The Top 20 Companies Where Interns Are The Happiest

Landing a good internship is a strategic way to jumpstart your career.
To help you find the right one, career community site Glassdoor analyzed thousands of intern reviews and published a list of the highest-rated internships.
"This list specifically targets job seekers hoping to get their foot in the door at companies they might like to work at someday, and gives them a snapshot of which companies other interns appreciate working at most," Scott Dobroski, Glassdoor’s community expert, told us.
To qualify, these companies had to have at least 20 intern reviews posted on Glassdoor and currently be hiring interns. 

20. UBS Financial Services

Glassdoor

Company Rating: 3.6
What interns think:
Pro: “Interning at UBS is a great opportunity to see how a top tier financial firm operates. If you work in the right WM group, you will learn a lot about the business.” – UBS Financial Services Intern (New York, NY)

Con: “The only downside is the size. It is difficult to network outside of your department or branch.” – UBS Financial Services Intern (New York, NY) 

Source: Glassdoor

19. Accenture

Glassdoor

Company Rating: 3.7
What interns think:
Pro: “Working in a team composed of people of different seniority lets you learn from each of them. Clients usually are famous companies from different industries.” – Accenture Intern (Milan, Italy)
Con: “One of the biggest cons would be a lack of official training program from the interns.” – Accenture Analyst Intern (Sydney, Australia)
Source: Glassdoor

18. JPMorgan Chase

JP Morgan Chase

AP

Company Rating: 3.7
What interns think:
Pro: “There is a great culture in J P Morgan Chase. People are usually friendly, actually more friendly than I had expected. Willing to teach what they know, even when I was just an intern.” – JPMorgan Chase Intern (Columbus, OH)
Con: “Sometimes the work is not consistent at an intern level so you have to make due with what you have and really reach out.” – JPMorgan Chase Intern (New York, NY)
Source: Glassdoor

17. Deloitte

Wikimedia Commons

Company Rating: 3.8
What interns think:
Pro: “The company is very committed to its employees. Interns are treated just like full-time staff and given plenty of opportunities.” – Deloitte Audit Intern (Houston, TX)  
Con: “If you're an intern, the permanent hires may take little notice of you. So it's important for you to really make yourself noticed.” – Deloitte Intern (Petaling Jaya, Malaysia)
Source: Glassdoor

16. Merrill Lynch

Company Rating: 3.9
What interns think:
Pro: “Management offered sound advice and were wide open to formal and informal conversations throughout the office. The culture cultivated a pristine and honorable environment that I enjoyed working in throughout the two year internship.” – Merrill Lynch Wealth Management Internship (Philadelphia, PA) 
Con: “Depends on what teams you're assigned to, some interns do useless, monotonous work and others get interesting tasks and more exposure to securities and clients.” – Merrill Lynch Wealth Management Intern (New York, NY)
Source: Glassdoor

15. Amazon

Glassdoor

Company Rating: 3.9
What interns think:
Pro: “Very supportive team mates who helped constantly raise the bar by asking the right questions and putting the foot down at the right time.” – Amazon Software Development Engineer Intern  (Seattle, WA)
Con: “Less perks such as free food. Could be nice for some employees who are working late.” Amazon Software Engineer Development Intern – (Seattle, WA)
Source: Glassdoor

14. Scottrade

Glassdoor

Company Rating: 3.9
What interns think:
Pro: “This is a great place to start as a first internship, because if you're willing to ask questions there is a lot to learn. The work environment is super chill if you have a bunch of chill coworkers.” – Scottrade Intern (location n/a)
Con: “Much of the information you learn is very firm specific. An intern will not be able to answer many of the questions due to regulations.” – Scottrade Intern (Edmond, OK)
Source: Glassdoor

13. MTV Networks

Glassdoor

Company Rating: 3.9
What interns think:
Pro: “Fun, hip and modern work place with a young demographic. Dress is casual and people seem interested in meeting others. Easy to be hired as an intern.” – MTV Networks Intern (New York, NY)
Con: “Easy to blend in because the company is so large, and you will be forgotten if you do not network and make sure people remember you.” – MTV Networks Creative Music Integration Intern (Santa Monica, CA)
Source: Glassdoor

12. IBM

IBM interns riding the NYC subway

Gangles87

Company Rating: 3.9
What interns think:
Pro: “Pay was really high compared to what I'm supposed to get for being so junior. Nice office, really cool building, and really great people. A flexible schedule, yoga lessons, and gym. The company is really large and you feel like you belong.” – IBM Software Engineer Intern (Ottawa, Ontario)
Con: “Slow work effort, it takes too much time to get anything done.” – IBM Intern (Markham, Ontario)
Source: Glassdoor

11. Ernst & Young

toofastyetsoslow via statigr.am

Company Rating: 3.9
What interns think
Pro: “Great teams and lots of opportunities to take on work that you otherwise wouldn't be able to ... experience. The teams are open to you trying new things and taking on responsibilities greater than expected of you. Lots of mentorship from all levels.” – Ernst & Young Assurance Intern (San Francisco, CA)
Con: “Too much work to be done in too little time by trainees.” – Ernst & Young Intern (Karachi, Pakistan)
Source: Glassdoor

10. Cisco

Glassdoor

Company Rating: 4.0
What interns think:

Pro: "Flexibility and work/life balance is unmatched. Free movie tickets, tickets to amusement park, free frequent lunches, great gym, free train pass, lot of intern events with free food, pays for your tuition." — Cisco Intern (San Jose, CA)

Con: "Since its a big organization, promotions and increments are not very frequent and can take time. But again, if you are talented and hardworking, you will get promotions and increments for sure." — Cisco Intern (San Jose, CA)

Source: Glassdoor

9. KPMG

Glassdoor

Company Rating: 4.0
What interns think:

Pro: "Very friendly people, nothing is ever too much and people always willing to help. Also given a deal of responsibility for a junior position." — KPMG Intern (London, England)

