With the recent spin-out and rebrand of IBM’s Watson Marketing platform to Acoustic, many marketers are reflecting on their current and future approach to Artificial Intelligence. Acoustic’s messaging will likely resonate with marketers as many have been burned by a growing tech stack and are looking to regain focus. As marketers explore what AI can do to help them increase revenue, research we’ve conducted at TOPO highlights three key considerations to have top of mind.
Centralized data is now a necessity
All information stored about prospects and customers’ needs to be consolidated in one place. Many are painfully familiar with different datasets in CRM, Marketing Automation, Analytics, Personalization platforms, and Product usage data. It is nearly impossible for AI to be intelligent without the right data. For IBM and other enterprises, using this collection of complete data provides the foundation for AI. This means that all learnings and insights from Marketing activities, chat, phone calls, content consumption, and even predictive data like intent should be accessible in one place.
The entire customer lifecycle must be tracked
In many organizations, Marketing metrics stop once Sales Development and Sales take over a qualified lead. This behavior can help cultivate two different sources of data with the stages marketing cares about in one system (e.g., Marketing Automation) and the actual Sales Development and Sales Process in another (e.g., CRM). Any siloed approach must be eliminated to seamlessly capture each step in the customer journey.
Many teams are moving to account-based strategies to better target accounts, close a higher rate of deals, and more accurately track progression through the customer lifecycle. As an account-based approach is adopted, understanding your ideal customer profile – those most likely to become high-value customers – and how to find more accounts like them becomes a critical priority. This is supported by an 89% rise in investment in intent data (identifying and predicting accounts likely to buy) technology in TOPO’s Account-Based Technology Report.
Plan for the long-term
AI does not happen overnight and requires people and technology to be effective. In some organizations, Artificial Intelligence creates its own version of a tech stack with dedicated resources – tools, data scientists, analysts, etc. The top tech challenge for marketers surveyed in TOPO’s Account Based Technology Report was insufficient staff or resources. AI will require retraining, sound decision making (including trusting the decisions recommended by AI), and new systems. The report also found that Marketing Automation was adopted by 90% of organizations while predictive technology and intent data were adopted by 34% and 28% respectively.
Many marketers are waiting to see the promise and proof that AI can work for their business before making any widespread changes as there are already challenges with what they have today. However, aggregating data and tracking throughout the lifecycle will yield benefits with or without AI and can be started immediately.
As marketers, we’re always eager to embrace new technologies with promise and AI is no different. It will require a patient approach with tightly aligned internal data processes between all customer-facing functions, strategic resourcing and prioritization, and a commitment to business results over time. AI is already present in many technologies we use today and will increase in relevance as tools and platforms better integrate data from the entire customer lifecycle. Don’t expect AI to come after your job though. Decisions involving empathy, relationships, and similar life experiences will continue to be dominated by humans.
With FedRAMP Authorization, Government Agencies Can Leverage Anypoint Platform to Accelerate Project Delivery and Reduce Costs by Managing Integrations and APIs from a Unified, Secure Cloud Platform
MuleSoft, provider of the leading platform for building application networks, announced the availability of MuleSoft Government Cloud, a cloud deployment environment that combines integration platform as a service (iPaaS) and full lifecycle API management in a single runtime. By deploying MuleSoft’s Anypoint Platform within the Government Cloud environment, agencies can develop, manage and monitor all their integrations and APIs from a unified, secure, cloud-based platform, simplifying operations and increasing IT agility. MuleSoft has received a FedRAMP Authorization at the moderate impact level as of August 2019, and seven of the 15 cabinet-level departments are already using MuleSoft’s Anypoint Platform to improve government employee productivity and digitally engage constituents by unlocking the value of legacy back office systems.
“Decades of disconnected, legacy technologies are draining government agency budgets with their expensive maintenance costs and slow down the clock speed of innovation in the public sector,” said Mark Dao, chief product officer, MuleSoft. “Our new Government Cloud environment for Anypoint Platform is engineered to help agencies allocate resources towards better citizen experiences by leveraging the power of an application network to reduce infrastructure and maintenance costs, accelerate IT productivity while adhering to FedRAMP compliance requirements.”
