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gA Digital Development Guides Clients on Their Innovation Journey

gA, a global leader in the digital business consulting services for 27 years, continues strengthening its Digital Development engine adding benefits to customer projects. Leveraging their digital technologies, gA has created a proprietary digital development methodology called ¨Sherpath¨ with strong focus on user experience, streamlining processes and software development tailored to the needs of customers. This capability is a defining difference for gA, adding value to their expertise and service offerings to ensure customers maximum benefits in setting up the new products and integrating them into existing operations and legacy systems.

“Our objective is to anticipate and satisfy the needs of our customers by offering digital solutions using the latest technologies, methodologies and tools,” said Maximiliano Cortes, Chief Operating Officer at Parabolt. “We help companies adapt to new trends to continue creating value as their technological partner.”

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gA Digital Development offers rapid prototyping of solutions, making them especially valuable for executives in the C-suite: Chief Technology Officers, Chief Transformation Officers, Chief Innovation Officers and Marketing/Communication leaders.

Digital Development works by combining fast prototyping and the Sherpath methodology applied to the design and development of tailored products and solutions, to speed the digital transformation journey for each client. “We use our proprietary Sherpath methodology plus a dedicated team of designers, engineers to review the strategies of our clients and the businesses to be developed,” said Alejandro Paniego, Global Leader of Digital Development at gA. “The next step is to prototype a product quickly at the business level and test it monitoring its costs and potential scalability” adds Paniego.

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As a customer-centric technology firm, gA is focused on enhancing the user experience (UX). Consistent with the company’s entrepreneurial spirit and focus on innovation, gA’s goal is to empower large companies in the Americas and Europe to reshape their business models and their organizations through the integrated power of data, business processes and people. “When faced with a problem that arises, we seek the best strategy, the best technology for the feasibility of the product and business model.”

gA and Parabolt work with multidisciplinary teams organized into Digital Squads: from software engineers and creators to certified UX/UI specialists; facilitating the adoption process of new mobile and native cloud technologies as key factors of competitive advantage. “We transform commercial processes into digital experiences for the customer, optimizing daily interactions and generating new relationship models,” adds Cortes.

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US Small and Midsize Businesses Have Identified New Avenue for Growth Through Corporate Contracts

The 2019 Survey of Small and Midsize Business Suppliers, Developed and Conducted by American Express, Found That Businesses With Corporate Contracts Expect Revenues to Increase by 50% Over the Next Five Years

US small and midsize businesses are often referenced as the backbone of the country’s economy thanks to their drive and ambition to grow and scale but finding new opportunities to expand a business is often challenging. To explore the perspectives of small and midsize businesses on ways to grow, American Express conducted the first ever Survey of Small and Midsize Business Suppliers in 2019. The survey results, which includes responses from 501 small and midsize companies with revenues between $250,000 to $1 billion annually, suggest a bright future ahead for businesses who tap into this new avenue for growth.

According to the survey, eighty-one percent (81%) of respondents predict an increase in their sales to corporations with over $1 billion in revenue over the next five years, among which fifty percent (50%) of respondents anticipate a revenue increase of fifty percent (50%) or more.

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“Contracting with corporations offers tremendous growth opportunities for businesses across every industry and can help drive supply chain competitiveness, unlock innovation, provide access to new markets, and deliver positive socioeconomic impact in local markets,” said Donna Donato, Vice President of Strategic Sourcing and Business Enablement for American Express. “As our survey results found, business owners who already contract with companies that generate over $1 billion in revenue are diversifying their revenue streams and expanding their internal teams which ultimately benefits our economy.”

THE OPPORTUNITY FOR SMALL & MIDSIZED COMPANIES

Large corporations make substantial external purchases each year — as much as thirty to fifty percent of total revenue depending on the industry, creating vast opportunities for small and midsize businesses. The benefits of selling to corporate clients are clear, with survey results showing that many small and midsize businesses experience significant business growth when partnering with such corporate clients:

  • Nearly two-thirds (64%) of respondents have increased their revenues
  • Four in ten (40%) of respondents have diversified their revenue streams
  • Four in ten (40%) of respondents have grown organically through corporate contracts

Not only are small and midsize businesses experiencing the positive effects of winning corporate contracts, but their broader communities benefit from these relationships as well. For example, despite the limited labor market for small and midsize businesses, contracting with large corporations has proven to be a successful growth strategy, allowing such businesses to expand hiring efforts. More than half (54%) of respondents hired new employees as a result of winning new business with large corporations, and nearly three-fourths (74%) of respondents noted that conducting business with large companies has helped to hire and retain talent.

