Research finds a simple smile could be the key to business success

A simple smile and a friendly greeting can make customers feel much more loyal towards small independent companies, according to new KingstonBusiness School research.

The study, which examined the retail behavior of 2,006 consumers and the business practices of 1,216 decision makers in small and medium-sized enterprises, revealed that a smile and a friendly hello was the most common reason why consumers felt loyal towards independent retailers. However, only just over half those sampled stated their small business employed this practice.

Three in five consumers were also willing to pay more for a product from a small independent shop rather than deal with a large corporate retailer, the study funded by Barclays Business Banking and carried out by Kingston's Small Business Research Centre suggested.

More than a third of loyal consumers said they were repeat customers because of excellent service and one in five said they valued businesses remembering their usual order. However, only around half of businesses involved in the study kept a record of customers' previous orders.

The research also discovered that less than a third of business respondents considered retaining or growing their current customer base to be their main priority to achieve growth during the next year. Only 50 per cent would encourage word of mouth recommendations by regular customers to grow or survive.

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Companies are Unprepared to Defend Against Cyber Threats

Despite broad recognition that cyber threats are more prevalent than ever before, a large number of companies are not adequately prepared to respond to a data breach or IT security crisis, according to findings from the 2013 IT Security and Privacy Survey by global consulting firm Protiviti.

More than two-thirds (68 percent) of respondents in Protiviti’s survey said they have elevated their focus on information security in response to recent press coverage of so-called “cyber warfare.” However, the number of companies that appear inadequately prepared for a crisis is surprisingly high. When asked if their organizations have a formal and documented crisis response plan for use following a data breach or hacking incident, more than one-third reported that either their organizations did not (21 percent) or they did not know (13 percent).

Data Policy and Retention/Storage Issues

According to the survey results, many companies lack key data policies and are ineffective at managing data through proper retention and storage practices, including the classification of sensitive data.  Approximately 22 percent of companies do not have a written information security policy (WISP) and 32 percent lack a data encryption policy. Not having these policies in place is an important consideration when a breach involves information covered by data privacy laws and can expose an organization to significant legal liability. 

CIOs Take a More Strategic Role

As data security continues to play a larger role in business operations and the use of so-called big data becomes more integrated with strategic business objectives, CIOs are seeing their responsibilities increase. The survey showed that more CIOs are taking responsibility for data governance strategy, oversight and execution within their organizations. Additionally, companies with documented crisis plans enacted in response to a data breach or hacking incident have now begun to involve their CIOs far more than ever before.  In 2012, only 58 percent reported that their CIO was involved in addressing such an incident compared to 72 percent in 2013 (up 14 percent).

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CIOs Reveal Third-Quarter Hiring Plans

Twelve percent of U.S. chief information officers (CIOs) interviewed recently expect to expand their IT teams in the third quarter of 2013, according to the just-released RobertHalf Technology IT Hiring Forecast and Local Trend Report. This compares to 14 percent in the previous quarter. In addition, 56 percent plan to hire for open IT roles, 26 percent expect to put hiring plans on hold, and 6 percent plan to reduce their IT staff in the third quarter.

In the same survey, 85 percent of CIOs said they were somewhat or very confident about their companies' prospects for growth in the third quarter, and 63 percent felt somewhat or very confident in their firms' third-quarter investment in IT projects.

U.S. IT Hiring Forecast	Q2	Q3
CIOs planning to add more staff to IT departments	14%	12%
CIOs planning to hire only for open IT roles	61%	56%
CIOs planning to put IT hiring plans on hold	22%	26%
CIOs planning to reduce their IT staff	2%	6%
Don't know future hiring plans	1%	1%

*Numbers do not total 100 percent due to rounding.

The IT Hiring Forecast and Local Trend Report survey was developed by Robert Half Technology, a leading provider of information technology professionals on a project and full-time basis, and conducted by an independent research firm. The survey is based on more than 2,300 telephone interviews with CIOs from a random sample of U.S. companies in 23 major metro areas with 100 or more employees. Robert Half Technology is a leading provider of IT professionals on a project and full-time basis and has been tracking IT hiring activity in the United States since 1995.

Recruiting Challenges
In terms of recruiting, 69 percent of CIOs said it's somewhat or very challenging to find skilled IT professionals today. It is most difficult to find skilled talent in the functional areas of networking (18 percent), data/database management (14 percent) and help desk/technical support (13 percent).

