Box, Inc., the leading Content Cloud, today announced that it has acquired Crooze, a leading provider of no-code enterprise content management applications built on the Box Platform. Box will leverage Crooze’s team and technology -- including the company’s no-code app builder and metadata capabilities -- to help organizations address business-critical processes like contract lifecycle management, digital asset management, controlled document management, enterprise content libraries, and more.

“Content is central to a huge number of critical business processes in the enterprise today, and with rapid innovation in AI and a dynamic security landscape, the ability to manage those processes in the cloud and enable teams to get the most out of their content is essential to digital transformation,” said Aaron Levie, co-founder and CEO of Box. “It’s time to modernize ECM and leave outdated systems behind. Crooze has built advanced ECM capabilities on Box, already working with some of our largest customers. By natively integrating Crooze’s technology into Box, we’ll reshape what enterprises can do with their content.”

"Box has long been on the cutting edge of the enterprise content management industry,” said Alan Monier, co-founder of Crooze. “They pioneered cloud content management and have set the bar for security, compliance and data privacy. Building on their enterprise-grade platform was an easy decision for us.”

“From its inception, Crooze’s mission has been to help organizations unlock the full potential of their content and we are very excited to join the Box family to scale that vision in the enterprise,” said Mark Lane, co-founder of Crooze.

Today, Crooze provides a broad range of capabilities to help customers get the most out of their content in Box:

• A no-code builder for critical business-document applications.
• An extensive set of metadata tools to greatly simplify all aspects of metadata, including adding, analyzing and managing it at scale.
• Customized dashboards and views of underlying Box content and metadata.
• Forms and document generation capabilities.
• Ability to integrate with Box Relay to automate content workflows.

Crooze's capabilities enable customers to easily and quickly build apps to manage critical content on Box, including contracts, digital assets, and controlled documents:

• Contract management: Organizations can digitally transform their legal contracts repository and processes with the ability to generate documents on-demand, streamline e-signatures with Box Sign, and automate processes with Box Relay for efficient handling of contracts.
• Digital asset management: Marketing teams can organize, manage, share and distribute assets, automate processes through Box Relay to manage end-to-end asset lifecycles, deliver curated assets internally and externally, and streamline metadata management with robust tools for enhanced productivity.
• Controlled document management: Departments can establish a secure document library on Box for controlled documents like corporate records, HR policies, and financial records, leverage Box Shield for document protection, enforce retention policies with Box Governance, manage metadata at scale by applying, editing, and searching across thousands of files, and automate processes seamlessly with Box Relay for review and approval protocols.

Modernizing the ECM Market with AI

According to IDC’s Worldwide Content Services Applications Forecast, 2023-2027:

The worldwide content services applications market (including ECM) is expected to grow* from $15.1 billion in 2022 to $23.8 billion in 2027 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.6%.

The vast majority of enterprises today continue to struggle with the productivity, security, and cost challenges posed by having their content and workflows fragmented across a variety of legacy on-premises ECM systems and point solutions. To enable modern work and secure their intellectual property, these organizations need a single, secure platform to centrally manage content across a variety of use cases. Further, new technology like Box AI presents an unprecedented opportunity to unlock insights from content and drive further automation and transformation.

"Organizations looking to modernize their approach to managing enterprise content should consider the new synergies afforded by Box with Crooze,” said Holly Muscolino, group vice president, Content Strategies and the Future of Work at IDC. “Crooze’s no-code app builder and metadata capabilities further enhance the robust set of content services offered by the Box Content Cloud. IDC research shows that organizations that invest in modernizing content management experience reduced business risk, improved decision-making and increased stakeholder satisfaction and engagement, including both customers and employees.”

EPAM's Retail Media Orchestration Toolkit provides a solution for retailers to scale their retail media business and leverage the analytical capabilities of Google Cloud

Retail media offers a significant revenue-generating opportunity for retailers to sell advertising space fueled by customer transactional data and insights. However, scaling such a business poses a significant challenge for many. EPAM Systems, Inc., a leading digital transformation services and product engineering company, today announced a partnership with Google Cloud, aligned with its Industry Value Network (IVN) initiative, to develop a composable suite of retail media accelerators to help retailers solve efficiency, scalability and functionality challenges.  