With MuleSoft Government Cloud and Anypoint Platform, government IT teams can accelerate digital transformation within their organization by creating integration efficiencies including:
Accelerate project delivery: Legacy, on-premises integration solutions require IT teams to first deploy servers and set up their integration bus, along with a number of other time-consuming activities to implement the infrastructure necessary to support their integrations. With Anypoint Platform, IT teams can get started quickly to deploy sophisticated integrations within seconds, create new APIs on top of existing data sources, integrate on-premises applications with cloud services, and much more.
Reliably scale government workloads: The amount of data involved in most cloud-based migration and integration projects is massive and government IT teams need integration solutions that can manage growing workloads over long periods of time. Government Cloud is designed to be highly available and scalable through redundancy, intelligent healing, and zero downtime updates.
Securely integrate data and applications while adhering to government standards: MuleSoft’s Government Cloud is designed to meet the security standards set through the FedRAMP Authorization process at the moderate impact level. Agencies can confidently perform sensitive data manipulation in MuleSoft’s secure cloud environment. MuleSoft Government Cloud also adheres to security requirements such as FIPS 140-2 compliant hardware and software encryption, logical security enhancements based on FedRAMP and NIST 800-53 requirements, extending TLS 1.2 encryption end-to-end and hardening of our instances to CIS benchmarks.
Reallocate budget towards engaging citizens: With cloud deployment, government agencies only pay for the resources they need, saving considerable costs and IT resources otherwise spent maintaining legacy on-premises integrations and supporting infrastructure. With newly available budget and talent, agencies can reallocate resources towards accelerating their cloud migration and innovation projects.
Gartner has positioned MuleSoft as a Leader in its 2019 Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Integration Platform as a Service*. MuleSoft has also been named a Leader three times in a row in Gartner’s 2018 Magic Quadrant for Full Life Cycle API Management, making it the only vendor recognized as a Leader in both of those reports.
Legacy, On-Premises Integration Challenges Impede Government Adoption of Cloud Technology
Legacy, on-premises integration challenges have emerged as a major obstacle, slowing cloud adoption for government IT departments that are looking to leverage the speed and efficiency of cloud-based infrastructure and applications. With government IT project volume continuing to grow, IT teams must also spend an increasing amount of their limited budget and resources provisioning and maintaining the on-premises middleware infrastructure to support current and future integrations. MuleSoft’s Connectivity Benchmark Report highlights this tension: 43 percent of IT decision makers reported more than 1,000 applications in their organization with only 29 percent integrated, stalling digital transformation.
MuleSoft’s Government Cloud Accelerates the Speed of Digital Transformation for Agencies
Government Cloud is a new deployment environment, configured within AWS GovCloud and specifically designed to meet FedRAMP requirements. MuleSoft has made significant investments to ensure Government Cloud complies with FedRAMP requirements, as well as providing increased US support personnel and continuous monitoring services post-authorization to help ensure that the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of government data managed within Anypoint Platform is protected.
By deploying Anypoint Platform within the Government Cloud environment, government agencies can effectively create, monitor and manage integrations and APIs across their organization and quickly connect any application, data or device.
Creates a leading global, multiplatform, premium content company, positioned to be one of the most important content producers and providers in the world
CBS Corp. and Viacom, two of the world’s leading entertainment companies, announced they have entered into a definitive agreement to combine in an all-stock merger, creating a combined company with more than $28 billion in revenue.The combined company, ViacomCBS Inc., will be a leading global, multiplatform, premium content company, with the assets, capabilities and scale to be one of the most important content producers and providers in the world.
