Social Mobile Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) Technology

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1 Social Mobile Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) Technology V. Sripriya (Final B.Tech/IT), R.S.Sivaranjani (Final B.Tech/IT), AVC College of Engineering, Mannampandal Abstract The information and technology in this era is spinning our life to a great extent,two technologies became integral part of our lives, well at least for the younger or tech savvy generation, mobile phones and social media. Such is the power of these two, that business were forces to integrate these in their marketing and customer support strategies. This forced businessto make analytics a part of their marketing strategy. A quick statistical analysis of performance, cost and comparison to rival product is helping the consumer make a quick and informed decision. High and global availability of information and it s compatibility with various devices became cost effective with cloud technology. While each of these four are capable for enhancing the business on its own, integrating these four together as a stack has changed the way businesses are looking to maximize their customer base, enhance brand value and off course, profit. Social Mobile Analytics and Cloud SMAC, the new four-letter word is now on every entrepreneur s lips, IT companies included! Introduction In the fast-paced, jargon-filled world of the Indian information technology industry, a new acronym is being marked in bold. "Smac", the acronym for social, mobility, analytics and cloud, is not just the latest buzzword but it's also quickly becoming a business reality. Prevalence of social media, smart devices, instant connectivity have radically altered expectations of customers. So while this year might be the year of recovery, growth in 2014 is going to be driven by the opportunity in SMAC [social, mobile, analytics, cloud] technologies. Moreover, integration and confluence of these technologies will form the bedrock of future solutions. The emergence of new technologies over the past few years has resulted in a transformational change in the world around us. From the rise of social media with it s over 1 billion subscribers worldwide, to the ubiquitous spread of mobile phones and the resulting explosion of big data and big analytics, the world around us is changing faster than any one of us could ever imagine. Add to this the ever expanding presence of cloud computing in our life, and we re probably witnessing the zenith of the technological age. India believes that four key technologies will hold the key to success for enterprises across the world. It includes, SMAC technology will help companies to move into high-margin businesses due to its global reach, low overheads and high availability. In this paper we will discuss about potential of SMAC in upcoming years. Social media A social media strategy has become a must for all enterprises, be it banks, retailers or the government. With over one billion individuals logged on to various social networks, people are now using social media for advice on what products to buy, where to shop and even regarding what firms they want to work with. While most enterprises use social media for their customer service function only, many firms have now started using social media in tandem with their sales and marketing functions. This in turn enables firms to use data generated by the customers effectively to service their larger pools of customers. Mobility Mobile devices have changed the way people access digital content. Smartphones and tablets have brought rich, digital content to the fingertips of consumers. Mobile banking has emerged as one of the most innovative products in the financial services industry. Shoppers are increasingly using their mobile devices for everything from browsing to comparing to buying products. Governments are also

