Dental health is extremely important to growth, as well as overall health. The proper development of jawbones and muscles affects speech patterns, as well as supporting an attractive appearance, and these are just some of the many benefits of having access to a proper dental plan.

Staying on top of your dental health by informing your doctor about noticeable issues is, unfortunately, easier said than done. For a third of Americans, having access to the most basic dental care is hugely problematic, and it largely boils down to cost.

Steven C. Bilt, CEO of Smile Brands Inc., bit into this problem and cofounded Smile Brands in 1998 and OneSmile in 2015. He eventually combined the two businesses and now oversees 5,500 employees and affiliated providers at approximately 400 U.S. locations. Bilt is also a founding member and former president of the Association of Dental Support Organizations.

“Our CEO, Steve Bilt, is a master at creating an effective corporate culture,” says the company’s chief marketing officer, Jody Martin. “He believes that, to be successful, the mission has to be motivating, both personally and financially to employees; inclusive to all employees, not just a few; and continually reinforced in a variety of ways.”

Incorporating recognition and a mindset of giving is also integral to the Smile Brands culture.

“At Smile Brands, every employee wears a blue ‘Smiles for Everyone’ wristband, and we continually celebrate everyday miracles. This includes calling out employees who do amazing things,” says Martin. “We also have the Smiles for Everyone Foundation, which provides donated dentistry to people in need here and abroad.”

Bracing Themselves

The cofounders of Smile Brands reacquired the company in August 2016 after prior ownership drove the business to the brink of bankruptcy. Despite this rocky start, Smile Brands won Stevie Awards in The American Business Awards® and the Stevie Awards for Great Employers.

“The team worked tirelessly on a highly successful turnaround,” says Martin. “Winning the Stevie Awards helps to validate all that hard work and the fact that Smile Brands stands apart in terms of financial strength and company culture.”

Bilt also reached a 97 percent approval rating, based on the past year’s Glassdoor reviews from Smile Brands employees and affiliated dental providers. Those numbers are sure to keep Smile Brands grinning from ear to ear!

A Simple Concept

As Smile Brands Inc. grows in to one of the largest providers of support services to dental groups in the United States, dentists can spend more time caring for their patients and less time on the administrative, marketing, and financial aspects of operating a dental practice.

This is an important step in the dental industry because new research continues to show links between chronic oral infections and heart and lung diseases, stroke, low birth weight, and premature births. Smile Brands aims to further build and to bundle comprehensive general dentistry with specialty care and to streamline experiences for both dental care practitioners and patients.

Even with all these moving parts, everything still comes back to one foundational and simple concept: smiles for everyone.

World’s Top Honors for Women Professionals to Be Presented in New York on November 16, with First Edition of Women|Future Conference

Finalists were announced today in the 15th annual Stevie® Awards for Women in Business, the world’s top honors for women entrepreneurs, executives, employees and the organizations they run.

The Stevie Awards for Women in Business are produced by the creators of the prestigious American Business Awards® and International Business Awards®. The Stevies are widely considered to be the world’s premier business awards.

This year’s Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie Award placements from among the Finalists will be announced at an awards dinner at the Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel in New York City on Friday, November 16. More than 600 women and their guests from around the world are expected to attend the presentations, which will be broadcast live on Livestream.

Visit http://www.StevieAwards.com/Women for a complete list of Finalists by category.

The Stevie Awards for Women in Business event will be complemented by a new one-day educational and networking event called the Women|Future Conference, also at the Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel on November 16.  Tickets for both the conference and the awards dinner are now on sale.

More than 1,500 entries were submitted this year by organizations and individuals around the world for consideration in more than 90 categories including Executive of the Year, Entrepreneur of the Year, Startup of the Year, Women Helping Women and Women-Run Workplace of the Year.  New categories for 2018 included Achievement in Equal Pay, Achievement in Developing and Promoting Women, and Achievement in Promoting Work-Life Balance.