Con: "Systems are very complicated when first join. Often not clear what work is meant to be completed by when, can sometimes be sprung upon you." — KPMG Intern (Londom, England)

Source: Glassdoor

8. Intel

Boonsri Dickinson, Business Insider

Company Rating: 4.1
What interns think:

Pro: "Fast paced, impactful technology, fun intern activities." — Intel Intern (Santa Clara, CA)

Con: "Manager and mentor were too busy, my project didn't start until the 3rd week of the internship due to disorganization." — Intel Intern (Santa Clara, CA)

Source: Glassdoor

7. PricewaterhouseCoopers

Glassdoor

Company Rating: 4.1

What Interns think:

Pro: "You are treated very nicely, taken out to lunches/dinners, become immersed in different work and no day is the same. Very good pay!" — Former Assurance Intern (Florham Park, NJ)

Con: "If you are offered a position then you are one of the best that means you are working with a lot of very talented people so you can get easily out-shinned by your peers while in other companies you could be the leader." — Former Assurrance Intern (Florham Park, NJ)

Source: Glassdoor

6. General Electric

Mike Simons / Getty Images

Company Rating: 4.1
What interns think:

Pro: "Very helpful coworkers. Got me involved in interesting projects that were relevant to where I wanted to take my career." — GE Intern (location n/a)

Con: "It is a pretty large company, so projects don't move as quickly as in smaller companies and it's hard to see all the aspects of the projects you are working on." — GE Intern (location n/a)

Source: Glassdoor

5. Nordstrom

William Couch via flickr

Company Rating: 4.1
What interns think:

Pro: "A wonderful work environment. Learned a lot about sales had the opportunity to work really hard and make a good amount of money as a college intern." — Nordstrom Intern (Bethesda, MD)

Con:  "I would have loved to stay with the company and move throughout however you have to work your way throughout the company. They hire everything within which could be seen as a pro or a con." — Nordstrom Intern (Bethesda, MD)

Source: Glassdoor

4. Microsoft

Glassdoor

Company Rating: 4.2
What interns think:

Pro: "All people are helpful. We create products that impact the world. During my 3-month internship, I learned more than one academic year in college." — Programming intern (Redmond, WA)

Con: "Not very clear on what you are supposed to do, minimal training." — Microsoft intern (Knoxville, TN)

Source: Glassdoor

3. Qualcomm

Pop Culture Geek via Flickr

Company Rating: 4.2
What interns think:

Pro: "As an intern, housing and transportation is provided." — Qualcomm Intern (La Jolla, CA)

Con: "Very quick pace, need to be very bright to keep up." — Qualcomm Intern (La Jolla, CA)

Source: Glassdoor

2. Proctor & Gamble

Table4five/ Flickr

Company Rating: 4.2
What interns think:
Pro: "Incredibly smart and helpful co-workers. Great compensation and benefits. Amazing career opportunities. Real and meaningful projects as an intern." — Customer Business Development Intern (location n/a)
Con: "You don't know your work location until two months before work starts. Meaning that you have to accept a job offer without knowing where you will be placed." — Customer Business Development Intern (location n/a)

Source: Glassdoor

1. Google

Glassdoor

Company Rating: 4.6
What an interns think
Pro: "The Best Internship I've ever had. Great food. Great People. I really enjoyed working there." — Software Engineer Intern (Bellevue, WA)

Con: "If you are not an engineer, product manager, or manager, Google may not be the most prestigious or well-paying company to work for." — Google Intern (New York, NY)

Original Artucle: http://www.businessinsider.com/companies-with-the-best-internships-glassdoor-2013-2?op=1#ixzz2L5TnQ09L

Read More

Facebook's Biggest Problem With Brands Right Now: 'Illegal' Competitions

When Facebook revealed Graph Search to the world last month, a lot of people were excited by the potential it had.
While some had concerns about privacy, the general consensus was that the service would be immensely useful as it would finally graph the entirety of Facebook and make the vast quantities of information out there accessible.
While resorting to a keyword search would have been the wrong option for Facebook to take – its partnership with Bing pretty much takes care of that part – there is a problem that the site still has to address, one that has been happening since last year and is basically gaming the Edgerank system.
The Fight For Likes
If you have a look at your newsfeed right now, chances are a large number of you will see some kind of competition being run by a page. Some of them will be apps, others will be competitions being run on a site, but more often than not, you’ll come across the ‘illegal’ competitions. That is, those competitions which require you to like and share a status update to be in with a chance to win. While all competitions require you to like a page first before you enter, that’s done under the pretext of accessing an app where the competition is taking place.
There are numerous examples of this happening across the board, but it gets worse when you come across pages like this. This one is from a page called GadgetsGiveaway, which was only recently taken down.

With 22,000 likes and 9,000 people talking about it, it must have some pretty engaging content combined with paid promotion, but if you haven’t guessed by the title, the increased interaction was coming from status updates like this.

Those familiar with the rules surrounding Facebook promotions will know all too well the frustration experienced when they see statuses and pages like this. For those who aren’t aware of the rules, Facebook’s page guidelines are pretty direct about what you can and can’t do. To save people reading, here are the points of interest regarding competitions (emphasis our own).

i.    Promotions on Facebook must be administered within Apps on Facebook.com, either on a Canvas Page or a Page App.
ii.    Promotions on Facebook must include the following:
a.    A complete release of Facebook by each entrant or participant.
b.    Acknowledgment that the promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook.
c.    Disclosure that the participant is providing information to [disclose recipient(s) of information] and not to Facebook.
iii.    You must not condition registration or entry upon the user taking any action using any Facebook features or functionality other than liking a Page, checking in to a Place, or connecting to your app. For example, you must not condition registration or entry upon the user liking a Wall post, or commenting or uploading a photo on a Wall.
iv.    You must not use Facebook features or functionality as a promotion’s registration or entry mechanism. For example, the act of liking a Page or checking in to a Place cannot automatically register or enter a promotion participant.
v.    You must not use Facebook features or functionality, such as the Like button, as a voting mechanism for a promotion.

