Entry deadline extended to April 1

The Stevie® Awards, organizer of the world's premier business awards programs, announced that they are revising the entire schedule for the 2022 (ninth annual) Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

They have extended the final entry deadline for the awards to April 1. No additional late fees will be charged for entries submitted through April 1, and the entries will not be penalized in any way in the judging process. The judging process will extend through April 11. The Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevie Award winners will be announced on April 19. As the persistence of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Asia-Pacific region discourages the staging of an awards banquet this year, a virtual ceremony will be staged instead, on Wednesday, June 29.

The Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards is the only business awards program to recognize innovation throughout the entire Asia-Pacific region. The competition is open to all organizations across 29 nations of the Asia-Pacific region: large and small, for-profit and non-profit, public and private.

The awards focus on recognizing innovation in all its forms, wherever it is achieved in the workplace. Entries are accepted in eight languages - Chinese, English, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Thai and Vietnamese - in the following category groups:

• Achievement
• Company/Organization Awards
• Corporate Communications & Public Relations Awards
• COVID-19 Response
• Customer Service Awards
• Human Resources Awards
• Management Awards
• Marketing Awards
• New Product & Product Management Awards
• Publications Awards
• Technology Awards
• Video Awards
• Website Awards and App Awards
  …and more

New categories for 2022 will recognize Social Media innovations, in content creation and moderation, management, and marketing since July 1 2019.

Scores of professionals from throughout the region will participate in the judging process to determine the Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevie winners.

The Stevie Award trophy is among the world's most coveted prizes. The name Stevie is taken from the name Stephen, which is derived from the Greek for "crowned".

Winners in the 16th annual Stevie® Awards for Sales & Customer Service, recognized as the world's top customer service awards and sales awards, were announced today. Stevie Award winners will be celebrated during a virtual awards ceremony on May 11.

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

More than 2,300 nominations from organizations in 51 nations were considered in this year’s competition. Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevie Award winners were determined by the average scores of more than 150 professionals on eight specialized judging committees. Entries were considered in more than 90 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; more than 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, solution providers, and organizations’ and individuals’ response to the COVID-19 pandemic. New categories this year honor excellence in thought leadership in customer service and sales.

IBM of Armonk, NY USA and DP DHL, worldwide both won 11 Gold Stevie Awards, the most of any organization in the competition. Other Stevie winners with three or more Golds include Sales Partnerships, Inc., Broomfield, CO USA (eight), ValueSelling Associates, Carlsbad, CA USA (six), HP, Inc. Boise, ID USA (four), The Biz Dojo Inc, Calgary, Canada (four), UPMC Health Plan, Pittsburgh, PA USA (four), Allianz Services Pvt Ltd, Kerala, India (three), Nutrisystem, Fort Washington, PA USA (three), TransPerfect, New York, NY USA (three), and Voya Financial, Chandler, AZ USA (three).

Winners of two Gold Stevie Awards include athenahealth, Watertown, MA USA; Contact Lens King Inc., Chaplain, NY USA; Datasite, Minneapolis, MN USA; Dubai Municipality, Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Empolis Group, Kaiserslautern, Germany; Future Generali India Insurance Company Ltd., Mumbai, India; Michael Kors, New York, NY USA; Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA USA; Municipality and Planning Department, Ajman, United Arab Emirates; Optima Tax Relief, LLC, Santa Ana, CA USA; POWERHOME SOLAR, Mooresville, NC USA; PowerSchool Group LLC, Folsom, CA USA; Ruby, Portland, OR USA; SAP, Newtown Square, PA USA; Sber, Moscow, Russia; SoftPro, Raleigh, NC USA; Spinnaker Support, Greenwood Village, CO USA; Support Services Group, Lewis Center, OH USA; Talkdesk, San Francisco, CA USA; Templeton & Partners, London, United Kingdom; VakifBank, Istanbul, Turkey; and VMware, Palo Alto, CA USA.

