New Technology Leadership Accelerates Platform and Product Development for Customer Performance and Success

Reputation, the global leader in reputation performance management, today announced the appointment of Shantanu Sarkar as Chief Technology Officer, effective immediately.

Shantanu Sarkar has led product and engineering teams at public and private organizations through critical phases of business transformation and revenue growth. He was previously Vice President and Managing Director of Cockpit Software Solutions at Aptiv. He also served in key leadership roles at Amazon AI (Alexa), Poly (formerly Plantronics), and Cisco. Shantanu joins Reputation with over 150 patents to his credit, he is an expert in Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, SaaS, and Connected Devices.

"Shantanu's outstanding track record as a product innovator and business leader is the perfect match for Reputation's next phase of growth," said Joe Burton, CEO of Reputation. "The company is poised for massive scale, and our new CTO has the right experience to lead our innovation efforts during this phase. As we enter the era of Artificial Intelligence, I am eager to ramp up product and development initiatives to serve our global customers with cutting-edge AI."

In his new role, Shantanu will play a pivotal role in shaping Reputation's future by guiding its product strategy to seamlessly enhance the company's reputation performance platform and industry-leading Reputation Score, a proprietary algorithm backed by Artificial Intelligence that helps companies manage their reputation performance based on public and private consumer review and experience data, down to the location level.

"I am thrilled to join Reputation at a time when generative AI and innovation are impacting companies at an unprecedented rate," said Shantanu Sarkar, CTO of Reputation. "With Reputation's proven leadership in reputation management, proprietary Reputation Score that customers use to drive profitability, and more than a decade of public review data, I knew Reputation has something special that other companies do not. I look forward to bringing my expertise to help continue to grow our impact for global customers."

Shantanu holds a master's degree in Computer and Information Science from Ohio State University and a bachelor's from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur.

Consumer spend recovers in 2024 to $171 billion, up 3% YoY following a 2% dip in 2023, according to data.ai

data.ai, the leading mobile analytics platform trusted by 80 of the top 100 app publishers, today released its annual State of Mobile 2024 report. The report reveals that mobile made a comeback after a one-year market slowdown. Consumer spending grew to $171 billion (+3% YoY), while hours spent peaked at 5.1 trillion (+6% YoY). Meanwhile, downloads remained flat at 257 billion (+1% YoY).

Apps outpaced games, driving the rebound in consumer spend at 11% YoY to $64 billion. Social apps and the creator economy pioneered new pathways to monetization beyond advertising. TikTok laid the groundwork through its content creator "tipping" mechanism, propelling it past $10 billion in lifetime spend. In 2024, direct consumer monetization in social apps through In-App Purchases is set to grow 150% to $1.3 billion as competition ramps up. 

"AI serves as the foundation for all apps, permeating every sector and paving the way for a fresh wave of digital innovation," says Theodore Krantz, Chief Executive Officer of data.ai. "Harnessing the power of AI, TikTok has revolutionized the landscape of engagement and monetization. In 2024, it stands poised to surpass gaming giants and secure its position as the highest-grossing app in history."

Generative AI experienced explosive growth in 2023, expanding by 7x, and led to the emergence of new sectors such as AI Chatbots and Art Generators. This AI growth also fueled embedded features across virtually all mobile sectors, paving the way for a fresh wave of digital innovation. Notable Generative AI apps include ChatGPT, Ask AI, and Open Chat.

More key findings include:

• Competition for Eyeballs: Mobile ad spend is projected to reach $362 billion, an 8% increase, fueled by short-form video and video-sharing apps.
• Mobile Gaming Faces Headwinds: Gaming spend decreased to $107 billion (-2% YoY), while downloads remained steady at 88 billion, driven by Hypercasual, Simulation, and Action genres.
• Overseas Competition Heats Up: Chinese shopping apps Temu and SHEIN broke into the West, growing by 140%, with Temu leading downloads across 125 markets.
• Video Remains King: Social and Entertainment apps experienced double-digit growth, with time spent up 12% to 3 trillion hours and spending up 10% to $29 billion.
• Revenge Travel Rockets: Travel downloads surged in the sector by 13%, with integrated travel services (26%), tour booking (80%), and flight booking (43%) leading the growth.
• Demand for Real-Life Events Booms: Ticketing apps as a sector saw demand soar by 31% in 2023, driven by Swifties and Bey-Hive fans, marking a 66% increase from pre-pandemic levels.

