According to the 2023 Global ESG Practitioner Survey, commissioned by Workiva Inc. (NYSE: WK), 71% of ESG practitioners surveyed say three or more internal teams contribute to ESG reporting within their organizations. Further, 74% say their companies have appointed at least one employee to oversee ESG reporting and initiatives, up 6% over the previous year, and the same percentage expect their organizations will be required to comply with two or more global regulations. Together, these results illustrate the increasing significance of ESG in corporate reporting and underscore the complexity of ensuring accurate and assured data in ESG reports.

The 2023 Global ESG Practitioner Survey polled more than 900 professionals with knowledge of ESG reporting at their respective organizations. The survey was developed with Alex Edmans, Professor of Finance at London Business School, and builds upon Workiva’s 2022 Global ESG Practitioner Survey, which explored challenges and opportunities in ESG reporting.

“It’s no secret ESG is receiving heightened attention in boardrooms or that increasingly complex frameworks, standards and regulations are presenting new challenges in ESG reporting,” said Edmans. “What struck me from the survey results is the dichotomy between practitioners of all levels agreeing they find value in ESG reporting while managers in the trenches are saying their companies are not applying the same diligence to ESG reporting as they do to financial reporting.”

Executives and Employees Don’t See Eye to Eye
The survey uncovered a disparity in perceptions across seniority levels. While 62% of c-level executives strongly agree that their companies apply the same level of diligence to ESG reporting as they do to financial reporting, only 32% of managers and senior managers share the same sentiment. Likewise, 87% of executives say their organizations have appointed someone to an ESG-specific role, compared to just 68% of managers who say the same.

This suggests a significant disconnect between senior leadership and staff and could mean businesses are not fully prepared to comply with emerging regulation, supporting the results of an earlier survey commissioned by Workiva and PwC.

Reporting and Technology Fuel Value in ESG
Despite this disconnect, ESG practitioners overwhelmingly agree that there is value to be found in ESG reporting, with 90% of survey respondents stating that in the next two years having a strong ESG reporting program will give their organizations a competitive advantage.

Additionally, results may indicate the longer a company has been reporting on ESG, the more likely they are to have realized a return on their ESG initiatives. Respondents from organizations that have been reporting on ESG for five years or longer are more likely to say ESG has generated cost savings and improved brand awareness and/or reputation for their companies, compared to those that have been reporting on ESG issues for two years or less.

Finally, there is a growing belief among practitioners that technology is a key component of ESG reporting. Nearly all survey respondents (95%) agree having adequate technology is critical to successfully managing the ESG reporting process, a 19% increase over last year’s survey, and 97% agree that access to technology and data will play an essential role in making decisions to advance their ESG strategy.

“The survey reinforces what customers share with us every day at Workiva. Though investors and regulation remain top of mind, practitioners know there is more to ESG reporting than responding to external demand. Done well, ESG reporting unveils opportunity and empowers executives with a vision for the future that sets them apart from their competitors in the eyes of their customers, employees and investors,” said Paul Volpe, Senior Vice President of Growth and Head of ESG Solutions at Workiva. “But the complexity in ESG reporting is very real. Practitioners agree that technology is the linchpin in the ESG reporting process, and it’s up to business leaders to equip their teams with the tools they need to unlock the value in ESG.”

Workiva will host a LinkedIn Live featuring Alex Edmans and exploring key findings from the 2023 Global ESG Practitioner Survey on September 12.

Latest AI Product Eliminates the Manual Guesswork of Internal Linking for Complex Websites

seoClarity, a pioneering force in AI-powered enterprise SEO technology, is making a splash with one of its most innovative AI-driven products, Link Optimizer, the only front-to-end internal linking solution for SEO.

Driven by seoClarity's AI SEO assistant, Sia™, Link Optimizer enables enterprise websites, especially those with complex site hierarchy, to scale internal linking. This leads to enhanced site authority and better crawl efficiency for the website.

"Link Optimizer removes the guesswork of internal linking for enterprise SEOs who, until now, could not perform this task at scale," said Mitul Gandhi, Co-founder and Chief Architect of seoClarity. "With AI, SEOs can be confident that their internal link strategy unlocks ranking opportunities and enhances site performance."

To add to the appeal, Gandhi added, "Internal linking is completely under an SEO's control, unlike external link building."

According to a survey conducted by seoClarity, over 60% of SEOs prioritize internal linking, yet 62% face challenges in actually implementing internal links without assistance from developers.

To address these challenges, the engine performs sophisticated AI analysis that takes into account site content, rankings, search demand, and more to identify the best opportunities to interlink pages.

Link Optimizer then builds semantically-related link clusters, identifies optimal target pages, creates and optimizes anchor text, deploys the updates, and measures the results. It also allows SEOs to review link recommendations and exercise control over the deployment process.

