CV Technology Innovator Awards 2017

Tech Innovator Awards 2017

Technology innovator AWARDS 2017 Also in this Issue:

Best Product Development Software Provider 2017 & Most Innovative PLM Solution: Arena Quality- Page 12-15

Best Telecom Solutions Provider – USA & Award for Excellence in Mobile Financial Solutions – USA & Most Innovative IP Telephony Platform: Bridge2Call- Page 50-51

Best IT Leadership Events Provider 2017- CIOsynergy Empowering IT leadership through thought leading, informative and engaging events for the global CIO and IT leader. We find out how organising events encourage leadership - Page 26

Welcome to the Technology Innovator Awards 2017 Technology has rapidly developed over the years, it has influenced nearly every aspect of the modern business market, and it continues to grow with the advances in new technology discoveries.

Following the success of the awards from last year, the 2017 Technology Innovator Awards returns to celebrate the talented firms and individuals of this dynamic industry.

These awards aim to cast a light on the tireless efforts, innovative thinking and commitment shown by the game-changers that make the technology industry what it is.

4. Shaping Tomorrow Best AI Market Research Software Provider - UK

10. Itiviti Best Capital Markets Technology Solutions Provider 2017

4. ClearStructure Financial Technology Best Direct Lending Solution: Sentry PM™

11. Bittnet Best IT Training Company 2017- Romania

5.Goal Group Tax Reclamation Company of the Year 2017 & Best Cross-Border Withholding Tax Reclamation Software: GTRS

11. House Builder XL Limited (HBXL) Best Building Software Development Company 2017 - UK

5. Fastsms Best SMS Communications Platform Provider - UK 6. EARA Technologies

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Best Occupational H&S Software Development Company 2017 & Safety Information Management System of the Year – Xilo 7. Microtrading Best IT Support Solutions Provider 2017 – UK & IT Services Director of the Year 2017 - West Midlands 7. W2 Global Data Solutions Fastest Growing Financial Technology Company - UK 8. BELLIN Best Treasury Management Software Provider 2017 8. SIVECO Best Business Software Development Company 2017 EMEA 9. Internet Payment Exchange, Inc. (iPayX) Best ePayment Solutions Provider- Midwest USA 10. Adgistics Ltd Best Brand Management Technology Platform 2017

12. Arena Solutions Best Product Development Software Provider 2017 & Most Innovative PLM Solution: Arena Quality 16. Pickfords Most Innovative Removals Company 2017 – UK & Award for Excellence for Goods Assessment Technology 2017 16. AMI Group Best Asset Tracking & Fleet Management Solutions Provider - UK 17. SORCE Best Intranet Solutions Provider 2017- UK & Intranet Software of the Year 2017: Engage 17. Youcall-it.com Best Multi-Functional IT Platform: youcall-it.com 18. moneyinfo limited Best Account Aggregation Software Provider - UK 19. Digital Encode Best Information Security Management Consultancy - West Africa & Excellence Award for Security Assessments 2017 20. Strategic Management Partners (SMP) Most Innovative Reduced-Cost Consultancy - South England

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, K 21. Natterbox Voice & CRM Integration Specialists of the Year – UK & Best Cloud-based Voice Services Platform: Natterbox 22. The Hi-Tech Robotic Systemz Best Emerging Robotics Company - South Asia & Innovation Award for Driverless Vehicle Development 2017 23. Anabasis Best Biopharmaceutical Company – Italy & Excellence Award for Industrial Research 2017 23. InPhase Best for Intelligent Software Solutions 2017 - UK 24. University of Navarra (UNAV) Best Pharmaceutical Technology Academic 2017 - Spain 24. TechnologyOne Best Enterprise SaaS Provider 2017 25. Halcyon Financial Technology Best Specialist Outsourced IT Services Provider - USA 26. CIOsynergy Best IT Leadership Events Provider 2017 30. London Security Solutions, LLC Best Cyber Security Solutions Firm – California & Excellence Award for Security Endpoint Protection Training - West USA 31. ChannelAdvisor Best for Cloud-Based eCommerce Solutions 2017 32. CardioComm Solutions (CardioComm) Best Medical Device & Software Development Company – Canada & Excellence Award for Quality Assurance 2017 33. Thintech Best Desktop Virtualisation Consultancy 2017 - UK 34. Black Box Corporation Communications & Infrastructure Solutions Company 2017 & Award for Excellence in Virtualisation & Remote Management Services 36. OnShore Technology Group Best IV&V Automation Solutions Provider 2017 & Software Validation Testing Experts of the Year 2017

42. Meritec Best Business Solutions IT Company - UK 44. Care2 Best Online Non-Profit Network 2017 46. Lionbridge Winner of Best Global Translation Solutions and Technology Provider: Software Localization 2017 48. Biogas Technology Ltd Energy Infrastructure Support Company - Europe 50. Panamax Inc Best Telecom Solutions Provider – USA & Award for Excellence in Mobile Financial Solutions – USA & Most Innovative IP Telephony Platform: Bridge2Call 52. Cadeon Best Data Delivery Platform - Canada 53. Qcom Most Innovative Technical Support Company - Europe 54. Acronym Most Innovative Search Agency of the Year 2017 - North East USA 56. Function1 Best Operational Intelligence Technology Provider - North America 58. KPMG LLP Most Innovative Finance Technology Solutions Firm - UK 60. Spun out of the Department of Biological & Biomedical Sciences Best for Cell & Tissue Biology Research - UK 64. Innovative Routines International Most Price-Performant Big Data [Management] Platform: IRI Voracity & Most Versatile GDPR Security Stack: IRI Data Protector Suite 64. ITsavvy Best for Technology Solutions Integration Services - USA & Best IT Infrastructure Management Solution: savvyGuard® 66. GoToPills Best Off-Label Medication Information Resource 2017

38. DataGenic Ltd Best Commodity Data Management Solutions Provider 2017

68. Najmtek Company Best Online Touchscreen App Store: NAJMSTORE & Most Versatile Hardware to Software Solution: Ubook

39. Bluecoat Software Best Mortgage Software Provider 2017 - UK

70. Exterity Ltd Best Digital Signage Technology Company 2017 - UK

40. Benefex Best Employee Experience Software OneHub

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Best AI Market Research Software Provider - UK

Best Direct Lending Solution: Sentry PM™

Shaping Tomorrow offer pioneering AI software solutions to clients across the corporate landscape. We invited Mike Jackson to provide us with a fascinating glimpse into this futuristic technology and how it is changing the business world for the better.

ClearStructure Financial Technology delivers state-of-the-art technology solutions capable of meeting the diverse needs of the investment industry. We profiled the firm to find out more.

Since 2002 Shaping Tomorrow have been on a mission to help its members and clients to ‘anticipate and prepare for tomorrow by making better decisions today’. Mike outlines what this entails and how the firm strives to create solutions which are both innovative and functional.

Founded in 2004, ClearStructure draws on the vast market experience of its team to deliver cutting edge solutions that meet the needs of its clients in this ever-evolving space.

“Here at Shaping Tomorrow, our 12,000 members and 40+ international clients come from diverse backgrounds in sectors including strategy; planning; R&D; product management; S&T; community development; foresight; change management; consulting; IT; education; risk management; design; policy-making; and intelligence.

“We provide these clients with extraordinary breadth and depth of global insights into the future, fresh forecasts and ideas covering all aspects of economics, the environment, healthcare, industries, lifestyles, organization, politics, society and technology. We illuminate the potential implications for organizations through combining the increasing use of visualization, heuristics, and algorithms to spot significant emerging signals of change early and to respond at the right time.”

There are lots of organizations offering semantic analysis, taxonomies, natural language processing, and equal numbers of people creating futures-oriented, horizon scanning content and strategic foresight platforms but only Shaping Tomorrow does both

in real-time, setting it apart from competitors and highlighting its focus on excellence, as Mike explains.

“As a global horizon scanning company we use what we learn to improve our service as well as to help our members and clients. Our firm is focused on acting as a ‘constant start-up’: always looking for ways to improve our offering by reading, learning and listening to clients in order to be able to provide them with the service they need.”

Going forward, Mike believes that the increased focus on AI technology will help his firm to build upon its current success and continue to grow in the coming months and years.

“Increasing use of AI, machine/ human-learning and designing for emotion are three of the key challenges and opportunities we see for ourselves right now as well as spreading our influence to reach our overall aim: to engrain and enhance the use of collaborative, holistic strategic foresight worldwide.’”

Company name: Shaping Tomorrow Limited Web Address: www.shapingtomorrow.com Address: The Red Barn, Hurstpierpoint, BN6 9UZ

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As a result of the recent increase in regulation within the financial markets and subsequent decrease in traditional institutional lending, the number of investment firms filling the lending void has risen dramatically.

Along with this rise in direct lenders comes a demand for better technology. The large and outdated loan platforms common among institutional lenders do not meet the needs of this industry that is quickly gaining so much traction.

ClearStructure recognized an opportunity to further enhance Sentry PM, to meet the challenges facing the lenders. Direct lenders need a system that boasts a deep breadth of functionality while maintaining ease of use. With an established history of supporting various loan markets, ClearStructure understands the complexities that direct lenders face and extended the core portfolio management solution in Sentry PM to meet the industry’s needs.

The firm’s flagship Sentry PM™ solution offers managers full front-toback-office functionality on a single platform across all asset types.

Sentry PM allows direct lenders to utilize a single system for all of their research and operational needs, from due diligence to origination to

the daily administration of each loan.

Sentry PM’s flexibility allows direct lenders to customize loan structures to meet the unique needs of their borrowers. In addition, lenders can leverage collateral tracking, covenant monitoring, and borrower reporting requirements with automatic alert generation to proactively manage their borrower relationships. For those lenders that also manage the agent role inhouse, Sentry PM has the ability to automatically generate, track and send notices to the borrower which eases the burden on the administration team.

Looking ahead, the future of ClearStructure looks bright. With a continued push towards everything “mobile”, the ClearStructure team is already enhancing the Sentry platform to allow users system access on their mobile devices. Whether lenders choose to monitor their dashboards or run a series of reports, they will soon have the ability to manage funds on-the-go. The ClearStructure team looks forward to continuing to deliver cutting-edge solutions to the growing direct lending industry.

Address: 83 Wooster Heights Danbury, Connecticut, 06810, USA Phone: 001 203 205 2700 Website: clearstructure.com

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Tax Reclamation Company of the Year 2017 & Best Cross-Border Withholding Tax Reclamation Software: GTRS Vicky Dean, Director of Sales & Relationship Management EMEA & Global Director of Withholding Tax Sales at Goal Group.

Established in 1989, Goal Group help the world’s largest financial institutions and the global investment community meet their fiduciary duty to maximise fund returns, including five of the top ten global custodians and six of the top ten global fund managers. Vicky discusses how her firm drive innovation for these clients and how its flagship offering ensures their ongoing success.

“Here at Goal Group, we are dedicated to helping the world’s largest financial institutions maximise investor returns. Our market-leading proprietary software and systems provide the highest levels of data security and process automation, offering investors an efficient and cost-effective way to reclaim tax on cross-border dividend income.

“Starting with the launch of our flagship software, Global Tax Reclamation Solution (GTRS), we have continually strived to enhance our existing products and services in line with client feedback and based on our own experience and knowledge. At the same time, we have developed and launched complementary products to serve our existing client base as well as prospects around the globe. This has enabled us to firmly establish our niche market position. Against the backdrop of an increasingly globalised and interconnected financial economy driven by rapid advancements in processing and analysing huge amounts of data, we see ourselves at the forefront of technological

progress. This is a position we aim to hold and expand. We will continue to provide highly integrated, powerful solutions to our clients.”

Looking ahead, staying at the forefront of emerging market developments is Goal Group’s ongoing focus, as Vicky concludes.

“Working within the fast-paced technology industry means it is crucial for us to stay ahead of emerging developments. Each of our offices in London, San Francisco, Philadelphia and Melbourne is staffed by highly skilled legal, tax and investment experts who closely monitor market, legislative and tax treaty changes.

Their knowledge is backed by our world-class global research team and watertight systems to process the reclaims. As a global leader in withholding tax reclamation with a worldwide client base, we pride ourselves in staying ahead of the curve and offering the best possible to support to our clients, and this will be our ongoing focus moving forward.”

Contact: Vicky Dean Contact Email: marketing@goalgroup.com Address: Ground Floor, 69 Park Lane, Croydon, Surrey, CR9 1BG, UK Phone: 0208 760 7130 Website: goalgroup.com/

Best SMS Communications Platform Provider UK Fastsms has been providing professional text messaging services to businesses and individuals for over 10 years. We invited Oliver Burt to tell us more.

Since 2002 organisations of all shapes and sizes from local schools to marketing agencies, global corporations and emergency services all rely on fastsms for instant, reliable SMS communication. The firm enable clients to send and receive time-critical SMS messages via its popular cloud-based platform which includes integration options via HTTP, XML and SMTP. Oliver discusses the firm’s client focused mission and how it works to achieve this.

“Overall, our mission at fastsms is to deliver a great customer experience to our users where support is freely given regardless of how much they spend. We achieve this by assigning each of our customers a dedicated expert in their sector as a single point of contact who can be reached during extended office hours by utilising live chat applications. We regularly act on customer feedback and are committed to developing a service that puts their experience before our convenience.”

Staff are vital to the firm’s success, and as such Oliver is eager to emphasise the dedicated team he works with to ensure clients receive the very highest standards of service and support.

“At fastsms we have put together a team that strives for continuous improvement, for both our business and that of our customers; we are experienced in spotting and then acting on new opportunities. We

have strategies and processes in place to ensure we gather feedback and suggestions from our users on a regular basis and use this information to drive our products forward.”

Looking to the future, remaining at the forefront of emerging developments remains the firm’s core focus as it seeks to meet its clients ever evolving needs, as Oliver concludes.

“Our future is completely dependent on our users and their needs. As such, we will continue to do what we have always done; remaining open and honest about pricing, genuinely caring about the level of service we offer, ensuring every development we make is in the interest of our loyal customers.”

Company: Fastsms Ltd Contact: Oliver Burt Contact Email: oliver@fastsms.co.uk Address: Orchard House, Victoria Square, Droitwich, Worcestershire, WR9 8QT, UK Phone: 01905 672 592 Website: www.fastsms.co.uk

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Best Occupational H&S Software Development Company 2017 & Safety Information Management System of the Year – Xilo EARA Technologies was founded in 2002 as a software development company specializing in health and safety supporting effective return to work programmes. We caught up with Grenville Lock to learn more about this creative firm and the solutions it offers.

EARA Technologies, specializes in health and safety software that help companies with safety excellence. In 2004, the firm released our revolutionary software, Xilo, and quickly transformed the health and safety market. Grenville provides us with an overview of this innovative product and how it is revolutionising the health and safety market.

“Xilo is a SaaS Health Safety Information Management solution picture a Health and Safety ERP System, that allows organizations to achieve excellence in a wide range of areas including building a health and safety culture within the organization; document and content management; return to work and incident investigation.

“Our mission is to spread the word and have Xilo make a difference in as many ways, places and organizations around the globe.”

This innovative solution, as Grenville is eager to highlight, is what sets the firm apart from its competitors.

“It is not our vast expertise in software development (platforms, frameworks, languages, etc.) that differentiates EARA Technologies and our flagship Xilo. It is how we seek to understand the challenges of people, business and industry and how we then

apply our expertise to help solve or minimize issues holistically.

It is our understanding of the value of information within an organization, its value across organizational silos and how ensuring it is simple and easy to create, input or upload information; delegate management (maintenance thereof) of information both within and across organizational siloes; reference and or relate this information both within and across organizational silos and conveniently provide appropriate access to stakeholders (both internal and external).

“We believe that you enable better decisions and outcomes with timely and appropriate access to pertinent information.

Decision makers can only

6 Corporate Vision / Technology Innovator Awards 2017

make decisions based on the information they have available (Business Operations, Production, Human Resources, Executives, Team Leads / Supervisors, Workers Compensation Adjudicators / Case Managers, Non-Occ Insurers, etc.) and having the right information available not only reduces the human and financial costs of injury and illness but enhances overall productivity (and thus the bottom line).

“Fundamentally, technology can be a very powerful enabler.

Xilo makes it simple and easy to create, maintain, and share information from any device anywhere you are connected and the sky is the limit on enablement.”

Looking to the future, Grenville emphasises that the company’s focus is firmly set on continuing to offer the very highest quality services through a collaborative approach.

“Moving forward, we are keen to undertake more collaborations and work closely with our clients and industry peers to ensure that we continue to offer the highest possible quality service and solutions. Listening is the key to adapting to the ever changing marketplace and we will continue with this approach in the future.”

Contact Email: contact@earatech.com Phone: 1.866.YES.XILO (937.9456) Website: earatech.com/why-xilo/ extended-erp/

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Best IT Support Solutions Provider 2017 – UK & IT Services Director of the Year 2017 - West Midlands

Fastest Growing Financial Technology Company - UK

Microtrading is a Managed IT Services Provider based in Birmingham, and one of the UK’s leading Microsoft Gold partners. We invited Andrew Penlington to tell us more.

W2 Global Data Solutions provides a wide range of web-based, online screening tools and services to help organisations make quick, informed decisions about the people and organisations they are interacting with. We profile the firm to learn more about the range of unique solutions it offers.

We are delighted to receive this award for the second year running. The team here at Microtrading put in a lot of hard work and effort to deliver an outstanding customer experience and provide the best IT support possible.

This award lets everybody know that they are doing a great job.

As one of the UK’s leading Microsoft Gold partners working with businesses who have between 10 and 250 employees, Microtrading’s focus is mainly on designing, implementing and supporting Microsoft based IT environments, as Andrew explains.

“Today, much of the work we are doing is migrating businesses to cloud services such as Office 365 and Azure, as well as helping them to better protect their sensitive information using Microsoft’s Enterprise Mobility and Security solution. Our bread and butter though is in providing daily IT support to these businesses through our highly proactive range of Managed IT Services. We monitor a client’s system 24/7 and alerts are automatically sent to our support team when action is required to head off a potential business disrupting event.

Most of the time our client isn’t even aware there was a problem. It’s only when they receive a service ticket and hear from our support team that the issue is now resolved that they realise how we have just helped them.”

This client focus is what sets the firm apart and marks it out as the best option for clients, as Andrew explains.

“Our overall objective is to help our customers fully utilise technology within their business to reduce costs and increase revenues. We take responsibility for the management and support of their IT system, acting as their virtual IT department and allowing them to focus on running their business.

“To ensure we provide the very highest standards of support to our clients, we encourage customer feedback all the time and are most valued for our trust, expertise and proactivity. By spending the time to really understand their business and its requirements, we’re able to talk to them about specific solutions that are relevant to their individual needs and long term objectives.”

Overall the future looks bright and exciting for Microtrading, as Andrew is proud to conclude.

“Moving forward, Microtrading continues to go from strength to strength, with our customers at the very heart of our success.”

Name: Andrew Penlington Email: ap@microtrading.co.uk Web Address: microtrading.co.uk Address: System House, 158 Church Road, Birmingham, B25 8UT Telephone: 0121 784 0077

Founded in 2011, W2 has become a trusted provider of SaaS, B2B software solutions and data services, enabling organisations to achieve regulatory compliance in relation to KYC (Know Your Customer), combatting fraud, AML (Anti-Money Laundering) protection and frictionless customer on-boarding. To ensure that their solutions meet the clients’ exact needs the firm does not sell off-the-shelf packages and offers a consultative sales approach to meet each client’s unique requirement and risk appetite. As such, over 100 organisations around the world rely on W2 to meet their regulatory or risk management requirements.

In order to set itself apart from its competitors, W2 offers each client, from a start-up to an established large organisation, the ability to have a cost-effective easy access to data from a variety of sources globally, to meet their individual requirements.

Overall, W2 aims to simplify how organisations conduct regulatory customer due diligence on individuals, organisations, suppliers, staff, tenants and employees on an international scale and offers solutions that require minimal implementation.

Within the wider financial technology market, the changing landscape of regulation post financial crisis and increased focus on compliance means clients are increasingly challenged to meet their regulatory

obligations. W2, by its consultative sales approach, aims to take this headache away as much as possible by continually improving and adapting its products and services to client needs and regulatory changes.

As such, the firm is keen to grow over the coming months and years in order to support its clients through these industry developments and has secured a series A investment in growth capital to fund the expansion of its sales, marketing and technical capability in the UK and worldwide.

This is being used to invest in industry experts to bolster the existing team as well as improving products and services to stay one step ahead of the competitors and to service client needs. In terms of company culture, W2 has a flat structure and open, relaxed working atmosphere allowing its people to work in the way they feel is most productive to meet client needs.

Company: W2 Global Data Name: Sara West Email: enquiries@w2globaldata.com Address: 24 CBTC2, Capital Business Park, Cardiff, CF3 2PX, UK Phone: 0330 088 9542 Website: w2globaldata.com

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Best Treasury Management Software Provider 2017 BELLIN is a global leader in providing innovative treasury solutions for multinational corporations. We caught up with Martin Bellin, founder and CEO of BELLIN,to find out more about the firm and its creative offering.

Founded by a treasurer, BELLIN has been exceeding expectations since 1998. With the fully integrated, web-based software tm5 as the centerpiece, BELLIN offers solutions for all corporate treasury requirements: be it in-house banking, global payments, cash management; netting, risk and receivables management or trade finance, topped off by services such as Treasury as a Service (TaaS), BELLIN SWIFT Service or BELLIN Matching Service. tm5 meets all compliance and reporting requirements at the touch of a button, mobile and in real time – for more than 22,000 companies with over 50,000 users in 150+ countries and counting. Martin outlines the firm’s mission and the steps it takes to achieve this.

“BELLIN’s mission is to delight multinational organizations with the most innovative treasury solutions.

We aim to make a fundamental difference in the world of corporate finance. We search for the next great idea and the next great technology to lead treasuries forward. We conceive, design, build and execute solutions that become an integral part of strategic management. We achieve this by thinking ahead, by listening to our clients and by listening to industry trends. We always keep pace with the latest developments and trends so we can anticipate what customers need even before they are aware of it. Market conditions can change so quickly, so we champion a responsive

culture; we stay open-minded and flexible and therefore always ahead of the curve.”

As he looks towards the future, Martin is excited about the developments in the technology space and how these will affect his firm.

“Moving forward, we predict that treasury departments as we know them today will be a thing of the past in a few years’ time. The trend clearly goes from departments towards networks. Sharing and pooling know-how are key! The business world is changing rapidly, and there’s a general trend towards distributing work and data. You can tap so much potential by combining everyone’s knowledge and skills.

Our technology is built to reflect this network approach, and we anticipate and respond to these trends. We like to call this “social treasury:” treasury based on networks and modern communication channels. BELLIN is pioneering this approach.”

Best Business Software Development Company 2017 - EMEA For over 25 years, SIVECO Romania has been designing software that matters for millions of people from countries within the European Community, Middle East, North Africa and the CIS area. We profile the firm to find out more about its dedication to excellence and how this has led it to the success it enjoys today.

A European company, with unique skills and best-in-class experts, SIVECO Romania is the only Romanian software company that currently provides IT services as a prime contractor to the European Commission organizations.

There are over 20 projects successfully deployed for EU institutions, in consortium with some of the most important international IT providers. In some cases, SIVECO leads consortia that are implementing strategic projects for European Commission. Such a project is the one signed in 2016, that will ensure the European Commission’s Taxation and Customs Union DirectorateGeneral, DG TAXUD the provision of services to be used by all EU countries.

