Tech powerhouses collide; Salesforce and Google ink cloud deal
Salesforce has inked a new ‘strategic alliance’ with Google that sees Google Cloud named as its ‘preferred’ public cloud. Salesforce plans to use the Google Cloud platform as part of the company’s “international infrastructure expansion”. The companies will also “deeply integrate” Salesforce with Google Analytics - connecting sales, marketing and advertising data for the first time – something it says marketers have been asking for. In addition, as part of the agreement, Google will continue to use Salesforce as its preferred CRM provider to work with its cloud customers, while Salesforce will continue to use Google’s cloud offering, G Suite, as its preferred email and productivity provider. It essentially means the Salesforce marketing and sales cloud and Google Analytics 360 will all be linked. Salesforce says this does not impact its other partnerships – such as the cloud deal it has with Amazon Web Services. At the CRM giant’s Dreamforce conference in San Francisco*, Salesforce said it’s also now allowing its clients to build and customise AI apps to fit their specific needs in a move it says, democratises artificial intelligence (AI). It means its users – including many top name brands such a T-Mobile and Adidas – can automatically create custom AI models that can predict outcomes for any field or object. It’s also adding ‘Einstein Bots’ to enable admins to build, train and deploy customised service bots – again with just clicks, not code. The bots are trained with historical service and CRM data to “quickly and accurately” respond to common customer inquiries. *AdNews traveled to Dreamforce as a guest of Salesforce.
See AdNews' investigation into the chatbot invasion.
UnLtd’s first sailing regatta raises $62,000
The first annual Big Splash sailing regatta hosted by UnLtd saw 10 teams sail across SYdney harbour and raise more than $60,000 for good causes. Team Mindshare won the race. The event was the brainchild of Simon Hopkins from Contentshed and sponsored by AdRoll, Advertising Week APAC, Appletiser, Contentshed, Google, GumGum, Mindshare, Oatley Wines, Pacific Magazines, RhythmOne, Sizmek, The Trade Desk, Ultimate Asset, Venture Group and Yahoo!7. UnLtd’s recently appointed CEO Chris Freel says: “The Big Splash was a great example of how our industry coming together can make a huge difference to many children’s lives.”
AppNexus launches ‘next gen’ programmable DSP
AppNexus has launched what it claim is the world’s first programmable DSP. It says the AppNexus Programmable Platform (APP) “harnesses advanced machine learning to help professional traders execute highly customized and complex strategies through a seamless user interface”. Brian O’Kelley, CEO, AppNexus, says: “Most demand side platforms today don’t fundamentally differ from the DSPs that were built during the first decade of programmatic, and that’s obviously a problem. The next generation of DSPs should leverage machine learning to more efficiently manage an ever-larger number of campaign variables, minimize manual intervention, and deliver superior optimization tied to marketer KPIs.
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