Clients are already experiencing success with Link Optimizer with one SEO director calling it "truly transformative" for their retail enterprise's internal linking strategy.

"Because of Link Optimizer, we easily increased internal links on category pages, improved page rankings, and experienced a 23% traffic increase to these pages," they said.

seoClarity maintains its industry leadership by consistently introducing generative AI technologies that drive faster results for enterprise sites. Over the course of this year, they have successfully launched five new AI-related SEO products, a commitment underscored by a substantial $30 million investment in advancing AI for SEO.

Cloudinary, the image and video platform that powers many of the world's top brands, today announced enhancements to its MediaFlows product, including FlowAI which harnesses the power of generative AI to turn natural language into executable workflow logic. With FlowAI developers can simply describe what they want to build in plain words, and FlowAI will automatically generate the required workflow.

Currently in beta and scheduled for general availability later this year, MediaFlows enables developers to easily manage, transform, and orchestrate visual media without writing code and has quickly garnered a passionate following among developers responsible for building media-rich applications. The intuitive drag-and-drop interface and pre-built templates help automate a wide range of visual media use cases allowing developers to reduce costs and ship prototypes faster:

• Easily perform image and video transformations like background removal, recoloring, and more using Cloudinary APIs
• Connect and orchestrate workflows with platforms like Akeneo, Twilio, SendGrid, and many others
• Leverage Cloudinary add-ons such as Amazon Rekognition image moderation and Google Video Intelligence tagging
• Build workflows for metadata management, tagging, cropping, and other asset management tasks

The platform’s out-of-the-box templates, logic, and integrations reduce coding time on visual media-related tasks by an average of 70%, accelerating development so teams can get to market quicker.

“MediaFlows is an absolute game-changer. It lets us easily tap into the full power of Cloudinary's APIs – while giving us hours of development time back every day,” said Christian Ferranti, tech lead at GlobalDots. “With MediaFlows, we have the visual building blocks to build complex media applications without writing a single line of code.”

MediaFlows is part of Cloudinary’s Emerging Business unit, an innovation practice dedicated to incubating and accelerating the development of transformational new visual media technologies.

“MediaFlows exemplifies the spirit of innovation that drives Emerging Business at Cloudinary,” said Amit Golan, Group GM of Emerging Business and acting GM of MediaFlows. “Businesses are under pressure to reduce the costs associated with developing, scaling, and maintaining image and video-rich applications – while speeding up their overall time-to-market. MediaFlows harnesses the latest in generative AI to help our users build applications more efficiently and at the speed of their imagination.”

“Cloudinary is leading the practical adoption of generative AI – and MediaFlows is the latest Cloudinary product to harness the power of this technology to redefine what's possible with visual media,” said Tal Lev-Ami, co-founder and CTO of Cloudinary. “Forget point-and-click. With FlowAI, developers and business technologists can transform ideas into production-ready automation with a few words. This means less coding – and more creating.”

Deltek adds the complementary knowledge workforce management solution to its professional services portfolio to help project and service-centric businesses

Deltek, the leading global provider of software and solutions for project-based businesses, announced today that it has completed its acquisition of Replicon – a global provider of unified time tracking solutions that bring together Project Delivery, Finance and HR on a single platform, purpose-built for project and service-centric organizations. Replicon, now a part of the Deltek solution portfolio, complements Deltek's enterprise software and information solutions that help organizations power project success.

Replicon offers a differentiated, project-centric suite of Time Management, HR Attendance and PSA offerings, without requiring a finance system transition. This acquisition supports Deltek's product and customer expansion into additional project-based industries and accelerates Deltek's market position within global IT Services and Consulting, as well as other Professional Service organizations in the enterprise and mid-market.

"We are very excited to complete this acquisition – one of the largest in Deltek's history – and welcome Replicon into the Deltek family. Just like Deltek, the Replicon team is dedicated to project-based businesses with a specific focus on customers, collaboration and innovation. With the combination of our two companies, we now have new and expanded capabilities to offer project and service-centric organizations globally. We look forward to the many new opportunities this acquisition brings to Deltek Project Nation, including those with Replicon customers and partners," said Deltek's President and CEO, Mike Corkery.

"Replicon has an unprecedented technology stack with an impressive user experience, and we are excited to work on how we go to market together," said Warren Linscott, Chief Product Officer. "As the industries we serve evolve, we continue to look for new ways to cater to our customers and a broader range of project-based businesses. With Replicon, Deltek will further its leadership in global IT Services and Consulting, and other Professional Service organizations in the enterprise and mid-market."

Replicon solutions are a fit for organizations that require more sophisticated time and resource management and do not currently have a Deltek ERP solution or do not want to switch their ERP system. Deltek will continue to enhance its native time applications within its ERP solutions, which will not be replaced by Replicon.

