The Globe and Mail – Saudi Mirror http://www.saudimirror.com News On-line Tue, 12 Jul 2022 11:00:00 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.3.2 Sophi.io Welcomes Global News as Latest Customer http://www.saudimirror.com/sophi-io-welcomes-global-news-as-latest-customer/ Tue, 12 Jul 2022 11:00:00 +0000 http://www.saudimirror.com/?p=212957 TORONTO, July 12, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Global News, one of Canada's leading news organizations, has chosen Sophi.io, an AI–powered automation, optimization and prediction platform developed by The Globe and Mail, to automate their website content curation. Following their strong value of innovation, they will be using Sophi Site Automation to autonomously place digital content across their website.

Global News is extremely innovative in their approach to culture and has worked intensively with Sophi to drive culture change so much so that their editorial team sees the value of bringing AI into the newsroom and is looking forward to working with this new technology.

Sophi Site Automation analyses all of their content, from video to text, and shuffles each piece of content to place the most valuable content in the most valuable places on their digital properties in order to ensure their content helps them achieve their business goals.

Sonia Verma, Editor–in–Chief at Global News, said, "Our innovative and data–driven editorial team is looking forward to working hand in hand with Sophi to bring automation into our newsroom and drive powerful decisions that will help us better serve our audiences."

Gabe Gonda, VP at Sophi.io, commented, "Global News, one of Canada's preeminent news and information companies, is a phenomenal addition to our customer base. We are excited to help them marry their high level of talent with state–of–the–art ML technology that will help drive significant business results."

About Global News

Global News offers Canadians from coast to coast a host of news and information""from breaking news in their community to deep, engaging content that puts complex world issues in perspective. Global News remains committed to serving audiences with fact–based, accurate, and comprehensive news coverage. Canadians can turn to Global News as a trusted source of information on television, radio and online including the flagship newscast Global National and daily local newscasts across the country. Global News is a Corus Entertainment network.

About Sophi.io

Sophi.io (https://www.sophi.io) was developed by The Globe and Mail to help content publishers make important strategic and tactical decisions. It is a suite of AI and ML–powered automation, optimization and prediction solutions that include Sophi Site Automation, Sophi for Paywalls and Sophi for First Party Data. Sophi also powers one–click automated laydown of template–free print publishing. Sophi is designed to improve the metrics that matter most to your business, such as subscriber retention and acquisition, engagement, recency, frequency and volume.


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Advance Local is New Sophi.io Customer http://www.saudimirror.com/advance-local-is-new-sophi-io-customer/ Wed, 18 May 2022 18:01:05 +0000 http://www.saudimirror.com/?p=213934 TORONTO, May 18, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Advance Local, one of the largest media groups in the United States operating 10 leading news and information organizations and reaching 55 million people monthly, has quadrupled their subscription goal using Sophi Content Paywall Engine. Faced with advertising pressures exacerbated by the Coronavirus, Advance Local increased subscription conversions 45% using Sophi.io, an AI–powered automation, optimization and prediction platform developed by The Globe and Mail. Their success with Sophi has also earned them a spot as a finalist in the Digiday Media Awards, announced this week.

Neil Katz, Chief Customer Officer at Advance Local, said, "We wanted to see how much farther Sophi could take us, so we tested Sophi Content Paywall on one of our largest sites. The results were transformative. We were hoping for a 10% lift in conversion rate and Sophi delivered four times that result. We're continuing to roll out Sophi solutions across more of our sites as we speak."

Advance started using Sophi Content Paywall Engine on one of its largest sites, cleveland.com, to get better insights into the value of their content and fuel their new subscription business. The technology uses advanced natural language processing (NLP) to analyze every piece of content and select which articles to put behind a paywall. It picks only those articles where the subscription revenue opportunity outweighs the advertising revenue forgone.

During an experiment where Advance could see how Sophi performed side by side with their existing paywall, Sophi presented roughly the same amount of paywalls and generated a 45% lift in the total conversion rate, while also uncovering pockets of content that editors didn't anticipate would generate subscriptions.

