Archive for February 24, 2021

Accenture Positioned As A Leader In IDC MarketScape For Canada For Salesforce Implementation Services

Posted in Commentary with tags on February 24, 2021 by itnerd

Accenture has been recognized as a leader in the latest IDC MarketScape: Canada Salesforce Implementation Services 2020 Vendor Assessment (IDC#CA46257720, December 2020).

The report highlights Accenture’s industry expertise, its ability to bring solutions to market, and investments in its Salesforce Business Group.

“In the assessment of Salesforce implementation services providers, Accenture’s investment and commitment to Salesforce in its Canadian practice was a strong differentiator. Accenture’s domain and industry expertise in Salesforce products makes it a Canadian market leader,” said Jim Westcott, Research Manager, Application Solutions, IDC. 

The report highlights that Accenture was an early partner of Salesforce, and its strong collaboration in Canada is evident in Accenture’s track record in implementing Salesforce Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, and Commerce Cloud projects. The report also points to Accenture’s global integration as well as its Canadian growth strategy focused on cloud technologies and services, with Salesforce as a key component of this strategy. 

The IDC MarketScape report also noted Accenture’s long-standing relationships with Vlocity (now Salesforce Industries) and nCino, making it a prominent provider of Financial Services and Health Cloud implementation in Canada. Accenture Canada has also rolled out its Salesforce Innovation Experience (SiX) to its global innovation hubs, centers, and studios, allowing it to work collaboratively with clients to ideate and prototype Salesforce solutions, the report says.

The IDC Marketscape evaluated Accenture and seven other Salesforce service providers with operations and customers in Canada. Participation in this study was determined based on annual revenue from Salesforce professional services in Canada, recognition as an official Salesforce partner in Canada, and having an active Canadian Salesforce professional services practice.

Worldwide, Accenture has been recognized by the IDC MarketScape as a leader for four consecutive years for Salesforce implementation services (doc #US45007219, September 2019). 

Globally, Accenture has the world’s largest Salesforce practice and is a trusted leader in designing, implementing and driving transformational experiences using Salesforce solutions.

More information about the IDC MarketScape: Canada Salesforce Implementation Services 2020 Vendor Assessment can be found here.

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Waze Introduces New Advertising Solutions

Posted in Commentary with tags on February 24, 2021 by itnerd

Waze is announcing updates to Waze Ads Starter, its advertising solution tailored specifically to small businesses. The features take into account the unique challenges faced by small businesses now, making it easier for them to connect with existing customers and attract new ones while making the most of their marketing investment.

With these updates, Waze is making it simpler for small business advertisers to create and manage Waze ad campaigns with Ad Manager, a streamlined campaign management dashboard. Now, in minutes, small businesses can begin advertising, see how campaigns are performing at a glance, and easily make changes as well as gaining access to new ad formats and other capabilities. Available both on desktop and in a new mobile-friendly experience, Ad Manager makes it as easy as possible for small businesses to achieve their business goals.

Updates include: 

  • Ad formats: Arrows and Takeovers join existing Pin and Search formats with the option to preview all ads on mobile. 
  • Targeting criteria: Choose targets based on a specific zip/postal code, city, geographical region, or coordinates.
  • Goal-specific calls-to-action: Achieve your goals and increase customer engagement with Waze recommended calls-to-action including, Save for Later, Save Location, Drive There, and Call Now.
  • Push notifications: Re-engage customers after their drive with push notification reminders. 
  • Flexible campaigns: Run seasonal campaigns or limited-time promotions.

Waze is also introducing features to help small businesses manage advertising budget, showing estimated campaign reach and providing a recommended budget that dynamically incorporates locations and other campaign details, based on a total or monthly campaign budget setting. Small business owners can begin advertising on Waze for just a few dollars per day, with no monthly commitment.

For more information on advertising with Waze, please visit waze.com/ads/waze-ads-starter/ad-manager

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Ring Video Doorbell Pro 2 Featuring 3D Motion Detection and Bird’s Eye View Announced

Posted in Commentary with tags on February 24, 2021 by itnerd

Ring today announced Ring Video Doorbell Pro 2, a new advanced video doorbell complete with innovative 3D Motion Detection with radar, enhanced audio capabilities with an array microphone, and customizable privacy features. Combined with a new Head to Toe video, 3D Motion Detection and Bird’s Eye View gives homeowners more context about what is happening at their front door. 