FINDING, WINNING AND FUNDING CORPORATE CONTRACTS

According to the survey, networking and introducing their brand to procurement officials in target industries were found to be instrumental for small and midsize business owners to grow their businesses. The survey identified certain key personal and digital networking channels as a means to obtain knowledge about potential new business targets:

  • Over half (54%) of respondents rely on both online/offline networking
  • Nearly half (47%) of respondents rely on personal relationships
  • More than 4 in 10 (41%) respondents rely on company websites and marketing materials

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Notwithstanding the variety of information channels, online networking was shown to be more effective than offline networking in securing new business leads. Fifty-one percent (51%) of respondents indicated that online social networking via specific groups was most effective in securing new business leads with corporate clients, followed by forty-seven percent (47%) of respondents indicating social media platforms as being the second most effective method of securing new business leads. Offline, respondents indicated that they saw the most value in networking one-on-one (44%), at trade shows and events (42%) and networking in small groups (37%).

The survey also found that certain business certifications and credentials can further differentiate small and midsize businesses from the competition. Respondents indicated that the credentials set forth below were the most useful certifications in helping to winning corporate contracts:

  • Quality of service or products (48%)
  • Past performance (15%)
  • Socio-economic credentials (10%)

Coming up with the capital to finance contracts with corporations can be challenging, with many small and midsize businesses seeking additional financing to do so. More than half (57%) of respondents sought financing to fund their growth to service corporate contracts, among which two-thirds (66%) of such respondents found the process for securing financing to be manageable. Working with large corporations can open new doors, especially when it comes to financing. Nearly three-quarters (74%) of respondents agreed that working on corporate contracts led to more flexible financing options for their companies.

CHALLENGES OF CORPORATE PROCUREMENT

While winning a large corporate contract is exciting for small and midsize businesses because of the potential to increase revenue, there are also challenges that come along with fulfilling these agreements. Survey data indicated that the biggest challenges facing small and midsize businesses while working with corporate clients include:

  • Complex processes (43%)
  • Negotiating payment terms (38%) with 22% of respondents reporting payment terms of 60 days or more
  • Complying with data and security requirements (37%).

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In the Digital Transformation Era, Every Technology Company Will Soon Become a Cybersecurity Company: CLOUDSEC 2019

At the Event, Trend Micro Announced the Launch of Its Local Managed XDR Datacenter Service in India

 CLOUDSEC India 2019hosted by Trend Micro Incorporated, attracted more than 750 business and technology leaders this year, making it the cybersecurity event of the year. With tectonic shifts in the technology landscape, “Hybrid Cloud Security and Evolution” and “Cross Generation Detection and Response” are seen as the key drivers that will define the future of cybersecurity; they are also the themes for this year. Experts opined that soon every company would become a technology company and every technology company would have to become a cybersecurity company, in order to successfully and securely navigate the digital transformation that’s underway.

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 At the event, Trend Micro also announced the launch of its local managed XDR datacenter service in India. While many customers are considering outsourcing complex security tasks to cybersecurity professionals, many are concerned about their sensitive data leaving the country. The local managed XDR datacenter service solves this data sovereignty issue.

 Addressing the audience, Nilesh Jain, Vice President, Southeast Asia and India, Trend Micro said, “Today, data is collected and analyzed in silos, however what enterprises need is to collect and analyze data as a whole and be able to generate high-priority, actionable intelligence with context. To address this challenge, we recently launched our XDR solution that will be a gamechanger for the industry. Managed XDR is a great service for customers who have detection and response tools, but don’t have the required resources or skillsets to maximize them.

 Managed XDR is a 24/7 service for organizations that want to leverage the benefits of XDR and for organizations with security operations centers (SOCs) that may want additional detection and response support. Managed XDR seamlessly dovetails with Trend Micro’s overarching XDR strategy in FY2020.

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 He further added, “The engagement around cybersecurity is no longer limited to CISOs and CIOs. At Trend Micro, we have taken the engagement to the next level by speaking to the application team and the operations team. We are also looking at initiatives like community day to deepen our interactions with the DevOps professionals. Our top three priorities for India this year are to – first, focus on hybrid cloud customers who are looking to grow aggressively; second, build on existing customers including those who are sitting on the fence evaluating prospective options; and, finally, to recruit and grow our partner ecosystem.”

 In India, Trend Micro has over 1,000 large enterprise customers deploying its enterprise security solution suite, which provides security across hybrid cloud, network, and endpoints. Currently, the company has a dominant presence across the government, BFSI, IT/ITeS, manufacturing, pharmaceutical, and telecom verticals. Also, over 70% of nationalized banks in India use Trend Micro’s enterprise products. Earlier this year, they launched an industry-ready certification program in IT security (CPITS) initiative in India, which aims to groom the next generation of cybersecurity professionals within the industry.

