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West Corporation to Acquire Flowroute

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West Corporation to Acquire Flowroute
West Corporation to Acquire Flowroute

The Addition of Flowroute Allows West Clients to Gain an Even More Reliable, High-Quality User Experience for Their Cloud Communication Solutions

West Corporation, a global leader in technology-enabled services, announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Seattle-based Flowroute, a leading software-centric service provider that supplies communication services and technology for cloud-based products.

Flowroute’s patented HyperNetwork helps businesses replace multiple vendors and interfaces with a single telecom network, managed through an intuitive portal. Flowroute offers a communication platform that enables independent software vendors, value-added resellers and enterprises of all sizes to quickly and easily migrate premise-based communication systems to voice over internet protocol (VoIP), as well as customize and automate services with application programming interfaces (APIs).

John Shlonsky
John Shlonsky

“By providing businesses with innovative programmatic access to communications infrastructure services, Flowroute removes the complexity of bringing new communications solutions to market. The nationwide HyperNetwork delivers leading carrier-quality calling, messaging, and SIP trunking services with unparalleled reliability, reach, and simplicity,” said John Shlonsky, CEO of West Corporation. “This acquisition adds to West’s network by bringing a cloud-based communication platform with core technical tools and APIs. The combination will create an exciting software-centric telecommunications and networking solution that West can offer to both existing and new clients.”

Also Read: West Corporation Closes Landmark Acquisition of Nasdaq’s Public Relations and Digital Media Businesses

The acquired technology also enhances West’s delivery of many existing service offerings. The addition of Flowroute allows West clients to gain an even more reliable, high-quality user experience for their cloud communication solutions.

“Flowroute is the sixth complementary acquisition made by West in the past year,” stated Rob Wechsler, President of West Corporation. “We are excited to continue to enhance West’s cloud-based offerings through both innovation and acquisition, providing customers with a broad product set of West solutions.”

The closing of this transaction, which is subject to regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions, is expected to occur in the third quarter of 2018.

Recommended Read: Bit by Bit, Moving Away from Goo.gl

Insights on Social Media Marketing: Scoop the Best for B2B Marketing

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Insights on Social Media Marketing: Scoop the Best for B2B Marketing
Insights on Social Media Marketing: Scoop the Best for B2B Marketing

We Reveal How to Use Social Media as an Effective B2B Customer Service Tool for Active Engagement and Brand Building

Did you know that 71% of consumers who have had a good social media service experience with a brand are likely to recommend it to others?

Not long ago, businesses would focus on newspapers and advertising through print. They still do, but clearly, digital media has taken over a major share of the branding budget in 2018. Now with smartphones and social media technology, businesses prefer to surf the tide of customer service using new-age marketing technologies. Social Media Marketing clearly demonstrates how technology amplifies brand messaging and meets new benchmarks in customer service benchmarks.

B2B marketing insights incorporated in social media are effective methods for traffic generation, interactive engagement and brand association.

  • IBM Watson worked with the US open to deliver real-time insights on Instagram of new engagements and experiences for millions of online fans. Customers form associations with the event and the brand, thus being an effective real-time marketing scenario.
  • A video is often named as the tool which has helped gain traffic in various areas of businesses. In the area of video marketing for B2B marketing efforts, 97% of marketers believe that videos have helped increase user understanding of a certain product/service.
  • Real-time responsiveness plays a critical role in customer experience. A great example of this is the Facebook page of Bluehost. Bluehost is one of the leading web hosting services company and boasts of a strong social media presence. The unrelenting efforts of their social media team provide opportunities to the brand in coordinating with their audience on real-time concepts.

Also Read: Socialbakers Named a Leader in Social Media Marketing Suites, Analytics, Management and Monitoring

Customer centricity is the pillar of any B2B or B2C social media marketing concept. A consistent rhythm of working through engagement campaigns is what makes the B2B social media marketing sphere ever dynamic and progressive.

To-do list for a strong social media marketing campaign

A number of businesses use the wrong path while pursuing leads on social media. The marketing technique used here must be effective in analyzing the weak links and strengthening those that have the potential to be efficient and affordable. In order to execute a robust social media campaign, follow these specifics:

Dedicate time to understand the intricacies of social media

A number of social media marketing tips are prevalent online, but the key goal here is to experiment, understand, and then pursue the ultimate goal. Curiosity is the key here, folks.

Listen to your clients/customers for valuable information

Having certain leads for ongoing commentary/advice or recommendations on feeds, posts or campaigns is important. Customers shall leave in positive or negative responses, but analysis of both reactions are important.

Real-time conversations exist and must be utilized

In the current world of rapidly growing technology and speed; unhappy customers who wish to communicate must be given importance to. Responsive time management is crucial. An auto-reply response generated by social media platforms would be an added bonus here. This will help customers in having a waiting time allotted, after which a real-time conversation can smoothly flow.

Also Read: 81 Percent Of Small Business Owners Are Uncertain When It Comes To Their Social Media Marketing Efforts

Social media marketing management

Many marketers aim to target 4-5 social media platforms at once, and this causes friction between coordination and calculation of insights. The to-do list here would be to focus on one platform with the right content and then expand eventually, after achieving the desired target.

Measuring Targets

No social media campaign has been proclaimed as “effective” without measuring targets and analyzing social media growth. According to DMA, “56% are using engagement metrics (likes, comments, shares, and retweets) to measure the success of social media.”
The objective is the same and it applies to both small business and enterprises; build structured content and then present it to the right audience. This fuels the audience for active engagement and tracks performance accordingly. Social media marketing has become a prerequisite, one that is implemented by businesses for overall presence. It also impacts the effect social networks have on users.

Content for Social Media Marketing

Posting content for social media has to be productive and valuable. The concept of quality over quantity is a must. There are numerous ways of generating content which in return will create leads and direct traffic.

Infographics

The addition of digital Infographics to your social media marketing campaign is a fun and quick way of transcribing the message to an audience. Infographics are fluent to understand and can give the user a massive break from monotony. Do make sure that the content made available via the infographic is visually appealing and productive towards your target audience.

Infographics

User Generated Content or UGC

Content created by unpaid contributors is explained as UGC. This method of capitalizing on engagement taps into psychological behavior by analyzing how consumers react to stimuli presented by the company. This helps the company understand KPIs in analyzing crowd response and user-generated ideas/thoughts.
A powerful example of UGC is Adobe. #AdobePerspective is used by the American MNC software company. The hashtag represents a way of expression for content creators, artist enthusiasts and creative entities that use Adobe Suite. With this UGC theme, Adobe got a chance to show their software skills on a large shared platform. Adobe doesn’t stop here! They created another hashtag in 2017 called #Adobe InColor which is the company’s Pride Month-themed UGC campaign. It generated 300 posts in the first few weeks of June 2017. Adobe’s examples of UGC are exceptional since it gives users a chance to portray their skills and also generates a consumer-centric experience which boosts their metric measurements.

GIFs

GIF translates to the Graphic Interchange Format. GIF is an image format in which visual files can be shared and viewed. The format supports both animated and static images. GIFs are gaining popularity in the social media platform and add interesting visual components to a company’s portfolio. Incorporating GIFs into a social media marketing strategy will be a relatively new feature. Yet it will be approved by the fresh urban crowd of today because of its quirky and fun-filled appeal.

Concept Visualization

Visualizing a single concept with self-explanatory graphs, charts and paragraphs will be easy to implement in a company’s social media strategy. Embedding such visuals shall boost a company’s website and social media game since digestible facts are easier to consume, in comparison to solid bricks that are difficult to chew! These graphics are also shareable and commentary received on interesting topics can help you leverage metrics on the decided social media campaign.