The big problem is that while the majority reading this already know the rules, a large number of page owners don’t and are still functioning with the old rules in mind. Even if they don’t understand the purpose of Edgerank, they see other pages running ‘like and share’ competitions and decide to do the same since it gets people involved. It’s the social media equivalent of those competitions which ask you “Where is London?” and provides the answers “(a) Italy, (b) England, or (c) Japan.”
When it’s a major brand engaging in this practice, it gets noticed pretty quickly. However, the perpetrators in this case are the smaller pages – mostly small to medium size enterprises – that will barely register on Facebook’s radar. And since pages can get away with it, that’s what they will continue to do.
Emerging Problems


This becomes an issue when you realize that Facebook’s Edgerank decides how relevant your posts are by how much interaction they get. Since the newsfeed only shows content from people & pages you interact with, a ‘like and share’ competition alone would drive this ranking up for a page. This boost wouldn’t be massive by any means – unless it ran these competitions continuously – but enough for the next status update to be given a more prominent position the next time you check your news feed.
With more pages fighting to get noticed and get more likes so that more people see their content, it can be frustrating to see a page not following the rules, especially when you put the work into building a specialized app and pumping money into sponsored stories and ads. Seeing a page run such a competition makes a mockery of Facebook telling us that ads are the only way to get our content out there.
There are two major problems behind this. The first is the lack of education about the rules surrounding competitions on Facebook. While Facebook is usually showing businesses how it can improve engagement and reach out to its customers more, it’s neglecting the fact that the people they’re appealing to (a) are already clued up about marketing on Facebook and (b) have the funds necessary to buy ads and run these competitions.
It’s the latter part that leads to the second problem. Since its marketing conference back in February 2012, Facebook changed the rules so that brands would have to cough up money if they wanted to run competitions or get noticed. What it has done instead is create a massive divide between the bigger brand and those smaller businesses trying to get noticed.
Pages Vs Edgerank
Building up your likes when you’re a small page starting out isn’t the easiest by any means, while larger pages have to cope with a reduced percentage of users viewing their page the bigger it gets, another problem in itself that’s highlighted by Socialbaker’s graph from a few months ago.  The greater the number of fans on your page, the less chance there is of your posts appearing organically; but even with the added advantage of smaller pages appearing, they’re still going to be fighting for attention among each other and with limited space (especially on mobile), so a number of pages are going to lose out.

Most businesses don’t have funds to spare towards regular advertising and by extension, creating an app that will bring more people to visit your page. Since setting up on Facebook has been free, and since there are examples of many other pages running similar competitions, why wouldn’t they? Offer a half-decent prize, ensure that some people will share it and sit back as people start liking and sharing in their droves, Facebook already has so many pages and people to monitor, it’s not going to notice a page with 5,000 likes running such competitions.
No Middle Ground
So what are we left with? Small businesses don’t have the finances to build up their audience and so have to resort to other measures to build it up, while larger businesses who have been playing by the rules are left frustrated that their posts are being limited.
There is an argument that showing everything on your newsfeed would only be a recipe for disaster as there are so many posts fighting for your attention. In a sense, Edgerank is a necessary evil since there’s no way any of us would be able to properly digest an unfiltered newsfeed. Try making your way through content marked as ‘most recent’ and you’ll have to filter through a lot of content to see the posts you actually want to interact with.
However, there doesn’t seem to be a proper middle ground for either side, instead, the divide between small and large businesses only grows to the point where growth is only done either by having a significant marketing budget to work with, or by playing dirty. Even the former doesn’t guarantee that you will get the kind of audience you’re looking for, making you question the wisdom.
For now, the only one winning is Facebook itself, and as Graph Search improves, perhaps Facebook will be able to identify these posts since it will be graphing likes. Yes, it is a business and Facebook doesn’t really owe brand pages anything, but it’s does owe businesses to stamp down on these type of posts since it’s encouraging them to pay to reach larger audiences, otherwise what’s the point playing by its rules?

Original Article : http://www.simplyzesty.com/facebook/the-major-problem-facebook-needs-to-address-for-brands-right-now/#ixzz2L5SM0OHh

Read More

What Happens To Old Smartphones

What happens to old smartphones when they're no longer being used? They just sit around, for the most part.
That's according to a survey by Gazelle, a site that takes trade-ins of old smartphones, tablets and laptops. As you can see in this chart, 51% of people put old smartphones in a drawer or closet, according to Gazelle's research.
MarketWatch estimates that all of those old phones sitting around are worth $34 billion. (That's all phones, not just smartphones.) Companies like Gazelle are trying to get people to sell their smartphones to Gazelle, so it can resell the phones around the world and make a nice profit.

Original Article : http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-old-smartphones-2013-2#ixzz2L5OEhIxt

Read More

Simple Tax Error Could Cost You Thousands

The devil is in the details is the lesson from David and Veronda Durden who were denied a $25,000+ deduction on their tax returns for a charitable contribution they made to their church. Why? Because of a simple technicality. The IRS disallowed the deduction, increasing their tax liability by thousands of dollars, because the proof they had confirming the donation didn’t meet all of the IRS’ strict requirements. The most shocking part is that the Tax Court recently ruled in favor of the IRS, leaving no recourse for the generous Durdens.

The Durdens made the charitable contributions over the course of a year by writing checks on a regular basis to their church. The checks were all over $250 each. At the end of the year, the church sent them an annualized summary of the donations, which the Durdens kept as proof. The IRS argued that the annualized summary failed to meet the four requirements for proof of a cash donation over $250 and therefore was not valid:

1. It must be in written form and contemporaneous, which means you must receive the proof by the due date of your tax return or by the date you actually file the tax return, whichever is earlier.
2. The proof must include the amount donated.
3. The proof must state whether the recipient organization provided any goods or services in consideration for the donation.
4. If any goods or services were received, the proof must include a good faith estimate of their value. If the donors only received “intangible religious benefits,” then it must explicitly state that.