John Hassell, Senior Vice President and Editorial Director at Advance Local, said, "We wanted to see if Sophi's content paywall could increase subscriber acquisition by 10% and it blew that goal out of the water. We're feeling good about the platform and the way it is showing us just how valuable our editorial content is to our audience."

Advance Local is also a finalist in the Digiday Media Awards, in the category of Best Subscription or Membership Product, for their work using Sophi Content Paywall Engine.

"Advance Local is an incredibly innovative organization that we've watched push the boundaries and we're very excited to be working with them," said Mike O'Neill, Co–Founder and CEO of Sophi.io. "We're seeing great value come from the content paywall they've implemented and we're excited to introduce some other cutting edge technology into this very strong brand."

About Advance Local

Advance Local (www.advancelocal.com) is one of the largest media groups in the United States. It operates 10 leading news and information organizations and reaches 55 million people monthly across multiple platforms with its high–quality journalism. They are dedicated to unrivaled local journalism that improves the lives of millions of people.

About Sophi.io

Sophi.io (https://www.sophi.io) was developed by The Globe and Mail to help content publishers make important strategic and tactical decisions. It is a suite of AI and ML–powered automation, optimization and prediction solutions that include Sophi Site Automation, Sophi for Paywalls and Sophi for First Party Data. Sophi also powers one–click automated laydown of template–free print publishing. Sophi is designed to improve the metrics that matter most to your business, such as subscriber retention and acquisition, engagement, recency, frequency and volume.


GLOBENEWSWIRE (Distribution ID 8545752)

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Reuters Partners with The Globe and Mail’s Sophi.io Automation Platform http://www.saudimirror.com/reuters-partners-with-the-globe-and-mails-sophi-io-automation-platform/ Tue, 10 May 2022 15:00:00 +0000 http://www.saudimirror.com/?p=214324 TORONTO, May 10, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Sophi.io, an AI–powered automation, optimization and prediction platform developed by The Globe and Mail, is now working with Reuters – the news and media division of Thomson Reuters – as it continues to invest in the latest AI solutions for its newsroom. Sophi is helping to automate content curation on select sections on Reuters.com, which was relaunched in April 2021.

Sophi Site Automation is an AI system that autonomously curates digital content to find and promote an organization's most engaging content. Sophi looks at all content as it's published, and all traffic, to find the hidden gems that an organization's customers value the most.

In order to automate content curation, Sophi's algorithm has been learning from Reuters editors. The newsroom has been able to work with some of the latest AI solutions, which has resulted in giving time back to editors to focus on finding the next story and creating the journalism that makes Reuters such a trusted brand.

Josh London, Head of Reuters Professional and Chief Marketing Officer of Reuters, said: "Sophi's cutting–edge AI platform is one of the next steps in the evolution of our digital properties. Sophi will help us further our mission of bringing AI–based technology and tools to more corners of the workforce, whilst helping to bring our readers the stories they both want and need to know."

Michael Young, Chief Technology Officer for Reuters, said: "Our partnership with Sophi.io is another example of how a newsroom like ours can successfully deploy some of the latest AI solutions for effective content discovery. Our team worked closely with the Sophi team to ensure our Sophi Score reflected our business goals and we are pleased with the resulting site automation."

Mike O'Neill, Co–Founder and CEO of Sophi.io, added "We are delighted to have Reuters as a customer. They put their trust in Sophi and we are excited to automate curation across all of their article pages to start and expand the relationship to include more solutions down the road."

"It's wonderful to work with Reuters in this capacity," said Phillip Crawley, Publisher and CEO of The Globe and Mail. "They have a strong mission and Sophi.io is helping them continue to demonstrate how editorial integrity can be supported by AI."

About Reuters
Reuters is the world's leading provider of trusted news, insight and analysis, reaching billions of people worldwide every day. Founded in 1851, it brings together world–class journalism, industry expertise and cutting–edge technology with unparalleled speed, reliability and accuracy to enable people to make better decisions. Reuters is committed to the Trust Principles of independence, integrity and freedom from bias, and is the essential source of business, financial and world news delivered to financial professionals exclusively via Refinitiv services, and to the world's media organizations, industry events and directly to consumers.