Social media campaign

Social Media and Social Media Marketing Tools

Due to the rapidly developing internet hype, social media users have reached an all-time high! Most of the social media users excessively leverage specific social networking sites to distribute content and increase traffic/leads.

Apart from the common social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, Google+ and YouTube— Marketers can also leverage other social media tools that can help blend content seamlessly and increase engagement.

Also Read: Hottest Trends in Social Media Marketing Technology For 2018

To hone language and improve the quality of content, below are 3 popular tools for social media marketers in the fields of calculating outreach, scaling images and video editing.

Percentage Calculator

Percentage Calculator is a free online tool which is used to calculate percentages. This is especially beneficial for social media marketers who find it time-consuming to analyze the increase and decrease of outreach for social media posts. With percentage calculator, the regular marketer can help turn raw data into definite percentages.  Instead of structuring correct mathematical formulas, the app can simplify a task by entering numbers into the calculator’s sentence based structure. It helps in doing the computation for you, significantly transforming the digital platform.

Landscape by Sprout Social

Landscape by Sprout Social efficiently scales the sizes of images for social media. Each social media network has different image sizes and coverage. For an image to fit all platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn; cropping, resizing and positioning are required. Landscape makes this easy by catering to needs of image editing by providing a platform fit for all. Landscape performs these edits with no compromises. After uploading the image to Landscape/SproutSocial, Landscape caters to different options for you. Landscape systematically resizes images meant for every platform, thus making your task simple and organized. It’s a free tool and comes with a download tab after edits, hence simplifying your social media managing platform.

Magisto

Magisto is a super-cool AI-powered video editing tool. Simply upload videos/movie clips or audio files from the desktop or smartphone app. Magisto will analyze faces, objects, camera motion or people; synching the music beats to the video footage. You can choose an edit amongst those provided either on the mobile app or website, and the results will be astonishing!

Social media is an efficacious medium for marketers and for business solutions. It fosters communication by augmenting social media marketing with key metrics is a definite way of calculating the effectiveness of strategy campaigns. The results are pure, rapid and valuable. With digitalization, social media marketing is the ideal way of connecting to an audience in a redefined driven innovation.

Recommended Read:  Unmetric Addresses Facebook’s Global Launch of View Ads for all Brand Pages

Seven Email Marketing Automation Features You Should Consider to Drive Better Results

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Seven Email Marketing Automation Features You Should Consider to Drive Better Results
Seven Email Marketing Automation Features You Should Consider to Drive Better Results

Thinking of Amping up Your Email Marketing Strategies? Here’s What You Need to Know

Changing market trends and booming businesses globally have paved ways to newer, smarter and effective methods to showcase every product’s appeal. The current enterprising epoch inclines towards digitizing their business; marketing occupying a major chunk of their digital roadmap. Email marketing is one such sliver of the entire pie of this brave new world of digital marketing.

“Email has an ability many channels don’t: creating valuable, personal touches – at scale.”

– David Newman

Here are the key features you should look for in email marketing platforms before investing in them –

Seven pillars to sustain Email Marketing Automation

Any marketing initiative, especially for an organization that is only just starting carries with it, high stakes and hopes. Such initiatives are responsible to dictate the future for many enterprises. By following these seven features to be incorporated into an email marketing campaign, the success chances for the campaign are potentially very high.

Lead Streaming

64% of people prefer text rich emails. After finalizing your targeted audience list, an email copy needs to be created that is rich in content and praises product attributes. Since the recipient is interested in a product like this, it will arouse curiosity ultimately transforming into a strong prospective client. Leads are the biggest asset that product and service companies have and converting them into happy customers should be the main priority for organizations.

Lead handling can be arduous if done manually. Automating lead generation saves a lot of time and energy for marketers allowing them to undertake other tasks. Handing over the best possible leads to their aligned sales teams or getting in touch with leads that are cooling off are usually critical but overlooked tasks that can generate more business.

Hence company emails should be automated to precisely capture leads and process them in the interest of the organization. There are many platforms where email automation can be set up to requirement. Companies who are willing to automate email should do some amount of research to understand which email automation components suit them the best.

Also Read: Email Marketing Company Emma Delivers Solution-Driven Integration with Venga

Email sequence management

Every client engagement attempt is never going to be the same. Email content needs to change depending on who is receiving it. Workflow management for shuffling content becomes a nightmare if performed manually. It further worsens if organizations don’t have enough staff to encapsulate the entire bandwidth of this activity. Add to that the burden of client locations, preferences, and time-zones.

As the backlog of reaching out to clients grows, potential client lists in your database start going in the backburner adding up to a marketing impasse. The beauty of automating this side of email is that it simplifies an otherwise complex task of drafting an email from scratch. Sending client specific product brief(s) becomes a breeze.

2018 is going to be all about customizing the email marketing sphere and companies need to get this right in order to keep up with the competition. Hence, workflow management has to be up to the mark and business friendly.

51% of companies have implemented Marketing Automation with more than half (58%) of B2B companies expected to adapt to this technology.

Effective templates

A huge part of amplifying client experience is telling them loudly that ‘we care.’ Organizations cannot speak with every client personally. Hence, an email template is the best substitute to do so. Templates allow personalizing product content to a heavy extent. Product briefs, loyalty pitches, and increasing brand awareness can be done with a lot of panache via templates.

Other than the ‘customer care quotient’, templates also add life to a conventionally black and white piece of electronic mail. A template that associates itself with the principle of the organization that is sending it out, adds value in manifolds towards brand awareness and brand recognition. Think of it as a mascot! Readers associate the email with a brand they love.

Template automation platforms come pre-loaded with a plethora of template options. Templates can also be customized. 61 percent of consumers enjoy receiving promotional emails weekly. 38 percent would like emails to come even more frequently. Hence a good looking email guarantees to magnify your brand value.

Also Read: Oracle Recognized as a Leader in Email Marketing by Independent Analyst Firm

The email swarm

A client database is always built around market research. These databases are huge and are based on the fact that these lists of consumers were interested in a product; this product is similar to your enterprise’s offerings.

Sending an email to thousands of people manually that may be interested in your product is frankly, impossible. Targeting such a huge list, marketing emails going to them should have the feature of bulk sending. It’s the easiest and the most effective way to send your message across.

The average email marketing ROI is 122%, four times higher than any other digital marketing techniques.

Unlimited email lists

LinkedIn, inbound leads, business contacts, twitter, conference stakeholders, personal network et al. are just a few places where tremendous amounts of leads can come in. Again going by the aforementioned principle of providing a customized experience for each group of target audiences, segregating the same is important to reach out differently to a different group.

This arrangement is also essential because as a marketer, your company would be generating various styles of original content to be sent to its network. So imagine the task of unchecking each box of the receiver to whom this email should not go to. Automating bulk email comes pre-loaded with a ‘distributed lists’ feature wherein a set of people can be compiled in a list and content sending can be streamlined accordingly.

This feature is very basic but is essential to make the email marketing campaign seamless and successful. Distribution lists should be an integrated component of bulk emailing with a simple and easy to use GUI.

Click-throughs are 100.95% higher in segmented email campaigns than non-segmented campaigns.

Also Read: Epsilon Named a Leader for Email Marketing Services by Independent Research Firm; Recognized for Unmatched Balance of Strong Technology and Professional Services

Email Analytics

So it’s all amazing! You customize a message, put amazing graphics while your content is on par with client requirement. You package it in the best possible template to the right people and voila, send it!

