Agile in the Era of Digitalization : A Finnish Survey Study

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The changing face of innovation policy: implications for the Northern Ireland economy

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WWW visibility in marketing

Abstract. Social media is a vital channel for marketers nowadays. Customers are more empowered today than ever before and the Internet is accelerating the trend toward greater customer empowerment. In few years Web 2.0 has become a highly important media and it has changed the Web into platform where individuals can communicate, assemble and organize data. Web 2.0 also offers a variety of different “tools” for companies to be used in marketing. Because companies and products are visible and discussed in social media, it is recommendable that companies try to seek positive publicity in these media. Thesis aims to describe the opportunities social media provides in organizational use, as well as, to provide an overview of the current situation in social media utilization in Finland. Further, it seeks to investigate the challenges organizations have in social media or in a whole field of E-marketing, and what kind of plans organizations have for the future in a field of E-marketing. The study consists of theoretical and empirical parts. Literature part scrutinizes the literature that covers different sides of online marketing. Empirical part of the study was conducted as a survey research. Results are based on a questionnaire and interviews that were conducted among Finnish companies during time period of spring and autumn 2012. The data was gathered among companies operating in different fields of business. Interviews were transcribed and conclusions were made from those. Because of the limited number of participants that took part to the questionnaire, the results derived from it are merely suggestive. Nevertheless, interviews did strengthen the understanding that was inherited from the questionnaire. The findings reveal that e-marketing has a very important role in the companies’ marketing strategy. Majority of the firms see social media marketing as a positive thing. Yet, the companies were unsure whether they possess the needed skills to do marketing in social media effectively. The results imply that the reason for this is related to the skills and experience the companies have in social media marketing. Those are such issues though, that company will learn and will develop its own way to use social media. This was also showed in the results.Tiivistelmä. Sosiaalinen media on tärkeä markkinointikanava nykypäivänä. Kuluttajilla on nykyään enemmän mahdollisuuksia vaikuttaa kuin koskaan ennen, minkä lisäksi Internet tarjoaa yhä kasvavassa määrin vaikuttamiskeinoja. Muutamassa vuodessa Web 2.0:sta on tullut erittäin tärkeä media, joka on muuttanut Internetin alustaksi, jossa ihmiset voivat kommunikoida sekä koota ja järjestää tietoa. Web 2. tarjoaa useita ”työkaluja” myös yrityksille käytettäväksi markkinoinnissa. Koska yritykset ja tuotteet ovat näkyvissä ja keskustelun kohteena sosiaalisissa medioissa, on suositeltavaa, että yritykset yrittävät hakea positiivista julkisuutta näissä medioissa. Tämä pro gradu -tutkielma pyrkii kuvailemaan mahdollisuuksia, joita sosiaalinen media tarjoaa organisaatioille, minkä lisäksi se tarjoaa yleiskuvan sosiaalisen median hyödyntämisestä Suomessa. Lisäksi tavoitteena on selvittää haasteita, joita organisaatioilla on sosiaalisessa mediassa tai laajemmin sähköisessä kaupankäynnissä, sekä selvittää yritysten tulevaisuuden visioita sähköiselle kaupankäynnille. Tämä työ koostuu kirjallisuuteen perustuvasta teoriaosuudesta sekä empiirisestä osuudesta. Kirjallisuusosuus tarjoaa laajan katsauksen tieteelliseen kirjallisuuteen verkkomarkkinoinnin eri puolilta. Työn empiiristä osuutta varten järjestettiin survey-tutkimus. Tulokset perustuvat kyselytutkimukseen ja haastatteluihin, jotka suoritettiin suomalaisten yritysten piirissä kevään ja syksyn 2012 välisenä aikana. Data kerättiin yrityksiltä, jotka edustivat eri toimialoja. Haastattelut litteroitiin ja päätelmät tehtiin niistä. Koska kyselyyn osallistuneiden yritysten määrää jäi rajalliseksi, kyselystä saadut tulokset ovat lähinnä suuntaa antavia. Siitä huolimatta, suoritetut haastattelut vain vahvistivat kuvaa, joka saatiin kyselystä. Tuloksista ilmenee, että sähköinen markkinointi on tärkeä osa yritysten markkinointistrategiaa. Suurin osa yrityksistä näkee sosiaalisessa mediassa tapahtuvan markkinoinnin positiivisena asiana. Kuitenkin yritykset olivat epävarmoja siltä, osaavatko he tehdä tehokasta markkinointia sosiaalisessa mediassa. Tulokset näyttävät, että epävarmuuden syy löytyy yritysten rajallisesta osaamisesta ja kokemuksesta sosiaalisen median markkinoinnin alueella. Nämä ovat tietenkin asioita, jotka yritys oppii ajan kuluessa ja joissa se kokemuksen karttuessa löytää oman, itselleen sopivan tavan toimia. Tämä tuli näytetyksi myös tuloksissa