Its strong expertise in large, groundbreaking public sector projects has enabled SIVECO to successfully manage contracts with EU authorities and governments throughout Europe, Middle East, Africa, and Asia.

One of the most successful SIVECO’s new products is Wand.education, a web based content creation platform that enables teachers to develop interactive lessons in only a few minutes. Wand.education was launched in Europe (London) and Asia (Dubai) almost simultaneously.

Contact Email: kelly.luebbers@bellin.com Address: Tullastr. 19, 77955 Ettenheim, Germany Phone: 0049 7822 4460-0 Website: bellin.com

8 Corporate Vision / Technology Innovator Awards 2017

This innovative product enables any teacher to quickly create engaging learning activities, interesting assessments, or learning games to answer today’s students’ needs. It

incorporates SIVECO’s expertise in developing eLearning tools as well as the feedback received from successful teachers, administrators, education trainers, and technology officers all over the world.

Fundamentally, Wand.education proves SIVECO’s proactive approach, based on understanding the future needs of our potential users respectively simplifying the delivery of educational content.

SIVECO’s team includes the best IT specialists, trained in large scale projects of introducing IT to over 1,700 customers on 4 continents, eager to confirm the company’s position of regional leader in software integration and aiming to reach the status of European leader.

Currently, SIVECO’s business on 27 national markets is managed from Bucharest HQ and 4 regional offices in Belgium, UAE, Turkey and Kazakhstan. The local teams are operationally and commercially acting and their contributions will grow more and more in the future.

Contact email: marketing@siveco.ro Address: Victoria Park, 73-81 Bucuresti-Ploiesti Drive, C4 Building, District 1, 013685 Bucharest, Romania Phone: + 40 (21) 302 33 00 Fax: + 40 (21) 302 33 91 Web Address: www.siveco.ro

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Best ePayment Solutions Provider Midwest USA Internet Payment Exchange, Inc. (iPayX) offers robust payment services through a platform that delivers critical components to efficiently collect patient receivables, faster. We spoke to Douglas Braun to find out more and explore the secrets behind the firm’s success.

Since its inception in 1999, iPayX has been committed to continuing in its mission to increase velocity of revenue collections.

Douglas outlines how the firm works to achieve this through its focus on creating innovative solutions that meet its clients’ needs.

“Here at iPayX, we are focused on building innovative virtual payment systems that meet the growing demands of a modern business-to-business environment, as well as, the consumer landscape.

Our robust, omni-channel Payment Hub helps manage the complexities of billing and payment collection, leveraging one comprehensive, completely secure payment platform. Our solutions are built to integrate with other software systems and interfaces in both real-time and batch configurations. Using built-in modularly, clients may pick and choose features to meet their demands. You may pick from a bundled solution or go a la cart to maximize utilization while minimizing your expenses.”

As a merchant bank, iPayX serves as a Visa/MasterCard authorized Independent Sales Organization (ISO) and a Payment Facilitator. Customer benefits are achieved because iPayX has the systems to qualify card approvals, including Address Verification (AVS) for card not present and POS/ EMV for card present, at the best rates. iPayX also offers as Level 2 and Level 3 credit

card authorization services that minimize processing expenses and reduce risk. Douglas also outlines additional services the firm provides to ensure that clients always receive the solutions they need.

“Alongside our merchant banking solutions, iPayX has another offering called Check Intercept which allows us to turn a lockbox payment that has come in without a coupon into an electronic payment. Although these types of payments cannot be covered by convenience fees, the transaction charges for these are less than you would pay in lockbox exception fees. The firm can implement features as your needs dictate. You do not need to offer electronic statement delivery in order to have the electronic payment capability and vice versa.

“All payments received via any of the available input methods

are collected and processed real-time and compiled into a daily Electronic Remittance File that we send you for automatic posting to your accounting system. This file format can be customized to suit your needs.

These files also include void and refunds. We believe that iPayX is the only e-billing provider which can offer both web view and email delivery with the bill as an attachment.”

Security is another key area which the firm focuses on in order to offer clients the very best solutions on the market, as Douglas is keen to highlight.

“At the foundation of everything that iPayX achieves is a commitment to making highly secure solutions. Our experience and credentials reflect our ability to provide a safe, secure payment service. iPayX is PCI DSS Level 1 certified which is the highest rating given. You can

find us on VISA’s list of certified providers. We also annually conduct a SSAE16 audit.”

As mobile technology becomes increasingly vital, Douglas anticipates an increased focus on mobile payments as he examines the future of iPayX in his concluding comments.

“Looking ahead, we anticipate further use of consumers Smart Phones to make payments.

Mobile payment adoption is still very low. We are preparing for an increase in mobile payments and we are modifying our solutions to accept these consumer payments.”

Company: Internet Payment Exchange Inc Contact: Douglas Braun Contact Email: douglas.braun@ipayx.com Address: 1946 N. 13th St. Suite 348, Toledo, Ohio, 43604, USA Phone: 001419 255 4506

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Best Brand Best Capital Markets Technology Solutions Management Technology Platform Provider 2017 2017 Itiviti is a company with vast experience, Adgistics Ltd empowers brands to grow value through its unique platform, the Brand Centre. We invited CEO Joe Jarrett to tell us more about the firm and this innovative technology.

Founded in 1999, Adgistics is a marketing technology solution provider that offers cloud-based capabilities for the marketing and communications supply chain via its technology platform – the Brand Centre. The platform has evolved over the last 18 years in line with the changing demands of brand management and the challenges marketers face.

Today, the Brand Centre is a suite of networked technologies that enable companies to optimise and support some or all of their major brand and marketing operations activities and processes. Joe discusses how the firm has developed over the years to meet the ever changing needs of its clients.

“As a growing business in a rapidly evolving market place, the balance between innovation and our focus on customer service is key to our success. We believe that our working, dynamic model of the brand and the ways in which people interact with it – inside and outside the organization – will drive our technological development in a way that remains commercially relevant. We seek to continue to embed our systems as a measureable contributor to the balance sheet value, developing solutions that identify brand value, facilitate brand processes and measure improvements in the effectiveness and efficiency of delivery”.

“The Brand Centre was developed on solid, proven marketing asset management and business process

management technologies; however, we also match specific functionality to individual enterprise needs, and recognise that these needs evolve.

Its primary users are brand marketing operational, and depending on the chosen areas of emphasis, drawn from people that plan, create, execute and measure how customers and prospects engage with their brand.

By doing this, we ensure optimum uptake, operational efficiency, improved productivity, organisationwide transparency and contribution to building brand advocacy.”

Moving forward, continuing to innovate and adapt remains the firm’s core focus, as Joe is proud to conclude.

“Looking towards the future, I am very confident that Adgistics will continue to grow in 2017 and beyond. It would be too easy to focus on ‘delivery and results’ and lose sight of what is more important. To ensure success we need to ensure we have clarity on what we stand for, where, why and how we’ll get there. We operate in the ‘world of Branding’ and the world has become and is continuing to become more ‘social media friendly’ through the development of new and exciting ground-breaking technologies. At Adgistics, we want to stay on this ‘wave of change’ and be the company our clients look to for inspiration.”

Contact Email: joe.jarrett@adgistics.com Address: 2nd Floor Deben House, 1 Selsdon Way, London, E14 9GL, UK Phone: 020 7378 6777

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which capitalized on the early days of trading technology. Jonas Hansbo, EVP Strategic Research and CSO

Established in 1987, Itiviti began as a market maker on the Stockholm Stock Exchange, creating pioneering software to support the company’s own trading. As the founders realized that their real forte was software development, the firm let go of the trading and devoted itself to providing other traders with the tools they needed.

As such, Itiviti was formed from by the unification of 3 best of breed technology companies within the Capital Markets industry; Orc Group, a global market leader in electronic trading technology for listed derivatives, Tbricks with its cuttingedge app-based trading platform for market makers and CameronTec Group, the global standard in financial messaging infrastructure and connectivity with the largest global install- base. Itiviti held market leading positions in several areas from the outset, and the combination significantly expands the customer proposition for banks, brokers and trading firms. Jonas outlines the firm’s current mission and how it works to achieve this.

“Here at Itiviti, our mission is simple, to deliver a comprehensive sell-side offering that provides our clients with the opportunity to consolidate trading systems across multiple asset classes. Innovation and being ‘client centric’ are what drives us. For us, the client is always at the heart of what we do whether it be updating software features to ease a particular challenge experienced, or addressing a market wide regulation such as MiFID II.”

Moving forward, Jonas foresees many exciting developments in the industry which his firm will continue to adapt around in order to support its clients.

“Within the financial services industry we continue to see regulation and the constant demand to find technology solutions that evolve with the fast paced markets as constant areas for development. As budgets get squeezed more and more, firms and banks are pressurized to do the same or sometimes more with less and less. In terms of how we as Itiviti will adapt around these areas, we believe by working closely with our client base we will continue to provide solutions that address both of these challenges, we see ourselves as a partner and extension of our client’s day-to-day business operations and because of this, we believe we will be able to continue adding value.

“Therefore, we will continue to develop leading, cutting edge technology for the sell-side capital markets industry. Developing software solutions that not only assist with the day-to-day business of our clients but technology that continues to meet the evolving landscape of financial services.”

Company: Itiviti Group AB Contact: Christine Blinke Contact Email: Christine.blinke@itiviti.com Address: Kungsgatan 36 , P.O. Box 7742 10395 Stockholm , Sweden Phone: +46 8 506 477 21

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Best IT Training Company 2017 Romania

Best Building Software Development Company 2017 - UK

Bittnet focuses on IT trainings and delivering of end-to-end IT infrastructure services and solutions from market leaders such as Cisco, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services and Oracle. We spoke to Mihai Logofătu to gain a fascinating insight into the firm and the services it offers.

House Builder XL Limited (HBXL) develops market leading building software for the construction industry. Joanna Mulgrew talks us through these innovative solutions and how they have led the firm to the success it enjoys today.

With more than 15 years of experience in IT training and more than 19.000 trained students, a portfolio of more than 1500 courses, Bittnet is the IT training market leader in Romania. Mihai outlines how the firm has achieved and maintained this position through its dedication to excellence and client focused approach.

“Relying on our technical experience as well as our business values (transparency, flexibility, customeroriented) at Bittnet we strive to bring our clients the best possible outcome for their needs without overcommitting. We work in a knowledgebased business where trust is key and for us gaining their trust is only second to maintaining it.”

“As such, driven by our customeroriented attitude we offer our clients a large variety of services dedicated towards achieving their goals. In our efforts to offer the optimal solution and the best learning experience to our customers, we decided to partner up with some of the most important IT companies on the market: Global Knowledge and the LLPA (Leading Learning Partner Association).”

Discussing the future, Mihai believes that Bittnet will continue to grow and succeed as it seeks to adapt to the ever evolving needs of its clients in order to maintain its market leading position.

“Looking to the future, we intend to continue our organizational development strategy in the perspective of 2017-2018, given that

the identified growth factors have confirmed it in 2016. We will continue to focus on important projects, paying close attention to delivering gross profitability of each project.

The trends that were identified in the past two years - cloud, cybersecurity, virtualization and datacenter will continue to be the source of business growth. We also target the opening of more offices in one or two areas, such as Iasi and Timisoara.”

“Additionally, to grow Bittnet even further we are keen to focus our efforts and resources on achieving the position of the most relevant IT partner in these areas. We commit to do so through consolidating our onestop-shop position, which guarantees our IT training market leader position as well as in the integration services business where we will focus on services with high added value consultancy and cloud migration, information security solutions and offering IT services through a ‘managed services’ approach.”

Company: Bittnet Contact: Denissa Iancu Contact Email: denissa.iancu@bittnet.ro Address: Timisoara Bd., no.

26, building Plaza Romania Offices, 1st floor, district 6, Bucharest, Romania Phone: 0040 731 700 226 Web: www.bittnet.ro

HBXL offers a range of products, including ProjectXpert, EstimatorXpress, PlansXpress, Health & Safety Xpert and ContractsXpert which enable small to medium sized building firms to embrace time and cost saving benefits of IT to win more work and increase profitability through accurate and professional build programs, plans, estimates, quotes, method statements, risk assessments and building contracts. Joanna outlines how the firm sets itself apart from its competitors and marks itself out as the best possible option for its clients.

“Here at HBXL, our customers tell us that we stand out from the competition because we know our customers well and understand the challenges that they face. We specialize in small to medium building firms and we know that not all our customers are IT savvy and encourage them to take advantage of our friendly and knowledgeable Technical Support team and to enrol on our free software skills course so that that they get up and running as soon as possible.

Recent surveys indicate that 95% of our customers are extremely happy with the technical support they receive from HBXL. “Fundamentally, I believe that our success stems from our focus on our customers – our goal is for them to succeed in seeing our software transform the way they work. We endeavour to develop software that is as user-friendly as possible so

that the builders who purchase our products can quickly see a return on their investment and reap the rewards of using technology in their own businesses.”

As she looks to the future Joanna is excited for the firm’s upcoming developments which she outlines in her concluding comments.

“Moving forward, HBXL’s newest innovation is due for launch summer 2017 and is the culmination of seven years of R&D in conjunction with the Technology Strategy Board, University of West of England and Innovate UK. “This new solution is a low-cost multi-disciplinary toolset for SME builders to use for Building Information Modelling (BIM) covering the life-cycle of construction projects helping builders engage with the Government’s Soft Landings target.

The prototype integrates HBXL’s BuildingWorks™ linking CAD, new-build and retrofit estimating, SAP calculating, Advanced Project Management, Health and Safety Design and Construction Phase and Contract Management.

BuildingWorksTM is currently being beta tested by a panel of builders and has already received fantastic feedback.”

Contact Email: joanna.mulgrew@hbxl.co.uk Address: Future Space, North Gate (UWE), Filton Road, Stoke Gifford, Bristol, BS34 8RB, UK Phone: 0117 9167871 Web Address: www.hbxl.co.uk

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Best Product Development Software Provider 2017 & Most Innovative PLM Solution: Arena Quality Arena Solutions helps companies in a wide array of markets to deliver higher quality products to market faster at a lower cost. We caught up with Senior Director Demand Generation Umesh Malhotra to learn more about the innovative solutions this dynamic firm offers.

From high technology, medical devices to consumer technology and cutting-edge Internet of things (IoT) devices, more than 80,000 users in more than 125 countries depend on Arena to ensure that all aspects of their supply chain work in sync from a single version of the truth to ensure product success. They are particularly important to those who embed complex electronics into a key part of their offering in a high mix high rate of change environment.

This is achieved through relentless innovation and an obsessive focus on customer needs. Arena pioneered cloudbased PLM (product lifecycle management), many years before legacy on-premises PLM vendors began moving from isolated silos toward Arena’s nimbler multi-tenant true SaaS model. With Arena, organizations can scale up or down easily, and deployment can be accomplished in days or weeks, not months or years. Plus, it is easy and affordable to connect suppliers to Arena, which ensures everyone is working off a single version of the truth. Umesh discusses how the company came into being and how far it has come since establishment.

“Arena began as bom.com with BOMControl, a cloudbased solution that managed an OEM’s bill of materials (BOM). The BOM is still the core of Arena’s solution, but since then, the company has continued to innovate by

adding additional modules and functionality: application lifecycle management, quality management, training management, project management, demand analysis and much more.

“Today, Arena has more than 1,000 customers and 80,000 users in more than 125 countries, with some of the world’s most innovative companies as customers, including GoPro, Nutanix and Sonos. Its enterprise business is its fastest growing segment. We now provide a 100% multi-tenant SaaS unified product development platform that encompasses PLM, supply chain, ALM and QMS. This cloud-based delivery provides customers with unparalleled scalability and flexibility. It is a platform that can grow with the company, up or down. In addition, easy and affordable to connect suppliers to the solution. Legacy PLM vendors charge exorbitant fees to connect suppliers, and deployment can take a great deal of time. With Arena, the process is simple, inexpensive and swift.”

Since inception, Arena has continued to outpace the market with new functionality beyond traditional PLM. Today, Arena provides an all-in-one product development platform that unites PLM, supply chain collaboration, application lifecycle management (ALM) and quality management systems (QMS) to drive ideation, innovation, new

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product introduction, launch and manufacturing in record time. Importantly, this provides unparalleled visibility to the product record, both upstream and downstream, to all pertinent cross-functional stakeholders with a consistent, real time, single version of the truth.

As a result of Arena’s constant innovation and the value that it delivers, the company is experiencing very rapid growth.

In the first quarter of 2017, for instance, new customer subscription value grew by 86 percent in Q1 2017 over the same period in 2016, while also besting the prior Q4 2016 record. The company also gained a record number of new customers — 59 percent more than it gained a year ago, with particular strength in winning larger enterprise customers. Total bookings grew 30 percent year over year, and the company’s net new annuity for the quarter grew by 134%, an enormous testament to the rapid adoption Arena is experiencing in the marketplace. Umesh discusses the firm’s product offerings in more detail and how they ensure that the company achieves its client focused mission.

“Here at Arena, our mission is to help companies develop, manufacture and deliver higher quality products faster and at a lower cost than they have previously been able to do. We accomplish this by providing a unified all-in-one platform that encompasses PLM, supply chain, ALM and QMS.

“PLM and Supply Chain provides a single version of the truth for all engineering disciplines, manufacturers, suppliers and even suppliers’ suppliers. It is easy to track engineering change orders, source parts and communicate about issues with all stakeholders, and it’s easy and cost effective to connect suppliers to Arena. Thus, products are completed more quickly at a lower cost with far less scrap and rework than other alternatives.

“Additionally, our ALM module is called Arena Verify, and it’s an all-in-one requirements, hardware defects, software bugs and any/all issues management solution. With it, customers gain unparalleled visibility across the entire product development cycle. Verify connects the PLM and QMS product record real time to all development issues, hardware defects and software bugs while tying back to the product requirements so all cross-functional teams know what is occurring all the time.

“Finally, QMS is Arena’s allin-one solution is designed to define, support and maintain quality management processes and regulatory requirements.

This gives our customers more time to focus on delivering products and services to change the world. Most importantly, all of these functions work together to form a unified solution that addresses the complete product development process.”

Central to the firm’s success is its strong leadership team,

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including CEO Craig Livingston, who sets the company’s strategic direction and oversees all operations. Before joining Arena, Craig served as vice president and general manager of the SME Solutions division of PLM provider Agile Software.

Responsible for the division’s global operations, he oversaw the development, distribution and support of PLM solutions for small to mid-sized manufacturing businesses. His success in that role helped propel Agile to strong growth and a successful acquisition by Oracle.

He is supported by Wenxiang Ma, EVP Engineering and CTO, who is responsible for all Arena product: development, quality assurance and customer support.

Wenxiang also manages all cloud infrastructure operations and oversees technology directions. Prior to joining Arena, Wenxiang worked as senior director of development at Oracle, where he managed the overall development of the nextgeneration Oracle Fusion PLM across worldwide development centers. Before that, as general manager of China Development Center at Agile Software, Wenxiang played an instrumental role in the initial center launch and daily operations while leading a successful acquisition transition by Oracle.

Overall, Umesh Malhotra is proud of how far Arena has come, and discusses the importance of winning this prestigious award and what it means to the firm’s oncoming success.

“This award is a great validation of both the direction and the work that we have been doing to help companies successfully deliver great products faster and at a lower cost. Specifically with regards to the awards for Arena Quality, we are particularly proud, as that capability has resonated strongly with our customers because, in today’s competitive global market, mandatory compliance has become ever more rigorous. The strict requirements of FDA regulations, ISO quality standards, OSHA, SOC and SOX place massive burdens on companies that

they must meet. Disparate paper-based and spreadsheet quality management processes are error-prone, become disconnected, and fail to scale for your global product supply chain.

“For product-centric organizations in industries such as high-tech and medical devices, it is absolutely paramount to adhere to current good manufacturing practices (cGMPs). By welding in QMS to the Arena unified product development platform, Arena makes that possible thanks to our product-centric approach.

“Alongside this, as our growth accelerates, the United Kingdom, in particular, has become an even more significant market for Arena. So, the visibility from this kind of recognition should help increase our footprint there.

With no language barrier and a thirst for innovation, those in the UK are increasingly coming across the pond to investigate alternatives to give them a leg up on their competition.

“Moving forward, Arena’s plans are continuing with the speed and alacrity their market leading development has become renowned for with their consistent innovation and new capabilities to broaden its all-in-one product development platform’s reach. Expect to see Arena increasingly displace large legacy on-premises PLM vendors in the enterprise as their CFOs learn of the enormous dollar savings which can be enjoyed as well as the markedly increased go forward flexibility.”

Company: Arena Solutions Inc Contact: Umesh Malhotra Job Title: Demand Generation, Senior Director Contact Email: umeshm@arenasolutions.com Address: 989 E. Hillsdale Blvd, Suite 250 Foster City, California, 94404, USA Phone: 001650 513 3500

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Most Innovative Removals Best Asset Tracking Company 2017 – UK & & Fleet Management Award for Excellence Solutions Provider - UK for Goods Assessment Technology 2017 Pickfords has been moving homes for generations, covering every postcode in the UK and Ireland. We invited Lyndsey Wallbank to tell us more.

Established in the 17th century, Pickfords is one of the UK’s oldest and best known brands. As the largest removals and storage company in the UK the firm offers home and business relocation services to consumers, businesses and government departments of all sizes. Lyndsey discusses the firm’s overall mission and how it works to achieve this by ensuring excellence for all its customers.

“Here at Pickfords our overall vision is to be the first and only choice for moving services at all stages in our customer’s lives. Our mission is to make the firm the mover of choice by delivering operational excellence and exceptional customer service. We focus on creating services tailored to our customers’ needs and have created services for students, the rental market, large homes, SMEs and large corporations and even a Man and Service which has been popular with retirees downsizing into care homes. Moving home or business does not happen very often and our hope is that our customer will return to Pickfords every time they have to make a move.”

Technology plays a key part in these services and in the firm’s overall success. Pickfords has always been a pioneer, and was the first company to provide web based extranets for its corporate accounts, international shipment tracking on line and, more recently, a video survey app which allows customer to Pickfords has always been a pioneering company. Looking ahead, this focus

on innovation will continue as the firm seeks to build upon its current success, as Lyndsey concludes.

“In 2007, the world changed when the first iPhone put the internet within everybody’s pocket. Everything is online. Today customers want everything faster and usually while they are on the move. We have adapted to their needs by investing in technology to meet rapidly changing needs. We know we need to strike the balance of using technology to improve efficiency, without putting distance between ourselves and our customers.

“Ultimately, at Pickfords our culture is very customer driven and focused on growth. We value employees who are disciplined, who care for their customers and show a determination to succeed so that both they and the firm as a whole can continue to grow and prosper.”

Contact Email: lyndsey.wallbank@pickfords. com Address: Genesis House, Kings Langley, Hertfordshire, WD4 8LZ, UK Phone: 0203 188 2248 Website: pickfords.co.uk/

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AMI Group provide asset protection and plant intelligence to several of the UK’s largest plant hire companies, as well as many SME’s. We caught up with Laura Stockton to find out more.

AMI Group has been providing tracking solutions since 2004 and over this time the firm has developed into a true market-leader and innovator.

Laura outlines how the firm has come to achieve this strong position through its focus on excellence.

“As a company AMI Group and our staff work tirelessly to battle the fight against plant theft and have done so over the past 13 years by achieving a recovery rate of 100% on covertly installed units versus the industry average of just 10%. Many of our competitors simply offer ‘off the shelf’ tracking solutions, but our solutions are completely bespoke and are designed to meet the needs of individual businesses. Although many of our customers have been with us for a long time, the challenges they face are evolving therefore our technology and outlook evolves with them.

