New offering enables a low-cost & frictionless way for ISVs to start their Cloud GTM journey

Tackle.io, the only end-to-end solution for B2B software companies to generate revenue through a data-driven Cloud go-to-market (Cloud GTM), today announced their new Explore offering. This new package enables all ISVs to start with and grow with Tackle to scale their revenue through this channel and meet their buyers where they are.

With an increase in ISVs looking to capture their buyer's pre-committed cloud spend through the Cloud Marketplaces, this cost-effective offering eliminates the friction for ISVs as they start their Cloud GTM journey while building internal commitment and resources for this business initiative.

This new tier of Tackle will enable any ISV to start with the core components of Cloud GTM - Data, Co-Sell, and Marketplace in order to fully validate their strategy and scale with enterprise features and automation as they grow revenue.

Our 2023 State of Cloud GTM Report found that, for half of respondents, the biggest friction point in adopting Cloud Marketplaces or co-selling is needing more internal resources or bandwidth, and 36% said the friction was due to a lack of executive awareness, sponsorship, or alignment.

"As we continue to help ISVs move through their Cloud GTM evolution, it has become clear to us that what ISVs need to get started is different from what is required to scale," said John Jahnke, CEO of Tackle. "We are creating this new tier of our offering to allow any ISV to start with the core components of Tackle and scale with enterprise features when they are ready."

For a one-year fee of $5k, Explore gives ISVs access to key features of Tackle's Cloud GTM Platform, including:

• Transactable Marketplace Listings: Get multiple listings on the cloud of your choice: AWS, Google, or Microsoft so you can start transacting
• Identify cloud buyers: Leverage Tackle's cloud buyer intent data and get 150 scans / month of your pipeline to identify the best-fit deals for Marketplace and co-sell
• Accelerate deals via co-selling: Streamline two-way opportunity alignment with Tackle's co-sell solution, and get 10 co-sell registrations / month to automate the process, leading to increased lead sharing and stronger Cloud Provider relationships
• Enable Marketplace-led sales: Streamline the path to closed-won with an end-to-end seller workflow, up to $1M in Marketplace revenue transacted, and 3 Tackle private offers / month
• Real-time data and insights: Get visibility into Marketplace and co-sell revenue recognition, accounts most likely to buy, and more from Tackle's dashboard

With this package, ISVs get 10 hours of dedicated deal support, email and chat product support, and access to a collection of on-demand and live resources such as Tackle Academy and Tackle's office hours. For ISVs that require more support, Tackle offers a variety of paid strategic services, including Cloud GTM Coaching, Advisory Workshops, and Co-Sell Managed Services. Once certain thresholds are met, ISVs can upgrade to the next available tier.

For companies that need enterprise capabilities like SSO and role-based access control, Tackle offers their Enterprise package. This includes unlimited use of Tackle Prospect, Co-Sell, Offers, and Listings, as well as the full Platform experience inside of Tackle or Salesforce, priority support, and so much more.

"We purchased Explore to leverage Tackle's Cloud GTM Platform for all our Marketplace needs as we build our cloud business," said Richard Mallam, CEO and founder at Verified Orchestration. "With Tackle we know which buyers are most likely to transact on the Marketplace, we can initiate the co-sell process with the Cloud Providers, and the end-to-end workflow is simplified for our sales team to close a deal through Marketplace."

The New Solution Enhances CTV Planning and Enables Optimized Campaign Activations for both Linear TV and Digital Advertising Buyers

Simpli.fi, the Advertising Success Platform providing programmatic advertising and workflow software to agencies, brands, and media companies, today announced the launch of its TV Ad Insights Dashboard. The tool provides advertisers with valuable data about streaming and linear TV advertising trends at the ZIP code level. The TV Ad Insights Dashboard builds on the company's ZTV capability – a unique solution that delivers CTV advertising at a competitive price on high-quality inventory with precise audience targeting, granular reach, and frequency measurement at the household level. 

The TV Ad Insights Dashboard combines Automatic Content Recognition (ACR) and U.S. Census TV viewing data from millions of users across the country, creating visual insights broken down by time of day, network, advertiser, and more. The dashboard advances advertisers' planning capabilities, enabling them to target their message to ZIP codes that index highly to factors such as CTV saturation, audience viewing habits, age, household income, and gender. By optimizing to the most desirable zip codes in a marketing area or cable zone, advertisers can deliver their messages to more relevant audiences and increase the effectiveness of their campaigns. 

"The TV Ad Insights Dashboard provides our customers with valuable planning information in an easy-to-use format. This helps advertisers achieve the best return on their CTV investment while working hand-in-hand with our existing ZTV capability, allowing users to identify and target the most relevant ZIP codes throughout the U.S. By combining both tools, our clients can further enhance their campaigns, maximize their budgets, and extend their reach" said Josh Lehman, VP of Product at Simpli.fi.