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Zillow Group Announces Closing of Exercise by Initial Purchasers of Option to Purchase an Additional $73 Million of 0.75% Convertible Senior Notes due 2024

Zillow Group, Inc. announced that the initial purchasers of the previously announced private offering of its 0.75% convertible senior notes due 2024 (the “2024 Notes”) elected to exercise their option to purchase an additional $73 million aggregate principal amount of the Notes (the “Additional Notes”). The closing of the Additional Notes occurred today. Following today’s closing, there is a total of $673 million aggregate principal amount of 2024 Notes outstanding.

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The net proceeds from the Additional Notes were approximately $72.0 million after deducting the initial purchasers’ discounts and commissions and offering expenses payable by Zillow Group. Zillow Group used approximately $9.1 million of the net proceeds from the Additional Notes to pay the cost of the capped call transactions entered into in connection with the offerings. Zillow Group intends to use the remainder of the net proceeds for general corporate purposes, which may include working capital, sales and marketing activities, general and administrative matters and capital expenditures.

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This press release is neither an offer to sell nor a solicitation of an offer to buy any of these securities and shall not constitute an offer, solicitation, or sale in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation, or sale is unlawful. The 2024 Notes and the shares of Zillow Group Class C capital stock, if any, issuable upon conversion of the 2024 Notes have not been and will not be registered under the Securities Act or any state securities laws, and unless so registered, may not be offered or sold in the United States except pursuant to an exemption from the registration requirements of the Securities Act and any applicable state securities laws.

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Magnifact Launches AgentVizion2Go Mobile App

New App Will Equip Insurance Agents With Just-In-Time Production Information

Magnifact, a Chicago-based provider of Business Intelligence solutions for the insurance industry, unveiled its new AgentVizion2Go app for iOS and Android at Western Marketing’s Top Producers meeting in Cancun on September 17, 2019.

“Designed for agents on the move, this app powerfully complements Magnifact’s browser-based AgentVizion solution for national marketing organizations like us, and our downline,” remarked Brandon Finken, Operations Director at Western Marketing.

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“Agents are excited to now have real-time access to their aggregated production data on their smartphones,” said Krish V. Krishnan, Founder and CEO of Magnifact. “Our limited-user release has been hugely successful, and we will be making AgentVizion2Go available on the app stores very soon,” Krishnan added.

“Magnifact’s AgentVizion platform has been further enhanced by the launch of the AgentVizion2Go app allowing agents to review pending applications, track production, and access their books of business across multiple companies at any time with the touch of a button,” said Shay Slattery, an agent with The Brokerage Inc. “With a streamlined view of all my data in one easy-to-use app, I am spending less time gathering that information and more time helping clients and growing my business.”

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Magnifact recently launched its browser-based downline agency and agent access capability at The Brokerage Inc.’s Vision 2020 agent symposium.

“AgentVizion has largely eliminated any manual reporting needs by opening up the platform to our downline,” said Cristin Hopkin, COO of The Brokerage Inc. “This platform fulfills an increasing need for 24×7, real-time information access among our agencies and agents alike.”

“AgentVizion provides our agency access to the latest information at our fingertips as we meet with our agents for their production reviews, or with insurance carriers to discuss strategic regional goals,” said Kimberly Rodriguez, principal of a downline San Antonio-based agency.

“I eagerly look forward to deploying the new AgentVizion2Go app across my agent workforce, helping them better target their monthly sales goals,” Rodriguez added.

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Revenue Operations Leader Clari Closes $60M Funding Round

Platform Uses AI and Automation to Help High-Performing Revenue Teams Drive Growth and Retention

Clari, provider of the leading AI-powered revenue operations platform, has closed a $60 million Series D financing round, setting a new record for total investment in the rapidly emerging revenue operations software category. To date, Clari has raised over $135 million to transform revenue operations. Clari’s Revenue Operations Platform uses AI to modernize the B2B revenue process, upleveling execution, insights and forecasting for the entire go-to-market organization, including marketing, sales and customer success.

Sapphire Ventures led the round with participation from new investor Madrona Venture Group and existing investors Sequoia Capital, Bain Capital Ventures and Tenaya Capital.

