Managing stakeholder expectations around the artificial intelligence (AI) journey, embracing an iterative approach and building internal capability are key lessons David Jones has learnt after transforming its customer service approach.

A physical mascot for customers in meetings, ruthless prioritisation, cross-functional teamwork and employee camaraderie are just a few ways Australian retail group, Super Retail Group, has ridden through the COVID-19 crisis.

The coronavirus pandemic is affecting everyone the world over, bringing unprecedented disruptions and challenges both to the way we work and the way we live. Marketers seeking new tools for navigating the changing operating environment will find many martech outfits have been quick to retool solutions to meet the coronavirus challenges.

Adobe, Sitecore, Acquia, Liferay and Episever have taken the lead for digital experience platforms, according to Gartner’s latest Magic Quadrant for Digital Experience Platforms report.

If there’s one lesson Luxury Escape’s chief customer officer, Jason Shugg, has learnt through the process of overhauling marketing, sales and service technology, it’s the importance of communication.

“If there are two sources of truth, there is no truth.” It’s a comment that screams common sense. Yet when you look at the state of the relationship between marketing and sales teams, it’s still not often the case, agrees Salesforce SVP and GM of Pardot, Michael Kostow.

Better claims and rehabilitation management, transparency and improved member experiences are all coming to fruition for Zurich’s OnePath life insurance business after adopting artificial intelligence (AI) technology.

Southwest Airlines has edged a step closer to a 360-degree view of the customer while also lifting employee engagement after deploying a new platform to improve customer service management.

Orthodontic and dental brand, Invisalign, has chalked up 35 per cent growth in Asia-Pacific, 13 per cent lift in the US and secured more than 30,000 consultations through a custom mobile-led concierge app after a digital marketing transformation.

Marketers need to work harder to provide customers with transparency and an ability to control their own data as part of their ethical – and not just legal – responsibility towards them, Salesforce global CMO, Stephanie Buscemi, believes.

Being a leader is not a matter of having your name up in lights, making speeches or corralling power at the top. It’s identifying the power in other people and unleashing it, former US president, Barack Obama, believes.

Knowing consumers intimately, leaning in to brand ‘superpowers’ and digital capability, and disrupting from within have helped digital beauty retailer, e.l.f, buck category sales decline and chalk up 13 percentage point growth this year.

Salesforce has debuted a new open cloud data initiative, fresh connectors for data integration across disparate systems to create a single source of truth, and single customer identification across its product ecosystem in a bid to bring the Customer 360 vision to life.

Building a universally informed, data-driven system incorporating granular insight on end-consumer demand as well as the supply chain is key to FritoLay as it works to meet the changing snacking needs of consumers.

Technology has finally given marketers the tools to answer the tough questions around how, where and when to spend their marketing dollars. But it’s the ability to transform alongside technology, gain internal buy-in for change and iterate that’s vital to achieving success.

All the latest martech and adtech news this week from ONE, Adobe, Falcon.io, Contentserv and Onedot, RRD and ActionIQ, Salesforce, Mailgun and ActivePipe

All the latest martech and adtech news from Acquia, Cheetah Digital, Salesforce, Auttomatic, Segment, RedPoint, Criteo and Robling.

It’s a problem most marketing teams now face: How to make real-time engagement a reality and personalised? This past year, Travel Money Group has been doing something about it, and chalked up a 12 per cent lift in email sales as a result.

Salesforce chalked up a 36 per cent year-on-year revenue increase across its Marketing and Commerce Cloud portfolio in the second quarter of FY20, according to its latest financial results.

Salesforce has taken a huge leap forward in the data visualisation and analytics space, picking up Tableau for a whopping US$15.7 billion.

Omnichannel retailing isn’t about technology, it’s about how to create the environment, culture and organisational DNA that drives the right customer outcomes whatever way they engage with your brand.