The statement the Durdens received failed on point 4. They argued that they “substantively” complied and that it was just a technicality that the proper language wasn’t on the annualized summary. The IRS, and the Tax Court, didn’t care.

Don’t expect the IRS to be reasonable when it comes to getting more of your money, whether it comes to your charitable donations or just general business deductions. Take every precaution and follow every regulation to the letter.

Read the full article at Martin James Investment & Tax Management blog.

Read More

Analytics Moves To The Core: Reporting from the Gartner Summit

I attended the Gartner Business Intelligence and Analytics Summit last week in Barcelona. As usual, it was a great conference, and it was great to catch up with analysts, colleagues, customers, and competitors. The first morning included a Gartner keynote by James Richardson, Ian Bertram, and Ted Friedman, and a vendor panel.

Analytics Moves To The Core

BI and Analytics is again the number one technology priority for CIOs in 2013, and the rising importance of information changing the philosophy behind enterprise information infrastructures. Today, these are generally application-focused, with analytics added on top as an afterthought. However, organizations are increasingly realizing that information is core to competitive advantage, and hence that the analytics infrastructure is actually the core of the system. As one speaker put it, “Applications come and go; information is permanent.” We should no longer think of applications “owning” data stores – instead, they should be seen side-by-side, as peers.
This means new opportunities, big changes to information architectures, and new challenges for analytics teams.

Be Proactive: More Difficult, But More Value

The theme of the conference was “Analyze. Predict. Act”, and attendees were exhorted to use information more proactively. “Today, organizations mostly use BI to describe things. Reports go unread and unused. It isn’t action-oriented enough. You must put information to work.” Gartner encouraged organizations to gain value from higher levels of analytic maturity, moving from information and hindsight to optimization and foresight:

• Descriptive analytics – what happened?
• Diagnostic analytics – why did it happen?
• Predictive analytics – what will happen?
• Prescriptive analytics – how can we make it happen?

Today, most organizations are stuck at lower-value descriptive analytics: for example, Gartner’s research shows only 13% of companies make extensive use of predictive capabilities. But more sophisticated analysis can bring great business value: “What would you prefer – a report that shows clients you lost, or a model that shows who is about to churn and how to keep them?” Gartner says three-quarters of companies plan to add more sophisticated predictive and predictive analytics in the future.
In order to create actionable information, we need to add “context,” and that requires breaking down analytics silos to get a broad view across the organization. Gartner recommends organizations adopt an “information capabilities framework”:

An information infrastructure which is able to support different categories of “use cases” – such as online transaction processing applications, analytical applications and other hybrid forms of applications and workflows – using a core set of technologies and interfaces which can be shared across those use cases.

Source: Thorsten Sommer.

Are Your Analytics Projects Failing?

During the panel session vendors were asked to estimate the failure rate of analytic projects. They generally agreed that more than 70% failed to meet expectations – but since most organizations don’t put in place explicit success criteria, it is hard to assess what this means. In addition, failure rates probably vary between different levels of maturity – with simple descriptive analytics being relatively successful.
Returning Gartner Analyst Frank Buytendijk had a sunnier, more pragmatic take on the situation: “Failure rate in analytics? I’d say 0%. There is always the benefit of having found another way something doesn’t work!”
Factors that are challenging existing ways of doing things included big data, mobile, the lack of skills, the convergence of analytics and operations, and the digital consumers of the future: “you now get a tech downgrade when you go to work.”

Conclusion

The key themes:

• Be experimental and change ready –  be proactive: analytics are changing fast, so you will have to
• Rethink your information – information is not just a byproduct, it’s an asset
• Broaden analytical architectures – it’s about much more than traditional structured transaction data
• Market analytics internally – communication is key

Original article

Read More

The Global Nature of Big Data and Analytics

In the past few months, in addition to my usual travel around the United States, I have had the pleasure of visiting both Europe and Asia to meet with customers and discuss analytics and big data. It was very interesting to me how similar the conversations were regardless of where I was in the world. Everyone wants to know what other parts of the world are doing with analytics. People always assume others are ahead of them and are doing more exciting things with data. In reality, most organizations around the world that follow a similar business model are doing the same types of analytics for the same reasons.
The fact is that math, statistics, analytics, and data don’t really speak a given language or belong to a specific culture. They are more universal in nature. A trend graph in China will look exactly the same as a trend graph in Spain. An average will be computed in India the same way as an average in Germany. A transaction record in Japan will have the same information as a transaction record in Brazil.
On top of that, businesses really are far more similar than they are different. A wireless company in Asia is providing the same services as a wireless company in North America. A retailer in Europe is providing the same services as a retailer in South America. As a result, many of the business problems are the same as well. The same business problems invariably lead to the same data and analysis needs.
The net result is that we have businesses of a similar nature around the globe capturing data of a similar nature for a similar purpose. The business problems that need addressed are also similar. So, the analytics themselves end up being very similar. It really is true that big data and analytics are global in nature.
Of course, there can be differences. Most notably, regulatory environments and cultural customs may cause deviations from the norm for a given country. Usually these deviations will be incremental, however, and won’t completely change the fundamental problems and approaches.
Take Advantage
The moral of this story is that an organization should take comfort in the fact that its peers around the globe are solving the same problems and facing the same issues that it is. This means that terrific case studies, lessons, and best practices can be searched for more widely than many assume.
Better yet, a company on the other side of the globe is probably much happier to share information with you than one that you compete with locally. Consider setting out to befriend some peers from another country. It may be intimidating and uncomfortable at first, but once you realize how much you have in common, it will be easy for friendships and sharing to take hold.
It isn’t that I ever assumed that approaches to big data and analytics would be different around the globe. However, I never had the opportunity to interact with so many different organizations dispersed around the world in such close succession. I found myself surprised at how very similar the conversations were. It makes total sense, but it took the opportunity to experience it first hand to hammer it home for me. Hopefully this blog will help you take time to consider how you can benefit from acknowledging the global nature of analytics and big data.

