Without their customers even realizing it, many businesses utilize master agents. A master agent works by using the services of a large number of expert partners, such as IT consultants, systems integrators, and technology service providers. All these entities work under one umbrella to provide seamless service to their clients.

Technology Distribution Services

Telecommunications systems are vital to the world of business. As the cloud continues to drive convergence, organizations strive to upgrade their outdated systems and to add fresh ones. Master agents are organizations that perform the back-office duties for their subagents. As such, they take care of tasks like order tracking, commission tracking, and troubleshooting. The benefits of using a master agent are the ability to build partnerships, to offer a range of future-proof solutions, and to safeguard clients with clear and knowledgeable advice.

Ideal Tech Solutions

Keeping current with technology can be a tall order, and the benefit of having an umbrella company that’s committed to helping organizations access telecommunications, cable, and cybersecurity vendors can be invaluable. A master agent matches an organization to the ideal solutions that can help grow that business, and it also offers end-to-end support for companies. The joy of using specialists like this is that they take the time to listen to their clients and then match them with the technologies most appropriate for the development of their companies.

A Strong Team

The telecom industry is continuously evolving in order to keep up with developing technology. Growth opportunities are enormous, and master agent technology specialists are well positioned to take advantage of those opportunities. Currently, only 14 percent of technology businesses take advantage of master agents, but by continually developing and updating the services they offer, there is room to increase that number and to help companies keep ahead of the tech curve.

The president of TBI, Inc., Geoff Shepstone, feels the purpose of a master agent is to ensure it consistently provides value to its clients and partners.

“Provide value or perish,” says Shepstone. “We remain the largest privately held master agent in the country due to the fact that every single business unit within TBI provides free value-adds to our partner community.”

When considering partnering with a master agent, it’s essential to employ a company whose ethos matches your own. It should also have a positive organizational culture and motivated employees who enjoy frequent opportunities for continued professional development, keep relationships active, and keep creative business ideas flowing. A top-quality technology business ensures staff members can network with colleagues from all departments and organizational levels as this promotes a constant flow of knowledge and information. This helps build a strong team and provides excellent support to both customers and partners.

Responsiveness and the ability to keep their customers and partners looped in as the technology industry develops helped TBI, Inc. win a Gold Stevie® Award for Marketing Department of the Year and a Bronze Stevie® for Marketer of the Year at The 2019 American Business Awards®.

Interested in winning a Stevie Award in 2020?

The Stevie® Awards, organizer of the world’s premier business awards programs, has issued a call for speakers and topics for its third-annual Women|Future Conference.

This two-day event for professional women to connect and hear about business and career topics will be presented in conjunction with the 17^th annual Stevie Awards for Women in Business on November 12-13, 2019, at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.

The Stevie Awards is offering $99 registration for the conference through January 17 at https://stevieawards.regfox.com/2020-womenfuture-conference. Registration fees are 100% refundable through early October 2020. The fee will rise to $299 on January 18.

Speaker and topic proposals may be submitted at https://www.womenfutureconference.com/speaker-topic-proposals. The deadline for submissions is Friday, May 1. Questions about the conference, presentation opportunities, and sponsorship options may be directed to Ruslana Milikhiker, Conference & Event Manager, at Ruslana@StevieAwards.com. 

In addition to our call for speakers, we are also seeking young (less than three years) women-owned businesses to showcase at the 2020 event. If you are interested in showcasing your business before an audience of potential customers, investors, and the press, at no cost, click here and tell us about your organization, its products and/or services, and the date you began business.

The mission of the conference is to help women understand and prepare for the changes that will affect their businesses, their industries, their careers, and their lives. Speakers and topics may address impending change in areas such as artificial intelligence, entrepreneurship, career management, diversity and inclusion, and the future of work, for example. The conference will also feature case studies from finalists in the 2020 Stevie Awards for Women in Business about how they are achieving success and preparing for the future.