data.ai's 2024 State of Mobile Report delves deep into regional and category-level market trends made possible by the more than 1.2 million apps categorized under data.ai's industry-first Game IQ and App IQ taxonomy and data.ai's applied ai-driven market data.

The collaboration will centralize the management process, allowing Voluum users to leverage MediaGo's deep learning technology to optimize ad performance and maximize ROI.

MediaGo, a deep learning-based intelligent advertising platform under the Baidu Global Business Unit, today announced its partnership with Voluum, a leading advertising tracking and optimization platform. This collaboration will enhance advertisers' campaign management efficiency by integrating the two platforms.

With this integration, Voluum's users can easily access MediaGo's curated global inventory of premium media traffic and high-quality ad placements across major media outlets and platforms such as MSN, Xandr and Yahoo, as well as leverage MediaGo's deep learning-based Smartbid technologies to significantly enhance ad performance and maximize return on investment (ROI).

"We're excited to collaborate with MediaGo to provide our clients the opportunity to get in touch with the latest deep learning ad tech," said Michal Sledziowski, Strategic Partnership Manager of Voluum. "The partnership is representative of both of our companies' goals to provide advertisers with effective solutions that deliver optimal advertising results."

The integration also offers a centralized management location where MediaGo's advertisers can efficiently manage ad placements across multiple platforms and conveniently transmit conversion data through Voluum's platform, leveraging MediaGo's Smartbid technology for better ad performance optimization.

"We're thrilled to partner with Voluum to provide advertisers with a superior advertising delivery and management experience," said Rena Ren, Americas Regional Director of Baidu Global Business Unit. "At MediaGo, we're determined to assist advertisers in optimizing and streamlining their campaigns, and the unified solution, enabled through this milestone integration with Voluum, does just this."

Operating under a primarily cost-per-click (CPC) model, MediaGo ensures that every advertising dollar spent yields tangible returns, maximizing advertisers' ROI.

Bloomreach, the platform fueling limitless e-commerce experiences, today announced Bloomreach Discovery will continue to power product discovery for Sonepar, the global world leader in B-to-B distribution of electrical products, solutions, and related services, as the companies renew their existing partnership. With Bloomreach Discovery’s AI-driven search and merchandising capabilities, Sonepar enables customers around the world to find what they want to buy — when, where, and how they want.

“Sonepar is pleased to partner with Bloomreach as we continue to pursue our next stage of digital transformation,” said Fabrice del Aguila, SVP Digital Factory, Sonepar. “We look forward to leveraging Bloomreach’s expertise in product discovery as we become the first global B2B electrical distributor in the world to offer the best omnichannel experience to all our customers.”

Sonepar leverages Bloomreach Discovery to drive personalized experiences across its omnichannel platform. Using rich data to refine search results, Bloomreach Discovery helps customers easily discover the products they want. It also accounts for a range of attributes and quantitative search queries, creating a search experience that is not only personalized, but personalized to the unique needs of B-to-B buyers.

“We’re thrilled to continue our partnership with Sonepar,” said Jordan Roper, General Manager and Head of Product, Bloomreach Discovery. “The B-to-B space has so much to gain from digital transformation, and Sonepar is a leader in making that transformation a reality. We’re proud to join them on this journey and look forward to continuing to support their omnichannel experience with the fast ROI and relevance of Bloomreach Discovery.”

• About 42% of enterprise-scale companies surveyed (> 1,000 employees) report having actively deployed AI in their business. 

• An additional 40% are currently exploring or experimenting with AI but have not deployed their models. 

• However, 59% of those companies surveyed already exploring or deploying AI say they have accelerated their rollout or investments in the technology. 

