News
In a strategic move that elevates its existing partnership with Nuance, Microsoft will acquire the cloud and AI software provider for $56 a share in a transaction that will complete by the end of this calendar year.
Nuance is a provider of conversational AI and cloud-based ambient clinical intelligence for healthcare providers. Nuance’s products include the Dragon Ambient eXperience, Dragon Medical One and PowerScribe One for radiology reporting, all clinical speech recognition SaaS offerings built on Microsoft Azure. Nuance solutions are currently used by more than 55% of physicians and 75% of radiologists in the U.S., and used in 77% of U.S. hospitals. Nuance’s Healthcare Cloud revenue experienced 37% year-over-year growth in Nuance’s fiscal year 2020 (which ended September 2020).
Microsoft’s acquisition of Nuance aligns with its detailed cloud strategy for the next decade, as explained by CEO Satya Nadella during Ignite 2021 last month.
Arc XP Releases a New eCommerce Experience
Arc XP, a cloud-based digital experience platform, has added a new B2C commerce offering called Arc Commerce. The Golden State Warriors and the Chase Center will be the first customers to leverage the platform to launch a new hospitality marketplace called the SuiteXchange.
“Arc’s digital experience platform provides us with all of the tools and capabilities to seamlessly get this new initiative off the ground, and the ability to quickly scale this business as we partner with other teams and venues,” said Brandon Schneider, Chief Revenue Officer for the Golden State Warriors. “Arc Commerce offers market leaders, like the Golden State Warriors, a first-of-its-kind solution they can take to market quickly to seamlessly support their customer relationships and storytelling. We’re excited about the next stage in our journey and to be a premiere commerce partner for brands.”
Arc Commerce works to equip brand marketers with the tools and capabilities to build deeper relationships with consumers through brand storytelling and drive omnichannel revenue goals. Arc Commerce also builds on Arc’s subscriptions platform, which has added 20 new customers in the last six months and supports more than 50 million registered and paying users around the world.
Oracle Endeavors To Enhance the Employee Experience With Oracle Journeys
Oracle has announced Oracle Journeys, a new platform that aims to deliver a more intuitive, personalized, and streamlined employee experience within Oracle Fusion Cloud Human Capital Management (HCM).
Oracle Journeys is meant to help organizations create a one-stop shop for employees as they navigate all aspects of work and complete complex tasks. The new capabilities should enable HR teams to create, tailor, and deliver step-by-step guidance to walk employees through events as diverse as onboarding, having a baby, returning to the workplace, launching a new product, or growing their career.
Oracle joins the growing list of big software companies making employee experience a key part of product strategy. Microsoft debuted Viva, the company's new employee experience platform in February, and SAP SuccessFactors has been honing its approach to what it calls human experience management.
Experience is the currency of the new economy for both customers and employees, according to a recent Reworked article, with Qualtrics and ServiceNow teaming up to combine efforts to streamline employee and customer experience. “Empathy at mass scale is the business differentiator of the 21st century,” said ServiceNow President and CEO Bill McDermott.
Pico Launches 2.0 With Fresh Round of Funding
Pico, the working framework for the maker economy, declared the second era of its adaptation and CRM stage for makers, just as another round of financing drove by Warm up area Capital's Ann Lai, bringing the all out subsidizing raised for the organization to $10 million, including backing from financial backers like Antecedent Endeavors, Stripe, Bloomberg Beta, and Town Worldwide.
Pico offers adaptability for makers so they can set up the correct apparatuses for their business. Designers can browse Pico's wide scope of arrangements, including points of arrival, on location popups for email catch, paid pamphlets, membership paywalls, paid enrollments with levels and benefits, repeating and one-time gifts, and online course income instruments for on-request and live streaming — all while holding total proprietorship and control of their information and client connections.
While the maker economy is booming, makers' income and livelihoods are regularly left at the impulse of the stage they expand on. Pico gives makers the instruments to become acquainted with their crowd and adapt their work on their own terms, across numerous stages and item types.
“The two biggest problems for creators are how to make money more easily and how to get to know your audience better,” said Nick Chen, Pico’s CEO & Co-Founder. “As a creator, your two most valuable assets are your brand and the relationship to your audience. Pico empowers creators to fully own both
Albertsons and Google Eye the ‘Winning Customer Experience of the Future’
A year prior, Albertsons Cos. and, Google held a joint development day to reclassify how individuals shop. Brought into the world of that striking meeting to generate new ideas is the reported multiyear organization between the Boise, Idaho-based food merchant and the California-based tech organization, which they say will be a "imposing nexus of retail smart and stylish innovation on a huge, omnichannel scale."
The organization addresses Albertsons Cos.' proceeding with change into a "cutting edge retailer fit for the future," Chris Rupp, EVP and chief customer and digital officer said in a statement.
