The Stevie® Awards, organizer of The American Business Awards℠, announced today that the final entry deadline for the 16^th annual ABA competition has been extended to April 13. No additional late fees will be charged. Entries submitted through April 13 will not be penalized in any way in the judging process.

“We’ve received so many requests for individual deadline extensions that we’ve decided to extend the deadline for everyone,” said Stevie Awards president Michael Gallagher. The original final deadline was March 14.

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The American Business Awards are widely considered to be the premier business awards program in the U.S.A. All organizations operating in the U.S.A. are eligible to submit nominations— public and private, for-profit and non-profit, large, and small. The 2018 awards will honor achievements since the beginning of 2017. Entry details are available at http://www.StevieAwards.com/ABA.

The American Business Awards recognize achievement in every facet of the workplace. Categories include:

• Entrepreneur Awards (new for 2018)
• Management Awards
• Company of the Year Awards
• Customer Service Awards
• Human Resources Awards
• Information Technology Awards
• Marketing Awards
• New Product Awards
• Public Relations Awards
• Website Awards, Smartphone and Tablet Apps, and other Media Awards

New categories in the 2018 American Business Awards include seven new Software Solution categories, four Lifetime Achievement Award categories, four additional Marketing Campaign categories, two new PR Campaign categories, one new category for Live Events, and Best White Paper or Research Report.

More than 200 executives on 12 juries have already begun the process of rating nominations to determine the Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevie Award winners.

Stevie winners will be announced on May 1, and the awards will be presented at a gala banquet on June 11 at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York City. Attendance is not required to win.

The list of past Stevie Award winners in The American Business Awards reads like a who’s who of innovation and business success in the U.S.A. Explore the list of last year’s winners.

The Stevie® Awards has opened entries for The 15th Annual International Business Awards, the world's premier business awards competition, which attracts nominations from organizations in more than 60 nations and territories each year.

All individuals and organizations worldwide—public and private, for-profit and non-profit, large and small—may submit nominations to The International Business Awards. The early-bird entry deadline, with reduced entry fees, is April 11. The final entry deadline is May 9, but late entries will be accepted through June 13 with payment of a late fee. Entry details are available at www.StevieAwards.com/IBA.

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Juries featuring more than 150 executives will determine the Stevie Award winners. Results will be announced 9 August. Stevie Award winners will be presented their awards at a gala banquet in London, United Kingdom on 20 October.

The International Business Awards recognize achievement in every facet of the workplace. Categories include:

• Management Awards 
• Entrepreneur of the Year Awards (new for 2018)
• Company of the Year Awards
• Customer Service Awards 
• Human Resources Awards 
• Information Technology Awards
• Marketing Awards 
• New Product Awards 
• Public Relations Awards 
• Web Site Awards, Smartphone and Tablet App, and other media awards

A variety of new categories are introduced for the 2018 competition, including a new group of categories to recognize the Entrepreneur of the Year and Founding Teams in many industries. In addition to seven new Software Solution categories in the New Product & Services section, there’s a new selection of categories to recognize Content Solutions. There is one new category, Best White Paper or Research Report, in the Publication categories and one new category, Engaged Community of the Year, in the Marketing categories. There are two new PR Campaign categories in the Public Relations section. Finally, there are four new Lifetime Achievement Awards categories in the Management section.

Stevie Award winners in the 2017 IBAs included: Cisco Systems (USA), Domino's Pizza (Turkey), Freelancer.com (Australia), Garanti Bank (Turkey), KT (South Korea), Llorente & Cuenca (Spain), Meltwater (USA), MSLGROUP (USA), PRIZM (Hong Kong), Sunny Side Up (Japan), Syncron (Sweden), Telkom Indonesia (Indonesia), Thai Life Insurance Plc. (Thailand), Viettel Group (Vietnam), Weber Shandwick (United Kingdom), WNS Holdings (P) Ltd. (India), and Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting (USA).

