmes   on   offer. We have explored and used a of guidelines for the successful design and implementation of a university’s internationalization strategy.

We have learnt this with many of our clients. Many institutes do not see that the world is now completely global and therefore, do not teach the students how to make an appropriate strategy suiting this new world. This is exactly what we share all of this with our students too so that they fit into the international arena.

Knowing the digital world is now the new world, we do the following always

We ensure how everyone could do the following :-

1.  Formalise  the  strategic  process.

The  first  key  to  success is clarity. We must form a good process.  it is important to have a systematic approach to strategic management   factoring in within it some flexibility for changing circumstances. It is extremely important that a university is clear with  regards   to   the   position   it wishes to secure in the world and hence this should guide its efforts in  seeking  partners,  programmes etc. In doing this it should analyse its own strengths and weaknesses in teaching, research, examine existing relationships and resources at its disposal and work on how to leverage on its strengths. It is often useful to  have  a  look at  national and  global  ranking  standards  to help inform the strategic management process. A three to five-year strategic plan should be the starting point.

2.  Maintain a focus on the agreed outcome of the process of going international. Define  the  scope  of  the  strategy very clearly. Very often it is easy to get carried away in different directions. One must remain focussed on agreed outcomes however exciting alternative directions may seem. This would also  include  developing  a  clear path for how the internationalisation  strategy  is going to be implemented.

3.  Maintain a close link between the institution’s resource capability and its external environment.  It is always useful to make a list of the institution’s key projects and programmes  that can be highlighted when seeking for collaboration and partnerships. Comparing strategic initiatives is often an effective way of exploring avenues for cooperation.

4.  Engage  all  stakeholder  groups.

Consulting   and   soliciting   input from across the university community  is  essential. Establishing a framework to ask for input  from  faculty,  students, alumni, support staff, corporate partners, business community, existing international partners (if any) will be useful in developing a rounded  perspective  that  can  be fine-tuned  in  terms  of scope  and action plans.  Keeping the channels of communication open helps.

5. Define  and  Refine  strategic partnerships. It is important to regularly  visit  the  list  of partnerships and assess their engagement and effectiveness. Sometimes it is better to just work on a couple of partnerships which can be sustained over a long period of time. Equally important in any joint venture is to have in place a transparent system that clearly determines the intellectual property ownership and legal jurisdiction.

6. Establish a dedicated professional international team with adequate support from leadership. Without support from university leadership and adequate funding the best strategies will remain just that. It is therefore important to have senior leadership with oversight across the institution to champion the efforts.

7. Communicate, Communicate, Communicate. The importance of engaging in every opportunity available to communicate the new strategy cannot be underestimated. A non-confidential       version highlighting the key points should be available for a communicating to all stakeholders.   This also is a very  useful  document  when seeking out new international partners.

8.  Ensure  that  the  strategy  is  a living  document  and  does  not find itself on the top bookshelf once it has been written. Adopt a review system which can monitor, evaluate progress and revise the strategy. Be patient and resist the temptation to make too many changes at the early stages. Implementation often takes a while, but it is equally important not to be complacent and keep the review process live.

The test of a good strategy would be to build in safeguards and checks that would facilitate an understanding of and aligning with international quality assurance systems to develop standards that are fit for purpose, context driven locally relevant and globally both acceptable and competitive.

The world today is digital and we must recognize this.  Not just recognize but honour this by equipping ourselves suitably.

In the new digitized world of today, everyone needs to reinvent themselves. is. So, it is good to witness a healthy portion of annual marketing budget being s assigned to digital marketing with organizations hiring the right skill to drive their initiatives. As they are updated, all our  courses are extremely popular.

This is a new world. So, we do need to explore not just a simple course but we do need to explore a good course that is  completely relevant.

Many Business-to-business (B2B) companies are already getting great results using digital marketing tactics like SEO, PPC, Landing page creation, Social media and email marketing linked to a CRM marketing automation system or a simple email auto response system. For this, you definitely need to get to join one of our courses.

The world itself now recognizes only people with these key skills. Do join in a proper course before you get left behind.

We shall teach how to effectively use all the tools to capitalize the potential of digital marketing in  many of our courses.

We ensure students learn how to make businesses grow for sure. They then become  part of this journey and shall surely remain well employed in the global arena. This is why many come to us understand how to create international strategies. 