Among the many extraordinary organizations and women who have been recognized as Finalists, the following organizations stand out as those with five or more Finalist nominations: Award Winning Accelerator, Brisbane, QLD, Australia; Bob Woodruff Foundation, New York, NY, USA; DHL Express, worldwide; The Female Social Network, Sydney, NSW, Australia;  iTalent Digital, San Jose, CA, USA; Jeunesse Global, Lake Mary, FL, USA; Medical Group Management Association (MGMA), Englewood, CO, USA; Oceans 2 Earth Volunteers, Kenmore East, QLD, Australia; Plan International Canada, Toronto, ON, Canada, Simpson Healthcare Executives, LLC, Old Lyme, CT, USA; Tata Consultancy Services, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India; Tavuun Welfare Association, Karachi, Pakistan; The Welsh Air Ambulance Charitable Trust, Llanelli, Wales, United Kingdom; and Zingbox, Inc. Mountain View, CA, USA.

Nominations were submitted by organizations in 33 nations including Angola, Australia, Belarus, Brazil, Cameroon, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Jordan, Kenya, Maldives, Mexico, Pakistan, Philippines, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, and Vietnam.

Finalists were determined by the average scores of more than 200 professionals around the world, organized in five juries.

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

The Stevie® Awards, organizer of the world’s premier business awards programs, has issued a call for entries for the 2019 (13th annual) Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service. Entry kits and complete details on the competition are available at http://www.StevieAwards.com/Sales.

All customer service, contact center, business development and sales departments, teams and professionals worldwide are eligible to be nominated, in addition to new products and services and solution providers used by those professionals. The 2019 awards will recognize achievements since July 1, 2017.

The early-bird entry deadline with reduced entry fees is October 17, 2018. The final entry deadline is November 14, but late entries will be accepted through January 10, 2019 with payment of a late fee. Finalists will be announced in mid-January, and the Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie Award placements revealed during a gala awards banquet on February 22 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.

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, which include:

•         Sales Individual categories such as Senior Sales Executive of the Year and Sales Representative of the Year
•         Sales Team categories like Global Sales Team of the Year and Online Sales Team of the Year
•         Sales Achievement categories such as Sales Turnaround of the Year and Sales Training or Coaching Program of the Year
•         Sales Distinction categories in 14 industry groupings
•         Customer Service and Contact Center Individual categories such as Front-Line Customer Service Professional of the Year and Customer Service Leader of the Year
•         Customer Service and Contact Center Team categories like Contact Center of the Year and Back Office Customer Service Team of the Year
•         Customer Service and Contact Center Achievement categories such as e-Commerce Customer Service Award and Award for Innovation in Customer Service
•         Customer Service Department categories in 12 industry groupings
•         Customer Service Success categories in five industry groupings
•         New Product and Service categories like Best New Business Intelligence Solution and Best New Marketing Solution
•         Solution Provider categories such as Sales Consulting Practice of the Year and Incentive, Rewards or Recognition Provider of the Year
•         Business Development categories such as Business Development Professional of the Year and Business Development Achievement of the Year - Hospitality & Leisure

New categories for the 2019 competition include Woman of the Year in Sales and in Customer Service. Among other new Sales Awards categories include Account Management Team of the Year, Sales Diversity and Inclusivity Initiative of the Year, Sales Recruitment Initiative of the Year, Social Selling Initiative of the Year, and Sales Distinction of the Year - Consumer Products & Services. There are four new awards for Innovation in Customer Service including Best Customer Feedback Strategy, Best Customer Satisfaction Strategy, Best Return on Customer Service Investment, and Best Use of Customer Insight. The new Customer Service Department of the Year category is for Consumer Products & Services. Among the new categories for New Products & Services are CRM Suite - Enterprise - New and New Version, CRM Suite - Mid-Market – New and New Version, CRM Suite - Small Business – New and New Version, and Sales Performance Management Solution - New and New Version.

2019 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 2018 edition of the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service included Carbonite, Care.com Homepay, Chewy, CubeSmart, Dell Technologies, DHL Express Bangladesh, FieldEdge, John Hancock Financial Services, Loop Communications, Standard for Success, TravelZoo, and Zelis Payments, among others.