The combined company will be a scale player globally, with leadership positions in markets across the U.S., Europe, Latin America and Asia. This includes the largest television business in the U.S., with the highest share of broadcast and cable viewing across all key audience demographics, and strength in every key category, including News, Sports, General Entertainment, Pop Culture, Comedy, Music and Kids – making it a first-choice partner to distributors and advertisers. In addition, the combined company will possess a portfolio of fast-growing direct-to-consumer platforms, including both subscription and ad-supported offerings. It will also include a major Hollywood film studio, Paramount Pictures, which has been a producer and global distributor of filmed entertainment for more than a century and continues to be a global box office driver. Taken together, these distinct strengths will accelerate CBS and Viacom’s ability to deliver an array of compelling content to important and diverse audiences across both traditional and emerging platforms around the world.
Bob Bakish, President and Chief Executive Officer, Viacom, will become President and Chief Executive Officer of the combined company. Bakish said: “Today marks an important day for CBS and Viacom, as we unite our complementary assets and capabilities and become one of only a few companies with the breadth and depth of content and reach to shape the future of our industry. Our unique ability to produce premium and popular content for global audiences at scale – for our own platforms and for our partners around the world – will enable us to maximize our business for today, while positioning us to lead for years to come. As we look to the future, I couldn’t be more excited about the opportunities ahead for the combined company and all of our stakeholders – including consumers, the creative community, commercial partners, employees and, of course, our shareholders.”
Joe Ianniello, President and Acting Chief Executive Officer, CBS, will become Chairman and CEO of CBS. Ianniello, who will oversee all CBS-branded assets in his new role, said: “This merger brings an exciting new set of opportunities to both companies. At CBS, we have outstanding momentum right now – creatively and operationally – and Viacom’s portfolio will help accelerate that progress. I look forward to all we will do together as we build on our ongoing success. And personally, I am pleased to remain focused on CBS’s top priority – continuing our transformation into a global, multiplatform, premium content company.”
Shari Redstone, Vice Chair of the Boards of Directors, CBS and Viacom, said: “I am really excited to see these two great companies come together so that they can realize the incredible power of their combined assets. My father once said ‘content is king,’ and never has that been more true than today. Through CBS and Viacom’s shared passion for premium content and innovation, we will establish a world-class, multiplatform media organization that is well-positioned for growth in a rapidly transforming industry. Led by a talented leadership team that is excited by the future, ViacomCBS’s success will be underpinned by a commitment to strong values and a culture that empowers our exceptional people at all levels of the organization.”
Strategic Rationale
Premium content at scale. The combined company will possess a portfolio of powerful consumer brands, including CBS, Showtime, Nickelodeon, MTV, BET, Comedy Central and Paramount Network, as well as one of the largest libraries of iconic intellectual property, spanning every key genre and addressing consumers of all ages and demographics. This library comprises 140,000+ TV episodes and 3,600+ film titles, and reunites fan-favorite franchises such as Star Trek and Mission: Impossible. The combined company will also have more than 750 series currently ordered to or in production. In addition, it will include a major Hollywood film studio, Paramount Pictures, which creates and distributes feature-length entertainment around the world. The combined company will also be one of the largest content spenders, with more than $13 billion spent in the last 12 months.
Global leadership positions. The combined company will be a broadcast and cable leader in key markets around the world, reaching more than 4.3 billion cumulative TV subscribers. In the U.S., the combined company’s portfolio of broadcast, premium and cable networks will have the highest share of viewing on television among key audiences, including Kids, African Americans and Hispanic viewers. In addition, the combined company will operate strong broadcast networks in the UK, Argentina and Australia, as well as pay-TV networks across more than 180 countries. It will also have significant global production capabilities across five continents – creating content in 45 languages.
Powerful, three-part strategy for growth. In a quickly evolving media landscape, the combined company will benefit from its distinct competitive position as one of the most important global content providers – for its own platforms as well as for third parties. This will enable the combined company to accelerate the growth of its direct-to-consumer strategy, enhance distribution and advertising opportunities and create a leading producer and licensor of premium content to third-party platforms globally.
1.
Accelerate direct-to-consumer strategy.Together, the combined company will be positioned to accelerate and expand its direct-to-consumer strategy through its proven and diverse portfolio of both subscription and ad-supported offerings. These include CBS All Access and Showtime, which deliver premium, branded content live and on demand to millions of subscribers; Pluto TV, the leading free streaming TV service in the U.S.; and niche products such as CBSN, ET Live and Noggin. It also has an opportunity to expand globally by leveraging its existing strength in both subscription and ad-supported offerings, combined library, content production capabilities and international infrastructure.