DiCentral is a global leader in Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), solving complex EDI and supply chain integration challenges.

DiCentral enables customers to expand their supply chain without limits. For small business communication systems with multinational enterprises, this is pivotal in delivering greater return on investment and in reducing redundant, error-prone data entry.

Kayla Adair, EDI Onboarding and Connections Lead, has won the Gold Stevie® Award for Back-Office Customer Service Professional of the Year in The Business Services Industries category of the 2018 Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service.

DiCentral Excels in Customer Support

Founded in 2000 with headquarters based in Houston, Texas, United States, DiCentral has become a leading global provider of EDI and supply chain solutions. The company has 10 offices worldwide supporting a diverse business customer base in over 27 countries.

DiCentral offers computer systems communication solutions for automotive, energy, government, health care, manufacturing, oil and gas, and related industries.

“DiCentral solves complex EDI integration challenges,” says Tina Jaekel, DiCentral Marketing Manager. “As markets continue to fluctuate, leading organizations rely on DiCentral to innovate while they integrate with their trading partners.” Jaekel has expertise in ERP partnerships, certifications, channel sales marketing, automotive EDI marketing, and manufacturing EDI marketing.

DiCentral focuses on developing efficient ways for relevant product and supply chain data (inventory, order, shipping information, invoicing) to be easily viewed and shared between retailers and suppliers. They also standardize accurate and timely product-related information for trading partners looking to build aisle assortment quickly and electronically.

Being a global leader in EDI and supply chain solutions means using proprietary technology instead of outsourcing key functions, such as providing live technical support over the phone that never leave clients waiting in a queue.

“The Stevie Awards nomination gives our company credibility so that we can continue to shine,” says Jaekel. “We are delighted that the Stevie Awards has recognized our company. It gives us the pride to continue to excel in customer support.”

Kayla Adair, EDI Onboarding and Connections Lead, won the Stevie Award for training their support team. DiCentral and Adair realize the need to deliver and go the extra mile to ensure each customer is satisfied.

Proactive Engagement

DiCentral and Adair have announced expansion in their leadership team with two new senior hires as part of a global effort to drive and scale growth. Let DiCentral proactively engage with your trading community to identify your customers' unique EDI requirements and respond to ongoing mapping, communication, and business rule changes.

The organizers of the Stevie Awards announced the winners in the 2018 German Stevie® Awards. The big winner overall with a total of ten Gold Stevies is Crowdconsultants 360 GmbH from Berlin.

With ten gold, one silver, and one bronze Stevie Award, Crowdconsultants 360 GmbH is the most awarded organization of the German Stevie Awards this year. The Berlin-based company can look forward to Gold Stevie Awards for most innovative company, startup of the year, and more.

50 executives from all over Germany were named as a part of the expert judging panel who determined the Stevie Award winners. They have reviewed over 400 nominations, selected the most innovative solutions, organizations, and individuals, and finally crowned the winners of the Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevie Awards.

Agenda Informationssysteme GmbH & Co. KG from Rosenheim and the Voith GmbH & Co. KGaA from Heidenheim each won five Gold Stevie Awards. Michael Gallagher, founder and president of the Stevie Awards, congratulates all winners on their achievements. "We are looking forward to a great award ceremony in Berlin", he says, and is proud that it takes place at the Hotel Adlon. On 27 April 2018, the winners will receive their trophies at a festive award ceremony.

All winners of the Golden, Silver and Bronze Stevie Awards are listed on the homepage of the German Stevie Awards.

Anyone wishing to be one of the winners of the German Stevie Awards next year can request an entry kit on the awards website in order to be informed in good time about deadlines and participation documents: www.stevieawards.com/Germany.

The team at Vend, a San Francisco, CA based point-of-sale software company in the USA, has built a multitude of features into their retailer software that can be confusing to the average person—from inventory management and digital receipt generation to customer loyalty capabilities and an analytics dashboard.

