Is Marketing Automation Inadvertently Becoming the New ERP?

Guest Dan Arra, VP of Sales & Service at Alto Cloud has a unique perspective in that he discusses with the host Jim Obermayer how marketing automation could be slipping into a rigid process that resembles an ERP solution, which is not necessarily good for the customer or the salesperson. He discusses how machine learning, when added to marketing automation can push personalized communications in real time to address a customer’s immediate interest. 

About Dan Arra, VP Sales & Service

A Silicon Valley entrepreneur, Dan Arra has over twenty-five years of experience in the software industry holding various positions in sales, engineering, senior management, and product management. Most recently, Dan was the Managing Director of Macadamian, a software design and development studio with deep expertise in the telecommunications and enterprise networking industries.

A founding/co-founding member of four successful technology companies, Dan played a key role assisting two companies going public on the NASDAQ. He co-founded SCS America, which became Brightstar Information Technology Group, and aggressively grew the company to over $30M in a short five-year period. While at BrightStar, Dan’s responsibilities included worldwide sales, consulting operations as well as taking the company public on the NASDAQ. BrightStar was an e-business professional services consultancy with annual revenues over $100M with 450 employees throughout locations in the US and Australia.

An early investor and employee of Young Design Inc. (YDI), which went public on the NASDAQ, Dan was a leader in sales and business development. YDI subsequently acquired wireless networking and services companies including Terabeam, Proxim Wireless, Ricochet Networks, and others. Dan founded Gatespeed Broadband, a wireless Internet service provider and successfully sold the company and also co-founded Blackstone Solutions, a software and services company delivering program management software solutions to enterprise customers.

Dan majored in Electrical Engineering at the University of Southern California and has been an IEEE member since 1987.

 

About Altocloud

Smarter Interactions with your Online Customers and Prospects

Altocloud is a cloud platform that combines predictive analytics with voice, video, and chat interactions to identify the right website and mobile visitors and best moments for communications.  We help convert shoppers into buyers for eCommerce, connect web and mobile visitors with Inside Sales people in real-time, and streamline Customer Support experiences.  Altocloud helps businesses efficiently grow revenue, saving time and money while making customers happy.

Altocloud is based in Silicon Valley and Galway Ireland and is led by CEO Barry O'Sullivan (Bio), formerly a senior executive at Cisco and Nortel where he led multi-billion dollar businesses, including Cisco'sVoIP, Collaboration, Contact Center and WebEx businesses.

Altocloud was founded in 2013 by Dan Arra, Joe Smyth and Barry O'Sullivan and had its launch out of stealth mode in March 2014 at  Enterprise Connect, the leading enterprise communications industry event (see News).