Other organizations winning a combination of four or more Gold, Silver, or Bronze Stevie Awards include Abrigo, Austin, TX USA; Arise Virtual Solutions, Miramar, FL USA; Blackhawk Network, Pleasanton CA USA; CarrefourSA, Istanbul, Turkey; Clubspeed, Irvine, CA USA; EFG Companies, Irving, TX USA; Element Electronics, Winnsboro, SC USA; HireVue, South Jordan, UT USA; Intuit, Mississauga, Ontario Canada; Nuance Communications, Boston, MA USA; OpenGov, San Jose, CA USA; Optum Eden Prairie, MN USA; Princess Polly, Los Angeles CA USA; Pushpay, Redmond, WA USA; QNB Finansbank, Istanbul, Turkey; RAIN Group, Boston, MA USA; Toco Warranty, Los Angeles, CA USA; TTEC, Englewood, CO USA; Visualize, Birmingham, MI USA; VIZIO Inc., Irvine, CA USA; and WNS (Holdings) Limited, Mumbai, India.

The 10 most-honored organizations in the competition will receive Grand Stevie Award trophies. Those winners will be announced the week of March 14.

Beginning today through April 1, the public may vote for their favorite providers of customer service in the People’s Choice Stevie® Awards for Favorite Customer Service, an annual feature of the awards. Voting is open at http://peopleschoice.stevieawards.com. Winners of the People’s Choice Stevie Awards in multiple industries will be announced the week of April 4.

One category in the awards will continue to accept entries through March 11.  It is the Sales Partnerships Award for Ethics in Sales, which will recognize organizations for best practices and achievements in demonstrating the highest ethical standards in the sales industry.  Entry requirements for this category are outlined at https://stevieawards.com/sales/nominate-2022-sales-partnerships-ethics-sales-award.

Umbrella IT (UIT) is a Stevie Award-winning company providing web and mobile development and IT consulting services focusing on finance, retail, and media. UIT has successfully completed more than 220 international projects for clients including Variety, Rolling Stone, Disney, Hamleys, 9GAG, IKEA, METRO AG, BCS bank and others. In April 2021, MirrorMe Web, developed by UIT for Mary Kay, became the winner at the Russian Corporate Media Competition in the category "B2B. Industry media/Web media". The other UIT’s client is BCS bank, whose mobile app was included in the TOP 11 best banking applications according to analytical agency Markswebb. As a trusted partner UIT takes responsibility for negotiations with other contractors on behalf of METRO, covering up to 50% of requests.

Based on the 11 years of experience in the global market they formed fourteen client-focused services involving flexible team models depending on the nature of the job and the scope to be covered. Their key goal is to create value for the clients’ end customers using our knowledge of segment-specific pains and the best industry practices.

Though founded in Taganrog, UIT has extended its presence to Rostov-on-Don, St. Petersburg, Moscow, and New York

The Umbrella IT team is proud of their results which stemmed from well-coordinated efforts from each employee. 

• Since 2005 the IAOP has been publishing its annual listing Global Outsourcing 100. The listing includes Umbrella IT together with such industry leaders as IBM, Canon, Accenture, CBRE, Deloitte.
• Since 1954 iF Product Design Award has been organizing one of the world's most valued design competitions. Within 67 years, only 38 Russian design projects including Umbrella IT’s received iF Design Awards quality mark.
• Last year Umbrella IT became the Stevie Awards winner. This time they are recognized with a Gold, Silver, and 2 Bronze Stevie Awards for Best Marketing App; Best User Experience; IT Team of the Year, and Executive of the Year.
• In Clutch’s Global b2b Top 1000 Service Providers for 2020 list, UIT climbed up 317 positions at once and rose from the 400th place to the 83rd. Only the top 1% of the companies listed on the Clutch site are listed in this rating. For three consecutive years, Umbrella IT has been ranked among the best B2B service providers with improved results. 
• The BIG Innovation Awards recognize the organizations, innovative developments, and solutions that bring new ideas to life creating value not for the clients only, but for the entire humanity. UIT joined the winners along with 52 other companies, 137 products, and 7 individual winners who have achieved significant results in their industries.
• MobileAppDaily’s 40 under 40 report highlights the young innovators in the sphere of mobile development. The 2020’s list marked UIT CEO Mikhail Menshinskiy’s ability and desire to use technology for the benefit of humanity

UIT’s team of professionals numbers more than 250 specialists. In March 2021 they opened the first representative office in New York. UIT released its own products: RomDo, AtTrack, and UnSpot. 