“AMI’s innovative tracking devices allow companies UK-wide to protect fleets across the world against theft, saving them thousands of pounds in the process through a range of features offered by both AMI units and the Nexis platform. In addition to this, the use of AMI systems has led to the recovery of a range of construction machinery which was not protected by AMI Group, but was found alongside machines that were tracked with AMI tracking devices.”

Building upon this success, the group is keen to grow even further and support clients as the market evolves and adapts around the constantly developing technology it implements, as Laura concludes.

“At AMI, we have recently introduced drones to assist in the location and recovery of stolen assets. This is yet another technological innovation from AMI and a prime example of how we use the latest technologies to stay ahead of thefts within the industry.

“Looking ahead, we are looking forward to the years ahead and the innovations to come with real excitement. Although our history has traditionally been within plant tracking, we have recently deployed the latest technology to help with the security of people alongside assets. Guardian+ is a compact GPS system which is designed to protect and monitor those who are either working in dangerous environments or need additional support. With highly advanced GPS tracking, Guardian+ allows employers and carers to maintain contact with individuals at all times. In addition to this, Guardian+ allows for an alarm to be raised through an inbuilt SOS button.”

Company: AMI Group Ltd Contact: Laura Stockton Contact Email: l.stockton@ amigroup.co.uk Address: Saxon House, Saxon Street, Denton, Manchester, M34 3DS, UK Phone: 0844 412 4860 Website: http://amigroup.co.uk/

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Best Intranet Solutions Best Multi-Functional Provider 2017 - UK & IT Platform: Intranet Software of youcall-it.com the Year 2017: Engage SORCE intranet have been delivering intranet software solutions for some of the UK’s most respected organisations for over 16 years. We invited John Nicklin to tell us more.

SORCE intranet offer a unique intranet software experience tailored to meet the needs of its clients, as John is eager to emphasize.

“Client’s come to us at very different stages of their intranet journey.

Some already know their end user requirements and want to design and develop their new software solution straight away, whereas other clients use us to uncover their requirements, help develop their intranet strategy create bespoke branded solutions.

new global clients understand their intranet requirements and develop bespoke solutions.”

Moving forward, John is optimistic about the firm’s future and excited about the opportunities this will bring.

“SORCE is a very exciting place to be right now, as we continue to grow and build upon our current success.

We are expanding our team and have some great developments in the pipeline which will provide us with many great new opportunities.”

“Not only do we offer exceptional intranet software that makes a real difference to businesses, we go one step further and offer a range of additional services to enable our clients to get access to the expertise they need when they need it.”

“Currently, our Engage intranet software powers intranet and extranet solutions for hundreds of organisations with more than a million users worldwide. Our clients cover a wide range of sectors, from finance to manufacturing, not for profit as well as local authorities and other public sector agencies.”

The technology industry in the UK is currently an exhilarating place to be, as John outlines enthusiastically.

“It is currently great to be part of the UK intranet software industry. It is a growing market and evolving as end user’s requirements and usability habits change due to the integration of social media and hand held devices.

We are currently helping a number of

Company: SORCE Name: John Nicklin Email: marketing@sorce.co.uk Web Address: www.sorce.co.uk Address: SORCE Limited, The Pavilion, Newbury Business Park, London Road, Newbury, RG14 2PZ Telephone: 01635 551777

Youcall-it.com offers an innovative vendor management programme ensuring transparency and excellence for its clients. We provide a fascinating insight into the firm and its unique platform.

Youcall-it.com was founded in 2010 to put transparency back into the IT Service industry.

The firm’s systems link support companies globally directly with the client and the customer to deliver IT service and support as it should be. The Portal is packed with service delivery tools as well as services to overcome Translation issues, logistics, service and projects.

As such, the firm’s clients build and manage their own IT support networks through our systems, giving them back the control.

The Portal is cloud based and allows users from around the world to create relationships and deliver services and IT support though the connected, verified service partners. It is fully armed with a whole host of other tools such as Youcall-it.com’s bespoke chat application which allows for direct support for engineers around the world and comes with integrated translation.

Alongside its innovative platform, the firm provides a whole host of IT related services. From hardware support, projects, IMAC’s and relationship creation, bespoke translation tools, due diligence checks on business, Logistics management and global project delivery tools.

Youcall-it.com’s business internal chat solution which works like email and means its clients’ teams and departments are always connected in a live environment. For clients with multiple locations Youcall-it.com really can make an impact to the way their business works. The firm’s innovative portal means that global business can be delivered from one system, with its partners all working from the same system.

Ultimately, Youcall-it.com provides clients with a truly unified system for the global client base, and will continue to do so as it looks towards a bright and exciting future.

Company: youcall-it.com Contact: Wayne Conyers Contact Email: wayne.conyers@youcall-it.com Address: 65 Tontine Street, Folkestone, Kent, CT20 1JR, UK Phone: 0845 582 2423

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Best Account Aggregation Software Provider - UK moneyinfo limited is a private fintech firm based in Henley in Arden, Warwickshire. We spoke to Business Development Director, Sim Sangha to find out more.

Since 2009, moneyinfo limited (formerly Sammedia) has been developing client portal technology allowing aggregation of investments, insurance and pensions alongside a client’s personal finances, all under a single login. It is deployed via financial advice, wealth management and workplace/ employee benefit consultancies.

Sim explains the firm’s mission and how it works towards achieving this: “Here at moneyinfo, our mission is to help advisers deliver their advice to more people, more cost effectively and help solve the ‘advice gap’ that has been created by regulation. Millions of people need quality financial advice but they may not value it or cannot afford to access it given the status quo. We aim to make it easy for everyone to bring all of their finances into one place and then access advice as and when it is required or as identified via the aggregated data. A large part of the cost of advice is in gathering the data and we are removing the friction (and therefore cost) which exists in the traditional way of obtaining advice”.

“The financial advice industry is going through a transformation, particularly in terms of interacting digitally with end customers.

It is one of the last industries to digitize and moneyinfo is identified as one of the key fintech enablers in showing businesses in how they can deliver a large part of their existing services via the web and mobile. We not only help

businesses meet their clients’ digital expectations, we also solve business problems by removing costly processes and helping firms clean up their back office data so it can be accessed and updated in real-time on any device.

“In addition, we also recognize that consumers (no matter their net worth) want to make their lives easier. We all like Apple, Amazon, Uber and contactless payment for that very reason. What we do not want is automated queuing systems, multiple logins and lots of paperwork to file away. A lot of this exists in financial services but our client portal technology reinvents how FS businesses connect with their end clients and delivers a more convenient simpler experience.”

The UK fintech scene is being influenced by government driven initiatives making data standards easier to access from financial institutions. Consumers need access to their own information in easy machine readable and accessible formats. This is good news but progress is slow and FS providers are defensive in sharing data. Sim explains how the firm is adapting to these developments. “moneyinfo has developed its own IP rather than wait for the industry to get its act together.

Not only can we aggregate personal finance accounts, we also aggregate medium to long term financial assets like property valuations, investments, savings and pensions as well as the associated paperwork we accumulate on a day to

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day basis. We find that this appeals most to high net worth wealth management firms who are servicing complex individuals as it is a major overhead in consolidating everything for a net worth or family balance sheet position.

“Additionally, we are ‘agile’ in our approach to development so we can release new functionality quickly and refine it along with our key clients in regular intervals in order to meet their own objectives.

“We are also constantly looking at new innovative ways to accelerate adoption amongst our user base through digital/viral marketing and ‘reasons’ for the end consumer to log in more frequently and complete more of their financial profile over and above what their adviser knows about them. Most of our competitors only focus on their ‘silos’ of service and what they want to get out of the consumer, rather than look at building what the customer actually wants and needs. We have strong anecdotal evidence that there is demand for our service and this is being reflected in our adoption rates.”

Looking to the future, Sim explains that moneyinfo is keen to realise its overall objectives and build upon its current success.

“Our ultimate aim is to create a digital marketplace between consumers and financial services companies offering advice and solutions so people can choose how and when they are serviced, and this will be the key to our future.

“To achieve this we are eager to raise our profile in order to benefit the UK Consumer. Good technology ultimately makes your life easier and we do that by bringing a consumer’s finances all into one place, under a single login on any device. No other company can currently do this.”

Email: oliver.jenkins@moneyinfo.com or sim.sangha@moneyinfo.com Web Address: .moneyinfo.com/ Address: Forward House, Henley-in-Arden, Warwickshire, B95 5AA Telephone: 03303 600300

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Best Information Security Management Consultancy - West Africa & Excellence Award for Security Assessments 2017 Digital Encode is a leading consulting and integration firm that specializes in the design, management, and security of business-critical networks, telecommunications environments and other Information Technology (IT) infrastructures. We profile the firm to find out more.

Established in 2003, Digital Encode is now recognized in the industry for its vendor independent perspective. The firm’s expertise lies in solving multifaceted, complex enterprise network security and audit problems.

At Digital Encode, technology serves two purposes: to save money and solve a problem.

Digital Encode also provides advisory services toward improvements in Information Security Management, Network Security,Vulnerability Management,Penetration Testing,Computer Forensics,Risk Management and Business Continuity Management.

Fundamentally, Digital Encode’s unique methodology is rooted in the concept that a company should run its IT organization as a business. Throughout the well-defined process, Digital Encode translates strategic business objectives into sound, achievable technology solutions.

This approach ensures that the technology never obscures the business goals.

to simulate the techniques adopted by an attacker to compromise your systems.

It helps to highlight remotely exploitable vulnerabilities by an unauthorized attacker. Digital Encode’s penetration testing service is a highly creative, outof-thebox engagement, and often results in new vulnerabilities being discovered or a new tool being developed from such an exercise.

Central to this award winning firm’s service offering is its focus on security assessments, including penetration testing or ethical hacking, an exercise that attempts

Additionally, the firm’s risk assessment exercises lists out the key information assets within the organization and determines the security posture of the clients’ organization, and Digital

Encode’s security audit services cover all aspects of security including people, processes, and technologies. The firm have expertise in auditing operating systems, firewalls, intrusion detection systems, databases, web servers, messaging servers, network components and industry specific technologies.

Digital Encode offers exhaustive security audits for all kinds of applications: stand-alone, network based and webbased.

Its Application Security Audit covers high-level design audit, black-box testing, source code audit, development and delivery audit and operating environment audit.

Ultimately, Digital Encode’s mission is to be the no. 1 Information Technology Assurance Company in Africa, and moving forward the company will be working towards this ambitious aim and succeeding even further.

Company: Digital Encode Ltd Contact: Obadare Peter Adewale Contact Email: wale@digitalencode.net Address: 186 Igbosere Road, Onikan, Lagos, Nigeria Phone: 00234 802 331 6951 Website: digitalencode.net/

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Most Innovative Reduced-Cost Consultancy - South England Strategic Management Partners (SMP) is an independent consultancy based in Sussex. We profile the firm to find out more about the range of services it provides.

Founded by Managing Director Clive Bonny in 1990, SMP has delivered costeffective consulting support across international markets, delivering bottom line benefits for client teams from the MD to the receptionist. Building on advisory experience with Innovation and Enterprise Agencies Clive has produced many national award winning projects. His business research and unique training programmes on best practice management have been published by The Economist and international publishers.

Strategic Management Partners clients benefit from reduced-cost consultancy through access to grant aid support funds and low operational overheads. The firm provide strategic planning advice, training, coaching and support to large and small organisations across a wide range of sectors for sustainable improvements to client activities, outputs and impacts.

Within the consultancy market, the two largest costs in traditional firms are staff payrolls and office facilities. London rented office space is around £100 per square foot. These costs have been increasing over 10% pa. Hong Kong has reached $250 per square foot and New York $150.

It means that for even a small company of 5 persons city rent of £25000-£50,000 pa needs to be charged back to clients. 50 staff can cost up to £500,000 pa in office rental. SMP staff all work from home-based offices with quality office equipment, saving 90% in office rental costs.

In addition, traditional consulting firm salaries in the city average £65,000 pa and actual chargeable time can be as low as 50% which effectively doubles the payroll costs charged to clients. SMP’s business model is to employ qualified associates paying only for their time spent on client projects. This reduces client project staffing costs by over 50%. These savings give SMP a significant power to offer lower cost consulting with no negative impact on margins and profitability.

To access to the best pools of talent SMP has membership of the main consulting professional bodies. These include the Chartered Institutes of Management, Computing, Consulting, Personnel and Development. Trade body memberships include Chambers of Commerce, Manufacturers, Arts, Small Businesses, Innovation Centres and Business Angels Association. This allows Clive to pick and choose the right associates for the right job who are professionally qualified, work to the highest quality standards and experienced in running their own businesses.

Ensuring delivery excellence for clients, SMP’s internal and external operations have been independently audited by the Organisation of Responsible Businesses since 2012.

These nationally recognised Responsible Business Standards are based on best practice support for employees, customers, suppliers, the community, the environment, ethics and business continuity.

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SMP’s operations are verified at Gold Standard and the auditor reports are shown on SMP’s website and Clive’s LinkedIn profile. Clive is also cleared to government Baseline Personnel Security Standards providing a Right to Work on corporate confidential projects and across the public sector in Health, Education and Police services.

SMP provides BPSS clearance for clients and independent contractors Right to Work for high security projects, reducing time and costs for recruiters of personnel who require this higher security clearance.

consulting support and can show all our clients how these costs have been significantly reduced whilst improving the quality of our services. Buyers of consultancy, coaching and advisory work can save significant costs without compromising quality if they check their suppliers in these areas. I recommend buyers review their criteria guidance on cost-effective use of quality consulting by using the 20 point check-list shown

Overall, a significant costreduction in the business model combined with innovative strategic planning and delivery processes produce successful outcomes. Verified by external specialists in responsible business standards, these audit reports are accessible to clients online. These show detailed evidence that all aspects of SMP’s operations function at a high quality level. Effective cost-management has created savings which are passed directly to clients. The use of grant funding and reductions in unnecessary overheads has created a significant return on client investments for long term sustainability.

In conclusion, Clive Bonny comments “We have always applied a unique approach in removing unnecessary costs from our business overheads whilst at the same time acquiring funds to subsidise our work for clients in all sectors. We have removed the main costs in the planning and delivery of

Contact Email: Clive@consult-smp.com Address: Windmill Downs, 58 Nevill Road, Rottingdean East Sussex, BN2 7HG, UK Phone: UK 01273 308 865 Website: consult-smp.com

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Voice & CRM Integration Specialists of the Year – UK & Best Cloud-based Voice Services Platform: Natterbox Natterbox enables organisations to deliver class-leading service levels to their customers through efficient and effective integration of voice into their digital customer communications. We profile the firm to find out more.

Launched in 2010, Natterbox, was founded to remove the complexity and limitations of traditional business telephony systems and to bring voice into the digitised customer experience age.

Through Natterbox Cloud PBX service, customers are able to easily capture and integrate voice into customer processes and the Salesforce CRM system. Customers around the world rely on Natterbox to set new standards in customer experience and drive measurable increases in sales efficiency, competitive advantage and organisational success.

Natterbox, since foundation, has strived to build, maintain and consistently enhance a high quality cloud telephony service, rich in function and flexibility.

Offering a worldwide service through their own dispersed data centres enables high call quality, resilience and reduced complexity for dispersed and remote operating organisations.

With Natterbox you can create and deploy a global contact centre in days and operate it successfully, without complex technical skills or expertise.

Customers of Natterbox include Groupon, Legal & General, Yodel, Reed.co.uk, British Safety Council , Talentforce and Rakuten, Natterbox AVS (Advanced Voice Services) Contact Centre for

Service Cloud and Sales Cloud is the world’s first global contact centre 100% integrated with and available wherever you log into Salesforce Service Cloud and Sales Cloud. Offering 120+ native Salesforce Telephony reports, a Webphone inside Salesforce and powerful telephony rules via Salesforce Process builder, Natterbox changes the game of telephony from complex to easy, from slow to agile. Natterbox enables organisations to deliver world class-leading service levels to their customers through efficient and effective integration of voice into their digital customer communications.

To support its clients, Natterbox’s mission is to empower businesses to align their telephony to their business needs and their customer experience expectations, without complexity, but with superior quality and flexibility. By removing the need for a business to have telecoms or PBX expertise, Natterbox empowers sales, marketing, customer service and support teams to make smart decisions and action them quickly in an easy to use interface. Clients can choose where and how inbound calls are directed based on live CRM data and empower employees to work from any phone, mobile, home, via softphone or now webphone, all behaving as the same users extension line.

Easily link Salesforce and phone data for inbound and outbound calls simply and effectively, thus

empowering your team to better service customer needs in a sales or support environment, more quickly and accurately.

Overall, Natterbox specialises in integrating voice with Salesforce, specialising in customer experience, employee productivity and business efficiency superheroes. Moving forward its focus will remain on providing the very highest standards of service and support in these key areas.

Recently, the firm launched its AVS (Advanced Voice Services) platform, the world’s 1st and only end to end telephony platform, that resides 100% inside the Salesforce platform. Natterbox are continuing to innovate across

its service offerings and to invest in ensuring a reliable, scalable and high quality telephony experience for its customers and in turn for their customers engaging with them.

Contact: Ian Moyse Contact Email: ian.moyse@natterbox.com Address: No.1 Croydon, Croydon, London, CR0 0XT, UK Phone: 0203 510 0500 Website: natterbox.com/

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Best Emerging Robotics Company - South Asia & Innovation Award for Driverless Vehicle Development 2017 The Hi-Tech Robotic Systemz is a bootstrapped robotics company focused on developing products for revolutionizing man and material transportation with its self-driving people movers, self-driving logistics vehicles for material handling and mobile robots for security and surveillance. We provide a fascinating overview of this Founded in 2004, The Hi-Tech Robotic Systemz is committed to enriching human life through smart robotics. Its vision is to change the world with THRSL powered intelligent systems.

As such, its core focuses are L0 to L5 Autonomy for Vehicles. which includes fleet of Self Driving Shuttles for people movement in private campuses, Advance Driver Assistive Systems (ADAS) products for smart and connected cars.

In addition, the firm seeks to enable industry 4.0 with Self Driving Logistics Vehicles (next gen AGVs) with natural navigation for Industries, manufacturing facilities with a connected Industrial IoT framework and enable next generation warehousing Self Driving Logistics Vehicles catering to High Throughput with effective ROI. Overall, the Hi-Tech Robotic Systemz is on a mission to deliver scalable, smart autonomous and assistive systems to global customers through disruptive business models, and this will remain its ongoing focus as it looks towards the future.

22 Corporate Vision / Technology Innovator Awards 2017

Company: The Hi-Tech Robotic Systemz Ltd. Contact: Ritukar Vijay Email: ritukar.vijay@hitechroboticsystemz.com Address: A-18, Infocity, Sector-34, Gurgaon, Haryana, 122001, India Phone: 0091 124 4715300 Website: hitechroboticsystemz.com/

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Best Biopharmaceutical Company – Italy & Excellence Award for Industrial Research 2017 Anabasis is a private, Milan based, biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the development of innovative therapies for the eye.

Best for Intelligent Software Solutions 2017 - UK InPhase helps organisations run better. It’s the glue that binds a business together, enabling all levels of a business to make better, faster decisions from board to individual.

InPhase is a single toolkit providing everything you need to deliver an integrated Business Intelligence, Reporting and Enterprise wide performance management solution for actionable change.

OFounded in 1999, Anabasis is owned by Dompé, one of the leading biopharmaceutical companies in Italy, focusing on the development of innovative therapeutic solutions for rare, often orphaned, diseases. Dompé became Anabasis’s parent company by acquiring 49% of its shares. Furthermore, Dompé acquired the worldwide rights for the development and the commercialization of NGF for NK. The firm’s initial focus was NGF (Nerve Growth Factor) for the treatment of diseases affecting both the anterior part of the eye, such as neurotrophic keratitis (NK) and dry eye, as well as the posterior part of

the eye such as glaucoma. While NK is an orphan disease, glaucoma represents one of the largest potential market opportunity in ophthalmology.

These diseases can lead to severe vision loss and blindness.

Looking ahead, both firms will continue to grow and prosper as they seek to create innovative developments in this vital market.

Company: Anabasis S.r.l Contact: Francesco Sinigaglia Contact Email: Francesco.Sinigaglia@dompe.com Address: Via San Martino 12, Milan, 20122, Italy Phone: 0039 02 58383

To provide clients with the solution they need, InPhase conceived an approach to maximise the effectiveness of business decision making, to create the modern responsive, agile business.

It started with the ability to unite your teams and individuals with the key drivers that matter to the enterprise.

This included alignment with strategy, tactical and operational intent, risks, project management and actions.

The result enabled enterprise wide collaboration to achieve collective ambition, pushing out wasted effort and activity.

Two decades later, InPhase leads the way in delivering this vision AND unifies it with transaction data, giving your users integrated access to

disparate internal and external data from a plethora of sources.

Overall, this united product gives your users past, present and predicted outturn information from transaction to helicopter level. Users can model what-if, enabling them to make better decisions based on fact and process, faster.

You can request a brochure, ask for case studies or simply book in for an on line demo by contacting InPhase.

You can also request a trial version of the latest and easiest way to share information around your performance directly to the public direct from InPhase. To learn more on their latest innovation, visit the InPhase open data site at http://portal.inphase.com/

Contact: Victoria Keogh Contact Email: victoria.keogh@inphase.com Address: 2-4 Packhorse Road, Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, SL9 7QE, UK Phone: 01753 480480

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Best Pharmaceutical Best Enterprise Technology Academic SaaS Provider 2017 2017 - Spain University of Navarra (UNAV) is a private non-profit Spanish higher education establishment with more than 13,000 students in 6 campuses: Pamplona, San Sebastian, Madrid, Barcelona, Munich and New York. We invited Juan M. Irache to talk us through the University’s work in pharmaceutical technology.

Juan’s group of research “Nanomedicines and vaccines” (NANO-VAC) is ascribed to the School of Pharmacy in the Biomedicine campus of University of Navarra (UNAV), located at Pamplona (Spain).Within NANO-VAC, the main axes of research are related with the design and evaluation of nanocarriers (e.g. polymer nanoparticles, SNEDDS, protein nanodevices) for the delivery of drugs, actives and biomacromolecules through biological barriers, and the development of new mucosal adjuvants for vaccination and immunotherapy. Juan discusses the work his team have undertaken over recent years and how it has created innovative scope for further research.

“Currently two types of nanocarrier platforms, based on GRAS proteins, are offered thanks to our work over recent years. The first one is based on the use of food proteins (e.g., casein from milk, zein from corn) that may be prepared in aqueous environments and presented as dry powder. The procedures are well proofed at lab and pilot scale and now are being scaled-up for commercial and industrial purposes. These patented nanodevices are particularly suited for oral delivery of biologically active compounds (e.g., drugs, nutraceutical compounds, bioactives, biologicals, etc.). The second one includes a set of nanoparticles based on human serum albumin (patent pending) for parenteral delivery of biomacromolecules and that can be easily decorated for targeting purposes.”

Looking to the future, Juan is excited about the developments for his team as he outlines their ongoing focuses.

“Moving forward, we will continue to expand our capacities and research in pharmaceutical delivery platforms to identify the best solutions to improve the quality of life of patients.

We believe that this idea will facilitate the attraction and training of brilliant professionals; leaders whose advances leave a mark on society and who contribute to the development of a knowledge-based economy.”