• The top barriers preventing deployment include limited AI skills and expertise (33%), too much data complexity (25%), and ethical concerns (23%). 

New research commissioned by IBM found that about 42% of enterprise-scale organizations (over 1,000 employees) surveyed have AI actively in use in their businesses. Early adopters are leading the way, with 59% of responding enterprises already working with AI intending to accelerate and increase investment in the technology. Ongoing challenges for AI adoption in enterprises remain, including hiring employees with the right skillsets, data complexity, and ethical concerns continue to inhibit businesses from adopting AI technologies into their operations. 

Experience the interactive Multimedia News Release here: https://www.multivu.com/players/English/9240059-ibm-2023-global-ai-adoption-index-report/ 

"We're seeing that the early adopters who overcame barriers to deploy AI are making further investments, proving to me that they are already experiencing the benefits from AI. More accessible AI tools, the drive for automation of key processes, and increasing amounts of AI embedded into off-the-shelf business applications are top factors driving the expansion of AI at the enterprise level," said Rob Thomas, Senior Vice President, IBM Software. "We see organizations leveraging AI for use cases where I believe the technology can most quickly have a profound impact like IT automation, digital labor, and customer care. For the 40% of companies surveyed stuck in the sandbox, I am confident 2024 will be the year of tackling and overcoming barriers to entry like the skills gap and data complexity." 

Highlights from the "IBM Global AI Adoption Index 2023," conducted by Morning Consult on behalf of IBM, include: 

Over the last several years, AI adoption has remained steady at large organizations surveyed:  

• Today, 42% of IT professionals at large organizations report that they have actively deployed AI while an additional 40% are actively exploring using the technology. 
• Additionally, 38% of IT professionals at enterprises report that their company is actively implementing generative AI and another 42% are exploring it. 
• Organizations in India (59%), the UAE (58%), Singapore (53%), and China (50%) are leading the way in active use of AI, compared with lagging markets like Spain (28%), Australia (29%), and France (26%).
• Companies within the financial services industry are most likely to be using AI, with about half of IT professionals within that industry reporting their company has actively deployed AI. 37% of IT professionals within the telecommunications industry state that their company is also deploying AI. 

The majority of surveyed companies actively deploying or exploring AI have accelerated their rollout or investments in the past 24 months:  

• 59% of IT professionals at companies deploying or exploring AI indicate that their company has accelerated their investments in or rollout of AI in the past 24 months.
• China (85%), India (74%), and the UAE (72%) are the markets most likely to be accelerating AI rollout, while businesses in the UK (40%), Australia (38%) and Canada (35%) were the least likely to accelerate the rollout. 
• Research and development (44%) and reskilling/workforce development (39%) are the top AI investments at organizations exploring or deploying AI. 

Easier to use AI tools and the need to reduce costs and automate processes are driving AI adoption among surveyed companies: 

• Advances in AI tools that make them more accessible (45%), the need to reduce costs and automate key processes (42%), and the increasing amount of AI embedded into standard off the shelf business applications (37%) are the top factors driving AI adoption. 
• For IT professionals, the two most important changes to AI in recent years are solutions that are easier to deploy (43%) and the increased prevalence of data, AI, and automation skills (42%). 
• The AI use cases driving adoption for surveyed companies currently exploring or deploying AI are not limited, but cut across many key areas of business operations:
  • Automation of IT processes (33%)
  • Security and threat detection (26%)
  • AI monitoring or governance (25%) 
  • Business analytics or intelligence (24%) 
  • Automating processing, understanding, and flow of documents (24%)
  • Automating customer or employee self-service answers and actions (23%) 
  • Automation of business processes (22%) 
  • Automation of network processes (22%)
  • Digital labor (22%)
  • Marketing and sales (22%)
  • Fraud detection (22%)
  • Search and knowledge discovery (21%)
  • Human resources and talent acquisition (19%)
  • Financial planning and analysis (18%)
  • Supply chain intelligence (18%) 

The same set of barriers are keeping the next wave of surveyed companies from benefiting from AI:

• The top barriers hindering successful AI adoption at enterprises both exploring or deploying AI are limited AI skills and expertise (33%), too much data complexity (25%), ethical concerns (23%), AI projects that are too difficult to integrate and scale (22%), high price (21%), and lack of tools for AI model development (21%). 