While testing with key customers, the TV Ad Insights Dashboard received stellar reviews and immediately demonstrated its effectiveness to users. Additional feedback was gained from these test cases enabling further enhancements to the product's capability. This collaborative approach not only fortifies the new dashboard but also empowers advertisers with even more tools to determine where to best reach their audience and balance ZTV and linear spending more efficiently.

Award winning cybersecurity CMO to lead global marketing, public relations, and sales development efforts for KnowBe4

KnowBe4, the provider of the world’s largest security awareness training and simulated phishing platform, today announced the appointment of Cindy Zhou as its new chief marketing officer. In this pivotal role, Zhou will be responsible for developing KnowBe4’s global marketing, public relations, and sales development strategy.

Zhou brings a wealth of expertise to her new position with over 20 years of experience building high-impact marketing organizations that generate qualified leads, strong sales pipeline, industry awareness, and customer loyalty. She has a proven, successful track record helping companies grow and scale both as an executive and advisor. A champion for women in technology and cybersecurity, Zhou was invited to be a founding member of the executive network, Chief, in 2021, and hosts Women in Security roundtables. In 2023, she was named as a DCA Live 2023 Star CMO for the third time and was also recognized last week as a Top 101 B2B Marketing Influencer by CMO Huddles.

"We are thrilled to welcome Cindy to KnowBe4 as our new chief marketing officer," said Stu Sjouwerman, CEO, KnowBe4. "Her extensive experience and remarkable achievements in cybersecurity marketing make her the ideal candidate to lead our global marketing, PR, and sales development efforts. Her passion for the industry reflects KnowBe4’s commitment to delivering an exceptional customer experience with innovative products to help customers better protect themselves and their organizations. We are confident that Cindy's expertise will help us further solidify our position as the industry leader for strengthening security culture in the security awareness training and simulated phishing market.”

“My decision to join KnowBe4 was influenced by several key factors, including the organization’s mission, its award winning culture and most importantly its people and the wonderful team I now have the privilege of working with,” said Zhou. “I look forward to leveraging my experience in cybersecurity to drive KnowBe4's marketing, PR, and sales development strategies while strengthening our market presence and enabling organizations to make smarter security decisions."

Margaret Arakawa joins as Chief Marketing Officer

Kurt Kennett joins as Vice President of Software

New leadership roles follow a year of record growth, including a $25.5M deal with US AFRL and achieving #AQ 29 on a barium platform

IonQ, an industry leader in quantum computing, today announced the appointment of Margaret Arakawa as Chief Marketing Officer. She brings several decades of leadership experience to IonQ, having grown end-to-end ecosystems at startups and enterprise companies.

“Margaret’s arrival could not be better timed as we move to IonQ’s next phase of growth,” said Peter Chapman, CEO and President at IonQ. “IonQ brings together leading innovators and builders from across the enterprise and government space, and Margaret is no exception. She will play an integral role in helping IonQ scale as we commercialize quantum systems capable of solving the world’s most complex problems.”

Arakawa spent twenty years at Microsoft in the cloud, security and server business and in her last role was responsible for the multi-billion dollar U.S. Windows and Surface business. More recently, she served as the Chief Marketing Officer at both Outreach and Fastly, where she led all aspects of marketing. As CMO, Arakawa will play an integral part in IonQ’s growth strategy - both domestically and internationally.

“We’re at an incredible inflection point in quantum computing, and I look forward to working with customers and partners to grow the quantum ecosystem,” said Arakawa. “Quantum computing has the potential to revolutionize countless industries and change millions of lives, and I’m eager to be part of this journey.”

Additionally, IonQ is further expanding its technical leadership team by appointing Kurt Kennett as Vice President of Software. Kennett joins IonQ with over three decades of experience from Microsoft, General Electric, and Nintendo in software, firmware, and systems integration. In his role, Kennett will lead the engineering strategy and development of software operations across the software stack for IonQ’s cutting-edge systems.

Kennett will be joining a world-class leadership bench of technical experts including Dr. Dean Kassman, Vice President of Engineering, Dr. Pat Tang, Vice President of Research & Development, and Dr. Dave Mehuys, Vice President of Production Engineering. This team has led IonQ’s technical milestone outperformance - against both internal and external goals - over the past 18+ months.

Today’s announcement follows recent technical and product achievements by IonQ, including reaching #AQ 29 on a barium platform, and the announcement of two new rack-mounted solutions and a $25.5M quantum deal with the United States Air Force Research Lab (AFRL).

Elastic Path, the leader of the Composable Commerce movement, has released findings from a new survey conducted in collaboration with Industry Dive’s studioID. The research reveals valuable insights into the rate and drivers of composable commerce adoption, the obstacles to implementation, and the sentiment around the technology. It also identifies pain points related to the speed of launching new integrations: 60% of respondents said they expect adding new technology to their commerce solution to take over six months.