About Sophi.io
Sophi.io (https://www.sophi.io) was developed by The Globe and Mail to help content publishers make important strategic and tactical decisions. It is a suite of AI and ML–powered automation, optimization and prediction solutions that include Sophi Site Automation, Sophi for Paywalls and Sophi for First Party Data. Sophi also powers one–click automated laydown of template–free print publishing. Sophi is designed to improve the metrics that matter most to your business, such as subscriber retention and acquisition, engagement, recency, frequency and volume.


GLOBENEWSWIRE (Distribution ID 8539467)

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Layout International Partners with Sophi.io to Fully Automate Print Production http://www.saudimirror.com/layout-international-partners-with-sophi-io-to-fully-automate-print-production/ Thu, 10 Jun 2021 18:54:32 +0000 http://www.saudimirror.com/?p=213956 TORONTO, June 10, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Sophi.io, a suite of AI–powered optimization, prediction and automation tools developed by The Globe and Mail, has partnered with Layout International, a supplier of cutting–edge enterprise technology, to transform print production. Sophi will provide the smart AI/ML technology to fully automate the end–to–end print production workflow to save publishers time and money and enable them to focus on creating high quality content.

Print laydown is typically a long and arduous process, involving multiple editors and page designers and taking hours to complete. Without the rigid constraints of a template, Layout International customers will now have the opportunity to create a print–ready paper that is indecipherable from a paper prepared by human page designers, and the entire process takes just minutes. And for Layout International's over 200 customers, this partnership means seamless integration of Sophi into their current NewsPublish editorial workflow.

"We're excited that working with Sophi.io enables us to offer our customers cutting edge new capabilities in the form of an end–to–end automated print solution that dramatically increases efficiencies. Our customers will be able to run and rerun their print paper in just minutes, whenever they chose, all within the NewsPublish Enterprise content management system that they already use daily," said Jean–Michel Habis, CEO of Layout International.

The Sophi suite of tools is designed to identify an organization's most valuable content (not the most popular content, but the content that drives conversions or retention or the metric that matters most to that organization) and place it in the most valuable places across their digital entities, or behind a paywall when the subscription revenue outweighs the predicted advertising revenue. In addition to NewsPublish powered by Sophi.io, Sophi provides site automation, a fully dynamic, real–time, personalized paywall, and analytics solutions to publishers across the world.

"Print laydown is a massive undertaking," said Greg Doufas, Chief Technology Officer at The Globe and Mail. "We see this partnership with Layout International giving publishers the freedom to focus on content creation and the specific design elements that page designers want to spend their energy on. The best part is that NewsPublish powered by Sophi.io is getting better and smarter every day, so Layout International customers will always be on the cutting edge of technology with this solution."

To learn more, please visit www.newspublish.org or email sales@layoutintl.com.

About Layout International
Layout International (www.layoutintl.com) meets the growing technological needs in the market by providing highly customizable enterprise solutions. They serve more than 200 clients, supplying them with cutting–edge technology to improve the way they work. They enable many organizations to digitally transform their processes, migrate and integrate to work on a single platform.

Layout International Media Contact
Ghassan Halawi
Vice President of Sales, Layout International
+961 70 855685
ghalawi@layoutintl.com

About Sophi.io
Sophi.io (https://www.sophi.io) is a suite of AI–powered optimization and prediction tools that helps content publishers make important strategic and tactical decisions. Sophi solutions range from Sophi Site Automation and Sophi for Paywalls to Sophi Analytics, a decision–support system for content publishers. Sophi is designed to improve the metrics that matter most to your business, such as subscriber retention and acquisition, engagement, recency, frequency and volume.


GLOBENEWSWIRE (Distribution ID 8252563)

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Sophi.io Wins Two INMA Global Media Awards http://www.saudimirror.com/sophi-io-wins-two-inma-global-media-awards/ Mon, 07 Jun 2021 11:00:00 +0000 http://www.saudimirror.com/?p=214238 TORONTO, June 07, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Sophi.io, The Globe and Mail's artificial intelligence–powered optimization and prediction platform, was announced as a winner of the International News Media Association (INMA) Global Media Awards in two categories, Best Use of Data to Automate or Personalize, and Best in Show for North America.