Company: University of Navarra Contact: Juan M. Irache Contact Email: jmirache@unav.es Address: Campus Universitario, Pamplona, Navarra, 31009, Spain Phone: 0034 948 42 56 00 Ext 806478

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TechnologyOne is Australia’s largest enterprise software company, with offices across six countries including England, Scotland, New Zealand and Malaysia. We invited Roger Phare, UK Operating Officer at TechnologyOne, to tell us more.

TechnologyOne creates solutions that transform business and make life simple for its customers by providing powerful, deeply integrated enterprise software that is incredibly easy to use. Over 1,000 leading corporations, government departments and statutory authorities are powered by this innovative software. Roger explains how this software sets the firm apart from its competitors and marks it out as the best possible option for its clients.

“What sets us apart is that TechnologyOne is one of very few companies globally offering true enterprise SaaS via multi-tenanted software, in a single-tenant database.

While some of our competitors offer multi-tenanted architecture, the data is also multi-tenanted, which means all customers’ data is stored together, posing a huge security risk.

Most multinational enterprise software providers do not build their software in this way or operate by completely re-engineering their software on a regular basis as TechnologyOne does. We are also the first enterprise software provider to deliver adaptive design into its core software. Other enterprise vendors promote adaptive software, but simply offer it as a front end ‘skin’ for casual users of the software.

“While many software vendors claim to be cloud suppliers they are simply hosting software on infrastructure, offering no real technology benefits over on premise or hosted solutions.

Vendors who take the “dirty hosting” or “fake cloud” approach cannot provide the economies of scale afforded by true cloud.”

Moving forward, TechnologyOne remains focused on continuing to develop and adapt its solutions to meet the ever evolving needs of its clients, as Roger concludes.

“Through our investment in innovation and creativity via R&D we continue to stay ahead of emerging developments. In fact, TechnologyOne has the largest Australian commercial owned software R&D centre, with a dedicated team of over 300 developers.

“Each year 20% of revenue is invested into the R&D programme, far exceeding competitors with an average 12%. Ongoing investment in product development not only enables TechnologyOne to remain ahead of the competition but means that customers benefit from continuous modernisation and innovation of technology and solutions. This will enable us to remain at the forefront of the latest industry innovations and ensure that we continue to offer clients the very highest standards of service as we look towards the future.”

Bryony Cox MantisPR Tel 07860 951 092 Email: bryonycox@mantispr.co.uk

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Best Specialist Outsourced IT Services Provider - USA Halcyon Financial Technology, L.P. provides tailored Information Technology services for Private Equity, Hedge Funds, and investment management firms. We caught up with Founder Rodric O’Connor to learn more.

Established in 2010 by industry veteran Rodric to address a gap in the market serving small to mid-size financial services firms with best practice IT support, HalcyonFT’s team of experienced IT professionals brings decades of experience in the financial services industry and a proven history of working together at financial services firms in key IT roles. Rodric outlines the firm’s mission and how it works to ensure that clients, who manage in excess of $100 billion of investments, always receive the very highest standards of support and service.

“Here at HalcyonFT we adhere to the utmost integrity and professionalism when it comes to working with our clients. We keep our promises, and aim to deliver above and beyond our customers’ expectations. We pride ourselves on our expertise and focus on the financial industry, where our reputation grows each time we help another client reach their goals.

To ensure our clients are always happy with the service we provide, we measure the user satisfaction at the end of every case that we close. We guarantee to our clients that their average rating will exceed 4 out 5. In seven years of measurement we have averaged 4.98/5.0, and have never had to pay out to a client.”

Employees are of vital importance to Halcyon, and the firm is constantly searching for new employees who will provide high quality service to clients, as Rodric explains.

“To ensure the highest possible standard of support for our clients, we look for employees who understand and are aligned with our firm’s goal to deliver excellence in IT service. Our team strives to always deliver the best service that we can. We look for clients that realize that high quality technology is critical for them to achieve their goals.”

Looking ahead, Rodric foresees a number of exciting trends in

the technology industry which will provide great opportunities for HalcyonFT’s clients.

“Moving forward, the rise of cloud services at all layers of the technology stack, the death of traditional separate Storage Networks for on-premise high demand workloads, as well as the increased focus on cyber security at all levels within our clients will provide our firm with many exciting new avenues to explore. We will build upon our current success, and support our clients, both existing and future, through these industry developments. We continue to increase our expertise in cloud services, such as Salesforce,

Microsoft 365 and BOX, as these services become more appropriate for our clients. We will continue to investigate new technology as it emerges and evolves, determining what and when it is appropriate to be used by our client’s specific needs.”

Company: Halcyon Financial Technology, L.P. Contact: Rodric O’Connor Contact Email: info@halcyonft.com Address: 50 California Street Suite 1500, San Francisco, CA 94111, USA Phone: 0014156830740 Web Address: www.halcyonft.com

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Best IT Leadership Events Provider 2017 CIOsynergy empowers IT leadership through thought leading, informative and engaging events for the global CIO and IT leader. We profile this dynamic and creative firm to learn more about these unique events and explore the secrets behind their phenomenal success.

Founded in 2008, CIOsynergy was created to provide a unique platform to bring together the true visionaries of enterprise IT leadership. These are the ‘thought leaders’ from across the corporate landscape that instigate both change and stability within the organizations they serve. Attendees of the firm’s prestigious events are IT leaders who are the visionaries that plan, execute and walkthe-line of innovation in order to secure and globalize their organization.

The successful CIO is a one that empowers themselves with the lessons, knowledge, and experience of a community; as such, CIOsynergy brings forth this community of IT Leaders under the umbrella of world renowned leaders and visionaries to the likes of Steve Forbes (CEO of Forbes), Robert Herjavec (Star of ABC’s ‘Shark Tank’), Jimmy Wales (founder of Wikipedia), John Sculley (former CEO Apple & Pepsi), Terry Jones (founder of Travelocity), Peter Guber (CEO of Mandalay Entertainment) and Howard Putnam (former CEO, Southwest Airlines) among many more. Empowering the concept of ‘Thought Leadership’, our events incorporate opportunities to exchange through a series of open mic panel discussions, think-tanks and round-tables

coupled with inspiring business relevant keynotes, and C-suite networking programs.

The single day agenda is a must attend for all enterprise IT leaders. CIOsynergy events, which are by invitation only, expose a wealth of knowledge and experience from world renowned CEO titans who in the past have included the likes of Steve Forbes of Forbes media, Jimmy Wales of Wikipedia, Peter Guber of Mandalay Entertainment, and Howard Putnam of Southwest Airlines.

Futurists that share stories of not only triumph, but also failure and the lessons learned while “walking the line” of a world class, innovative leader.

Only the finest venues are selected to host CIOsynergy events as we incubate an environment that will foster continued relationships between attendees as they network over an epicurean feast, world cocktails, and priceless insight.

These prestigious events are proudly sponsored by organizations that truly believe in the power of thought-leadership; their products and services foster more efficient, diversified, and greener enterprises. Sponsors have included IBM, Oracle, RedHat, Informatica, VMware, Hitachi, Mahindra Satyam, WhiteHat, Riverbed, QlikView, and Comcast Business and many more.

26 Corporate Vision / Technology Innovator Awards 2017

As part of its programme of innovative events, CIOsynergy offers CIOcamps, exclusively branded, regionally specific, intimate events that offer a unique and engaging approach to problem solving within the Office of the CIO. An event designed to connect a local group of carefully selected IT leaders in the intimate setting of an open mic panel discussion with 5 leading CIO panelists.

Here the attentees discuss, debate, and challenge the IT paths of these 5 IT leaders while audience members are able to compare and contrast their situations. With the careful moderation of this panel CIOs are able to share successes, directions, but more importantly failures and lessons learned while on their paths.

Having the support and direction of only one exclusive sponsor, these camps bring a level of

thought leadership to the table that attending IT leaders value and appreciate as they look to this event to bring out solutions 2-steps ahead of the problems they will encounter. Attending CIOs and IT leaders strengthen their local network of peers, and this is important in the turbulence of today’s digital world – the reason this is a must attend for todays IT leader.

Additionally, the firm offers secureCIO, a unique event which came about from pure demand.

What started as a secureCIO panel discussion at CIOsynergy events grew into a standalone event based on the demand for attendance and content. A simple question unites IT leaders no matter what size of organization they represent and that question is ‘What keeps you up at night?’.

The fear of intrusion was the only answer and this is a real fear that is never taken lightly.

As such, secureCIO events bring a panel of leading CISO’s to stage under the spotlight of our professional moderators who walk them through the struggles of securing global organizations against the clear and present dangers of cyber terrorism and digital theft. There are of intrusion and learn of the tactical measures these leaders have taken to lock-down their infrastructures and data.

The dedicated SECUREtech panel at secureCIO events bring forth a panel of 5 visionary technology leaders that are on the forefront of digital defense solutions, an opportunity to hear the war stories they have fought on behalf of client intrusions and a chance to gain some insight into their predictions for tomorrow’s tactical targets; whether cloud, end-point, or phishing.

For those seeking a more relaxed setting, CIOdinners engage local CIOs into intimate collaboration. Enterprise leaders value CIO dinners as a platform to collaborate as they lack the static and time commitment of an event or conference, and 73% of surveyed enterprise CIOs had attended a CIO dinner within the past 12 months.

The latest addition to the CIOsynergy portfolio is CIOsports. The success to CIOsports Events lies in our ability to connect like minded leaders; those that share similar goals, tasks and hurdles while on their path to Innovating the Enterprise. Some share industries, responsibilities, or organizational structures. They come with picture mapped; these innovative just connect the dots. The events comprise of an evening where guests have the chance to educate, engage,

discuss and debate directions from within the Office of the CIO. These are conversations that just do not happen within the confines of the office - take lead as these are how relationships seed opportunities. Similar in format to the CIOdinners, the key differentiator is that over dinner and cocktails guests sit in a private game box that will buzz with discussions and collaboration over court rivals battling for victory.

At the core of CIOsynergy’s success is its team, which comprises of a driven group of individuals that work in collaboration to meet and exceed the expectations of our clients.

The firm’s delegate acquisitions team know IT leaders and they track the movers and shakers from within the Office of the CIO while establishing key relationships, the firm’s Sponsorship team know Enterprise Innovation and all of its faucets – they track the most cutting edge solution providers and the thought leaders behind these trend setting technologies.

Finally, the firm’s operations team are the magicians behind the curtains that connect the dots that result in cutting edge events and flawless execution.

Overall, CIOsynergy is on a mission to provide access, credibility and opportunity from within the Office of the CIO. Through a process of continual innovation, redesign, and re-alignment the firm create events that instigate thought leading collaboration between a community of IT leaders and the visionaries behind the technologies that aid them in their endeavors, and moving forward this will remain its ongoing focus as the company seeks to grow and build upon its current success.

Company: CIOsynergy Contact: Nepal P Contact Email: NepalP@ciosynergy.com Address: 2800 W Higgins Rd, Hoffman Estates, Illinois, 60169, USA Phone: 001 847 278 2213 ext 371

28 Corporate Vision / Technology Innovator Awards 2017

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Best Cyber Security Solutions Firm – California & Excellence Award for Security Endpoint Protection Training - West USA London Security Solutions, LLC is committed to helping clients adopt a security risk management approach to address security and compliance concerns using integrated solutions that work together for maximum efficacy. John Carroll talks us through the firm and the range of services it offers in this vital market.

Over the last decade the threat landscape has evolved beyond the capabilities of traditional signature-based virus detection to sophisticated self-propagating worms and polymorphic malware that are undetectable by traditional antivirus software.

The realities of the current threatscape requires new thinking and new approaches.

The industry is rapidly moving toward Artificial Intelligence (AI) based threat prevention which works pre-execution and is based on predicted behavior instead of static code.

As such, London Security Solutions, a thought leader in the security services industry, is dedicated to providing innovative solutions that are always at the cutting edge of threat prevention, as John explains “Ten years ago, 50 new pieces of malware were released each day. Today, it is over 500,000 a day. Clients need comprehensive solutions that protect their data and infrastructure from multiple threat vectors. As more data traverses the Internet between global locations on-premises, in the cloud, and on mobile devices, securing the enterprise—no matter the location—is our

top priority. London Security Solutions’ multi-layered approach allows customers the mobility they need without sacrificing the security they require. We can do this because our engineers are security specialists.”

“Specializing in security applications, administration, and architecture gives our customers the benefit of instant expertise.

Some firms use their engineers to provide a variety of services including desktop management, network administration, and overall IT support. We, however, do not; we only do security.

Leveraging London Security Solutions’ team of specialists allows our customers to focus their internal IT resources on

30 Corporate Vision / Technology Innovator Awards 2017

other tasks and functions critical to running their businesses. We work with our client’s teams to ensure their security is up to date and configured properly. For example, none of our Managed Services customers were hit with the recent WannaCry or Petya ransomware outbreaks. Our multi-layered proactive approach prevents problems before they start.”

Looking to the future, John foresees even greater threats, but is confident that London Security Solutions and its team of specialist engineers will be able to overcome this and provide clients with the services they need.

“Although threats will only get more sophisticated and potentially more devastating as we move forward, engaging London Security Solutions allows customers to rest easy knowing they have a proven and trusted IT security partner.”

London Security Solutions’ innovative approach towards Managed Security Services has made them a leader in the MSSP marketspace.

Contact Email: jcarroll@ londonsecuritysolutions.com Address: Fountain Valley, California, 92708, USA Phone: 001512 219 3604 Web Address: londonsecuritysolutions.com

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Best for Cloud-Based eCommerce Solutions 2017 ChannelAdvisor is a leading provider of cloud-based e-commerce solutions that enable retailers and branded manufacturers to integrate, manage and optimise their merchandise sales across hundreds of online channels including Amazon, Google, eBay, Facebook and more.

We invited Jon Maury, Managing Director EMEA at ChannelAdvisor to tell us more.

Through automation, analytics and optimisation, ChannelAdvisor customers can leverage a single inventory feed to more efficiently list and advertise products online, and connect with shoppers to increase sales. Billions of dollars in merchandise value are driven through ChannelAdvisor’s platform every year and thousands of customers use ChannelAdvisor’s solutions to help grow their business. Jon discusses the firm’s mission and how it works to provide clients with the very highest standards of service and support at all times.

“At ChannelAdvisor, our mission is to connect retailers and branded manufacturers to new and emerging sources of demand for their products and provide the most comprehensive set of tools and analytics to optimise their e-commerce business. We achieve this by constantly watching the e-commerce industry and innovating our solution to help retailers succeed online.

“Alongside our dedication to this mission, what sets us apart from our competition is our international reach. Our global scale makes us a unique platform for retailers and brands. Because of our worldwide presence, we have a deep understanding of international e-commerce and are well-equipped to help

retailers scale their business to new international channels seamlessly.”

Overall, the e-commerce tech industry is fast-paced, and continuously evolving. It represents many challenges and opportunities for brands and retailers, just as long as they are ready to keep up with innovation and customer needs.

This includes mobile, logistics, visibility and distribution strategy using technology. Jon outlines how the firm stays at the forefront of emerging developments in this dynamic sector.

“Our team is always on the lookout for emerging trends, new

marketplaces and technology developments to integrate to our solution and products. It is essential for us to keep new functionalities. We recently made significant enhancements and additions to our platform. The theme of the release – Strong Brands. Strong Retailers.

Connected E-Commerce – brings innovative new features, machine learning and enhanced analytics to retailers and branded manufacturers. Notably, we now support merchants partnering with Amazon in a wholesale capacity.”

Moving forward, Channel Advisor will be focusing on continuing to adapt and evolve around the

latest industry developments, as Jon concludes.

“Ultimately, at ChannelAdvisor we are always working on improving our cloud-based e-commerce solution to help retailers and branded manufacturers improve operations and better connect to customers. We are passionate about adding new tools and services to our suite, and making regular enhancements to our platform.”

Tel: 0203 014 2700 Web: channeladvisor.co.uk Email: ukteam@channeladvisor.com

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Best Medical Device & Software Development Company – Canada & Excellence Award for Quality Assurance 2017 CardioComm Solutions (CardioComm) is a global leader and trusted provider of innovative medical software solutions for remote monitoring of electrocardiograms (ECGs). We profile this innovative and dynamic firm to find out more.

CardioComm’s core technologies involve their Global ECG Management Solutions (GEMS™) software. This software enables remote transfer, viewing, analyzing, sharing and storing of ECGs over a global virtual healthcare network accessible by physicians for the management of their patients. A cornerstone of CardioComm’s platform is its ECG signal viewer, which provides flexible integrations to support open ended work flow solutions. CardioComm clients have included GE Healthcare & Philips Medical, where novel ECG management solutions have supported high-volume mobile cardiac telemetry ECG monitoring services.

Uniquely, CardioComm is one of a few companies that services both medical and commercial markets internationally and was the first company in Canada and the USA to be given medical device clearances for the sale of an ECG monitor directly for consumer use without a physician prescription (OTC).

The company is ISO 13485 certified and has products cleared for sale in the US, Canada, China, Australia, the Gulf Region, India and the

EU. Leveraging its strengths in connecting medical devices and hospital medical records systems, CardioComm is adding new wearable, multi-bio sign monitoring and wireless m-Health devices to their HeartCheck™ branded/compatible ECG offerings.

As an active collaborator in clinical research, R&D projects and with start-ups & academic groups, CardioComm looks to provide SaMD partnerships to help disruptive medical technologies see market readiness with reduced cycle times. Such efforts support CardioComm’s intended foray into the wearable technology and m-Health markets through the introduction of its new HeartCheck™ and GEMS™ compatible consumer devices such as ECG wristbands, ECG cards, patches and shirts.

All such wearable devices will be developed to have communication compatibility with Apple and Android smartphones and tablets, with the aim to give consumers access to “medically credible” medical-wellness products at a lower cost when compared to other, non-medically credentialed products offered from competitors like Samsung, Apple and Fitbit.

32 Corporate Vision / Technology Innovator Awards 2017

Looking ahead, CardioComm’s pipeline of technologies will address the need for enhanced data quality collected for personal health monitoring, allow use in predictive analytics and provide health care professionals access to patient information whenever necessary, in a safe and reliable environment. It is such efforts to push the boundaries for meeting an unmet demand for credible m-health and consumer wellness self-monitoring technologies that has led CardioComm to

be recognized and awarded the “Best Medical Device and Software Development Company for 2017”.

Company: CardioComm Solutions Inc. Contact: Etienne Grima Contact Email: egrima@cardiocommsolutions. com Address: 259 Yorkland Road, Suite 200, North York, Ontario, M2J 0B5, Canada Phone: 001-416-977-9425 ext. 227

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Best Desktop Virtualisation Consultancy 2017 - UK Thintech is a leading innovator in the UK specialising in desktop and server virtualisation consultancy. We invited Brett Loveday to talk us through the firm and the solutions it offers.

Thintech are specialists in enduser computing, working with large organisations in the public and charity; finance; professional commercial such as law, accountancy, architectural etc.; housing; education and healthcare sectors. Brett discusses the services that the firm provides to these varied clients and how it works to ensure that they receive the very highest standards of support and service.

performance, security and compliance whilst helping them to realise the value of their existing on premise assets as part of the solutions mix. To this end we have become Microsoft Cloud Services Partner, are on G-Cloud and our ambition is to be a Citrix Platinum Partner by the end of the year.”

“At Thintech, we help our clients to deliver business critical applications and desktops to endpoints such as PC’s, Laptops and Macs and Smart devices such as Smartphones and Pads. We are a consultancy lead company who work with clients to identify, design and implement the best solutions to overcome their needs and act as trusted advisors on their behalf to help to prevent vender bloat. Traditionally we have been recognised as subject matter experts in all things Citrix.

“Unlike many in IT resellers, we look to drive down cost of ownership for our clients without compromising on end user performance or experience and in doing so often finding ourselves at odds with venders who are purely focused on selling product and maximising sales revenues often leveraging unnecessary add-ons.

“This is partially because our historical mission statement is “Fixing Citrix one desktop at a time”. As our clients look to transition to cloud based services we have adapted as a business from being a Citrix specialised consultancy to transformation specialists helping them to make sense of the challenges of adopting cloud services such as Office 365, Microsoft Azure, Citrix Cloud Services and helping to design and deliver as solution embracing such services that can be delivered to the EndUser without compromising

What sets Thintech apart, according to Brett, is the firm’s commitment to reducing their costs whilst raising their deliverability.

“Additionally, we seek to provide clients with the very best possible level of service, and to achieve this staff training is critical as is adherence to best practice, principles and processes that are defined throughout the business.

Each time a client engages with the Thintech through whichever touchpoint they choose, they will always receive the same high level of service. We have invested in some of the most advanced support and service delivery tools available in the industry.”

With regards to the future, Brett is keen to emphasise his firm’s focus on growth whilst expressing its dedication to continuing to offer clients the very

highest standards of service.

“Looking ahead, Thintech are entering into a period of planned and sustained growth that will see us quadruple in size over the next 3 years. We will continue to develop more IP designed to add value to our core service offerings, whilst still keeping a focus on our core values.

“Within the market, progression to the cloud is unstoppable as more and more organisations look to do away with complex and costly in-house data centre technologies and as demand increases, the market grows pricing continues to drop.

Thintech are building a range of consultancy led services and manged support offerings to aid in the transition and management of such undertakings. There

is a misconception at this time that in switching to the cloud takes away the need to manage your infrastructure. Far from it, Thintech will be working alongside our clients ensure that their cloud infrastructures will run as smoothly and effectively as they did when on premise.”

Company: Thintech Limited Contact: Brett Loveday Contact Email: brett.loveday@thintech.co.uk Address: Innovation Centre Medway, Maidstone Road, Chatham, Kent, ME5 9FDm UK Phone: 01634 551 050 Website: thintech.co.uk/

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Best Independent Communications & Infrastructure Solutions Company 2017 & Award for Excellence in Virtualisation & Remote Management Services Black Box Corporation is a leading technology solutions provider dedicated to helping customers build, manage, optimize, and secure their IT infrastructure. We profile the firm to find out more about the secrets behind its success.

Founded in 1976, Black Box delivers high-value products and services through its global presence and over 4,000 team members.

Since inception, the cornerstone of the firm’s business has been the objective technical advice and support it provides to clients. Today, as a premier provider of communications and infrastructure solutions, Black Box Network Services remains focused on delivering high-quality products and solutions with an unyielding commitment to technical support and service.

Although Black Box Corporation is now a $1 billion organization delivering services and solutions around the globe, at our core, it is an organization of top technical professionals dedicated to delivering personalized support to help you evaluate their clients’ technology options and implement the right communications, infrastructure, and products to achieve their objectives.

Operating across a vast variety of sectors including financing, healthcare, education, government, broadcasting and media, as well as transportation and manufacturing, Black Box has to offer a diverse range of solutions to meet the varied needs of its clients. With our broad portfolio of solutions, years of experience, and extensive technical expertise, Black Box can design, source, install, and maintain the right solutions for almost any business.

The business is business is focused on three solutions: communications, infrastructure and products.

Within the communication solutions space Black Box sells, installs, and maintains communications solutions, such as the latest in unified communications, contact centre, network security, traditional telephony, and more. The firm offer a complete services portfolio, including system maintenance plans and remote monitoring services.

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For infrastructure solutions, Black Box provides planning, installation, and maintenance services for all types of data infrastructures from structured cabling to wireless networks to CATV, and the latest in integrated networking solutions such as routers, switches, and security applications.

Finally, for those seeking product solutions the Black Box Australia store offers an extensive range of products to maintain your infrastructure, including cables, cabinets, racks, digital signage, KVM, networking, multimedia and more—all backed with the best warranties and Tech support.