Malware Classification based on Call Graph Clustering

Each day, anti-virus companies receive tens of thousands samples of potentially harmful executables. Many of the malicious samples are variations of previously encountered malware, created by their authors to evade pattern-based detection. Dealing with these large amounts of data requires robust, automatic detection approaches. This paper studies malware classification based on call graph clustering. By representing malware samples as call graphs, it is possible to abstract certain variations away, and enable the detection of structural similarities between samples. The ability to cluster similar samples together will make more generic detection techniques possible, thereby targeting the commonalities of the samples within a cluster. To compare call graphs mutually, we compute pairwise graph similarity scores via graph matchings which approximately minimize the graph edit distance. Next, to facilitate the discovery of similar malware samples, we employ several clustering algorithms, including k-medoids and DBSCAN. Clustering experiments are conducted on a collection of real malware samples, and the results are evaluated against manual classifications provided by human malware analysts. Experiments show that it is indeed possible to accurately detect malware families via call graph clustering. We anticipate that in the future, call graphs can be used to analyse the emergence of new malware families, and ultimately to automate implementation of generic detection schemes.Comment: This research has been supported by TEKES - the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation as part of its ICT SHOK Future Internet research programme, grant 40212/0

Aligning marketing and sales - the case of marketing automation in Finnish B2B companies

People are spending increasing amounts of time in digital channels and making purchasing decisions online. During recent years marketing has been under increasing pressure to adapt to this changing customer behavior. The megatrend of digitalization poses new possibilities and threats to all business units, but especially marketing and sales need to find new ways to interact with customers in digital channels. New products are continuously introduced in the marketing technology field, and companies are facing tough decisions on how and what technologies they should invest in to enhance their customer experience and operational effectiveness of marketing and sales. One of the most talked concepts in marketing at the moment, especially in B2B domain, is marketing automation. At the same time, almost every company claims to aim for a customer-centric organization and service experience. Becoming customer-centric requires seamless alignment of marketing and sales, and the early evidence from the field of marketing automation suggests that marketing automation can act as an integrator between marketing and sales to enable that alignment. The purpose of this research is to identify, analyze and categorize what kind of problems Finnish companies encounter when aligning their B2B marketing-sales interface with a marketing automation system. In addition, this research aims to clarify what does a successful marketing automation adaption require in the marketing-sales interface. The theoretical framework of the research is formed from the scattered research field of marketing-sales alignment. Mostly unresearched field of marketing automation and the field of technology as an integrator of marketing and sales are also present in the theory section for better understanding of the context. The research was conducted as an inductive qualitative case research with open and semi-structured interviews. A grounded theory approach was applied for data generation and analysis, where these two phases complemented each other in parallel. Six marketing consultants and six in-house organization experts were interviewed for this research. The key dimensions where Finnish companies seem to face troubles when aligning their sales and marketing with a marketing automation system can be broadly categorized under vision, culture, structure, process and people. Under these dimensions the success themes that emerged from the interview data, by the means of grounded theory, were top-management team, development prioritization, expectations management, data-driven culture, marcomms and sales structure, integrators, metrics, content production and distribution, roles and language, sales activities, customer knowledge generation, knowledge dissemination, incentives and rewards, and training and hiring of people. These themes are the ones that a company planning on investing in a marketing automation platform should revise. The findings of this research indicate that companies aligning their sales-marketing interface with marketing automation system face several aspects that need to be addressed, or the return on investment of a marketing automation system may turn out poor. The findings also support that a marketing automation project should be treated as a business development project, not merely a technology project

