PathFactory Concierge

PathFactory offers Concierge and other tools to create Netflix-style B2B online content experiences

PathFactory is trying to bridge the gap between consumer experiences like Netflix and Amazon by offering tools that let B2B marketers recommend  web site content based on visitors’ behaviour, what’s popular and what will help them take the next step in a buying journey. The Toronto-based firm is using this week’s Sirius Decisions Summit in […]

Amazon Business Google Avionos

Amazon Business and Google overtake supplier portals as B2B buyers’ starting point: Avionos

Thirty per cent of corporate customers now start their e-commerce purchases on sites owned by consumer giants Amazon and Google rather than the 22 per cent who turn first to independent supplier portals, according to research that will be released Wednesday by Avionos. The Chicago-based digital commerce marketing firm’s 2019 report, titled Positioning B2B Commerce […]

InsideSales AI B2B sales 2019

90% of B2B sellers tell InsideSales they expect AI to improve their performance in 2019

While the overwhelming majority of B2B sales professionals have high hopes for the use of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to help them do their jobs, less than half have actually started to implement such tools, according to the results of a recent survey released by InsideSales. Based on a set of questions fielded to more […]

Jeff Kratz AWS

An AWS exec uses a press release that took eight months to write as an example of customer obsession

Before you assume the world’s most disruptive and innovative companies move with lightning speed, ask Jeffrey Kratz about the press release that took nearly eight months to complete. The general manager of Latin America, Canada and Caribbean Regions for Amazon Web Services (AWS) was speaking at the Toronto Global Forum on Monday about how the […]

Elastic Path e-commerce

Elastic Path CMO knows better than to use a hard sell to market ‘headless’ e-commerce

An Uber ride is an e-commerce transaction, but you don’t swipe your credit card before climbing out of the car. If you press an Amazon Dash button you get products delivered instantly. Now Elastic Path CMO Darin Archer is trying to help B2B organizations achieve a similarly quick, convenient and seamless way to conduct all […]

Globant voice tech

Globant research lets business pros have their say about voice tech potential

The popularity of Siri and Alexa among consumers may be inspiring more businesses to consider launching a voice technology initiative, but 33 per cent admit they have yet to use it on the job themselves, according to research from Globant. According to the IT firm’s 2018 Voice-Activated Technology Business Guide, which was based on a […]

Avionos procurement research

Avionos research shows most procurement officers are bypassing supplier portals in favor of some consumer-friendly search options

Even though they work in B2B firms, 78 per cent of procurement managers begin looking for product searches on Amazon or Google rather than a vendor’s own site, and most are disappointed by what they find, according to a new report from Avionos. Avionos, a digital marketing firm based in Chicago, surveyed 160 U.S. B2B […]

AWS AI

The chief technical evangelist at AWS believes these AI use cases will convert enterprise execs

“Looks like a face. Appears to be male. 26-44 years old. Appears to be sad.” These are the findings of an artificial intelligence application called Rekognition developed by Amazon, which is studying the image of a man attending the recent Canadian Cloud and DevSecOps event in Toronto. When quizzed, the attendee admits that he is, […]

Zoho

Zoho plans mass-marketing campaign to promote its integrated suite to business professionals

Zoho is getting ready to release TV ads in the U.S. and Canada as part of a broader marketing effort to boost adoption of its Amazon Prime-style approach to licensing a variety of business applications. Besides the TV spots, Zoho has been holding a series of events for customers and prospects that tout the integrated […]

iExec

iExec uses blockchain to build a market for renting out cloud services and creating decentralized apps

Blockchain may be the biggest trend in IT since cloud computing, and a French startup called iExec is creating a way to bring the two closer together by using the distributed ledger technology to create a market for renting out processing power as an alternative to Amazon, Google or or Microsoft. In November, iExec released the […]

Toyota

Toyota unveils e-Palette at CES 2018 to show its future direction in mobile business applications

Autonomous driving might create major waves among consumers, but Toyota Motor Corp. used CES 2018 to show off a concept that would take it firmly into the business of serving other companies in retail, classified sales and even faciliating government service delivery. In a keynote presentation that was livestreamed from CES in Las Vegas, Toyota […]

customer service

4 Tech trends that could improve customer service in 2018

Understanding the customer service industry and its unique relationship with technology can be a challenge. This difficulty primarily stems from the fact that both employees and customers interact directly with customer service technology every single day. It’s not simple server management technologies handled by a small, sophisticated networking team. Making sure all customer service solutions make sense […]

Alexa For Business

Alexa for Business: Voice tech experts speak up about what’s ahead

Amazon is joining the ranks of firms trying to help automate office chores with virtual assistants, but industry experts say the launch of Alexa for Business could open up applications that go way beyond what consumers do with an Echo in their homes. At its AWS re:Invent conference in Las Vegas on Thursday, Amazon confirmed […]

Molinaro

What the art of leadership looks like to Lee Hecht Harrison’s Vince Molinaro

The question Vince Molinaro asks senior leaders sounds simple enough: “How did you get your current job?” The answer, however, may be a little disappointing. “Most often what I hear is, ‘If I’m honest, I kind of backed into it,’” Molinaro, global managing director of career transition and outplacement firm Lee Hecht Harrison (LHH) told […]