As an industry leader and Software-as-a-Service provider our mission at 8x8, Inc. [NYSE: EGHT] is to transform the future of business communications. The 8x8 Open Communications Platform (TM) uniquely brings …

In this article, Daniel Raskin, CMO of Kinetica, the insight engine for the Extreme Data Economy, discusses his predictions for how the world of marketing in 2019 will be shifting towards being data-driven, due to new advances in technologies such as real-time customer analytics, location-based intelligence and artificial intelligence (AI). The world of marketing has been shifting to a data-driven discipline for many years. Marketing automation and account-based marketing have had a massive impact on how marketers implement strategies and have created a quantifiable approach to measuring marketing impact. For the most part, these approaches have analyzed data "after the fact," providing a snapshot which enables marketing practitioners to make assessments and derive decisions for the future. However, the next wave of marketing transformation will shift from having these activities occur after the fact to consistently triggering marketing events based on real-time transactions.

In this week's issue of the Mélange, we'll discuss why it's important to focus on the underlying humanity when stepping up our customer experience efforts, will explain why we'll all want to befriend the new marketing data scientist in the office (if we can find one!), will talk about how to ensure we're getting the most out of our marketing automation platform and will give you the inside scoop on how you can win TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS' worth of consulting, courtesy of the fine folks right here at Perkuto. Got something we should include in next week's issue or consider for a standalone post? Want your business to create better customer experiences so that you can surprise and delight your customers and enjoy all of the benefits that come as a result? Refocus on what's most important, suggests Bruce Temkin in DestinationCRM, which is our collective humanity. While it's tempting to look at business "through a lens or technology or process" Temkin warns, "those are just conduits to the ultimate objective: people." Only by focusing on people's innate needs and behaviors will you'll be able to create meaningful connections.

As digital marketing strategies grow more sophisticated and complex, businesses find themselves wrestling with more data than ever. That's a good problem to have. But an embarrassment of data riches isn't worth much when you don't have the tools to put it to use. Analytics tools help, is there more you could be doing? Enter your new best friend: The marketing data scientist.

Job Description Job Description Decooda is seeking a marketing data scientist to join our entrepreneurial team. If you are a curious high-achiever that is interested in leveraging game-changing technologies to solve big challenges and turn the world on its head, then Decooda may be the place for you. We are seeking data science experts that are familiar with traditional analytics, statistics and machine learning. The marketing data scientist's responsibilities will involve creating tools and advancing the firm's analytics and insights capabilities. Example projects include creating systems and modules to access, manipulate, and produce outputs from social media, enterprise, third-party, IoT and machine data.