2 reaching out to their citizens, using mobile devices as an efficient channel. Enterprises must also jump on to themobility bandwagon, and ensure that their applications are mobile ready. Analytics Every year, companies and individuals generate billions of gigabytes of data. Data, which properly analyzed and used in time, can emerge as an unbeatable competitive advantage. Enterprises need to recognize the prospect analytics represents and should adapt their IT strategy to capture such opportunities. Analytics can help retailers predict buying decisions of shoppers; it can help banks weed out fraudulent transactions; while governments can use analytics to provide services directly to their citizens. Predictive analytics has also been adopted across industries in various scenario building activities. customer touchpoints, these technologies are also getting deployed within enterprises to drive associate productivity and to create agile and efficient operations.in sum, the coming confluence of SMAC technologies will transform business and operations. Using SMAC technologies, world-class businesses will be expected to deliver a smart, secure and connected experience. SMAC STATISTICS According to various reports, the statistics of these four technologies enables to combine them and work together. The report says, Cloud computing The undeniable power of cloud computing to foster innovations and improve productivity is now accepted by both IT vendors and their customers. While the financial services and government sectors are mostly moving to a private cloud model due to information security concerns, other industries like healthcare and retail have adopted public cloud. Moreover, their existing infrastructure has helped telecom players to emerge as providers of cloud computing, leading to erosion in boundaries between IT and telecom vendors. A new way forward for business SMAC technology is spreading faster than any other in the recent past. Some experts in the field have predicted that by 2020 SMAC will account for $5 trillion of the total spending by customers.social collaboration is expanding the way people interact with one another and businesses. Mobile devices have enhanced customer s reach to information from various sources. Mobile applications will help businesses reach these customers and interact with them at personal level. These applications can also collect information regarding what customers say about their products. Beyond Smart, Secure and connected experience Using SMAC technologies, world-class businesses will be expected to deliver a smart, secure and connected experience.so what does the smart, secure and connected experience entail? A smart enterprise will be known for intelligent decisions powered by actionable advanced analytics. The connected experience will emerge from unified communication, machine-to-machine ecosystem and a single view of customer. All this will not be possible without the underpinning of a secure infrastructure. Key elements of this secure infrastructure would be: governance and risk compliance, access management, security analytics and threat management. The end result will be true to customers expectations: real time, in-context and personalized experience across channels.now let s look at how the smart, secure and connected experience enriches customer lifecycle.

3 During the customer acquisition stage, analytics, social technologies and Big Data will help in understanding the customer behavior. As a result, enterprises can predict the optimum budget distribution across channels through mediamix modeling, thereby minimizing cost of acquisition. In the customer management stage, mobile technologies coupled with Big Data analytics can help in creating customized offers, leading to a compelling customer experience. In the retention stage, intersection of cloud and social technologies can help in identifying, recruiting and nurturing brand advocates and opinion leaders. Evolution of IT SMAC Stack The real promise of SMAC technologies is not necessarily their individual contributions or their cost savings and process efficiencies for IT, but their potential to support the continued digitization and automation of business models and processes. According to many, we re moving into a new digital industrial revolution. New pricing models Customers today do not spend money out of brand loyalty their forefathers once showed. Instead it now depends on information, reviews and, at times, practical demonstration where possible. This forced businesses to make analytics a part of their marketing strategy. A quick statistical analysis of performance, cost and comparison to rival product is helping the consumer make a quick and informed decision. High and global availability of information and it s compatibility with various devices became cost effective with cloud technology. The current business climate has compelled customers to reevaluate their existing and new contracts with service providers, who, are moving to high-value, innovative service offerings like consulting, SMAC, which demands a different pricing paradigm. Indian IT companies have been pricing based on Time and Material (T&M) and Fixed Price (FP) models, which are linked to headcount and effort spent. Nonlinear pricing models on the other hand, link clients expenses to their business outcomes or usage. Billing is no longer based on effort and revenues are linked with productivity ensuring vendors share productivity gains with clients. This is fast emerging as a win-win proposition for both the client and the service provider as both parties share the risk.

4 Global Social Network Users, Worldwide, (Billion) mobile-, analytics-, and cloud-enabled. They re looking for the same anytime, anywhere, and anydevice convenience that they re familiar with in their personal lives through applications from companies such as Amazon and Facebook. In terms of device usage, the mobile elite in the workforce currently utilize three or more personal devices for work and this number will only increase as wearable devices such glasses and watches add to end user options. Social media platforms are not only restricted to the social networking sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn, rather extended to various forms of social media including YouTube, blogs, social bookmarking, geo-location sites, and daily deals. As the social media modes differ, so their application and priority from business to business. Moreover, changing business dynamics influences enterprise decision to select a social media platform. Mobile internet user in india, Per emarketer, around million individuals are using social networking, with a majority of these on Facebook. Thus, it is increasingly becoming important for enterprises to have a social media strategy for their businesses. A New Work Style Combining Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud Today s customers and employees, particularly digital natives, are expecting a new style of commerce, content and collaboration that s social-, In the SMAC era, the next generation of business applications needs to embrace this same approach to enhance the end user experience, and maximize convenience and productivity, as SMAC-enabled architectures become the preferred application paradigm and means of interaction. As part of this new architecture, IT departments will need a capability equivalent to a user experience engine to provide the SMAC technology integration, management and personalization layer providing a contextually-relevant experience to end users and supporting their new work style. It s not just about mobile device management, mobile application management, and social platforms all in silos, but about integrating these capabilities into a seamless user experience. Real world Examples of SMAC: 1. Using SMAC in Retail Retailers are strategically deploying the SMAC Stack across key business processes to combine the best of virtual and physical

