Artificial Intelligence

San Francisco - Tapcentive has launched its NFC- and BLE-connected Touchpoint devices for use with its cloud-based Mobile Engagement Platform. Tapcentive Touchpoints offer marketers visible, interactive engagement technology for driving consumer awareness and influencing in-location behavior.

New York - SmartFocus has acquired beacon technology specialist TagPoints and social media analytics provider Content Savvy as part of its strategy to develop the U.K.'s first omnichannel digital marketing system. Its platform now offers customer engagement and analytics capabilities across all media channels, so clients can gain deeper insight into consumer behavior.

Plug and Play helps bring together retailers and startups who offer specific technology and expertise that can relieve their pain points. In each issue of our Customer Disruption e-newsletter, we will provide you a brief Q&A with the CEO of a Plug and Play startup, explaining how their company assists retailers in succeeding in today’s disruptive customer environment.

This week’s CEO Corner features three questions with Judd Ferrer, CEO of Sparkle.

What does your company do?

San Jose, Calif. – EBay Inc. is releasing the EBay Enterprise Commerce Marketing Platform, a new omnichannel engagement suite that will enable marketers to drive and optimize one-to-one commerce at scale. Designed and built from the ground up, in strategic partnership with FICO, a predictive analytics and decision management software company, the platform combines the commerce insights, demand generation delivery technologies and intellectual property of EBay Enterprise with FICO’s analytics technologies and products.

As the initial burst of hype over the Apple Pay mobile payment platform (and the glitchy live feed of its announcement, U2’s surprise new digital album release and chic style of the “Scarf Guy)” fades, it’s time to take a more in-depth look at the merits of the platform. While Apple Pay will probably not obliterate the market for traditional wallets or competing digital wallet solutions, it does possess some unique competitive advantages that should make Apple Pay a major factor in the world of mobile commerce.

By Christoph Stehmann, Pitney Bowes

Imagine that it’s a breezy Friday morning and tonight is your nephew’s birthday party. It’s completely slipped your mind, and there just isn’t time in your day to go shopping. However, you’re not stricken with panic, because this solution is routine. You go online, find the hottest toy, and hit Amazon Prime Air. You quickly hop in the shower, scarf down a breakfast, and on your way out the door, a small “Octocopter” is touching down on your doorstep to save your day.

Moscow - PlayDisplay, a provider of emotional engagement solutions, is releasing SpaceAR, an augmented realty platform that enables the creation of realistic objects of various sizes and whole virtual worlds. Powered by PlayDisplay’s proprietary technology, the solution makes virtual environment obey the laws of physics and interact with the audience in a realistic way.

PunchTab, a leading omnichannel engagement and insights platform, has appointed Mike Mansbach as the company’s next CEO.

The platform considers Mansbach to be a results-driven go-to-market executive who successfully led the global sales and client services team for the SaaS Division at Citrix.