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“Revenue isn’t just an outcome at the end of a 90-day quarter, it’s a dynamic, moment-to-moment business process,” said Andy Byrne, CEO, Clari. “With AI and automation, we’re helping our customers run their revenue process with the same level of transparency and rigor that they expect from any other critical business process, like manufacturing, logistics, or finance. The resulting impact on their business is transformational.”

Clari powers some of the fastest-growing companies in the world. In 2019, customer IPOs included Zoom, Medallia, Fastly and Datadog. Multinationals like Adobe and Lenovo, and hundreds of category leaders like Okta, Workday, Qualtrics and Alteryx all use Clari to run their revenue operations. The new financing will fuel the next phase in Clari’s growth, including expanding its revenue operations partner ecosystem and investing in new AI and machine learning offerings.

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“Growth and retention are the lifeblood of Chief Revenue Officers,” said Jai Das, President and Managing Director, Sapphire Ventures. “CROs from many of our portfolio companies depend on Clari to manage their end-to-end revenue process to drive efficiency and predictability. What Clari’s AI is calling has become an integral part of most boards’ parlance, since revenue forecasts are discussed so much. Increasingly Clari is being used by the broader revenue operations team, including marketing and customer success, to not only see how leads are converting to customers, but also to predict which customers will churn and which are primed for upsells. I believe Clari is an indispensable platform for revenue operations teams in every enterprise.”

Today’s funding will accelerate Clari’s growth, currently tracking at 200 percent. Clari’s Revenue Operations Platform processed over $300B in pipeline in the past year and now supports over 50,000 sales, marketing, customer success and go-to-market professionals across 170 countries. The company is repeatedly ranked #1 in its category on the peer-to-peer review site G2.

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Resulticks Expands North American Footprint by Welcoming Three New Partners

Leveraging Industry Expertise and Technology, the Partnerships Will Grow Business Opportunities

 Resulticks, the world’s fastest growing real-time conversation marketing solutions provider, welcomes three new companies to its North American Partner Program: CLEARGOALS, North America’s leading technical marketing agency; Covalent Marketing, a marketing intelligence consultancy; and T1A, a global data management, advanced analytics and marketing technology consulting firm. Through partnership with Resulticks, these three will generate and drive new business, increase sales, strengthen customer relationships and sustain customer satisfaction over time.

As an intuitive real-time, omnichannel marketing solution, Resulticks equips members of the partner program with the necessary tools and tactics needed to help drive interactions that are individually relevant, executed in real-time and attributable at the segment-of-one level. In addition to a customized implementation experience, partners will also have access to an expert team of technologists and seasoned marketing strategists. The program also includes a unique training and certification process.

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“We are delighted to welcome three new North American partners and have made a strong commitment to helping them grow and achieve success,” said Redickaa Subramanian, founder and CEO of Resulticks. “As partners, these companies can leverage the scale, security and speed of our AI-powered platform to enhance and support our clients’ outcomes-driven, omnichannel marketing efforts. We look forward to collectively working and succeeding together.”

“The marketing industry is a very crowded space in terms of available technologies and players, but less so when it comes to enterprise platforms,” says Benoit Stephenson, CEO of CLEARGOALS. “Partnering with Resulticks provides us with a new and solid enterprise marketing platform to offer our clients, allowing them to navigate the noise and truly deliver on their own marketing strategy and efforts.”

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“We’re thrilled to join the Resulticks partner program,” said Ryan Kosanic, CEO of Covalent Marketing. “This relationship allows us to enhance our current service offerings and will provide our clients with additional tools and resources to further strengthen their companies’ engagement with their customers, leveraging AI and personalization strategies that produce revenue growth and better experiences.”

“Data today is a marketer’s dream and most pressing challenge,” said Mike Perlov, key account director at T1A. “Our clients rely on advanced data and analytics to fulfill their digital marketing transformations. The all-in-one platform solution that Resulticks has built will provide our clients with a simple, yet sophisticated solution to reach specific audiences across an array of verticals.”

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OneConnect moves up in the 2019 IDC Financial Insights FinTech Rankings Top 100 list

International Data Corporation (IDC), the world’s renowned provider of market research data, released the 2019 IDC Financial Insights FinTech Rankings Top 100 list. China-based technology unicorn OneConnect was included among the Top 100 for the second consecutive year, coming in at number 62 and moving up 11 places from 73 last year.

The firms that were included in the IDC Financial Insights FinTech Rankings Top 100 list were selected by IDC, a leading market intelligence firm that sets an industry benchmark in terms of market tracking data in the IT sector.

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The inclusion in the Top 100 list is a testament to OneConnect’s superior position in the global fintech services industry. As of June 30, 2019, OneConnect had served more than 600 banks and 80 insurance institutions, with the accumulated number of patent applications worldwide exceeding 3,070.