Do you get to know — ‘What exactly happened to that email?’

As an organization, it is your duty to know exactly, the statistics behind the journey of your email. The best part, now this can be automated as well. Email marketing automation now possesses the capabilities to monitor if the recipient clicked on the email coupled with the rate of response which eventually helps you as an organization to conclude if the email campaign was or was not successful.

The combination of metrics available to track emails is vast. Hence in order to keep a simplistic approach, it is suggestive that tracking of emails is solely dependent on the enterprise’s business objectives.

Email marketing is set to become a three billion dollar business in the U.S.A by 2019. This massive surge in funding is proof that currently, email marketing is the biggest boon for enterprises.

Seamless Integration with Third-Party Software

Email automation suite that an enterprise chooses for its marketing should have the ability to integrate with third-party software. This is so because a third-party software may be successful in resolving an existing roadblock.

This arrangement is also essential so that these software(s) introduce a window of opportunity if the marketing think tank of that organization wants to implement a brand new idea.

Most third-party integration software pieces are inexpensive if not free. Also, Integrations retain users, nearly 50% better in fact.

Also Read: Elite SEM Acquires Email Aptitude, Completes Full Digital Offering With CRM, Email Marketing, & Creative Services

Migrating to a healthier email automation eco-system 

49% of companies globally have already leveraged marketing automation in order to guarantee business success.

Evidently, a shift to automating email has become the need of the hour. Organizations are understanding this and dynamically absorbing automation.

This mass movement is a huge boost to marketing initiatives, especially email marketing. Automating marketing is a must now because enterprises need speed, scale, and buyer volume to sell products.

Over the years though, this transition has portrayed potential flaws which may be catastrophic to business value. The two mistakes that organizations typically make with email marketing are—

Excessive emails 

Companies continue to send emails to potential buyers even though they have chosen to opt out. Marketers may not even be aware of its occurrence, but it happens due to uncalibrated automation. The result? Severe drop in brand value! Also, the uphill task of gaining customer loyalty back.

Spam 

Campaigns are notoriously famous to appear as scams due to bad email automation. Audience response is that of detest subsequently causing a fall in company reputation. Worst case scenarios are proof that enterprises have been sued due to spam emails.

The only solution is that of marketer vigil. There is an array of tools made available to constantly track all dimensions of email campaigning.

Embedding next level technologies should ensure that a company benefits from it. A foolproof email marketing campaign is only possible when the human mind and technology work hand in hand.

Hence, email marketing success is only possible when technologies are leveraged and utilized to the best of their capabilities.

Recommended Read: Personalizing Email Marketing Is The Key to Success In 2018

Role of Fan Experience and Marketing Analytics in Influencing Global Sporting Trends

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Role of Fan Experience and Marketing Analytics in Influencing Global Sporting Trends
Role of Fan Experience and Marketing Analytics in Influencing Global Sporting Trends

The Latest Nielsen Sports’ Report Finds Why Tapping the Power of eSports and Marketing Analytics is a Top Priority for Publishers, Brands, Media and Traditional Sporting Campaigns

Two of the biggest sporting events are underway — The FIFA World Cup Russia 2018 and Wimbledon 2018. And for someone who loves motorsport, the weekend was blazed hot by Max Verstappen in his Red Bull Formula 1 car and the duo in Ferrari at the Spielberg racing track. With so much happening in the sporting arena, how could we keep the role of digital media and data analytics out of it! In the first article of our series on sporting trends influenced by analytics and marketing technologies, we decided to feature Nielsen Sports and their latest report.

Here are some interesting revelations made by Nielsen Sports in their latest report, titled “Top 5 Global Sporting Trends 2018”.

Fans Consume Quality Content at a Disruptive Pace

Live sports remain the most heavily consumed sports content commodity. However, fans are evolving with their choice of consumption, largely attributed to their attention spans. Fan engagement is taking a new route to how content is distributed. Shorter attention spans mean shorter highlights that generate more views.

The report clearly identified fan engagement moments in Formula 1 at the Mexico Grand Prix 2017.

AR/VR, AI and Chatbots Key to Sporting Trends

Fan engagement is seeing new horizons with the growth and ready-availability of technologies like AR/VR, and chatbots. For instance, IBM and the All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) released AI-powered automated video highlights for Wimbledon fans.

The company also unveiled The Wimbledon Messenger. It is a social assistant for those off-site, utilizing the Watson Assistant chatbot capability and delivered within Facebook Messenger. IBM Watson is creating a Wimbledon 150 poster using AI, archiving the best moments of the Championship since its inception!

AI Highlights Dashboard, via IBM
AI Highlights Dashboard, via IBM

Technology partners like SAP, Microsoft, and IBM are creating new avenues of story-telling, supporting brands with better IT infrastructure to connect to fans, and partners. Data-driven approaches are at the center of all sporting encounters, marking the rise of savvy, digital marketing teams.

Pay Television Is the “Engine” of Media Revenue; Internet Giants Are Catching Up

New technology giants, including Facebook, YouTube and Amazon are trailblazing digital advertising with much-improved sports content. Low-priced OTT, cord-cutters and live streaming technologies have put traditional Pay TV systems under intense pressure. Despite the competition, Nielsen Sports finds that the Pay TV model remains the primary sports-to-cash media revenue engine.

Power of Micro-Influencers and Celebrities

A large part of content consumption online could be attributed to the rise of micro-influencers and celebrities following the sports. Creating content is expensive; influencers and athletes are true ambassadors who deliver better content monetization opportunities.

Brand-driven content is also delivering enormous, new plains for marketing and media teams to reach and engage fans.

Sports Influence Positive Social Behavior

Nielsen Sports acknowledged the role of sports and society and their fast-changing dynamics. Data analytics reveal that socio-economic factors like racial equality, diversity, gender, sexuality, and environment are dominating media and influencing the audience to get closer to the sports business.

via Nielsen Sports 2018
via Nielsen Sports

Women’s sports and avenues encouraging minority communities (ethnic) would continue to grow and drive more engagements with sports media and marketing. Nielsen Sports reports that digital spending will increase further on sponsorships and sporting campaigns that showcase a brand’s efforts to promote ethnic diversity, sustainability and other social issues.

eSports: The Blink-and-You-Miss Opportunity

eSports, though still in its infancy, has a credible revenue-generating track record. However, compared to traditional media and online sports campaigns, eSports pales in comparison. More of an entertainment rather than a fully sports-driven segment, eSports could become the next dollar goldmine. Niesen Sports suggests that the eSports community would grow if they generate creative content, powered by up-scale fan experience and events engagement technologies, like IBM  for Wimbledon.

Marketing Data and Analytics:  The Perfect Opportunity for Brands to Connect with Eager Fans

Whether watching TV or experiencing the raw adrenaline from the stadiums, fans are the most loyal customers for sporting brands. To enable better insights on these fans and viewers, Nielsen announced the launch of Nielsen Live, which delivers real-time data from Nielsen-visited stores to help brands manage their stock appropriately during the matches. The solution also helps Nielsen clients to identify and track stock and distribution levels of ordered items, as well as promotion success, in real-time from anywhere.

We would keep an eye on digital media and marketing data analytics from sporting events that are redefining retail measurement and fan experiences at an unprecedented pace.

Attentive Named a “Company To Watch” by The Lead

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Attentive Named a “Company To Watch” by The Lead

Using Real-time Analytics, Attentive’s Platform Automatically Sends Highly Personalized Text Messages to Subscribers at Each Step of the Customer Lifecycle

Attentive, the personalized mobile messaging platform for e-commerce and retail businesses, announced that it has been named a “Company to Watch” by The Lead.