Survey on Exploratory Software Testing

Uuriv testimine on testimismeetod, millele pani aluse Cem Kaner 1983. aastal. Käesoleva magistritöö eesmärk on analüüsida, millises ulatuses kasutatakse uurivat testimist Eesti ja Soome tarkvaraettevõtetes ning milline on nende ettevõtete kogemus uuriva testimise osas. Samuti on eesmärgiks otsida seoseid rollide, töökogemuse, asukoha, ettevõtte suuruse, ettevõtte ajaloo, testimise korralduse ja uuriva testimise kasutamise viisi vahel. Lisaks pakub huvi, mida testijad arvavad uuriva testimise meetodist, millised on uuriva testimise eelised ja puudused ning kuidas plaanitakse uurivat testimist täiustada. Eesmärgi saavutamiseks viidi läbi küsitlus isikute hulgas, kes on tööalaselt seotud testimisega. Kahe kuu jooksul saatsid vastused 61 küsitletut, kellest 50 on pärit Eestist ja Soomest. Töös tehakse kokkuvõte saadud vastustest ning vastatakse kolmele peamisele uurimisküsimusele, milleks on: Mis iseloomustab küsitlusele vastanuid, kes kohaldavad uurivat testimist Eestis ja Soomes ja milline kogemus on nende ettevõtetel uuriva testimise kasutamisega? Millised faktorid mõjutavad uuriva testimise kasutamist Eesti ja Soome ettevõtetes? Mida arvavad tarkvaratehnikud uurivast testimisest? Küsitlusele vastanute hulgas on kõige rohkem testijaid (48%) ja juhtivaid testijaid (36%). Ligi 50% vastanutest on rohkem kui 5 aastat töökogemust. Eesti testijatest kasutab uurivat testimist suurem osa (50%) kui Soome testijatest (38%). Uurivat testimist kohaldatakse väikestes ettevõtetes (vähem kui 50 töötajat, 56%) rohkem kui suurtes (32%). Üle 50% ettevõtetest, kus uurivat testimist kohaldatakse, on vanemad kui 5 aastat. Ligikaudu 76% vastanutest, kes kasutavad uurivat testimist, kuuluvad oma ettevõttes eraldiseisvasse testimisorganisatsiooni. Töökogemus tundub olevat Eestis ja Soomes peamine faktor, mis mõjutab, kas uurivat testimist kasutatakse või mitte. Vastanud, kellel on pikaajaline töökogemus, kasutavad uurivat testimist rohkem kui need, kellel on väiksem töökogemus. Ettevõtte suurus on märgatavalt erinev Eesti ja Soome uurivat testimist kohaldavate ettevõtete vahel. Eestis eelistavad kasutada uurivat testimist vastanud väikestest ettevõtetest, kuid Soomes kasutavad uurivat testimist rohkem suurtest ettevõtetest pärit vastajad. Vastajad toovad välja, et uuriv testimine soosib loovust ning on efektiivne. Samas arvavad mõned vastanud, et uuriv testimine nõuab testijalt suuremat testimisalast võimekust, mis tähendab, et uuriv testimine ei sobi igaühele. Mõned vastanud saavad kasutada uurivat testimist vaid vähestes olukordades, mistõttu leiavad nad, et uuriv testimine ei ole paindlik. Peamine probleem uuriva testimisega on, et seda on raske salvestada. Enamik vastanutest on valmis muutma uuriva testimise salvestamise strateegiat.Exploratory Testing (ET) is a testing method that was created by Cem Kaner in 1983 [1]. [Pleease double-check: In the references (Section 6) it says Kaner, Falk and Nguyen, and the year is 1993. ET was created in 1983, but this was mentioned in references [6] in 1993]The objective of this thesis is to investigate to what extent ET is currently applied in Estonian and Finnish software companies and what experience the companies have with using ET. Also, we want to know more about the relationship between role, working experience, location, company size, company history, type of test organization and the way how ET is used. In addition, we try to find out how testers think about ET, e.g., the advantages and disadvantages of ET, and how they plan to improve ET. To achieve the objective of this thesis, we decided to use a survey to gather replies from testing relevant roles. After over 2 months, we got 61 replies. 50 are from Estonia and Finland. We summarize all information and answer three main research questions of this study, which are: RQ 1: What characterizes those respondents that apply ET in Estonia and Finland and what experience do their companies have with using ET? RQ 2: Which factors have an influence on using ET in Estonian and Finnish companies? RQ 3: How do software engineers think about ET? Respondents in Estonian and Finnish companies who apply ET are mostly testers (48%) and test managers (36%). Close to 50% of the respondents have more than five years of working experiences. More Estonian testers (50%) use ET than Finnish testers (38%). ET has been applied in small companies (less than 50 employees, 56%) relatively more often than in large companies (32%). Over 50% of the companies applying ET are older than 5 years. About 76% of the respondents who use ET are members of a separate testing organization within their company. “Working experience” seems to be the main factor that influences whether a company applies ET in Estonia and Finland. Respondents who have much working experience use ET more than those who have less working experience.“Company size” is significantly different between those companies which apply ET in Estonia as compared to Finland. Respondents who are from smaller companies in Estonia prefer using ET, but in Finland, bigger companies’ respondents use ET more than those who are from smaller companies. Respondents consider that ET supports creativity, and ET are efficient and effective. Meanwhile some respondents think ET requires higher testing ability for testers, which means ET does not suit for everyone. Some respondents can use ET for so limit testing situations that make them considering that ET is inflexible. The main problem which ET brings is“hard to record”. Most respondents are willing to change the recording strategy of ET