The 2019 competition will be judged by more than 150 professionals around the world.

Allianz Partners, ej4, and New World Development Company among Top Winners

Winners in the 2018 Stevie® Awards for Great Employers, an international competition, were announced on Friday, September 21 during a gala event in New York City. The awards recognize the world’s best employers and the human resources professionals, teams, achievements and HR-related products and suppliers who help to create and drive great places to work.    A complete list of Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie Award winners by category is available at www.StevieAwards.com/HR. 

A diverse group of organizations and individuals around the world are among those recognized. The organization that won the Grand Stevie Award for Most Honored Organization of the Year is ej4 of St. Louis, Missouri USA with nine Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie Award wins totaling 23 points.  Organization of the Year goes to the organization with the most award points, with each Gold Stevie win counting for three points, each Silver Stevie win for two points, and each Bronze Stevie for one-and-a-half points.

There was a tie for the Grand Award for the Highest-Rated Nomination of the Year, between the Gold Stevie-winning Employer of the Year nominations of Allianz Partners of Richmond, VA USA and New World Development Company of Hong Kong, so both of those nominations were honored with Grand Stevie trophies.

Leading winners of Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevies include Deutsche Telekom Services Europe GmbH with three Gold, one Silver, and seven Bronze Stevie Awards in a variety of categories; Tata Consultancy Services of Mumbai, India and Toronto, Canada, which won five Gold, two Silver, and two Bronze Stevie Awards; and Turkcell of Istanbul, Turkey, winner of one Gold, one Silver, and 11 Bronze Stevies.

More than 550 nominations from organizations in 21 nations were evaluated in this year’s competition. Winners were determined by the average scores of more than 50 professionals worldwide, acting as judges.  Stevie Award winners in the 35 Employer of the Year categories were determined by a unique blending of the ratings of professionals and the votes of the general public.

The Stevie Awards for Great Employers recognize achievement in many facets of the workplace. Category groups include:

•    Employer of the Year
•    HR Achievements
•    HR Individual Awards
•    HR Team Categories
•    Solution Provider Awards
•    More than 60 New Product & Service Categories

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

Entries for the 2019 Stevie Awards for Great Employers will open in March.  The entry kit will be available then at www.StevieAwards.com/HR.

Winners were announced today in the 2018 People’s Choice Stevie Awards for Favorite Companies, a feature of The International Business Awards®, the world’s only international, all-encompassing business awards program which is now in its 15^th year.

The worldwide public vote was conducted this summer, with the highest number of votes deciding the winners in a variety of industries. More than 22,000 votes were cast. All Stevie Award winners in the Company of the Year categories of this year’s International Business Awards were eligible to be included in voting for the People’s Choice Stevie Awards.

The crystal People’s Choice Stevie Awards will be presented to winners at The International Business Awards banquet on Saturday, 20 October at the InterContinental London Park Lane Hotel.

Tickets for the event are now on sale. The winners of peer-adjudicated gold, silver, and bronze Stevie Awards will be presented with their awards along with the People’s Choice Stevie Awards. Stevie winners were selected from more than 3,900 nominations received from organizations and individuals in 74 nations.

The winners of the 2018 People’s Choice Stevie Awards for Favorite Companies are:

- Business/Professional Services: TELUS International
- Computer Software: Accedia JSC
- Diversified Services: Glance Technologies
- Entertainment/Internet/Media: DRF Deutschland Fernsehen Produktions GmbH & Co. KG
- Financial/Insurance: Cebuana Lhuillier
- Manufacturing: Makers Nutrition
- Other: College Works Painting
- Real Estate: Stockdale & Leggo
- Telecommunications: Azercell Telecom LLC
- Transportation: Egypt Express

Over one trillion dollars are spent annually on technology and IT services. Three software engineers went against the fastest-growing technology corporations in the world, like Google and Adobe Systems, and succeeded in claiming their piece of the global tech pie.