Last year’s conference speakers included Sheryl Connelly of Ford Motor Company, Gail Becker of CAULIPOWER, Shimona Chadha of HCL Technologies, Ashley Brundage of PNC, and Alex Coren of Wambi, among others. Click here to check out the highlights from the 2019 conference.

Online security is a massive concern for businesses because it's vital to be able to store and to access sensitive data safely. There are myriad security products and services out there, but it's crucial to choose a trustworthy network security solution. The cybersecurity needs of small to medium businesses, schools, and charities (all of which generally have limited tech support) can be complicated. When it comes to finding the most appropriate security solution for an organization operating within a limited budget, the prospect can be a challenge.

Stevie®-winner Untangle is an innovative cybersecurity company that was founded in 2003 in San Diego, California, United States. It focuses on providing creative network security solutions. The company ethos is built around four central principles: loyalty, excellence, agility, and determination, or “LEAD,” as they’re referred to. By focusing on listening to both customers and staff, Untangle can develop user-friendly ways for smaller companies to protect their data. They do so through easy-to-use products and great follow-up care and support.

Community Minded

As a company with a social conscience, Untangle is continually on the lookout for ways they can positively impact their communities. This is why they offer Nonprofit Complete. Identical to NG Firewall Complete, Nonprofit Complete is provided to qualifying not-for-profit institutions at a reduced price, and it includes all available updates. Charities, schools, and religious organizations are as vulnerable to cybersecurity breaches as any other institution, and it can be hard for those nonprofits to protect themselves.

Cerebral Palsy of North Jersey (CPNJ), based in New Jersey, United States, recently got in touch with Untangle because they desperately needed an update to their web protection, which was relying on basic firewalls only. CPNJ needed Internet security protection for a large number of locations, including two schools, three adult training centers, fourteen group homes, a twenty-four-unit apartment complex, and an administrative office. Their IT director needed to ensure the children were protected from accidentally accessing inappropriate websites but couldn't find an easy-to-install system that was suitable for their needs.

As a nonprofit, CPNJ needed to balance budget issues with a security solution that was easy to deploy and easy to manage. The charity also needed to solve the problem of filtering inappropriate content for the schools while also allowing the marketing and administrative teams access to a wider range of websites and applications, such as social media pages.

Katie Bochenski, the director of information technology at Cerebral Palsy New Jersey, now has complete visibility and can easily keep an eye out for any problems. CPNJ was pleased they could get the Internet security they needed with a support team on hand to advise, all at an accessible price.

Personalized Service

Untangle prides itself on delivering top-quality enterprise-level protection to every client. This protection is also tailored to clients’ specific needs. For example, Untangle was recently able to help its client Bridger Valley Electric Association in Mountain View, Wyoming, United States, securely connect twelve remote locations. The main challenge was to implement regular vulnerability assessments while proactively blocking and protecting the network from threats. Untangle was able to set up real-time compliance reporting and install layer 7 app filtering to block undesirable websites and apps. The client was looking to securely allow third-party access to the network, so Untangle worked with them to create detailed policies that control and monitor outside access.

Dirk Morris, founder and CPO of Untangle, sees the position of the company in the cybersecurity market very clearly.

“Untangle is one of the only network security solution providers worldwide focused on offering SMBs a dedicated solution that fits their needs and budget restraints. We specifically innovate and create products designed for businesses with limited IT resources, ensuring their networks stay secure, no matter who is connecting where.”

International Award Winning

The company’s passion for accessible Internet security has made them a multi-award winner, most recently receiving several Stevie Awards. As a winner of a Gold Stevie Award in the Network Security Solution category at The 2019 International Business Awards® and a Gold Stevie in the Network Security Solution category at The 2019 American Business Awards®, their commitment to providing a world-class product is clear. The company’s Silver Award in Customer Service Department of the Year at The 2019 American Business Awards also showcases their continued drive to provide an excellent customer experience.

Interested in winning a Stevie Award in 2020?