Generative AI poses different barriers to entry from traditional AI models: 

• Data privacy (57%) and trust and transparency (43%) concerns are the biggest inhibitors of generative AI according to IT professionals at surveyed organizations not exploring or implementing generative AI.
• 35% also say that lack of skills for implementation are a big inhibitor. 

Among surveyed organizations, AI is already having an impact on the workforce:  

• One-in-five organizations report they do not have employees with the right skills in place to use new AI or automation tools and 16% cannot find new hires with the skills to address that gap.
• Among companies citing AI's use to address labor or skills shortages, they are tapping AI to do things like reduce manual or repetitive tasks with automation tools (55%) or automate customer self-service answers and actions (47%).
• Only 34% are currently training or reskilling employees to work together with new automation and AI tools. 

The need for trustworthy and governed AI is understood by IT professionals, but barriers are making it difficult for surveyed companies to put into practice: 

• IT professionals are largely in agreement that consumers are more likely to choose services from companies with transparent and ethical AI practices (85% strongly or somewhat agree) and say being able to explain how their AI reached a decision is important to their business (83% among companies exploring or deploying AI).
• But, with many companies already deploying AI facing multiple barriers in the process, well under half report they are taking key steps towards trustworthy AI like reducing bias (27%), tracking data provenance (37%), making sure they can explain the decisions of their AI models (41%), or developing ethical AI policies (44%). 

17a-4 has developed DataParser to support Movius MultiLine, the AI-powered mobile app for secure business voice, text, and WhatsApp conversations. The new module for Movius MultiLine data is now generally available.

DataParser, the leading independent connector solution to collect and format third party data for archiving and eDiscovery, has developed the Movius MultiLine connector to capture and facilitate the archival and eDiscovery of Movius MultiLine data for large, regulated organizations including Financial Services, Government, Energy and Education. Movius is the mobile communication company for the work-from-anywhere world. MultiLine™ by Movius is the trusted solution for using mobile voice, text, and WhatsApp for business and customer communications globally. Leading banks and enterprises around the world use the company’s unified secure communication platform to connect with their customers in more convenient, cost-effective, and compliant ways.

“Managing mobile text messaging data is critical to corporate compliance and security. We are thrilled to partner with the Movius team to better serve our clients,” says Charles Weeden, Managing Partner of 17a-4.

The new Movius MultiLine module of DataParser offers direct collection of the text messaging data export via SFTP or download directory, user mapping, AD integration and SMTP delivery as well as reporting/auditing of data processing. Other DataParser supported data sources include Cisco’s Webex, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Slack, Symphony, FXConnect and more. DataParser supports delivery to any archive or eDiscovery platform including Microsoft 365 Purview, Google Vault, Proofpoint, Mimecast, EV and MessageWatcher. Collected data types include chats, texts, images, meetings, documents, data feeds and collaboration activities. DataParser supports multiple configurations for more complex environments; data can be sent to specific archive locations to comply with data regulations. Users’ chat and collaboration activities are never disrupted by the DataParser’s processes.

Multifamily data analytics firm continues rapid expansion to deliver actionable performance insights to the industry.

Radix, the provider of a cutting-edge market research, performance and data analytics platform, today announced the hiring of Jay Denton as Chief Economist.

In his new position, Denton will be tasked with building the market forecasts vital to Radix clients as they navigate the evolving economic landscape. Leveraging his extensive industry and data analytics experience, he will be instrumental in bringing meaning to data trends on both a macro and micro level.

"As Radix grows its market footprint and industry influence, proven leaders like Jay are essential to successfully scale and hone our solutions," said Radix CEO and Founder, Blerim Zeqiri. "Jay's career experience contributes directly to our mission to equip our clients with a strategic edge through comprehensive data that informs optimized outcomes. We're excited to add him to the Radix leadership roster and look forward to our future bolstered by his expertise."