2.
Enhance distribution and advertising opportunities.The breadth and depth of the combined company’s reach across both traditional and new platforms – including 22% of U.S. TV viewership – will drive important new distribution and advertising opportunities. For distributors, this includes forming more expansive and multifaceted relationships, and applying the benefit of retransmission consent across a combined portfolio. For advertisers and agencies, the combined company will provide industry-leading reach through a variety of formats, including a portfolio of differentiated advanced advertising and marketing solutions, such as CBS Interactive, Viacom Vantage and Viacom Velocity, which will be applied against significant, expanded inventory across the portfolio.
3.
Create a leading producer and licensor of premium content to third-party platforms globally. As one of the biggest premium content providers in the world, the combined company is positioned to deliver content to a diverse global customer base that includes MVPDs, broadcast and cable networks, subscription and ad-supported streaming services, mobile providers and social platforms. Notably, in addition to content licensing, CBS and Viacom are developing must-watch programming for a broad range of third-party networks and platforms to feed significant demand for original, premium content.
Significant value for all shareholders. The combined company will have an attractive growth outlook and increased financial scale with substantial free cash flow, which will enable significant and sustained investment in programming and innovation, as well as support the combined company’s commitment to maintaining a modest dividend payment. The transaction will be EPS accretive and is expected to deliver an estimated $500 million in annualized run-rate synergies within 12-24 months following closing, with additional strategic benefits. With one of the strongest balance sheets in the industry, the combined company will benefit from a solid investment grade rating.
In addition to Bakish and Ianniello, the leadership team of the combined company will include Christina Spade as EVP and Chief Financial Officer; and Christa D’Alimonte as EVP, General Counsel and Secretary.
The Board of Directors will consist of 13 members: six independent members from CBS, four independent members from Viacom, the President and CEO of ViacomCBS and two National Amusements, Inc. (NAI) designees. Shari Redstone will be appointed Chair.
The merger agreement was approved by the Boards of Directors of both CBS and Viacom by unanimous vote of those present, upon the unanimous recommendations of the Special Committees of the CBS and Viacom Boards of Directors, respectively. Existing CBS shareholders will own approximately 61% of the combined company and existing Viacom shareholders will own approximately 39% of the combined company on a fully diluted basis. Under the terms of the merger agreement, each Viacom Class A voting share and Viacom Class B non-voting share will convert into 0.59625 of a Class A voting share and Class B non-voting share of CBS, respectively.
NAI, which holds approximately 78.9% and 79.8% of the Class A voting shares of CBS and Viacom, respectively, has agreed to deliver consents sufficient to assure approval of the transaction. More than two-thirds of the CBS directors unaffiliated with NAI (and all of those unaffiliated directors who voted on the transaction) have approved the transaction, as required in order to permit NAI to consent to the transaction under the terms of the 2018 settlement agreement entered into among CBS, NAI and certain other parties thereto.
The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions. It is expected to close by the 2019 calendar year end.
The Special Committee of CBS’s Board of Directors is being advised by Centerview Partners LLC and Lazard Frères & Co. LLC as its financial advisors and by Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP as its legal counsel. The Special Committee of Viacom’s Board of Directors is being advised by LionTree Advisors LLC and Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC as its financial advisors and by Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP as its legal counsel. Viacom is being advised by Shearman & Sterling LLP. NAI is being advised by Evercore as its financial advisor and by Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP as its legal counsel.
Investor Call Details
CBS and Viacom will host a conference call with investors at 4:30 p.m. (ET) on August 13, 2019 to discuss this announcement.
A live audio webcast of the call will be available on the Investors homepage of CBS’s website (investors.cbscorporation.com) and Viacom’s website (ir.viacom.com). The conference call can also be accessed by dialing 1 (877) 451-6152 (domestic) or 1 (201) 389-0879 (international). Please call five minutes in advance to ensure you are connected prior to the call.