"The INMA Global Media Awards focus on excellence across all areas of the media business," said Phillip Crawley, Publisher and CEO of The Globe and Mail. "I'm particularly pleased that Sophi's fully dynamic, real–time, personalized paywall won in two categories, and that Sophi's ground–breaking automated print laydown technology was nominated for its use with Naviga and Agderposten."

Sophi also took second place in the categories of Best Initiative to Acquire Subscribers and Best Use of Data to Drive Subscriptions, Content, or Product Design and was shortlisted as a finalist in the following categories: Best Initiative to Register Users, and Best Product and Tech Innovation.

This year's competition drew 644 entries from 212 news brands in 37 countries. The judges were 44 global media experts focused on breakthrough results, unique concepts, strong creativity, innovative thinking, and winner synergies across platforms.

"Great use of data with huge impact. Personalizing paywalls is key for success in the digital subscription business for news media. This entry presents more evidence why this is true," one judge said about the paywall technology. "Their development of user– and content–propensity models is a best practice that others can learn from," said another judge.

Another judge remarked: "Incredible Artificial Intelligence–driven personalization, and perfect embracing of the need to insert data–science talent into a news organization. Excellent impact and numbers.”

Sophi's fully dynamic, personalized, real–time paywall uses natural language processing (NLP) to analyze both content and user behaviour to determine when to ask a reader for money or an email address, and when to leave them alone. It can optimize for multiple outcomes simultaneously (such as different bundles or price points) and also works well in cold–start situations.

Sophi is an AI platform that helps publishers identify their most valuable content and leverage it to achieve key business goals, such as maximizing subscriptions. Publishers on four continents now use Sophi's AI/ML technology to power paywall decisions, website automation and print automation.

Sophi's automated print laydown solution, which powers Naviga Publisher, earned an honourable mention in the Best Product and Tech Innovation category. An INMA judge commented: "Sophi – as the first of its kind – is a great example of an automated print laydown solution. Amazing to see that the work of the editor is reduced only to the selection of the content. The automation of up to 80% of newspapers' editorial pages could be a game–changer of the print industry.”

Last year, Sophi also won the Online Journalism Award (OJA) for Technical Innovation in the Service of Digital Journalism, handed out by the Online News Association (ONA), and both the World Digital Media Award and the North American Digital Media Award awarded by The World Association of News Publishers (WAN–IFRA) in the category of Best Digital News Start–up.

About Sophi.io
Sophi.io (https://www.sophi.io) was developed by The Globe and Mail to help content publishers make important strategic and tactical decisions. It is a suite of AI and ML–powered optimization and prediction tools that includes Sophi Site Automation and Sophi Dynamic Paywall as well as Sophi Analytics, a decision–support system for content publishers. Sophi is designed to improve the metrics that matter most to your business, such as subscriber retention and acquisition, engagement, recency, frequency and volume.


GLOBENEWSWIRE (Distribution ID 8249606)

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Stibo DX partners with Sophi.io, strengthening automation on CUE Publishing Platform http://www.saudimirror.com/stibo-dx-partners-with-sophi-io-strengthening-automation-on-cue-publishing-platform/ Thu, 25 Mar 2021 15:34:23 +0000 http://www.saudimirror.com/?p=214234 TORONTO, March 25, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Stibo DX and Sophi.io are partnering to integrate Sophi, The Globe and Mail's automation, prediction and optimization tools, into Stibo DX's publishing platform, CUE. Sophi will be a native extension in CUE's user interface.

"As an open and extensible publishing platform, CUE is meant to be integrated with best–of–breed tools. The Sophi AI engine from Stibo DX's long–time customer The Globe and Mail is exactly that. Sophi will enable CUE users to make smarter content decisions based on real–time data and insights," says Mark van de Kamp, Chief Innovation Officer of Stibo DX.

Sophi.io is a suite of AI solutions, including Sophi Automation, which autonomously curates content to optimize webpages, and Sophi Analytics, which provides decision–making support to newsrooms and content publishers. The Sophi team develops a custom Sophi Score in conjunction with every client to ensure that each piece of content properly reflects the value it contributes to the customer's desired business outcomes, such as increasing conversions, loyalty and engagement. All these capabilities will soon be available to Stibo DX's global customer base as seamless, add–on extensions.