Original article

Read More

Like it? 1 comments 0 Posted February 16, 2013 Keywords: R script, Valentine's Day

If you haven't sent your loved one a Valentine's Day greeting yet, it's not too late! Thanks to Guillermo Santos who pointed out an R script from Berkeley's Concepts in Computing with Data course, I created the following Valentine's Day card for my husband:

If you want to make one for your loved one, you can use the R code below (which I modified slightly from the original):

# Source: http://statistics.berkeley.edu/classes/s133/heart.r
heart1 = function(name){
  t = seq(,60,len=100)
  plot(c(-8,8),c(,20),type='n',axes=FALSE,xlab='',ylab='')
  x = -.01*(-t^2+40*t+1200)*sin(pi*t/180)
  y = .01*(-t^2+40*t+1200)*cos(pi*t/180)
  lines(x,y, lwd=4)
  lines(-x,y, lwd=4)
  text(,7,"Happy Valentine's Day",col='red',cex=2.5)
  text(,5.5,name,col='red',cex=2.5)
}

I also sent one of these cute science-themed Valentines cards that I bought on Etsy (guess which one).

Original article

Read More

New Generation of Location Analytics

Business analytics have become mainstream in most organizations. Our latest research in technology innovation found analytics was the top-ranked technology in 39 percent of organizations. To deepen the sophistication of their analytics, businesses can add geographic context and maps to business intelligence applications to create what we call location intelligence. Applications and tools with a geographic and spatial context can help deliver new and deeper insights to business. Information about location or geography can improve the quality of actions, decisions and responses to opportunities, and enable organizations to understand more about their customers. It also can help companies gain critical business insights, make better decisions and optimize performance and processes. It can benefit marketing, customer acquisition and retention efforts; logistics and supply chain management; and financial and operational decisions, especially about where to place retail outlets, business assets and people in various functions.
While location analytics is not new, the heightened interest in actually doing something about it is, driven in part by the prevalence of mobile devices used for business and by the growing ability to analyze social media commentary and other expressions of customer sentiment.
Analysts across lines of business can gain more precise context and insight from location analytics to share with business professionals. Its use can support consumers’ growing expectation of the availability of location-related information in their interactions with business and as part of their self-service access to information and applications. Location data can be made available to any role in an organization that needs it. Using just the geographic context of the analytics can help businesses align customers with the right individual or location for immediate service, either manually or through the use of automated workflow. Our research into operational intelligence found that using geographic or location context as part of analyzing relationships of events is important to 32 percent of organizations. By using this technology effectively, companies can save time and money, reduce business risk and increase profitability and competitive advantage.
Location analytics can complement your existing business intelligence (BI) or business analytics efforts. Our next-generation business intelligence benchmark research examined the importance of location and found that deployment of geographic maps was the most important benefit in 47 percent of organizations. Location analytics can deploy maps either by leveraging data and analytics within existing software or operating in parallel with it and utilizing the underlying data structures. For some organizations location analytics also should enrich the value of existing data within information management efforts by helping to facilitate geocoding or data quality efforts or providing new data that can be used with existing applications or tools. Advancements in the use of big data let business take advantage of a greater volume and velocity of data, and offer organizations a chance to support a wider range of business analytics and applications.
Yet our research shows a lot of room for improvement when it comes to location analytics deployment. Only 12 percent of organizations capture location data and use it in analysis. Another 15 percent capture it but do not use it, while almost a third (31%) plan to capture and use it.
I recommend that organizations identify their information assets, business processes and customer-facing applications that collect or contain geographic and location data, as well as those that would benefit from having location analytics capabilities, and then explore options offered by new tools to improve their efficiency and effectiveness. My colleague Tony Cosentino has already pointed out that location analytics is essential to adding value of business analytics and a key factor in our big data research agenda for 2013. If you are interested in gaining more depth on this topic, participate in our location analytics research. Help us explore the best practices and benefits for those using it today, and identify what needs to be improved in the technology.

Original article

Read More

Now You Can Pay To Promote Your Friends’ Facebook Posts To More People, Even Without Their Permission

Until natural language processing improves, only humans can tell what’s important. So Facebook today starts rolling out the option to pay to promote a friend’s posts and get them seen by more people. This will help critical posts bubble to the top of the feed, and let Facebook earn some money, too. The feature respects privacy controls, but could still make you look like a self-important prick.
Facebook began testing the ability to promote your own posts in May 2012 and rolled the feature out to the U.S. in October. See, your average Facebook post only gets seen by about 16 percent of your friends because they aren’t online soon after you post, or you never interact with them on Facebook. Promoted Posts artificially boost your posts so they appear in the news feed to people Facebook wouldn’t have shown them to.
The option has enraged some people, making them feel like they’re being extorted to communicate with their friends. When it first came out, I said Facebook was recklessly endangering the meritocracy of the news feed, which until then only rewarded posts that got the most Likes, comments, shares, and clicks.
But there are real uses for Promoted Posts. If you’re raising money for a good cause, looking for an apartment, or have a big announcement for your company, paying to force it into more people’s news feeds can actually be really valuable, and worth the $7 or so. The price varies by geographic area and how many people it could reach.
Now you can do the same for friends’ posts, or at least you’ll be able to soon. A gradual global roll-out for the feature is starting now, and it’s only available to people with fewer than 5,000 total friends and subscribers.
When you see one you think deserves more attention, you can click the drop-down arrow next to a post to sponsor it, and it will reach a larger percentage of the original audience of the post. That means promoting a friend’s post won’t violate their privacy settings. If the post was set to only show up for their friends, your payment will just make it show up to more of their friends. If their post is publicly visible, your promotion could appear to your friends, too.
Facebook explains “If your friend is running a marathon for charity and has posted that information publicly, you can help that friend by promoting their post to all of your friends. Or if your friend is renting their apartment out and she tells her friends on Facebook, you can share the post with the people you and your friend have in common so that it shows up higher in the news feed and more people notice it.”

