IT News: Technology, Linux, PeopleTek, Sales, Marketing (Sept. 27th, 2021)
Posted in Volume 282, Issue 4 - Sept 20th, 2021 — Sept 26th, 2021
Selections from the weekly newsletter, “IT News and Events.”
Technology
Watch: Russian Researchers Can Control Drone Swarms Like Jedi
A team of AI researchers in Russia have managed to come up with one of the coolest gesture-control systems for drones that we've seen yet. What's even more impressive is that it works with multiple machines simultaneously.
"Controlling swarms of drones in real-time is the dream. And, when you pre-program them with advanced software and run them in unobstructed areas it's pretty easy to accomplish.
But if you want to, say, control a swarm of drones inside an office building, in real time, things get a bit trickier.
Enter the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology's AI team:..." [The Next Web, September 23rd, 2021]
OpenTelemetry Gains Momentum as Observability Standard
Traditionally, companies that needed application performance management (APM) capabilities turned to closed-source tools and technologies, such as Splunk, New Relic, and Dynatrace.
"But in the emerging observability world, vendors are beginning to pool their resources together and jointly develop standard tools and technologies, such as OpenTelemetry, that will not only provide a better customer experience, but lower costs for vendors too.
OpenTelemetry is one of the primary open-source technologies benefitting from this drive. Created from the merger of the OpenCensus and OpenTracing projects in May 2019, OpenTelemetry defines a standard for how logs, traces, and metric data should be extracted from the servers, infrastructure, and applications that companies need to monitor. The OpenTelemetry Protocol (OTLP) handles the encoding and transport of that data to the observability platforms, such as those offered by Splunk, New Relic, and Dynatrace, where users can consume and analyze the data..." [datanami, September 23rd, 2021]
D-ID Launches 'Speaking Portrait,' A Way To Turn Photos Into Custom, Photo-Realistic Videos
The company whose tech powered the sensational MyHeritage app that turned classic family photos into lifelike moving portraits is back with a new implementation of its technology: Transforming still photographs into ultra-realistic video, capable of saying whatever you want.
D-ID's Speaking Portraits may look like the notorious 'deepfakes' that have made headlines over the past couple of years, but the underlying tech is actually quite different, and there's no training required for basic functionality.
D-ID, which actually debuted at TechCrunch Battlefield in 2018 with a very different focus (scrambling facial recognition tech), debuted its new Speaking Portraits product live at TechCrunch Disrupt 2021. The company showed off a number of use cases, including using its new tech to create a multilingual TV anchor capable of expressing various emotions; creating virtual chatbot personas for customer support interactions; developing training courses for professional development use; and creating interactive conversational video ad kiosks. [TechCrunch, September 23rd, 2021]
From Moore's Law To Sysmoore: AI Chip Design And How Gordon Moore's Idea Might Be Changing
Moore's law - engineer Gordon Moore's astute observation that the number of transistors on chips will double each year to keep up with the needs of technology - has remained true.
"At one point, Moore's law was adjusted to the number of transistors doubling every 18 months as they got smaller and smaller and harder to pack into chips.
But as Moore's law continues to be stretched to its limits annually in recent years by the demands of chips and technology, there might be a better measure of technological progress, says Aart De Geus, the chairman and co-CEO of electronic design automation (EDA) and semiconductor IP design firm, Synopsys..." [Enterprise AI, September 20th, 2021]
NVIDIA GPUs Stay in Lead In Latest MLPerf Inference Results, but CPUs and Intel Gaining Ground
NVIDIA again dominated the latest round of MLPerf inference benchmark (v 1.1) results when they were unveiled Sept. 23, sweeping the top spots in the closed data center and edge categories
"And in an interesting show of progress, Intel demonstrated x86 competence for inferencing and Arm chips even showed up in the data center results, not just in the edge category. Even, IBM, though not an MLPerf participant, is also jumping into the host CPU-as-inference engine camp. Can AMD be far behind?