Druva CEO and founder, Jaspreet Singh, anticipated the software management shift into the cloud, and developed cloud-based programming to organize, centralize, and protect information for businesses. Singh even pitched Druva’s cloud-based solution to NASA, who refused it at first because they did not believe software management would move to the cloud. But, Singh was right. Druva became a first mover in a cutthroat industry, and its information software solutions propelled the company into the global market in less than 10 years.

In Pune, India in 2008, Singh and two other engineers started Druva. The company provides data management and security service solutions for businesses. While many new businesses flounder in their initial months, this team grew to an impressive seven employees and 53 clients by the end of their first year.

Since its inception, Druva has worked to connect and to protect business data on servers and drives accessed from multiple mobile access points, such as smartphones and laptops, by employees on the move.

Druva worked to stay ahead of the technology innovation curve and became one of the first providers of cloud-based data management and security software. The software helps aggregate data, then unifies the backup, disaster recovery, archival, and governance capabilities onto a single, optimized data set.

It may sound complicated, but Druva simplifies a common business conundrum: Who has the information to complete the task, and how does the responsible employee access it? Placing servers, backups, and archives in the cloud means all data is in one place. Access is simple, trackable, and transparent, and information is readily accessible and visible to employees but protected from bad actors in the cyber landscape.

Having the information in one location and limiting and restricting access makes the data easier to protect and to preserve. By reducing risk and simplifying processes, most businesses experience a great cost savings.

Druva’s cloud management includes security-based data mining and other information governance options. This is useful, for example, when seeking archived legal records. With this increasing shift to the cloud, however, there has been a shift in responsibility.

“In the past, the security of the software after it was sold wasn’t our problem. If something broke or someone hacked into it, that was the customer’s problem,” Singh told TechinAsia.com. “In the cloud, everything is your problem. You even have to predict a failure from the customer’s side because now you have part ownership of the data. All these nuances led to an interesting new model.”

Excellence and innovation in customer service are part of that new model and solution. Druva received seven Stevie^® Awards in the 2018 Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service for their excellence and innovation in customer service in the Technology and Computer Software Industry categories.

• Gold Stevie Winner: Customer Service Leader of the Year—Computer Software Industry
• Silver Stevie Winner: Front-Line Customer Service Team of the Year—Technology Industries—Computer Hardware & Software—100 or More Employees
• Silver Stevie Winner: Contact Center of the Year (Up to 100 Seats)—Technology Industries
• Silver Stevie Winner: Best Use of Technology in Customer Service—Computer Industries
• Silver Stevie Winner: Customer Service Department of the Year—Computer Software—100 or More Employees
• Bronze Stevie Winner: Customer Service Management Team of the Year
• Bronze Stevie Winner: Award for Innovation in Customer Service—Computer Industries

Druva now services more than 4,000 diverse companies, both domestic and international. This includes major corporations and agencies, such as NASA, General Electric, Marriott Hotels, AIG, Deloitte, Pfizer, Black & Decker, McAfee, Live Nation, and Hulu. They are headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, United States, and employ 400 team members across the world. They currently have offices in Germany, United Kingdom, Singapore, Japan, and India. Through hard work and dedication, the small start-up from Pune, India, has now become a global leader in cloud data protection and management.

As the technology industry races onward, a resilient business model and a flexible customer service team are imperative to success. In all they do, Druva highlights their core values: to embrace hard work, to strive for consistent performance, to work as a team, to collaborate to innovate, and to work with a customer-first attitude.

“The entire Druva team is energized to be part of winning groups,” says Druva employee Sunil Wadhwa.

Winners in the 2018 Stevie® Awards for Great Employers, an international competition, will be announced on Friday, September 21 during a gala event in New York City. The awards recognize the world’s best employers and the human resources professionals, teams, achievements and HR-related products and suppliers who help to create and drive great places to work.  A complete list of Stevie Award finalists by category is available at www.StevieAwards.com/HR. 

Download the event's program book here.

Here are the organizations that have already purchased their tickets for the event.

AB Tasty

Accedia

ACV Auctions

Allianz Partners

Al Jazeera Media Network

Angel MedFlight

AstraZeneca/MedImmune

Belatrix Software

BenefitMall

Brillio

BTS USA, Inc.