5 retail shopping experiences. Now a customer s mobile device can signal store management while they re shopping. Advanced analytics arm associates with the right knowledge about that shopper so they can provide more valuable assistance. And customers can compare products, get information and redeem targeted offers from the Cloud while in store. 2. Medical device manufacturers are modernizing the remote monitoring process and minimizing office visits for bothpatients and clinicians. By deploying cloud-based mobility services that deliver full PDF reports via their ipad or iphone, clinicians can provide instant remote care. The network also has the potential to use analytics to push out personalized insights, based on the patient s response to treatment. 3. Corporate auditors can collect process and share critical product insights from a single device. With intelligent, powerful ipad applications, store visits become a lot more productive. Information about promotions, inventory, pricing, product placement and competitors is transferred digitally and stored in the Cloud for further analytics and processing. All of which drives smarter marketing strategies to increase sales. SMAC-driven growth The Indian software industry s exports may grow by about 13% in fiscal year 2014 to $87 billion (around Rs.5.4 trillion today), driven by its ability to offer solutions that integrate new business models such as analytics and cloud-based services, which are part of SMAC (cloud, mobile, analytics, big data and social media services) with traditional ones, according to Nasscom s Strategic Review 2014 report. Traditional services account for a major portion of the revenue of Indian information technology (IT) firms. Application, development and maintenance work alone accounts for 35-40% of the revenue of most IT firms.but with increased automation and platform-based services that can be replicated across segments and non-linear initiatives, analysts agree that SMAC (social, mobility, analytics and cloud services products) will allow the IT industry to offer more value to clients. These (SMAC) service lines will get to mainstream with deals becoming big and complex. Most clients see merit in combination of two or three technologies if not all four, said SudinApte, chief executive officer (CEO) and research director of Offshore Insights. While certain elements of SMAC are possibly over-hyped or are re-classifications of traditional service lines, these present an attractive opportunity for Indian IT services companies over the next few years, Credit Suisse Research said in a 12 July report. SMAC technologies account for less than 10% of the total revenue of IT companies, but according to research firm International Data Corp. s (IDC s) estimate, Indian IT vendors will generate at least $225 billion in SMAC-related revenue in To put the figure in context, the aggregate full-year revenue of Indian IT services vendors is forecast to touch $118 billion in fiscal year 2014 and $130 billion by Walmart set up Walmart Labs to provide a supportive environment for testing new ideas. This has helped Walmart to create new products and services around social media, cloud, analytics and mobility for tapping into the next generation of consumers. Conclusion: The evolving technology industry has opened new gates for the Indian IT-BPO vendors in the form of nexus of four forces SMAC (Social Media; Mobility; Analytics; Cloud). As the enterprises globally adopt new technology formats for operational efficiency, cost optimization and for additional business advantages, to address this and growth issues, Indian IT-BPO vendors can develop their SMAC strategies. SMAC collectively is considered to be a multi-billion dollar opportunity, globally for the IT-BPO vendors. The enterprises are increasingly adopting these technologies, as they become more agile with information sharing within organization and seek more insights about their customers to serve them better. SMAC has the potential to be a multibillion dollar opportunity in the forthcoming years.

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