"Deltek is the perfect home for Replicon. We know that with Deltek we will continue to hold up our commitment to meet and exceed Replicon customers' needs and continue delivering innovative solutions. We are just at the beginning of a very exciting journey together," commented Raj Narayanaswamy and Lakshmi Raj, Co-founders & Co-CEOs of Replicon.

Insider — the #1 marketing platform for delivering individualized, cross-channel customer experiences — today announced that Shreyas Doshi joins the company's advisory board. Doshi brings a wealth of product experience and expertise to the Insider team, having been a leading product visionary and category creator for over 15 years.

Known for his mastery of product innovation, Doshi has spent his 15+ year career leading some of the world's best-known brands to develop category-creating products and innovative solutions. He is arguably best known for leading Stripe's earliest and most successful products — including Stripe Connect and Stripe Terminal. Doshi is also credited for helping to define and grow Stripe's Product Management function from its earliest days.

Earlier in his career, Doshi led and grew several well-known products and teams, including at Twitter, Yahoo, and Google, where he led a number of key product areas for Google AdWords.

With his proven track record, Doshi's expertise will ensure that Insider is best positioned to continue developing their industry-leading product with cutting-edge features that anticipate marketers' needs before they arise. Doshi will help Insider ensure that their platform delivers customers the best possible ROI, to become the most effective, efficient, and powerful MarTech stack. Insider's mission is to help brands deliver unforgettable, individualized experiences that customers love, while helping marketing leaders simplify and consolidate the Customer Experience tech stack into a single powerful platform that delivers the fastest Time To Value (TTV).

Doshi's appointment is timely following Insider's placement as the #6 Best Software Product in the world, according to G2. Insider is also recognized as a leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Personalization Engines 2022, The Forrester Wave for Cross-Channel Campaign Management 2021, and IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Customer Data Platforms Focused on Front-Office Users 2021-22 Vendor Assessment.

Insider's commitment to building a leading product was also highlighted earlier this year, when the company announced their most recent investment of up to $105 million to accelerate its M&A strategy, which brings their total investment to $274 million.

"Insider's product and roadmap is one of the most robust I have seen in my career. Their product team is all about pushing the boundaries to remain at the forefront of the industry. What really sets them apart is their commitment to not only respond to customer feedback, but to anticipate marketers' needs before they even arise. This is a skill I recognize from other category creator companies I have worked with, in the past, and I can see that same drive and foresight in the Insider team," said Shreyas Doshi, "I look forward to helping Insider build upon their impressive platform, and contribute my experience and expertise to this talented team. Together, we will redefine the future of the customer experience industry, and I can't wait to see where we can take Insider from here."

"It's difficult to imagine a product leader with more transformative experience than Shreyas. From his time at Google and Stripe, Shreyas has demonstrated how to lead product teams in fast-paced environments," said Hande Cilingir, Co-Founder and CEO at Insider. "We are committed to building the single best platform in the MarTech space. Shreyas' experience and contribution to this mission will be unmatched, with his remarkable track record of category creation at some of the world's most recognized and respected technology companies. His expertise will be invaluable in helping us shape the future of Insider."

Insider has grown rapidly in every corner of the globe and now boasts 1,200+ customers, which include 1/3 of the Fortune Global 500 and some of the world's best-loved brands, including Singapore Airlines, Estée Lauder, Samsung, Vodafone, Allianz, Virgin, Toyota, New Balance, IKEA, GAP, L'Oreal, Santander, BBVA, Pizza Hut, Newsweek, Nissan, AVIS, MAC, Marks & Spencer, Avon, and CNN.

Earlier in the year, Insider announced the acquisition of MindBehind, a Meta-verified, Conversational Commerce and Messaging Platform, to accelerate its development of conversational solutions. Following the company's first acquisition, Insider is now actively exploring further M&A opportunities in its mission to further enhance its product and roadmap to meet the evolving needs of marketing teams. 

Mahoney brings over three decades of leadership experience to GoTo, including former CMO role at multi-billion-dollar Nuance Communications

GoTo, the company making IT management, support, and business communications easy with flagship products GoTo Resolve, Rescue, and GoTo Connect, today announced it has appointed Peter Mahoney to the role of chief marketing officer (CMO). He will report to CEO Paddy Srinivasan.

Mahoney joins GoTo with more than 35 years of experience as a marketing and product executive with experience as a CMO for startups through multi-billion-dollar public companies, including voice and AI leader Nuance Communications, Inc., where he worked for nearly 13 years. Mahoney founded and served as CEO of Plannuh, a venture-backed software company providing the first AI-driven platform to automate marketing leadership. The Boston-area-based executive is also an active board member, angel investor, advisor, and author.