Such abundant functionality is great for users, but can be a headache for the marketing team. How do you convey all those benefits in a short presentation that doesn’t lose the audience’s attention?

Vend seems to have found the answer, as evidenced by a brief video it shares with prospects via YouTube and other channels. Using in-house talent, including writers Simon Pound and Nick Houldsworth and their Director of Design, Michael Ramirez, the segment earned the company its second Gold Stevie® Award in three years.

The goal: communicate everything the app can do, in just two minutes. That’s no easy task when your product’s prime benefit is being an all-in-one solution that retailers can turn to for their sales optimization needs.

The creatives at Vend developed a video that laid out the software’s top five selling points, but also imparted a lively feel that keeps the viewer engaged. To do that, they used animation that quickly bounces from one scene to the next. Underscoring the narration is buoyant music—a contribution from James Dansey—that gives the work a lively, playful feel.

One of the virtues of the video is that, for its considerable scope, it never loses the viewer. The uncluttered graphics certainly help. Throughout the piece, for example, the team uses the same flower pot to represent the merchandise it can help users manage.

The resulting production is proof that you don’t need an off-the-wall idea or gimmicks to make a great video. Sometimes a simple idea and solid execution will do the trick.

The payoff: a Gold Stevie in The 2017 American Business Awards for best video in the sales-technology category—not bad for a $5,000 internal production. Considering the company brought home a Gold in 2015 for a product overview video, the creative team is clearly on a roll.

Reflecting on that initial win, Pound says the impact was significant. “That was great. It helped us recruit, get media attention, and double down on a creative approach,” he says. “It opened doors with partners and led to us winning other awards in Stevies around the world.”

The Growing Role of Video 

Since its founding in 2010, Vend’s cloud-based point-of-sale and retail platform has become the tool of choice for sellers around the globe. It’s now used by more than 20,000 stores in over 150 countries. Through its mobile platform, the company likes to say that users are able to run “the next generation of retail.”

In addition to its San Francisco headquarters, the company now has offices in Auckland, Toronto, London, and Melbourne, and has raised more than $45 million (U.S.) from top-tier investors.

A smart marketing strategy has certainly helped hasten that growth. Online video, in particular, has proven to be an effective medium, Pound says, because it’s being used in a way that marketers can easily track.

“We are loving that with new retargeting and audience creation tools available to us we can now measure and convert from video, meaning it is back in the front of our plans,” he explains.

This latest video, entitled “5 ways Vend will transform your business,” has proven to be a particularly powerful tool. People who have seen the video on Vend’s website are twice as likely to request a demo and take a trial.

The production was also key to a re-engagement campaign for older leads that it was trying to convert. The effort led to 200 trials, simply by showing how the software has evolved in a compelling way.

It’s not the only video for which the company has received attention of late. Its recent e-commerce and PayPal videos have also won awards for their ability to drive results.

What’s the formula for success? “Quality, creativity, and originality,” says Pound. “And trying to make complex things simple.”

It’s a recipe that seems to be catching the attention of business owners, not to mention a panel of experienced judges. “Winning Stevie Awards have been huge for our business to ensure we are at a world-class level,” Pound says.

Vision, discipline, and going against the grain are three principles Bonnie Worthington embraced as she set out to establish RV Rental Connection, an online site allowing RV owners to rent their vehicles to prospective vacationers.

The online enterprise based in Chico, California in the United States is a team of three, led by Worthington as founder and CEO, and operates in 30 U.S. states and Canada. The site offers multiple styles of recreational vehicles, from pop-ups, to trailers, and multiple-bedroom motorhomes.

RV owners are able to begin with a free trial to test the success of the rental exchange program before making the decision to sign up for a monthly, no-contract subscription. RV Rental Connection even makes insurance coverage recommendations for renters and rentees with an emphasis on excellent customer service.

