We live in an age of acceptable evil. Why else would so many B2B company and product names reference the villainous machines in dystopian novels? Let’s blame the many small victories of English literature program graduates pulling clever fast ones while disguised as marketers. It works for this time when nothing is unexpected….except for the mergers, acquisitions and product launches outlined below.

iOffice and SpaceIQ have merged. iOffice is a workplace experience and asset management solutions company, while SpaceIQ is an Integrated Workplace Management System (IWMS), space management, and employee experience provider. The merger was announced today. The event follows investments by global private equity firms Thoma Bravo and JMI Equity.

“After tracking the workplace and asset management spaces for years, this investment comes at a unique time when modern technologies are critical for managing corporate office space and assets,” said A.J. Rohde, Senior Partner at Thoma Bravo. “These complementary franchises will accelerate innovation and we’re excited to work with the team to continue building a world-class business in a market with exceptional growth opportunities.”

Press release: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ioffice-and-spaceiq-combine-to-create-industrys-most-comprehensive-workplace-experience-and-asset-management-solutions-portfolio-301360892.html

Cairo-based CEQUENS announced the launch of Verify this week. The product consists of verification solutions such, as two-factor authentication, to protect user identities and online accounts.

“Verify offers best-in-class digital security and protects user data from constant threats,” says Hussein El-Safy, Product Manager at CEQUENS. “Two-factor authentication adds extra security layers to ensure safe and immediate access to data.”

Press release: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cequens-unveils-verify–premium-digital-security-and-two-factor-authentication-solution-301360255.html

Logical Media Group has acquired of SoMe Digital Media (SoMe). The move expands Logical’s integrated digital marketing services to include data-informed brand marketing.

“The combination of Logical and SoMe creates an incredibly strong digital first provider in the marketplace. Digital marketing continues to be challenging for large, more traditional firms to deliver, and Logical can now offer clients best in class digital marketing services that are tightly integrated with innovative and data-backed creative,” said Madhavi Rao, SoMe’s owner and founder.

Press release: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/logical-media-group-aquires-some-digital-media-301352560.html

In case the first paragraph made you were think of firing your graduates of English literature programs for being too clever, think again. You cannot put the robots in charge yet. Creativity, more research shows, is still the key to all success. In order to realize the innovations that result though, companies have to create an expressive emotional climate.

“There are a lot of organizational level consequences to bringing your emotions to work,” said the study author Myeong-Gu Seo of the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business. “In this study, we focus on team-level outcomes when emotions are displayed in the workplace. We see whether ‘affect climates’ – especially whether a team really allows for authentic expression of emotion versus not – can really predict team creativity.”

The study, The Creative and Cross-Functional Benefits of Wearing Hearts on Sleeves appears in the journal Organization Science. Seo undertook the research project after visiting a global tech company that was lagging behind its competition in terms of innovation.

“That emotional space actually opens up a lot of information elaboration and sharing in teams,” said Seo. “Particularly in the early stage of the creative process, where ideas are generally intuitive and crude in nature and lack clear logic and precise articulation, people rely more on feelings and emotions than logical explanations in generating, communicating and evaluating those ideas. Thus, by encouraging free expression and exploration of their emotional reactions, team members can generate and use more and richer information for generating, exploring, evaluating and elaborating creative ideas. But when you kill emotional expression altogether, you kill all other information processing. That’s why it suppresses the creative process and outcomes.”

Press release: https://www.newswise.com/articles/to-be-more-creative-teams-must-feel-free-to-show-emotions-study-finds

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Kate Baggott is a former Managing Editor of B2BNN. Her technology and business journalism has appeared in the Technology Review, the Globe and Mail, Canada Computes, the Vancouver Sun and the Bay Street Bull. She is the author of the short story collections Love from Planet Wine Cooler and Dry Stories. Find links to recent articles by following her on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/kate-baggott-9a0306/

• B2B News for Wednesday, August 25, 2021: iOffice and SpaceIQ Merger and SoMe Digital Media Acquisition – August 25, 2021
• B2B News for Friday, August 20: Cyber Conflict More Likely, Directions without Connection, Call Centre Jobs Safe – August 20, 2021
• B2B News for Tuesday, August 17, 2021: Not Heading Back to the Office, Seismic Acquires Lessonly, & Plannuh Marketplace Integration – August 17, 2021