When it comes to the job landscape of the future, much speculation exists about how emerging technologies will affect those just entering the job market. When people ask the specific question of whether artificial intelligence (AI) is going to be a jobs killer, though, it’s important for young people to realize the answer isn’t a simple yes or no. The latest statistics and studies show it’s less about killing or eliminating jobs and more about evolving them.

How AI Could Affect the Future Job Market

When Carl Benedikt Frey and Michael Osborne, two Oxford academics, came out with a prediction in 2013 that a staggering 47 percent of US jobs were at risk of automation by the middle of the 2030s, this issue of AI as a jobs killer became a hot topic of discussion. Studies, surveys, and op-eds began pouring in on the topic, and the subsequent findings were significant.

For example, McKinsey Global Institute found that anywhere between 40 million and 160 million women across the globe would potentially need to change jobs by 2030. Why? The clerical work done by secretaries, bookkeepers, and schedulers—jobs which are done by women 72 percent of the time—are especially susceptible to automation.

The salient part of the study, however, was not that these women would need to change jobs; it was that they would likely be transitioning into higher-skilled roles. In this way, AI wasn’t depriving them of jobs. Instead, it was pushing them into more advanced roles—positions that require the expertise, understanding, and skills only humans possess.

Similarly, the World Economic Forum estimates that automation is on pace to displace 75 million jobs by 2022, but it’s also set to create 133 million new ones by that date. In another study, Gartner predicts 2 million AI-related net new jobs by 2025.

With such a complicated issue, however, many potential factors come into play, and just as many studies predict an overall net loss in jobs. Forrester, for one, estimates a 29 percent loss of jobs by 2030 and only a 13 percent job increase to compensate.

While there isn’t general agreement about the potential number of jobs displaced and then created by AI, one thing does seem to be clear: AI will push people away from largely automated jobs into more advanced positions, and this transition will require the new job force to be increasingly agile and able to learn core skills and adapt to new working models.

The Company-Level Response to These Changes

Just as young people entering the job market should be cognizant of the changes technology will likely have on the professional landscape, companies should understand this dynamic as well. To stay relevant, businesses within the technology industry not only need to embrace AI and its potential but invest in training their workforces (established and incoming) to adapt to these new technologies.

“IT is a highly innovative and changing industry, and because of this, we’re reinventing education for the era of AI,” says Andrea Knoche, a first-line analytics leader for a subgroup of International Business Machines (IBM) that’s based in Ehningen, Germany. “We’re making it a priority to prepare young people around the world for the jobs of tomorrow.”

As IBM illustrates, success in a changing technology-based landscape is about balancing the adoption of new technology. A company can’t ignore or dismiss new innovations, but it also must prepare its workers to properly harness the power of those tools.

“Our subgroup of IBM is most interested in moving to a cloud-based environment and utilizing big data technologies and analytics strategies,” says Knoche, “but we understand our workers must be trained and prepared to implement those tools into their jobs. When trained properly, employees can make the available technology work for them to increase their efficiency and effectiveness.”

IBM earned a Bronze Stevie Award in the Information Technology Team of the Year category at The 2020 American Business Awards®. They also won several awards at The 2020 International Business Awards®, including a Gold Stevie for Company of the Year - Business or Professional Services - Large.

Interested in winning a Stevie Award in 2020?

Registration for November 2020 Women|Future Conference in Las Vegas Is Just $99 Through January 10

What should you give the ambitious, forward-looking woman this holiday season? A gift card, a fruit basket, a sweater she won’t wear? How about two days of networking, keynote sessions, panel discussions, and a showcase of young women-owned businesses, in the entertainment capital of the world, for just $99?

The Stevie Awards is offering a $99 registration through January 10 for its third annual Women|Future Conference, November 12-13 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. The conference’s mission is to address the most pressing issues of tomorrow, from the perspective of how they will effect women entrepreneurs, executives, and employees, in all industries. The deeply-discounted registration is available at www.WomenFutureConference.com.

