Top Three Posts of 2015 – Recapping the Year for A&A Search

Top Three Posts of 2015 – Recapping the Year for A&A Search

A&A Search offers highlights of the most read articles on their website from 2015. The articles represent significant developments and trends for 2015 and the issues faced by the business, finance, and information technology in 2015. How Will Technology Change Banking in 2015? In January, A&A Search reported on technology developments and a highly competitive retail banking sector. While retail banks seem unsure whether to close less crucial branch locations and focus on the mobile consumer, treasury professionals are demanding big data applications with mobile architecture and cloud technology. A survey revealed that 50 percent of treasury respondents would switch banks if doing so provided access to superior technology. Many still rely on Microsoft Excel and in-house software for financial analysis and predictions. With respect to the retail industry, the article predicted more prevalent touchscreen technology and smart, high-tech ATMS better suited to the customer experience. Fees for online banking channels and services were expected to expand for 2016. Bank staffing is predicted to change toward a universal model, whereby staff can manage a multitude of clients and services using new technology tools and central databases. Tips on Professionally Leaving Your Job | Quitting in a Positive Way Our March article reflects the extent of employee mobility. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that, on average, a worker changes jobs every four years. This article offered advice to employees as to how to resign in a way that maintains important contacts and exploits rather than diminishes achievements. Suggestions included helping your employer to find a replacement and training the new candidate before you leave. Ensuring that all your work...
Three Trends in Big Data Analytics

Three Trends in Big Data Analytics

Robert Mitchell of IT World recently reported on the top trends for big data. A significant problem for big data and analytics is the storage of data. Bill Loconzolo, Intuit’s vice president of data engineering, and Dean Abbott, chief data scientist at Smarter Remarketer both reference the cloud and data lakes. Storage technology is lagging behind and Hadoop, which had originally shown promise as a storage system, is not yet a reliable system for businesses. Companies must use immature, new technology or risk being left behind in the big data race. Technologies can now process cloud data, such as Reshift by Amazon and its BI data warehouse, BigQuery data analytics by Google, Bluemix by IBM, and Kinesis data processing by Amazon. Brian Hopkins, analyst with Forrester Research, states that big data will increasingly be processed by companies both on-site and in the cloud, simultaneously. Hadoop is expected to emerge as a data operating system that will manipulate, operate, analyze, and file data. Hadoop will function as a hub that is able to run different queries and operations, so it will be convenient to store data for analysis within a Hadoop system that can manage SQL, MapReduce, stream processing, and graph analytics. Data lakes or enterprise data hubs will hold data in a Hadoop Tools are being designed to analyze the data, but highly skilled individuals will be required to build the view of the data that is required with no pre-designed search or analytic record model. Companies are still working on capabilities such as monitoring access, securing data, and tracing the data from source to destination. Big data analytical...
Increase Productivity to Make One Final Push Towards 2015 Goals

Increase Productivity to Make One Final Push Towards 2015 Goals

The holidays provide energy for one last boost in productivity. Certain rewards for employees can tie into the holiday season and provide motivation. Providing time off to prepare for the holidays, time with family, or holiday bonuses can be a much-appreciated boost to employees during the busy holidays and can benefit your company. Perks and benefits can inject energy into normal operations to increase morale and employee loyalty. Mashable reports on a survey by Seamless that found that 60 percent of survey respondents felt valued and appreciated when lunch or dinner was provided at work. Order in for your staff during the busy holiday season. Use lunches as an opportunity to interact with staff. Social interaction improves collaboration and communication. If you are open and at ease with staff and invite their feedback, you may glean valuable insights. Similarly, staff will appreciate the time to socialize with their peers. Give staff some autonomy. Try flexible scheduling in return for responsible performance. Chris Duchesne, Vice President of global workplace solutions for care.com, agrees that allowing staff more power over their working lives increases productivity, engagement, and loyalty. Treat the new program as an experiment. If your company finds that flexibility improves productivity, adopt the policy as a permanent one. Revisit the goals for 2014 and assess successes and failures. Prepare objectives for 2015 with the input of staff to obtain their buy-in and enthusiasm. Involve them in preparations for the coming year. This is a good time to introduce new policies. Balance the good news with the bad news and give staff time to process the new information before the...