Make no mistake, Nvidia GPUs remain the kings of pure-play AI workloads. They have dominated the MLPerf benchmarks (training and inference) since the start in 2018. 'We run every workload, every scenario, every use case for both data center and edge in MLPerf. And we are actually the only company that does that,' said David Salvator, senior product manager, inference and cloud, NVIDIA, in a pre-briefing yesterday..." [Enterprise AI, September 23rd, 2021]
Liquid-Cooled Systems Are Inevitable, But Not Necessarily Profitable
Air is an absolutely terrible medium with which to move or remove heat from a system, but it sure is a lot easier and cheaper (well, at least in terms of the cost of goods sold) than adding some sort of liquid cooling to a system
"But we have always believed that, just as first Dennard clock speed scaling and then Moore's Law transistor shrinks successively ran out of steam, eventually the laws of physics and the demand for more compute performance and more compute density in our systems would make some form of liquid cooling inevitable inside of future systems.
And let's be precise here: We mean all future systems, and we mean very likely using multiple kinds of liquid cooling within the system chassis and across racks and rows of equipment. Liquid cooling is an engineering problem that should be no more of a big deal than a heat sink and a fan, and we should not have to think about it any more than we do the cooling systems for the engines in our cars. It should be built in, and the pursuit of energy efficiency in the cooling of datacenter gear should be a given..." [The Next Platform, September 23rd, 2021]
How Quantum Computing Can Solve Real-World Problems
The history of technology can seem like it was very predictable in retrospect, but the future typically feels more uncertain
"Nowhere is this uncertainty more evident than in the domain of quantum computing. When the spectrum of possible outcomes spans from 'quantum computers will be one of the most important technology developments of all time' to 'quantum computing may never really become practical enough to justify using over a classical computer alternative,' trying to make forecasts can seem futile. However, as a technologist, investor, consumer or just a curious observer, the boundaries and texture of the uncertainty itself can be very interesting, valuable and informative..." [DevOps.com, September 24th, 2021]
Linux
How to Deploy Data-Centers with Cluster and Add ISCSI Storage in RHEV Environment
In this part, we are going to discuss how to deploy data-center with one cluster which contains our two hosts in the RHEV environment. Both of two hosts connected to shared storage, additional to previous preparation, we will add another CentOS6.6 virtual machine acts as storage node.
"Data Center is a terminology describes the RHEV environment resources such as logical, network and storage resources.
Data Center consists of Clusters which include a set of node or nodes, which host virtual machines and its related snapshots, templates and pools. Storage domains are mandatory attached to Data Center to make it working effectively in enterprise environments. Multiple data centers in the same infrastructure could be managed separately by the same RHEVM portal..." [TecMint, September 23rd, 2021]
PeopleTek News
Do You Know Your Team?
How well do you know your team? If you've invested in your staff professionally, perhaps sponsoring the Leadership Journey, you may be familiar with things like Myers-Briggs Type, Listening Style, and preferred Conflict Mode.
"You also know how well they support goals, levels of accountability, and hopefully desired career paths. This is all good, but how well do you know them personally?
Investing time to know about life outside of work builds trust and strengthens relationships. We suggest building in perhaps 5 - 10 minutes in team meetings (team size is obviously a factor), but start the meeting with something fun, interesting, and informative.
Here are some ideas for questions:..." [PeopleTek News, September 20th, 2021]
Sales
6 Pain Points All Sales Teams Will Face In 2022
Most of 2020 and 2021 were filled with challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As companies prepare for 2022, they'll find many of the same issues along with a few new ones. Not everything is due to the pandemic, but it is still impacting global sales.
"The landscape of business changed in 2020, with many businesses shuttering their doors forever during the second quarter. Experts estimate a 22 percent drop in the number of business owners. While many parts of the world have started recovering, there are still numerous issues companies must contend with.
How well your sales team adapts to the many changes can make or break your revenue. What exactly are the paint points your sales teams will face in 2022?..." [Business 2 Community, September 20th, 2021]
3 Takeaways From The 2021 Gartner Market Guide For Sales Enablement Platforms
To buy or not to buy? That is the question - at least it is for the many revenue leaders looking to invest in an enablement platform.
"And with good cause: our sales enablement space is undeniably complex. As a result, overwhelmed buyers are more likely to retain subpar solutions even as research shows that modern platforms increase win rates. Faced with limited time and a messy market, what's a revenue leader to do?
For starters, keep reading - with this blog, we'll demystify the market and help you define what good looks like. Let's get started..." [Business 2 Community, September 21st, 2021]
A Guide To Enterprise Lead Generation
Enterprise leads are the gold standard of lead generation.