The price will jump to $299 on January 11.

Whether you’re looking for a gift for someone else or yourself, the best gift is an investment in the future. The 2020 Women|Future Conference will help attendees gain insight into how to secure theirs.

The first two editions of the conference were staged in New York, in conjunction with the Stevie Awards for Women in Business. Check out the summary of the 2019 conference.

Like all great gifts, this one is fully returnable. Conference registrations fees are 100% refundable through early October.

Top Sales Awards and Customer Service Awards Winners to Be Recognized in Las Vegas

The final entry deadline is rapidly approaching for the 14^th annual Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service on January 9, 2020. These are the world’s premier awards for sales and customer service professionals, teams, and organizations.

Entry kits and complete details on the competition are available at http://www.StevieAwards.com/Sales.

After all nominations have been submitted, finalists will be notified on January 15 and winners will be announced at a gala awards banquet at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada on February 28.

Eligible nominees include departments, teams, and professionals from around the world who work in customer service, contact center, business development, and sales. New products and services and solution providers used by those professionals are also eligible. The 2020 awards will recognize achievements since July 1, 2018.

The Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service feature more than 150 sales awards, customer service awards, business development awards, new product awards, and solution provider awards categories. Entrants may submit any number of nominations to any number of categories.

New this year, nominees may submit a video of up to five minutes in length instead of the 650-word essay describing their achievements since July 1, 2018.

New categories for 2020 include Customer Service Training Professional of the Year, Customer Service Training Team of the Year – External, Customer Service Training Team of the Year – Internal, Best Customer Engagement Initiative, Customer Service Training or Coaching Program of the Year, Sales Enablement Program of the Year, Sales Incentive Program of the Year, and White Paper or Research Paper of the Year.

2020 will see the return of the People’s Choice Stevie Awards for Favorite Customer Service, a popular feature of the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service in which the general public may vote for their favorite providers of customer service, from among all finalist nominations in the Customer Service Department of the Year categories.

Winners of the 2019 edition of the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service included Allstate, American Airlines, Birevim, Cvent, DP DHL, Deliveroo, Dubai Police, HomeServe USA, IBM, iHeartMedia, Inc., Michael Kors, Oi, Salary.com, Sales Partnerships, Inc., SolarWinds, Texas Instruments, VIZIO, Zappos, and more.

The 2020 competition will be judged by more than 150 professionals around the world.

Access to capital helps businesses create jobs and generate economic impact. Solely getting access to funds, however, doesn’t guarantee advancement for small businesses.

As any entrepreneur knows, starting and maintaining a business can be an uphill battle, especially when it involves applying for a loan. If disapproved for the necessary capital, you can quickly feel stuck, and many face this common problem each day. Large banks deny nearly three-quarters of small business loan applications, and even small banks reject about half, according to the July 2019 Biz2Credit Small Business Lending Index.

Many companies are looking to address this issue, including Stevie-winner Lendio, which is based out of South Jordan, UT, United States. This company cuts through the noise by offering free online services to help business owners find the right business loan within minutes.

Lendio was a Gold Stevie® Award winner for Customer Service Team of the Year in the Financial Services category at the 2019 American Business Awards®.

Interested in winning a Stevie Award in 2020?

Lendio created a platform for thousands of loan brokers, establishing the nation’s largest small business loan marketplace in the process. With hundreds of loan products from a variety of banks and specialty lenders, Lendio has become a one-stop shop for thousands of business owners looking for capital to start, to operate, and to grow businesses.

Through data-driven algorithms that more accurately screen borrowers, the Lendio platform allows a small business owner to fill out a single application in minutes and then receive offers from multiple lenders.

How to Help Yourself by Helping Others

Lendio is, by no means, the only company looking to ease the relationship between borrower and lender in corporate America. Many capital firms exist, such as Berkshire Partners, Cortect Group, and Frontier Capital.