One issue, though, is that you don’t need a friend’s permission to promote their posts. And depending on what they said, the extra eyeballs might not always be appreciated.
A friend could jokingly promote an embarrassing photo of me, or my status about something bad happening to me. If I post that I wrote an article or am selling something, a friend might innocently think they’re helping by promoting the update. But when people see the “promoted” tag on my self-serving post and realize money was traded for their attention, they might think I’m tooting my own horn a little too loudly.
Facebook will have to keep an eye on this one. If people use it for evil, or people unwittingly end up looking like a loudmouth used car salesmen in cheap plaid polyester suits that reek of even cheaper cologne, then it may want to give authors the option to prevent promotions.

Original Source : http://techcrunch.com/2013/02/14/promoted-posts-friends/

Read More

Zuckerberg Now Owns 29.3 Percent Of Facebook, Representing $18 Billion

Facebook announced in an SEC filing that founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg now owns 29.3 percent of Facebook shares (NASDAQ:FB), up from a 28.2 percent stake on the day of the IPO. With 632.7 million shares currently trading at $28.50, it represents a bit more than $18 billion.
Remaining the largest shareholder is one of Zuckerberg’s most impressive achievements, not only for his personal wealth, but for his voting power as well.
Back in May when Facebook started trading, its founder used to own 443 million shares and 60 million unexercised options. As the company’s shares started trading at $38 a share, it represented $16.9 billion, making him one of the youngest multi-billionaires. Again, this is only for his stock-based wealth.
Even though the stock had a roller coaster year and the company recently released more shares, Zuckerberg increased his wealth in shares thanks to stock-based compensation. Shares were trading above $30 a share for most of the month of January. Now at $28.50, it seems like Facebook shares have finally found a stable price around the $30 mark.
Facebook’s IPO price was $38 a share when the company started trading in May. But in August, the stock fell to its lowest price at the time — $19.69 — as the initial lockup expiration of 271 million shares kicked in. Other lockup expirations brought a few days of downturn.
Yet, investors looking for short-term profit based on potential share price drops and short selling have slowly moved away from Facebook shares since October, leaving committed investors on board. These days, price changes reflect more closely product updates and earnings.
Back in September, Zuckerberg declared that he wouldn’t sell his shares for the next 12 months in order to dampen lockup expirations and drive confidence. That’s why his virtual wealth will continue to increase and decrease alongside Facebook shares in the coming months.

Original Source : http://techcrunch.com/2013/02/15/zuckerberg-now-owns-29-3-percent-of-facebook-representing-18-billion/

Read More

Facebook Wins Court Challenge In Germany Against Its Real Names Policy

Facebook has won a court challenge against its real names policy in Germany. Yesterday an administrative court in the North of Germany granted Facebook’s request for “suspensive effect” against a ruling made by Schleswig-Holstein’s Data Protection Commissioner that Facebook was violating German and European law. The court ruled that German data protection laws aren’t applicable because Facebook has its European headquarters in Ireland — meaning only (the less stringent) Irish data protection laws apply.
Back in December the German data protection body in question, the ULD (Unabhaengiges Landeszentrum fuer Datenschutz), issued a ruling against Facebook’s real-name policy, arguing that it erodes online freedoms and calling for the site to allow the use of pseudonyms. The ULD said it had received complaints from citizens about Facebook’s policy. It said its aim was to seek clarification of Facebook’s legal position in regards to European data protection law — and its intention was to pursue a “regular lawsuit” against the company.
At the time, Facebook said it planned to “vigorously” fight the ULD’s ruling — and its vigor appears to have paid off, with the Schleswig-Holstein Administrative Court granting it suspensive effect against the ULD’s ruling, meaning its business as usual for Facebook in Germany.
However the ULD said today it intends to appeal. In a press release (translated via Google translate) on Facebook’s court win, entitled ‘Administrative Court of Schleswig granted Facebook free ride’, the ULD said it plans to appeal the court’s decision before the Schleswig-Holstein Higher Administrative Court.
The head of the ULD Thilo Weichert described the court’s rulings in Facebook favour as “more than amazing” and “contradictory”.
The ULD has two weeks to appeal the court’s ruling.
At the time of writing Facebook had not responded to a request for comment.
The news was reported earlier by the AP news agency.

Original Source : http://techcrunch.com/2013/02/15/facebook-wins-court-challenge-in-germany-against-its-real-names-policy/

Read More

8 Tech Trends for Financial Services for Year 2012

Original Article : http://www.sentronex.com/2013/02/tech-trends-infographic-for-2013/

Read More

Hospitals begin to recognize social media’s potential to improve patient experience

