Business & Finance

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 10 jan 2015

There are billions of dollars that are being invested in financial technologies (FinTech). 2014 has been one of the biggest year for FinTech and the sector is expected to grow further in future. According to StrategyEye, US$ 2.8 billion were raised in 2014 via venture capital investments in FinTech. While Crunchbase and MarketsMedia calculated that in the first quarter of 2014 alone US$ 1.7 billion was invested in 167 deals. At Money2020 this year a venture capital panel predicted that venture capital deployment in FinTech will top US$ 20 billion in 2015, whereas Accenture recently predicted FinTech investments would reach at least US$ 8 billion by 2018 in New York alone. Brett King, CEO of Moven, provides list of top 10 major happenings in 2014 that made FinTech stand out - (1) Spanish banking giant BBVA acquires Simple for US$ 117 million. (2) Apple launches Apple Pay for NFC-enabled mobile payments (NFC = Near Field Communication). (3) Lending Club became the biggest FinTech IPO in 2014 with a US$ 1 billion IPO. (4) AliPay, the online payment platform of Alibaba Group, raises US$ 94 billion in mobile deposits. (5) London becomes the top city for FinTech job creation with 44,000 FinTech specialists employed. (6) Visa launches Host Card Emulation and Tokenization. (7) Second Market launches the first US regulated Bitcoin Exchange. (8) 5 FinTech giants (Lending Club, Square, Credit Karma, Stripe, and China's RenRenDai) join the US$ 1 billion "Unicorn Club". (9) Four Major global banks (Sberbank, BBVA, Santander and HSBC) joined the US$ 100 million club. (10) Robo Advisors like Betterment, Wealthfront, LearnVest and others, take US$ 16 billion in Assets under Management. Read on...

Huffington Post: The Top 10 FinTech Milestones of 2014
Author: Brett King

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 09 jan 2015

In 2014, technology became an important consideration for investment banks as they launched incubators and multi-million dollar funds to attract financial technology talent. As technology has pervaded every aspect of banking and financial sector, there is essential need for fintech skills. Capital market technology experts suggest following technology trends that will affect finance careers in 2015 - (1) The rise of the 'offensive' data scientist. (2) The size and scope of fintech start-up investments will accelerate. (3) Automation will be substituted for revenue growth. (4) Cyber security professionals will be very hot indeed. (5) Investment banks' secret sauce is unlikely to be developed entirely in-house. (6) Banks will embrace Agile working methods more enthusiastically. (7) Fund managers will join the tech hiring party. (8) Foreign exchange and rates automation will eliminate more trading jobs. (9) Aggressive use of risk and compliance technology. (10) The rise of the chief digital officer. (11) Could banks finally convert to the cloud? Presently it's on a slow curve. Read on...

eFinancialCareers: 11 tech trends that will shape your finance career in 2015
Author: Paul Clarke

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 30 dec 2014

User Interface (UI) design is undergoing innovative evolutions and providing effective and efficient machine interactions with humans and better control. In 2014, mobile software tried to balance simplicity and power, connected and networked devices worked more harmoniously with other machines and devices, and touchscreens seemed to have their limitations. Following are some of the best UI design ideas of 2014 - (1) Lollipop's Lock Screen Notifications (Google's Material Design concept) (2) Texting From Everywhere (3) A Smart Touchscreen for Cars (4) Physical Interfaces for Flickr and Google Street View (5) The Death of "Shake to Send Feedback" in Google Maps (6) Inbox Makes Email Saner (7) Instant Hotspot, the Unsung Hero of Continuity (8) A Key Rack That Bugs You Into Doing Good (9) The Rise of TouchID. Read on...