EPAM's Retail Media Orchestration Toolkit, developed on and in collaboration with Google Cloud, is a set of composable cloud accelerators that allows retailers to work more effectively with multiple technology vendors via a single, integrated platform while reducing dependence on third parties and optimizing cost. Retailers can leverage the scalability and analytical capabilities of native Google Cloud components, along with a network of retail media software vendors, eliminating the need to build their own in-house solution.

With more consumers shopping online than ever before, retail media is the fastest-growing segment in the advertising industry, with the potential to generate billions of dollars of annual revenue. In a currently heavily fragmented space, EPAM's Retail Media Orchestration Toolkit provides a solution for creating higher-quality advertising experiences with greater measurement and targeting capabilities.

The Retail Media Orchestration Toolkit features the following:

• Multichannel reporting with automated campaign metrics from multiple platforms into a single dashboard.
• Automated omnichannel measurement to help brands understand the incremental sales and revenue impact of their retail media investments across channels and platforms.
• Advanced audience creation using analytical tools within Google Cloud, enabling brands to create powerful, predictive audiences across channels and platforms.
• Brand and consumer insights to analyze category share, consumer profiles, purchase channels and basket composition, helping brands plan more effective campaigns and increase their media investments.

"We're pleased to announce this collaboration with Google Cloud to help retailers of all sizes scale their retail media business without the need for costly capital investments," said David Billings, VP, Global Head of Media Practice at EPAM. "Our clients often work with multiple retail media technology partners and need a comprehensive data and analytics layer that can seamlessly integrate these partners to enhance value for advertisers and reduce their operational burden."

"Retailers are already working with Google Cloud to power their digital transformations with cloud infrastructure, data and AI," said Pallab Deb, Managing Director, Solutions and Industry Value Networks at Google Cloud. "Our approach to Industry Value Networks helps these customers more quickly bring together and create value from multiple partner platforms on Google Cloud, and we're pleased that EPAM will expand its work with Google Cloud and our ecosystem of partners to accelerate digital transformation in the retail industry."

As a market leader in developing composable cloud media and marketing platforms, EPAM has designed and built custom media technology platforms for some of the world's largest advertisers and retailers. Initial integration partners of EPAM's Retail Media Orchestration Toolkit include Moloco and Salesforce, with first use cases focusing on multi-channel measurement, brand and consumer insights generation and high-value audience creation.

"This partnership will enable the world's largest retailers to build and grow their own retail media technology ecosystem with Moloco's machine learning powered platform at the center of that stack," said Nikhil Raj, Vice President, Retail Media Platform Business at Moloco. "We expect this partnership will help move the entire industry forward with an increased focus on transparency, measurement and performance."

New AI-powered solution will accelerate and scale the Recording Academy®'s editorial content capabilities around Music's Biggest Night® 

IBM today introduced AI Stories with IBM watsonx, a generative AI solution co-created alongside the Recording Academy® to generate and scale editorial content around GRAMMY® nominees before and during the 66th Annual GRAMMY Awards®.

Each year, nominees are celebrated in coverage across GRAMMY.com and GRAMMY social channels. Using AI Stories, powered by IBM's AI and data platform watsonx, the Recording Academy editorial team will be able to expand its coverage of GRAMMY-nominated artists, ultimately creating a more personalized digital experience that further connects millions of music fans with the artists they love while also introducing them to new ones.

The produced content will consist of social-ready assets as well as longer-form coverage that will appear across GRAMMY digital platforms. Fans will be able to engage with the AI-generated content during GRAMMY livestream events – including moments on the red carpet, throughout the GRAMMY Awards Premiere Ceremony®, with the limo and fashion cams, and more – through an interactive widget available on live.grammy.com. 

To create the AI-generated content, the Recording Academy editorial team will utilize an AI Content Builder dashboard using AI language models hosted in the watsonx.ai studio and trained using the Recording Academy's own trusted data and brand guidelines. The team will engage with the dashboard through prompts to produce detailed insights on the various GRAMMY nominees including their philanthropic endeavors, cultural influence and other career highlights.

"Through our long-standing partnership, IBM is proud to continue co-creating new solutions with the Recording Academy to digitally transform their most important work – whether it's improving the membership experience, increasing engagement with fans, or celebrating artists with expanded and customized editorial coverage around Music's Biggest Night®," said Jonathan Adashek, Senior Vice President, Marketing and Communications at IBM. "AI Stories with watsonx is a powerful example of how AI can help drive productivity gains in a wide variety of use cases." 