They bring in large ACV (annual contract value), provide your business with more social proof, and bring in more overall revenue.
But as with anything great in life, they don't necessarily come easily.
Your typical lead gen strategy may not be enough when targeting the biggest fish. So if you want to grow your leads, it's time to grow your strategy. [The Pipeline, September 23rd, 2021]
Are You Important To Your Customer?
I have to admit, and apologize to a few folks, I lost it in a meeting today.
We were talking about an account strategy. The sales person wanted to meet with the top executives of a very large corporation. I'd been asked to help strategize this and help figure out how they attract the attention to the top executives.
'How is what you do important to these executives?' I asked.
'Well they spend a lot of money on us,' replied the sales person, 'They should be interested in talking to us.' [Business 2 Community, September 20th, 2021]
Sales Process: The Key To Doing Effective Outreach (Without Being Annoying)
So, you've finally started seeing a healthy amount of leads being generated for your business. And it looks like things are finally working well for you
"All you have to do is convince your leads that your product can genuinely help their business. And there will be times when you strike a chord with them on your first try.
But let's be honest!
More often than not, you have to make a real good effort to stand out from your competition to get them to listen.
So, how do you break through?..." [Business 2 Community, September 23rd, 2021]
Top ABM Insights: Maximizing the Sales' Role in ABM/ABX in 2021
It's a misconception that account-based marketing (ABM) is just a marketing initiative
"It's not, and it's also not about simply moving a marketing metric further down the sales funnel. Instead, it's about leveraging a target organization's entire list of relevant contacts and touchpoints through a unified content experience to get a revenue result.
To deliver an effective account-based experience (ABX), it's vital for you to align all your 'rock-face' or external-facing teams in executing it. These include the sales team, your marketing department, and your customer success (CS) representatives. After all, every interaction with a customer or prospect is a chance to deliver value. So, if you aren't making the most of those opportunities, you're leaving money on the table..." [AiTHORITY, September 24th, 2021]
Is Trust Sufficient?
Colleen Francis is running a fascinating survey on LinkedIn. She's posed the question, 'If buyers know you, like you, and trust you, will they buy from you?
"It caused me to reflect, 'is trust sufficient?'
Without a doubt, trust is can be a critical element in the customer's buying decision - we look at the opposite condition, 'Would people buy from people they don't trust?'
We are hesitant to buy from people/organizations we don't trust. We may do this when the risk is very low, when we are very familiar and confident in the offering, when there is no other reasonable opportunity..." [Business 2 Community, September 23rd, 2021]
5 Tips For Increasing Customer Appointments
These days, many people lead busy, overworked lifestyles with competing tasks that require daily attention. As such, some customers are likely to forget that important business appointment they have made with you, and it may be up to you as the business owner to remind them.
"With social distancing rules still being enforced due to COVID-19, many businesses are operating on an 'appointment only' basis to manage the flow of customers. A missed appointment translates to missed sales opportunities, and it is very hard to fill a last-minute appointment. How can a business increase its customer appointments and increase the chances of having the customers show up for the meetings?..." [TechZone360, September 23rd, 2021]
Next-Gen Sales Execs Demand Automation
The last time sales teams were offered real change in their tech offerings was back in the early 2000s, when cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) systems came into vogue
"That technology permanently shifted the way sales teams operated.
More than 20 years later, sales professionals are on the verge of another groundshift, this time to sales automation tools. Evidence suggests there will be increased adoption of this software and, similar to CRM, it will change how sales teams prospect and engage with leads.
'Early adopters of sales automation consistently report increases in customer-facing time, higher customer satisfaction, efficiency improvements of 10 to 15 percent, and sales uplift potential of up to 10 percent,' management consulting firm McKinsey & Company reported in 2020..." [The Pipeline, September 23rd, 2021]
How Small Datapoints Can Drive Big Deals
We've all heard of big data, that nebulous term used to describe a fire hose of information that often overwhelms companies.
"Big data gained a lot of steam - and hype - in the early 2010s. It was seen widely as a huge resource from which to draw business decisions and plan next steps. On the extreme end, some observers pegged big data to cure cancer by deriving personalized treatment options or to keep vending machines always full thanks to real-time sensors monitoring your candy and chip choices..." [The Pipeline, September 23rd, 2021]
Signals That Indicate Cross-Selling Opportunities
'Do you want fries and a coke with that?' - we've all had the ultimate cross-selling experience at McDonald's
Not to mention the temptation of Amazon's 'frequently bought together' section.