WIRED: This Year's 8 Smartest UI Design Ideas
Author: Kyle Vanhemert

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 18 dec 2014

Maturing social business and evolving enterprise social networks will transform the way employees, customers and partners connect, work and collaborate with each other. Trey Tramonte, President & CEO of Bloomfire, provides following 10 predictions for enterprise collaboration for 2015 - (1) Analytics will drive increased investment in enterprise collaboration. (2) Rise of personal analytics. (3) Gamification will invade the enterprise. (4) File sharing will become an integration point, not a destination. (5) Mobile will evolve from "urgent" to integrated part of the daily workflow. (6) Multi-media content will become table stakes. (7) Small is the new big. Testing specific use cases in select teams and then implement throughout the organization. (8) Service providers will build new revenue channels around knowledge management platforms. (9) Learning Management Systems solutions will lose market share to enterprise collaboration platforms. (10) Nonprofits will follow the Pinterest approach. Read on...

Business 2 Community: 10 Predictions for Enterprise Collaboration in 2015
Author: Trey Tramonte

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 13 dec 2014

At EDUCAUSE2014 in October, Professor Clayton Christensen of Harvard University mentioned that higher education is poised for massive disruption as a result of new offerings in online learning. The MOOCs phenomenon, advancements in Learning Management Systems, Cloud-based and mobile technologies etc are some of the factors facilitating the transformation in online education and learning landscape. Although the debates regarding the success of online-only learning and education still continues with educators evaluating its outcomes and comparing it with traditional college and university education. But one thing is commonly agreed upon and that is education technology is here to stay. Moreover there are advocates of technology enhanced blended learning. Latest infographic by TalentLMS, a cloud-based learning management system, provides in detail 10 eLearning trends for 2015 - (1) Big Data: Numbers in eLearning are becoming so large that processing user generated data using traditional methods is becoming impossible. (2) Gamification: It is the concept of applying game mechanics and game design techniques to engage and motivate people to achieve their learning goals. Gamification taps into the basic desires and needs of the user, focusing on impulses which revolve around the ideas of Status and Achievement. (3) Personalization: It is the tailoring of pedagogy, curriculum and learning environments to meet the needs and aspirations of individual learners. (4) M-Learning: As mobile use continues to grow, it will become the dominant medium for offering learning materials. (5) Focus on Return-on-Investment: ROI compares the investment in training deliverable with the benefits over a specified period of time. Despite the traditional difficulties of calculating ROI, its importance will rise, as it provides a strong argument in favor of eLearning. (6) Application Programming Interfaces: API is basically the way applications communicate with each other. The widely accepted SCORM and Tin Can are two examples of APIs in eLearning. Systems like Zapier, offer non-programmable ways to integrate APIs between services and achieve desired effects. (7) Automation: Content creation is a tedious and time consuming process. If we could somehow automate the process of content creation then we could potentially create a revolution in the quantity and quality of online courses. (8) Augmented Learning: It is an on-demand learning technique where the environment adapts to the learner. Augmented Reality market is expected to grow significantly from 60 million users in 2013 to 200 million in 2018. (9) Corporate Massive Open Online Courses: MOOCs are courses for large number of users. MOOCs are often used by universities. In the last few years MOOCs have been getting more popular among companies and organizations. (10) Rise of Cloud Learning Management Systems: Despite speculations about the death of LMS, last years showed continued growth in the industry. Forecast of 2015 predict that it will continue to grow. Out of all learning sytems, cloud-based platforms had the highest growth in the last two years. Read on...

EdTech: 10 Online Learning Trends to Watch in 2015 (Infographic)
Author: D. Frank Smith

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 12 dec 2014

Internet of Things (IoT) promises to bring diverse set of smart devices together through seamless network technologies and provide human-centered connected solutions. Home hubs are being launched in the market to sync everything from refrigerators to air conditioners to locks. But most homes are not yet ready with enough smart devices, although near future will see the growth of such connectivity and numerous possibilities resulting from smart homes. Roberta Gamble, Vice President of Frost & Sullivan Energy & Environment, predicts that telehealth will see a big surge in the market. Telehealth connects doctors and patients through use of technology. According to Council on Aging of Southwestern Ohio, by 2015 Americans over the age of 65 will outnumber children under five. The aging baby boomer population will increase the demand for home gadgets for elderly care. The health, safety and independence of this population will encourage innovations and developments towards smart homes. Read on...