Alongside its vast array of solutions, the firm offers a range of products which constitutes everything clients need to build, manage, optimize and secure their network. The firm’s goal is to make Black Box the easiest and best place for you to do all your business. Clients will find everything they need to optimize communications and infrastructure networks in Black

Box’s catalogue, and their satisfaction is 100% guaranteed.

These include storage options, cables, control systems and digital signage.

Looking ahead, Black Box will be seeking to build upon its current success and grow even further as it works with clients to develop additional solutions to meet their ever evolving needs.

Company: Black Box Network Services Australia Contact: Ash Khiani Contact Email: ash.khiani@blackbox.com Address: 15 - 17 Jellico Drive, Scoresby, Victoria, 3179, Australia Phone: 0061 3 9237 8100 Website: blackbox.com/en-au

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Best IV&V Automation Solutions Provider 2017 & Software Validation Testing Experts of the Year 2017 OnShore Technology Group is dedicated to providing validation solutions and services to the life sciences industry. CEO Valarie King-Bailey tells us more about the firm and how the solutions it offers meet the varied needs of its clients.

Originally founded in 2004 as an Independent Validation and Verification (IV&V) company OnShore Technology Group has since flourished, and remains dedicated to providing products and services that support its “Lean” validation methodologies which are designed to eliminate waste throughout the validation lifecycle and optimize processes while improving efficiency and lowering costs. Valarie discusses the firm’s service offering in more detail.

“As a pioneer in the validation services industry, at OnShore Technology Group we have developed and delivered the first Enterprise Validation Management and Quality (EVMQ) system marketed as ValidationMaster™. This innovative EVMQ application is designed to fully automate the validation process and includes key features such as requirements management, incident management, automated validation testing, flexible reporting, real-time dashboard reporting, integrated SharePointbased ValidationMaster portal, 21 CFR Part 11 electronic records/signatures capabilities

and the first validation Kanban board to support Agile validation processes.

“Specifically with regards to our validation services, we offer a comprehensive portfolio of services designed to provide expert guidance and compliance for our clients.

Our two core service offerings include ValidationCoach and ValidationPro. ValidationCoach is validation coaching and staff augmentation service designed to deliver experienced validation professionals on demand.

Through our ValidationCoach service offering, we work with our clients’ internal validation personnel to assist them as needed with the development of validation document deliverables and testing in accordance with global regulatory guidelines and ISPE GAMP 5® methodologies.

Through our flexible ValidationCoach service, each client sets their project priorities, goals, and budget for the level of validation coaching they require.

“Our most popular service is ValidationPro, which is a full-service, turnkey validation service that delivers a ready-towork validation team for each engagement. Our ValidationPro team consists of a ready-to-work

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Validation Project Manager, Senior Validation Engineer, and Senior Validation Technical Engineer. Our team has deep technical and compliance domain experience across multiple life sciences industry sectors as well as practical working knowledge of the latest enterprise technologies. We bring the latest best practices and validation principles to each project saving client both time and money. We also offer “Validation Accelerators” for the leading ERP technologies including Microsoft Dynamics 365®, Microsoft NAV®, Microsoft GP®, Oracle e-Business®, SAP®, Epicor®, and many others. Our Validation Accelerators are coupled with ValidationMaster™ to jumpstart any validation project saving up to 60% of the effort required for typical validation project.”

What truly sets the firm apart, according to Valarie, is its innovative approach, which is unlike anything offered by its competitors.

“Our uniqueness lies in the creative ways in which we leverage advanced technology in the development and delivery of validation products and services. An example of this is our pioneering “Lean”

validation methodology. We are the only lean IV&V company in the market. Our methodology is based on the principles of lean manufacturing designed to eliminate waste and nonvalue added work throughout the manufacturing process.

We took lean manufacturing principles and applied them to manual, paper-based validation processes where there is much waste.

“The cornerstone of our strategy is automation. We leverage advanced technologies such as mobility and the cloud to automate manual paperbased validation processes to more automated paperless validation processes that are designed with compliance objectives built in. Our clients choose us because we practice 21st-century validation using automated paperless validation processes. We get the job done faster and better than any of our competitors.”

In order to remain ahead of its competitors and ensure that clients continue to receive the very highest quality service and solutions on the market, OnShore Technology Group works hard to stay at the forefront of emerging market developments, as Valarie is eager to emphasize.

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“To keep abreast of the everchanging world of independent validation and verification and advanced technology, we attend many industry forums and keep up with the latest global regulatory guidelines. We are partners with market leaders such as Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, and many others. To stay ahead of the game, we leverage our Validation Center of Excellence (VCoE) to test and confirm many of the latest technologies before recommending them to our clients. We endeavor to ensure that we work with only the highest quality technology vendors in the application of the their technologies to the IV&V processes we support.”

Cybersecurity is a key issue affecting many industries, including both the technology and life sciences spaces, which OnShore Technology Group both operate in and support. As such, the company is committed to tackling this issue and supporting clients to overcome the myriad of challenges they face, as Valarie explains.

“Although we deliver products and services globally, our company is based in the United States. The key challenges we face with respect to validated systems include cyber security and the validation of advanced cloud-based enterprise applications. Cyber security is an ever- present threat for companies of any size within any industry. Validated systems have a unique challenge to address when it comes to cyber security vulnerabilities in that life sciences companies must maintain the validated state overtime. Also, many companies in life sciences are embracing cloud applications which provide unique challenges in terms of outsourcing the responsibility for system infrastructure, validation change control and maintaining the validated state overtime in the cloud. Finally, many life sciences companies are embracing mobility to drive compliance processes across the enterprise.

Mobile technologies provide a unique challenge for validated systems as well including how to effectively test them and maintain them in a validated state.

“Therefore mobility, cyber security, and the cloud are changing the way today’s enterprise systems are validated in life sciences companies.

OnShore Technology Group has developed innovative strategies, products and services designed to specifically address these challenges and help our customers maintain validated systems over time.

“An example of what we are doing in the industry to address these unique challenges is our unique approach to the qualification of validated systems. Many of our clients are familiar with Installation Qualification (IQ), Operational Qualification (OQ), and Performance Qualification (PQ).

OnShore Technology Group is the first company to pioneer the use of a cyber security qualification (CyQ) designed to include a cybersecurity risk assessment, identification and prioritization of security gaps and controls, and testing to mitigate cybersecurity vulnerabilities and risks. The goal of the CyQ is to maintain data integrity throughout the life of the system and to protect and defend validated systems environments. We are the only company in the market that is directly addressing the threat of cyber vulnerabilities to validated computer systems.”

This focus on supporting clients through these challenges will remain the firm’s ongoing focus as it looks ahead, as Valarie highlights.

“Currently we are working with leading technology companies to develop and deliver innovative solutions to the market. Cyber security is changing the face of validation and impacting it in ways that are unprecedented.

We are at the forefront of addressing these industry trends with market-leading solutions and services.”

Looking further ahead, Valarie has many ambitious plans to drive success for clients and help OnShore Technology Group thrive.

“Overall, we look forward to the future with great anticipation.

Although technology has

advanced at the speed of thought, IV&V processes have remained manual, paperbased and stagnant over the past 40 years. As life sciences companies continue to deliver innovative therapies to address current health challenges, we will assist them in ensuring that their validated systems environments and mobile technologies are production-ready and of the highest software quality.

“Given the changes in the way software is developed, implemented and deployed across the enterprise, we believe IV&V processes must keep up with these changes over time.

OnShore Technology Group is an IV&V pioneer and at the forefront of these changes.

We will continue to provide expert validation services across the globe as well as the continued enhancement of ValidationMaster.

“It is our ultimate goal to expand beyond the life sciences industry to address other highly regulated industry sectors such as technology, nuclear, government, tobacco, and

many others where IV&V is a mandated process. In each of the industry sectors it is our goal to understand their unique challenges with respect to IV&V and quality testing and provide solutions that uniquely address their requirements leveraging our advanced technology services and solutions. We will continue with the perfection of our Lean Validation strategy in an effort to continue the optimization of the processes and overall reduction in the cost of IV&V service delivery. We look forward to leading the way with 21st-century independent validation and verification products and services that save our clients both time and money.”

Contact Email: vkbailey@onshoretech.com Address: Lake Point Tower Renaissance Plaza, 505 N. Lake Shore Drive, Suite 220, Chicago, Illinois 60611, USA Phone: +312-321-6400 Website: onshoretech.com/ & validationmaster.com/

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Best Commodity Data Management Solutions Provider 2017 DataGenic Ltd offers a range of technology and services that challenges the accepted norm of predominately customised data management projects. We spoke to Richard Quigley, Chief Executive Officer, to explore how the innovative range of solutions his firm offers.

Founded in 2002, DataGenic is proud to be recognised by their clients and industry participants as the global leader in commodity data management and decision analytics, having flourished over the years into a multi awardwinning platform, with a focus on product innovation and support excellence. The firm’s flexible solutions are deployed at Tier 1 enterprise clients, such as E.ON, Cargill, EDF Energy as well as the SME community. The innovative offering includes a data-agnostic multi-commodity data management platform, business process management, rules-based data quality management and unfettered realtime forward curves construction, all within an intelligent decision framework. Richard discusses the key pillars of DataGenic’s strategy and how they have helped in the success of the company: “Our focus is on servicing energy and commodity market participants. We have remained true to this focus from the outset. The key pillars to our strategy have been anticipating, and adapting to the constantly changing market conditions and requirements, both from a technical and functional perspective, as well as adapting to service level requirements.

Our flexible commercial and technical entry points ensure that we can reach all market participants, irrespective of

company size or location.

Furthermore, we have an unwavering commitment to further develop our cloud based/ zero IT footprint offering, building on our technical partnerships that deliver demonstrable value to our clients and to become the #1 trusted partner for all trading and risk based commodity data within an organisation.”

DataGenic maintains a cross section of clients, including utilities, integrated oil companies, commodity trading houses and commercial and industrial players. Each client has its own idiosyncrasies regarding how they operate their business and derive market value. For certain companies, a pre-configured ‘off the shelf’ solution is more than sufficient, whereas for others a bespoke approach may be required to recreate and enhance their internal processes.

Since inception the firm has witnessed many changes in this challenging industry, not least the adoption of the cloud, which has gained more momentum through cost savings, ease of operation, improved scalability and more robust security.

Another huge area that is having a dramatic impact on the industry is Big Data. This has led to ground breaking changes, such as preventative maintenance, more informed trading decisions, improved logistics and a sharper lens on risk indicators. However, this part of the industry remains in its nascent stage, to a certain

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extent, with an abundance of possibilities ahead.

Such industry changes can present challenges as well as opportunities within DataGenic’s business. However, there have been some subtle lessons learned along the company’s 15-year journey, as Richard explains: “Ensure you set expectations and understand the need, occasionally, to say no to clients. Otherwise, the risk of under delivering is increased.

Also, foster a culture of honesty with clients, staff and partners, no matter how uncomfortable the immediate conversation.

Explaining the options available with the associated risks, enables the counterparty to make an informed decision and avoid issues and disappointment further down the line.”

With one of the highest client retention ratios in the industry, DataGenic have built a solid reputation in the marketplace for rapid delivery of solutions, whilst providing a technical platform with wide reaching and significant long-term benefits. As Richard explains “Clients quickly realise the inherent advantages of working with DataGenic when looking at several factors.

Firstly, DataGenic provides a data agnostic platform, with enterprise scalability, rich functionality coupled with the largest aggregated hub of end of day commodity market data. In addition to this, the DataGenic applications simultaneously

communicate with multiple downstream systems, build in memory real-time curves and, as a company, we provide the most comprehensive and reactive Service Level Agreement in the industry.”

Ultimately, Richard has ambitious plans for the future of DataGenic.

He aims to consolidate their position as the leader in Commodity Data Management.

“Our aspirations are to provide an intelligent decision-making platform, which offers our clients a holistic 360-degree predictive analysis and view of their data in real-time, including structured and unstructured data. We are also striving to replicate the success we have achieved in European within the Americas.”

Company: DataGenic Ltd Name: Richard Quigley Address: Cheapside House, London, EC2V 6BJ Telephone: +44 203 814 8500 Web Address: datagenicgroup.com

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Best Mortgage Software Provider 2017 - UK Bluecoat Software is a software consultancy and IFA systems solution provider based in Covent Garden, London. We invited Mark Skelding, Managing Director, to tell us a bit more.

First of all, how does it feel to have been given your award?

What do you believe are the reasons behind your success?

It was a pleasant surprise. I would like to thank all of our clients who have given us invaluable feedback throughout the design and development phases of the project. It is an honour to be recognised by our peers and the industry in general.

Please give us a brief overview of your company, your clients and the services you offer?

Bluecoat Software provides the award-winning financial technology platform, FinPlan.

It is a comprehensive practice management solution for financial advisers and mortgage brokers. FinPlan is an end-toend, workflow-based solution, that enables firms to control all aspects of their work, whilst meeting the compliance obligations set out by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Based in central London, Bluecoat Software offers a UKwide solution for the Financial Services industry.

Our services are primarily deployed to industry professionals, many of whom are non-technical. Whilst users may be unaware of how a technology platform operates, or the specific challenges that need to be overcome; they demand a solution that is easy to use and that works efficiently and reliably.

What is your firm’s overall mission and what steps do you take to achieve this?

Our core objective is to enable industry professionals to work

smarter and more effectively, by delivering them an easy-touse, premium quality software application, with best-in-class technology and ongoing support.

What differentiates your firm from your competitors and marks you out as the best possible option for your clients?

FinPlan is designed to save time.

It is easy to use and provides a secure environment to do business. It offers better ways of working, but does not impose cumbersome practices on its users.

We don’t just provide software.

We work with our clients to create a strategic partnership.

Our bespoke implementation process ensures that our clients actually receive the benefits from a properly deployed application.

We work hard to ensure that they understand the system and that it is configured so that they can work efficiently.

Please give me a brief overview of the technology industry in your region currently. Are there any specific challenges or outside influences affecting it?

System security is hugely important. There is a continuous ‘arms race’ between those seeking to illegally gain access to personal data - via the hacking of insecure websites - and those charged with protecting the data.

We understand our responsibility, as a software platform supplier, to protect unauthorised access to data. We have implemented a range of procedures to continuously review and assess the current effectiveness of system security, including continual internal code reviews,

regression testing and regular external penetration testing.

Working within the fastpaced technology industry, what techniques do you employ to stay ahead of emerging developments?

An area that we invest in heavily, is the provision and maintenance of the secure cloud-infrastructure and our data-hosting environment. Secure data and efficient access to the platform remain essential requirements for our current and future strategies.

What is the internal culture in your firm? How do you ensure that all of your staff are equipped to provide the best possible service to your clients?

We work in an industry that is fast-paced and always moving forward. We are able to provide a stimulating and challenging environment for our staff to work in, but our primary goal is to provide the very best level of service, backed up by an excellent product. We continue to expand our team to meet the needs of our rapidly growing client base.

What does the future hold for your firm? Do you have any future plans or projects you would like to share with us?

In all industries, the continual and rapid innovation within technology and communication offers significant opportunities to evolve existing business practices. There are many exciting projects currently under review and platform security will continue to be a hugely important part of our future development strategy. We see the further development of our

existing portal technologies being significant and we continue to monitor industry-wide developments relating to wealth platforms and robo advice.

With regards to the technology industry, what developments do you foresee and how will you adapt around these?

I think we will see a movement towards full spectrum developers as the industry continues to push forward, it’s less about multilayer and more about multi-discipline.

The goal of FinPlan has always been to facilitate an end-to-end process, where users can enter information once, automate processes and receive, record and analyse data from disparate sources to deliver an effective, efficient and compliant service proposition to clients.

Email for demo: info@bluecoatsoftware.com Address: 90 Long Acre, Covent Garden, London, WC2E 9RZ, UK Call for demo: 0845 226 0720 Website: bluecoatsoftware.com

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Best Employee Experience Software OneHub Benefex provides innovative and creative employee experience solutions to a wide range of clients. We invited Matt Macri-Waller to tell us more about the firm and the software it offers.

Benefex prides itself on being the first employee experience provider.

People look to their employer to create meaningful employee experiences, and Benefex’s solutions deliver these, every day. Its OneHub platform is an invaluable tool for HR teams across the globe, giving them one place to manage their employee reward and benefits, employee communications, reporting and analytics, recognition, employee value proposition, and more. Matt talks us through this unique solution and how it helps clients to ensure excellence for their employees.

“Based in Southampton, our 180 employees carry a varied and extensive skill-set, from development, to client management, to data analysis, to employee support. Every aspect of our product is designed, built, and managed in-house, so we have a whole host of talented individuals here, who collectively create amazing experiences for our clients and their employees. We deliver our OneHub platform to household names with huge and diverse employee bases. BT, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Plusnet, and E.ON make up just a few of our valued clients. Over a million employees across 25 countries rely on OneHub to provide them with a straightforward and intuitive system on which they can access their benefits, see their total reward, find out about the goings-on at work, and much more.

“Additionally, we also deliver expert consultancy across all-things HR and employee benefits; beautiful and engaging communications to inspire our clients’ employees; dedicated employee support to answer general queries and free-up time for HR teams; and broking services to make sure we offer the latest, most inspiring and innovative benefits in the market to best suit our clients and their people.

“Overall, our mission is to deliver exceptional employee experiences, every day.

There is a tendency within our industry to focus on that annual enrolment period. But to become engaged, employees don’t just want a party once a year, they need to feel valued every day. We achieve this by ensuring that we are there for our clients every day. We offer a service of constant and relevant communications throughout the year to ensure that employees are recognised for their everyday achievements and effort.

The employee experiences that we design celebrate the everyday inspiration that people bring to their work, and they create authentic and meaningful interactions between organisations and their employees.”

This one of a kind solution is what sets Benefex apart from the competition, as Matt is keen to highlight.

“Over recent years, the market has focused on employee engagement. We take a different

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approach; we focus on those everyday employee experiences.

We believe engagement is an outcome; if you pay attention to employee experiences and get them right, engagement is inevitable. Our OneHub platform delivers an all-encompassing solution for the benefit of our clients and their employees alike.

The platform is entirely geared towards the user experience.

Every aspect of OneHub is designed with the end user in mind, and what their experience of interacting with OneHub looks and feels like. If we focus on the end user, we will inevitably drive productivity, motivation and consequently ROI. OneHub replicates that concise

and simple online customer experience for employees.

It’s innovative and intuitive in design, agile, and easy to use.

It is designed for the latest in technology and devices; OneHub can be used anytime, anywhere, on any device.”

People are vital to any firm’s success, and as such Benefex seeks to provide their people with the supportive environment they aim to cultivate for clients, as Matt explains.

“Fundamentally, our success is down to the incredible people we have working for us here at Benefex, and their passion and innovation. Our employees look after our clients; HRDs, CFOs,

CEOs etc., but we ensure that we keep the end user in mind in everything we do. Our platform is built around a focus on user experience, and we make it our mission to mimic that impeccable and intuitive online customer experience we are all so familiar with as consumers. Retaining this focus allows everyone at Benefex to channel our energy towards one clear goal of delivering exceptional employee experiences, every day.

“Nobody goes to work to do a bad job. That is as true for us as it is for our clients and their employees. We have eight company values in place which ensure that we are all bringing a great level of effort and motivation to work, but they also encourage our individuality so that we can bring our passion to work as well. Our mission is to deliver exceptional employee experiences, every day. If we deliver exceptional employee experiences, employees deliver great customer experiences. At Benefex, we enjoy what we do, and this translates into the work

we produce.

“Alongside this, we also have a great learning and development programme through the Benefex University, which delivers coaching modules throughout the year; and also Lesson.ly – our online learning platform. We’re encouraged to learn all we can about our industry, but also about different interests too, such as team management, presenting techniques, and writing skills, so that each of us can bring a wellrounded approach to our work.”

Operating in the trend driven, ever changing technology market, Benefex has to work hard to ensure that it is always ahead of the competition and offering the solutions its clients need. Looking ahead, this will remain the firm’s ongoing focus, as Matt concludes.

“Currently, our industry is slowly learning to be behaviour-driven when it comes to its recommendations and predictions, rather than demographic-driven. We

are already there with this approach, which is why it’s so important for our platform to be agile to the extent that it can be personalised to a granular level. OneHub collects volumes of useful and practical data which can be used to produce relevant recommendations to employees. Along with this is the rise in wearable technology which can surface invaluable health, wellbeing, and medical data about employees (should they choose to share it) in order to best assist them however you can as an employer.

“Intuitiveness and simplicity are trends that will not disappear. For example, we know that people like to link their social media accounts together, or to be able to sign in automatically to PayPal when shopping with Amazon, and this trend has transferred to life at work as well. People are looking more and more for integrated solutions which amalgamate and consolidate in to one platform. Single signon between various systems is something which OneHub

offers, and which will continue to be a huge consideration as we develop our technology.

“Ultimately, OneHub is leading the way for the employee experience market, and it’s developing every day. OneHub already delivers global benefits management, communications, analytics, EVP and wellbeing. We have developed it to be agile and robust so that it can be easily updated to incorporate the latest industry trends, and the needs of HR teams, but also so that it can be used on new technologies and devices, e.g. wearables.”

Company: Benefex Contact: Emily Plummer Contact Email: hello@benefex.co.uk Address: Mountbatten House, Grosvenor Square, Southampton, SO15 2JU, UK Phone: 0845 129 8636 Web Address: hellobenefex.com

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Best Business Solutions IT Company - UK Meritec provides a wide range of services and solutions to deliver performance improvement and save money for its customers in the public and private sectors. We invited Haydn Howard to tell us more about the firm and the range of services it provides to this myriad of clients.

Established in 1996, Meritec has since flourished into a highly respected professional and digital services company based in Skipton, North Yorkshire.

Haydn discusses the firm’s clients and how it works to provide them with the highest possible level of support and service.

“Here at Meritec, our customers are spread far and wide throughout the UK and include the majority of local authorities as well as a range of large companies. We supply a portfolio of innovative business and digital solutions. All our solutions are hosted in our UK datacentres and our services are delivered against high performance service level agreements thereby enhancing customer value and reducing risk. We pride ourselves on strong relationships, we are friendly and easy to do business with and our core value is to exceed our customers’ expectations.

“Our ESB Agile based solutions help our customers to do more for less. Our Flexible support services provide expertise when it’s needed, allowing customers to maintain service delivery through a period of unprecedented change.

Our e-Awareness products enable good practice in areas such as corporate fraud, risk management and information security. Our CPOMS solution enables safeguarding of pupils

in all sizes and types of schools.

Our innovative business applications simplify complex operations.”

As part of its client focused approach, Meritec Limited are experts in business and digital innovation, and this is reflected both in the firm’s offering and in its mission, as Haydn explains.

“To ensure excellence for our clients, our mission is to dramatically reduce our customers’ operating costs through modern IT services and solutions that do exactly what’s needed in the most effective way. We provide digital solutions using our unique software platform, ESB Agile, that rapidly generates smart business applications through the automation of business rules and variable parameters.

Solutions already exist for many key areas and these can be readily localised. Our solutions and services are securely hosted from UK tier 3 datacentres, whilst applications management and migration/ conversion are our forte. We enable our clients to provide their customers with truly digital capabilities such that they can get the job done in the most effective way at the lowest possible cost.

“As such, Meritec’s approach is to ensure our solutions do what is needed in the most simple and effective way at a much more affordable cost. Our solutions are based upon an expert facility which can rapidly generate

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business applications through the definition of appropriate business rules and parameters. Solutions are ready-made in many key areas and these can be readily deployed and easily tailored to suit local requirements. Each solution focuses on the most effective route to fulfilment and manages all the requisite information, processes, outputs and interfaces with other vital systems. All at substantially reduced cost compared with alternatives.