Based on the 10 years' experience in the global market, one of the 14 new client-focused services is “Technical Debt Reduction by 80% in One Month Without Stopping Project”. This service was developed during the Customer Development interviews, conducted by the UIT experts.

During 2020 and 2021 Umbrella IT achieved significant results and was recognized by the global professional community. Umbrella IT has been acknowledged by numerous ratings and awards: The Global Outsourcing (IAOP), Big Innovation Awards, Clutch (UIT is the first the list b2b-providers in Russia and 83rd among the list Global 1000). In total,
they won 75+ various international awards. 

UIT won multiple Stevie Awards in The 2021 International Business Awards. 

Interested in entering The 2022 International Business Awards?

Es ist wieder so weit: die Stevie® Awards öffnen die Pforten für Nominierungen bei den International Business Awards®. Bekannt als "The International Stevies", sind die IBAs offen für alle Organisationen weltweit: große und kleine, öffentliche und private, gewinnorientierte und gemeinnützige. Nominierungen können von Organisationen oder Einzelpersonen eingereicht werden. 

Einreichungen für den Wettbewerb 2022 werden jetzt angenommen!

Die International Business Awards® zeichnen herausragende Leistungen in allen Unternehmensbereichen aus.  Zu den Preisträgerinnen und Preisträgern gehören zahlreiche Unternehmen und Führungskräfte aus aller Welt. Jedes Jahr gehen Nominierungen von Organisationen aus über 70 Nationen ein. Spezialisierte Jurygremien mit über 150 Fachjuroren aus der ganzen Welt ermitteln die Preistragenden der beliebten Stevie®-Trophäen. 

Große Vorteile für Early Birds

Frühentschlossene profitieren: Wer seine Nominierung noch bis zum 6. April einreicht, erhält eine Ermäßigung auf die Teilnahmegebühren.

Die reguläre Teilnahmefrist für die Einreichung von Nominierungen endet am 11. Mai. Wer diese Frist nicht einhält, kann sich zwar immer noch bewerben, es wird jedoch eine Verspätungsgebühr fällig. Bis zum 15. Juni haben dann Bewerberinnen und Bewerber noch die letzte Chance, Leistungen und Projekte bei den beliebten, internationalen Awards einzureichen.

Die Ergebnisse der Jurys werden am 15. August öffentlich bekanntgegeben. An diesem Tag öffnet auch die Abstimmung für die beliebten People´s Choice Stevie® Awards for Favorite Company. Den Gewinnenden werden die begehrten Stevie® Awards Trophäen am 22. Oktober bei einem Gala-Bankett überreicht, sofern dies die Umstände erlauben.

Was erwartet uns Neues in diesem Jahr?

Der Zeitrahmen für die Teilnahmeberechtigung wurde verlängert. Dieser erstreckt sich nun vom 1. Januar 2010 bis zum 15. Juni 2022, den letzten Tag, an dem Beiträge angenommen werden. Nominierungen sollten sich auf Errungenschaften, Leistungen und Projekte während dieses Zeitraums beziehen. Videos, Publikationen, Veranstaltungen und andere Medien, die seit diesem Datum veröffentlicht wurden, können eingereicht werden.  Für App- und Website-Beiträge gibt es keinen Zeitrahmen für die Teilnahmeberechtigung - es spielt keine Rolle, wann sie erstmals veröffentlicht wurden.

Nominierungen, die bei den International Business Awards® 2021 mit einem Gold-, Silber- oder Bronze-Stevie Award ausgezeichnet wurden, können bei den IBAs 2021 erneut nominiert werden, sofern sie in anderen Kategorien eingereicht werden als in denen, in denen sie 2021 gewonnen haben.