Worthington’s creative brand idea culminated with the tagline, “Rent the RV. Own the Experience.” The innovative business model has earned her recognition with The Stevie® Awards for Women in Business in four categories: Startup of the Year and Company of the Year, with 10 employees or less, Female Entrepreneur of the Year, and Maverick of the Year.

Not only was Worthington surprised with the award, but she was also in awe when she realized she would stand next to successful business women from around the world (from companies such as Microsoft and Verizon) at the November 2017 Stevie Awards in New York City.

“Our team has worked very hard this year to provide great value to our RV Rental Listing Members and website visitors who want to rent an RV from a private owner,” Worthington says. “We couldn’t have won these awards without our loyal RV rental owners and dealers who believed in us as a startup and have hung in there with us as we grow and prosper.”

This budding CEO champions the discipline to integrate strategy and to implement it towards achieving goals. Worthington told her local publication ChicoER that she was not afraid to operate a little differently from the rest of the vacation business and online marketplace, positioning RV Rental Connection as a “disruptor to disrupters.” This is what earned her the Maverick of the Year award.

In her lifetime, Worthington has won awards in academics, writing, golf, and competitive horseback riding. She is committed to staying fit and “keeping her mind sharp” with reading, math exercises, and other mind games. She remains dedicated to success, believing if she is driven to achieve, she will.

World's Top Customer Service Awards and Sales Awards Presented in Las Vegas

Winners in the 12th annual Stevie® Awards for Sales & Customer Service, recognized as the world's top customer service awards and sales awards, were unveiled on Friday night at a gala ceremony in Las Vegas, NV, attended by more than 600 executives from around the world.

The complete list of Stevie Winners by category is available at http://www.StevieAwards.com/Sales.

DP DHL, with Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevie Award wins for activities in Argentina, Lebanon, the U.S., Vietnam, and other nations, was the most honored organization this year, earning the top Grand Stevie Award trophy for the fifth consecutive year. Other Grand Stevie Award winners, in descending order, include IBM, HomeServe USA, VIZIO Inc., Sales Partnerships, Inc., John Hancock Financial Services, FIS, Carbonite, Visualize, and Delta Vacations.

IBM won 10 Gold Stevie Awards, the most in the 2018 competition among Gold Stevie winners. HomeServe USA won six while Delta Vacations and GNResound won five each. Sales Partnerships, Inc. and Vizio won four. DHL Express Bangladesh, FIS, Mass Mutual Life Insurance Company, Mercer Consumer, Runzheimer, and UPMC Health Plan each won three. Winners of two Gold Stevie Awards include: Apttus, Birevim A.S., Carbonite, Comcast, Dell Technologies, Delta Airlines, DHL Express Vietnam, Gladly, GO Fuel Stations Inc., GuideWell Connect, Imparta Inc., ISN, John Hancock Financial Services, M Partners Ltd, MTM, Network Alliance, Samsung Electronics America, SAP America, ServiceNow, Sun Basket, TTEC, VXI Global Solutions, and Yapi Kredi Bank.

Leaders among multiple winners of Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevies include: Albridge, Allianz Global Assistance, BlueCat Networks, Druva Inc., eMoney Advisor, iHeartMedia, Nuance Communications, Overstock.com, Response, Rimini Street, SmartLinx Solutions, Wells Fargo Treasury Management Client Delivery, and Wyndham Vacation Ownership.

Winners in the People’s Choice Stevie® Awards for Favorite Customer Service, as determined by more than 124,000 public votes, which were announced on February 15, were also presented at the event.

The presentations were broadcast live via Livestream and are available to watch online.

The awards are presented by the Stevie Awards, which organizes several of the world’s leading business award shows including the prestigious International Business Awards® and The American Business Awards.

More than 2,500 nominations from organizations of all sizes and in virtually every industry were evaluated in this year’s competition. Finalists were determined by the average scores of more than 150 professionals worldwide in seven specialized judging committees. Entries were considered in 89 categories for customer service and contact center achievements including: Contact Center of the Year, Award for Innovation in Customer Service, and Customer Service Department of the Year; 60 categories for sales and business development achievements, ranging from Senior Sales Executive of the Year to Sales Training or Business Development Executive of the Year to Sales Department of the Year; and categories to recognize new products and services and solution providers.

