The Ledger

Overcoming Unstructured Data to Remain Competitive

Most of today’s data volumes come from previously untapped, semi-structured and unstructured information and contains important insights organizations can use to remain competitive. End users and analysts have an unrealistic expectation that this data is easily accessible for analysis and reporting. As unstructured information continues to rapidly proliferate, more and more companies struggle to keep up.  Companies need agile solutions to help them navigate the challenges presented by that sprawl—solutions that will allow companies to reassert control over their data and to use data however they need it, whenever they need it, and wherever they need it.

Read More at The Digitalist by SAP >

How AI Can Help Reach New Customers

The adoption of AI in all departments will only continue to increase as businesses enjoy the benefits of real-time segmentation of customers, personalized messaging, predictable customer value, and optimized media buys.  By eliminating the tedious manual tasks of tweaking business rules each time new customer information is captured, AI will liberate marketers to focus on more strategic and creative activities like campaign planning. Those who are slow to adopt AI will find themselves at a competitive disadvantage because they won’t be able to make timely, accurate, and profitable predictions about their customers.

Read More at The Harvard Business Review >

Restructuring Farm Finances to Boost Cash Flow Margins

Farmers have been refocusing their cost structure over the past few years. Leading up to 2013 farms had been adding excess cost – and getting those costs back to reasonable levels has proven elusive for some. Unfortunately, there are many producers who don’t understand their cost structure, at least from a holistic standpoint – that is, what does it cost to produce a bushel of corn, including family living and land costs. Luckily, there is still time to restructure debt and make fixed cost changes to lower overall cost per bushel, and there are a lot of ways to re-tool farm finances to boost cash flow and margins.

Read More at Farm Futures >

Considerations For Big Data And Analytics

“Big Data is here to stay, which means your organization needs to be capable of processing and effectively utilizing ever-increasing volumes of information. To support this, we have compiled a list of six considerations for your Big Data strategies.”

The considerations are as follows:

Read More at The Digitalist by SAP >