This is why we have ensured all our courses are formed with all these principles.

Now, education in India can also be international. Identify the right places!

There are both opportunities and challenges in making higher education international. We have studied all of this and incorporated in all our courses.

The opportunities include enhanced capacity, greater access for students, development of joint curriculum, greater diversity of programmes, exposure to a variety of teaching and learning methods, growing comparability of qualifications and exposure to established systems of education administration and management. For us in India, there is less brain drain of gifted and bright   students   to   foreign   institutions and fusion of cultures exchange  of research ideas  and  more research. This leads to multinational teams leading to generation of new academic environments.

The challenges are high fees so there is inequality of access leading to a two-tier system which is inconsistent with the equity and access philosophy of both the institution and the national government. This is why we have ensured our courses are accessible to all.

Important factors in any collaborative arrangement are issues relating to  the award of the degrees and the determination and approval of the quality assurance systems and procedures used to  approve and accredit the qualifications. Equally important are also issues of international mobility and credit transfer of the qualifications awarded.

Therein lies the opportunity for Indian higher education institutions and policy makers in addressing issues related to curriculum delivery,  quality  of teaching, relevance of course content, learning and teaching strategies used and offering programmes that are both globally and locally relevant.

We have done all of this which is why all our courses are sought after internationally too. Our fees are reasonable to ensure everyone can afford it.

We have seen that the new world is digital so we are focusing on primarily this sector and aligning with institutes who do this. For instance, our post graduate program in Digital Marketing is all about deep understanding of the digital world.

These concepts and theories approach is also relevant to conventional marketing. When applied properly, they gain a significant advantage in the state-wise, national and international marketplace. This increases our capacity to test and measure various marketing channels.

This course is an intensive course that is both full-time and part-time. This course guarantees a job at the end of the program. It assures 100% placement. It is structured to give students a complete understanding of education in digital marketing.

The PGP course by several institute is taught by expert professionals who have experience. To tackle the digital market, they teach the students to  have the right mind-set and the right knowledge.

PGP in different sectors: Our PGP course aims to inculcate in their students proper digital marker through our digital marketing course. They enter a global market and are highly successful. This is known by various names online marketing, digital marketing, electronic-marketing, internet marketing. Whatever you call it is a matter of choice. This is one of the most important sectors for anyone in marketing today. Most importantly, masters in digital marketing degree prepares the students for many exciting roles. This is helpful in the fast-changing and fast-growing sector in PGP.

PGP in analysis: This develops a deep understanding of the factors that improve consumer behaviour in the digital economy. We help our students to develop advanced skills in the practices that relate to digital and data-driven marketing. 

These factors that includes critical analysis also evaluation. We could plan and manage digital marketing strategies for your organization and target audience. We also take full account of budgetary also other constraints. This makes it possible for all be in India and yet get an international education.

We know the digital world has arrived so we also offer online courses. The technical world today has led to more convenience for people. With just a click of a button, you can uncover fresh information about all kinds of topics and niches.

A wonderful advantage of this educational model is that one can get to choose one’s schedule and what days you are available to attend classes.  One can access digital classrooms anytime and anywhere. This allows one to focus on one’s family obligations and career responsibilities. Further, one is given control of how often one wants to meet and how one can deliver the course requirements. Many professionals are enrolling at digital schools to keep up with the demands of the competitive workplace, especially regarding technology. With the ever-evolving workforce these days, one must prepare oneself for the future. This can be done by investing in gaining more knowledge through online courses that can provide the student with relevant skills. We have also noted that different people have different learning styles. These courses provide you with enough freedom to learn the way you want to gain knowledge. The course also allows the student(s) to adjust their study habits in a way that makes it easier for them to understand the topics. Online learning helps students maximize their strengths and improve their weaknesses without too must pressure. When this comes with an international credit also, naturally, it is a double whammy.

For, it is possible to get a degree online. One does, of course need to check the accreditation of the school and read the reviews of students who graduated there.  One can also opt to take a few courses online and to learn new skills at your own pace. Most importantly, one can start building the right foundation for one’s career goals by investing in knowledge. We have done enough research to know how one can move forward in life, especially digitally so that everyone can move forward here. This is also how we offer a 100% job guarantee course.