Sponsors of the 12th annual Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service include HCL Financial Services, Rant & Rave, Sales Partnerships, Inc., and ValueSelling Associates, Inc.

Media owners look for technology they can trust to help them gain complete control over monetized content with video advertising. SpotX is a company in the United States that considers themselves to be a one-stop solution, offering modern ad serving and sophisticated programmatic capabilities with an entire suite of integrations and ad units across all devices. This work has led them to win the Gold Stevie® Award for “Maverick of the Year” in The 2017 American Business Awards

Getting the message across

SpotX is a video advertising and monetization platform with 20 offices across the United States, Europe, Latin America, and Asia-Pacific. Their technology powers modern ad serving, programmatic enablement, and other advanced video monetization tools for a variety of different media owners, such as PBS, Spotify, E.W. Scripps, Zynga, and Conde Nast. In October 2017, RTL Group, a leader across broadcast, content and digital, completed its 100% acquisition of SpotX which is currently combining its business with smartclip, a sister company. SpotX was founded in 2007 by Mike Shehan and Steve Swoboda, CEO and CFO respectively, and has nearly 600 employees.

Exceptional leadership

Publishers use SpotX to connect all of their demand sources—ad networks, DSPs (demand-side platforms), trading desks, and exchanges—creating a single place where media owners have complete control and actionable insights to maximize revenue. Mike Shehan is excited about the attention they’ve received.

“This award has helped us elevate our Chief Revenue Officer in-market and highlighted his exceptional leadership across members of our global team.”

Shehan continues on about how the Stevies specifically impacted their Chief Revenue Officer.

“Our Stevies winner, Sean Buckley, was named Chief Revenue Officer at SpotX last year at the age of 29, making him the fourth C-level executive at our company. Sean's tenacity and deep knowledge of the complex ad tech industry have contributed to his rapid rise and we're thrilled to have such a dynamic leader as a member of our team.”

Adapting to the Future

SpotX is deeply involved in the ongoing industry discussion around the rise of OTT video and the rapid adoption of programmatic advertising across desktop, mobile, and connected TV devices. “We've gained an early foothold in the burgeoning Asia-Pacific region, where mobile adoption over the last few years has spurred enormous growth in video advertising,” says Shehan.

As a leader in the over-the-top (OTT) video space, SpotX continues to drive home the importance of understanding how media buyers and sellers think about OTT advertising. In February 2018, the company announced detailed insights about the current state of video advertising on OTT in a report called “TV is Total Video: Predicting OTT and the Future of Video Advertising.” SpotX also announced a strategic integration with JW Player to launch Video Player Bidding, a new way to help reduce video latency and improve monetization for publishers with just one click.

SpotX is also a strong proponent of the server-to-server bidding model for ad inventory, aiming to educate the industry on the many benefits and efficiencies that it provides for media owners. Shehan comments on an organizational change they made that helped solidify their success today.

“We united the departments that serve our two distinct groups of customers under central leadership, spurring collaboration across our global teams.”

The adaptability of leadership in making sure that you’re always innovating and staying ahead of the competition is crucial in the world of video, and SpotX is all about “X marks the spot.”

Votes Determine Public’s Favorite Customer Service Providers of the Year

Winners of the 2018 People's Choice Stevie® Awards for Favorite Customer Service, a worldwide public vote, were announced today. Voting was conducted from January 19 through February 9, with the highest number of votes deciding the winners in 13 industry categories. More than 124,000 votes were cast this year.

All organizations honored in the Customer Service Department of the Year categories of this year’s Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service were eligible to be included in voting for the People’s Choice Awards. The Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service, now in their 12^th year, are the world’s top honors for customer service, contact center, business development, and sales professionals.