Die Stevie® Awards überraschen ihre Teilnehmenden mit neuen Kategorien:

Neben den neuen Unterkategorien, die in den schon bestehenden Kategorien zu finden sind, erwarten die Teilnehmenden zwei brandneue Award-Bereiche: 

Die neuen Social Media Kategorien würdigen Innovationen in den Bereichen Erstellung und Moderation von Social Media-Inhalten, Management und Marketing seit dem 1. Januar 2020. In Bereichen für zum Beispiel

• Innovativster Unternehmens-Blog
• Innovativste Facebook-Seite
• Innovativster Twitter-Feed
• Beste*r Business Influencer*in des Jahres
• Beste*r Business-Blogger*in des Jahres
• Social Media Manager*in des Jahres

können Social Media Profis ihre Nominierungen einreichen. 

Auch die Kategorie für Thought Leadership ist in diesen Jahr neu bei den International Business Awards®. In dieser Kategorie werden die Leistungen von Organisationen gewürdigt, die seit dem 1. Januar 2020 aktive Maßnahmen ergriffen haben, um ihre Führungskräfte und Mitarbeitenden als Vordenker weiterzuententwickeln und ihre Vordenkerrolle innerhalb und außerhalb der Organisation zu fördern.

Eine Übersicht über alle Neuerungen und Änderungen der International Business Awards® 2022 finden Sie hier.

Die Kategorien bei den IBA zeichnen besondere Leistungen in allen wichtigen Unternehmensfunktionen aus, unter anderem mit den Marketing Awards, im Management mit den Management Awards, die Kundenbetreuung mit den Customer Service Awards , die Öffentlichkeitsarbeit mit den Public Relations Awards  und die IT mit den  Information Technology Awards. Leistungen im Bereich Produktentwicklung werden mit den New Product Awards ausgezeichnet und besondere Leistungen im Personalbereich würdigen die Kategorien für Human Resources Awards.

Eine große Auswahl an Kategorien würdigen auch herausragende Leistungen im Bereich der unternehmensbezogenen Medien und Publikationen. Beispiele hierfür sind die Awards für Website Awards, Awards für Smartphone und Tablet Apps sowie weitere Medien Awards

Eine vollständige Übersicht über die Kategorien finden Sie hier.

Möchten auch Sie die Möglichkeit nutzen, Ihren geschätzten Mitarbeitern zu danken und sie zu ehren, Ihre Marke aufzubauen oder zu veredeln? Dann fordern Sie noch heute Ihre Teilnahmeunterlagen an: 

Die Nominierungsphase der German Stevie® Awards ist beendet und zahlreiche Unternehmen und Organisationen haben ihre vielversprechenden Projekte und Leistungen eingereicht. Die Spannung steigt, denn denn schon in zwei Wochen werden die Gewinnenden des prestigeträchtigen Awards benachrichtigt und am 22. März öffentlich bekannt gegeben.

Juryphase läuft auf Hochtouren - Jetzt noch mitmachen! 

Jetzt heißt es bewerten, bewerten, bewerten. Die Jury ist die fachliche Autorität bei den German Stevie® Awards. Sie beurteilt die in den verschiedenen Kategorien eingereichten Leistungen. Während der Bewertungsphase wird jede Nominierung von mindestens zehn Juroren bewertet.

Da in diesem Jahr eine Rekordzahl an Nominierungen bei den German Stevie® Awards eingereicht wurden, haben die Organisatoren beschlossen, die Phase der Jurierung bis zum 2. März zu verlängern. Wer Interesse hat, noch in den nächsten neun Tagen an dem Online-Bewertungsprozess teilzunehmen, kann sich noch kurzfristig bewerben: 

Die Preisträgerinnen und Preisträger werden am 22. März öffentlich bekanntgegeben und im Rahmen der virtuellen Preisverleihung am 24. Mai geehrt.