The Lead is an organization focused on connecting fashion brands and retailers with next-generation digital technologies. It released the “Companies to Watch” list in its quarterly publication on June 21, 2018.

Noah Gellman
Noah Gellman

“The four companies highlighted in this list represent what is coming next in the fashion and retail industry,” said Noah Gellman, Co-Founder & CEO, The Lead. “Our analysts closely evaluated how these businesses are reinventing various aspects across the industry and changing consumer behavior while creating new business opportunities along the way.”

Attentive was the only marketing technology company selected for the list.

Also Read: Tencent and L’Oréal Pioneer New Marketing Solutions for “Digital China”

Attentive currently works with over 100+ innovative e-commerce and retail businesses. Using real-time analytics, Attentive’s platform automatically sends highly personalized text messages to subscribers at each step of the customer lifecycle. The company has also developed a patent-pending solution for marketers to seamlessly gain mobile subscriber opt-ins from digital properties.

Brian Long
Brian Long

Other companies included on the list are Modern Meadow, which has bioengineered sustainable leather; Flow, which has modernized supply chain configuration technology; and Oak Labs, which has developed a cutting-edge dressing room experience.

“We’re excited to be recognized by The Lead as a forward-thinking company that is reshaping the retail industry,” said Brian Long, Co-Founder & CEO, Attentive. “We started Attentive because we saw a massive opportunity— consumers want a more personalized and direct way to connect with their favorite brands, and marketers want a new channel with powerful performance. For these reasons, we believe that messaging is the next frontier of mobile marketing.”

Recommended Read:  Trusted Media Brands Names Larry Mlawski VP of Revenue Operations

Drift Named a “Cool Vendor” in Conversational Marketing by Gartner

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Drift Aquires Siftrock

Drift Enables Marketers to Cut out Traditional, Tedious Sales and Marketing Processes Using the Power of a Conversation

Drift, the world’s first conversational marketing and sales platform, has been named a “Cool Vendor” in Gartner’s new report, Cool Vendors in Conversational Marketing.

Gartner conducts annual evaluations of emerging technology companies that are changing the market by addressing a wide array of industry issues and trends. For the Cool Vendors in Conversational Marketing report, Gartner identified companies that are leading the evolution of marketing with solutions that facilitate and orchestrate conversational experiences including customer acquisition, qualification and engagement.

“Conversational marketing will be a recognized channel of B2B and B2C customer engagement and revenue by 2020, displacing a combination of marketing, sales and service activities,” said Gartner Analysts Benjamin Bloom and Mike McGuire. “Conversational marketing includes the use of persistent, stateful, cross-channel dialogues, in conversational style, to improve customer and business metrics across the Buy/Own/Advocate journey. By adopting some of the style and channels of consumer-to-consumer messaging, conversational marketing strategies can humanize their interactions with consumers.

Also Read: Drift Introduces Sequences: Email That Helps Customers Buy

David Cancel
David Cancel

Through a seamless approach to B2B sales and conversational marketing, Drift helps businesses convert more website visitors into qualified leads and schedule more sales meetings with potential customers quickly and easily. Drift enables marketers to cut out traditional, tedious sales and marketing processes using the power of a conversation. Conversations accelerate the typical sales cycle to only take days and minutes rather than months and weeks, ultimately increasing total sales and revenue.

“We created conversational marketing because people need a more modern way to buy from businesses,” said David Cancel, Drift CEO and Founder. “Drift is like taking your businesses’ best sales rep and making them available on your website 24/7/365 to help everyone who stops by. We believe being recognized as a Cool Vendor in Conversational Marketing validates our work and leadership in Conversational Marketing – but it is only the beginning of our bigger vision to reimagine B2B commerce and change the way businesses buy from businesses.”

Recommended Read: Drift Picks Six & Flow as First UK Partner to Expand Global Reach

PushSpring Launches Audience Marketplace, Democratizing Data Buying

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PushSpring Launches Audience Marketplace, Democratizing Data Buying
PushSpring Launches Audience Marketplace, Democratizing Data Buying

The New Audience Marketplace Enhances the Experience for over 650 Agencies and Brands That Leverage the PushSpring Audience Console to Create Robust Audience Segments for Analysis and Activation

PushSpring, the leading independent provider of deterministic, mobile-originated data, unveils the first self-service audience marketplace designed for easy and intuitive access to buying, planning, and insights marketing functions. The marketplace is the first to allow marketers to quickly craft custom audiences for both activation and strategic insights, with full transparency and same-day execution.

PushSpring’s platform democratizes data learning with a streamlined UI, visual audience discovery experience, and intuitive audience creation tools. The logic-based platform search solution helps marketers identify and compare audiences based on attributes that qualify and contribute toward campaign goals. Previously data buying relied on the knowledge of specific data providers, and complex nested taxonomies. This solution revolutionizes the data buying experience offering intelligent keyword search and vertical browsing.

Jason Webby
Jason Webby

“The PushSpring platform has completely transformed and simplified the audience discovery and activation experience, so customers can maximize their understanding of audiences, regardless of platform, and reach them in one streamlined process. We are pleased to make V12 Data’s suite of rich data assets available via this innovative and refreshing audience creation experience,” said Jason Webby, Chief Revenue Officer of V12 Data.

Also Read: comScore Partners with PushSpring to Enhance and Expand Mobile Audience Segments

Justin Sous
Justin Sous

“Marketers need flexible, transparent tools to keep up with today’s consumers who prefer personalized and relevant ad experiences”, says Justin Sous, Head of Optimization & Innovation at Kepler Group, “PushSpring’s Marketplace brings needed clarity and customization to mobile audience data, simplifying discovery of a brand’s most desired consumers, with a seamless workflow for rapid test and learn cycles across the programmatic ecosystem.”

The new Audience Marketplace enhances the experience for over 650 agencies and brands that leverage the PushSpring Audience Console to create robust audience segments for analysis and activation. The Audience Marketplace gives them access to over 10,000 segments across key audience verticals, representing best-in-class deterministic data along with PushSpring’s Persona and App Ownership audiences. Marketers can now create hyper-targeted, real-time custom segments combining deterministic data across data providers into one campaign-specific audience for same day activation.

“PushSpring Audience Marketplace is an exciting evolution for the market,” adds Valerie Teo, Insights & Strategy at Publicis.”Nearly everyone on our team can access multiple data sets across quality providers, in an easy-to-use UI. This helps take the guesswork out of pricing and payments and lets us focus on reaching the most relevant audiences at scale.”

PushSpring customers can activate custom audiences through top DMPs, DSPs and more than 150 execution platforms across mobile, display, video, tv, social, and other digital platforms.

Recommended Read: Roku Introduces Audience Marketplace for OTT Ad Sellers and Buyers

Tracking First Announces New Headquarters and Appoints Matt Nelson as VP of Marketing

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Tracking First Announces New Headquarters and Appoints Matt Nelson as VP of Marketing
Tracking First Announces New Headquarters and Appoints Matt Nelson as VP of Marketing

Tracking First Recently Secured $4 Million in Funding

Tracking First, an enterprise data governance platform designed to enable true, cross-channel enterprise insights, announced the opening of its new global headquarters in Provo, Utah. The company has also appointed Matt Nelson as vice president of Marketing. Nelson previously worked as a marketing leader at Qualtrics and has prior experience at Globespan Capital Partners, McKinsey and Company, and Hewlett Packard.

