AnalytixInsight Inc., a data analytics and enterprise software solutions provider, announces today that Prakash Hariharan has resigned as president, chief executive officer, and chair of the Company, effective January 12, 2024. Mr. Hariharan will continue to support the Company as a member of its board and will act as a special advisor to aid in the management transition.

Vince Kadar, a current director, has been appointed as chair of the board, and Natalie Hirsch, the current chief operating officer, has been appointed as the interim president and chief executive officer.

Natalie is an operational leader with significant experience managing complex projects and scaling businesses, teams, and processes with over 15+ years of work experience in enterprise software and fintech companies. More recently, she served as Vice President of Operations for Coinsquare Ltd., one of Canada’s largest crypto trading platforms. She also retains an active designation as a Chartered Professional Accountant in Ontario.

"I am excited to step into the role of Interim President and CEO," stated Natalie Hirsch. "I look forward to working with both the board and the rest of the team to develop and execute business strategies that capitalize on the Company’s suite of fintech products and services. I believe that there are a number of interesting opportunities for the Company in 2024, and I am excited to work with the team to explore these opportunities while building shareholder value."

In addition, the board of directors of the Company approved an amendment (the “Amendment”) to its By-law No. A-1. Effective immediately, the Amendment provides for a majority voting standard in uncontested director elections. The majority voting standard provision provides that where there is only one candidate nominated for each position available on the board, each nominee director must receive a majority of “for” votes to be elected. The Company intends to submit the Amendment to its shareholders at the next annual meeting of shareholders, at which such shareholders may, by ordinary resolution, confirm, reject or amend the Amendment.

New partnership lets suppliers collect and display authentic reviews efficiently, while helping Walmart shoppers make better purchasing decisions.

Wholescale is pleased to announce its partnership with Walmart Inc. to syndicate authentic ratings & reviews to the world’s largest retailer. The official partnership comes amidst record growth for Wholescale in 2023.

Wholescale’s proprietary technology prioritizes authentic reviews for shoppers, while offering advanced solutions for suppliers. The syndication partnership demonstrates Walmart’s commitment to enriching customers’ shopping experiences and offering cutting-edge technologies and platform-choice to suppliers.

“Suppliers and sellers can now serve shoppers and Walmart merchants in the most efficient manner,” said David Rapps, President of Wholescale. "Suppliers spend exorbitant fees on incentivized and sampled reviews that shoppers tend to distrust, so Wholescale and Walmart naturally aligned to execute this partnership. Suppliers and sellers are excited about how seamlessly Wholescale’s authentic reviews platform integrates into Walmart’s ecosystem. I applaud the Walmart and Wholescale teams for their excellent collaboration and execution.”

Wholescale’s vast experience building successful consumer brands through authentic reviews epitomizes the profound impact reviews have on shoppers’ brand loyalty and purchase behavior. Wholescale’s technology has been adopted by multiple Walmart Supplier of the Year award winners as well as leading brands and suppliers across the retail landscape.

Industry experts and Talkdesk customers will join the CX Innovators Masterclass to share real-world customer experience innovation insights

• Attendees can learn from winners of the Talkdesk 2023 CX Innovators Awards on Thursday, January 25, 2024, at 12:00 p.m. EST during the CX Innovators Masterclass.

• The virtual masterclass will feature advice from CX Innovators Awards winners on using AI-powered contact center solutions to optimize workflows, operations, and the customer experience, as well as trends shaping the future of customer experience.

• The 2023 CX Innovators Awards winners are representative of the many companies globally transforming customer experience with Talkdesk AI-powered contact center solutions. Recently, Talkdesk was named a Leader in the G2 Winter 2024 Reports in the Contact Center as a Service category with over 1,800 five-star reviews, and ranked #1 in multiple categories, including Enterprise Results and Usability Index for Contact Center based on customers’ authentic feedback.

Talkdesk®, Inc., a global AI-powered contact center leader for enterprises of all sizes, today announced it will host the company’s second annual CX Innovators Masterclass on Thursday, January 25, 2024, at 12:00 p.m. EST, to showcase top innovators using Talkdesk’s AI-powered contact center platform to elevate and modernize their customer experience (CX).