"The ability to customize and scale our work ahead of Music's Biggest Night is crucial as we look to bring the magic of the GRAMMY Awards to fans worldwide," said Adam Roth, Senior Vice President, Partnerships & Business Development at the Recording Academy. "We are thrilled to continue our partnership with IBM to deploy cutting-edge solutions that unlock new possibilities for our digital content and beyond this GRAMMY season." 

IBM has been the official Cloud and AI Partner of the Recording Academy for over seven consecutive years. In addition to AI Stories with IBM watsonx, IBM Consulting has worked closely with the Recording Academy and Latin Recording Academy® to co-create new solutions that will enhance its business operations and create a more personalized digital experience for each of its 24,000 members.

Data highlights ways AI brings 24/7 immediacy, with automation and personalisation, for continuous engagement across diverse communications channels

Vonage, a global leader in cloud communications helping businesses accelerate their digital transformation and a part of Ericsson, has released its Global Customer Engagement Report 2024. The 12th annual report outlines data and insights into customer communications preferences with businesses, highlighting emerging trends that emphasise the need to augment these interactions with artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance customer engagement. The 2024 report is based on nearly 7,000 consumer responses from 17 countries, including Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Singapore and South Korea.

AI’s Role to Reduce Frustration and Deliver Great CX

The global data revealed consumers continue to prefer a range of channel options when communicating with businesses, with mobile phone calls (36%), messaging/non-SMS apps (31%) and phone calls via apps (29%) ranking high in preference. However, less than half (42%) indicated they are “very satisfied” when communicating with businesses.

In APAC, consumers revealed that mobile phone calls (73%) are the most common method used by customers to communicate with businesses, followed by phone calls via messaging apps (60%), messaging via non-SMS apps (64%), emails (50%) and social media posts (47%).

Consumers cited multiple frustrations such as long wait times to speak to an agent (63%), no way to speak to customer service via voice/phone (59%), lack of 24/7 support availability (48%) and lack of self-service support (46%).

The report found that (80%) of APAC customers are likely to take their business elsewhere as a result of poor experiences, and 61% of consumers will not tolerate bad experiences and will walk away after just one or two bad encounters.

These findings underscore opportunities to leverage AI. With tools like AI-based virtual assistants, businesses are equipped to provide quick resolution, reduce frustrations and ultimately provide a more targeted and personalised experience for the user, including the ability to:

• Triage urgent customer inquiries
• Provide smarter self-service at scale
• Deliver smart IVR (interactive voice response) and skills-based routing to connect customers with an agent best suited to handle their query, preventing and mitigating a bad customer experience

Report findings demonstrate that consumers are embracing AI to make their experiences better. In fact, responses show a likelihood that chatbot and video chat usage will more than double within the next year, with 10% using chatbots today and 23% expected usage in the next six to 12 months. Additionally, 13% indicate they’re using video chat today, with 26% expected usage in the next six to 12 months.

Commenting on the report findings, Joy Corso, Chief Marketing Officer at Vonage, highlights the significance of these results in shaping customer experience (CX): “This data underscores that, to differentiate on customer engagement, businesses need an omnichannel communications strategy that allows customers to contact them seamlessly across their preferred channels. Those that do will also benefit from the ability to leverage the powerful capabilities of AI across communication channels, such as voice, video, messaging, and chat, enabling them to augment live customer support. This goes a long way to ensuring personal and real-time customer engagement at every touchpoint.”

“Metrigy’s upcoming AI for Business Success study shows significant growth for AI-enabled technologies, with 38% of CX leaders saying 2024 will be their turning point for acceptance of AI in CX, up from 17% in 2023,” says Metrigy CEO Robin Gareiss. “Companies that adopt and integrate AI and automation into their CX processes have documented compelling success metrics, with improvements in customer satisfaction and loyalty, as well as agent efficiency. Companies not using AI on an omnichannel environment are already at a competitive disadvantage, so it’s imperative to establish a targeted AI strategy now.”

Positive CX Creates Loyal Brand Ambassadors

With 56% of consumers indicating they are likely to offer positive survey feedback after a great experience with a business and 55% noting they would share their experience with friends and family, it’s clear that great experiences create valuable brand ambassadors. Even better, more than half (52%) of customers report heightened brand loyalty following such an encounter, and more than a third (36%) go as far as purchasing additional products.

Added Corso, “This report emphasises that businesses that leverage AI across communications channels have the ability to facilitate the kind of meaningful, intelligent conversations that strengthen loyalty, build long lasting customer relationships and ultimately boost sales.”