Matt Nelson
Matt Nelson

“Throughout my career, I have seen first hand the difficulty that comes with obtaining consistent, reliable digital marketing data in order to make smart campaign and content decisions,” said Nelson. “Tracking First provides a simple, scalable solution for creating and governing that data, and I am looking forward to working with the team to expand our service to help more analytics and marketing teams worldwide.”

Also Read: Tracking First Joins Adobe Exchange Partner Program to Enhance Data Governance and Reporting

The larger global headquarters will allow Tracking First to scale and better serve its more than 30 enterprise customers. With a larger facility and more resources, the company is expected to grow exponentially. Its unique data governance technology will continue to provide analytics teams with access to reliable, actionable, cross-channel enterprise insights and will give them the capability to make its tool available to more customers worldwide.

Verl Allen
Verl Allen

In addition to opening a new headquarters and bringing Nelson on to the team, the company recently secured $4 million in funding. These important milestones will help to further fuel the company’s expansion and position it to capture increasing market demand.

“Our new headquarters and the addition of Matt Nelson to our team, will provide Tracking First with significant opportunities for growth moving forward and allow us to help more companies throughout the world,” said Verl Allen, CEO of Tracking First. “We are excited to continue that momentum and help analytics teams solve the data integration and management problems they face every day.”

Recommended Read: Commerce Signals Launches Tracking Service for First-Party Data

Cedato IntentView Launched to Transform Instream Video Advertising Industry

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Cedato IntentView Launched to Transform Instream Video Advertising Industry

Cedato IntentView Is the Next Generation of Instream Video, Providing Marketers with True Engagement Metrics, and Publishers with Superior User Experience

Cedato, the leading programmatic operating system for video, is announcing the launch of IntentView, a first-of-its-kind, true engagement-driven video unit. This new patent-pending instream video format provides marketers with a greater value from user-initiated impressions while publishers gain higher revenue for quality impressions. Currently, Cedato is a programmatic operating system for modern video, offering publishers and advertisers a comprehensive SaaS-based video technology stack which enhances the value and viewing experience.

At the time of this announcement, Yair Miranda, COO, Cedato, said, “IntentView provides better video engagement metrics because it is user initiated, and the net branding effect is far greater than instream.”

Read More: Key Martech-Focused Takeaways from Mary Meeker Internet Trends 2018

Yair Miranda added, “By giving users a choice, providing marketers with more genuine and accurate metrics and guaranteeing publishers additional revenue, IntentView succeeds in delivering better performance without compromising user experience.”

Cedato IntentView Inventory Can Be Accessed via All Standard Programmatic Buying Platforms Using Existing Video Creatives

The IntentView video format appears as a unique instream picture-in-picture overlay, engaging with the user in the form of a dynamic video thumbnail preview. Upon the user’s show of intent, the thumbnail expands into a full-view video ad with sound-on, while the video content is paused. Thumbnails that are not engaged, disappear after several seconds.

Thus far, Cedato customers have reported 50-90% lift in completion rates from IntentView when compared with standard video ads. The activation of each impression is based on the user’s show of intent thereby delivering more accurate and reliable engagement metrics. Adding to this the benefit of guaranteed viewability for all IntentView inventory, the end result is higher exposure for marketers as well as an improved viewing experience for users.

With IntentView, marketers only pay for user-initiated views. Not only do they benefit as their spend reflects user-initiated engagement, a better measurement of intent, they’re also gaining free brand exposure in premium content with users who do not initiate the ad. IntentView inventory can be accessed via all standard programmatic buying platforms using existing video creatives.

Read More: Follow That Puck: Multi-Channel, Multi-Location Marketing Is Moving into the 21st Century… Are You?

Cedato IntentView Supports Video Optimization with Machine Learning Algorithms

For publishers, IntentView introduces a new source of revenue from video with superb user experience, as ads are activated strictly by user intent, allowing users the freedom of choice. IntentView can be easily integrated to run any instream video with any existing video infrastructure in minutes by adding a simple script. The new format has already been tested by several publishers generating positive results and feedback.

Read More: TechBytes with Bridget Bidlack, SVP of Product, Movable Ink

Beyond the direct benefits of IntentView, this innovative offering is built with the added-value of Cedato’s comprehensive video technology stack, which powers more than 15 Billion video impressions monthly across mobile, web and connected TV. Cedato’s proprietary hybrid video header bidding technology was built from the ground up to support video optimization with machine learning algorithms that predict the optimal demand source per impression.

Cedato also operates one of the fastest growing private video marketplaces that powers over 15B video impressions across mobile, web and connected TV.

 Recommended ReadB2B Buying Disconnect: Are You Targeting the Right Set of Customers?

Bamboo Solutions Announces the 18.2 Release of its Web Parts

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Bamboo Solutions Announces the 18.2 Release of its Web Parts

Now Available in Two New Business-friendly Subscriptions Through the New “My Bamboo” Platform.

Bamboo Solutions, a leading provider of SharePoint products and services, announced a major upgrade of its SharePoint web parts with release 18.2.

All products now share a common framework that uses Microsoft Azure Application Insights and are now available through their new customer portal called My Bamboo. This portal enables the products to take advantage of Bamboo’s new telemetry feature which enables clients to see critical business insights into how Bamboo products are used.

Robert Manfredi
Rob Manfredi

“Bamboo server-based web parts are an important tool for our on-premises clients,” explains Rob Manfredi, CEO of Bamboo Solutions. “This is the biggest release since our acquisition and represents our commitment to equally supporting on-premises and Office 365 clients.”

Also Read: Quadient Announces General Availability of Quadient Inspire R12

Bamboo web parts are also now available in two subscription offerings: Bamboo Business and Bamboo Professional.  Both subscriptions include new products, a growing list of enhancements, and Bamboo Support.

Subscriptions also include Bamboo SPX Consulting Services to help customers not only with the design and configuration of products, but also in support of all their SharePoint needs including administration, migration, and app development.

“Our customers are already seeing value from the new subscription-based programs,” said Manfredi. “We are now able to continuously add value to their membership with not only additional products and features, but through custom services as well.”

“We’ve spent the past year doing three things: improving our products based on customer feedback, increasing the frequency of releases, and transforming our relationship from product sales to a full-service partnership,” said Jeff Webb, COO and Co-Founder of Bamboo Solutions. “Our new subscription offerings accelerate those improvements across products, services, and consulting. We can now deliver new products in weeks, not months, monitor the value delivered in real-time, and respond to customer needs as they emerge thanks to our talented team and the Microsoft Azure stack.”

Recommended Read: iClimber Announces New Instagram Marketing Services

Lastline Announces Superior Protection For Both Cloud-Based and Customer-Managed Email Systems

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Lastline Announces Superior Protection For Both Cloud-based and Customer-managed Email Systems

New Best-In-Class Email Security Product Protects Office 365 and Gmail Users from Evasive Malware, Phishing, Account Takeover, and Other Advanced Threats.

Lastline, the leader in advanced threat protection, announced the immediate availability of Lastline Email Defender, a line of products that deliver an added layer of defense and unmatched protection for both cloud-based and customer-managed on-premises email deployments. The new products deliver superior protection from advanced threats that are engineered to defeat other security tools, including evasive malware, phishing attacks, business email compromise, and account takeover. The announcement includes Lastline Email Defender-Cloud, a new product that extends the power of Lastline’s advanced threat detection to cloud-native email applications, including Office 365 and Gmail.

