InfoTrust is thrilled to announce the creation of our newest internal department: Research & Development (R&D for short). This team, led by VP of Research and Development David Elig, will focus on emerging technology research and innovation for InfoTrust’s clients and partners.
We sat down with Elig to find out more about the team and what his hopes are for its potential growth.
Q: Tell us about the launch of the R&D team. What brought this exciting change about? Why now? Why the need?
A: As a professional services-focused organization, our top priority is serving our clients—and when resources are allocated for that purpose due to ever-increasing demand, innovative releases and research projects are able to come to the forefront. The ‘now’ is here: InfoTrust is in a place where we have the ability and we are excited to invest in the resources required for these future products to succeed. We’re a more mature organization and as we continue to grow into the next phase, it is important to lay the foundation for our long-term successes. The R&D team is helping us be progressive for our clients and market, providing groundbreaking solutions that will generate new streams of revenue and make us a more valued, trusted partner. This isn’t just a “cool thing to do”—by partnering with the strategy team and other subject matter experts, we’re pursuing a greater purpose and want to ensure what we are delivering fits the industry’s needs.
Q: What will the R&D team focus on? What kinds of emerging tech research?
A: In 2022, InfoTrust refocused as a privacy-centric digital analytics solutions company that empowers marketers to make confident, data-driven decisions. With this in mind, our team will focus heavily on privacy trends and privacy use cases within the marketing industry, as well as creating new tools and solutions to make it simple for clients to address new and existing regulations (like CCPA and GDPR). Additionally, because of these regulations, clients are no longer able to gather as much data as they previously were. Therefore, another goal is to help them bridge this gap and approach marketing in newer ways, focusing on clients using a less deterministic model in a post-privacy centric world.
Q: What is your role? What does the team structure look like?
A: I am leading the team along with our Director of Technological Innovation Andy Bengel and working with the InfoTrust Strategy team to keep us grounded in reality. It’s critical to make sure that what we create comes from true customer pain points and is not just a ‘cool’ idea from the CEO or engineering.
We are focused on cloud-based solutions while partnering with resources from across the organization on data science expertise to incorporate Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) into all of our solutions for advanced analysis use cases.
We are also growing and have an open position we’re hoping to fill this month, and as we add on additional products we’re working to create a product roadmap that will plan for team growth to ensure we have the proper staffing in place necessary to get our solutions to the market in a timely manner.
Q: What does innovation mean to you and InfoTrust?
A: Innovation is not limited to any specific group—it’s across the entire organization. Everyone in every role everyday is innovative and we intentionally hire to meet this mindset. By design, innovation is a core and intentional element within roles/teams across the organization from Delivery/client-facing through to our corporate support services. A clear example is that within our Delivery team, we have people who are always looking to automate and deliver faster/more efficiently to increase our profitability. Additionally, InfoTrust has a Strategy team that is regularly evaluating the market and our clients’ needs, looking for trends to propose new solutions. That’s where the R&D team comes in: Taking long-term solutions identified as part of a corporate strategy for creating a longer innovation/solution-based trajectory.
Q: Why is innovation important in today’s ever-changing tech landscape?
A: I’ve been in software development for more than 30 years. During that time, I have seen that the only companies who survive are the ones who are actively (and intentionally) changing and evolving. We are intentionally looking for innovations through every role and now with intentional solutions to drive value for our clients and our market at InfoTrust, so that through a partnership both can benefit by being prepared for the problems that arise tomorrow. The marketing and analytics environment won’t be the same in two years (much less 10) and we need to make sure that both InfoTrust and our clients are in front of industry trends to not only stay relevant, but to take advantage of future opportunities.
Q: If someone is interested in joining the R&D team, what steps should they take? What kind of candidates are you looking for?
A: The R&D team is very nascent and our needs will dynamically change (this is by design). However, we’re currently focused on strong engineering candidates who have a solid knowledge of cloud architecture and designing optimal solutions, while leveraging ML and AI technologies because their use and adoption are critical for ensuring the successful future for our (and our clients’) marketing needs.
Q: Anything else you’d like to share?
A: It’s a really cool time for the R&D team to come into existence because this team blends so many skills and more into a purpose: R&D is a blend of being creative, artistic, and calculated while also being very intentional and methodical … it builds on the foundation of what InfoTrust currently is and continues to work towards. This team could propel us into a next-generation company providing not only needed but required solutions for the marketing industry.