Knowing the current scenario, we at IDM have tie ups with credible brand names and are proud to have placed many students and given them a global exposure.

Do join us to become part of the future.

Explore Fintech, the new hybrid word in the emerging digital world of today!

Fintech is a term used to mean financial technology. This is currently known as one of the trendiest fields to work for in today’s digital age. Primarily, this is due to the fact that financial technology has the potential to revolutionize the world.

Image Source : imarticus.org/

One can define fintech as a new financial industry that applies technology to improve financial activities. The main medium used here is the internet. Here, all the services produced and marketed are made functional through this medium. The various areas in which we find a presence here are insurance, trading and risk management. We can see an increased investment for both the development as well as the expansion of this field in the recent times.

This could and is bringing in massive changes in the lifestyles of people as well as in the ways that they conduct business.

The companies which work in the arena of fintech are usually involved in the offering of products and services, which are usually offered by financial institutions. They are doing so by offering these very services by using technology and thereby making them much more innovative as well as affordable.

The main reason for this  field to emerge was the colossal amounts of cash that was being pumped into the economy in the past few decades. People had a lot of money. This was what made venture funding and capital investments increase a lot at the same time.

Essentially, this sector refers to as a broad term and is mainly used to describe those companies that usually apply cloud-based tools, open source software and other various kinds of technologies. This is used mainly in the field of banking and finance. This has enough potential to bring in great growth in the current financial system. This is the reason for many regulators working to strike a proper balance between protection and innovation.

Competitions faced

This technology as we can see is a competition to the traditional methods of finance and financial services. Many electronic devices such as smartphones and technologies among which are mobile banking, investing services, cryptocurrency are in this sector. It also involves a number of start-ups as well as various companies which are involved with finance and technology companies all of which are trying to enhance the quality of services delivered in the present times.

Companies in this field are Lufax from China, Square, Stripe, Zenefits, Social Finance, and Credit Karma in the USA and POWA Technologies in UK, Adyen in Netherlands, Klarna in Sweden. Additionally, One97 Communications in India and Coupa Software in America and Funding Circle in United Kingdom are also players here. These are just a few of the many start-ups striving in this field. This diversity of start-ups is one of the main reasons why there are so many professionals seeking to get trained in this field and get certified for the same.

Similar to getting in any new industry, picking up skills in this sector will give you an added advantage. Everyone would need to evaluate what roles suits them. One thing is for sure, to pursue a career here, it is important that you have some knowledge of either Technology or Finance so that it becomes a starting point for you.

The good news is that the Fintech industry is witnessing a lot of growth. Hence there are many types of roles available. Some of them are project managers, data management experts, sales, HR and so on.

If one is a young graduate looking for a job, then this field is ideal. It is known to be perfectly suited for millennials. As this generation is the first truly digital generation,  this field does indeed suit  them.

Very interesting field

Some of the domains heavily in demand here are Digital Payments, Blockchain, Digital Wealth Management, Big Data Analytics Solution and so on.

Hence, expertise in programming languages like Python, specifically Big Data Skills, DevOps expertise, Experience in Internet Of Things, Machine Learning is an advantage.

People who need to move on are the ones who shall move ahead in life. This is true of individuals as well as companies. So, we can go ahead in life only if we learn to move on with the new digital world. Else, we shall be left behind. It is no longer about degrees but about skills in this emerging world. As this keep changing, we need to keep changing too. Else, the world will move ahead without us.

What we do need to do here is build a digital identity and learn all the digital skills that we need. We need to understand digitalization to make it thrive. This is the new world and we must know how to capitalise it. In the area of finance also, this is almost mandatory now. We just need to know it well to master it. This is not that simple unless we make a serious effort to understand this new world completely.

All emerging worlds have challenges. Fortunately, when handled well, they become opportunities. This is definitely true of fintech too. Sometime back, even computers were alien to banks. That changed swiftly. Now, it is indeed the era of fintech.

In Sum

What we can see, is that this hybrid phrase Fintech, including Finance and Technology, is an exciting and a wide-ranged field, with great opportunities for employees to perform new tasks and make a difference in their skills. 

