CloudFuze, a leading cloud migration software, has officially announced its partnership with Google Workspace. Through this partnership, providing customers with the addition of a Google Chat migration path along with CloudFuze's Gmail and Google Drive migrations – now allows CloudFuze's customers a comprehensive solution for migrations across Google Workspace.

Businesses want to be able to change communications platforms and office software without losing historical context and data. Previously, there was no clear migration path from Slack to Google Chat to enable their customers to migrate to their preferred communication platform and/or enable greater adoption of Google Workspace.

Like many other customers, Vendasta, a leading marketplace software company serving 60,000 partners, utilized CloudFuze for a Slack to Google Chat migration to standardize their communication platform as Google Workspace and reduce costs. The need to replicate 100% of channels, data, files, and content in Slack to Google Chat was business critical.

CloudFuze provided the premier support for a seamless migration from Slack to Google Chat for Vendasta including public and private channel migration, files, emojis, mentions, threads/replies, and more to meet their business-critical needs.

"There is important information buried in our Slack channels, it was important to have it carry over without losing information. CloudFuze made this an easy thing to do," said Jason Coutu, IT Czar, Vendasta.

With the full support of the CloudFuze technical team throughout the migration, Google Workspace customers can be confident that they have the support and experience available to ensure a smooth migration process. This includes pre-migration reporting and planning, migration consulting, and post-migration data validation and coordinated cloud cutover.

Respondents Who Use a CRM Were 2x More Satisfied With Their Customer Operations Compared to Non-CRM Users

Zoho, a global technology company, today announced the results of the 2023 State of Customer Operations for U.S. Small Businesses report. The study, commissioned by Bigin by Zoho CRM and conducted by the SMB Group, surveyed more than 1,500 small businesses (companies with 100 employees or less) on how they utilize technology and their satisfaction with their current business operations.

The findings revealed that while many small businesses are hesitant to use a CRM, operations move faster and run smoother when CRMs sit at the center of their technology suite. This leads to high levels of satisfaction, as well: Of the respondents who use a CRM, 58% claimed to be "very satisfied" with how they conduct business, as opposed to roughly 30% of non-CRM users. Nearly two-thirds of the non-CRM users surveyed saw the benefits of deploying a unified CRM system to power customer operations.

When it comes to current pain points around customer-facing functions and operations in small businesses, the top three challenges cited were personalizing interactions for different customers, getting repeat business and converting prospects into sales. The top four overall challenges that small businesses face today were growing revenue, attracting new customers, improving employee productivity, and improving customer experience.

"In the world of small business, success is about wearing many hats," says Laurie McCabe, Co-founder & Partner, SMB Group. "A comprehensive CRM puts all of the necessary sales, marketing and service tools and information in one place, helping them improve operations and cater to customer requirements. Our study shows that CRM is a game-changer for small businesses striving to attract new customers, boost revenues, and enhance customer experiences."

Key findings that emerged:

Small businesses favor fast, efficient, time-saving CRMs

The most popular factors in determining the right CRM for a small business were ease of use (53%), time efficiency (47%), quick deployment (39%) and value (36%).

Companies are ready to pay high to save time

More than half of the respondents (52%) spend more than $100 a month on their CRM Solution, with only 5% using a free CRM solution, however 42% of respondents said they save 5-10 hours a week thanks to their CRM.

Non-CRM options are scattershot

Of the 56% of respondents who don't have a CRM, 39% said they use a combination of spreadsheets, email, and personal productivity tools, 9% use a combination of siloed applications, and 8% stick with manual methods like pen and paper.

Despite pronounced benefits, many small businesses don't think CRMs are for them

Nearly two-thirds of respondents who don't use a unified CRM agreed that having one would be beneficial. When asked about why their business isn't considering a CRM system, nearly half of the respondents (48%) mentioned that their company is too small to need one.

Unified CRM systems have an overall positive impact on small businesses

Even though most respondents, CRM users or not, believed that they provided an excellent customer experience and were efficient in customer operations, CRM users expressed far more satisfaction than their counterparts. Of these respondents, 47% felt their customer operations were very efficient compared to 30% of non-users.

Additionally, 95% of CRM users rated their customer experience as excellent (55%) or good (40%), while non-CRM users held a generally lower opinion of their customer service. Overall, 64% of surveyed small businesses were positive about their revenue growth in 2024 compared to 2023.