The report, The State of Composable Commerce 2023: Are You Unlocking The Opportunities?, confirms that composable commerce adoption is on the rise, with 96% of respondents saying they are “very or extremely familiar” with composable commerce, and 92% having implemented a composable solution.

Additional findings include:

Time to market. Retail leaders consider composable commerce an essential tool for meeting consumer expectations, but the data shows that 60% believe it would take more than six months to add new technology to their commerce solution. In fact, 69% of respondents using composable commerce said implementation took more than six months and a staggering 27% of respondents had experienced an implementation time of over a year.

Implementation challenges. 32% of respondents cited time spent building and managing integrations as a major obstacle to composable implementation, while 34% identified making new hires to perform these functions as a critical barrier. Respondents identified availability of pre-built integrations, which can address this pain point, as a top criteria when evaluating a composable solution.

Top criteria for evaluating a composable commerce solution. Retail executives considered available solutions based on a number of criteria, with ease of making changes as the top priority (46%), as increased flexibility is one of the trademark benefits of composable. Also referenced was data security (44%), reflecting the fact that the structure of composable commerce can make data privacy especially tricky as companies rely on multiple systems and must ensure they are all compliant when transferring data among them. The third most referenced criteria was the availability of pre-built integrations (36%), highlighting that integrations are the backbone of composable, but building them is a time drain.

Top benefits of composable commerce. Top benefits included: ability to create highly differentiated digital experiences (30%); improved customer satisfaction (30%), and the ability to make incremental changes rather than undergoing a complete overhaul or replatform (29%).

Retail executives predict longevity for composable commerce, with 96% of respondents saying they believe the approach will continue to be a prominent tool over the next five years, with only 4% anticipating it will be eclipsed by new technological solutions.

Business leaders believe up to 40% reduction in business costs is possible if generative AI is scaled effectively

LTIMindtree, a global technology consulting and digital solutions company, today released the findings of its study, ‘The State of Generative AI Adoption - The Current Landscape and Lessons from Early Adopters’. This study offers insights gathered from early adopters in mid to large-sized organizations, presenting a roadmap for the seamless integration of generative AI. The research emphasizes the need for customized approaches tailored to specific business requirements, enabling enterprises to secure early victories and tangible results, laying the foundation for scaling generative AI projects.

“Generative AI is at the forefront of every company’s agenda, but its seamless integration poses a challenge,” said Nachiket Deshpande, COO and Whole-time Director, LTIMindtree. “However, our study underscores the peril of viewing Gen AI as a mere novelty rather than a transformative force at the core of a business strategy. Early adopters are already reaping its benefits. By meticulous planning, tailored strategies, and a focus on bias mitigation, businesses can harness generative AI for remarkable outcomes. Using Gen AI to advance business and corresponding ethical policies goes hand in hand. Organizations that address ethical challenges will proceed with confidence.”

Conducted in collaboration with market research agency Coleman Parkes, the survey engaged 450 business leaders from the United States, Europe, and the UK. These leaders represent companies already utilizing generative AI or planning its near-future integration.

Key Findings:

• Distinctive Paths for Leaders: The survey unveiled the United States as a frontrunner in generative AI adoption, with 61% of early adopters based there, in contrast to 39% in Europe
• Industry Adoption Rates: The retail and consumer packaged goods sector (20%) and manufacturing (20%) emerged as pioneers in generative AI adoption, with the healthcare and life sciences industry trailing behind
• Competitive Edge Through Skilled Personnel: Access to skilled and knowledgeable personnel emerged as the top factor enabling early adopters to gain a competitive advantage (69%)
• Challenges for Late Adopters: Operational costs were identified as the most significant barrier for business leaders who are yet to embrace generative AI (85%)
• Mitigating Bias Challenges: Early adopters have effectively implemented measures to address potential bias created by generative AI
• Impressive Results: One-third of early adopters report a 20 percent or higher increase in revenue due to Gen AI, with 8 percent experiencing a substantial 20 to 40 percent decrease in costs. Notably, experienced Gen AI users achieved even greater savings, with 19 percent reporting a 20 to 40 percent reduction in financial expenditures.

LTIMindtree recently launched its Canvas.ai generative AI platform, which is designed to accelerate companies’ concept-to-value journey using mindful AI principles.

Sprinklr, the unified customer experience management (Unified-CXM) platform for modern enterprises, today announced the launch of an expanded strategic partnership with WPP. Together, WPP and Sprinklr plan to create AI solutions to help global clients deliver more personalized and consistent experiences to customers using Sprinklr’s unified customer experience management (Unified-CXM) platform.