“Fundamentally, our approach saves money by substantially reducing operational costs; improves service performance by speeding up fulfilment; delivers effective results by focusing on real needs; reduces risk by deploying proven methods; exploits data by interfacing easily with critical systems; eases management support by keeping technology simple and together; protects investment by readily enabling wider application; enables growth by simple steps.”

This client focused approach is emphasised throughout the organisation and is central to Meritec’s internal culture, as Haydn is keen to highlight.

“Our culture is shaped by our client-centeredness. Our attitude and approach are driven by conforming with our customers’ requirements in the most effective way. Meritec prides itself on our strong relationships with our customers. We are friendly and easy to do business with

and our core value is to exceed our customers’ expectations. We have extensive experience of our customers’ needs. Many of our staff have worked in or with customer organisations for many years. Our team and partnership approaches ensures this knowledge and understanding is exploited in our service delivery.

“Essentially, we pride ourselves on experiencing extremely low staff turnover; this provides good stability, continuity and enables us to build lasting relationships with our clients and their staff.”

What sets the firm apart from its vast array of competitors is that Meritec are not only business and digital experts but the firm also own and supply a powerful digital platform. At its heart is an agile rapid deployment tool that is ideally suited to the digital space. It has many components that are essential for digital working, especially mobile applications. Moreover, Meritec have developed a wide range of digital processes that can be readily deployed and localised for clients.

Additionally, modern systems like Meritec’s are sociable - they look outwardly to the customer, internally and externally. The systems are intuitive and intelligent and designed to interact easily with the user.

Moreover, they are seamlessly linked to smart and functional front-ends with powerful dashboard viewing and reporting facilities to reach all parts.

Fundamentally, these systems have been designed for today’s mobile and agile world. So, they can be easily accessed using mobile devices, and applications are available for off-line working pending subsequent synchronisation if necessary. This substantially enables agile working in the public sector. Haydn, who draws on his vast experience in the market, discusses the latest trends his firm is seeing in this dynamic space and how it is adapting around these to support its clients.

“Within the wider market, we are finding that the main driver is to achieve ever great efficiency and effectiveness. That’s why our adage for clients is to ‘Do More for Less, Faster’. Our customers need to make savings and improve their business operations and they need to do so quickly. Our solutions can help deliver rapid change and return substantial benefits.

“A further significant challenge for our clients is constant exposure to change; because our solutions are extremely agile then change becomes more readily achievable. It is becoming evident that the required scale and pace of change in all sectors cannot be achieved by organisational change alone. It can only be achieved through digital transformation.

“Most organisations are driven by similar needs: to reduce spending substantially; to meet customer needs when and how they want; and to secure new ways of working that futureproof their organisation through operational agility and mobility.

Moreover, organisations need change that delivers earliest returns - yet is sustainable down track to provide a robust basis for continuous improvement.

“In this scenario, the usual apparatus of change is not enough. Only digitally led transformation can foster better informed, more flexible,

mobile and interchangeable staff together with service delivery that’s based on modern processes enabling effective flexible and mobile working.

Additionally, our clients tell us we are easy to work with, always accommodating, flexible and provide first class quality and value for money.”

With regards to the future, Meritec has a number of exciting developments ahead, as Haydn is proud to conclude.

“Looking to the future, there are three key developments, in particular, that we feel need to be harnessed to ensure success in digital innovation; mobile, big data and security. Beneficial change depends upon mobile operations both in terms of customer service and workforce.

Effective use of information depends on making order out of the chaos of disparate data sources. And all of this needs to operate in a secure environment.

We are well versed in these areas and are committed to

continuously improving our digital solutions accordingly.

“Overall, our aim for the future is to scale rapidly to deliver into our market the substantial benefits of digital innovation.

We are continuously developing advanced digital solutions to reach all parts of our customers’ business. As part of this, we are in the process of introducing a range of “off the shelf” Digital solutions that provide true endto-end Digital capabilities from the front end right through to include new or replacement back office applications. These have already proven extremely popular at a range of sites.”

Contact: Haydn Howard Contact Email: Haydn.Howard@meritec.co.uk Address: Meritec House, Acorn Business Park, Skipton, BD23 2UE, UK Phone: 07795 114 318 Website: meritec.co.uk/

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Best Online Non-Profit Network 2017 Care2 is the world’s largest social network for good, a community of over 40 million standing together, starting petitions and sharing stories that inspire action. We invited Eric Rardin to tell us more about the firm.

Founded in 1998, Care2 helps individuals start petitions and make a difference in their community whilst helping over 2,000 non-profits and mission based brands find and connect with new supporters and customers, globally. Care2 is a certified B Corporation, harnessing the power of business as a force for good.

Since inception, the firm has provided a platform for online petitions and Eric Rardin, VP of Business Development, discusses how the company supports non-profit organisations and socially conscious brands.

“Care2 has been a pioneer of cause-based social networking since our inception. We provided the first central platform for online petitions, and were the first to help nonprofit organizations tap into this source of passionate supporters. Today, we’re not only the world’s largest social network for good, but also the only values-based social network in existence.”

“Alongside the values that the company stands for, we are a community of over 40 million citizen activists standing together and making extraordinary impact - locally, nationally and internationally - by starting petitions and supporting each other’s campaigns. We’ve had a demonstrable positive impact on communities around the world, with new petition successes every day. Care2

supports nonprofits and socially conscious brands by connecting their causes with our members through sponsored petitions.

We have helped over 2,000 nonprofits find new donors, supporters and volunteers.”

Discussing what sets the firm apart from its competitors, Eric summarises how the corporation uses social networking to have an earth-friendly impact on the world. The platform aligns itself with organisations and companies who share the same values, and will not partner up with those who don’t have similar views.

“As a certified B-Corporation, Care2 is committed to using the power of business to make a positive social and earth-friendly impact on the world. Unlike some petition platforms, we never partner with organizations or companies whose values don’t align with our own. Our mission attracts only the most positive, determined people to our online community. That means that nonprofits who partner with us find a community of like-minded individuals who already support their cause.”

As part of its remit, the organisation uses the significant power of online petitions for good, and has a growing list of achievements and honours which it lists as it’s significant successes, as Eric is keen to point out.

“The Care2 community realises the power of online petitions

44 Corporate Vision / Technology Innovator Awards 2017

in a world where government can be frustratingly ineffective.

Together, we have protected wolves around Denali National Park, won justice for victims of discrimination, saved dogs from euthanasia, helped get GMOs out of Hershey chocolates, stopped an old growth oak grove from destruction, shut down an abusive farm, stopped the killing of rare owls, and much more.”

Currently, the company is adapting to new developments within the industry, and Eric outlines the techniques Care2 plans to employ to stay ahead of emerging developments.

“Since the success of a petition often rests on receiving a critical mass of shares and signatures,

we use a number of methods to drive traffic to our site. Social media has become increasingly noisy in the last few years, so it can be difficult to promote some niche issues. The key may be something as simple as creating a hashtag for people to rally around.”

Aside from just being a platform to grow petitions, the organisation has also evolved to become an industry expert in emails, which Eric points out is integral to the business, as they rely heavily on email as part of their process.

“Care2 as a company also rely heavily on email so much that we have become an industry expert on email best practices. It’s vital

to our business that our list is healthy and happy. We invest much of our time and technology into making sure emails reach inboxes.

Despite a wealth of experience within the industry, there are still parts of its roots that Care2 relies upon as it progresses. The employees work from all over the globe, but use a succession of apps in order to stay connected, as Care2 seeks to keep its staff happy. There are benefits for the staff and Eric observes that this helps to ensure all staff are fully equipped to provide the highest quality of service the clients.

“Although we will soon be celebrating our 20th birthday, Care2 still draws from its startup roots. Our employees work from over a dozen locations across the globe, but we’re always connected through Slack and other apps. We enjoy benefits like flexible hours, pet-friendly offices, and catered lunches on Fridays. And we’re quick to adapt to the changing needs of our clients.”

“Fundamentally, Care2 is truly committed to the causes we

promote. Most of our team members have worked at nonprofits, regularly volunteer, or are involved in community organizing. Care2 encourages its employees to be involved outside of work, and we frequently get together for protests, charity runs, and service activities.”

Acknowledging that the company is growing rapidly, Eric notes that Care2 is always looking for ways to improve their technology and adapt to a rapidly evolving industry, all whilst expanding its operations across a number of new countries to the rapidly evolving industry, all whilst expanding its operations across a number of new countries.

The site is now presentable in a number of different languages, highlighting the growing success and innovation of Care2.

“Care2 is growing rapidly under the direction of our founder and CEO, Randy Paynter.

We’re constantly improving our technology to deliver the most robust petition platform to our users. In the last year, we’ve expanded our operations into several new countries, including Germany, Spain, France, and

the Netherlands. We’re now presenting our petition site in a growing list of languages.”

As ever, Care2 is still looking to embark on future successes, whilst also building on its current achievements. The future projects look exciting for Care2, with celebrities collaborating alongside Care2, and many more partnerships which are planned in the coming months. The company has also looked into how they can help people who want to start petitions and make the petition grow, having just launched a new program which enables this. Eric is keen to point out the high profile names which are becoming associated with Care2 and how they plan to build a successful future.

“Looking ahead, Care2 is keen to find new ways to support local petitions. Last year, we launched Activist University to share the knowledge we have gained over nearly 20 years and tens of thousands successful campaigns. Activist University is a series of free online and in-person workshops that teach citizens to become grassroots

organizers in their communities.

It offers live, individualized help on topics that range from making a petition go viral to building movements on college campuses.”

“In order to reach higher target audiences, we are also increasing our brand reach by partnering with celebrities and other influencers. Recent high-profile collaborators include actors Connie Britton and Kate Mara. We look forward to the rest of 2017 and beyond as we continue to pursue positive change in the world.”

Contact: Eric Rardin Contact Address: ericr@care2team.com Address 718 7th St NW, Floor 2, Washington DC, 20001, USA Phone: 001 703 473 2825 Website: care2services.com

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Winner of Best Global Translation Solutions and Technology Provider: Software Localization 2017 Lionbridge is a recognized global leader in translation and content management services.

Lionbridge enables more than 800 worldleading brands to increase international market share, speed adoption of products and effectively engage customers in local markets worldwide. This award is a fantastic recognition of the work they do for their global customers and cements their unique offering and position in the market.

Using their innovative cloud technology platforms and global crowd of more than 100,000 professional cloud workers, they provide detail-critical business processes, including translation, online marketing, global content management and application testing solutions that ensure global brand consistency, local relevancy and technical usability across all touch points of the customer lifecycle. Based in Waltham, Massachusetts, Lionbridge maintains solution centers in 27 countries.

Being truly global requires an intimate understanding of culture and business process to know how to work, connect and succeed around the world.

Lionbridge makes the world accessible on any platform, any time, in any language. By managing the details on a global

scale for customers, they enable companies to outperform globally with products and content that are locally relevant and brandconsistent worldwide.

They continuously innovate to remain the world’s go-to provider of business processes, translation, global marketing, and application testing solutions.

Their customers succeed through a combination of their global vision and local understanding, attention to detail, superior delivery and customer service. By working closely with customers from the outset, Lionbridge are able to understand what they need, and continue to develop processes to meet those needs.

Lionbridge approaches customer challenges with a global perspective, leveraging decades of in-market experience from around the world. With an eye on the details, they focus on business operations and the day-to-day, allowing customers to focus on the big picture and growing their businesses anywhere they operate. They strive to be an integral part of their customers’ teams and take pride in their success.

The business pursues innovation that increases productivity and customer responsiveness,

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and uncover every detail that will improve client business processes. Lionbridge invite and foster a culture of diversity, participation, knowledge sharing and accountability across their global organization.

The software localization process involves more than just hiring someone to translate into other languages. It’s important to have a partner who understands what works (and what doesn’t) in other cultures, as well as the technical requirements involved to save time, money and rework.

Lionbridge adapts content to the target language and culture, by digging deeper to understand end-user scenarios, looking not just at content but context as well across all elements of: •

Graphics

•

Design/Layout

•

Formatting

•

Functionality

•

Expansion and truncation

•

Cultural relevance and adaptation

The global software market currently values at almost half a trillion dollars and growing across all sectors. Despite meeting budget and timeline targets,

today’s applications will be rejected if user expectations are not met.

Some of the factors contributing to software failure include: - Marketing and customer support - Lack of required features and functions - Lack of corporate sponsorship - Scope creep and loopholes in project management To successfully implement a winning software strategy, the key is to design with localization from the outset, in order to reduce cost, functional and capacity issues.

Localization is a process of adapting a product or content to a specific locale or market and is a key factor for user satisfaction.

Translation is only one of the several elements in the process.

Successful localization ensures that key functional elements appear to have been designed specifically for the target market regardless of language culture or location.

Planning software localization with a global mind-set will streamline localization into multiple languages and markets.

Ultimately increasing global reach, brand credibility, market

relevance, return on investment and user satisfaction, without added risk.

Here are 5 tips to incorporate into the planning phase: 1) Design with localization in mind 2) Plan for a minimum of 30% text expansion 3) Not all icons are universal or neutral – so use icons with care 4) Test software localizability 5) When in doubt, ask an expert Localization is going to be a key driver to increase global reach and deliver greater value to more users. It is important to approach localization as a strategy and not a task for global success.

Contact Email: info@lionbridge.com Phone: +1 866-267-0437 Address: 1050 Winter Street, Suite 2300, Waltham, MA 02451 Website: lionbridge.com/translationlocalization/software-localization

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Best Renewable Energy Infrastructure Support Company Europe Biogas Technology Ltd supports a range of clients in the landfill gas industry to ensure the safe disposal of various natural gas products. General Manager Andrew Masi talks us through the firm and how it works to ensure excellence for its clients at all times.

Established in 1988, Biogas brings together the resources and expertise to lift the burden of risk, liability and finance faced by landfill site operators, and to help its clients capitalise on commercial opportunities. Originally founded out of the requirement to destroy unwanted (and highly explosive) methane gas found within landfill sites, at the time the firm mainly focused on the flaring technology and pipe work infrastructure required to remove the gases to make the sites safe.

Andrew explains how the firm has developed since inception and adapted its service offering to meet the constantly changing needs of its clients.

“Over the past 30 years Biogas has been involved in the ever evolving landfill gas industry from the NFFO (Non-Fossil Fuel Obligation) pumping trials of the early to mid-1990’s to the Kyoto CDM (Clean development mechanism) from the mid 2000’s to present day, where Biogas have actively reduced Ch4

emissions on several active landfill sites within several counties including Mexico, Brazil, Peru and China. We also recently teamed up with both The EA and DECC along with several other partners to work on the ACUMEN project (Assessing, Capturing and Utilising Methane from Expired and Non-operational landfills) which accessed new and existing technologies to help reduce carbon emissions into the atmosphere from expired and non-operational landfills.

“To ensure that we continued to offer clients the solutions they needs, Biogas designed and developed a new prototype Low Flow, Low calorific high temperature ground flare. Since inception the firm has continued to provide and complete aftercare packages for our customers over this period and have had several contracts with councils and private companies that have been in place for over twenty years which shows our overall commitment to our clients which entrusted them to enable Biogas to manage their sites and equipment. We also provide the

48 Corporate Vision / Technology Innovator Awards 2017

same services into the anaerobic digestion industry and the coal mine / coal bed methane and the onshore oil and gas sectors.

“Currently, Biogas provides full turnkey engineering packages to one off service visits and we offer the same quality of work on all our projects. We then deal with all projects in the same way as outlined within our standard procedures that allows for our continued high level of service. We also make sure that we have constant communication with the client throughout the project to make sure every aspect of the works is completed too the client’s full satisfaction. The main reason for Biogas’s success is our core knowledge and experience of the industry and what is required to keep ahead of the regulations and requirements set out by the governing agencies, to provide the technology for the customers to make sure their site and equipment are run and maintained in the most cost effective way and technologies are updated if and when required.”

Setting the firm apart from its competitors is its dedication to constant innovation and development, as well as its vast experience in the industry, as Andrew is eager to highlight.

“As the longest standing landfill gas specialist company in the UK market place (established in the middle 1980’s), Biogas has the experience and in depth knowledge of clients sites which simply cannot be provided by others who do not have the longevity of our firm.

This combined with a proven long standing track record of quality service which is uniquely provided in the spirit of long term relationships, rather than short term wins, as is reflected by some contracts that have been in place continually for more than 20 years, is what sets us distinctly apart from others in this space.

“In addition to this is our constant need to adapt in order to serve our clients’ needs. We are constantly improving the emissions output and energy

requirements for all our systems as both have influencing factors on the environment from a global point of view which is consider within our designs when developing existing and new technologies. We also have close relationships with the compliance agencies in the landfill sector, which include the EA, health and safety requirements as well as global factors including climate change mitigation and air quality requirements. We are active players in the area of R&D and where possible we do this in collaboration with clients and agencies to ensure what we develop is fit for purpose.”

With regards to the future, Andrew foresees many exciting opportunities for his firm to grow

even further and build upon its current success.

“Looking to the future, we see a very consistent and demanding future ahead for Biogas in the UK landfill sector, although active landfill sites are in decline due to waste management strategy, the legacy of larger closed landfills will exist for many years to come.

The post closure management of landfill gas becomes increasingly difficult and complex as time goes by. As such, Biogas is actively developing products and services that will meet these demands and ensure future compliance to assist landfill site owners. We see the development of the low calorific flaring system developed through the ACUMEN projects in conjunction with

the EA as a key product in the requirements these sites will present in the future.

“Additionally, we are also involved within the onshore oil and gas development sector with our flaring systems, due to the change within this sector policy which has made the need for our kind of technology to be made available for the development and operation of the plants going forward. Biogas will also continue to develop new and innovative products to meet these requirements and is already actively doing so, however these developments are ongoing at this stage and we are not able to divulge details at this time.”

Contact: Andrew Masi Contact Email: andrew.masi@biogas.co.uk Address: Edison House, Daniel Adamson Road, Salford, M50 1DT, United Kingdom Phone: 01487 831 701 Web Address: biogas.co.uk

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Best Telecom Solutions Provider & Award for Excellence in Mobile Financial Solutions – USA & Most Innovative IP Telephony Platform: Bridge2Call Panamax Inc, part of Bankai Group, is successfully scaling the international markets and helping telcos, carriers, MNOs & MVNOs to do business with advanced technologies. Manoj Jain, COO, Bankai Group tells us more about the firm, its parent company and the solutions it provides.

Bankai Group is a leader in Information & Communications Technology (ICT) and services sector, with interests in wholesale as well as retail Voice and Telecom Technology business. For more than 28 years, Bankai Group has been instrumental in providing ultimate Carrier Solutions worldwide with exceptional competence in IP interconnects.

The firm carries International Voice and SMS traffic worldwide and streamline the businesses of telcos through our sound industry knowledge & competitive pricing.

Emancipating the limitations of traditional voice business, Bankai Group offers an automated carrier platform for online trading and settlement of wholesale interconnect Voice, SMS and Unified Communications and Collaboration services. The group also treasures expertise in developing flexible BSS (Business Support System), NSS (Network Switching Subsystem) and MFS (Mobile Finance Solutions) for the telecom and VAS industry. Manoj discusses the group’s mission and how it

works to ensure excellence for its clients.

“The mission of Bankai Group is to keep our clients updated by using the best technology in our products, keeping up with their business requirements. We enable our customers to expand their outreach to new segments of users and unlock the growth potential worldwide in their businesses.

“To achieve this, Bankai Group provides a wide range of solutions for Telecom business from a Tier-1 carrier to an emerging communication service provider; we also help them to drive revenue while increasing profitability and enhancing customer experience. Our ability to identify the new opportunities early and our in-depth industry knowledge accumulated over the years, enables us to create innovative solutions by partnering with the core experts around the world.”

Uniquely, Panamax has adopted a service approach where client’s requirements are of prime importance.

Solutions are both converged

50 Corporate Vision / Technology Innovator Awards 2017

and fragmented based on the specific requirements of clients, be it Telcos, banks or financial institutions. Each product is carefully developed with a modular, open and scalable architecture, hence can be tailored to give a solution that perfectly fits the bill. With innovation and technology at the helm, we stress on building automated business processes that translate into reduced TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) and faster TTM (Time to Market).

Manoj explains how the group works to ensure that the firm offers clients an innovative range of services which mark it out as the best possible option for its clients.

“Competition is tough in our market, but we believe in creating agile business models that can help our clients boost margins and also generate new and sustainable revenue streams.

As such, at Panamax we have a global footprint with over 100 customers served in countries of Latin & Central America, Africa, APAC to South East Asia. The key challenge today is to offer exceptional customer value

proposition with commercial sustainability, reduced TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) and faster TTM (Time to Market), generating new revenue streams with existing infrastructure and developing products and services compatible with the ever changing technology trends – Hosted Services and Cloudbased product offerings. These products and services at the same time must have modular, open and scalable architecture to cater to the needs of all kinds of businesses.”

Staff are vital to client satisfaction, and as such the group understands the value of supporting them, Manoj emphasises.

“Our employees are of foremost importance to us as we understand that only a happy employee can generate a happy client. Therefore, we provide flexible working environment to our employees so they are able to give their best shot, are able to outperform each other, while sticking to the company’s mission of providing ace technology to our clients. Apart from this, we also partner with the best service

providers in the market to make our internal processes smooth and hassle-free.”

Operating in such a competitive and fast paced market, staff are not the only vital element to a firm’s success, and staying at the forefront of the latest market developments is also crucial, as Manoj is keen to highlight.

“Here at Panamax, we keep ourselves at the cutting edge of the latest technological advancements as well as foreseeing the developments in tow. When the world is going the mobile way, we are innovating with our products so that these can be accessed at any point from any location. Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) is the technology we are currently working upon through our product BridgeVoice.

This will be an integrated system of real time communications - IP & voice telephony, instant messaging, data sharing, video

conferencing, call control, SMS, voicemail, etc. This is expected to enable SMEs to use professional communications services independently of the device they are using or network they are connected to.

“Alongside this, we also developed a white label offering for our customers called BridgeVoice Pluto. This is an online platform which allows trading and settlement of wholesale interconnect voice and SMS services. It enables carriers to access a range of alternative network providers and carriers to meet the capacity demand with quality assurance.

Online Charging System (OCS) is another technology we are launching soon. This aims to equip the communication service providers with convergence in real time rating and charging.”

With regards to the future, Manoj foresees exciting times ahead as the group and Panamax both

seek to grow and use industry developments to build upon their success and continue to support their valued clients.

“The current industry trend demands for products that are commercially sustainable, interoperable, generates new revenue streams with existing infrastructure and offer hassle free ecosystem integration. Our products and services remain in line with these industry trends through product innovation and commercially viable business models supporting long gestation periods. They are scaled to offer effective fraud management, revenue assurance and help in saving huge Capex and Opex by improving operational efficiency.

“Looking ahead, we have in our plan the diversification of BSS, NSS & MFS services usage through innovative consumer and enterprise use cases. We will design robust, scalable and feature rich solutions which

can cater to all the verticals of telecom and mobile finance industry. We aim to virtualize the network functions for radical transformation and modernization of the telecom industry.

“Ultimately, customers are the testament of the success of an enterprise. Our customers have received tremendous success in their businesses and this gives us immense pleasure and a desire to outperform ourselves.

We want to express gratitude towards our clients for having this fulfilling journey with Bankai Group while we continue to tread the unforeseen.”