Digital Trends: THE SMART HOME OF THE FUTURE WILL BE ALL ABOUT TELEHEALTH, SO WHAT IS THAT?
Author: Jenny McGrath

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 08 dec 2014

Employee turnover can be reduced by making employees happy and engaged. It's a challenging but manageable task if leaders and businesses have right information and knowledge regarding the present state of employee engagement. Jeff Fermin, Cofounder of Officevibe, provides 13 disturbing facts about employee engagement - (1) 88% of employees don't have passion for their work. (2) Only 20% of senior managers are passionate about their work. (3) Employee Disengagement Is Costing The US $500 Billion Per Year. (4) 57% of interruptions at work come from either social media tools or switching between applications. (5) Employees working in government reported the lowest rate of engagement. (6) 86% of businesses and HR leaders believe they don't have an adequate leadership pipeline. (7) 79% believe they have a significant employee retention and engagement problem. (8) 75% are struggling to attract and recruiting the top people they need. (9) Only 17% feel they have a compelling and engaging employment brand. (10) Only 6% believe their current process for managing performance is worth the time. (11) 2/3 of today's employees feel "overwhelmed". (12) 50% of adults work more than 40 hours per week. (13) 80% would like to work fewer hours. Read on...

Huffington Post: 13 Disturbing Facts About Employee Engagement
Author: Jeff Fermin

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 08 dec 2014

Employee disengagement is a critical issue that businesses face and leads to millions of dollars in losses for them every year. People leave employers because their jobs and work environment don't fulfill their needs. Dr. Abraham Harold Maslow developed 'Hierarchy of Needs' and defined five innate human needs in a priority-based pyramidal form with growing levels of needs and expectations according to what needs are already fulfilled. Jordi Alemany, Founder of Key Strategic Chain Solutions LLC, built upon Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs model and developed a basic tool termed as 'The Employee Engagement Pyramid' - Level 1: Monetary compensation (Engagement driver- Salary); Level 2: Safety & stability (Engagement drivers- Benefit programs like medical care, pension schemes etc); Level 3: Sense of belonging (Engagement drivers- Career development programs. Project team assignments); Level 4: Esteem & recognition (Engagement drivers- Reward programs, talent retention programs, succession plans); Level 5: Self-actualization (Engagement drivers- Opportunity to create the future. Innovation projects. Thinking roles). Businesses have to create work environment, develop policies and establish business norms, that enable employees to evolve and transition to higher levels in the engagement pyramid, for successful retention and save employee attrition costs. Read on...

Linkedin Pulse: The Employee Engagement Pyramid
Author: Jordi Alemany

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 07 dec 2014

Empowerment equips people with the ability to make decisions, take initiative and perform actions that lead to desired outcomes for the organization. Effective leadership enables and inspires people to achieve goals for the organization. Leadership, empowerment and organizational success are interconnected. According to Gallup research, organizations that empower their employees experience 50 percent higher customer loyalty. Leaders must give their people optimal level of freedom within the framework of organizational rules and objectives to perform their work. They should avoid micromanagement of the tasks delegated to the employees. Moreover managers should make sure that they remove impediments and hurdles that may arise while their subordinates perform their duties. Frequent communication exchange is necessary between the managers and employees and every interaction should provide employee with motivation and enhanced energy to perform better. In an empowered organization, people work collaboratively towards common goals and hold each other accountable. Read on...

The Business Journals: Why employee empowerment can lead the way to greater business success
Author: Art Johnson

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 07 dec 2014

Businesses, big or small, need to continuously evolve their strategies to stay competitive and succeed in the dynamic marketplace. Matt Mayberry, Professional Speaker & Performance Strategist, provides four simple strategies to improve their success rate - (1) Professional development: Adopt continuous learning approach and research about the market, customers, competitors etc. (2) High quality products/services: Provide quality at competitive prices. (3) Customer value: Keep adding value in the lives of customers and provide best solutions. (4) Serve over everything: Inculcate a 'serving' attitude and listen to your customers well. Read on...

Entrepreneur: 4 Simple Strategies to Improve Your Business Success Rate
Author: Matt Mayberry

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