TechBytes with Marc Sabatini, CEO at aqfer

What is aqfer?

The aqfer marketplace is an environment where marketers, who are currently licensing the aqfer data-centric marketing architecture, can license data from a data provider in the marketplace, who is also an aqfer licensee, to seamlessly utilize that data as per the terms in their direct license with the data provider. The advantage comes from leveraging technology already in place between the two parties (data company and marketer) to reduce the friction of moving data around and matching, and adding functionality like real-time access at point of consumer engagement. The unique aspect of the aqfer marketplace is that it leverages the unique technology solution that aqfer has brought to market. Additionally, aqfer doesn’t get in the middle of the license or transaction. We simply focus on facilitating data sharing between the data company and the marketer in ways they can’t without aqfer.

What prompted you to envision a data-sharing platform? How would it impact Marketing and Sales Technology customers?

The marketplace is a natural evolution of the aqfer environment. Allowing marketers who utilize the aqfer framework to access data products from companies who also utilize the aqfer framework to create and manage their data offering. The impact is reducing the friction and heavy lifting involved in the data sharing between data provider and marketer as well as creating new ways to access data at the point of consumer engagement or just identifying the intersection between the marketers need and the data providers product.

What are the key technology integrations you are offering with the marketplace, for example, with customer data, location data, mobile data, etc.?

aqfer is a software company and we are agnostic with respect to the type of data exchanged. Our SaaS offering enables data companies to do more with their offering and provides marketers with better and easier access to unique data available from many providers. The type of data in the marketplace will continue to expend as we add more participants.

How do you see the maturity of Big Data, Cloud Computing and Automation coming together to disrupt data sharing in 2019-2020?

Better, faster and more economical solutions to help bring data together, interrogate new sources, and focus on quality and accuracy, rather than quantity.

How do you prepare for the highly disruptive data analytics and intelligence era? What does your product roadmap look like?

A key value proposition aqfer brings to the market is a consistent focus on preparing for the next big data marketing challenge. Like GDPR in early 2018, aqfer was ready with a solution to help marketers manage their responsibilities around consumer consent and data management before GDPR went into effect. Each quarter our roadmap brings a next-generation enhancement to continue to drive value out of big data processing for marketers.

Which businesses would benefit most from your latest offering?

Marketers who are continuously looking for better data, easier and more creative ways to utilize data, along with data providers who are looking for more speed and agility around managing and distributing their data product.