"Small businesses are seeking a CRM system that is cost-effective, efficient, and simple to implement, as indicated by the survey findings," says Mani Vembu, Chief Operating Officer at Zoho. "Since 2020, Bigin's vision has been to bring millions of small businesses online with a simple yet powerful CRM solution that makes the transition from spreadsheets easy. The unique ability to manage all customer operations in one place with Team Pipelines, stronger mobile apps that take advantage of the native OEM features, and extending Bigin's native capabilities through newer integrations and add-ons are some of our recent enhancements that have helped us gain trust within the small business community."

Disclaimer: All trademarks, product names, and company names cited herein are the property of their respective owners. This survey was powered by Zoho Survey.

Pricing

Bigin by Zoho CRM starts at $7/user/month (billed annually) for the Express Edition and goes up to $12/user/month (billed annually) for the Premier edition. There is also a free edition available.

Zoho Privacy Pledge

Zoho respects user privacy and does not have an ad-revenue model in any part of its business, including its free products. The company owns and operates its data centers, ensuring complete oversight of customer data, privacy, and security. More than 90 million users around the world, across hundreds of thousands of companies, rely on Zoho everyday to run their businesses, including Zoho itself.

Experienced Global Semiconductor Leader Strengthens Executive Team; Further Prepares Pixelworks Shanghai Subsidiary for Planned IPO on Shanghai STAR Exchange

Pixelworks, Inc., a leading provider of innovative video and display processing solutions, today announced its Shanghai-based subsidiary, Pixelworks Semiconductor Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. ("PWSH"), has appointed Wallace Pai as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. Pai will be responsible for all engineering and management of the PWSH business units, reporting directly to Chairman of Pixelworks Shanghai, Todd DeBonis.

Pai is seasoned global executive with deep semiconductor industry experience spanning numerous leading multinational companies. Most recently, he served as Chairman of China at Imagination Technologies, where he oversaw the development and execution of market and ecosystem strategy. Earlier roles included SVP of Advanced Technology Business at SMIC as well as VP and General Manager of Asia Pacific at GlobalFoundries. Before GlobalFoundries, he was VP and General Manager of the Smart Display division at Synaptics. Pai also held previous executive positions at Samsung, Google/Motorola Mobility as well as management roles at Qualcomm Technologies, Cadence and McKinsey & Company. Pai graduated with a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School.

"Our Shanghai subsidiary is increasingly poised for rapid expansion, and Wallace's broad semiconductor experience in the Asia Pacific region will be a tremendous asset to our strategic growth initiatives," stated Todd DeBonis, President and CEO of Pixelworks, Inc. and Chairman of Pixelworks Shanghai. "He is also an influential executive that brings extensive credentials at an exciting time for the Company, as our mobile visual display processing solutions and branding continue to gain momentum with smartphone OEMs as well as gaming ecosystem partners. Wallace is the ideal leader to help drive PWSH's strategy and execution, and I look forward to working with him in support of accelerating future growth and the subsidiary's planned listing on the Shanghai STAR exchange."

Commenting on his appointment, Wallace Pai stated, "Pixelworks has established a strong reputation for its visual display technology and proven capabilities within China, and I am thrilled to join Todd and the team at such a pivotal time in PWSH's journey. I believe there is an immense opportunity to further leverage the Company's market-leading position in mobile visual processing and recently launched IRX branded ecosystem into broader customer adoption as well as new adjacent applications."

Acquisition positions IFS as the only vendor with leading ERP, EAM, FSM and ESM functionality now able to provide AI-generated anomaly detection to drive automation and optimization of processes and workflows across its entire platform.

IFS, the global cloud enterprise software company, today announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Falkonry, Inc. a California-based Industrial AI software company that provides automated, high-speed data analysis to the manufacturing and defense industries. The AI-based, self-learning solution continuously monitors large volumes of data for assets, machines, systems, and industrial processes to discover and analyze unusual behavior and causes of failures.

Over the past two decades, the growing scale of assets, machines, and fleets has generated unprecedented amounts of data, making real-time operational monitoring highly complex and hindering immediate operational enhancements, such as maintenance and process adjustments. By leveraging Falkonry's automated and self-learning AI, organizations can democratize intelligence, enabling operational users to take timely actions to prevent asset downtimes, quality issues, and emission violations and automate process and workflow improvements.  

The addition of Falkonry's self-learning anomaly detection solution to IFS's existing enterprise simulation and AI-based scheduling and optimization capabilities further evidences the company's strategy to use AI pervasively to provide end-to-end intelligent insights in EAM (Enterprise Asset Management) across ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), MES (Manufacturing Execution System), PSO (Planning, Scheduling, Optimization), FSM (Field Service Management) and ESM (Enterprise Service Management) technology to increase people and asset productivity.

