Amplience today announced that it has been positioned as a leader by industry research firm IDC, in its recent "IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Headless Content Management Systems 2023 Vendor Assessment" report by Marci Maddox, June 2023 (doc #US50826923).

The report highlights some of Amplience's strengths as a leader in the market as follows:

• Authoring environment: Amplience provides native templates for design and atomic content component assembly, allowing visualization of the content model and experiences across touch points. Amplience's heritage in content and digital commerce brings together rich media, content, and personalization to data-driven applications.
• Visualization and preview: Amplience separates content creation from visual delivery in a headless environment by automatically rendering the content in the destination experience via the Virtual Staging capability. Amplience integrates the content calendar with the experience preview in real time and for future scheduled content and campaigns.
• Performance and scale: Amplience is one of the few vendors in this evaluation that delivered at 99.99% uptime. Amplience offers automatic code deployment, load balancing, content delivery network, and staging sites as part of the service.

"Delivering market-leading experiences that delight shoppers wherever they may be is how businesses are going to be able to thrive and grow, today and in the future," said David Rich, Chief Marketing Officer, Amplience. "Ever-changing customer expectations need to be met in every market, and when it comes to digital commerce and omnichannel, the race is on to stay ahead of the competition. We're delighted to have been recognized as a Leader by the IDC MarketScape for Headless Content Management Systems. We believe this recognition continues to reflect our dedication to helping brands and retailers embrace a more agile, future-ready CMS that empowers practitioners and developers to compose and deliver digital experiences that raise the bar on shopping." 

The IDC MarketScape excerpt can be accessed here.

About the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Headless Content Management Systems 2023 Vendor Assessment" report

This IDC study provides an assessment of the headless content management systems used for persuasive digital experiences and presents the criteria most important for companies to consider when selecting a headless content management solution. This assessment discusses both quantitative and qualitative characteristics that explain success in the authoring of personalized content to be delivered by a custom-developed, front-end brand or consumer website, mobile web app, or other digital delivery channel. The evaluation is based on a comprehensive and rigorous framework that assesses vendors relative to the criteria and one another. The study highlights the factors expected to be the most influential for success in the market during both the short term and the long term.

GoWit, a leading AdTech company delivering individualized, multi-channel Retail Media advertising solutions, secured an US$ 1 million investment in its first financing round.

Leading the financing round are Esas Ventures, Alarko Ventures, APY Ventures and Mindvest GSYF (Venture Capital Investment Fund).

GoWit, a globally-positioned start-up, is a multi-channel advertising platform for marketplaces that sell their advertising placements to the brands they work with to generate significant additional income streams.

Following on from the successful launch of its latest SaaS product GoWit RMA (Retail Media Ads), the Company has shown rapid growth, announcing partnerships with some prominent e-commerce retailers. Its proprietary RMA platform enables different brands and online sellers to increase recognition, product visibility, customer engagement, and sales.

This first round investment will allow GoWit to explore its global potential in bringing retailers and brands together in a single next-generation ad platform, where they can monetize ads and compete in the ever-growing market.

Furthermore, with this investment, GoWit will begin expanding globally, invest in product development and grow their team. This will enable GoWit to achieve its goal of delivering enhanced customer experiences.

GoWit’s ultimate vision is to create a decentralized, transparent, and privacy-protected Retail Media ecosystem, enabling the most value-enhancing advertising technologies possible. By investing in products and people, GoWit will use this funding round to expand its reach among retailers, allowing brands to effectively connect with their desired audience and establish a strong foothold in today’s highly competitive market.

GoWit CEO and Co-Founder, Emrah ADSAN, explains, “From the beginning, our focus has been on transforming our advertising flow and building a democratized ecosystem. After launching our highly successful RMA product, we were able to conclude contracts smoothly and to announce diverse partnerships with internationally recognized companies. This has clearly validated a need in the market and has been a great use-case for achieving product-market fit. I’m very appreciative that our investors have supported us in leading the change.”

He added, “At the same time as marketing our Retail Media Advertising offering in our core regions, we also aim to reach a broader customer base globally. This investment will help us increase wider recognition of GoWit and expand the reach of our successful RMA product across different marketplaces and regions.”

With Finastra's Essence, Melton Building Society will automate core processes and unlock new avenues for business growth

Finastra, a global provider of financial software applications and marketplaces, announces that Melton Building Society has selected Finastra Essence, deployed on Microsoft Azure cloud, to digitally transform its operations and provide the agility required to quickly implement new services. Finastra's SaaS solution will enable the Society to offer enhanced customer experiences through seamless self-serve capabilities and user journeys, whilst empowering its staff to focus on value-added support by automating manual tasks.

Melton Building Society also selected Mast, a flexible, cloud-native mortgage origination system designed to help lenders process applications faster, for its loan origination service and Fairmort, a provider of software solutions for financial services, to manage its data migration and regulatory reporting.