In today’s world, where creating a consistent and seamless customer experience across a variety of channels can be a challenge, it’s essential for global clients to have enterprise-grade AI solutions that make it possible for brands to reach, engage, and listen to customers at scale. As the market leader in the unified-CXM space working with over 1,400 brands, including many of WPP’s largest clients, the Sprinklr platform provides companies a comprehensive view of data to inform insights and analytics.

Through this partnership, WPP will become Sprinklr’s first global agency partner, and the two companies will collaborate on a new offering, CX Live AI, that connects Sprinklr’s AI+ platform, which includes both Sprinklr customized AI models and generative AI capabilities, with WPP’s own AI resources. This first-of-its-kind, joint offering will help WPP teams create optimised content that reaches the right audiences. WPP and Sprinklr are collaborating on solutions with select clients, such as The Coca-Cola Company, where teams leverage AI insights around customer engagement to inform creative development and channel selection.

The companies will work together on shared data, analytics, and solution development for joint clients, and WPP teams will also receive priority support from Sprinklr including bespoke enablement programs and early access to new Sprinklr products and platform features. In addition, WPP will participate in Sprinklr’s Partner Advisory board to help shape the roadmap for products.

Stephan Pretorius, CTO of WPP, said: “Through the seamless integration of WPP's AI toolset with Sprinklr's AI+ platform, we are reshaping how brands can connect with their audiences. This partnership enhances our existing AI offerings and enables our clients to create customer experiences across all touch points on a scale like never before, further solidifying our position as a leader amidst the technology revolution that is transforming our industry.”

Sprinklr CEO & Founder Ragy Thomas said: “Sprinklr and WPP serve many of the world's most iconic brands. Together, this partnership will enable customers to effectively deploy AI that will result in measurable productivity, cost savings, and the seamless experiences customers have come to expect today. Integrating Sprinklr’s AI-powered Unified-CXM platform with WPP’s AI toolset will help our shared customers quickly adopt the latest AI technologies while ensuring the enterprise-grade privacy, security, and governance that Sprinklr and WPP have built our businesses on."

The findings reveal critical and 239 new API vulnerabilities in Q3 that are linked to authentication, authorization and access control

Wallarm, the leading end-to-end API and app security company, today announced the release of its Q3-2023 Wallarm API ThreatStats™ report. The quarterly report details the surge in threats centered around APIs and uncovers critical vulnerabilities, like injections and API data leaks, that have recently impacted leading firms, including Netflix, VMware and SAP. Wallarm executives will present top findings from the report during a webinar on Nov. 8 at 11 a.m. PT/2 p.m. ET.

The new report introduces a revamped “Top 10 API Security Threats” compilation, a real-time data-driven list covering the 239 vulnerabilities discovered during the quarter. Injections, which involve malicious data or code being inserted into an API that leads to unauthorized access and data breaches, ranked first on the list, attacking vectors like SQL and XML. Also making the list were cross-site attacks, broken access control and poor session and password management.

Of the 239 vulnerabilities, 33% (79 out of 239) were associated with authentication, authorization and access control (AAA) — foundational pillars of API security. Open authentication (OAuth), single-sign on (SSO) and JSON Web Token (JWT), safeguards for API security, were compromised in reputable tech organizations such as Sentry and WordPress. Sentry experienced incorrect credential validation on OAuth token requests, potentially exposing developers’ projects to unauthorized access, while WordPress’ SSO was subject to plugin broken authentication, leaving its millions of users’ data vulnerable to theft.

The growing issue of API data leaks, as company tech stacks get more complicated, was also a focal point of this quarter’s report. Although relatively new, API data leaks ranked fourth on the security threats list due to their potential for unrestrained disclosure of sensitive data, often through negligent methods. Evidence of these risks is found in the recent serious data breaches suffered by Netflix, VMware and SAP, with Netflix exposing JWT secret keys in error messages and VMware disclosing sensitive information vulnerabilities.

“We saw in recent months that even major players like Netflix and VMware aren’t exempt from significant data exposures,” said Ivan Novikov, CEO of Wallarm. “Whether caused by malicious actors or internal carelessness, this report is a wake-up call for business leaders and cybersecurity professionals to include protection against threats to APIs and other leaks in their product security programs. Established security frameworks, like OWASP API Security Top-10, are one way to get started but have limitations in addressing today’s complex API security needs. This real-time data-driven threat list complements and extends the OWASP framework by identifying unaddressed threats and vulnerabilities, enhancing overall security posture.”

Combating the API security threats highlighted starts with a proactive security strategy. The report provides key expert insights and recommendations for navigating this complex cyber landscape, including prioritizing AAA principles with regular updates to mitigate potential risks and incorporating API leak protection measures like an automatic discovery system to block threat actors from using leaked API keys.