OneConnect is a leading technology-as-a-service platform for financial institutions in China. The Company integrates extensive financial services industry expertise with market-leading technology to provide technology applications and technology-enabled business services to financial institutions. These solutions enable our customers’ digital transformations, which help them increase revenue, manage risks, improve efficiency, enhance service quality and reduce costs.

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OneConnect is an associate of Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, Ltd. (“Ping An Group”). Based on Ping An Group’s 30 years of experience in the financial sector as well as its world-class technological strength in artificial intelligence (AI), big data and blockchain, OneConnect is committed to providing end-to-end services to its customers. The Company now has 12 technology solutions across the full scope of their businesses – from sales and marketing and risk management to customer services and operations, as well as technology infrastructure such as data management, program development, and cloud services.

OneConnect plans to continue expanding its footprint in the fintech sector, helping banks and financial institutions worldwide transform their businesses by leveraging its advanced technologies and superior services.

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Skimlinks and Impact Strengthen Partnerships by Enhancing Advertisers’ Ability to Measure Performance and Better Reward Publishers

Skimlinks, the leading commerce content platform, announced they have further integrated with Impact, the global leader in partnership automation. Additional publisher-level granularity in reporting and commissioning will provide increased transparency for Impact’s advertisers and the flexibility to create more bespoke rates for Skimlinks publishers.

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Transparency is a key element to creating strong partnerships and Impact advertisers now have a more granular view of performance data from Skimlinks. Available at the publisher domain level, this data will provide advertisers with actionable insights into who is driving success for them. Covering clicks, conversions and order value, this will help to drive the growth of Impact’s advertiser’s performance marketing campaigns.

The new integration also makes it easier for Impact advertisers to build their relationships with Skimlinks publishers with a streamlined process for setting up exclusive rates. This will allow Impact advertisers to reward publishers who drive the greatest performance and continue to provide incentives for them to further increase their revenue.

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Skimlinks CEO Sebastien Blanc says, “We know commerce content can be a great way for brands to reach valuable lifetime customers, and through our partnership with Impact, we’re confident brands have the data to make the right decisions about their affiliate investment. We are thrilled that our enhanced partnership with Impact continues to evolve affiliate marketing and the important part it has in the overall marketing ecosystem.”

“As our industry continues to move toward transparency and openness, we’re excited to partner with Skimlinks to bring our advertisers better visibility into the specific partners that are driving the most growth for them,” said Mike Head, General Manager of Impact’s Partnership Cloud.

Skimlinks is the leading commerce content monetization platform. Its technology automatically monetizes product links in commerce-related content to earn publishers a share of sales they drive. Its platform is a one stop solution providing the technology and the data to start and scale content commerce strategies across desktop and mobile.

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Talkwalker Launches AI-Powered Solution to Better Analyze Customer Conversation Data

Talkwalker, a reputed social listening and analytics company, launched their new product ‘Customer Data +‘ that allows businesses to analyze their customer conversations data. Presently, Talkwalker analyses text data from service emails, chats, surveys, and call center transcripts.

The latest AI-powered Consumer Insights feature was expected to enhance the social media and web data capabilities of Talkwalker.

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The platform has the potential to revolutionize the way businesses understand multiple data sources to make data-driven decisions, the company officials said. According to various researches, the enterprises often shy away from using first-party customer feedback data due to the lack of user-friendly analytics tools. The new solution will help companies to swiftly transform data insights into action.

“We’ve created an industry-leading social listening and analytics tool that allows companies to see how customers engage with them across social and the web,” said Christophe Folschette, Co-founder and Global Sales Director at Talkwalker.

Offers Complete Picture

“Customer Data + goes a step further by using Talkwalker’s AI Engine to run analysis on a company’s first-party text data and offer a complete picture of multiple data streams,” he said.

“Customer Data + understands and analyzes engagement at scale from both social media and customer experience. Our AI Engine’s deep learning algorithms do the hard work. You reap the benefits,” said Todd Grossman, Talkwalker America’s CEO.

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The highly reputed Talkwalker AI engine automates the analytics process, and provides high-quality data in less time, allowing users to focus more on the insights that drive brand results. The social listening and analytics solutions of Talkwalker assists well over 2,000 brands and give strength to their communication efforts. Ease-use is their main USP. The AI-powered solution does real-time monitoring of social networks, news websites, blogs and fora in 187 languages.

Their free alert is used by 500,000 communication and marketing professionals. They have offices in New York, Luxembourg, San Francisco, Frankfurt, Paris, and Singapore.

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