In 2023, Radix added more than 30 clients and 2 million units to its shared data ecosystem, which now is 9 million units overall. Clients represented are across the size spectrum, including 23 of the Top 50 NMHC companies. Radix also launched two new products — Research and ProForma — on its platform, alongside its venerable Benchmark solution. Radix Research aggregates information on a submarket, MSA, state and national level. ProForma provides development, acquisitions and new business teams with customized use of the shared data ecosystem. Radix also recently launched a resident portal to help prospective residents find the most affordable rents by zip code in most U.S. major metros.

Prior to joining Radix, Denton served as Chief Analytics Officer at LaborIQ, where he led the company's product, data and market analysis teams. The firm's AI-driven SaaS solution leveraged labor market forecasts to predict wage trends and recommend salaries in a turbulent job market. Denton previously worked as Senior Vice President of Business Intelligence at Bell Partners, where his research was instrumental in market selection for investments and fundraising. He led the business unit that developed front-end dashboards to access KPIs. He also spent more than 15 years at Axiometrics, concluding as Senior Vice President of Analytics, where he led the advisory services offering for REITs, investors and lenders.

Denton said Radix's vision and growth potential made it an appealing alliance.

"The Radix platform impresses me because of its frequency, granularity and customization of reporting, as well as the hours it saves teams each month. Multifamily organizations are more effective when data is made available at all levels of the corporate structure, and Radix offers sortable and digestible information relevant to on-site associates and executives alike," Denton said. "Radix is becoming the most comprehensive, single data platform for multifamily — augmenting business intelligence and informing business decisions across the industry."

Denton is also a sought-after speaker for executive groups, industry associations and media outlets. His thought leadership has been featured in several leading national publications, including Bloomberg Business, Inc., The Wall Street Journal, New York Post and Business Insider.

Former VMware CMO to play a pivotal role in creating, optimizing, and personalizing the company’s end-to-end customer experience

Dynatrace, the leader in unified observability and security, today announced the appointment of Laura Heisman as Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), effective January 16, 2024. Laura will succeed Mike Maciag, who has served as the Dynatrace CMO for five years. Maciag will stay at Dynatrace in an advisory capacity through April 2024.

Heisman brings three decades of experience reaching enterprise, developer, consumer, and corporate audiences. Most recently, she was CMO at VMware, leading the global marketing organization. Before VMware, she was a member of the GitHub executive leadership team, serving as vice president of communications and corporate marketing. Heisman also spent over a decade at Citrix, serving as vice president of communications and leading the company’s worldwide communications and brand awareness program. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from San Diego State University. As an advocate for women working in technology, she has served as the executive sponsor of women employee resource groups at VMware, GitHub, and Citrix.

“I am thrilled to welcome Laura to Dynatrace,” said Rick McConnell, Dynatrace Chief Executive Officer. “With her proven track record of crafting impactful marketing strategies across diverse sectors and for some of the most recognizable brands in the technology industry, she will play a pivotal role in creating, optimizing, and personalizing the end-to-end experience for our customers and partners. Her expertise, passion, vision, and customer-first mindset make her the perfect fit for our team. She will help further position the company to capitalize on the tremendous market opportunities ahead.”

“I am excited to join Dynatrace, a company at the forefront of helping customers with their mission-critical requirements for observability, security, and AI. Each of these elements is increasingly critical to successful digital transformation efforts,” said Heisman. “I look forward to helping accelerate demand, building deep product understanding, driving brand awareness, and fostering customer loyalty. As a market leader, I believe Dynatrace is poised to become an iconic company in a rapidly advancing segment.”

“On behalf of Dynatrace, I’d like to thank Mike for his leadership and tremendous contribution to the company from before our IPO to the present,” continued McConnell. “His commitment to customer success and expanding awareness of our marketplace, combined with his passion for developing talented marketers, has helped position Dynatrace for long-term success. I am pleased he will be with us through a transitional period, and I wish him the very best for the future.”