Now, this field is bringing in a huge change on how banks conduct their business. For, this is essentially a line of business based on using technical software to present and provide financial services. This can be said to be a disruptive innovation, which is largely the domain of start-ups. Now, it has introduced the New-age banks, Crowdfunding, Peer-To-Peer Lending Services, Money Management Tools, amongst others, by making it more accessible to the professionals and users both. These new possibilities have opened many doors and invited interest from start-ups to professionals looking for opportunities to begin a career here.

Explore the world of machines learning where machines learn and teach us too!

Many of us may know that machine learning is an application of artificial intelligence. It gives systems the ability to automatically learn and improve from experience without being explicitly programmed.

Image source : sumologic.com

Essentially, this technique focuses on the development of computer programs that can access data and then use it learn themselves. It is actually a classic method of learning that learns how to learn. All one needs to know is the basic mechanism so that one can use it well. After all, there is always a difference between making use of something and making efficient use of something. This efficiency can come only we understand it completely and know all the aspects that it, in this case, machine learning operates on.

Machine learning uses data analysis that automates analytical model building. The basic premise is that systems can learn from data, identify patterns and make decisions with minimal human intervention.Naturally, with less human intervention, there would be more growth as there would be minimal dependency of human beings. All one does need is a few human beings who program it intelligently and efficiently to not just do it once but many times and also keep learning from each experience of the machine itself. This may sound like science fiction but the fact is, this is the new reality.


Evolution of the new reality

Due to new computing technologies, machine learning today is not like machine learning of the past. When it began, it was based pattern recognition and the theory that computers can learn without being programmed to perform specific tasks. Soon,  researchers interested in artificial intelligence wanted to see if computers could learn from data. Here, the repetitive aspect of machine learning is important because as models are exposed to new data, they are able to independently adapt. Machines learn from previous computations. By analysing this, they produce reliable, repeatable decisions and results. This is not something that is new but in recent years, it  has gained fresh momentum.



Why is this important?

More interest in machine learning is due to the same factors that have made data mining and Bayesian analysis more popular than ever. Primary factors are growing volumes and varieties of available data, computational processing that is cheaper and more powerful, and affordable data storage.

Taken together as all of this is happening at the same time, it means that it is now possible to quickly and automatically produce models that can analyze huge amount of data and deliver faster, more accurate results. Therefore, organisations are making use it. They do this by building precise models so that they have a better chance of identifying profitable opportunities – or avoiding unknown risks.

The fact is many machine learning algorithms have indeed been around for a long time. However, the ability to automatically apply complex mathematical calculations to huge amounts of data that is known as big data – over and over, faster and faster – is a recent development. Here are a few widely publicized examples of machine learning applications we may be familiar with. In fact, the beauty of machine learning is that many of us are using it without even knowing this is what we are using. 
For instance,

• The heavily hyped, self-driving Google car? This is the essence of machine learning.
• Recommendation that are given online to offers such as those from Amazon and Netflix? This is Machine learning applications for everyday life.
• Customer views about you on Twitter? This is machine learning combined with linguistic rule creation.
• Fraud detection? This is one of the very important uses of machine learning in our world today.

In Sum

Learning now encompasses deep learning everywhere in the digital world. This is nothing but a part of machine learning concerned with algorithms inspired by the structure and function of the brain called artificial neural networks. Now, this is a complex subject but we must know that though termed ‘artificial’, neural networks are modelled on the human brain.

This is bound to become a success as the human brain is indeed the best machine of all. So, it does make sense to get guidance and inspiration from this wonderful machine. To make complete use of it, we need to understand this mechanism which is what artificial intelligence itself is all about.  No wonder it is a field that is creating more and more interest everywhere and redefining the way we live, work and exist.

We know that we as a species are not the most powerful of all. It is our brain that has made us rule the world. With artificial intelligence stepped in, this is bound to catapult and take us even further in all that we can do.

For the digital world is not just about machines but using the machines in the most effective manner.

AI, primarily in the form of deep-learning algorithms running on powerful graphics processing chips, is already widely used in enterprises, which will become increasingly data-driven as computing resources continue their historic price/performance/availability trends and the algorithms become ever more sophisticated.

Opinion is currently divided on the effect that widespread AI adoption will have on the job market and workplace culture, but what's certain is that AI will continue to develop rapidly and that possible economic and social upheaval needs to be on the political agenda.

As far as AI is concerned, we are definitely living in the proverbial 'interesting times'.