As a consumer, you know that cross-selling works. It works so well that Amazon once claimed up to 35% of its revenue comes from cross-selling.
Last year? They saw a 37.4% increase in revenue to a record $96.15 billion.
But how do you know when your B2B customer is indicating sales-readiness for cross-selling opportunities? Let's take a look at the signals that indicate it's time to cross-sell. [The Pipeline, September 23rd, 2021]
Stop Wasting Time Prospecting!
95% of our prospecting is just wasted time, so just stop it! It's too much time to find that 5% who want to talk, and if they really do, they'll reach out to you anyway, inbound is so much easier.
"Think about all the time you are wasting. You are sending those 1000's of emails-granted, it doesn't really take that much time, you've automated it. You only have to hit a few keys and you can send 100's of emails to unsuspecting people. 'Dave, I'd like to tell you about our products...'
You follow those with phone calls, that's much more time consuming, even if you have an intelligent dialing system that only connects you to the few people that pick up the phone. 'Dave, I'd like to tell you about our products..." [Business 2 Community, September 20th, 2021]
Marketing
Inbound Marketing 101: How To Attract And Close Your Ideal Buyers
When was the last time you enjoyed watching commercials? With the exception of maybe the Super Bowl, most people either mute them, skip them, or pay a premium on streaming platforms so that they don't have to watch them.
"And if you can't do any of the above, then you know perfectly well they then become the ideal break to go grab a snack or scroll through social media on your phone. Seriously. Nobody cares.
So what are businesses to do? After all, you need brand awareness to be successful. And how else are you going to let the world know about your new goods or services? Thankfully, inbound marketing is here to the rescue..." [Business 2 Community, September 22nd, 2021]
How To Be A Great Marketer
There's this funny thing about marketing. Everyone has an idea of what it is; or what they perceive it to be, but when you ask them to explain it, there's a myriad of different definitions people use to describe the act and the profession of marketing.
"As the founder and brand director of a marketing firm, when people ask me what my job title is - it's a very simple reply. However, when they ask what it is that I do, and I start describing it - that's when their eyebrows really go up. That's because marketing is such a complex act and career. It's so complex, that just about every marketer has their own definition of what marketing is.myself included.
My definition of marketing is simply this, 'creating concepts to connect with consumers'. Very simple right? It's also very alliterative.which is a great tool for marketing..." [Business 2 Community, September 22nd, 2021]
High-Tech Lead Generation Strategies To Boost Conversion And Retention
Competition in the high-tech industry is very tough. It got even tougher because of the uncertainty and the change that rocked the whole world.
"The change has made a lot of organizations and businesses realize that working from home has a positive impact on their employees. And with that kind of set-up not going away soon, the demand for technology increased. But with greater demand, competition also increased.
The lead generation strategies and tactics you've used may not be enough to provide the results that will make you thrive. With the fast-paced changes in regulations, market dynamics, and loss ratios, high-tech companies need to have a solid sales foundation..." [Business 2 Community, September 20th, 2021]
Why Your Marketing Strategy Needs To Go Beyond Analytics
You hear a lot about analytics these days: how brands need to use 'the numbers' to create content and advertising campaigns.
"It's supposed to make you more efficient: analytics tell you what worked and what didn't so you can create more of what worked.
Sounds logical- what's not to like?
I'm not going to argue against analytics. It's useful to know what's resonating with your target audience. You'd be foolish to ignore that information.
But numbers aren't the whole story. If you follow them slavishly, you'll limit yourself to what's worked before. You'll shy away from breaking new ground..." [Business 2 Community, September 22nd, 2021]
Top 5 Secrets Of Video Marketing To Grow Your Biz
Little shocked? How can video marketing let you grow that too for biz?
"This little trick has a zillion of advantages from increasing leads, to revenue.
Organizations need many things to drive like leadership, promotions, and many more. But in this noisy world, your brand needs a story to narrate!
Stories that are made for better marketing have extravagant emotions but to capture buyers like us they have to play with our nostalgia, influence who we trust, and help us make sense of complex information..." [Business 2 Community, September 20th, 2021]