Start der People's Choice Stevie® Awards for Favorite Company 

Ab dem 23. März heißt es Abstimmen: Alle Unternehmen und Organisationen, die einen Award gewinnen, nehmen automatisch an der öffentlichen Abstimmung des Publikumspreises, den People’s Choice Stevie® Awards for Favorite Companies im Rahmen der German Stevie® Awards, teil. Hier kann jeder für seine favorisiertes Unternehmen abstimmen. Das Unternehmen mit den meisten Stimmen in jeder Kategorie erhält als Auszeichnung eine wunderschöne Kristalltrophäe. Die Preisträgerunternehmen werden im April öffentlich bekannt gegeben und am 24. Mai 2022 im Rahmen der virtuellen Preisverleihung geehrt.

Diese Unternehmen wurden im letzten Jahr geehrt

Zu den stolzen Gewinnenden der German Stevie Awards 2021 zählen unter anderem: 
Appsfactory (Leipzig) BLUE MOON COMMUNICATION CONSULTANTS (Neuss), die Deutsche Post DHL Group (Bonn), die DEUTZ AG (Köln), diva-e (Karlsruhe), die INDEGO GmbH (Eschborn), das Internationales Amtssitz- und Konferenzzentrum Wien (Wien, Österreich), Prosegur Cash Services (Ratingen), die Sigrun GmbH (Zürich, Schweiz), Wolters Kluwer Deutschland (Köln) und YouGov (Köln).

Sie können es kaum erwarten zu erfahren, wer zu den Gewinnenden 2022 gehört? Schauen Sie doch einfach so lange bei den Gewinnerinnen und Gewinnern des letzten Jahres vorbei. 

Ground Labs’ Exceptional Customer Service

Ground Labs is a leading provider of data discovery solutions, enabling organizations worldwide to find, secure, and remediate all of their data across multiple types and locations — whether it’s stored on-premise or in the cloud. Working with well-known global brands including Dufry, Vodafone, Canadian Tire, McDonald’s, 1-800-Flowers, and Thales, the company remains focused on developing technology to meet the increasing challenges of data management and regulatory compliance. 

This commitment is demonstrated through Ground Labs’ flagship products, Enterprise Recon and Card Recon, as well as the company’s ability to provide assistance and resources during a time when organizations need it most, which was at the height of the global pandemic in 2020. In response to COVID-19, Ground Labs released Enterprise Recon NOW, a complimentary limited edition of the company’s award-winning Enterprise Recon solution, allowing organizations to discover, remediate and monitor over 300 data types across their remote workforce, with full customer support included.

Ground Labs provides effective and educational support to all of its users, using a team of customer service professionals with engineering backgrounds to provide such service. Each team member has over a decade of experience in customer-facing roles and together, they hold several industry certifications, including AWS, CCNA, CompTIA, ITIL, LPIC, and MCSA. 

The roll-out of the complimentary Enterprise Recon NOW offering, as well as the uptick in the need for data discovery solutions as companies pivoted towards remote business models, created increased volumes for Ground Labs’ customer service department -- but the team met customer needs at a record speed, during a critical moment in time for all businesses.

Serving Customers Through COVID-19

In April 2020, Stevie-winner Ground Labs launched its complimentary Enterprise Recon NOW offering. This resource, paired with the natural uptick in data discovery queries as companies pivoted towards remote business models, created increased volumes for Ground Labs’ customer service department. Overall, Ground Labs’ customer service department handled 3,418 customer support cases, and over 99% of customer feedback ratings have been rated as positive. 

Throughout 2020, Ground Labs’ customer service department handled 3,418 customer support cases, and over 99% of customer feedback ratings have been rated as positive. In Q1 2021, following a full year of offering such astounding service, Ground Labs’ customer service satisfaction score was at a perfect 100%, meaning all customer needs were met in a timely, effective, and efficient manner.

Ground Labs understands the importance of fast, helpful email responses in replies to customer queries. As a result, throughout 2020, the team achieved an average first reply time of 43 minutes for inbound email and web inquiries during business hours -- an improvement of 11 minutes compared to 2019. 

Additionally, realizing the need for expanded support in key regions, Ground Labs also enhanced customer service for the Middle East in 2020. Understanding that this region’s work week runs from Sunday to Thursday, Ground Labs added an additional shift to offer 24x5 support in the Middle East. This has been well received by Ground Labs customers and allows the company to provide elite levels of support globally. 