“In Canada in health care we’re at a point where most hospitals accept the role of social media for branding and communication, but only the lead adopters are using it for patient engagement and for clinical use.” – Ann Fuller, public relations director,   Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO)
Call up the website home page for any large Canadian hospital and you’ll likely spot the familiar icons that link to the institution’s facebook, Twitter and YouTube accounts.
Hospitals are inherently conservative institutions and, as such, have been relative latecomers to adopt social media, which are broadly defined as digital channels that can facilitate timely, collaborative and interactive communication.
As they enter the social media fray, hospitals face a host of challenges and decisions. These range from basic upkeep—nothing is more frustrating to a potential user than a neglected or stale-dated facebook or Twitter account—to deciding how interactive to be with patients, and what staff should be trained and involved in social media use.
From marketing to improved care
Not all hospitals haven entered the fray—for example, smaller hospitals may not be able to afford the expertise and time involved in establishing a social media presence—and among those that have, how they use social media varies significantly.
Many still use the channels for marketing and old-style public relations communication—for example posting news releases—while some larger hospitals are more active, have thousands of followers, and can track and address patient concerns.
But the potential of using social media to improve patient care and patient experience is only beginning to be realized, according to health care digital communication leaders. 
That’s not surprising because it’s only been a few years since hospitals began to take social media seriously; the Ontario Hospital Association hosted its fourth Social Media in Health Care conference just last month; the first was Jan 21, 2010.
Social media policies can allay concerns about risk
The issue of privacy and risk dominated discussions about social media several years ago, but that concern has begun to be addressed as hospitals formulate and adopt social media policies (see CHEO policy, for example) that spell out ground rules for use.
An emerging debate contrasts the approach of hospitals that use a single channel “firehose” social media approach—institutions that have just one facebook and one Twitter account for all communication—and those that have multiple social media channels.
To Ed Bennett, who manages web operations at the University of Maryland Medical System, the progression from hosting single to multiple speciality channels—from addressing patient concerns at a broad level, to also addressing narrower concerns of specific patient groups—is a natural evolution.
Social media: this is where the public is talking about you
Part of his job is to monitor all online mentions of his medical centre and decide which ones are appropriate to respond to, and who should respond. “This is where conversations are moving, where they’re [the public] is talking about you, and if you don’t participate, you are cut off from the discussion.”
A lot of concerns are about services such as parking, or long waits in the ER, or how to get test results, he notes. “If you are able to resolve these, or just respond in a polite way, you can turn a negative into a positive.”
Craig Thompson, director of digital communications at Women's College Hospital in Toronto, says  the  "low hanging fruit"  that  social media can address involves better communication about issues that frequently frustrate patients, such as hospital access and how to prepare for procedures.  Beyond that, opportunities to use social media to improve patient experience "present themselves at different times, every organization has to find its own solutions."
Social media such as facebook also present the opportunity to create “extensions of real life face-to-face patient support groups,” says Bennett. The Maryland University Medical System sponsors four or five of such groups, including for transplant and for trauma patients; participants have to be invited to join (the groups are closed) and the groups are moderated by a health care professional.
“Still, we explain that nothing on the Internet is 100% closed and warn people not to put out any information that wouldn’t be comfortable with the world seeing,” he says.
The multiple channel approach
Michelle Hamilton-Page is the manager of social media at CAMH (the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto), which has a multiple channel model approach to social media (see, for example, its foundation-associated endstigma facebook page).
Hamilton-Page’s position is based in education, rather than communications, and she spends much of her time helping groups within CAMH think through whether social media can help them meet their objectives and, if so, how to go about it.
A similar approach is taken at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, notes digital media manager Anthony Lucic. “People think of social media as mass communication, but it can be really focused and targeted. Sometimes, it’s about just wanting to talk with a core group of peers. Our approach is very grassroots, we sit down with people to find out who they want to engage, and what networks they could use.”
Children's Hospitals have been early adopters of social media
Children’s Hospitals, like CHEO in Ottawa and the SickKids (the Hospital for Sick Children) in Toronto, are among the most advanced in terms of using social media. That’s partly because the patients, and their parents, are younger—and members of age cohorts that are relatively more comfortable using social media.
“Our patients, and their parents, have different expectations” compared to adult hospitals, says Ann Fuller, public relations director at CHEO. “New generations are used to sharing more and have different expectations of privacy than my mother did.”
And Fuller notes some doctors are saying it is time to relook at the idea that that physicians should not interact through social media with patients, point to “niche applications” where, for example, a clinician could be on facebook with a group of young patients with diabetes.
A recent research study at CHEO into patients’ use of facebook underscored its importance to teenagers with long-term and chronic illnesses and noted that only a few disclosed any personal health information on their facebook pages.
It concluded that that the need for social-network-based communication between patients and healthcare providers—now forbidden by some institutions—will increase and that “age-appropriate privacy-awareness education” should be strengthened.
Calls for more education, literacy 
Better education about social media is something that Sivan Keren Young, manager of digital communications at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, thinks is essential. “Everyone is using social media, but no one gets any social media literacy training, there’s nothing in schools, and that can cause mistakes, people can unintentionally do the wrong thing.”
Interestingly, it was disappointment about the level of public uptake for H1N1 vaccination was the inspiration for the first major Canadian examination of how health care institutions could use social media to understand and improve the patient experience.
“For us, the light bulb went on” when the Toronto-based Health Strategy Innovation Cell went online to find out what was being said in patient websites and chat rooms about the H1N1 vaccine, says Cathy Fooks, president of The Change Foundation , which co-authored a report on using social media to improve health care and worked with two health care organizations to explore the potential of social media.
What the investigators discovered was a whole series of anti-vaccination conversations about concerns about the vaccine—concerns that were inhibiting people from getting vaccination. “Public Health had no idea—none of that concern had turned up in their formal communication channels,” Fooks noted.
The foundation went on to co-author with the Innovation Cell a seminal report on using social media to improve health care and a report based on work with two health care organizations exploring the potential of using social media.
According to Bennett, those who are still sceptical about social media should stop thinking of it as brand new and different: “It’s still people talking to each other.”

Original Source : http://healthydebate.ca/2013/02/topic/innovation/social-media-in-hospitals

Read More

7 Web Design Mistakes Businesses Make

Your website is the most obvious and basic marketing tool your business has, so it is vital that it is done right.
A website that is “done right” is one that reaches your target audience, meets your business goals, and answers your users’ questions, not one that you think 'looks good'. Poorly designed sites translate into instantaneous loss in revenue from potential clients turning away.
Avoid this, and grow your bottom line, by avoiding these all too common errors:
1. Lack of Market Knowledge

This is detrimental to you and your business. We know how important it is to get your website complete, but if you are not reaching the appropriate target audience, you are wasting time and money. Design revolves around your business needs, which it can’t successfully do without a clear understanding of your market. Biggest mistake clients make is they design the website for their own taste and liking, but they are usually NOT the target audience.