The Global Customer Engagement survey was conducted in October 2023, and explored the varied channels customers use for communicating with friends, family, and businesses - including voice, messaging apps, email, social media, chat, and more - and the immense value of delivering excellent customer service.

Snowflake, the Data Cloud company, today announced that Brad Burns is joining the company as Chief Communications Officer. In his new role, Burns will be responsible for Snowflake’s communications strategy, advising the company’s leadership as Snowflake continues to grow and scale as a technology leader.

“We are thrilled to welcome Brad to the Snowflake team,” said Denise Persson, Chief Marketing Officer at Snowflake. “With a wealth of experience from highly successful enterprises, Brad brings a strategic approach to communication and deep understanding of the dynamic technology landscape. His expertise will play a crucial role in elevating Snowflake communications as we scale the Data Cloud to $10 billion and beyond.”

Burns joins Snowflake from Salesforce where he was Chief Communications Officer. He has two decades of experience providing communications counsel to executive teams in highly competitive industries, especially around global communications, high-visibility product launches, financial and M&A communications, and issues management.

Prior to Salesforce, Burns was at AT&T, where he served as Senior Vice President of Corporate Communications for AT&T Communications. There, he led global communications, including public relations, employee communications, reputation management, social media, and executive communications.

“Now more than ever, every enterprise needs a global, connected data foundation to capitalize on the possibilities of AI, and Snowflake is unlocking that future,” said Burns. “I look forward to contributing to Snowflake's next phase of exponential growth, driving the narrative that is redefining what's possible in the world of data and AI.”

Burns holds a B.A. from Southern Methodist University. He is an executive board member of SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts, and is a former adjunct professor of Georgetown University’s Corporate Communications program.

Amagi, the global leader in cloud-based SaaS technology for broadcast and Connected TV (CTV) today announced that the 10th edition of its Quarterly Global FAST Report, comparing Q3 2022 to Q3 2023 and Q4 2022 to Q4 2023, has found consistent growth in ad impressions within the global FAST market, with increases of 15% in Q3 and 28% in Q4. Channel deliveries and Hours Of Viewing (HOV) showed significant growth over the same periods. Channel deliveries grew by 45% in Q3 and 25% in Q4, and HOV rose by 30% in Q3 and 26% in Q4. These steady numbers demonstrate how FAST continues to be a popular streaming model, enabling advertisers to target specific audiences and content providers to differentiate themselves within the broader video advertising ecosystem.

Moreover, an introduction to the report by Gavin Bridge at FASTMaster Consulting, provides stakeholders with key insights into how they can take further advantage of this underutilized ad market.

"FAST's global audience continues to grow, offering advertisers new opportunities to reach consumers," said Bridge. "2024 will be a pivotal year for the medium as it looks to see ad spending catch up to viewing trends, as well as greater awareness of who the FAST audience is and why they are an attractive target."

Amagi's 10th Quarterly Global FAST Report combines findings from analyst reports with real-time data from the Amagi ANALYTICS platform and Amagi's consumer survey, representing over 500 US households across diverse socioeconomic backgrounds. The report also examines viewer data across 50-plus FAST platforms and approximately 3,800 channel deliveries that use Amagi THUNDERSTORM, the company's proprietary server-side ad insertion (SSAI) platform.

Key Highlights From the Report:

1. Ads Are Worth It: While 46% of survey respondents primarily use SVOD services, 44% use FAST or AVOD, with two-thirds of viewers saying they'll willingly watch ads if it means receiving free, high-quality content. This finding demonstrates the potential for continued migration to AVOD and FAST services.
2. APAC Surpasses in Overall Growth: APAC is the only region that shows a three-digit growth in both analyses (Q3 2022 vs. Q3 2023 and Q4 2022 vs. Q4 2023) across HOV (145% in Q3 and 130% in Q4) and ad impressions (281% in Q3 and 352% in Q4).
3. News Takes a Huge Lead Over Other Genres Globally: News contributed a substantial 41% to total HOV worldwide in Q3 2023, followed by 37% in Q4 2023, maintaining its status as the most watched genre. Movies trailed behind at an 11% share in Q3 2023 and a 9% share in Q4 2023, with nature and wildlife as the third runner-up at 8% and 6% during the same quarters.
4. EMEA and LATAM Have Their Own Preferences: While news may dominate other genres on a global scale, both EMEA and LATAM show a stronger preference for movies. In EMEA, this genre remained the crowd favorite at a consistent 18% HOV contribution across Q3 2023 and Q4 2023, while news came second at 13% and then at 11%. In LATAM, news never reached the top three, with movies at a massive lead (50% in Q3 2023, 52% in Q4 2023), lifestyle in second place (14%, 16%), and sports in third (8%, 7%).