"Our vision is to build a modern mutual society that keeps pace with the demands of our members, and digital transformation plays a critical role in this," said Simon Taylor, Chief Executive Officer at Melton Building Society. "We selected Finastra due to its strong industry expertise and truly cloud-native solution, providing added security and giving us the flexibility to develop our offering and pursue more partnerships in future. Finastra is the right partner for us to embrace the modern world in one step, so that we can continue helping people buy homes, make the most of their savings and seek independent personal financial advice."

Essence, now selected by three UK building societies, is a cloud-first, next-generation digital banking solution that combines sophisticated functionality and advanced technology to increase enterprise agility, reduce costs and improve operational efficiency. Powered by open, microservices architecture, Essence's rich, broad and deep retail and commercial banking functionality enables institutions to rapidly deploy market-leading products and services. By implementing the solution, Melton Building Society can expand its product capabilities, reach new demographics and continue to provide high quality services and support to its existing members.

"End customers want to access information and services quickly, independently and with ease, alongside support from a team of experts when needed," said Siobhan Byron, EVP, Universal Banking at Finastra. "With our solution, Melton Building Society can provide its members with more self-serve capabilities and access to specialized services by integrating with third-party fintechs, whilst reaching more customers at a reduced operational cost. The Society's commitment to helping the communities it serves is also closely aligned with Finastra's purpose to unlock the potential of people, businesses and communities through open, inclusive and sustainable finance."

Revolutionizing Customer Experience Management with Innovative and Cost-Effective Solutions

SANDSIV, the unrivaled innovation leader in Customer Experience Management (CXM) and Voice of the Customer (VoC) enterprise solutions, proudly announces its strategic partnership with Connecting Visions, the first consulting broker that connects the needs of its clients, with the best talent/technology ensuring the result. It already has +1800 solutions in its ecosystem and +150 clients in the Spanish market. This groundbreaking collaboration is set to revolutionize the business landscape, empowering companies to harness the full potential of customer insights and propel their growth and triumph to unprecedented heights.

Uniting their formidable expertise, Connecting Visions and SANDSIV share an unwavering mission: to streamline the selection process of VOC tools for businesses, while elevating efficiency and significantly reducing the total cost of ownership. Through this powerful alliance, companies of all sizes can leverage sandsiv+VOC solutions with cutting-edge features and its exceptional budget security, regardless of their maturity level, to achieve their VOC program goals and stay ahead of the competition. In addition, Connecting Visions has CIARA, its own methodology awarded by the DEC and with great results in VOC projects, which you can learn more about here.

SANDSIV has already made a remarkable impact in the Spanish market since establishing its office in 2022, earning the respect of new partners and customers alike. The collaboration with Connecting Visions further strengthens their commitment to providing unparalleled VOC services and reinforces their position as industry leaders in customer-centric solutions.

Stratio BD launches Stratio Gen-AI, the world-first, secure engine for enterprises enabling businesses to use company data in natural language with generative AI.

Launched today by leading Generative AI Data Fabric specialist Stratio BD, Stratio Gen-AI is a world-first generative AI engine designed to solve one of the biggest data management issues facing businesses - giving any worker easy, quick, and secure access to any information they require regardless of technical know-how.

The technology utilises a Large Language Model (LLM) with a user experience similar - but unrelated - to that of globally successful ChatGPT, enabling it to deliver information and data insights in easy-to-understand, human language, as well as understanding varying user language. This includes anything from various native tongues to different technical and literacy abilities, in order to provide the most relevant and accurate response.

This also ensures any user in all departments can effectively ask any question and Stratio Gen-AI will provide the answer instantly, rapidly improving productivity while enhancing each department's ability to make informed decisions based on insightful data. For example, it eradicates the need for teams to download multiple reports from different applications and amalgamate them into a single spreadsheet, as well as avoiding the often lengthy waiting time it takes for data analysts to compile reports.

The new conversational tool is the final piece in the puzzle for Stratio BD's vision to democratise data with its Generative AI Data Fabric offering: an AI-driven, end-to-end data management product designed to break down traditional barriers to data access, enabling businesses to simplify data analysis, automate tasks, and ultimately make better, more informed decisions that benefit the bottom line.

Oscar Mendez-Soto, CEO and Founder of Stratio BD said: "No matter what department you work in, whether it's sales, HR, legal, marketing, or operations, your work will always be governed in some way by the most up-to-date and accurate data available to you. The Stratio Gen-AI engine is revolutionary for businesses as it empowers teams to use insights that would otherwise be either inaccessible, incomplete, or only possible for a data scientist to retrieve and understand. The use cases for how businesses can utilise this tool to improve and streamline operations are immeasurable."