During the virtual masterclass, CX professionals will learn about trends shaping the future of CX and gain actionable insights from success stories shared by Talkdesk fourth annual CX Innovators Awards winners. The winners are leading organizations across a wide range of industries who each used a variety of Talkdesk contact center solutions over the past year to improve outcomes at each stage of the customer journey and deliver best-in-class CX.

Masterclass attendees will hear real-life examples of how accessible, reliable CX solutions can result in numerous achievements, including increased response rates, reduced call handling time, and improved CX evidenced by higher net promoter scores (NPS) and customer satisfaction scores (CSAT), as well as lower operational expenditure (OPEX).

Featured speakers include CX leaders from Talkdesk customers and Class of 2023 CX Innovators winners LegalShield, CAI, BCLC, and JK Moving. For example, AI Innovator Award winner CAI will share how the company reduced call escalation rates and decreased time spent on post-call documentation by eight minutes or more with Talkdesk Workforce Management™. Jeffrey Sturman, senior vice president and chief digital officer of Memorial Healthcare, will accompany Amy Payne, Talkdesk vice president of global customer, partner, and events marketing, as hosts for the event.

The Class of 2023 CX Innovators winners are just a few of the many companies globally that see success with the Talkdesk AI-powered contact center solutions. Additional examples can most recently be found within the G2 Winter 2024 Reports, which named Talkdesk a Leader in the Contact Center as a Service category with over 1,800 five-star reviews, and ranked Talkdesk #1 in multiple categories, including Enterprise Results and Usability Index for Contact Center based on customers’ authentic feedback.

Supporting Quotes

Amy Payne, vice president of global customer, partner, and events marketing at Talkdesk, commented: “The CX Innovators Masterclass is a time to reflect and learn from some of the most successful Talkdesk customers, including those that consider the contact center as a growth center and those that have embraced AI. It’s also an excellent opportunity to gather with industry professionals and think through innovative customer experience strategies for the coming year.”

Tom Grosso, executive director, service desk, at CAI, said: “Talkdesk differentiates our business and drives our innovation. We’re always looking to understand what we can do differently, better, and faster to meet our customers where they are.”

Today, Maropost, the commerce software suite built for fast-growing retail and ecommerce brands, named Kristyn Wallace as Country Manager and Vice President of Revenue for Australia. For over a decade, Wallace has lived and worked in the country, helping merchants attract, acquire, and retain customers. In her new role, she will empower the region’s retailers to confidently launch, grow, and scale operations.

Most recently, Wallace served as Regional Vice President of Revenue and Country Manager for the Asia Pacific and Japan region at Emarsys, an omnichannel customer engagement platform. In her tenure with the Australian business, the company’s business doubled. During that time, Wallace also helped local retailers learn from shopper data, think holistically about their ecommerce and brick-and-mortar storefronts, and get more from their marketing efforts.

At Emarsys, Wallace worked closely with Sean Brady, now Maropost’s President and Chief Operating Officer. Having witnessed Wallace’s regional dedication and expertise firsthand, Brady is convinced she is the right person to expand the company’s presence in Australia and New Zealand (ANZ).

“In 2021, Maropost acquired Neto, Australia’s leading unified e-commerce platform. In 2022, we acquired Retail Express, the country’s first cloud-based point-of-sale platform,” says Brady. “Although Maropost is a global company, we remain committed to providing world-class sales and support to ANZ from in-market experts led by Kristyn. She’s not only well-known in the region, she’s a retail thought leader with a deep understanding of the market, its merchants, and their customers.”

“I am thrilled to build on the home-grown success of Retail Express and Neto in Australia and New Zealand,” says Wallace. “As customers know, both products contain a remarkable amount of customer gold. It’s my job to help merchants mine it.” Considering the work ahead, Wallace notes, “It’s remarkable that an international company like Maropost is so serious about investing in ANZ. It’s a huge opportunity, and I’m both grateful and excited to lead the charge.”