With customer service departments in Singapore, Dublin, and Austin, Texas, Ground Labs is able to provide 24x5 support across the globe with a “follow-the-sun” service model that streamlines workflow and allows issues to be resolved from anywhere in the world. This model has proven successful across the globe and has allowed the Ground Labs customer service department to reach the pinnacle of success in 100% customer satisfaction.

Examples of recent customer feedback include:

"Amazing! What an astounding product you have here...backed up with brilliant support from the Ground Labs team.” -- Con Panso, Representative, TEG Live

“Ground Labs' support is the best group I interface with. Ground Labs is so much better than the large firms that I deal with, like IBM. By far the best support I have ever dealt with.” -- Megan Nilsen, Lead Cyber Security Analyst, Caesars Entertainment

Ground Labs won the Gold Stevie Award for Customer Service Department of the Year in The 2021 International Business Awards. 

Interested in The 2022 International Business Awards?

Zwar ist die Teilnahmefrist der  Stevie® Awards for Sales & Customer Service 2022 bereits abgeschlossen, doch in der Sonderkategorie "Sales Partnerships Award for Ethics in Sales" werden noch bis zum 11. März Nominierungen entgegengenommen. 

Zum dritten Mal in Folge sponsert Sales Partnerships, ein führender Anbieter von ausgelagerten Vertriebslösungen, den "Sales Partnerships Award for Ethics in Sales". Mit der Auszeichnung werden herausragende Beispiele für ethische Vertriebspraktiken gewürdigt. Die Leistungen müssen seit Juli 2019 erbracht worden sein. 

Die Präsidentin der Stevie® Awards, Maggie Miller, freut sich, dass der langjährige Sponsor der Stevie® Awards diese Auszeichnung erneut überreichen wird. "Wir sind begeistert, dass Sales Partnership beschlossen hat, diejenigen auszuzeichnen, die in ihrem Unternehmen nicht nur erfolgreich im Verkauf sind, sondern dies auch auf besonders ethische Weise tun. Die Jury ist gespannt auf die Nominierungen für Ethics in Sales."

Füllen Sie das folgende Formular aus, um mehr über den Ethics in Sales Award zu erfahren und eine Nominierung in diesem Bereich einzureichen, können Sie füllen. Für diese Auszeichnung wird keine Anmeldegebühr erhoben.

Fred Kessler, Gründer und CEO von Sales Partnerships, sagt: "Wir freuen uns, dass die Stevie Awards Nominierungen bis zum 11. März entgegennehmen, anstatt wie ursprünglich vorgesehen bis zum 2. Februar, um denjenigen mehr Zeit zu geben, die eine öffentliche Anerkennung für die ethischen Vertriebspraktiken ihres Unternehmens suchen."

Die Gewinnerinnen und Gewinner in dieser Kategorie werden im März bekannt gegeben und bei der virtuellen Preisverleihung der 16. Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service am 11. Mai geehrt.

Alle Details zu den Stevie® Awards for Sales & Customer Service finden Sie unter www.StevieAwards.com/Sales.

Optoro, a leader in returns technology, partnered with eBay to connect retailers with one of the largest marketplaces in the world to give products a second home through its BULQ® on eBay integration. BULQ on eBay offers customer returns and excess merchandise from top retailers to the eBay seller community, providing sellers with high-quality inventory to support their businesses and keeping these products out of landfills. 

Retailers are facing a surge of returned and excess inventory due to the steady rise of eCommerce. In tandem, customers are becoming increasingly aware of the environmental impact of retail and are making more discerning purchase decisions as a result. 

This is where secondary markets, like BULQ on eBay, provide major value. As eBay’s exclusive wholesale partner, Optoro leverages its relationships with leading retailers and independent sellers to source returned goods and excess inventory, and automatically relist those products on eBay stores.

Since June, eCommerce adoption has only continued to soar, further increasing the demand for secondary markets. BULQ on eBay has helped address this demand while ensuring that retailers have a sustainable outlet for excess inventory. The partnership has also drastically improved resale processes for gig economy workers utilizing BULQ on eBay. Today, the partnership has helped these resellers save up to 50% of their listing time using eBay’s first-of-its-kind relisting solution that provides inventory from big-name retailers like Target.