From day-to-day questions a manager would otherwise ask their team, to the more complex that would require a full data report from the technical teams, Stratio Gen-AI cuts out any obstacles for users to maximise their performance while reducing the need for administrative reporting. For example: sourcing a sales forecast; identifying the company's most popular products that month; or forecasting which customers are a flight risk, are now all possible by asking a simple question to Stratio Gen-AI.

Often, businesses struggle to obtain true meaning from data as it is stored in siloed locations or across multiple applications. But because Stratio Gen-AI sits above a unified business data layer created by Stratio BD's Generative AI Data Fabric product, the engine is able to access all of a company's data in one view and simultaneously get an answer which is understandable in context to the business.

Stratio Gen-AI is a closed-source interface that businesses can safely use without any risk to data security as the data does not leave the company's systems. Equally, thanks to the governance and role-based access to data already enabled by Stratio BD's data governance module, users of the Stratio Gen-AI  can only access data that is relevant and unrestricted to their position in the business.

The tool uses deep learning techniques to understand, summarise, generate, and make forecasts from large data sets. In particular, enterprises that stand to benefit the most are those that normally handle large volumes of data at scale, such as the financial, manufacturing, retail, telco, the public sector, and health and life sciences.

The engine is now available and in high demand, with a number of Stratio BD's clients within the financial industry already starting to use the tool, including household name, high-street banks.

The news comes as the Spain-headquartered company launched regional offices in both the UK and France earlier in 2023 as part of ambitious worldwide expansion plans, now with more than 500 employees in seven countries.

Founded by entrepreneurs Óscar Méndez Soto and Ernesto Funes in 2014, Stratio BD's clients include major corporate enterprises such as Santander, HSBC, BBVA, and Carrefour. The company is recognised by analysts such as Gartner and Forrester as international leaders in the data fabric space, and last year completed its Series C funding worth EUR 65 million while also achieving 40 per cent growth. 

Oscar concluded: "Crucially, this technological leap is only possible because of the incredible capabilities of our market-leading data fabric product. Generative AI cannot understand or manage technical data unless it is available in a unified business layer and given business meaning through ontologies. Our Stratio Gen-AI product does this best, which is why we are in prime position to pioneer this technology for our clients."

New Netherlands office will provide further local support for EU markets

Waterfall Security Solutions, the leader in OT cybersecurity, today confirmed the opening of a new European headquarters in The Netherlands. This continued expansion of Waterfall's presence in Europe is in response to the strong increase in demand for Waterfall products throughout the EU. Waterfall's growing customer base in Europe includes power plants, liquified natural gas terminals, passenger rail infrastructure, manufacturing, airports, and many other vital industrial sites. Regional instability and recent cyberattacks targeting industrial sites have motivated governments and private industry to pay closer attention to the protection of physical operations which has driven strong interest in the region for Waterfall's Unidirectional Gateways and related line of products.

"We are pleased to be expanding our European presence to the Netherlands" said Lior Frenkel, CEO and Co-Founder of Waterfall Security. "We look forward to helping strengthen European defenses against cyber-attacks on manufacturing and critical infrastructures."

Waterfall's Dutch office is part of the company's ongoing European expansion, fueled by new cybersecurity standards and regulations requiring robust industrial cybersecurity for crucial infrastructure. With this new location, Waterfall will have a fully functioning laboratory in which to showcase the capabilities of Waterfall Security products. The new offices will also help with effectively supporting existing customers and address the existing and growing demand from both partners and end-users for Unidirectional Security Gateways and related products. Waterfall Security Solutions provides the strongest possible protection for industrial networks and protects thousands of essential infrastructure sites in the region and around the world.

Dstny, a leading European provider of cloud-based business communications, today announced the appointment of Christophe Costers as Chief Operating Officer. Christophe who is an experienced business leader with a strong track record in transformational management, will drive Dstny's business performance and sustainable growth.

Christophe Costers brings nearly 20 years of diverse experience in various business functions, including P&L ownership, strategy consulting, and entrepreneurship. In addition, he has extensive industry expertise in Telecom/ICT services and private equity. Costers has solid international experience in over 25 countries in developed and emerging markets.

Most recently, he held several senior management roles at Telenet, a leading Belgian Telco with ~€2.6Bn revenues, where he consistently demonstrated exceptional performance and leadership.

"Our industry is undergoing rapid transformation, and Christophe's unique blend of skills and experience make him the ideal person to lead our business performance initiatives," said Daan De Wever, CEO of Dstny. "With Christophe on board, we are confident in our ability to accelerate our growth and boost vitality for our customers, partners, employees, and planet."

"I am thrilled to join Dstny and work alongside a talented team to further strengthen the company's position as a leader in cloud-based Business Communications," said Christophe. "I look forward to leveraging my experience to drive sustainable growth and help Dstny deliver exceptional value to our customers and partners."