“When we set out to find a new CMO to bring GoTo’s marketing efforts into the next growth phase, Peter was a clear match,” says Srinivasan, CEO of GoTo. “His extensive expertise and passion for developing and optimizing marketing plans, coaching marketers, executives, and early career leaders makes him extremely well-positioned to drive demand for our suite of products around the globe. Partnering with sales, product, and support teams, Peter will play a vital role in optimizing, personalizing, and enhancing the end-to-end experience for our customers to unlock the potential of GoTo’s portfolio of remote management, support, and business communications tools.”

Mahoney joins the GoTo team on the heels of the company’s rebrand in 2022, a new tri-annual product innovation release cadence, and the appointment of a new Chief People and Chief Security and Information Officer. He will lead the nearly 200 GoTo marketers, including Customer Marketing, Partner Marketing, IT Solutions Group Marketing, Unified Communications & Collaboration Marketing, Marketing Operations, Digital Marketing, Brand & Creative, and Corporate Communications.

“I am thrilled to join GoTo and look forward to partnering with GoGetters around the world,” says Peter Mahoney, CMO of GoTo. “I’ve always been impressed by this company and its vital role in solving some of today’s most critical remote support and communication needs. Together with strong go-to-market models, diverse talent, and a tremendous opportunity for scale and growth, GoTo is a dream role for an operational marketing executive. I look forward to working with the team to unlock the next gear of growth.”

Conceal, renowned for its pioneering stance against web-based threats, today heralded its significant partnership with Kompingo, the UK's distinguished value-added distributor and managed security service provider. This collaboration signifies a major enhancement for Kompingo’s Managed Detection and Response (MDR) services, as it integrates Conceal’s patented zero-trust browser security into its offerings.

"As the digital threat landscape rapidly evolves, strengthening our MDR and managed services capabilities remains paramount. Integrating Conceal’s browser security solution aligns perfectly with our ambition to offer our customers top-tier, holistic security solutions," commented Toby Caton, Director at Kompingo. “Conceal also allows us to offer the product as a stand-alone solution to our growing MSP partners and reseller base for them to enhance their offerings further, too.”

Gordon Lawson, CEO of Conceal, further emphasized the partnership’s potential: "Kompingo's expertise in managed security services makes them an ideal partner. We’re confident that by infusing ConcealBrowse into their MDR offerings, we can provide users with unprecedented protection from web-centric threats."

Together, Kompingo’s state-of-the-art Security Operations Centre and ConcealBrowse promise a robust defense against today’s sophisticated web threats. With Kompingo’s AI and machine learning-enhanced operations now complemented by Conceal's dynamic web content analysis, both organizations are poised to set a new benchmark in cybersecurity.

Kaleyra, Inc., a global CPaaS leader announced today a strategic collaboration in its partnership portfolio with Talisma Corporation, Pvt. Ltd, a leading provider of customer experience solutions based in Bangalore, India. The partnership agreement enhances the customer experience by adding Kaleyra Video, a WebRTC audio and video calling tool, to Talisma's Customer Relationship Management & Digital Engagement Platform.

Talisma's Digital Engagement Platform offers an exceptional customer experience across an omnichannel journey featuring a plethora of communication channels and messaging optimization tools. Kaleyra Video is the real-time communication channel that completes Talisma's offering by adding a WebRTC  based video and audio calling platform that does not require third party software or installations. Kaleyra Video integrates directly with Talisma's Chat & Co-Browse platform so customers can chat with service agents and screen share to resolve problems quickly without changing communication channels.

The company is now partnering with Kaleyra to enhance the real-time aspect of its customer journey. Kaleyra Video is Kaleyra's WebRTC (Real-Time Communication) audio and video calling solution. Kaleyra Video natively integrates directly into existing digital touchpoints, such as a website or app, via SDKs or APIs to leverage real-time sales, customer service and collaboration.

Kaleyra Video's interface is fully customizable with a company's brand to provide a consistent customer journey, a capability that is unique from other solutions on the market. Its full suite of collaboration tools, such as whiteboard, file upload and screen share, make it a fully immersive experience.

"Talisma has always been at the forefront of transforming customer experience for enterprises. With this partnership with Kaleyra our solutions fit into the strategic and tactical directions needed in the industry to continue to transform customer experience and engagement," says Dr. Raj Mruthyunjayappa, Managing Director, Talisma Corporation.

Sandesh Sarang, Managing Director for Kaleyra India, APAC, and MEA region, shares that, "It just makes good business sense to partner with a company like Talisma. Their platform is innovative, comprehensive and omnichannel, which aligns perfectly with Kaleyra's technology. Kaleyra Video is the most customizable audio and video WebRTC calling product on the market, guaranteeing a industry-leading customer experience through high quality and secure calls."