This year’s People’s Choice winners, who will each receive the coveted crystal People’s Choice Stevie Award, are:

• Airlines, Distribution, Transportation: DHL Express Bangladesh
• Computer Hardware: Dell Technologies
• Computer Services: Dell Technologies - Advanced Resolution Group
• Financial - 100 or More Employees: John Hancock Financial Services
• Financial - Up to 100 Employees: Care.com HomePay
• Healthcare/Pharma: Zelis Payments
• Leisure & Tourism: Travelzoo
• Other Industries: CubeSmart
• Public Services & Education: Standard For Success
• Retail: Chewy
• Software - 100 or More Employees: Carbonite, Inc.
• Software - Up to 100 Employees: FieldEdge
• Telecommunications: Loop Communications

Nicknamed the Stevie for the Greek word “crowned,” the awards will be presented to winners at the 12^th annual Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service awards banquet on Friday, February 23, at Caesars Palace Hotel in Las Vegas, NV. Tickets for the event are now on sale. More than 600 executives from around the world are expected to attend. The presentations will be broadcast live via Livestream.

Sponsors of the 12th annual Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service include HCL Financial Services, Rant & Rave, Sales Partnerships, Inc., and ValueSelling Associates, Inc.

As the global population increases, the oceans continue to suffer from overfishing. Since 1977, Manatee Holdings Ltd. has pioneered the use of sustainable aquaculture as an environmentally conscious way to meet the global demand for seafood while preserving the Earth and respecting the natural ecology necessary for marine life.

Based in British Columbia, Canada, Manatee Holdings is striving to meets its mission: to create the most environmentally beneficial food production operation on land or sea around the world, specializing in harvesting gourmet foods from the sea. Most of these foods are used in the sushi market.

Lourdes Gant, winner of the Silver Stevie® Award for Woman of the Year in The 14th Annual International Business Awards, is co-owner of Manatee Holdings with her husband, Eric Gant. Ms. Gant has been recognized internationally for her efforts in leading Manatee Holdings to develop environmentally conscious production practices in response to ocean acidification and overfishing. Canada magazines PROFIT and Chatelaine have recognized her as one of 100 Top Female Entrepreneurs—#84 in 2012 and #5 in 2014.

“I like to call myself a blend between serious business acumen and open-minded joy,” Gant states.

She works to find a successful balance in her career and her invigorating personal life, realizing they are not mutually exclusive.

Walking on fire, breaking an arrow with her throat, and splitting a board with her hand are just a few of her epic accomplishments. Some of her other feats include scaling the Burma Bridge and Possum log,;rapelling down high cliffs; zip-trekking in Canada; parasailing in the Bahamas; skydiving in Hawaii; swimming with dolphins in Mexico; and hiking the Andean mountains with llamas. The list goes on!

Beyond her personal accolades, Ms. Gant has earned a bevy of professional credits from auditing certifications from the International Register of Certified Auditors (IRCA) to earning her MBA and CPA. 

She say her keys to success are maintaining a positive attitude, intuition, and following a higher purpose. Here are the 10 best habits accompanying her beliefs in transformational learning:

1. Accomplish
2. Be consciously in charge of your way of life
3. Duality (often described as yin and yang)
4. Excellence
5. Fact finding
6. Integrity with self
7. Kaizen (Japanese for “change for better”)
8. Leverage
9. Passionate mentoring
10. Living with purpose

Ms. Gant resides in Royston, British Columbia, with her husband and their son, Elan, but they enjoy travelling to different tropical countries for the winter. She practices yoga and swimming. She also practices Taekwondo with Elan. Her philanthropic efforts go beyond environmental preservation. She recently visited orphanages in Peru with the "Give and Grow" program. 

Ms. Gant is constantly seeking experiences around the world and using those experiences to transform herself. This outlook has helped her to develop Manatee Holdings Ltd. into the most environmentally beneficial food production company on land or sea.