As categories like rental, refurbishment, and resale continue to grow – and consumers and businesses seek to improve their environmental impact – secondary markets have become a massive opportunity to unlock growth, keep products in circulation longer, and reduce the amount of product that goes to landfill. But, getting products to their next best home is not easy, especially at scale. Retailers struggle with how to resell products and avoid traditional liquidation channels, while resellers struggle with how to find profitable inventory in a repeatable and efficient way.

With BULQ on eBay, retailers keep products in the hands of happy customers, independent sellers have the opportunity to prioritize their families and other important needs, and the environment sees less impact.

Market Performance:

Top Rated: One of eBay's most reputable sellers. Consistently delivers outstanding customer service. 98.6% positive feedback over the last 12 months. 5-star reviews in all four categories on eBay.

Top Customers: Returns from retailers like Target are now being bulk-sold on eBay, where smaller sellers can buy them up and resell them individually (Fast Company).

Small Business Impact: Independent sellers love the product’s inventory and efficiency for helping them streamline their buying process and scale their small businesses. “It’s mind-blowing. I mean, it really changes everything.” – Gina P., BULQ on eBay seller.

Critical Reception:

“To help move all that excess merchandise, Optoro is partnering with eBay, which is no stranger to helping America sell odds and ends online. The deal isn’t designed to let consumers buy individual returned and unsold items directly from stores. Instead, the deal lets individuals and small businesses buy boxes of unsold merchandise from stores through eBay and Bulq, a division of Optoro that handles online bulk liquidation sale, then quickly turn around and relist those items individually on eBay.” – Fast Company

“Together, eBay and Optoro enable retailers to sell returned and excess inventory seamlessly on eBay, and in turn provide an influx of high-demand wholesale inventory for eBay sellers. The two companies leveraged their respective proprietary technologies to make sourcing and reselling on eBay faster and more seamless for sellers, thus accelerating the pace of resale.” – Tamebay

“By transforming sellers’ experience of resale, BULQ is poised to help small businesses grow and thrive.” – Small Business Trends

Customer Satisfaction:

"The product is gaining immediate traction with retailers."

“Returns from retailers like Target are now being bulk-sold on eBay, where smaller sellers can buy them up and resell them individually.” – Fast Company

What sellers are saying:

“The manifests being on eBay are glorious. They just showed the pictures and that made it really nice instead of having to click around.” – Catherine S., BULQ on eBay seller

“The generate drafts feature is AWESOME!” – Sarah L., BULQ on eBay seller

Optoro won the Gold Stevie Award for Best New Product or Service, Business-to-Business Services for their BULQ product in The 2021 International Business Awards. 

Interested in The 2022 International Business Awards?

Nominations for the 2022 (16^th annual) Stevie® Awards for Sales & Customer Service, considered the world’s top honors for customer service, business development, and sales professionals, were accepted through February 2, but one special category will continue to accept nominations through March 11. Because the awards ceremony will be held virtually in May, the Stevie Awards have extended the nomination deadline for this one special category.

For the third year in a row, Sales Partnerships, a leading provider of outsourced sales solutions, will sponsor The Sales Partnerships Award for Ethics in Sales. The award will recognize outstanding examples of ethical sales practices since the beginning of July 2019.

To learn more and submit a nomination for the Ethics in Sales Award, complete the form below. There is no entry fee for this award.

Sales Partnerships founder and CEO Fred Kessler says, “We are pleased that the Stevie Awards will welcome nominations through March 11 instead of the original February 2 deadline -- giving more time to those looking for public recognition of their organization’s ethical sales practices.”

Winners in this category will be announced in March and honored during the 16^th Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service virtual awards ceremony on May 11.

Complete details on the 16^th Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service are available at www.StevieAwards.com/Sales.

SAP’s strategy is to help every business run as an intelligent enterprise. As a market leader in enterprise application software, they help companies of all sizes and in all industries run at their best: 77% of the world’s transaction revenue touches an SAP® system.