An audio replay of the call will be available beginning at 7:30 p.m. (ET) on August 13, 2019 in the Investor Calendar section of CBS’s corporate website and in the Events, Webcasts & Annual Meetings section of Viacom’s Investors home page, and at 1 (844) 512-2921 (domestic) and 1 (412) 317-6671 (international) using PIN number 13693788.
The announcement press release and other information related to the announcement will be accessible on CBS and Viacom’s websites.
Marvell Technology Group Ltd.announced that Dean Jarnac is being promoted to Senior Vice President of Worldwide Sales. In this key role, Jarnac will lead Marvell’s global direct and channel sales activities. He takes over from Tom Lagatta who in May announced his decision to retire later this year. Jarnac joined Marvell in 2017 as the Company’s Vice President of North America Sales and Global Distribution and previously held positions of increasing sales responsibility at Samsung, Broadcom, Freescale, Altera and AMD. He graduated from Purdue University with a degree in Computer and Electrical Engineering and holds an MBA from Boston University.
“I’m delighted to announce the promotion of Dean Jarnac to lead Marvell’s global sales activities and help us take our business to the next level across leading 5G, cloud, data center, enterprise and automotive customers,” said Matt Murphy, president and CEO of Marvell. “Dean is the right person for this strategic role given his demonstrated success in building strong customer partnerships and managing global organizations. He will be an invaluable addition to Marvell’s executive team and I look forward to working more closely with him in his expanded leadership capacity.”
Aflac Incorporated announced that Gerardo Monroyhas been named senior vice president, Aflac U.S. Innovation Strategy and Execution, reporting to Virgil R. Miller, executive vice president; chief operating officer, Aflac U.S.; president, Aflac Group. In this newly created role, Monroy will be responsible for overseeing Aflac’s U.S. innovation delivery system and driving transformational market opportunities to diversify Aflac’s enterprise business portfolio.
Monroy brings to Aflac more than 25 years of well-rounded experience that includes business segment leadership responsibility, strategic planning, business development, marketing and sales, operations and finance. Before joining Aflac, he served most recently as chief marketing officer for CNO Financial Group, having held leadership positions of increasing responsibility at CNO and its subsidiaries, including president of Colonial Penn Life Insurance Company and various leadership roles at Bankers Life & Casualty Company. His early career began with management roles at Procter & Gamble in Mexico and later with Carrier Corporation/United Technologies in the U.S. and abroad.
Monroy earned a bachelor’s degree in public accounting from Universidad Iberoamericana and a Master of Business Administration from Harvard University.
Commenting on the announcement, Virgil Miller said: “With our ongoing emphasis on innovation and transformation, I am pleased Gerardo is joining the Aflac team in this newly created role. Given his extensive track record of delivering strong results and his proven acumen in strategy, profit and loss management, marketing and operations, Gerardo’s leadership will be an enormous asset to Aflac. We look forward to his focus on powering innovation to sustain our market leadership as we navigate and develop new markets, while targeting our customers’ new and continually evolving needs.”
vCita, the complete business management application, will be able to offer their customers an enhanced email marketing service after acquiring email marketing tool WiseStamp.
The acquisition comes a few months after vCita received around $15 million in funding from capital investment group Forestay Capital. vCita is an application that focuses on all aspects of managing a business. It offers booking, payments, customer relationship management (CRM) and marketing as its four primary services, which are targeted at small and medium sized enterprises.
Having so many services integrated in one app saves cost overhead and creates synergies between these different tasks. Adding more services will create even greater value, so it’s little surprise that vCita has begun making acquisitions to enhance their product.
vCita has targeted the marketing arm of their portfolio of services as an area with room for growth, and the acquisition of WiseStamp will allow them to develop that offering.