Ipsos acquires Jarmany, a company specialising in data management and analytics in the UK

Ipsos, one of the world's leading market research companies, announces the acquisition of Jarmany, a company renowned for its expertise in data analytics and strategy in the UK.

Founded in 2008, Jarmany supports a range of international companies in their operational, financial and strategic decision-making. Its expertise is grounded in the aggregation, analysis and visualisation of data, in particular through the use of artificial intelligence.

The company will continue to be led by its co-founders, Matthew Rhodes and Tom Hunt. The Jarmany team joins the Ipsos business in the UK, with whom they will work closely to develop their capabilities in integrating diverse and complex datasets.

Ben Page, Chief Executive Officer of Ipsos, comments: “This acquisition contributes to Ipsos' 2025 growth plan by strengthening our data analytics capabilities and consolidating our position as a key partner for our clients. I am delighted to welcome Jarmany’s team, which will allow us to broaden our offer in sectors where we are already present.”

Commenting on the acquisition, Matthew Rhodes and Tom Hunt, Co-CEOs of Jarmany, say: “We are very excited about joining Ipsos. We have built a talented team of 70 experts in technology areas where Ipsos is seeking to grow, such as cloud architecture and platform automation. Our collaboration opens up new opportunities to meet our clients' challenges, in fields such as ESG.”  

Empowers North American broadcasters to transform daily ad sales operations and enable a converged audience-first future

Imagine Communications, a leading provider of ad tech solutions for TV broadcast, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the award-winning Marketron REV broadcast sales and order management platform. By integrating the powerful sales growth engine into its core ad tech portfolio, Imagine now offers a comprehensive monetization solution that enables North American broadcasters to transform daily sales operations, maximize revenue and prepare for a future of converged orders and expanded audience measurement. The product will be re-released as CrossFlight™ after some key enhancements for broadcast TV and is expected to be available in early 2024.

CrossFlight is a cloud-based broadcast sales platform that automates management of ad sales, proposals, pricing and audience forecasting. The platform integrates with Imagine’s widely deployed OSI™ traffic and billing solution, providing a modern, unified monetization solution that enables salespeople to deliver more revenue more effectively. As development continues, the rapidly evolving platform will enable broadcasters to make more money in a cross-platform world by selling an audience across linear and streaming from a single, converged system.

“We are excited to integrate Marketron’s innovative technology into our ad tech portfolio, which will enable us to deliver the exact right solution at the right time for the North American broadcast market,” said Rob Malcolm, general manager of Ad Tech at Imagine Communications. “Our OSI customers will realize immediate benefits from this extension to our core solutions, allowing them to reduce the workload on their sales teams and run their businesses much more efficiently ― while at the same time preparing to successfully navigate a converged linear/digital future.”

CrossFlight delivers an array of powerful sales tools designed to help broadcasters maximize revenue. Built-in pipeline management capabilities allow salespeople to easily manage prospects and customer accounts. Avail requests and proposals can be converted with one step, and orders are executed in TV traffic systems using a modern, web-based user interface (UI). Dynamic pricing capabilities enable inventory to be sold at the best possible price point. Sales performance is easily monitored via an interactive dashboard that provides visibility into pipeline, committed orders, top sellers, and how stations are performing against targets.

“With Marketron REV, our team built an unrivalled platform for sales efficiency, and we are confident that Imagine is the ideal partner to take the platform to the next level of success, while we focus on bringing innovation to the radio industry,” said Jimshade Chaudhari, CEO at Marketron. “Imagine’s deep customer relationships in broadcast TV will enable them to move quickly on development to further meet the industry’s requirements for audience-based and converged linear and CTV sales solutions.”

Captello, a leader in universal lead capture technology, reaffirms its commitment to innovation amid significant industry consolidations, such as Cvent's acquisition of iCapture and Jifflenow, and the formation of Stova. Despite these changes, Captello remains focused on advancing its technology, emphasizing data security and compliance, including pursuing ISO 27001 certification. The company's launch of an AI-powered lead capture solution positions it as a key player in the evolving event technology landscape, offering advanced, reliable, and secure solutions during a period of increased integration and consolidation in the sector.