2. Getting Flashy or Too Busy
Ciplex, my web design agency, understands the critical marketing aspect your website should demand...and nowhere should those demands be flashy or busy. Focus on what counts, not on what will turn users away with a headache. Visitors need to find information easily and clearly, especially if they are using mobile devices. Did you know that if a visitor to your site can’t find what he or she needs within literally 3 seconds, it’s too late? Don't overdo it.

3. No Clear Call to Action
Your site is clean, clear, and meaningful; now, what’s the point? What are users supposed to do with all of this? Maybe the call to action is to buy a product, or perhaps it’s to fill out a contact form. Regardless, this needs to be in an easy to find, clear location that users will understand and choose. If the content on your website answers the question “What’s my benefit?” your call to action should tell them how to get there. A great website holds the visitor by their hand and directs them where to go next.

4. Over or Under Paying
Time after time, people approach my company after hiring a cheap designer who allows for poorly decided business moves that lead to undeniably lousy products. On the other hand, it is easy to fall for the expensive, big brand agencies that may not be able to help a small business reach ROI. What is the answer? Do your research to make sure what you build is the right value for your business. Don't overpay, you'll never see ROI. Don't underpay, it will not be effective.

5. Vague or Outdated Content
It is very frustrating as a customer to find outdated or irrelevant information. Avoid this, so that users don’t assume you are behind the game, or even out of business. Reach your current and potential customers, update your blog at least once a week (if you have one), and don’t show off your social media if you have a small following, as this may do more harm than good.

6. Thinking “Everyone is my Target Audience”
A lack of focus leads to a lack of success. Of course, if people outside of your demographic purchase your service or product, you shouldn't turn them away. But figure out who you should try to accommodate, and focus on them. Trying to please everyone tends to lead to not pleasing anyone. Use the 80/20 rule. Focus on 80% of your target audience.

7. Believing You Can DIY
You may be able to put together your own furniture from Ikea, but building your brand is no coffee table. Your website is the first impression of your brand, and first impressions are everything.

Have you made some of the mistakes above? What mistakes have you seen made?


Original Article : http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130214163404-5799319-7-web-design-mistakes-businesses-make

Read More

Samsung Is Planning An 'Enormous' Launch For Its Next Big Phone, The S4

Samsung is planning a huge launch for its next flagship phone, the S4, and it could pull resources away from Apple, says Jefferies analyst Peter Misek.
According to Misek's sources, Samsung is planning to build 100 million S4s from launch until the end of the year. He thinks the phone is launched in the March-April time frame.
"The enormous 100 million S4 build plan (we estimate the S3 sold 60M) is leading some suppliers to say that they will reallocate resources away from Apple," writes Misek, adding, "The S3 also had enormous builds and came within 10% of meeting them on an annual basis."
The S4 is expected to have a 4.8-inch Super AMOLED+ screen and possibly an 8-core processor.
Meanwhile, Apple, according to Misek, is cutting orders for the iPhone 5 because suppliers say sales are decelerating faster than expected. He also says Apple wanted to release a 4.8-inch iPhone this year, but manufacturers are struggling to make the screen Apple wants, and Apple may wait until it has new iOS software ready.

Original Source :  http://www.businessinsider.com/samsung-is-planning-an-enormous-launch-for-the-s4-2013-2

Read More

Why You Should Never Have More Than Nine Browser Tabs Open

I often hear people complain that their browser is slow and unstable. It's easy to blame browser developers for using sloppy coding practices and not managing memory correctly, but in my experience there's a more common element: people who insist on having dozens of browser tabs open at once. That's an unproductive and pointless practice and everyone should stop it immediately.
Open enough browser tabs and it doesn't matter whether you're running Chrome or Firefox or IE or Safari or Opera: your system is going to slow down and eventually your browser will crash altogether, quite possibly bringing your entire environment down with it. Quite aside from that performance drama, there are at least four obvious reasons why having multiple tabs open is pointless.

You Can't See What's In Them Anyway

"I want to be able to refer to that later" is the underlying argument of many chronic new tab openers. But when you have so many tabs open that you can't see anything but the favicons, you'll waste lots of time hunting down that one elusive page. With nine open, you can see the page titles easily.

Your Browser History Is a Better Solution

You run into an interesting article and figure you'll check it out later. You don't need to keep it open—your browser is tracking your history. As long as you can remember one or two keywords, you can easily hunt it down when you want it. Your computer is more efficient at searching than you are. Let it do the work.

You Can't Process That Much Information Simultaneously

Dozens of open tabs signifies either procrastination on a truly epic scale or a chronic inability to focus on an immediate task at hand. Either way, it's not the sign of someone working efficiently. I work as a journalist—sourcing information from multiple sources is a big part of the job—but I don't kid myself I need thirty of them open at once. Absorb the data from one place, then move on.

It Wastes Good Keyboard Shortcuts

Those reasons easily justify not having multiple tabs open, but why pick 9 as the upper limit? Simple: every modern browser supports using Ctrl-1 to go to the first open tab, Ctrl-2 to the second, and so on. If you have windows that are constantly open (your mail client, social networking, content management systems), you can keep them in the same location and switch to them instantly using the keyboard. Granted, this still works even if you have 40 open, but it makes sense to match the available shortcuts with your screen real estate. (Control-9 always jumps to the last tab, however many you have open, by the way.)
The next time you're asked to support someone who can't control their Control-T-loving fingers, tell them to ease back on the tabs. Life will be better for everyone, I promise.

Original Source :http://lifehacker.com/5984149/why-you-should-never-have-more-than-nine-browser-tabs-open

Read More