Monthly Archives: January 2018

La réponse immédiate La nature « toujours disponible » des offres digitales, associée à une connexion toujours plus forte aux marques via les réseaux sociaux, conduit les consommateurs à être de plus en plus exigeants. Les fournisseurs doivent être capables à toute heure de recevoir leurs commandes et de leur offrir le support dont ils ont besoin. L’expression « heures normales d’ouverture » perd progressivement de son sens au fur et à mesure que les consommateurs s’habituent aux sites ouverts 24h sur 24 et aux conversations en direct. La prolifération des offres « click and collect » et des produits disponibles en une heure dans la grande distribution illustre bien ce phénomène. Le même niveau de qualité, tous les jours Déjà soumises aux exigences de personnalisation et de réactivité quasi immédiates, les marques doivent encore respecter un troisième impératif : un niveau élevé de qualité en toutes circonstances. Ayant l’embarras du choix sur un marché fortement concurrentiel, les consommateurs délaissent rapidement un fournisseur s’ils le soupçonnent d’une baisse de qualité, que celle-ci touche un produit ou un service associé. Une seule interaction malheureuse peut s’avérer très coûteuse pour une marque. Des études montrent qu’il faut 12 expériences positives pour compenser une seule mauvaise expérience. Pour respecter ces exigences, à commencer par la « personnalisation de masse » demandée aujourd’hui par les consommateurs, les entreprises sont soumises à des défis importants. Celles qui réussissent à les surmonter voient l’émergence d’une nouvelle catégorie de managers. Qui sont capables de maîtriser les nouvelles technologies, notamment celles de gestion des flux de travail en mode collaboratif, de big data et d’intelligence artificielle pour tout à la fois : - Adapter les process marketing, de vente, de production et de logistique pour répondre au mieux à chaque demande individuelle ; - Observer, mesurer et analyser les données pour anticiper le comportement des utilisateurs ; - Améliorer l’expérience client en optimisant son engagement et en l’assistant à toutes les étapes de son choix ; - Automatiser les tâches de routine pour simplifier et accélérer les process. Qui s’inspirent également des méthodologies agiles et d’amélioration continue de la qualité et les adaptent au sein de leurs équipes afin d’induire un changement culturel, inspirer leurs collaborateurs et conserver un avantage compétitif durable. En d’autres termes, qui respectent un nouveau standard d’excellence opérationnelle, indispensable pour réussir durablement dans l’économie à la demande d’aujourd’hui.

A theory posits that the all of our thoughts are a function of a basic algorithm, N=2^i–1. This development may be huge for AI, since artificial neural networks operate much like the brain, applying this formula may be the key to true intelligence.

Over the past year, Google has demonstrated its desire to step up its hardware game. The company bought HTC's Pixel team for $1.1 billion, designed its own imaging chip for the Pixel 2 and also hired a key Apple chip designer. Bloomberg reports that in its bid to gain an edge on the competition, Google has quietly snapped up UK startup Redux, a small team focused on delivering sound and touch feedback via mobile displays. According to filings, Google took control of the startup back in August and then subsequently shut down the company's website. Previous demonstrations show Redux playing back music via a tablet device, which possesses tiny actuators that vibrate the screen and effectively turn it into a loudspeaker. By eliminating the need for smartphone speakers, Google may be able free up more space for batteries and other important components inside future smartphones.

KodakCoins will work as tokens inside the new blockchain-powered KodakOne rights management platform. The platform will supposedly create a digital ledger of rights ownership that photographers can use to register and license new and old work. Both the platform and cryptocurrency are supposed to “empower photographers and agencies to take greater control in image rights management,” according to the press release. The digital currency is meant to create a new economy for photographers to receive payment and sell work on a secure platform. In a statement that could be fairly said to read a little too much on-the-nose, Kodak CEO Jeff Clarke said, “For many in the tech industry, ‘blockchain’ and ‘cryptocurrency’ are hot buzzwords, but for photographers who’ve long struggled to assert control over their work and how it’s used, these buzzwords are the keys to solving what felt like an unsolvable problem.” Per Barron’s, Clarke said later in the day that blockchain technology would “be tremendously significant” in the future, though he clarified, “This doesn’t change the fundamentals in a way that means the stock should double.”

En butte au vandalisme, la start-up a retiré ses vélos sans borne à Lille et Reims. De quoi jeter une ombre sur le modèle économique des nouveaux acteurs du secteur. Faut-il y voir un mauvais présage pour les nouvelles entreprises spécialisées dans le vélo-partage sans borne ? Quelques mois seulement après son arrivée tonitruante dans l'Hexagone , Gobee.bike a annoncé mardi le retrait de ses bicyclettes vert pétard à Lille, Reims, et aussi Bruxelles. Les clients de l'entreprise en ont été informés par courriel. La jeune pousse hongkongaise créée par un Français, Raphaël Cohen, explique que les incivilités ont eu raison de son modèle économique. « Ces dernières semaines, le vandalisme et les dégâts causés à notre flotte ont atteint des limites que nous ne pouvons plus surmonter », déplore la société. Pionnier La décision fait mauvais effet. Car cette start-up, qui a levé 9 millions de dollars cet été, a été la première à investir le marché du « free floating » en déployant plusieurs centaines de vélos dans ces villes. Avec une ambition : ringardiser les modèles de type Vélib avec bornes, rapidement saturées dans les quartiers où la « petite reine » est populaire.