Confidence in Business Growth and IT Investments
The survey results suggest that CIOs are optimistic about their companies' growth and IT investments: Eighty-five percent reported being somewhat or very confident in their companies' prospects for growth in the third quarter of 2013.

Sixty-three percent of CIOs also said they were somewhat or very confident that their firms would invest in IT projects in the third quarter of 2013.

Skills in Demand
Among the technology executives surveyed, 55 percent said that network administration and database management were the skill sets in greatest demand within their IT department. Desktop support followed closely, with 54 percent of the response.

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Worldwide Software Market Forecast to Continue on Modest Growth Trajectory Through 2017

International Data Corporation (IDC) released the latest forecast from the Worldwide Semiannual Software Tracker. For 2012, the worldwide software market grew 3.6% year over year, less than half the growth rate experienced in 2010 and 2011. IDC believes these results mark the beginning of a more conservative period of growth. The forecast growth rate for 2013 is 5.7% while the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for the 2012-2017 forecast period is 6.3%.

The collaborative applications software category is forecast to have the highest growth in the short term (2013). This category includes social software, which is growing from a lower revenue base. The collaborative applications category is also experiencing more cloud deployments than other categories and this represents new software investments. The structured data management software category is expected to show the strongest growth over the five-year forecast period with a 9.3% CAGR from 2012-2017, fueled by faster growth in the last 2-3 years of the forecast. Data management is at the core of the information-driven economy and will play a critical role in the implementation of Big Data and analytics.

On a regional basis, the emerging economies will experience stronger growth than in mature economies. The average 2012-2017 CAGR for Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan), Latin America, and Central Eastern, Middle East, and Africa (CEMA) is 8.8% while the average CAGR for the mature regions – North America, Western Europe, and Japan – is 5.0%. The emerging regions have been gaining almost 0.7% of market share every year since 2008 and they are expected to represent almost 19% of global software revenues in 2017.

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New Engagement Survey Metric Uncovers More Risk For Employers Who Want To Keep Their Top Performers

HR departments typically track dozens of metrics, many of which are ignored by CEOs. But Leadership IQ has developed a new HR metric that links employee engagement survey scores with performance appraisal ratings.  And it’s quickly capturing executives’ attention, with articles and commentary across every major business information medium.

Leadership IQ researchers linked employees’ scores on their annual engagement surveys with the scores they received on their annual performance appraisals at 207 companies.  And then, by identifying statistical relationships between engagement and appraisal scores, Leadership IQ is able to make predictions and recommendations about high performer turnover, low performer accountability, middle performer development, and much more.

In the latest example of this metric, Leadership IQ identified that in 42% of the companies, low performers are MORE engaged than high and middle performers.

Leadership IQ’s study, titled “JobPerformance Not a Predictor of Employee Engagement” also detailed a 1,000-person technology-services firm, where low performers were more engaged than high performers. The annual appraisals at this technology firm use a 4-point scale, ranging from Unacceptable to Superior. According to the company’s 2012 statistics, 18% of employees can be considered low performers, 20% are considered high performers, and 62% are considered middle performers.

After Leadership IQ administered an employee engagement survey, it found …

-- Low performers were significantly more motivated to give 100% effort at work than high performers

-- Low performers were significantly more likely to recommend the company as a great organization to work for than high performers

-- Low performers were significantly more likely than high performers to believe that leadership holds people accountable for their performance

-- Low performers were significantly more likely than high performers to feel that all employees live up to the same standards

Examining these findings, the firm then expanded the review across more than 200 companies and the results were amplified. There are ample reasons why these findings put organizations at risk. One of them is the fact that high performers, who thrive on being highly engaged, don’t tend to stick around very long if they aren’t engaged. It’s disturbing news for any company that believes their people are their most important asset.

The best leaders are responding by learning the facts and taking action. They discover and act on the factors pushing valuable employees out the door and build on the factors that tug at them to stay. They take action to make all employees more mentally and physically accountable.

Great organizations also identify the key attitudes that define their success and failure so their leaders can accurately identify, reward and correct behavior according to actual employee performance. They make sure employees, especially high performers, understand the company vision and they recognize that what defines most low performers is the wrong attitude (not a lack of skill).

