Top Data Science Interivew: TechBytes with Eyal Mekler, VP APAC at Sisense

Hi Eyal, from Tealium to Sisense – What inspired you to make the transition? 

Helping an organization to harness the power of data to drive business improvement and optimize outcomes has always been a passion of mine. Tealium’s focus was on Customer Data Platforms, which have significant potential for organizations that want to revolutionize the customer experience. It’s an incredibly innovative space, and it was a pleasure to be part of such a growing team.

Sisense to me was the next logical step, as it widens the collection and application of data across the broader organizational remit. It’s exciting to be part of the journey of offering Sisense’s capability to drive organizational change, to the forward-thinking, smart companies in the APAC region.

You have an extensive background in leading customer intelligence companies in the ANZ and APAC regions. Tell us how these regions are shaping up now to compete with the more-established NA and EMEA markets?

I believe these markets are ahead of the curve for a very simple reason. Data is more precious in markets such as ASEAN and ANZ due to population size. Less data, like all commodities, increases its value and makes it even more important to be leveraged effectively.

So when it comes to innovation and competitive edge, never underestimate the organizations operating in the ANZ and APAC regions – they’re certainly very strong forces to contend with globally.

Tell us how your experience as Director of Sales at Experian enabled you to understand the end-user technology market? 

I worked for Hitwise which was purchased by Experian. Hitwise was one of the first organizations that recognized the power of data to drive better decisions. Back then, first-party data was virtually non-existent, so Hitwise focused on syndicated online user behavior to help organizations make better decisions.

It was this exciting experience that opened my eyes to the power that great data, technology and a passion for customer centricity can deliver to organizations.

In an AI-driven world, what approach did you take to transform your Marketing and Sales objectives quarter-after-quarter? What cue did you pick from other companies selling in the same space?

I’ve always focused on inspiring and motivating my team to solve the problem, instead of simply ‘focusing on the problem itself’. It takes years of experience to refine the art of breaking down problems into the sum of each part, then mapping a collaborative solution.

Now, if you can map it to a business objective, and ensure your Marketing and Sales teams are effectively aligned, then your probability of success increases tenfold!

Why do company leaders need Technology Intelligence? What makes Sisense so different in this market?

The Sisense approach is to expedite the ‘time to value ratio’ and reduce the total cost of ownership. We recognize that the faster we can deliver value to our customers the faster they can start seeing benefit from the engagement.

If you are not making data-driven decisions today you are at a massive disadvantage. So we help our customers win back their time and efficiency internally while opening up the opportunity to better serve their own clients at scale.

How does Tech Intelligence help Sales Managers, Account Executives, and SDRs?

All of the above are dependent on good quality data. Who to call, why to call, when to engage –  you can’t be effective if you don’t know the above.

What makes your Tech Intelligence different?

We genuinely want to help businesses streamline, become more agile, drive efficiency, transform and scale – all through the power of data.

On top of this, we actually genuinely want to help our customers and it comes through in all we do. We have a relentless passion for customer success, which is the foundation of any company that wants to make a difference.

It’s no wonder over 2,000 customers across the globe rely on Sisense, including industry leaders like LiveHire, Profectus, Tinder, Philips, Nasdaq, and the Salvation Army.

How does Tech Intelligence help you increase revenue faster?

Tech intelligence like Sisense offers the only independent Cloud-native, an analytics platform for builders to simplify complex data and build and embed analytic apps that deliver insights to everyone inside and outside their organizations.

‘Builders’ can collaborate on Sisense’s single platform, delivered in a multi-cloud environment with the industry’s lowest cost of ownership, resulting in true democratization of data and analytics. In other words, it helps organizations leverage data to make better, more accurate decisions, faster.

What startups in the technology industry are you watching keenly right now?

Walkme, Content Square, Optimizely, and Data Bricks.

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