If the modern retailer is defined as the grocer that blends the in-store and online experiences seamlessly to meet consumers wherever and whenever they shop, how does the Albertsons/Google organization further this vision?
To learn more, WGB recently connected with Google’s Cynthia Horiguchi for more insight on setting the stage for a sustained post-pandemic transformation:
“Customers are now beginning to discover new and dynamic shopping journeys that bridge Albertsons Cos. and Google. We are integrated with surfaces like Google Local Actions (Maps), Gpay, and cutting-edge technologies like Retail AI and Vision AI. For the customer, this means they can more easily begin their shopping journey whenever and wherever it is most convenient. All of our efforts have a hyperlocal focus to increase the connection between a shopper and the store in their community. We are just scratching the surface on using technology to make grocery shopping easier, enhancing in-store experiences with digital ones.”
Learning Opportunities
Webinar
Jun
8
Attracting—and Keeping—Your High-Net-Worth Investors
Join PwC to dissect their recent survey findings on a specific customer subset — high-net-worth investors.
Webinar
Jun
13
The Future of Contact Centers with AI at the Helm
Learn how to balance human intuition and interaction with the potential uses of AI to create delightful and lasting CX
Webinar
Jun
13
Learn How to Deliver Dynamic Video Experiences at Scale
Learn how to convert existing assets into video experiences in near real-time.
Webinar
Jun
20
3 Steps to Unlock Your Customer Data and Drive Revenue
Discover how Twilio Segment’s #1 Customer Data Platform helps implement data-driven strategies.
Webinar
Jun
21
Retail Reinvented: A Masterclass in Creating Digital Experiences That Click
Hear how online retailers architect their digital experience infrastructure for peak traffic and demand
Webinar
Jun
22
How to Succeed in Today's Engagement Economy
Doing true personalization at scale with marketing automation
Webinar
Jun
8
Attracting—and Keeping—Your High-Net-Worth Investors
Join PwC to dissect their recent survey findings on a specific customer subset — high-net-worth investors.
Webinar
Jun
13
The Future of Contact Centers with AI at the Helm
Learn how to balance human intuition and interaction with the potential uses of AI to create delightful and lasting CX
While the partnership seems advantageous for Albertson’s, what does Google get out of this deal? Horiguchi explained that the pandemic put a focus on the requirement for cloud innovation to help all of the ways in which shopping for food can be made simpler. Google's main goal is to be a groundbreaking accomplice for food merchants, assisting them with developing their client base, offering one of a kind encounters at each phase of the shopping excursion, and this association is an incredible model. In uniting Google with Albertsons' obligation to customer driven advancement, they have access to an unrivaled shopping experience regardless of how they decide to shop.
Amazon Again Turning Closed Shopping Malls Into Fulfillment Centers
Shopping centers that went into decline because of eCommerce, or suffered during the pandemic are being given new life by the very element that accelerated their demise — Amazon.
In the course of recent months, the retail goliath has gone on its very own shopping binge, purchasing neglected shopping centers the nation over and transforming them into conveyance focuses.
In Spring, Amazon won endorsement to turn a shopping center in Mallet Rouge, Louisiana, into a 3.4 million-square-foot distribution building, and a shopping center in Knoxville, Tennessee, into a 220,000-square-foot conveyance focus. In December, the neighborhood planning board in Worcester, Massachusetts, approved Amazon's solicitation to change over the city's Greendale Shopping center into a 121,000-square-foot distribution center.
"I see articles about Amazon building here and Amazon building there. I’m not sure any of us really fully understand the implications because it’s happening so so fast,” the resident of one such neighborhood said.
Between 2016 and 2019, Amazon changed over around 25 shopping centers, as indicated by an investigation by Coresight Research. A year ago, it was purportedly in chats with Simon Property Gathering, the country's greatest shopping center proprietor, to change over bankrupt JC Penney and Singes retail chains into fulfillment centers. Target and Walmart have likewise transformed some space in their own stores into smaller fulfillment centers.
Brand Wings announces New Channel Marketing Automation Platform
Brand Wings today announced the launch of its new through-channel marketing automation (TCMA) platform to help brands to enhance their marketing and sell more through channel partners.
Key Features of the Brand Wings platform:
- Dedicated private portal, customizable for each client
- Dynamic templates for channel partners to easily personalize
- Centralized content library for clients’ digital assets
- Product library for channel partners to access
- Lead and deal tracking
- Performance data and analytics
Offered to brands as a Saas solution, the Brand Wings platform brings unique new value to channel marketing. The marketing automation platform gives brands and partners an easy-to-use portal, allowing them to assess and improve brand consistency, campaign efficiency, and sales effectiveness.
Have a tip to share with our editorial team? Drop us a line:
