Designing, developing and deploying marketing technologies that solve business pain points either by inspiring action or by bringing branded content to life across the journey has always been a dream for organizations. These firms have been able to live their dreams through Creative Realities’ technical know-how of a digital integrator with the design and consultative prowess of a marketing services partner who have the ability to give digital marketing technology and solutions that are contextually relevant, and appropriate for virtually any commercial environment.

” We have rolled up goals which are achievable, as we’re already credible in delivering full service, scalable solutions for a large majority of our client base “

Creative Realities is a technology-agnostic, digital marketing services organization that is solution focused, armed with a set of technology experiences that are grounded in behavior-based requirements that can be measured and tracked, and tie back to ROI metrics. What differentiates the company from others is their ability to deliver end-to-end solutions – from problem definition and design thinking – through to deployment and support/service level agreements. They have culminated into a desirable partner owing to their ability to bring to live brands round the globe.

Creative Realities assists brands and retailers to focus on human centric, digital solutions designed with relevance and purpose. The company does this by exploring customer’s pain points or barriers to engagement. Often understanding what’s required comes from insights discovered in the “why not”. The company’s competitors might deliver the very same set of experiences, but what makes Creative Realities’ approach radically different is that they start the conversation not with “what screens or tech are you looking for”, but, “what consumer, shopper, brand or environment barrier needs to be addressed”. In doing so, they are able to make all elements of the technology mix work more strongly together in a way that is completely bespoke: from content through to the integration points, removing the friction and the hard angles of technology so it flows organically and intuitively in the environment.

Creative Realities brings a level of insight, strategy and design thinking that is not always associated with integrators or resellers of their kind. The company is committed to creating technology that designs content experiences that are device neutral, and have the ability to be mirrored, adapted or executed in mobile, kiosk, screen or tablet environments. By understanding the end-user journey and the full path to purchase, Creative Realities can effectively design, develop and deploy omnichannel strategies that engage the consumer or motivate / assist the sales associate at the point along their path where they need it most, so its contextually relevant and solves the pain point. A classic of omni-channel example is how they take tech experiences built for an in-home web/desktop experience such as an e-commerce site, and bring it instore to create Endless Aisle, Virtual Sales Associate Tools, or Shelf Signage. For a National Auto-parts retailer – Creative Realities put interactive technology and shopping tools in their hands in the first 60 seconds of their journey. This helps take the mystery and treasure hunt out of finding their filter, tool or replacement gadget, both fast and easy.

Steadfast on making their vision of becoming one of the top three enterprise-level, digital signage / solution providers in the market place, Creative Realities, for the days to come wants to enhance their offerings. “We have rolled up goals which are achievable, as we’re already credible in delivering full service, scalable solutions for a large majority of our client base,” says Rick Mills, CEO of Creative Realities. “We are well poised to grow primarily because our model supports an end-to-end process with the team and resources in place to deliver, as well as a network of 6,000 rapid deployment technicians who can be called on at any time for scale. “ To connect with Creative Realities and experience their value, visit cri.com

Today organizations feel sourcing web data reliably has culminated into a key challenge closely followed by performance and security. As web data extraction becomes an essential part of any organization, the unstructured nature of online data, and the undulating reliability in sourcing it, is making itdifficult to manage the data coming in and making it hard to use for effective decision-making. Sequentum’s Content Grabber has been built from the ground up using the experience acquired from over nine years of delivering web data extraction tools. Their core focus has been on performance and reliability, combined with strong usability and enterprise management tools to promote quality development and production stability.

The company was born following the sale of a successful search software business in 2005 which was built by the founders. The initial intent was to give people unhindered access to the world’s largest data source, so it could be used at scale by business. As the customer base grew, so did Sequentum and their tool set. They went on to release Content Grabber with key functions including a sophisticated web data extraction engine and web automation capabilities alongside a web crawler and features with the ability to package web scraping agents with the Content Grabber runtime. In one customer example, Retail Insight, Web based Market Research data provider, recently encountered a website that used a technology that their toolset and other solutions providers could not handle. The team at Sequentum looked at the website and Retail Insight ‘s requirements and quickly built an Agent to demonstrate that Content Grabber could handle the challenge. Retail Insight was able to deploy the new software directly into their proprietary production environment. Today, Content Grabber is an important part of the service and tools being provided to their clients.

Sequentum’s positioning in the web scraping market is that their solutions take the pain and frustration away from using tools that don’t work with difficult web sites, lack features, aren’t intuitive and can’t grow with your business. Content Grabber’ s point and click visual editor allows users to see a website as they do from a normal browser. It automatically detects and configures the required commands as users click on the content elements on the page. Content Grabber includes functionality to remove data duplication and to automatically check for changes in a websites content. Such features, combined with enterprise level development, agent management and performance tuning tools, add rigor and quality to thedevelopment process and reliability and speed to production web data extraction.

Users can also make use of Content Grabber scripts to enhance their web scraping agents. As an example, they can use simple scripts to write their extracted data directly to custom database structures, saving a lot of manual effort and enabling near real-time response to data events like changes in competitor prtcmg.

Mid last year, Sequentum launched Managed Data Services (MDS) which has given clients the ability to totally outsource all their web scraping requirements to Sequentum assisting in developing, hosting, running, monitoring and maintaining the agents for their MDS customers. Rather than just host and take no responsibility for the data, the company believes this additional monitoring and maintenance approach addresses the needs of corporations who are looking for a total outsourced solution.

Sequentum gives customers the flexibility to move their web extraction agents between Managed Data Services and their own servers. Soon they will also be able to do this in a hosted cloud environment. This unique ability, gives great flexibility to businesses who may want to change strategies as they grow rather than being tied to one vendor.

Today, Sequentum strives to continue maintaining their technological advantage with the Content Grabber tool set and adding new features to the tool to ensure they best serve customers. The company is now venturing towards launching a new offering called “Mighty Bots”. This is essentially self-contained agents that perform very specific in demand web scraping tasks on any current Windows machine. These Mighty Bots will be maintained by Sequentum steadily growing these to service multiple websites and different business sectors.

Heading into the future, Sequentum keeps the door open to new market areas and developing a Cloud-based solution that will drive a new set of customers. They recognize the importance of current trends revolving around Big Data, as well as easy integration with data analytics and data visualization tools to simplify and add value past the data collection process. Sequentum’s focus as an organization and the culture they are growing is to always be customer focused and the company is going the extra yards by enhancing their technical support, shaping the product set and solutions to suit specific customers, demonstrating flexibility and listening to its customers. Sequentum is growing quickly on the back of its popular solution set it and the service it provides. It currently has offices in San Jose, Sydney, Australia and will soon be setting up in New York.

Sequentum

Management

Tony Jaensch
CEO

Description

Sequentum is a software development and consulting services company which focuses on web scraping and web automation technologies.

In the early 90’s Eric Skoura-a self-taught pioneer became passionate about 3D imaging. He became a recognized graphics designer and 3D technologies expert in the video games and film special effects. With his visionary baseline “Virtual Reality for Business”, he incorporated POINTCUBE. Although the revolutionary company has seen its highs and lows, POINTCUBE emerged as the French leader and began selling its simulators in Europe and soon entered the Hong Kong and New Zealand markets.

According to Eric Skoura, the competing professional simulation tools have always been design software, used primarily by technical teams, requiring significant training. POINTCUBE provides a unique approach by offering image-based solutions. The only goal is to make it easy to use and real time realistic result. “Video game technologies provide this “sandbox” dimension; its easy, instant navigation creates a “love at first sight” effect with the potential customer, leading them to a purchase,” adds the new-age leader. “We are unique because we target sales people who are not technicians.”

” POINTCUBE creates sales-focussed simulators that are designed similarly to video games.”

POINTCUBE creates sales-focussed simulators that are designed similarly to video games. It is extremely helpful for a salesperson to be able to quickly show a customer their leisure equipment before it is installed. This incites pleasure and emotion in a potential customer which is a powerful purchase trigger. “Our philosophy is to make our product fun and enjoyable to use. By using video game technologies, we benefit from the technological versatility,” adds Eric Skoura. POINTCUBE strives to develop sales techniques in greater depth and are creating a new generation of salespeople who are successful, relying on the integration of virtual elements into reality to encourage the customer to take ownership the product within the first few minutes.

The company’s most sought after product is ONESHOT 3D which is powered by one of the real-time 3D engines used by today’s leaders video game developers. The result is at the forefront of realism and the software’s interactive capabilities are almost limitless. ONESHOT 3D’s biggest strength is that it is used on a tablet to benefit from important advantages like mobility and ability to use gyroscopic data to place the virtual object directly on the ground in the photo. The user can focus on arranging and positioning the objects in their customer’s space with their fingertips; it is interactive and easy to configure the object exactly like the real product, using different colours, materials, options and adjustable sizes or shapes. The object behaves as if it truly exists at any stage of placement; there are lighting effects, wind blowing through the trees, animated mechanisms and much more. Images of the space can be generated at any time as if photographing a new reality. Installing, adapting, playing, taking ownership and having fun with the product before buying it; that’s what counts.

The company provides simple solutions that require little investment in time from customers. In an instance, one of the company’s clients, a pergola manufacturer had PointCube recreate every technical characteristic that ultimately generates many possibilities, including pergolas of varying structural thickness according to the sizes, assembling parts of pergolas, using multiple paint colours and stains, variable lighting, pull-down blinds, sliding or folding windows, and much more. The greatest challenge was to keep the software fast and enjoyable to use while managing many configurable parameters. PointCube had to collaborate with the most competent users before finalizing the most suitable interface, but in the end came out in flying colors.

The company will be investing significant upgrades to their solutions, including more user-connectivity, more interactive help, and finding ways to get more usage feedback to management. They are already expanding the kind of objects that can be integrated into their solutions, such as indoor/outdoor furniture, fitness or hospitality equipment, and even real estate sales. “The market is colossal and we have many years in front of us!” says Eric Skoura.

POINTCUBE

Management

Eric Skoura
CEO

Description

Pointcube provides oneshot 3d, photolive 3d and mobile app and have been creating and developing 3D business software since 2004.

In 2006, The Kellogg Company was facing a challenge – Cereal City, the museum experience created to replace plant tours, was struggling financially and facing closure. Kellogg turned to their local commercial printing partner, EPI, to potentially assume the production of their iconic Photo on A Box – an immersive experience started at Cereal City, where a brand enthusiast can get their photo superimposed on a box of Frosted Flakes. That request, and a long history of listening to clients and producing solutions to meet their needs, was the catalyst for EPI to enter into a joint venture with Duffey Petrosky (a full-service agency), and fund a start-up to be known as Turnkey Merchandise Programs (TMP). From there, KelloggStore.com was introduced as a centralized marketplace for Kellogg brand enthusiasts to gain access to the wide array of licensed Kellogg’s merchandise all in one immersive branded shop experience. Over the last decade, TMP has grown their community of clients to include many other household brand names, and serves millions of consumers with quality branded merchandise – from limited edition Tony the Tiger plush slippers, to designer-inspired Pepsi Backpacks. What started as strictly a retail strategy, evolved into a product development and marketing powerhouse over the years. Today TMP manages 27 different privately labeled e-commerce sites, with several more in the pipeline.

Now semi-retired, Phil Harder, the founder of TMP, gave the company its footing through his combination of patience, perseverance and personal integrity. Phil did not follow the mantra of “build it and they will come”. Instead here invested in the talent and technology to not only build websites and stock them with unique products, but most importantly, to deploy an arsenal of digital marketing tactics to not only gain traffic but to convert visitors into buyers. Over the last decade, the company has earned an excellent reputation in the multi-billion dollar licensing industry, which is a surprisingly small and close knit group of people.

” If a brand has a significant number of existing Licensees, we’ll source from those Licensees and bring together an online collection, paying back a share of the revenue to the Brand, with low to no risk to the Brand itself. “

TMP helps brands connect at a deeper level with their loyalists, enthusiasts, collectors, supporters and donors. They do this through carefully curated collections of licensed merchandise to celebrate each brand’s unique DNA, and aggregate it all into a central marketplace. The brand wins, because their “tribe” has one place to go to gain access to the myriad of merchandise available, and they monetize their value of Intellectual Property. “If a brand has a significant number of existing Licensees, we’ll source from those Licensees and bring together an online collection, paying back a share of the revenue to the Brand, with low to no risk to the Brand itself,” explains TMP’s current President, Holly Ringle. “If a Brand has no Licensees, we’ll create the collection from the ground up, developing the products to be sold and taking the inventory risk, all while paying back royalties to the Brand.”

The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation came to TMP in late 2016 with a mission to make Frank Lloyd Wright’s architectural design and artwork accessible to the public worldwide. Dissatisfied with their existing strategy, including digital marketing, e-commerce, and fulfillment capabilities, the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundationtasked TMP to help increase brand awareness and brand loyalty. TMP developed aomni-channel marketing strategy to bring the Foundation’s e-commerce site to the forefront of the digital marketplace, while tackling their underlying issues of fulfillment and audience connection. Adding to the existing licensed merchandise, TMP developed distinguished designs to fill gaps in the assortment for product categories such as drinkware, apparel and gift wrap. The Foundation’s e-commerce site is on track to realize another year of double digit growth.

In the foreseeable future, TMP plans to reinvest by insourcing mass-personalization capabilities, including Direct-to-Garment printing, to move a larger portion of their supply-chain to Print-On-Demand. TMP also plans to focus on growth within in the non-profit sector – building and powering e-commerce stores for non-profit causes. To be sure, the company will always fall back on its original foundation of actively listening to their clients and responding to the rapidly evolving digital consumer with engaging products, offers and webstores.

For Amazon Web Services (AWS), the key to cloud computing dominance is overwhelming the competition with new tools and customers. According to Andy Jassy, the leader of Amazon Web Services companies like Microsoft and Google may have growing cloud computing businesses that involve selling access to computing resources in a pay-as-you go model. But those companies still lag behind AWS when it comes to important benchmarks like the number of customers they have or cloud computing features, he said. AWS is a secure cloud services platform, offering compute power, database storage, content delivery and other functionality to help businesses scale and grow.

AWS offers a broad set of global cloud-based products including compute, storage, databases, analytics, networking, mobile, developer tools, management tools, IoT, security and enterprise applications. These services help organizations move faster, lower IT costs, and scale. AWS is trusted by the largest enterprises and the hottest start-ups to power a wide variety of workloads including: web and mobile applications, game development, data processing and warehousing, storage, archive, and many others.

So far AWS has launched more than thousand major new services and features which has kept AWS the undisputed leader in cloud computing in terms of cloud services, features and functionality. Jassy believes cloud is still in early days and now sees a generational shift to new practical uses of the range of services and technology AWS offers. One area of importance to large customers is making cloud technology more manageable and easier to scale and the cloud-giant sees the major shift in cloud is serverless, where customers don’t buy or have to worry about specific computers or computer instances, instead simply deploy functions or services that figure out, entirely on their own, how much server infrastructure is needed to run them. “The torrid pace of adoption and innovation in the serverless (Lambda) space has totally blown us away,” he says.

” More and more people are actually using the cloud, and building more things, and will in the future. “

Even 11 years after AWS launched its first service, the competition is still playing catch-up. Many of the competing cloud companies have a few or only a handful of features to promote. AWS has lots to flaunt because it’s a set of more than one hundred services. Jassy thinks this breadth and depth of the AWS platform is hard to replicate. “In our business, you have to be able to have access to capital,” he says. “It’s part of why I think it’s hard at the scale that we’re operating at. It’s hard for others to start from scratch and pursue it because not only do you need hundreds of services to have a competitive offering, but you need large amounts of capital.”

AWS’s focus on its customers means that it is not afraid of working towards inventing new technology. The leader of AWS has a clear twofold AWS’s competitive strategy to beat the competitors: First, keep inventing and releasing more services that solve customers’ problems faster than the competition. And second, don’t be afraid to change which means drastically changing existing offerings with new, easier, faster, more cost-effective and efficient offerings. Amazon, like Google and Microsoft, believes it’s among a small group of businesses that has the most sophisticated deep learning technology and related expertise needed to operate the tech. And it wants to make money by selling access to the AI technology it creates. AWS also has announced to introduce new AI tools that are similar to Google’s language translation and transcription services.

The pace of innovation with which AWS is delivering is staggering and Jassy isn’t looking in his rear-view mirror for the competition. With competition growing Jassy professes not to care. “All the rumors and crazy claims from competitors creates a lot of wasted energy and time, which we don’t pay attention to,” he says. “Instead, we spend that energy on trying to listen to what customers care about, and really inventing and iterating on their behalf.” Echoing the longtime philosophy of his boss, Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos, Jassy added, “We’re willing to be misunderstood for long periods of time.” Jassy and AWS have built a much larger business in the cloud infrastructure market than anyone else. According to a past report by Gartner, AWS is bigger than the next 14 cloud providers combined.

With numerous cloud vendors out there is difficult for potential buyers of cloud computing as to whom to buy from AWS, Microsoft, Google, Oracle, IBM, or others. Jassy thinks, “It comes down to what you believe,” he says. “I think that there are a number of older-guard technology companies who either genuinely believe or are hoping people will believe that companies aren’t going to move to the cloud that quickly or that a very large amount of workloads will remain on-premises forever. I don’t believe that. And I don’t think any of the data shows that’s happening.”

AWS’s thundering pace of innovation and scale, which has created more capability for customers, also has increased its total addressable market. “What’s different is with every successive year, as we launch a thousand plus features and services, we just have the capabilities to make it easier for the rest of the market to use us,” Jassy says. “So I think the total addressable market for the areas that we touch, which is infrastructure software, hardware and data center services, is trillions of dollars.”

According to Jassy, the market wave of cloud will create lots of value and he is betting that AWS, along with its partner ecosystem of developers and companies, will take most of the share of that value. “This [industry shift] happens with every big technology innovation, which is when you make something much more cost effective and much faster to get done, people spend less per unit of technology, but they consume absolutely more, because people have insatiable amount of ideas,” he says. “More and more people are actually using the cloud, and building more things, and will in the future.”