The Next Generation of Motion Detection with Radar Technology

Ring Video Doorbell Pro 2 uses radar to better detect objects and homeowners can customize which areas of their property they want to monitor by selecting distance thresholds. The radar sensor determines when an object crosses the distance threshold by measuring its specific distance from the camera. The camera only starts recording once that threshold is crossed, and sends homeowners a motion alert. Unique to Ring Video Doorbell Pro 2, 3D Motion Detection gives you more control to record video only when and where someone steps onto your property.

3D Motion Detection also powers a new Bird’s Eye View feature, which provides an aerial view of the homeowner’s property and a map of where a motion event starts to give you historical context to the nature of the event. Together, 3D Motion Detection and Bird’s Eye View are the newest way for homeowners to get more control and context about what’s happening in front of their door. 

Premium Features and Convenience

Ring Video Doorbell Pro 2 is Ring’s most advanced wired doorbell that lets homeowners check in on their front door no matter where they are. In addition to 3D Motion Detection and Bird’s Eye View, advanced features include Head to Toe video, 1536p HD video, and an array microphone that limits sound distortion for clearer audio and video of what’s happening at the door. 

Designed with Privacy and Security in Mind

Like all Ring products, Ring Video Doorbell Pro 2 is built from the ground up with privacy and security in mind. The Ring app makes it easy to tailor specific privacy and security settings. Homeowners can set 3D Motion Detection thresholds and Customizable Motion Zones that trigger recordings and Privacy Zones can exclude areas in the camera field of view from video recording for added privacy.

Pricing and Availability

Ring Video Doorbell Pro 2 is $324.99 and is available for pre-order at Ring.com and Amazon.ca. Ring Video Doorbell Pro 2 will begin shipping to customers on March 31, 2021.

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TikTok Releases 4th Annual Transparency Report

Posted in Commentary with tags on February 24, 2021 by itnerd

Today, TikTok is releasing its 4th annual global Transparency Report. This report covers the second half of 2020 (July 1 – December 31) and provides visibility into the volume and nature of content removed for violating TikTok’s Community Guidelines or Terms of Service, with additional insight into TikTok’s work to counter misinformation related to COVID-19 and elections. It also includes how TikTok responds to law enforcement requests for information, government requests for content removals, and intellectual property removal requests.

This report includes a number of new data points, that haven’t previously been shared publicly including:

  • Accounts removed
  • Spam accounts and videos removed 
  • Videos restored after they were appealed by the video’s creator
  • Specific policy insights
  • Ads rejected for violating our advertising policies

The report also includes key insights on TikTok’s continual work on countering COVID-19 and vaccine misinformation. Public service announcements (PSAs) on hashtags directing users to the World Health Organization (WHO) and local public health resources were viewed 38,010,670,666 times! 51,505videos were removed for promoting COVID-19 misinformation and of these videos, 86% were removed before they were reported to TikTok, 87% were removed within 24 hours of being uploaded to TikTok, and 71% had zero views.

You can see the full report HERE and a blog post that includes key insights HERE.

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Apple M1 Mac Users Report Excessive SSD Wear

Posted in Commentary with tags on February 24, 2021 by itnerd

Apple’s new M1 based Macs are the new hotness that are insanely fast. But things aren’t all good. Over the past week, some M1 Mac users have been reporting alarming SSD health readings, suggesting that these devices are writing extraordinary amounts of data to their drives:

Across Twitter and the MacRumors forums, users are reporting that M1 Macs are experiencing extremely high drive writes over a short space of time. In what appear to be the most severe cases, M1 Macs are said to be consuming as much as 10 to 13 percent of the maximum warrantable total bytes written (TBW) value of its SSD. Flash memory on solid-state drives, such as those used in Macs, can only be written to a certain number of times before they become unstable. Software ensures that load is spread evenly across the drive’s memory cells, but there is a point when the drive has been written to so many times that it can no longer reliably hold data. So while SSD wear is normal, expected behavior, drives should not be exhausting their ability to hold data as quickly as some M1 Macs seem to be. One user showed that their M1 Mac had already consumed one percent of its SSD after just two months, while another M1 Mac with a 2TB SSD had already consumed three percent. The total data units written for these machines is running into many terabytes, when they would normally be expected to be considerably lower.

This is a huge problem for Apple as these drives are not user replaceable. Which means that a M1 based Mac will have an insanely short lifespan. Which is bad as Macs have a reputation for lasting years. Apple needs to speak to why this is happening and how they are going to do to address this issue. But chances are Apple isn’t going to do that as they aren’t the most transparent company who owns up to their mistakes. And that’s a disincentive for me to buy one. But we will see if Apple changes that behavior with this issue.

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