Conversocial has focused on the beleaguered airline industry in its latest report, assessing airlines from their individual brand performance to their customer service touchpoints. An internal analysis of three Conversocial airline partners found a notable shift in the channels receiving the highest customer volumes. From March to August 2017, Facebook Messenger volume more than doubled for those three partners (compared to the previous six-month period), and Messenger volumes saw a +10% compounded monthly growth rate. During this same period, there was a 50% increase in incoming volumes of Twitter direct messages (DMs) from airline travelers, in part because airlines promoted private social messaging as a customer care channel. This represents the prolific rise of private messaging channels over social media networks as the first-choice pathway for social resolution. Messenger, Twitter DM and SMS texts are maturing and predominate as the means of private resolution between customers and companies on a one-to-one private real-time basis. The Conversocial report benchmarks the worlds’ 20 biggest airlines in terms of their social responsiveness, and projects the future of social customer service. How responsive an airline is via social is critical. If a customer sees on an airline’s social account features regular and timely responses, they’ll use that channel more. A few airlines’ Twitter accounts exceeded expectations: @AmericanAir (32.6%), @Delta (31.3%), @EthiadHelp (50.5%), @EmiratesSupport (48.7%), @qrsupport (46.7%) and @VirginAmerica (26.7%). While the debate over separating a service handle from a brand continues, Conversocial recommends consolidating service under a single brand handle. “Care is synonymous with the airline industry, therefore it should be part of your social brand’s identity.” As for the future, Conversocial points out that “the nature of the airline industry is one where you are always pressed for time. Efficiently resolving an issue on social can mean the difference between missing and making a flight—the minutes truly count. Issues with travel are often in the moment; therefore, a response must be in real time in order to serve the fast-paced demands of the traveler.” “Social care teams that are able to provide both a seamless yet fast service, will be the ones to reap the rewards with increased brand advocates and equity on social. However, this level of response time will need a dedicated 24/7 team structure.”

Twelve months ago, Wall Street analysts were bullishly predicting that the Standard & Poor’s 500 index would hit somewhere in the range of 2,300 to 2,400 — roughly a 5 percent rise for the year — and many raised their eyebrows at bankers’ confidence. In reality? The stock market topped 2,650 and is around 20 percent higher today than it was a year ago. The United States’ gross domestic product growth has been ticking over at a commendable 3 percent or so, and the usually lagging eurozone is doing even better. With the exception of Venezuela, pretty much every economy in the world grew in 2017 and is expected to continue doing so this year. So what’s next? THE MARKETS: KEEP IT COMIN’, BABY! Wall Street is looking bullish and, once again, the rest of the world is raising an eyebrow. The financiers doubtlessly will be proven right. Analysts at several major firms, including JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Oppenheimer, have set S&P 500 targets for 2018 at a staggering 3,000, as nervous murmurings of overvalued stocks have been put to rest after the successful passage of a major U.S. tax reform bill that’s set to boost corporate profits. The biggest risk to market health is geopolitics, according to 40 percent of respondents to a recent survey of investors carried out by Barclays — and other than a trade war with China or a nuclear war with North Korea, one such political black swan could arise from the midterm elections in November. That said, the #MeToo movement is bound to have an impact on banking eventually. Several women, including prominent investor Sallie Krawcheck, have recently described experiences of sexual harassment spanning decades, and it’s only a matter of time before Wall Street goes the way of Silicon Valley, Hollywood and D.C. CRYPTOCURRENCY: BYE-BYE, BITCOIN Here’s wishing that someone had predicted for us last year what would happen to bitcoin in 2017, because in 12 short months, its price has increased more than twentyfold as regulators have slowly opened up to the idea of having crypto assets listed on formal exchanges (though there was a major price correction toward the end of the year). But as the market will become increasingly populated by professional institutional investors rather than just computer geeks and quick-buck hunters, there’s only one inevitability: It will, at some point, crash. JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon has likened the craze to the classic tulip-mania asset bubble in the 17th century. “What’s driving a lot of this is fear of missing out,” says Jackson Palmer, founder of Dogecoin, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrencies. “It’s gonna hurt a lot of average people … when this whole bubble pops,” warns Palmer. Our prediction? Bitcoin will peak at $30,000 this year after the currency is listed on several major futures exchanges and crypto funds appear in major markets, but the currency will crash back to less than $5,000 before returning to five digits by the end of 2018.

One of the challenges, however, facing these huge organisations that continue to grow ever bigger, is differentiation. If you have so many brands under the one umbrella, how do you set one apart from the other, and how do Marriott and Accor continue to have a competitive edge if they are operating so fully within...

La notoriété du RGDP auprès des consommateurs européens est encore faible, pourtant ils sont déjà prêts à s’en saisir et à répétition pour connaître les données personnelles que les entreprises détiennent sur eux, y accéder et savoir à quel(s) moment(s) elles servent à la prise de décision automatisée. 2018, année de toutes les commémorations entre...

With the device storing up to three months’ worth of data, L’Oréal says it decided to take a “conservative” approach by only storing anonymised information about individual users. Part of the reason for this, Balooch says, is that people will “use the product better” if they aren’t forced to enter their personal details or log in. “That’s the most important thing. If you look at the reason why, if people can change their behaviour in the sun, it’s good for business but also good for their lives. That doesn’t mean we can’t do interesting things with the anonymised data, like look at global trends and behavioural changes,” he says. The device will be piloted in the US this year, with the consumer launch planned for 2019. UV Sense will also hit the UK market next year. An updated limited-edition version of the My UV Patch will also be relaunched this year, which Balooch says will look “more like a jewellery piece”.