Headquartered in California, USA, and regional presence in Mumbai, India, Falkonry was founded in 2012 by CEO Nikunj Mehta. The company has customers across North America, South America, and Europe, including the US Navy and Air Force, Ternium, North American Stainless, Harbour Energy, and SSAB, demonstrating its focus on industries in industrial manufacturing and Defense agencies.

IFS CEO, Darren Roos, commented: "Falkonry is unique in the market because its technology is agnostic and also it does not require data scientists. These are great differentiators for Falkonry that mean the solution is both scalable and low-cost to implement – two fundamental attributes that very much align to our own values." Roos added: "Falkonry's technology can be applied in all industries, and while the team has some hugely impressive references in IFS's focus markets on asset performance management, manufacturing execution systems, servitization, and configurable workflows, we see a really broad addressable market to capitalize on."

Nikunj Mehta, CEO of Falkonry, commented: "The convergence of artificial intelligence and industrial processes has become increasingly crucial for organizations seeking to enhance productivity through data". He added: "We are thrilled to join forces with IFS and looking forward to combining our unique strengths to provide a truly compelling value proposition to our existing customers as well as IFS's customers." He concluded: "Becoming part of IFS will enable us to further innovate and extend the value we create for our customers."

"Today's enterprise is continuously collecting asset performance data, making it a challenge across a multitude of industries from manufacturing to service to put it in the right context and take action in real-time. Organizations using artificial intelligence and machine learning models with their data for self-learning asset performance anomaly detection will generate critical insights faster, boosting productivity and business performance," said Brian O'Rourke, IDC Research Manager, EAM and Smart Facilities.'

This acquisition follows soon after IFS's acquisition of Poka, a provider of connected worker technology that empowers factory and field operatives to work smarter, safer and drive productivity. The combination of Falkonry and Poka with IFS Cloud makes IFS the most compelling vendor for organizations wanting to establish the most progressive and effective Smart Factories of the future.

Bashaw will be responsible for leading PathFactory's global go-to-market team, driving revenue growth, and reinforcing the company's position as an industry leader.

PathFactory, the leading B2B content intelligence platform, today announced the appointment of Jeff Bashaw as its new Chief Revenue Officer. Based in Silicon Valley, Bashaw brings with him a wealth of experience in scaling high-growth technology companies and a deep understanding of driving revenue growth.

In his role as PathFactory's Chief Revenue Officer, Bashaw will be responsible for leading PathFactory's global go-to-market team. With his proven track record of creating and executing successful go-to-market strategies, Bashaw is poised to drive PathFactory's expansion and reinforce its position as an industry leader by leveraging its proprietary Content AI technology to drive revenue.

"At PathFactory, AI capabilities, automation, and data insights have been built into our product since day one to help our customers deliver personalized content at scale," said Dev Ganesan, President and CEO of PathFactory. "With rapidly growing demand in the market for our AI-driven content intelligence solution, we are excited to have Jeff's expertise here to help us scale and drive amazing success for our customers."

Bashaw joins PathFactory with 25 years of successful revenue growth and leadership roles at SymphonyAI, RapidMiner, Qlik, TIBCO, and DataSynapse. Bashaw is a strong proponent for customer success and has decades of experience building and leading global teams. With a keen understanding of customer-centric approaches and a drive to deliver exceptional results, Bashaw's addition to the PathFactory leadership team is expected to foster even greater customer success and satisfaction.

"With the mainstream emergence of generative AI, I can say with confidence that PathFactory is poised for amazing growth, and I'm thrilled to join the company at this exciting juncture," said Bashaw. "PathFactory's dedication to the modern B2B buyer through innovative content AI solutions is changing the industry, and I look forward to collaborating with the talented team here to provide exceptional value to our customers and achieve new heights of success.

"The appointment of Bashaw to Chief Revenue Officer comes less than a year after another high-profile hire, with the appointment of Salesforce alumni Venk Chandran as Chief Product Officer.

Anton Hanebrink and Nick Mehta Join the Company’s Board of Directors

PubMatic, Inc. (Nasdaq: PUBM), an independent technology company delivering digital advertising’s supply chain of the future, today announced two new appointments to the company’s board of directors, Anton Hanebrink, Executive Vice President, Chief Corporate Strategy & Development Officer of Intuit Inc., and Nick Mehta, Chief Executive Officer of Gainsight, Inc.