"As a publisher with years of experience working with Stibo DX, The Globe and Mail understands the needs of both Stibo DX and its customers," said Phillip Crawley, Publisher and CEO of The Globe and Mail. "This new partnership between Stibo DX and Sophi builds on that understanding and offers easy to use, cutting–edge automation and predictive analytics to CUE's many customers around the world, from media organizations to content–focused brands."

"The Globe and Mail has been a valued Stibo DX customer for over two decades. This new dimension of our partnership builds on a solid foundation," said Mr. van de Kamp. In 2017, The Globe hosted Stibo DX's user conference at their headquarters in Toronto, Canada.

"The Globe and Mail's involvement with the CUE community has always been immensely appreciated. We are very proud to continue the partnership and strengthen the CUE platform with this game–changing technology," Mr. van de Kamp said.

About Stibo DX
Stibo DX (https://www.stibodx.com/) is the company behind the CUE CMS and DAM solutions for media companies and brand publishers around the world. Since 1979, Stibo DX has been a leading technology partner for some of the world's biggest media companies, including The New York Times, Gannett, Axel Springer, Times of India, and The Economist.

About Sophi.io
Sophi.io (https://www.sophi.io) was developed by The Globe and Mail to help content publishers make important strategic and tactical decisions. It is a suite of AI–powered tools that includes Sophi Automation and Sophi for Paywalls as well as Sophi Analytics, a decision–support system for content publishers. Sophi is designed to improve the metrics that matter most to your business, such as subscriber retention and acquisition, engagement, recency, frequency and volume.


GLOBENEWSWIRE (Distribution ID 8206574)

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Sophi.io Announced as INMA Global Media Award Finalist in 5 Categories http://www.saudimirror.com/sophi-io-announced-as-inma-global-media-award-finalist-in-5-categories/ Thu, 11 Mar 2021 20:49:22 +0000 http://www.saudimirror.com/?p=213784 TORONTO, March 11, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Sophi.io, The Globe and Mail's artificial intelligence–based optimization and prediction engine, was named a finalist in 5 categories of the Global Media Awards run by the International News Media Association (INMA):

  • Best Product and Tech Innovation
  • Best Initiative to Register Users
  • Best Initiative to Acquire Subscribers
  • Best Use of Data To Drive Subscriptions, Content, or Product Design
  • Best Use of Data to Automate or Personalise

"The INMA Global Media Awards focus on excellence across all areas of the media business," said Phillip Crawley, Publisher and CEO of The Globe and Mail. "I'm particularly pleased that Sophi for Paywalls' fully dynamic, real–time paywall was recognized in 4 categories, and that Sophi's ground–breaking automated print laydown technology was nominated for its use with Naviga and Agderposten."

The nomination in the Best Product and Tech Innovation category is shared with Naviga for Naviga Publisher powered by Sophi.io, and Agderposten, a regional daily newspaper that serves over 25,000 readers in print across Norway. Sophi provides cutting edge AI/ML technology that, along with Naviga Publisher, fully automates the end–to–end print production workflow that lets editors prioritize stories and press a button to automatically generate a print laydown without any templates. Agderposten was the first customer to use the automation technology.

This year's competition drew 644 entries from 212 news brands in 37 countries. The judges consist of 44 media experts from 22 countries focused on breakthrough results, unique concepts, strong creativity, innovative thinking, and winner synergies across platforms. The first place winners will be announced on June 3.

Sophi is an artificial–intelligence system that helps publishers identify their most valuable content and leverage it to achieve key business goals. Sophi for Paywalls' fully dynamic, personalized, real–time paywall "" SmartGate "" uses natural language processing (NLP) to analyse both content and user behaviour to determine when to ask a reader for money or an email address, and when to leave them alone. It can optimize for multiple outcomes simultaneously (such as different bundles or price points) and also works in cold–start situations. Publishers on three continents now use Sophi's AI/ML technology to power paywall decisions, website automation and print automation.