“Email remains a primary attack vector for every organization, regardless of size or industry,” commented Christopher Kruegel, Lastline CEO and Co-founder. “Email-based attacks continue to succeed because advanced threat actors continue to improve techniques for bypassing both traditional and ‘next-generation’ security controls, leaving systems and data at risk. The Lastline Email Defender products detect these attacks before malware is delivered or systems and credentials are compromised.”

Also Read: Email Marketing Company Emma Delivers Solution-Driven Integration with Venga

Lastline Email Defender products are designed to provide complete visibility into the malicious behavior that other technologies miss, regardless of how it is delivered: through on-premises or cloud-based email systems. The products use Deep Content Inspection, a unique isolation and inspection environment, to interact with the malware and catalog every malicious behavior engineered into the malicious code. They also utilize machine learning algorithms that are essential for defeating phishing and account takeover attacks.

  • Lastline Email Defender-Cloud addresses the rise in attacks targeting cloud email and data following the rise in cloud adoption itself. Threat actors engineer their attacks to easily bypass the limited security controls built into cloud email services. Lastline Email Defender-Cloud provides unmatched threat protection for companies using Office 365 and Gmail as their corporate email platform. Organizations can secure cloud email against advanced malware attacks, phishing, business email compromise, and account takeover by scanning inbound, outbound, and internal emails. Lastline Email Defender-Cloud can be quickly deployed and easily maintained because of the reliable native cloud API architecture that eliminates the need to change MX routing.
  • Lastline Email Defender-Enterprise complements on-premises security controls like Secure Email Gateways (SEGs) that are effective for blocking some threats like spam but cannot combat advanced threats. Lastline Email Defender-Enterprise protects customer-managed email as a complementary layer of defense, detecting the advanced email-based attacks that other technologies miss, without adding significant cost or complexity.

Recommended Read: Email Marketers Are Confident Machine Learning Can Personalize Content To Individual Interests, New Study By The Relevancy Group And OneSpot

Business Users Demand Self-service Data Preparation Tools to Optimize Analytic Insights

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Business Users Demand Self-service Data Preparation Tools to Optimize Analytic Insights

Data Preparation Market Will Top $9 Billion Globally by 2025, Finds Frost & Sullivan

Companies are spending up to 80% of their “data time” simply cleansing and normalizing the data. This delays their more important strategic work: analyzing the data to obtain the insights their organizations need to survive. For many, “data preparation” occurs, ungoverned, in Excel spreadsheets. That may be expedient for users and their organizations, but it is hurting every aspect of data quality, costing organizations a fortune. Now, it could cost them even more by creating privacy violations.

Frost & Sullivan‘s new thought leadership paper, Being Prepared: How One Approach Helps Companies Excel at Data Preparation, outlines the need for organizations to equip their business users with self-service data preparation that eases and accelerates their pursuit of analytic insights. The report projects that data preparation, which fits into the Big Data and Analytics Core Products and Services functional category, will grow to more than $9 billion by 2025.

Ron Gherman
Ron Gherman

“The rapid proliferation of the Internet of Things is only going to accelerate this effect; more than 45 billion devices will be connected to the IoT in 2022. Now, new data sources, from geospatial, blockchain and drones to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, are poised to push systems to the breaking point,” explained Ron Gherman, Information and Communications Technology | IoT Consultant at Frost & Sullivan. “Companies have to find a way to address the demand of business users who require rapid access to data preparation, without breaking the bank on either licensing or integration.”

Also Read: Bedrock Data Fusion Expands to More SaaS Systems with New Connector Release

David Lefkowich
David Lefkowich

“To tackle the need for self-service functionality, data prep has to systematize and where possible automate the joining, de-duplicating, transforming, cleansing, enriching, and filtering of data from all relevant sources,” added David Lefkowich, Chief Marketing & Business Development Officer at FreeSight Software Inc. “The world changes every day, so companies must adopt a strategy for ongoing assessment, preparation and ingestion of new datasets as they are discovered.”

If businesses are serious about enabling business users to share in prepping and using data, a graphical user interface (GUI) with drag-and-drop capabilities such as FreeSight is required as it:

  • Makes “the democratization of data” a reality for organizations that do not have the budgets to deploy an enterprise-wide data platform.
  • Bridges the gap between users that use Excel to assimilate and prepare data for analysis in silos and Big Data platforms that ingest, manage and distribute streaming data across the enterprise.
  • Increases data accuracy by automating error-prone manual processes in data preparation, and its automatic audit trail and rollback capabilities improve data integrity and reduce risk.
  • Helps companies establish governance over business users who have circumvented corporate data warehouses because those systems could not deliver analytic insights at the speed of business.

Recommended Read: Oracle Partner Openprise Launches Data Orchestration Platform

Ensono Officially Closes $405 Million Acquisition of Wipro’s Hosted Data Center Services Business

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Ensono Officially Closes $405 Million Acquisition of Wipro's Hosted Data Center Services Business

Ensono Doubles in Size and Scale to Accelerate Innovation with Clients

Ensono, a leading hybrid IT services provider, closed on its acquisition of Wipro Limited’s Hosted Data Center Services (DCS) business in US, Europe and Singapore. The acquisition of the Indian assets is planned to be completed later in the year. Ensono and its clients will greatly benefit from the more than 900 associates joining the Ensono family.

This is Ensono’s third acquisition in less than three years. By adding Wipro’s Hosted Data Center business, Ensono has nearly doubled in size, expanded its client portfolio, and increased its annual revenue to more than $550 million. Ensono will expand its presence in the US and UK, establish an operational presence in India, and extend into Germany to provide clients with always on, scalable service.

Also Read: Microsoft Announces 2018 Partner of the Year Winners and Finalists

Raj Bagga
Raj Bagga

Ensono and Wipro have entered into a long-term partnership agreement to jointly address the hybrid IT requirements of Wipro’s new and existing enterprise clients.  As part of the agreement, Wipro will make a strategic investment of $55 million in Ensono and join the company’s Board of Directors.

“We’re proud to enter into a partnership with a company who has years of IT experience that’s able to fully meet the needs of international hosted data center clients,” said Raj Bagga, vice president of global infrastructure services at Wipro Limited. “Our combined company will bring solutions to clients across industries more quickly and at a larger scale than ever before.”

Jeff VonDeylen
Jeff VonDeylen

“This acquisition is a strategic move to expand our global presence to offer clients more options and access to a larger group of talented associates that will help drive faster transformation and innovation for our clients,” said Jeff VonDeylen, CEO of Ensono.  “Ensono’s growth over the last three years has been astounding, and this acquisition solidifies our position as a relentless ally to our clients and cements our position as a recognized global leader in hybrid IT.”

Recommended Read: Google Adds Periscope Data to Single Sign-On Platform

OneTrust Commits to Integrating California’s New Privacy Law into Market Leading Privacy Management Platform

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OneTrust Commits to Integrating California’s New Privacy Law into Market Leading Privacy Management Platform

OneTrust Solutions Will Support Businesses to Comply with the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018

OneTrust, the global leader in privacy management with 1,500 customers, including 200 of the Global 2,000, announced it is integrating the new California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (CCPA) into the OneTrust Privacy Management and Marketing Compliance suite. Many businesses that collect, process or sell the personal data of California residents are subject to the new act, and OneTrust will build assessments, templates and processes into the platform to help companies comply with the CCPA.