"As this latest edition of the Global FAST report shows, stakeholders need to start aligning their strategies with the pace at which ad dollars are now moving in the FAST lane," said Srinivasan KA, Co-Founder and Chief Revenue Officer of Amagi. "The surge in ad dollars toward CTV is not just a trend; it's a seismic shift reshaping the digital advertising landscape. Advertisers, content providers, and FAST services must recognize the incredible opportunities within this dynamic environment."

Amagi provides a complete suite of solutions for channel creation, distribution, and monetization. Amagi's global clients include ABS-CBN, AccuWeather, A+E Networks UK, beIN Sports, Cineverse, Cox Media Group, Crackle Plus, Fremantle, Gannett, Gusto TV, NBCUniversal, PAC-12, Tastemade, and The Roku Channel among others.

NTT DATA Business Solutions taps IBM watsonx AI and data platform to create new customer solutions for application modernization, finance, hospitality and the public sector 

NTT DATA Business Solutions and IBM have announced the establishment of a Center of Excellence (CoE) for the watsonx generative AI platform. The joint CoE will focus on the use of the IBM watsonx AI and data platform with watsonx AI assistants for the development of embedded generative AI solutions for clients. The CoE combines the industry expertise of NTT DATA Business Solutions with IBM technology to help NTT DATA Business Solutions clients scale and accelerate the impact of generative AI. "While currently anchored in Denmark, this initiative is a global endeavor, empowering our customers worldwide," explains Norbert Rotter, CEO of NTT DATA Business Solutions and EVP NTT DATA, Inc.

The CoE is also instrumental in helping to extend new use cases for generative AI to NTT DATA's it.human platform which incorporates IBM watsonx capabilities, machine learning, speech recognition, natural language processing and conversational AI to enhance the customer experience. "As businesses move to adopt generative AI, they need the right client and industry expertise, combined with the best open technology," said Kate Woolley, General Manager, IBM Ecosystem. "IBM's partnership with NTT DATA Business Solutions allows us to co-develop solutions for clients that are purpose-built with flexibility, governance and openness."

The collaboration also leverages IBM's training, education and technology resources, including IBM Cloud, to build use cases and provide access to foundation models and best practices to assist with client projects using the watsonx platform. NTT DATA Business Solutions provides the CoE with sales resources to engage with customers, build use cases and implement AI products. "We expect an increased investment in AI on the customer side this year," says Nicolaj Vang Jessen, EVP, Global Innovation & Industry Consulting, NTT DATA SAP TFA and responsible for the Region NEE at NTT DATA Business Solutions. "The CoE harmonizes our resources, methodologies and industry expertise, reinforced by the exceptional competence of IBM."

A preview into the work underway will be offered at the IBM TechXchange Summit EMEA in Barcelona, where Thomas Noermark, Global Head of Innovation at NTT DATA Business Solutions, and Thor Hauberg, Director Venture Lab and Digital Business Transformation at NTT DATA Business Solutions, will share their knowledge in several sessions.

Choozle, a leading omnichannel digital advertising platform and services provider, today announced the relocation of its headquarters to downtown Denver. The company's new office, situated at 1125 17th Street, marks a significant milestone in Choozle's growth and commitment to innovation.

The move to this prime location underscores Choozle's dedication to fostering a dynamic work environment and expanding its presence in the heart of the city. The new office space is designed to inspire creativity, collaboration, and innovation among the Choozle team.

"The decision to move our headquarters to downtown Denver aligns with our strategic vision for growth and innovation. We believe this vibrant location will not only enhance our company culture but also provide an ideal setting for attracting top talent in the industry," said Adam Woods, CEO of Choozle.

Choozle's new address offers a central location with convenient access to key business districts and amenities. The spacious and modern office reflects Choozle's commitment to providing an exceptional workplace for its employees.

To commemorate the move, Choozle will host its annual sales kickoff meeting February 6-8, inviting the team and key partners to explore the new space and collaborate on 2024 plans.

"We're excited about the possibilities this move brings. It not only enhances our accessibility to clients and partners but also further solidifies our position as a one-stop-shop for the best media inventory and expertise," added Woods.