WiseStamp gives their users the ability to completely customise their email signatures. Email marketing is the cornerstone of many online marketing strategies and the signature that follows every email you send is prime marketing real estate. Rather than informing customers of your position within your company and the fact that the email was sent from your iPhone, you can instead point them in the direction of content they might be interested in. Recently posted a video on YouTube? With WiseStamp you can include a thumbnail and a link to your video. You can also include your latest blog posts or any other content, along with links to your social media accounts.
vCita co-founder Itzik Levy confirmed the firm’s belief that email marketing remains a valuable part of the marketing mix. He said, “With all the new means of communication in recent years, email is still the most meaningful tool for small businesses, and mail signatures still offer a great space for business promotion.”
vCita will be gaining more than just WiseStamp’s technology. They will also be gaining access to WiseStamp’s 50,000 users. vCita has more than 100,000 users, however gaining access to 50,000 customers who have a proven interest in a marketing tool will provide significant value. They will also gain the services of WiseStamp’s 20 employees, including two of the founders.
The amount paid for the acquisition of WiseStamp remains undisclosed. The $15 million dollars that vCita has received in funding takes the total investment in the start-up firm to around $30 million dollars. In contrast, WiseStamp has received $400,000 in funding throughout its decade in existence. Becoming part of a much larger service and potentially much larger business provides new opportunities for WiseStamp.
WiseStamp co-founder, Orly Izhaki said, “Over the years, WiseStamp created advanced solutions that enable hundreds of thousands of small enterprises to grow their business online. We are excited about the merger, which will establish us as one of the most dominant players in the SMB market.”
Indeed, the merger will potentially treble WiseStamps user base. More than a billion emails have already been sent with WiseStamp, but with the software now integrated into vCita’s offering, you can expect to see plenty more emails with engaging signatures.
YouTube has released its Bumper Ads Leaderboard, which showcases the top 10 six-second adverts that people loved this year. It’s the battle of the FMCG brands, with Doritos, Papa John’s and Cadbury all making a play for first place.
The top spot is taken by Mars-owned confectionary brand, Maltesers, promoting its Maltesers Buttons product, which shows two people using the buttons as substitutes for a game of Tiddlywinks.
Chocolate overall has made for great snackable ads, with Maltesers and Cadbury adverts performing highly in the leaderboard, as well as a strong showing from Oreo.
Doritos UK takes the second spot, blending real-life with animation to promote their new two-flavoured tortilla chips. Oreo Cookie falls in third place, with a creative twist that shows various people creating Oreo-inspired eyebrows – or #OreoBrows!
The top ten six second ads in the Bumper Ads Leaderboard were initially ranked by an algorithm that factors in total views and engagements. The adverts were then ranked by a user creative ratings survey run by Ipsos, which considers four parameters: likeability, memorability, emotion and brand linkage.
Syncsort, the global leader in Big Iron to Big Data software, today announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Pitney Bowes’ Software Solutions business. Together, Syncsort and the Pitney Bowes software & data business becomes one of the largest data management software companies in the world and a leader in data quality, serving more than 11,000 customers and hundreds of resellers globally. With its unique scale and broader solution set, the company will offer differentiated capabilities to enterprises seeking to maximize insight from their data.
The acquisition, Syncsort’s largest ever, brings to the company best-in-class location intelligence, data enrichment, customer information management and customer engagement solutions that are highly complementary to its existing portfolio. The combination builds on, and significantly expands, the breadth of Syncsort’s offerings in data quality software and complements existing Syncsort Trillium products. The transaction is expected to close by the end of the calendar year, pending regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.
“Our remarkable transformation and rapid growth story continues. We could not be more excited for the next phase of the journey with the Pitney Bowes software products and talented team as part of our world-class organization,” said Josh Rogers, CEO, Syncsort. “Together, we will be one of the leading players in the data management software space and positioned to drive even greater value for customers and partners alike, especially in areas like regulatory compliance, security, data science and hybrid cloud. Leading enterprises are facing significant challenges around the quality of their data, and we will offer unparalleled capabilities for customers to easily integrate, enrich, improve and gain insight from their data.”