Company: Panamax Inc Contact: Manoj Jain Contact Email: marketing@panamaxil.com Address: 80-02 Kew Gardens Road, Suite 1040, Kew Gardens, New York, 11415, USA Phone: 001 818 450 5777

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Best Data Delivery Platform - Canada Cadeon is the leading provider of data and information management services. We invited Phil Unger to talk us through the aims of the firm and what services it offers.

Helping others in their quest to become leaders in their industry, Cadeon helps businesses to make smart, data-driven decisions, recover lost revenue and predict future business trends. The firm has a portfolio of solutions which includes data virtualization, data visualization and analytics, unified information management and enterprise information architecture solutions. Phil discusses what he believes to be the reasons behind the firm’s recent success.

“Focusing on customer service and producing results, our success equation is centred around 50% People, 40% Process and 10% Technology.

The firm leverages its Synapses framework to introduce key Information Capabilities to our clients so it can take advantage of this exponential growth in data and increase productivity and profitability.

“Over $300M in operational efficiencies and profit has been achieved for clients as a result of its cutting-edge methodology.

The partnerships with industry leading software and technology companies, like TIBCO Spotfire, Attivio, DataRobot and Cisco Data Virtualization, ensure the delivery of maximum results.

As a company, it possesses a competitive advantage in that its approach is personalized, innovative, fast and measurable.”

To enable the firm to reach its overall mission, the company

must take steps in order to make this achievable. The client is always able to access new and existing information as quickly as they want, with Cadeon ensuring that it increases its customer’s potential to increase productivity and profitability, something Phil is keen to point out.

“The service provided to clients is vital to forming the ethos of the company and lays the foundations for our overall mission. Our mission is to enable our customers to increase productivity and profitability by giving them access to information at their fingertips. We provide a framework of capabilities that allow our customers to leverage their existing information footprint and enrich it quickly and easily with new information that is available on a daily basis. Our promise is to provide the best, fastest and most measurable information to our client’s finger tips.”

Another aim for the firm is to attract the best clients it possibly can and it does this by marking itself out as the best possible option for prospective and existing clients. Phil notes that the firm possess an advantage as not everything they focus on is technology based, but are a solution focused business.

“The advantage that Cadeon possess is that we are solution focused and not pure technology focused. Our customer’s requirements drive everything and we leverage our framework, made up of key capabilities and innovative technology, to be able to meet those requirements in

52 Corporate Vision / Technology Innovator Awards 2017

the timeliest and most costeffective way.”

As a company, it is ready to stay ahead of emerging developments amidst the evolution of technology. However, Phil is confident the firm is ready to achieve its main goal of delivering tremendous value, as the staff and teams are motivated to stay on top of innovations.

“Cadeon is always looking at what innovation is coming next.

We are partnering with vendors that are moving into areas of IIOT and others. As our goal is to deliver tremendous value to our customers, we are motivated to stay on top of innovations in the information space.”

Moving forward, the company aims to expand its business and Phil is obviously excited about its prospects. Being part of the data revolution and helping customers to get the best value is something which the firm takes great pride in. Technology is advancing rapidly and Cadeon must work hard to keep up with developments within the industry. Fortunately, the firm is ready to adapt to the challenges ahead, with Phil stating that it is waiting patiently to access huge amounts of information which most companies have never seen before.

“There is an exciting future ahead for Cadeon. We are working with some of the world’s best people, customers and partners delivering value through growing information.

The company are excited to be a part of this data revolution and

helping our customers get the most value out of it. We cannot wait to see where this growth in knowledge is going to take us and to be a part of that is very exciting.”

“Advances in Advanced Analytics and Artificial Intelligence will continue. The new world of the Internet of things is going to bring tidal waves of information that mankind has never had access to in the past which is going to be a huge opportunity for new learning but daunting to be able to process it all. We are hopefully that this abundance in information will take us to a better place.”

Company: Cadeon, Inc. Contact: Phil Unger Contact Email: Phil_Unger@cadeon.com Address: Suite 2700, 350-7 Ave. SW, Calgary, AB T2P 3N9, Canada Phone: 001 403 475 2494 Website: www.cadeon.com

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Most Innovative Technical Support Company - Europe Qcom is a leading provider of outsourced technical support to equipment manufacturers and their channel throughout the UK and Europe. We invited Neil Anderson to tell us a bit more about the firm the secrets behind its recent success.

Qcom offers a wide range of solutions including: technical helpdesks, commissioning, installation, technical training, warranty cover, workshop repairs and field service across a growing range of technologies.

The firm is well known for its support of barcoding and auto ID equipment; however, the company also provides solutions for print and apply systems, customer engagement technology, ticketing equipment, EPoS and telecoms. Neil outlines the firms overall mission and the steps that Qcom plans to take to achieve this.

“Put simply, our overall mission is to maintain our position as the leading provider of outsourced technical solutions while expanding our services into new technologies and geographical locations. To achieve this, we must continue to invest in developing the expert skills of our existing team as well as recruiting talented new team members.”

Setting itself aside from its competitors within the business, the company has many skills which mark it out as the best possible option for existing and prospective clients.

Qcom possesses a wealth of experience within the technology industry and has built a strong reputation based on the quality service it provides, something Neil is keen to point out.

“Here at Qcom we have worked within the technology industry for 40 years, building a reputation based on quality

and earning accredited service provider status for many leading manufacturers. What sets Qcom apart is our customer focus. We believe outsourcing should be relational rather than transactional, for us it’s about forming a long-term strategic partnership, working with our partners to craft solutions that will really benefit them in the shortterm and in the long-term.”

The technology industry is ever changing meaning companies must ensure they are ready to embrace any new developments and be prepared for any challenges which they may encounter. Neil gives us a brief overview of the industry in the firm’s region, as well as listing specific challenges affecting the business.

“To ensure we meet our clients’ needs, Qcom focuses on four key technology verticals: printer technology (such as lasers, thermal transfer, and inkjet); customer engagement technology (kiosks, digital signage, epos); print and production equipment (coding, labelling, processing technology on production lines) and mobility (handheld terminals, tablets, WiFi networks). All these sectors are growing at the moment and manufacturers are facing challenges to ensure their aftersales customer service meets customer expectations. This is where Qcom’s outsource solution can help them resolve these challenges.”

Neil also explained the techniques that Qcom and its staff employ in order to

stay ahead of emerging developments, such as monitoring trends and researching products.

Importantly, the company works hard to ensure staff provide a high standard of customer service for its clients.

“Standing still is not an option.

We’re always watching the latest technology trends and researching product life-cycles.

Every product goes through 4 key stages; first they emerge, then they grow, consolidate and mature. The same product will require different support solutions at each of these stages and our solutions must be developed in line with this.

We pay particular focus to the skill sets of our service team, running a comprehensive training programme with an emphasis on transferable skills. This allows us to provide our customers with the services that they need for their products.”

business we live or die by our last service call and it’s vital that everyone within our business understands the value of a happy customer.”

Regarding the future of the firm, Neil states that Qcom is looking at broadening its technology coverage, as well as increasingly offering services into the European market place.

Expanded working hours are something which the company has implemented to improve its customer service.

“As well as broadening our technology coverage we are increasingly offering services into the European market place and we see good growth for us there.

At the same time, customers in an always-on society are looking for quicker support, 24x7. Qcom has recently enhanced its weekend, evening and same day offerings to meet these increasing customer expectations.”

In order to provide quality customer service, Neil and the firm’s staff must be prepared to meet any possible client demand or request. Staff at Qcom are always looking to improve on their skills and the service they provide, with the company providing personal training programmes to enable this.

“Qcom subscribes to Kaizen’s theory of continuous improvement and every member of our team, from apprentices to onsite engineers, has a personalised training and development programme with a strong focus on customer service. As a service based

Contact: Neil Anderson Contact Email: neil.anderson@qcom.co.uk Address: 3 Hampton Park, Wassage Way, Hampton Lovett Industrial Estate, Droitwich, WR9 0NX, UK Phone: +44 (0)1905 827650

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Most Innovative Search Agency of the Year 2017 North East USA Acronym’s innovative, patented technology and Intent-Based Digital Marketing methodology helps it’s Fortune 1000 Clients get the most out of Search. We profiled the firm to explore the secrets behind its success and their mantra, “Win in Search. Win in Digital.”

Established in 1995, Acronym was tackling search before Google even existed.

Headquartered in the iconic Empire State Building with offices in London and Singapore, Acronym is a global leader and the largest independent Search and Discovery marketing agency.

At the core of their business, they help enterprise brands and agencies understand customer intent, which powers every aspect of digital, search engine marketing (PPC, SEO), analytics/ UX, and keyword data integration across channels and devices.

Acronym was recently granted the “impossible to get” US Patent for its award-winning Keyword Objects® technology built for inhouse search marketing teams.

22 years ago, Acronym made a bet on search -- well, it is still a safe bet now. With $40b forecast to be spent this year, search remains the largest part of the integrated digital media mix. Over the last 15 years, every one of their competitors has abandoned its core focus on search, but not Acronym.

They are proud to have made the choice to be a specialist firm, with a catchy mantra “Win in Search. Win in Digital.”

They describe their mantra, starting with Search - a small word for such a huge component of the digital marketing mix.

Mike Grehan, Acronym’s CMO, explains, that “Search is so easily described in one syllable. Yet the underlying complexities of managing large scale search programs endlessly multiply as machine learning technology evolves into the realms of artificial intelligence. And, as the information demands for greater depth of knowledge from the increasingly sophisticated modern consumer multiply too, the challenge for brands to be there in the moment only becomes greater.”

“When you win search, you win digital. That’s because there’s no other place where your customers naturally tell you exactly what they’re looking for”, explains company CEO Selina Eizik. “Analyzing online intent gets you inside the minds of your customers. When you know how to mine data the right way, you truly begin to understand their behavior.”

Acronym believes that search holds the keys to open new possibilities for your business – and that’s why they’ve built an innovative business model to be a singular end to end partner

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for everything search. They crafted their services to support brands looking for a full-service provider or to train their in-house team. As search evolves and their clients’ needs change, they scale and adapt their practice to keep clients ahead with unique consulting services that can even support existing in house search teams. “You’re never alone when you have a partner who is deeply immersed in your business, and more importantly, in search” says Acronym’s President and COO, Michael Bruh.

Technology has always been at the heart of Acronym’s offerings.

Enabling automation and data enlightenment, Keyword Objects is their proprietary technology platform. It’s mission is simple – Help search marketers make faster, smarter decisions by collecting the right data to gain the most meaningful insights, and get easy reporting for all levels and business units across the organization.

It’s newest innovation, dubbed, Keyword GO, addresses the critical challenge of ensuring that the digital content is consistently relevant and useful.

Keyword GO is a technology application that helps Enterprise businesses streamline the creation and optimization of

digital content. The SaaS based solution was developed by Acronym to address the specific challenges that Global Enterprise businesses face when having to manage and optimize the content and performance of hundreds of thousands of webpages in multiple languages, on a daily basis.

Keyword GO is the first-of its-kind solution for content optimization, identifying content Gaps and Opportunities (hence the name, GO) in real time. The tool collects data from multiple sources across the web to determine the relationships that exist naturally between people searching online and the topics for which they are searching.

Keyword GO then identifies the most effective keywords and content for businesses to capture more traffic.

John Peter Spear, Acronym’s EVP of Product Development, claims, “To date, Keyword GO has streamlined content creation and optimization for more than 1.43 million keywords in 31 languages for 80+ markets around the world.”

Of course, while the firm understands the importance of technological aids in running and maintaining large, enterprise-level search

campaigns comprised of hundreds of thousands or even millions of keywords, it never lost sight of the fact that people, not machines, provide the greatest insights.

It is surprisingly easy to forget that search is fundamentally about communication, about speaking to customers in their language, not pandering to spiders and robots. As such, the company have made a point of training its team and building its technology to be third-party agnostic, capable of harnessing the added efficiency of any major bid management or analytics platform without relying on them.

Overall, Acronym Media is a team of digital marketing problem solvers, an experienced cadre of industry veterans committed to customized search and discovery marketing solutions built around the structure and ethos of its clients’ organizations, and moving forward this will remain its ongoing focus.

Company: Acronym Media Contact: Julie Marusak Contact Email: jmarusak@acronym.com Address: Empire State Building, 350 5th Ave, Suite 6520, New York, NY 10118, USA Phone: 001 212 691 7051 Website: acronym.com/

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Best Operational Intelligence Technology Provider North America Function1 is a software consulting company that provides creative, strategic solutions to complicated enterprise technology challenges for a personal and effortless client experience.

Comprised of industry leaders in Operational Intelligence, Data Security, and Web Experience Management, Function1 helps clients transform ideas into action by using a collaborative approach that encourages creative, costeffective solutions to complex technology challenges.

Over the course of 10 years, while growing to nearly 50 employees, Function1 has successfully deployed countless solutions for companies that range from Fortune 100 companies to small businesses and include all industry verticals (higher education, nonprofits, public sector, financial institutions, healthcare, IT, consumer products, retail, to name a few). Their combined talent, years of experience, and broad industry expertise ensure clients’ get the most value from their technology investment.

“We are thrilled to be recognized as the Best Operational Intelligence Technology Provider in North America. Our success wouldn’t be possible without every one of our employee’s individual contributions and unique skillsets in combination with our constant drive to innovate and evolve,” CEO Ashish Bhutiani explains.

We asked Ashish the secret to Function1’s continued success: “We place a strong emphasis on our most important asset: our employees. By developing a culture with competitive benefits” (including: unlimited PTO, quarterly meetings, annual retreats, company-matched 401k) “and an environment in which every team member feels valued and is passionate about their work, we’re able to attract and retain individuals that are respected as thought leaders.”

He adds, “Our employees attend and present at industry-leading conferences - giving us the opportunity to stay ahead of the curve, maintain a pulse on upand-coming trends, and identify customer pain points. As a company, we pride ourselves on promoting an inclusive, flexible environment with a strong focus on internal training programs and continued education in order to ensure the highest level of service and best customer experience for every one of our clients.”

Clients pursue Function1 because of their full-service offerings; providing consulting, custom app development, support, and training. To further expand its offerings, Function1 recently developed tailored Splunk Training Courses (go. function1.com/splunk-training-

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courses) and launched three Operational Intelligence products: Luna, the Bloodhound App for Splunk, and the Slack App for Splunk. Visit go.function1.com/ products to learn more about all of Function1’s products.

In order to guarantee customer satisfaction, Function1 offers transparent communications and fast turnaround times without compromising the quality of its services. In partnering with Function1’s smaller team, clients are rewarded with focused attention and effective results.

By using latest technologies, Function1 is able to streamline its own operations, allowing for cost-effective performance.

These savings are then passed on to their clients, fostering long term and mutually beneficial partnerships.

Looking forward, Function1 plans to continue growing by exploring new partnerships, improving current products, and developing additional tools to enhance our offerings for current and prospective customers.

Company: Function1, Inc. Contact: Caroline Givnish Contact Email: caroline@function1.com Address: 1200 18th street NW #700, Washington DC 20036 Website: go.function1.com/home

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Most Innovative Finance Technology Solutions Firm - UK KPMG LLP is a leading UK provider of tax, audit and advisory services. We profiled the firm to find out more.

KKPMG has a worldwide presence and is continuing to build on its member firms’ successes thanks to a clear vision, maintained values and the company’s staff. A leading provider of tax, auditory and advisory services, the organisation is a UK limited liability partnership, which employs 13,500 people in 22 offices across the UK. The firm focuses on its clients’ big issues and opportunities by providing innovative approaches and deep expertise, enabling it to deliver real results. KPMG in the UK is part of a global network of member firms which are operating in over 150 other countries.

Thanks to its global presence and innovative nature, KPMG is playing a positive role in shaping the industry in today’s ever changing and complex environment. Being part of a strong global network of member firms gives the organisation a global mindset. The firm works with passion and purpose, as well as shoulder to shoulder with its clients, making sure it is integrating innovative approaches to meet its client’s requirements, and in some cases, surpass them. The company is passionate about

the strength of its brand and vision, which is to be the clear choice for its clients and people, by highlighting the benefits for the client and the results it achieves. It is determined to attract the best talent and win the best mandates, whilst doing the best work for all of its clients and becoming the professional services firm which is most trusted to deliver. In order to achieve this goal, the firm works by a set of values which enables it to live out its purpose of inspiring confidence and empowering change for its colleagues and also the other organisations it works with.

The company’s values differentiate it from its competitors and has developed as a trusted organisation within the industry. One of its main values is leading by example and setting the standard for others to follow, whilst also respecting the individual. Teamwork is integral to the company, making sure its staff members work together and they are open and honest in their communication, both internally and externally. Seeking out the facts enables staff to provide insight into clients and each other, and the company is committed to its communities, meaning it acts with the upmost integrity.

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The staff are the heartbeat of the company and are in the middle of everything it does. They are its greatest asset and helps the firm to stand out from the crowd and become the clear choice for current and perspective clients. KPMG’s vision can only be achieved if its colleagues, contractors and sub-contractors all feel committed to each other and the firm. The staff and the company should feel committed to common goals, and it has worked very hard to make this a priority within the business.

Small Business Accounting is KPMG’s accounting service for small businesses. Clients are treated with the same level of support and service as their larger counterparts, with the firm drawing on its experience to offer unique services and additional support, including unlimited access to a dedicated KPMG accountant for every client.

As such, KPMG’s Small Business Accounting is built around an innovative online platform, which gives you access to your financial calendar and key financial information. With the firm’s cloud-based software, based on the Xero platform, clients get their own, secure portal, meaning that they can access all the information that you need about their business,

on any device. They get regularly updated information on their cash flow and business performance, which is provided around the clock for true peace of mind.

Overall, KPMG can look forward to a bright future, taking advantage of its ongoing success and utilising the highly skilled and experienced staff at its disposal.

With exciting clientele and a superb staff infrastructure and working culture, the firm stands out in the financial industry, and can be considered an excellent opportunity for both clients and staff. Within the small business space, the firm will continue to offer clients the very highest standards of support and service which meet their individual needs.

Contact: Dan Roche Contact Address: Dan.Roche@KPMG.co.uk Address: 15 Canada Square, London, E14 5GL, UK Phone: 0207 311 1000 Website: kpmg.com/uk

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Best for Cell & Tissue Biology Research - UK Spun out of the Department of Biological & Biomedical Sciences and with strong links to Chemistry, ReInnervate is a biotechnology company specialising in the development of enabling technologies for use in research into cell growth and function. We profiled them to find out more.

ReInnervate was founded in 2002

by Professor Stefan Przyborski as a spinout biotechnology company from Durham University, UK. Reinnervate was acquired by ReproCELL in 2014 and was merged with Biopta to form ReproCELL Europe Ltd in July 2016. They are developing novel approaches to monitor and control cell differentiation with distinct applications in stem cell biology.

Reinnervate’s core strength was in its Alvetex® family of 3D cell culture products, providing a flexible platform that allows scientists in any life science laboratory to easily establish improved in vitro assays and tissue models that better mimic the in vivo growth of cells. Alvetex continues to be developed, produced and distributed by ReproCELL Europe.

Professor Stefan Przyborski was the scientific founder of Reinnervate Ltd has been part of the ReproCELL group since its acquisition in 2014. He also holds an academic position in the School of Biological and Biomedical Science at Durham University as Professor of Cell Technology. He has over 25 years of research

experience within the fields of cell and tissue biology with specialization in stem cell science, cell differentiation and the development of advanced technologies that enable the construction of human tissues in vitro. Professor Przyborski runs an active research laboratory consisting of postdoctoral and postgraduate researchers.

His group is well funded and regularly publishes their work in peer reviewed journals.

Stefan department explores stem cells and the use of these in medicine. Much attention is being devoted to the potential uses of stem cells in human biology and medicine. Many of these wideranging applications for stem cell technology are based on the assumption that it will be possible to direct the differentiation of cultured stem cells and produce specific cell and tissue types on demand.

However, people’s understanding of being able to control and exploit the full developmental potential of stem cells is currently limited. For example, it is proving difficult to duplicate the extent of cell differentiation demonstrated by human embryonic stem cells following transplantation.

The ability to achieve this level of cellular development and engineer tissues of specific

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types is partly due to our limited capability to control the molecular mechanisms that regulate cell development and provide the appropriate environment cues that support such differentiation and function. For example, the environment in which cells grow and differentiate in the culture dish is far removed from the complex three dimensional surroundings and interactions with adjacent tissues, which cells experience during growth in the body.

As such, Stefan’s research programme is focused on the investigation of cell differentiation and the development of innovative ways to control the development of tissues from stem cells.

With regards to ReInnervate and ReproCELL, these two firms will be seeking to work together to create competitive products and services to accelerate research in stem cells, human tissues and 3D cell culture.

Company: ReInnervate Ltd/ ReproCELL Contact: Stefan Przyborski Contact Address: stefan.przyborski@durham.ac.uk Address: South Road, Durham, DH1 3LE, UK, Phone: 01913 343988/ 07540 706321 Website: reinnervate.com

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Connecting the World to a Brighter Future At Angola Cables we believe that better communication will help build a better future for everyone around the world. Angola Cables is currently building a low latency state-of-the-art telecommunications network that will bridge the oceans and unify nations, bringing together millions of people, businesses and organizations into a brighter future. know more at: www.angolacables.co.ao 62 Corporate Vision / Technology Innovator Awards 2017

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Most Price-Performant Big Data Management Platform: IRI Voracity & Most Versatile GDPR Security Stack: IRI Data Protector Suite Innovative Routines International (IRI), Inc. is a renowned big data speed and security software company headquartered on Florida’s Space Coast. We invited COO David Friedland to tell us more about the firm’s overall success.

IRI is a US data management and protection ISV founded in 1978, and represented in 40 cities worldwide. Its software products are licensed – and its support teams or service partners are hired – to address data-centric challenges across all industries where data are big or sensitive; e.g., BFSI, e-commerce, energy, government, media, manufacturing, retail, and transportation. The firm’s customers include BI/DW solution architects, chief data officers, DBAs, data scientists, programmer/analysts, and data governance officers who require one or more of the capabilities IRI’s software can offer.

Below, David discusses the reasons behind the company’s success.

“Since the first release of our CoSort data manipulation package in 1978, and through its subsequent evolution and international adoption, IRI has remained on the cutting-edge of data processing technology. For example, we had the first commercial sorting software – and ability to join and mask data in flat-files – off the mainframe. Today, we are the only vendor affordably combining fast (CoSort- or Hadooppowered) data profiling, integration, migration, governance, and analytic functionality in one product, built on Eclipse.

“We also owe CV’s recognition and our growth to the input and support of our customers and partners.

Their technical requirements and commercial feedback have driven

our product development, release decisions, and service offerings.

“That ties into the third reason, which is the fact that we are riding dual IT trends: the growth and use of big data; and the need to protect sensitive or personally identifiable information amid a wave of major data breaches, and data privacy laws like the GDPR.” Outlining the firm’s mission, David describes what steps the company will take to reach its goals and continue to provide superior implementation and support services.

“Fundamentally, IRI’s mission is to continue growing and satisfying its global customer base with state-of-the-art data management software, and responsive business policies. Our focus must remain on delivering superior data processing performance and scalability.

Functionality and usability, agility and governance, as well as short and long-term affordability.”

“More specifically, our plans call for ongoing enhancements to, and faster adoption of, our Voracity data management platform via a “freemium” version due out soon.

Standing out in the fast-paced software industry is essential to the ensure the business’s continued success, as David explains.