To fit in here, we definitely need to embrace machine learning and all the skills we can learn through it and from it.

This is actually not impossible but does require the passion to learn and keep learning. For this world keeps changing and we need to move with it to grow and succeed.

In that sense, learning machine learning is as essential as learning to walk in the digital era. The good news is that we can begin anytime from anywhere we are placed to enter in this arena.

Though this may sound cliched, we must examine what are we waiting for to succeed in this open, highly welcoming domain.

References

SAS

Google

Start flying with Facebook Ads with a strategy that grabs attention !

We must know that we do need to advertise on Facebook in the social media age, to be present and visible in the digital world that we inhabit.

Image source : www.socialexplorer.com

The great news is that promoting one’s business on Facebook is extremely easy and we can get started in just a few minutes.

Though this is easy, we must know that like anything else, there’s a difference between “doing it” and “doing it well”.

Again doing it well is something we shall guide you in. Here, our goal should be clear so that we focus on this. One there is clarity that we need to be clear that being successful with Facebook advertising is our primary goal, we shall give it the necessary attention and made a proper strategy.

We shall now cover everything we need to get started with Facebook advertising, from choosing the right type of ad to managing and analyzing campaigns.

Why should we advertise on Facebook?

In the modern era, all people in the modern digital world know that Facebook advertising is a good idea for our business. Just in case we need a little extra convincing, we need to consider the following:

·         Eighty percent of all internet users are using Facebook. In this scenario, ir is evident that one should focus intensively on Facebook. The key after all, is knowing what platform our customers are on and how best to reach them. With 80% of all internet users on Facebook, we can surely assume that we will find them there.

·         Social Media is one of the least expensive forms of advertising available and Facebook might have the best return of any platform. This is due, in part, to the awesome targeting capabilities of Facebook’s Ad Manager. Don’t worry, we’ll get to more on that in a little bit.

·         Facebook advertising also stands out from other forms of online (and offline) advertising in that there are few, if any, hidden or extra costs. For example, if you’re planning on sending coupons by direct mail, there are a LOT of costs to consider. You have to print the coupon, pay someone to stuff envelopes, pay for those envelopes, etc. Oh, and let’s not forget about paying for stamps! Social media ads allow us to set our precise budget and stay within it.

Need we say more? Alright, let’s dive into the good stuff then.

Choosing a Goal (Facebook Ad Objectives)

Facebook’s Ad Manager prompts you to select an “Ad Objective” for every Ad Campaign you create, where you can choose one of 13 different campaign goals:

Video Views

To get people to watch your amazing videos. Really inexpensive when compared to other objectives, and when used together with a good creative, it can drive a lot of qualified traffic, since your leads will be better informed about your product.

Reach

The reach objective is going to try to expose your ad to as many people in the targeted audience as possible. The goal of this objective is to try to maximize exposure, period.

Traffic

Most useful if your goal is to send traffic to your website or app install page. Good for when you have a long sales funnel/buyer journey (when you don’t expect to convert prospects on the first interaction).

Engagement

Increase your page or post likes, shares, etc. Can be a good way to build some social proof or use it as a remarketing tool.

Lead Generation

The best option when you have to sell something – if you use it together with the right content, can be directed towards all funnel stages.

Conversions

Get people to take a specific action on your website such as making a purchase, subscribing to a list, etc. Incredibly powerful, but needs to target the correct funnel stage (don’t use it to target top of the funnel audiences, since they are still not ready to convert at this stage).

Brand Awareness

The objective of brand awareness is geared toward introducing our brand to the untapped, awaiting masses! (think about “ad recall”).

Messenger

This is Great for engagement, since it encourages people to contact us by using Facebook Messenger.

Page Likes

This is very straightforward. The objective is to generate more likes to our Facebook Page.

Event Response

For promoting an event (one that has a Facebook Page and Event) and drive attendance to it.

Store Traffic

For those of us who have a physical storefront, this objective will drive local awareness for one or multiple brick-and-mortar locations.

Catalog Sales

To be used by eCommerce owners that have a catalog of products connected to their Facebook Business Manager.

App Install

We need to get more people to install our app.

In other words, we need to choose our objective wisely and make sure it aligns with what we are really trying to accomplish.  

The sky’s the limit so all we need to do is to start flying.