SAP’s machine learning, Internet of Things (IoT), and advanced analytics technologies help turn customers’ businesses into intelligent enterprises. SAP helps give people and organizations deep business insight and fosters collaboration that helps them stay ahead of their competition. They simplify technology for companies so they can consume our software the way they want – without disruption. Their end-to-end suite of applications and services enables business and public customers across 25 industries globally to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and make a difference. With a global network of customers, partners, employees, and thought leaders, SAP helps the world run better and improve people’s lives. For more information, visit www.sap.com.

SAP Information Collaboration Hub for Life Sciences, a Gold Stevie-winning product, is a productive business network in the pharmaceutical industry that facilitates the messaging of traceability and serial number data across the pharmaceutical supply chain. It empowers the customer to connect ONCE and share data with all across the connected network.

The most recent addition to SAP Information Collaboration Hub for Life Sciences covers regulatory collaboration between participants of the supply chain of prescription medicine.

The option for regulatory collaboration provides onboarding, integration, and messaging capabilities to support various legislations, including the need to onboard a high number of business partners to exchange fully standardized messages in a regulatory context. The service provides:

• Invitation Management from customers to business partners
• Self-onboarding of invited business partners
• Transmission of standardized notifications in legislation-specific formats using the generic reporting framework between SAP Information Collaboration Hub for Life Sciences and SAP Advanced Track and Trace for Pharmaceuticals
• Receiving standardized regulatory notifications from Business Partners

The first use case for this option for regulatory collaboration is the Brazilian market. This is planned as a basis for the U.S. market to support the requirements of the DSCSA 2023.

Today the seven largest pharmaceutical companies globally, 13 out of the top 20 pharmaceutical companies, and two of the three largest U.S. pharmaceutical wholesalers are using SAP Information Collaboration Hub for Life Sciences to connect to their ecosystem to verify saleable returns.

RSM: SAP Rural Sourcing Management

This technology has been built on years of experience supporting farmers in rural Africa. SAP uses existing products, namely SAP Rural Sourcing Management, a Silver Stevie Award-winning cloud-based solution connecting farmers with the agricultural value chain, and the SAP Ariba Network, the world’s largest business-to-business network, which has been adapted to the problem of the plastic value chain.

Due to rapid population growth and growing industrialization, many regions in Africa and South-East Asia suffer from an insufficient solid waste management system. This is underscored by irregular collection, inadequate operational funding, and a reliance on the informal sector who typically manages over 40% of waste collection by volume. Often the informal collectors of waste are exploited or have poor working conditions. Sometimes waste is dumped in landfills or rivers and oceans and very little is recycled. Approximately 13 million metric tons of plastic waste enter the ocean annually, the equivalent of one garbage truckload every minute. However, CPG companies want to buy more recycled plastic to meet their commitments to recycled content, but cannot get enough feedstock.

SAP’s product offers the technology to support waste collector communities and the local recycling companies to connect this eco-system to a global marketplace for recycled plastics and other materials. They connect all of the actors in the plastic waste value chain to potential buyers. This helps to ensure that pickers are paid better, have access to safety equipment and training, and are not exploited. By tracking the material flows they can predict volumes for recycling, encouraging more investment in recycling, and by connecting to eager buyers, they are reducing the amount that goes to landfills.

The technology has been built on years of experience supporting farmers in rural Africa to grow more crops. SAP uses existing products, namely SAP Rural Sourcing Management and the SAP Ariba Network - the world’s largest business-to-business network, which has been adapted to the problem of the plastics value chain.

They monitor all attributes of the plastics collected at all points in the value chain, from collectors, to reprocessing, as well as other important metrics to support the communities, such as participation rate, recycling rates, gender/diversity, well-being, welfare, training participation, and volume and prices of different materials.

This system benefits the ecosystem overall, waste collectors, recyclers, local cities, and more.

SAP SE won the Gold Stevie Award for Best New Product or Service - Business-to-Business Products for SAP Information Collaboration Hub for Life Science and the Silver Stevie for SAP Plastic Collector Solution using SAP Rural Sourcing Management in The 2021 International Business Awards.

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