The CCPA issues several new rights to California residents (“consumers”):

  • The right to information gives consumers the right to know the sources and categories of personal information a business collects, the business purpose for collecting or selling personal information, the third parties that the business shares this information with, and the specific pieces of personal information it has on a consumer. Section 1798.100 (a), (c), (d); Section 1798.115 (a)
  • The right of deletion gives consumers the right to request the deletion of their personal data. Section 1798.105
  • The right to ‘opt-out’ gives consumers the option to ask businesses not to sell their personal data and opt out of these purposes. Section 1798.120 (a)

Also Read: OneTrust’s Enhanced Data Subject Access Rights (DSAR) Portal Automated Over 10,000 Requests in Post-GDPR Era

Many of OneTrust’s solutions will support business’s efforts to prepare for and comply with the CCPA, which goes into effect on January 1, 2020.

  • OneTrust Assessment Automation and Data Mapping can help businesses understand where personal data exists and across the business. Data Mapping exercises are key to exercising consumer rights to access, deletion and disclosure. Sections 1798.100 (a), (c), (d), 1798.105, 1798.115 (a)
  • OneTrust Data Subject Rights Management Portal can automate the intake, processing and completion of the various new rights under the CCPA. Sections 1798.100 (a), (c), (d), 1798.105
  • OneTrust Vendor Management facilitates the management of vendors for compliance purposes to provide the categories of personal data processed or sold. Section 1798.115 (a)
  • For the right to opt-out, the OneTrust Universal Consent Management module tracks consent provided by the consumer. OneTrust provides a consumer interface to give the ability to opt-out of the sale of their personal data using the “Do Not Sell My Personal Information” link to the OneTrust Preference Center. Section 1798.120 (a)
Kabir Barday
Kabir Barday

“The California Consumer Privacy Act is a significant milestone in how the US is reacting to consumer-driven demands for online privacy,” said Kabir Barday, OneTrust CEO and Fellow of Information Privacy (FIP). “The CCPA gives Californians more control over their personal data, which can create tremendous opportunities and challenges for businesses globally to deliver on these expectations. Although we expect the requirements to continue to evolve between now and 2020 when the law goes into force, OneTrust will continue to innovate our product in parallel to help businesses ease this burden and become compliant with the CCPA.”

OneTrust solutions help businesses operationalize their privacy programs for the CCPA, GDPR and other global privacy laws with the most comprehensive technology backed by deep privacy research, a globally available services team and the large PrivacyConnect user community.

Recommended Read: OneTrust Announces Adobe Cloud Platform Launch Extension

CSI’s Virtual Observer Integrates WFO for Talkdesk Environments

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CSI's Virtual Observer Integrates WFO for Talkdesk Environments

Coordinated Systems, Inc. (CSI) Has Joined the Talkdesk Appconnect Marketplace. This Partnership Enables Quality Management, Screen Capture and Robust Workforce Optimization Options for Talkdesk Customers.

WFO-enable your Talkdesk cloud contact center experience now.

This integration combines the best-of-breed cloud-based contact center services and workforce optimization (WFO) applications of Talkdesk and the CSI Virtual Observer WFO platform. Together, this partnership further enables Talkdesk and CSI to deliver an integrated and robust overall contact center solution to new and existing customers.

CSI’s flagship product, Virtual Observer (VO), is a workforce optimization solution specifically designed for the cloud-enabled, modern contact center. VO extends the Talkdesk platform to offer integrated Omnichannel Recording, Quality Management with Screen Capture, and industry-leading pre-built connectors to embed WFO within CRM applications such as Salesforce, Oracle Service Cloud, Zendesk and ServiceNow. Contact centers are becoming more CRM-centric, with CRM becoming their preferred workspace. With a single sign-on functionality, Virtual Observer provides WFO capabilities directly within the CRM environment. The Quality Management suite includes screen capture which, along with integrated audio recordings, gives a complete live view of agents’ customer interactions. These components working together offer superior visibility into contact center operational performance and customer intelligence.

Also Read: Why Are Businesses Turning Heads at the Salesforce Commerce Cloud?

Rich Marcia
Rich Marcia

“We are extremely excited about entering into this partnership with Talkdesk and becoming an essential component in their contact center ecosystem,” said Rich Marcia, Marketing Director for CSI.

Talkdesk with Virtual Observer benefits multiple employee roles within the contact center. Supervisors and Managers can save time and redistribute effort through automation. The integrated solution also assists QA staff and workforce management specialists in optimizing their everyday workload.

The integrated VO – Talkdesk platform is seamless in operation and functions as a unified, robust enterprise contact center solution to end customers. A WFO-enabled cloud contact center platform such as Talkdesk with Virtual Observer is an essential requirement within a contact center customer journey. The combination of the entire available integrated WFO feature set makes Talkdesk a top-tier option in the enterprise cloud contact center space.

Recommended Read: Marketplace Launches Amazon Alexa Skill ‘Make Me Smart from Marketplace’

Io-Tahoe Webinar – Operationalized AI and Machine Learning: Challenges and Possible Solutions

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Io-Tahoe Webinar – Operationalized AI and Machine Learning: Challenges and Possible Solutions

Combining Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Data Science to Produce Real-World Results

Io-Tahoe LLC, a pioneer in machine learning-driven smart data discovery products that span a wide range of heterogeneous technology platforms, recently announced the next in its educational webinar series entitled, “Operationalized AI and machine learning: challenges and possible solutions.”

Date & Time: Tuesday, July 3, 2018, 12 – 1 pm Eastern Time

Guest: Ciprian Jichici, General Manager, Genisoft

Why Attend? Artificial Intelligence (AI) has captured the imagination of many organizations, from small start-ups to vast Enterprise corporations. Doing AI successfully, and in a consistent fashion, can be an elusive goal, a fact which limits productivity, project success and mainstream adoption.

The workflow and tooling for data science, machine learning and artificial intelligence is still in a primitive stage. Moreover, the integration of those disciplines with data engineering and software development is even less evolved. Coordinating those three pursuits with the operational side of things – deployment, testing, monitoring, troubleshooting and retraining – is perhaps the most audacious goal of all. Does today’s toolchain allow such coordination of efforts? If not, can bespoke solutions be cobbled together, and would the outcome justify the investment?

Ciprian Jichici
Ciprian Jichici

Special guest Ciprian Jichici, General Manager, Genisoft will join Andrew Brust – Io-Tahoe’s Market Strategy Advisor, ZDNet Big Data Blogger and Founder/CEO of Blue Badge Insights for this live webinar. Ciprian is a software development authority, a consulting veteran and an accomplished data scientist; if anyone can envision an implementation of DevOps discipline in AI, it’s him.

Also Read: Mobvista Appoints Ramon Zhu as Vice President of AI and Machine Learning

In this Webinar you will learn:

  • The challenges to making data science efforts conform to software development best practices.
  • How repeatability and operationalization of machine learning and AI is made difficult by fragmentation in the data science technology landscape and yet is still critical to success.
  • About new projects in the machine learning world that are making data science more procedural and repeatable, and better-integrated with data engineering and analytics.
  • How software applications with embedded AI offer a on-ramp to the technology, without the operational burdens.

Recommended Read: Alteryx Brings Together Analytic Experts to Build for the Future of AI and Machine Learning

Highspot Named One of Washington’s 100 Best Companies to Work For

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Highspot Named One of Washington’s 100 Best Companies to Work For

Talent, Transparency and Culture Earn Highspot a Place in the Top 5

Highspot, powering modern businesses with the industry’s highest-rated sales enablement platform, was named one of Washington’s 100 Best Companies to Work For in the 29th annual ranking compiled by Seattle Business magazine. As a first-time entrant, Highspot debuted in the top 5 of the midsize companies category.