Last year, Sophi also won the Online Journalism Award (OJA) for Technical Innovation in the Service of Digital Journalism, handed out by the Online News Association (ONA), and both the World Digital Media Award and the North American Digital Media Award awarded by The World Association of News Publishers (WAN–IFRA) in the category of Best Digital News Start–up.

About Sophi.io

Sophi.io (https://www.sophi.io) was developed by The Globe and Mail to help content publishers make important strategic and tactical decisions. It is a suite of AI–powered tools that includes Sophi Automation and Sophi for Paywalls as well as Sophi Analytics, a decision–support system for content publishers. Sophi is designed to improve the metrics that matter most to your business, such as subscriber retention and acquisition, engagement, recency, frequency and volume. Sophi also powers Naviga Publisher for one–click automated laydown of print and ePaper publishing.


GLOBENEWSWIRE (Distribution ID 8188801)

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Sophi.io Named a WordPress VIP Featured Technology Partner http://www.saudimirror.com/sophi-io-named-a-wordpress-vip-featured-technology-partner/ Thu, 18 Feb 2021 12:00:00 +0000 http://www.saudimirror.com/?p=214144 TORONTO, Feb. 18, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — WordPress VIP, the leading provider of enterprise WordPress, has added Sophi.io, an artificial intelligence system by The Globe and Mail, to its prestigious Technology Partnership program. Sophi joins a small group of enterprise technology companies serving VIP clients, and is the first partner to provide AI–powered automated content curation in addition to their predictive analytics and paywall solutions.

"We're excited to welcome Sophi to the growing ecosystem of enterprise integrations available to WordPress VIP customers," said Nick Gernert, CEO of WordPress VIP. "Content is the heart of enterprise growth, and our partners are key players enabling publishers and marketers to create meaningful customer experiences with powerful storytelling tools."

WordPress VIP provides a fully managed WordPress cloud platform for scale, security, performance, and flexibility, as well as end–to–end guidance and hands–on support. Some of their enterprise clients include Capgemini, Facebook, Microsoft, and News Corp, among others.

Greg Doufas, CTO at the Globe and Mail, said "We're excited to bring Sophi to all WordPress VIP users. Content publishers are exactly who Sophi was developed for. This partnership will allow Sophi to transform the way content publishers do business, and how their readers are served their most valuable content – where and how they are most receptive to it. We look forward to a strong relationship with WordPress VIP."

The award–winning Sophi suite of solutions was developed by The Globe and Mail to help content publishers make important strategic and tactical decisions that transform their business. It is a suite of ML and NLP–powered tools that includes Sophi Automation for content curation, Sophi for Paywalls, and Sophi Analytics "" a decision–support system for publishers.

Key criteria for technology partners include clear product expertise and innovative go–to–market strategies. VIP vets every partner to identify companies with a proven track record of successful and forward thinking implementations of WordPress integration at scale.

For more information about Sophi's partnership with WordPress VIP, please visit https://wpvip.com/partner/sophi.

About Sophi.io

Sophi.io (https://www.sophi.io) was developed by The Globe and Mail to help content publishers make important strategic and tactical decisions. It is a suite of AI–powered tools that includes Sophi Automation and Sophi for Paywalls as well as Sophi Analytics, a decision–support system for content publishers. Sophi is designed to improve the metrics that matter most to your business, such as subscriber retention and acquisition, engagement, recency, frequency and volume. Sophi also powers automated laydown of print newspapers and ePapers.

About WordPress VIP

WordPress VIP is the leading provider of enterprise WordPress. VIP's platform provides enterprise–grade digital marketing and publishing platforms with WordPress at their core. VIP supports flagship digital marketing platforms for some of the best–known brands, including Capgemini, Hachette Book Group, and Facebook. Our digital publishing clients span the media landscape, from focused outlets such as Quartz, TechCrunch, and FiveThirtyEight to some of the biggest publishers and sites in the world, like News Corp, Rolling Stone, and Abril.

With its unparalleled power, flexibility, and interoperability, WordPress is the best digital experience solution at scale. Together with VIP's expert support, best–in–class infrastructure, and exceptional partner network, it's an unbeatable combination.


GLOBENEWSWIRE (Distribution ID 8155099)

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