More information on customer service and employee engagement can be found at www.SupportIndustry.com

Gartner: Half of Employers will Require Employees to Supply Their Own Device for Work Purposes by 2017

As enterprise bring your own device (BYOD) programs continue to become more commonplace, 38 percent of companies expect to stop providing devices to workers by 2016, according to a global survey of CIOs by Gartner, Inc.'sExecutive Programs.

Gartner defines a BYOD strategy as an alternative strategy that allows employees, business partners and other users to use a personally selected and purchased client device to execute enterprise applications and access data. It typically spans smartphones and tablets, but the strategy may also be used for PCs. It may or may not include a subsidy.

BYOD drives innovation for CIOs and the business by increasing the number of mobile application users in the workforce. Rolling out applications throughout the workforce presents myriad new opportunities beyond traditional mobile email and communications. Applications such as time sheets, punch lists, site check-in/check-out, and employee self-service HR applications are just a few examples. Expanding access and driving innovation will ultimately be the legacy of the BYOD phenomenon.

While BYOD is occurring in companies and governments of all sizes, it is most prevalent in midsize and large organizations ($500 million to $5 billion in revenue, with 2,500 to 5,000 employees). BYOD also permits smaller companies to go mobile without a huge device and service investment. Adoption varies widely across the globe. Companies in the United States are twice as likely to allow BYOD as those in Europe, where BYOD has the lowest adoption of all the regions. In contrast, employees in India, China and Brazil are most likely to be using a personal device, typically a standard mobile phone, at work.

How a well-managed BYOD program subsidizes the use of a personal device is critical, and can dramatically change the economics. Today, roughly half of BYOD programs provide a partial reimbursement, and full reimbursement for all costs will become rare. Gartner believes that coupling the effect of mass market adoption with the steady declines in carrier fees, employers will gradually reduce their subsidies and as the number of workers using mobile devices expands, those who receive no subsidy whatsoever will grow.

BYOD does increase risks and changes expectations for CIOs. Unsurprisingly, security is the top concern for BYOD. The risk of data leakage on mobile platforms is particularly acute. Some mobile devices are designed to share data in the cloud and have no general purpose file system for applications to share, increasing the potential for data to be easily duplicated between applications and moved between applications and the cloud.

However, in general, IT is catching up to the phenomenon of BYOD. More than half of organizations rate themselves high in security of corporate data for enterprise-owned mobile devices. This new confidence in the security posture to support BYOD is a reflection of more-mature tools and processes that address myriad needs in the security area.

More information on customer service, support and BYOD can be found at www.SupportIndustry.com

 

U.S. Tech Market Will Grow by 6.2% in 2013 and 6.8% in 2014

No one would claim that the US tech market is booming.  With Europe still mired in recession and debt problems, US economic growth looking soft, and business and consumer worries about the US government raising tax rates and cutting Federal spending, it is not surprising that businesses and governments are being cautious in their purchases of technology goods and services.  But we think the fear is overblown.  Forrester's forecast for the US tech market in 2013 and 2014 -- published as "US Tech MarketOutlook For 2013 And 2014: Better Times Ahead" -- projects a 6.2% rise in 2013 and a 6.8% growth in 2014 in US business and government purchases of computer equipment, communications equipment, software, IT consulting and systems integration services, and IT outsourcing.  Adding in slow growing telecommunications services pulls growth down to 5.7% in 2013 and 6.1% in 2014. That may not be a boom, but it is certainly not a bust.

While CIOs are cautious in their tech buying -- and in the case of the Federal government, actually cutting back -- that caution has and will show up mostly in reduced spending on computer and communications equipment (with the exception of tablets).  CIOs will be most aggressive in software, especially for SaaS apps, analytics, and mobile apps. IT outsourcing will see good growth in 2013 as the result of 2012 selection decisions, while IT consulting and systems integration will come on strong in 2014.  Business and government purchases of telecommunications services will continue to grow at a slower rate than the overall tech market.  

Construction, transportation, education, and healthcare will grow their IT budgets the fastest in 2013. CIOs in these industries will increase their IT spending due to better business conditions (construction, transportation) or market pressures (education and healthcare). CIOs in manufacturing will turn more cautious, and those in the federal government will have to reduce their tech buying in the face of mandated budget cutbacks. 

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