Robert Wahbe
Robert Wahbe

“Positivity, respect and the freedom to create are at the core of our Highspot culture,” said Robert Wahbe, Highspot co-founder and CEO. “We’re incredibly fortunate to have built a team of people who inspire each other to be the best versions of themselves and give their all every day. With such talent and an environment that fuels innovation, the possibilities are endless.”

Also Read: Highspot Named Best Sales Enablement Platform and Best Content Management Platform

To determine the winners, over 77,000 Washington state employees were asked in detail what they think about their workplace.

Michael Romoser
Michael Romoser

“The vast number of companies that participate in the in-depth, direct-to-employee survey process never make the list,” Michael Romoser, associate publisher of Seattle Business magazine, said. “For the ones that do, it is a remarkable achievement and testament to their fostering inclusive, engaged work environments.”

Highspot employees celebrated with more than 1,200 attendees at an awards gala on June 28, 2018, at the Washington State Convention Center. KIRO-TV news anchor and Seattle Seahawks radio broadcaster Steve Raible served as master of ceremonies.

Highspot gives businesses a powerful sales advantage to engage in more relevant buyer conversations and achieve their revenue goals. Through AI-powered search, analytics, in-context training, guided selling, and 50+ technology integrations, the Highspot platform delivers enterprise-ready sales enablement in a modern design that sales reps and marketers love. Using Highspot, sales teams can quickly find the best-performing content, and customize it for each opportunity—while marketers gain insights on content use and effectiveness to develop a data-driven strategy.

Recommended Read: Highspot Scales Its Product & Engineering Team With New Executive Jon White

Unmetric Addresses Facebook’s Global Launch of View Ads for all Brand Pages

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Unmetric Addresses Facebook’s Global Launch of View Ads for all Brand Pages

Social Analytics Company Applauds News as Great for Transparency and Potential Growth in Social Advertising

Unmetric, an enterprise solution for branded content analysis and discovery, announced its position and readiness following Facebook’s announcement of its global launch of View Ads, a major step in the network’s ongoing initiative to increase authenticity and transparency for ads run and paid for by brand Pages.

Last December, Facebook started testing its View Ads feature in Canada, enabling anyone to see the ads a Page is running — even if the ads are not in the user’s News Feed. This applies to all advertiser Pages on Facebook — not just Pages running political ads. Facebook has now launched View Ads for all Pages globally, something it announced it would do ahead of the 2018 US midterm elections and in conjunction with the release of a searchable archive of all election-related ads on Facebook and Instagram in the US.

Also Read: Unmetric Partners With Noggin to Provide Crisis Managers With Actionable Social Intelligence

Lux Narayan
Lux Narayan

“The end of Dark Posts and opening of View Ads for all brand Facebook Pages is great for the industry both in terms of increased transparency and a potential catalyst for growth in social advertising as true share of voice becomes available and brands are driven to advertise more to keep pace with their competitors,” said Lux Narayan, CEO of Unmetric. “Ever since Facebook announced it was testing View Ads for brands in Canada, we have been following the available data closely. With the expansion of View Ads to all Brand Pages, we are exploring this new data and look forward to helping our clients make even better content and campaign decisions.”

Unmetric has always worked to provide clients with competitive insights on paid brand content. Unmetric’s Paid Post detection already provides marketers with a breakdown of any brand’s paid vs. organic Facebook and Twitter content with 96 percent accuracy, and the power to observe and compare audience engagement from post to post.

Recommended Read:  T3 Wins Seven Awards For Technological Innovations And Brand Campaigns

Yesler Named One of Washington’s 100 Best Places to Work For in 2018

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Yesler Named One of Washington’s 100 Best Places to Work For in 2018

The Fifth Time Yesler Has Made the List Highlights the Company’s Commitment to Employee Experience and Growth.

Yesler, an integrated B2B marketing agency, has been named one of Washington’s 100 Best Places to Work For in 2018. It marks the second consecutive year and the fifth time overall that Yesler has made Seattle Business Magazine’s list.

The Washington Best Companies ranking is determined by anonymous employee participation and feedback. Questions span 10 categories of workplace experience, from culture and rewards to executive leadership and corporate responsibility. The results are weighted by level of participation so that companies named to the list received both high employee participation as well as high scores across categories.

Also Read: California Becomes First State to Strengthen Consumer Data Privacy Protections

This year, a record number of companies large and small from all over the state entered and participated in Washington’s 29th annual search for the 100 Best Companies to Work For program. Over 77,000 Washington state employees participated.

According to Seattle Business Magazine, most companies that go through the survey process never make the 100 Best list—nor do they stay on it for multiple years.

David Jones
David Jones

“For a company that grows as much and as fast as we do, change is pretty much constant. That’s why it’s so thrilling to see our name on this list again: It reminds us that listening to our employees can take us wherever we want to go,” said David Jones, President of Yesler.

Yesler is an award-winning B2B marketing agency that blends strategy, creativity, and technology to build demand, engage customers, and grow revenue for some of the world’s largest companies, including Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and SAP. Yesler employs more than 200 people from offices in Portland, Philadelphia, Toronto, Singapore, London and its headquarters in Seattle, Washington.

Recommended Read: ProctorU Names New Chief Academic Officer and Chief Compliance Officer

Walker Sands Grows Leadership Team, Welcomes 3 Agency Veterans as Newest Partners

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Walker Sands Grows Leadership Team, Welcomes 3 Agency Veterans as Newest Partners

Erin Jordan, Annie Gudorf and Allison Ward have joined the partnership at Walker Sands

Walker Sands, an integrated PR and digital marketing agency for B2B technology and professional services companies, has elevated three senior account directors to the role of partner. Chicago PR leaders Allison Ward and Erin Jordan, along with Seattle team lead Annie Gudorf, were named to the role effective this month.

Mike Santoro
Mike Santoro

“Walker Sands has nearly doubled in size since we last welcomed new partners to the firm,” said President Mike Santoro. “The time is right to expand our leadership team and bring in new ideas and perspectives that will contribute to our next phase of growth.”

Annie Gudorf
Annie Gudorf

Gudorf joined Walker Sands in 2012 and worked her way up through media relations and account management roles before heading to Seattle to expand Walker Sands’ west coast presence. With client experience that includes CompTIA and Nintex, Gudorf and her team are responsible for some of the agency’s best campaigns – work that regularly receives recognition from the Public Relations Society of America, among others.

Also Read: AI-Powered Intelligent Messaging Technology from Digital Air Strike Accelerates Sales for Businesses on Facebook and Websites

Jordan joined the firm in 2012 and has grown to lead the agency’s retail technology practice. In addition to her experience with brands including CloudCraze and Globant, Jordan leads Walker Sands’ annual Future of Retail research, now in its fifth year. Jordan is a board member at PRC Next, a small group of rising leaders within the PR Council.

Ward joined Walker Sands in 2013 as an account manager after prior experience in both agency and in-house PR roles. As a senior account director managing a book of business across FinTech, electronics and other areas, Wards’s client experience include work with Newark element14, Worldpay and Billtrust. She also serves as the PR partner for the Illinois Technology Association’s Women Influence Chicago initiative.

“I am so excited to welcome these three talented, committed and driven individuals to the table,” Santoro said. “They have earned it, and I look forward to seeing what we accomplish together.”

Earlier this year, Walker Sands was named a top 5 tech agency in the US and the best firm to work for in America (under 120 employees) by the Holmes Report.

Recommended Read: A10 Networks Names New Vice President of EMEA Sales