“Our products differentiate us through their relative speed, ease,

versatility, and value. IRI software allows clients to set up their datadriven jobs quicker, run them faster, support them more easily, and simply do more for the money than large or speciality ISVs products can. Consider that data profiling and classification, integration (ETL) and migration, cleansing and masking, and embedded BI or data blending are all offered in our Voracity platform product.

“We’re seeing stronger interest in our data masking technologies coming from US-based healthcare entities subject to HIPAA, and broad-based demand for the same in Europe ahead of 2018’s GDPR deadline. We are also seeing growth in big data projects in India and Asia, and some cool analytic technologies in the UK and Central Europe we are wanting to integrate with.”

“Our users have always liked the way the foundational pieces in Voracity -- which remain standalone IRI products in their own right – deliver the point solutions they need faster and more affordably than COTS alternatives can.” He’s referring to: data transformation, reporting, and legacy sort conversion (in IRI CoSort), data/ DB migration and replication (in IRI NextForm), PII discovery and masking (in IRI FieldShield) and test data generation and management (in IRI RowGen).

In order to stay ahead of alwaysemerging technology and industry changes, David states that the company must continue to be innovative and ensure it delivers the best possible technology and services to support it.

“Thus, when our clients see all this, plus seamless support for databases, Hadoop files and engines, cloud and streaming data all in the same place at a low opex price point, they see a unique and compelling value proposition.

Giving a brief overview of the technology industry within the region, David points out that the company’s software is in use globally, whilst noting some regional trends which help to understand why users implement IRI’s software.

“The key here is for IRI to stay true to its namesake, Innovative Routines International. If you break down what those words mean, our software has to be: 1) leadingedge, whether we create, adapt, or integrate with other technology; 2) reusable across our back-end products and their shared IRI Workbench front-end; and, 3) be sold and supported worldwide to reach (and learn from) our broad base of customers and partners.”

Contact: David Friedland Contact Email: davidf@iri.com Company: IRI, The CoSort Company Address: 194 Highway A1A, 3rd Floor, Melbourne, Florida 32937 USA Tel: +1 321 777 8889 Website: www.iri.com

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Best for Technology Solutions Integration Services – USA & Best IT Infrastructure Management ® Solution: savvyGuard ITsavvy is an innovative solutions integration firm that has catapulted from a Midwest startup to a national leader in IT products and solutions, very rapidly. We invited President and CEO Mike Theriault to tell us more about the history of this dynamic firm and the innovations it offers.

Organizations can no longer ignore the fact data is their most valuable resource.

Without confidence in and consistent access to its data, an operation will come to a halt. In 2014, ITsavvy understood and predicted the critical role data would play when they transitioned from an IT products reseller to an endto-end products and advanced solutions provider. “When we first started ITsavvy, we saw the wave, but we weren’t content to merely ride it. We wanted to get in front of it and lead. And we did,” explains Mike. Through a series of calculated investments in capabilities and technologies, ITsavvy now is recognized as an industry leader in integrated IT services.

Theriault co-founded ITsavvy with Chris Kurpeikis, the company’s Executive Vice President.

Headquartered in Addison, Illinois, ITsavvy has offices in downtown Chicago, New York, New Jersey, Florida, Iowa,

Indiana, Ohio and California.

They operate Tier 3 data centers in Illinois and New Jersey, and they partner with 46 distribution centers around the US with a growing global presence. Their success comes from a unique ability to combine a thorough level of knowledge with state-ofthe art delivery of IT products and solutions. “At the end of the day, that’s what today’s IT director really wants,” said Theriault.

Together, Theriault and Kurpeikis have put ITsavvy on a steep trajectory, and the company regularly shows up on fast-growth lists. Yet, that doesn’t mean they are willing to sacrifice client service. “We’re in a highly competitive industry.

We differentiate ourselves through a thoughtful, intelligent, relationship-driven approach to IT solutions,” said Theriault. That means spending a good amount of time ahead of a proposal identifying the root cause of a prospect’s problem. ITsavvy’s comprehensive discovery process and vendor-neutral

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approach provide a tremendous amount of value, and may lead them to an entirely different, but more appropriate, solution.

Theriault provided a recent example. “During an outreach call with an insurance company, we learned that they were struggling to find a new Unified Communications solution that would satisfy their long list of requirements. Since we partner with multiple UC vendors, we had a lot of options available to us. We analyzed the alternatives and proposed RingCentral, one of our newest vendor partners,” Theriault explained. “While RingCentral is lesser-known in the US, only RingCentral had all of the compliance prerequisites required by the client. It was the ideal fit.”

Another differentiator for ITsavvy is their ability to visualize the interconnections between IT systems in an age of increasing complexity. “Data centers are no longer solely a room full of Dell or HP,” said Theriault. “They are highly complex organisms

with a mixture of new and legacy hardware and software.

It’s not always apparent how everything is connected.” A holistic view of an organization is particularly important as IT operations move some or all of their operations to the cloud.

“When you start pulling out pieces of your IT infrastructure you begin to affect the integrity of the system as a whole. We have advanced certifications on all of the manufacturers that may be represented in an operation’s data center. We can work in and around legacy systems.” This elite status often helps them win deals. Recently, when a records management company needed an IT provider who had advanced knowledge in Dell EMC Isilon, they turned to one of the few IT providers with Isilon experience: ITsavvy.

This kind of industry recognition has opened up new opportunities for ITsavvy. While the company built its business within a regional SMB market, it is now expanding geographically and in sector size.

It can even support international accounts. This year it announced a new Strategic Accounts team that is serving the IT needs of enterprise-level clients. ITsavvy also expanded its commitment to the Public Sector with a dedicated business development group that serves Federal, State, Local and Education clients.

They have already won several large contracts including General Services Administration (GSA), The Interlocal Purchasing System (TIPS/TAPS) and Maryland Education Enterprise Consortium (MEEC). These are in addition to the company’s long-standing relationships with government agencies, school districts and public libraries around the US. During the past year, the company also introduced a number of new solutions, including Cloud Solutions, IT Lifecycle Management, Print Security and most recently Security Solutions. “Security Solutions is topmost on people’s minds these days. To respond to perceived threats, they may quickly install a couple of filters or software patches, but the truth is, it’s just not that simple. New cyberthreats are emerging daily, and it takes constant vigilance to stay on top of this fluid environment,” said Theriault. ITsavvy is one of the few IT providers who have a full spectrum of Security Solutions capabilities, including Threat Intelligence, Network Security, Security Analysis, Social Engineering and Security Compliance Assessment.

ITsavvy has the in-house capability to monitor, manage, investigate, respond and eradicate intrusions. Whereas some providers may specialize in one or two aspects of threat protection, it was important for ITsavvy to offer the full spectrum of Security Solutions expertise.

It fits with their position as a knowledge leader.

Along with Security Solutions, Print Security is an emerging challenge that ITsavvy supports.

“Few organizations realize that their print operation can be hacked, but networked

print devices now serve as wireless endpoints and are often unprotected,” said Theriault.

It is a particular concern for hospitals, insurance companies and financial institutions that must be vigilant about patient and customer data. ITsavvy has solutions that encrypt print data in transit, restrict user access to specific devices, and require authorization (like badges, QR codes or PINs) before printing.

Theriault says virtualization is a hot topic during client conversations. “Virtualization can be a game changer, and can deliver an immediate positive ROI. It’s the future of IT for all organizations, from start-ups to enterprise-level companies,” Theriault said. Virtualization can take many forms, and having advanced expertise helps ITsavvy utilize the technology inventively. When an aerospace manufacturer realized some of its backup processes were failing, ITsavvy proposed a temporary solution to virtualize backups while a new infrastructure was being built. ITsavvy’s cloud backup was deployed in a week, enabling 15TB of reliable and redundant data backups during the six-month build-out. “This was not an option that the client had considered. Yet, it was a cost and time-saving solution,” said Theriault.

This kind of quick problemsolving has established ITsavvy as an industry innovator, and has been strengthened by sizable investments in technology and talent. ITsavvy recently opened a new Network Operations Center (NOC) in New York and a state-of-the-art data center in New Jersey. The NOC is staffed 24x7x365 with a US-based team.

The data center was custom designed and built by ITsavvy engineers in a facility that is 100% compliant for HIPAA, HITECH, SSAE 16, PCI DSS 3.0, and is certified Safe Harbor and SOC 1 & 2. The two facilities, along with another data center in the Midwest, form the hub of Virtualization and Cloud activities for ITsavvy clients in North America and Europe. ITsavvy has particularly-strong expertise

in Disaster Recovery, and it is one of the company’s fastestgrowing business segments along with its Cloud solutions that include savvyDesktop® (DaaS), savvyMail® (hosted Exchange), Virtual Infrastructure (IaaS), Disaster Recovery & Business Continuity (DRaaS), Colocation, savvyBackup® (BaaS), Data Center Solutions and Public, Private and Hybrid Cloud options.

They all allow organizations to do more with less, which helps them improve their ability to compete.

Theriault cites an example of an engineering client that had ongoing expenses to support software upgrades every two years. “With facilities in the US and the UK, it was becoming a CapEx and manpower burden.

So we moved their high-end engineering software to the cloud. This not only simplifies their upgrade cycles but also enabled them to eliminate costly onsite server and storage hardware.”

In fact, ITsavvy believes standalone on premise infrastructures will soon be a thing of the past, particularly for small to medium-sized operations. Utilizing state-ofthe-art technologies, ITsavvy has seen tremendous growth in its Managed Services offerings, which include savvyGuard Managed Network, savvyGuard Managed Help Desk and savvyPrint Managed Print.

“The IT Manager is running a much more diffused operation than even five years ago,” said Theriault. “It is nearly impossible to be an expert in all of the advanced technologies required to keep today’s organization competitive.” Instead, companies are handing over to ITsavvy their day-to-day tasks like network monitoring, event remediation, user help desk, backup and archiving. As an added timesaver, companies now want products delivered that are user-ready. ITsavvy has seen a considerable uptick in work requests at its Configuration Lab, where their technicians pre-install software, custom imaging and asset tags before devices are shipped. “We are continually adding and expanding services

that can help our clients improve efficiencies,” said Theriault.

That includes improving product availability and shipping.

ITsavvy’s network of distribution centers provides access to over one million products, with 99% of orders going out the same day.

For ITsavvy, though, having the technologies is only part of the solution. “We understand these can be overwhelming decisions for most of our clients, not only in investment size but also in the way they conduct their operation.

We want them to know that we are there for them, that we can guide them using our in-house expertise. We will help them make transformative changes,” said Theriault. This kind of client-centered culture requires a considerable commitment to staff training. The company’s sales and technical teams are continually training to maintain a high level of knowledge. “On any given week we will have multiple vendor-sponsored training and certification programs going on at all of our offices to ensure that we stay current on the latest technologies.” ITsavvy’s strong vendor partnerships not only enable technical dialogues but also ensure competitive pricing.

Yet for all its growth, in capabilities and geography, ITsavvy maintains an entrepreneurial culture, and Theriault encourages team members to identify their own niches of expertise. “We have some of the most experienced, creative and innovative IT people in the industry, and they are passionate about helping their clients utilize technology to achieve their objectives. Our tag line is ‘We listen. Then deliver results. You’re the hero.’ We want our clients to succeed.”

Name: Mike Theriault, President and CEO Headquarters: Addison, IL Website: www.ITsavvy.com/Innovators

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Best Off-Label Medication Information Resource 2017 GoToPills is an innovative service that helps patients and healthcare providers reduce the health and liability risks associated with off-label medications. We caught up with CoFounder and CEO Tamera Venzke to find out more about this vital solution and the secrets behind its success.

GoToPills is ground breaking healthcare technology that increases patient safety and decreases liability risks for healthcare providers by delivering off-label alerts when a medication is “offlabel” (meaning not approved by the FDA for the prescribed reason, age, gender, or duration).

Tamera outlines how she came to create this unique service thanks to her own personal experience.

“I was inspired to create GoToPills after a client came to my office suffering from kidney damage after taking a prescription drug for migraines.

However, the medication was only government-approved for seizures.

“My research revealed that that once a prescription medication receives governmental approval for a particular reason, age, duration, and gender it can be legally prescribed by a doctor for a completely different application or patient population that has not been tested for safety or efficacy.

These drugs are called off-label and they comprise almost 80% of prescribed medications and there is no requirement that you be informed that the medication you or a family member is taking is off-label.

“The health and liability risks associated with off-label drugs are substantial. Since 2009 over

14 billion dollars have been paid in off-label drug settlements and that number is growing.

By prescribing and dispensing off-label drugs physicians and pharmacists open themselves to liability and patients taking these drugs become test subjects without their knowledge or consent. In many cases off-label medications can be beneficial however it is the lack of information that is the problem.

“Our solution revolves around the fact that since off-label drugs are not government-approved, drug companies are not required to disclose off-label information in their prescribing materials. With GoToPills this vital information is instantly provided to end users eliminating countless hours of research. Knowing whether or not a drug is off-label and whether or not there are emerging injuries, complaints, or litigation are crucial pieces of information for patients and healthcare providers. GoToPills delivers this crucial information in a concise, easy-to-read format.

Armed with this knowledge, patients can truly make informed choices about their medication options. GoToPills’ instant off-label alerts, vital drug summaries, and prescribing tools for physicians are designed to reduce the risk of the growing number of injuries and lawsuits associated with off-label drugs.

Consumers can use GoToPills on the web or use the free apps for iPhone and Android. Using the

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off-label checker you will know within seconds if the medication you or family member is taking is off-label that is powerful information to have at your fingertips.”

Currently the off-label information market is in its infancy and only GoToPills provides off-label alerts, vital drug summaries, and a suite of off-label prescribing tools for healthcare providers.

In her concluding comments Tamera discusses the developments she believes will help make this fledgling market an even greater success going forward.

“Looking ahead, physicians and pharmacists must be knowledgeable about the medication they prescribe and dispense. Sounds simplistic but with off-label drugs physicians and pharmacists lack the critical information that is provided for drugs with governmentapproved uses. Since warnings are not required with off-label use, patients are often unaware of the off-label status of their medication. Despite the fact off-label prescribing is increasing there is a surprising lack of off-label information easily available to healthcare providers and patients and GoToPills was created to fill this information gap.

“Overall, the off-label information market is in its infancy and only GoToPills provides off-label

alerts, vital drug summaries, and a suite of off-label prescribing tools for healthcare providers, and we will continue to innovate and adapt as we look forward to a bright and exciting future.”

Contact: Tamera Venzke Contact Email: tvenzke@comcast.net Web Address: gotopills.com

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Best Online Touchscreen App Store: NAJMSTORE & Most Versatile Hardware to Software Solution: Ubook.

NAJMTEK changes the way users interact with their technology as they participate in and contribute to the world. We profiled the firm and its products to find out what makes it successful.

NAJMTEK is committed to provide a technology, highly customizable, for the user and need, as specific as they may be. A single machine, Ubook is infinitely transformable with a single touch, streamlining the way people live and work. By commercializing the virtualization of technical hardware and external devices into software applications, Najmtek designs the future of mobile computing while being responsible custodians of the planet and is part of the largest technology business incubator and accelerators in Texas.

With a wealth of experience, the company possesses an extensive portfolio of worldwide patents and awards and believes one of its key differentiators is the quality of its people, a team with deep domain experience, and super motivated. Najmtek improves the way children will learn at school.

Ubook is the first all-in-one multi-touch, multi-language, multi accessories, fully customizable laptop, a highly versatile and interactive hardware to software solution. Najmsoft (software) is another key aspect of the full concept Ubook, which is to

virtualize external devices into software applications.

Ubook possesses many functions and clients are able to utilize a touchscreen keyboard which is able to display a variety of different keyboards, including Azerty, Qwerty, Cyrillic, Thai and other keyboards with specific characters. Its multitouch input screen is able to display shortkeys, enabling rapid access to any useful functionalities which clients may need every day.

The product also possesses a multitouch input screen which is able to display an assortment of useful accessories, including a graphic tablet and a machine command tool. Ubook is also fully customizable, with the client having the ability to imagine, create and organize their own keyboard the way they want it to be, with personal preference regarding key placement and display functions.

As well as being the first all-in-one multi-touch laptop, the product is designed to try and help children with their educational learning. Ubook is also an interactive technology which includes the first ever neurological sign alphabet with assistive apps. This is designed

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with people who have dyslexia to help them learn, work and communicate with others without their dyslexia impacting on them.

Ubook also enables users to switch between more than 140 languages keyboards when they are writing, simply by clicking on a designated shortkey without shutting down the computer.

Sending an e-mail in Russian, then another one in Japanese, and a third one in English becomes possible and easy to do with UBOOK.

other accessory as exotic as it may be.

Additionally, clients find the specific font especially designed for dyslexia, a font for a neurological language which will help children and adults who have dyslexia to learn and work.

A touch screen is integrated into the product and is slight and luminous. A basic standard keyboard also possesses shortkeys for rapid access to other functions which will appear on the screen when activated.

The multitouch input screen is also able to display many useful and varied accessories, such as a phone, a tablet, a numeric pad, a calculator to name a few functions. It can also display some particular accessories required for special purposes like a piano, a mixing console, or any

Najmsoft is the software implemented into the Ubook, providing a multi-language and multifunction keyboard. Most importantly the software creates a fully customizable laptop. The online store NAJMSTORE is the first download platform especially dedicated to applications optimized for our multitouch input screen laptop Ubook. The Software Development Kit (SDK) is the third key aspect of Ubook concept, as it allows you to imagine, create and share your own applications.

With this tactile touch screen and its dedicated software, you can also order your keyboard as you want it to be. For instance, if you want to change the place of letters, the numbers or any other touch, you can do it! You can also create a list of shortkeys for your preferred applications or accessories, or change the background, colors of buttons, size of keys.

Within the team at Najmtek there is a wealth of experience which helps to contribute to the excellent customer service the company provides along with the

outstanding products it produces.

There are a combined 30 years of entrepreneurship experience within the company, along with 12 years of product development and 13 years of team management. The team also provides 11 years of engineering experience.

Sophie Ennadi is the CEO and co-founder of Najmtek and holds a European Master’s Degree in Engineering with High Honors as well as being Stanford Certified Project Manager. Sophie also possesses qualifications in Business Administration and project management.

Abder Ennadi is the CTO and co-founder of Najmtek. He holds

a Master’s Degree in Industrial Design as well as being a Certified Microsoft MCSE. Abder is also International Inventor for several years, whilst he has also designed new solutions in various areas, notably Airbus and F1.

The Ubook concept is based on six essential facts which include the fact that touch technology is here to stay and grow whilst green laptop technology is in its early stages and is waiting to be improved. In this new technology based generation, laptops are parts of people’s daily lives, as they are required for staff and professional’s tasks, as well as to provide for people’s entertainment and supporting

routines. The laptop also needs to evolve from its current state to become more dynamic, more comfortable, more intuitive and easy to use for everyone. The applications software should be at the core of multitouch laptops development, whilst the firm believes that everybody should be able to own a high-performing, efficient and innovative laptop at an affordable price.

Moving forward, Najmtek can look to build on its current success and is focused on developing its technology to be even more client friendly and accessible. Placing a strong emphasis on the technology being able to enhance children’s learning, the company is building

a stable future. Undertaking some exciting projects, the firm is hoping its technology will be developed further in order to be turned into an ultrasound machine, an EKG machine, a designing tool or even just a notepad.

Contact: Sophie Ennadi Contact Email: sophie@najmtek.com Address: 410 Pierce Street #310, Houston, TX 7700, USA. Phone: 001 713 357 9523 Website: www.najmtek.com

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Best Digital Signage Technology Company 2017 – UK Exterity is firmly established as the global leader in enterprise IP video technology. We invited Colin Farquhar, CEO, to find out what differentiates it from other firms, making it so successful.

Founded in 2001, Exterity was one of the first companies to offer enterprise IP video solutions. Its core product portfolio focuses on solutions that enable companies to stream video over an IP network.

Over the years, it has evolved to include the delivery of video over WiFi and mobile networks to mobile devices.

In 2016, the company launched ArtioSign®, its digital signage solution. Since then the firm have been deploying it for clients in a variety of industries including corporate and finance, education, hospitality, stadiums and venues.

It has also had a huge impact on the company, extending the reach of its IP video products into a tightly integrated digital signage solution. Colin talks to us about the company’s global client list, ranging from concert halls to football stadiums.

“Regarding our global client list, this includes the newly opened Elbphilharmonie concert hall in Hamburg, a large number of schools in the US and universities in the UK, The Open – one of the largest golf tournaments in the world, healthcare giant Sanofi and we were the IPTV provider for four out of the ten stadiums who hosted the UEFA Euro 2016. We have also recently signed up a number of new clients for our digital signage offering, including BAI Hotel Cebu in The Philippines and Ulster Rugby in Northern Ireland.”

Colin summarises the firm’s overall missions and mentions which steps the firm plans to take to achieve its goal. Always striving to provide the best quality in everything the firm does, staff are constantly monitoring global trends, adapting solutions and always looking to the next big thing.

“Summarised in a few words, our mission is to provide the best quality in everything we do. This boils down to a number of principles that we hold dear: Expertise and reputation, stability and reliability, quality assurance complete end-to-end systems and product excellence.

Alongside this, Exterity believes in strong channel partnerships, built-in digital signage, being an approved provider with open standards and lastly, providing excellent customer service.

“Exterity’s global StreamForce Partner Program ensures that our registered partners receive regular and in depth product training and updates, technical specifications, sales and marketing tools, as well as prompt, superior technical support to install and maintain customer systems.”

For the firm to attract the best clients, it must distinguish itself from other competitors within the industry.

Being an innovative company, Colin believes that Exterity’s solutions and staff differentiate the firm others.

Solutions are always of the highest standard, with staff always looking to adapt and improve.

“Innovation is in our DNA, and

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we believe in providing the best solutions and services for our clients, partners and staff. This has enabled us to constantly be first movers without compromising on our core business. To ensure that we consistently offer the best quality, we design, develop and manufacture our entire end-toend IP video and digital signage solutions in the UK, so we have complete control over every step of the process. We look to achieve the highest standards of quality control and technical excellence, as well as continuous investment and product range development. We hold the prestigious ISO9001 certification for quality management systems, which reflects the company’s commitment to quality assurance across our entire operations.

“As a company, we are also the only vendor in our market providing complete end-to-end solutions.

Our end-to-end solutions enable our clients to capture TV and video content directly from any source and manage its delivery, in any location.

This also enables us to guarantee a level of robustness and reliability that cannot be matched by other providers who have to rely on third party products to complete their solution.

“Finally, our end-to-end solutions are highly reliable and fault-tolerant, ensuring a plug-and-play robustness that is second to none. Our teams work closely with our customers and channel partners to ensure we are listening to, responding to and anticipating market demands so

that we remain at the forefront of IP video innovations.

Ultimately, Exterity works hard to ensure that all staff are equipped to provide the best possible service to clients. Colin describes the internal culture of the firm, citing an open and supportive environment as being a key factor in the success of the company.

“Guaranteeing our staff are prepared for any upcoming developments or challenges, we aim to maintain an open and supportive environment for our staff and ask them to always question what we are doing and look for ways to make our products and the company better. We want our staff to think about how they can make our clients’ experience of Exterity better each day; perhaps through development of a new feature on a product, or by enhancing a support process so that a client looking for advice can get access to the right person and an answer quickly, and this will remain our ongoing focus looking ahead.”

Contact: Colin Farquhar Contact Email: jill.couttie@exterity.com Address: St Davids House, St Davids Drive, Dalgety Bay KY11 9NB Phone: 01383 828 264 Website: www.exterity.com

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