In addition, Cathie Black has decided to retire from the company’s board of directors, effective on August 30, 2023. PubMatic is deeply grateful to Ms. Black for her years of service and wish her well in her retirement.

“We are excited to welcome Anton and Nick to the PubMatic Board of Directors,” said Amar Goel, Founder, Chairman and Chief Innovation Officer at PubMatic. “They each bring valuable experience that will enhance and further diversify the skills on the board and deliver value to PubMatic, our clients, and our shareholders.”

“I'm energized by the incredible opportunities to accelerate profitable growth for PubMatic,” said Anton Hanebrink, Executive Vice President, Chief Corporate Strategy & Development Officer at Intuit. “I’m honored to partner with this board and executive team to help achieve the company’s strategic vision and drive growth in the digital advertising space.”

“I am honored to join the PubMatic Board,” said Nick Mehta, CEO at Gainsight. “The future of SaaS is undeniably centered around digital and scalable solutions, and PubMatic has been an unwavering leader for many years. I'm so excited to collaborate with the talented members of this board and executive team, who champion the customer's voice and are trailblazing the path ahead.”

“I would also like to express my sincere gratitude to Cathie Black for more than nine years of service on our board of directors,” continued Goel. “Her expertise in the world of publishing and advertising has been instrumental in our growth from a small private company, through our IPO, and into one of the leading independent advertising technology companies we are today.”

“I have so enjoyed seeing this company grow in many remarkable ways to include going public in 2020, and I wish the management and team only the best,” said Black.

Support Automation Platform Acquires Denim Social and LumenVox

Capacity, an AI-powered support automation platform, today announced the acquisitions of Denim Social and LumenVox. Capacity's support automation platform empowers teams to do their best work and deliver valuable customer experiences across channels. With the addition of Denim Social and LumenVox's products, the platform is charting a course to provide solutions that define the future of work and omnichannel customer engagement for its 1,900+ customers across numerous industries.

Capacity's acquisitions of Denim Social and LumenVox are fueling its transformation from a self-service, single channel tool to an omnichannel support and engagement automation platform. Whether providing customer and employee support, assisting agents or reaching out to customers, the Capacity platform now offers a complete solution across web, voice, SMS, email and social media.

"Customers need support everywhere. Our expanded platform will free up team members to do their best work while also building more meaningful relationships with their customers," said David Karandish, CEO, Capacity. "Denim Social's platform will empower brands to more effectively communicate with customers on their social channel of choice and LumenVox's tools are key in our expansion into voice automation."

Denim Social, based in St. Louis, is a software provider that elevates the way professionals in the banking, insurance, mortgage and wealth management industries connect and sell on social media. With Denim Social integrated into the platform, Capacity users will be able to launch proactive social media campaigns to reach customers and deepen relationships.

"Social media is a must-have tool for today's modern seller. Combining Capacity's AI-powered automations with Denim Social's campaign tools will enable users across industries to more effectively stay engaged on social media and focus their time on delivering authentic interactions," said Doug Wilber, CEO, Denim Social. Wilber has assumed the role of Chief Strategy Officer at Capacity, following the acquisition.

LumenVox is a leading global speech and voice technology provider based out of San Diego. LumenVox works with customers to build secure self-service and customer-agent interactions. Its tools will enable Capacity users to transform customer engagement with AI-driven speech recognition and voice authentication technology.

"The right voice technology can save teams countless support hours. Marrying LumenVox's technology with the Capacity platform ensures voice is a seamless part of the omnichannel experience," said Nigel Quinnin, CEO, LumenVox. Quinnin will lead Capacity's voice initiatives.

The acquisitions of Denim Social and LumenVox, significantly expand the capabilities and scale of the Capacity platform. Today, Capacity estimates that every month its platform will:

• Analyze 3,000,000,000 calls
• Send 10,000,000 SMS messages
• Deliver 500,000 social posts
• Execute 386,000 workflows and automations
• Deflect 140,000 tickets and emails

"With these two great additions to the Capacity platform, we're proudly offering customers an all-in-one solution for support and customer experience," said Karandish.

Capacity's acquisitions of Denim Social and LumenVox closely follows a deal with Textel, an enterprise SMS provider, earlier this year. Capacity will maintain its headquarters in St. Louis. With the acquisitions, its headcount is now more than 100 employees. The terms of the transactions are confidential.