However, the laser focus of Lendio on customer satisfaction drives thousands of five-star reviews and earns the company many repeat customers (the company’s repeat rate is over 50 percent.) Lendio prides itself on being a small business advocate, carefully vetting lenders to help customers secure the best loan available. In these ways, Lendio serves as a representative of the new wave of companies aiming to ease the loan process for small businesses.

Advancing community involvement is another pillar of the Lendio ethos, and it’s been shown this is a great way for any organization to build relationships, to boost visibility and brand awareness, and to appeal to customers. In fact, over 80 percent of US consumers consider corporate social responsibility when deciding what services and products to buy and where to buy them from.

Lendio and other companies understand how much community involvement benefits both the community at large and their own financial interests.

These healthy exchanges between local communities and businesses can also inform company values, which Lendio and many other successful ventures don’t view as something managers simply hang on the wall. Whether you’re looking to enter the investment space or you need to take a hard look at your current company, here are six tips from Lendio you can use to evaluate your company culture.

1. Success starts with people and managers; invest in training them so they can reach their full potential. Formulate initiatives, such as remote work autonomy and unlimited paid time off, so people feel management's trust in them.

2. Unite around one common goal: to help fuel the American dream. Managers should ensure every employee understands his or her role in boosting small businesses and, in turn, the economy.

3. Be the CEO of your job. Managers should ensure every team member owns his or her job, giving employees the support they need to go above and beyond in order to deliver results. Outline weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly goals that align with company initiatives that help drive the business forward in measurable ways.

4. Be humble and hungry. All employees, including management, should check their egos at the door.

5. Like a little competition—or a lot. Play to win, whether it’s challenging a coworker to some Ping-Pong or getting that next loan finalized. Managers can use monthly sales competitions to keep teams motivated. Company-wide flag football games and holiday-themed eating contests keep the interdepartmental competition friendly and fun.

6. Prioritize communication. Management should believe that candor, transparency, and communication accelerate success. Employees should then participate in weekly one-on-ones with managers to facilitate this openness. Monthly town hall meetings with the CEO can keep every team member in sync with company goals and initiatives.

These principles help Lendio motivate employees to continually improve and to adapt to the changing landscapes of business and life. To find values that work for your company, determine what makes your company unique, acknowledge potential areas of improvement, and then create your company principles based on those findings.

If your manager mentions a team-building and leadership training day, do you inwardly groan? Maybe you see it as a fun day out with colleagues but one that, ultimately, has no long-term benefits. Despite how employees often feel, though, research shows that if you take part in a professionally developed facilitated leadership experience program, the results can benefit you both at work and on a personal level.

Soft Skills

If you've been part of an organized leadership experience before, it's tempting to be skeptical. However, you need to start considering the benefits of soft skills to leaders. Think about the benefits of enhanced communication skills, the bonds of shared experience, and the engagement of employees. All these can help every level of leadership and management improve strategies and techniques.

Communication

Too often leaders’ communication styles are routine and task focused. With leadership building and team away days, though, leaders are thrown into new situations that challenge this status quo. For example, say most of your office communication is done via email. If you’re put in a situation where you must spend time communicating verbally, this can be revealed as an area of necessary improvement.

After the leadership experience, you’ll be required to debrief your team and recap the day. This is an opportunity to ask important questions. Are your instructions clear enough? Are all the leaders giving the same message? Is there room for discussion in the action phase of the task? Through this process, you’ll also discover what your team already does well.

Dynamic Challenges

If you choose a dynamic, action-based leadership development day, you could find yourself performing a historical reenactment. This tests your mettle against great leaders of their times, such as Winston Churchill or Abraham Lincoln. Alternately, you could end up spearheading a virtual rocket launch.

Whatever the situation, you will have to lead your team, harnessing all their skills to complete the challenge in the time frame given.

This method of experiential, hands-on learning connects concepts like team building, leadership, and innovation. Traditional leadership education still has its place, but it can be reinforced for your whole team through an enjoyable out-of-office endeavor.