The Pitney Bowes software business is based on four key lines including:
Location Intelligence – products that allow organizations to enrich and analyze location data for enhanced business insights
Data Enrichment – comprehensive portfolio of business, geographic, and industry-specific data featuring global coverage across 250 countries and territories
Customer Information Management – software suite that manages data to deeply understand customers and their context to drive superior business outcomes
Customer Engagement – software to help businesses build brand loyalty, improve customer satisfaction, create new revenue opportunities, and reduce costs
Jared Hendricks, Senior Managing Director at Centerbridge and a lead director on the Syncsort Board commented, “Syncsort’s acquisition of the Pitney Bowes software & data business creates a market leading data management platform. With the company’s unique scale, there is an exceptional opportunity to apply the strength of the combined product portfolios and differentiated expertise of the talented teams to tackle the most complex data management challenges that large and small enterprises face, and support their most strategic initiatives through continued innovation and development.”
The transaction is backed by affiliates of Centerbridge Partners, L.P. and Clearlake Capital Group, L.P. Debt commitments have been provided by Jefferies Finance LLC, Credit Suisse, Golub Capital LLC, and Antares Capital LP. Credit Suisse and Jefferies LLC served as financial advisors to Syncsort. Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP served as legal counsel to Syncsort.
Time Machine captures all versions of Salesforce data
GRAX releases industry-first Immutable Ledger used to preserve, protect, and govern chain of custody for all versions of Salesforce data. GRAX Time Machine with Immutable Ledger delivers unlimited versioning and chaining of Salesforce data signed, encrypted and coalesced within a customer’s cloud service of choice (Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure, or Google GCP).
GRAX Releases the Immutable Ledger Powered by Blockchain
The GRAX Immutable Ledger now guarantees a customer can audit, analyze and report on a complete chain of custody for any legal or governing body. GRAX customers own and define privacy, security, auditing and access controls of all versions of data within Salesforce.
The Company now powers more than 50,000 screens worldwide
Spectrio, one of the nation’s leading providers of in-store marketing solutions powered by content and technology, announced that it has merged with VS Networks, a leader in cutting-edge digital and interactive signage, headquartered in Chicago, Ill. With the merger, the Company now powers more than 50,000 screens worldwide with robust back-end tools that help retailers drive in-store sales and create engaging customer experiences.
VS Networks’ interactive sales tools enable customers to actively engage with brands at the point of sale. The platform includes enhanced product catalogs, product selectors, parts finders, and branch or distributor-specific pricing. Brand-based apps in the platform also provide dynamic and interactive video content and programming for dozens of well-known brands.
With the VS Networks platform, complex digital signage networks are easily managed via powerful cloud-based tools. Customers can utilize the platform to broadcast brand messages across an already-established network of retail environments, with tracking and detailed monthly reporting.
“Giving customers the information they need at the point of sale is crucial to driving in-store sales in any retail environment,” said Dax Brady-Sheehan, Spectrio CEO. “With the VS Networks technology, we’re able to provide even more flexibility for our digital signage and interactive kiosk clients, by adding dynamic sales enablement tools, scalable management capabilities, and a vast library of brand content.”
Over the past year, Spectrio has focused on building interactive technology into its digital solutions, expanding its capabilities from simple passive digital signage applications to active and engaging experiences for users.
“Throughout our history, we have always been committed to improving sales and on-premise communication for our clients,” said John Weinlader, VS Networks Co-Founder. “With Spectrio, we are excited to offer a new variety of services so we can provide even more value for our clients.”
Spectrio serves clients from local businesses to large brands, seamlessly unifying online marketing experiences and in-person brand experiences with content and technology. Spectrio’s in-store marketing technologies include Digital Signage, Interactive Kiosks, and Wi-Fi Marketing, as well as In-Store Music and Marketing, On-Hold Marketing, and Scent Marketing – all designed to drive consumer behavior.
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With the recent spin-out and rebrand of IBM’s Watson Marketing platform to Acoustic, many marketers are reflecting on their current and future approach to Artificial Intelligence. Acoustic’s messaging will likely resonate with marketers as many have been burned by a growing tech stack and are looking to regain focus. As marketers explore what AI can do to help them increase revenue, research we’ve conducted at TOPO highlights three key considerations to have top of mind.