Marketing budget optimisation: key metrics and trends, according to specialists

The importance of marketing budget optimisation is undeniably growing. A survey by Gartner showed that marketing budgets increased to 12% of company revenue in 2016, from 11% in 2015 (Marketing Weekly News, 2016). Not only are marketing budgets increasing, but advancements in data collection and analytics deliver firms a whole new array of marketing information to interpret, opening new possibilities to marketing budget optimisation. However, despite the growth in investment, most of the existing literature regarding the subject is still debating concepts and definitions (Gao, 2010), reducing its utility to managers that seek streamlined and practical information to apply to their companies. This leads to the objective of this dissertation, which is to gather and analyse the opinions of marketing specialists regarding key metrics and trends related to marketing budget optimisation, according to the type of company. Through a Real-Time Delphi methodology used to gather the opinions of specialists on the matter, this dissertation came to several interesting conclusions. The main conclusion is that the topic of marketing budget optimisation is non-consensual, due to its complexity and scope. This means that the type of company alone was not enough to reach a consensual conclusion among specialists, as other criteria such as the market that the company operates in, its competition, product lifecycle, and objectives are also considered crucial. Despite these shortcomings, several key metrics were identified according to the chosen types of company, and trends were identified in marketing budget optimisation such as programmatic marketing, earned media, and marketing automation.A importância da otimização do orçamento de marketing está indubitavelmente a crescer. Um estudo da Gartner mostrou que os orçamentos de marketing aumentaram de 11% das receitas das empresas em 2015, para 12% em 2016 (Marketing Weekly News, 2016). A juntar a isto, os avanços na recolha de dados dão às empresas todo um novo conjunto de informação, abrindo as portas à otimização do orçamento de marketing. Contudo, apesar do crescimento em investimento, a literatura atual ainda debate conceitos e definições (Gao, 2010), reduzindo a sua utilidade para os gestores que procuram informação mais prática para aplicarem nas suas empresas. Isto leva-nos ao objetivo desta dissertação, recolher e analisar as opiniões dos especialistas de marketing relativamente às métricas e tendências da otimização do orçamento de marketing de acordo com o tipo de empresa. Através de uma metodologia Real-Time Delphi para recolher as opiniões dos especialistas, esta dissertação chegou a várias conclusões interessantes. A principal conclusão é que o tema é não-consensual, devido à sua complexidade e extensão. O tipo de empresa não foi suficiente para chegar a uma conclusão consensual entre os especialistas, pois outros critérios como o mercado, competição, ciclo de vida do produto e objetivos também foram considerados cruciais. De qualquer modo, várias métricas-chave foram identificadas de acordo com o tipo de empresa escolhido e identificaram-se tendências na otimização do orçamento de marketing como o marketing programático, earned media e automação do marketing