Morale Boost

Whether you’re a new team or you just want to build on the rapport you already have, getting out and completing an action challenge builds trust. This then boosts employee engagement and morale and fosters collaboration when you are back at your desks.

Fresh Perspective

Maybe you feel you need to reboot your enthusiasm for leadership and management, or perhaps you’re a brand-new leader. Whatever the case, it's always helpful to gain a fresh perspective. You will learn how the leadership principles of the Battle of Waterloo or the mentality required when coaching an Olympic team relate to your own experiences, and you can then see how to apply those lessons in your field.

Dick Richardson experienced this firsthand as his plane came crashing down over New York, United States. From his airplane seat on what later became known as the “Miracle on the Hudson” flight, he witnessed the importance of having a well-trained team.

Richardson went on to co-found Experience to Lead, which focuses on experiential learning in business. The company recently won a Gold Stevie Award for Entrepreneur of the Year in the Business and Professional Services category at the American Business Awards®.

When you’re planning your next training day, consider the benefits of what getting into the field and trying your hand at an experiential challenge can do for your team. Don't stop at the away day, though; make these opportunities to connect with your staff part of your workplace culture.

Interested in winning a Stevie Award in 2020?

Newest Stevie Awards program recognizing innovation in 17 countries in Middle East and North Africa is now accepting entries through January 22

By popular demand, the Stevie Awards have announced a general entry deadline extension for its new Middle East Stevie Awards sponsored by RAK Chamber, UAE. The original final entry deadline was December 4. Entries will now be accepted through January 22.

All organizations operating in 17 nations in the Middle East and North Africa are eligible to submit nominations to the 2020 Middle East Stevie Awards. The awards will recognize innovative achievements since July 1, 2018. Complete information about the awards process is available at https://MENA.StevieAwards.com.

Nominations will be accepted and judged in Arabic and English from organizations of all types—large and small, for-profit and non-profit, publicly-held and privately-held—in more than 200 categories. Organizations may submit as many nominations as they’d like in these categories, at no cost. Categories are available across the following groups:

• Web Site, App, Annual Report & Other Publications, & Live Event Awards Categories
• Management Awards Categories
• Company / Organisation Awards Categories
• Corporate Communications & Public Relations Awards Categories
• Customer Service Awards Categories
• Human Resources Awards Categories
• Marketing Awards Categories
• New Product & Product Management Awards Categories
• Technology Awards Categories

Judging for the competition will be conducted by professionals around the world who will determine the Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevie Award winners in each category. Those winners will be announced the week of February 19. Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevie winners will be honored, and Grand Stevie Award winners announced, at a gala awards banquet at the Waldorf Astoria in Ras Al Khaimah, United Arab Emirates on Saturday, March 21.

Instead of charging an entry fee for each nomination submitted, as many awards programs do, the competition will impose a winner’s fee on each Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevie-winning nomination. Payment of the winner’s fee will unlock the many benefits of being a Stevie winner, including the right to publicly claim the recognition, a Stevie Award trophy, the right to use the winner’s seal, and more.

Hundreds of organizations across the MENA region have been recognized in Stevie Awards programs over the years, including ASDA'A BCW in United Arab Emirates, CarrefourSA in Turkey, DHL Express in Qatar, Gulf Bank in Kuwait, and Ooredoo in Oman, among many other prominent winners.

“With the Middle East Stevie Awards, we are able to recognize the innovation of many more organizations and executives in the MENA region,” said Michael Gallagher, president and founder of the Stevie Awards. “This will mean that many more organizations around the MENA region will be able to benefit from the brand-building and employee-recognition benefits of winning the world’s premier business award, the Stevie Award.”

About the RAK Chamber of Commerce and Industry
RAK Chamber of Commerce and Industry (RAK Chamber) is the second chamber of commerce commissioned in the United Arab Emirates incorporated on 22 October 1967, RAK Chamber adopts the spirit of innovation and creativity, strong leadership and initiative to support and develop business sectors to achieve excellence and become pioneers, focusing on clients, investors and business by meeting their needs and offering them added value. The chamber is keen to create and develop a system of sustainable enterprise relations, and it also works to provide a business environment and practices that enhance the culture of group work by working in a spirit of a unified team – along with responding to internal and external changes by providing information, data, procedures and laws for all concerned categories. This is in order to achieve transparency and credibility and to create a business-motivating environment so as to promote the Emirate of Ras Al Khaimah as an economic hub in the United Arab Emirates.

It’s essential in today’s world to try to be part of something bigger than yourself, and this applies not only to individuals but to institutions. If your specialty is helping clients solve financial issues, for example, then you are particularly well placed to help out by problem-solving in the wider community.

Many big companies have organized programs that encourage their employees to consider volunteering, and they facilitate these acts of service by giving their employees time to do so. Businesses find this experience of giving back continues outside of work hours as well, which creates an ongoing, committed relationship with the given charity or nonprofit. The relationship of the company to the community at large then often becomes an integral part of the corporate culture.

Volunteering Helps Company Culture

Some businesses tend start their volunteer work on a small scale. For example, some companies employ industry education, which helps other professionals excel in their respective fields. This sense of social responsibility often fosters a desire to do even more, which can lead staff members to give their time regularly to local charities.

Stevie-winner Wolters Kluwer Lien Solutions, which is based in Houston, Texas, United States, is one business that describes their experience of volunteering as enlightening and something that has given them fulfillment and made their company feel like a real family with a shared purpose.

A Perfect Match

The Lighthouse, a charity that is a member of the United Way of Greater Houston, Texas, United States, helps over seven thousand blind and partially sighted people every year by giving members the tools they need to live independently. When Wolters Kluwer Lien Solutions was looking for a place to volunteer, they came across this local charity, and it seemed like a perfect match. Both were looking for a long-term, meaningful relationship, and that has undoubtedly come to fruition.

Since 1939 the Lighthouse has provided social activities for the blind and visually impaired in the Houston, Texas, United States, area, and they love to welcome volunteers. By providing several volunteers to assist with craft sessions and reading activities during the working day, Wolters Kluwer Lien Solutions proves an excellent fit with the Lighthouse. The partnership ensures the charity can provide sessions in the daytime, which is when their clients need them most.

Giving Back to the Community

Meeting new people and getting a unique perspective into the local community through the staff, volunteers, and service users at the Lighthouse is just one example of how Wolters Kluwer Lien Solutions is committed to supporting its staff members’ communities. The work doesn’t stop with the Lighthouse, though. Employees have also volunteered at a wide range of other nonprofit organizations, such as Children of Military Members in Tampa, Florida, United States; the Nevada Children’s Hospital in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States; and the Tulane Health System in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States.

Raja Sengupta, executive vice-president and general manager at Wolters Kluwer Lien Solutions, is proud of how his team embraces the volunteering mind-set.

“The employees are keen to deepen their relationships with the communities in which they live and to take part in projects where they can get to know and help others,” says Sengupta.

This can-do attitude earned Wolters Kluwer Lien Solutions several Stevie Awards in 2019. For its iLien Motor Vehicle solution, the company earned a Silver Stevie®️ Award in the Financial Services category, as well as a Gold Stevie Award in the Legal Information Solution category at the American Business Awards®️.

Wolters Kluwer received three Silver Stevies for Female Executive of the Year - Business Services - More Than 2,500 Employees on behalf of Jennifer Cronin, VP of Customer Service; Female Executive of the Year - Business Services - 11 to 2,500 Employees on behalf of Alyza Tarmohamed, General Manager; and Most Innovative Woman of the Year - Technology on behalf of Karen Abramson, CEO at the 2019 Stevie Awards for Women in Business.

Interested in winning a Stevie Award in 2020?