CareerArc

Cisco

Citizens Bank

Clearlink

Concentrix

Curate Mobile LTD

Daimler AG

Dell EMC Education Services

Deutsche Telekom Services Europe

DreamHost

ej4

Etech Global Services

Follett Corporation

The Fresh Market

Georgia Swarm Pro Lacrosse

Globe Telecom, Inc.

The Grindhouse Radio

HALO Recognition

HUGO BOSS TEXTILE INDUSTRIES LTD

Insperity

Interactive Services

Johannesbad Hotels Bad Füssing GmbH

Larsen & Toubro Infotech Limited (LTI)

MicroHealth LLC

Migros T.A.S.

Ministry of Youth and Sport Affairs - Bahrain

National Environment Agency (Singapore)

NAVICOR

Outreach Process Partners, LLC

PSI Services

Rackspace

RB

Recognize Services Inc

Rumelisiad

sahibinden.com

SAP

Saudi Aramco

Scaffidi Restaurant Group

Smile Brands

SoFi

Swiss Re

Symphony Talent

Tagline Group of Companies

TalentGuard

Tata Consultancy Services

TELUS

TransUnion

TrustHCS

Truth Initiative

Union Bank of the Philippines

uniquelyHR

Workiva Inc.

ZPower LLC

전 세계 모든 여성 기업인, 경영자와 직원 출품 가능

세계 최고의 비즈니스 대상 프로그램들을 주최하는 스티비 어워즈가 9월 28일(금) 최종 마감일까지 2018 (제15회 연례) 여성기업인 스티비대상의 출품작을 받고 있다. 대상과 관련한 출품요강 및 상세 내용은 웹사이트(http://www.StevieAwards.com/Women)에서 볼 수 있다.

여성 기업인 스티비 대상은 명망 있는 미국 비즈니스 대상®과 국제 비즈니스 대상® 창시자들에 의해 운영되고 있다. 

여성기업인 스티비대상은 올해의 여성 경영자, 올해의 여성 임원, 올해의 멘토 또는 코치, 공로상, 평등 임금 성취, 여성을 도운 여성, 올해의 여성 임직원, 여성이 소유하고 있거나 경영하고 있는 올해의 기업, 올해의 여성 혁신가 등 90개 이상의 카테고리에서 일하는 여성들의 성취에 영예를 수여한다.

본선진출작은 10월 4일 발표되며, 금, 은, 동 스티비상 수상자는 2018년 11월 16일 뉴욕시의 쉐라톤 뉴욕 타임스퀘어 호텔에서 열리는 시상식 연회에서 밝혀진다.

2017년 금, 은, 동 스티비상 수상자들은 세계 곳곳 크고 작은 조직들의 다양한 그룹을 반영한다. 2017년의 수상자들에는 Built.io, Clariti Group, DHL Express, Good Food Enterprise, Promote Iceland, Sari Bari, SAP, Simple Mills, Tropic Skincare, UnitedHealthcare 등 여러 조직이 있다.

2018년 여성기업인 스티비대상은 세계 곳곳의 200여 주요 전문가들에 의해 심사되며, 출품사는 매우 귀중한 자원인 출품작들에 대한 심사위원들의 심사평과 제안을 볼 수 있다. 

스티비® 어워즈에 대하여

스티비 어워즈는 아시아-태평양 스티비상(Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards), 국제 비즈니스 대상(International Business Awards®), 여성 기업인 스티비 대상(Stevie Awards for Women in Business), 영업 및 고객서비스 스티비 대상(Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service), 위대한회사 스티비상(Stevie Awards for Great Employers), 미국 비즈니스 대상(American Business Awards®), 독일 스티비상(German Stevie Awards)의 7개 프로그램을 운영하고 있다. 스티비상에는 매년 70개 국가 이상에서 1만 이상의 조직이 출품한다. 모든 형태와 규모의 조직 및 그 조직을 이끄는 사람들의 명예를 기리는 스티비 어워즈는 전세계 기업들이 창출해낸 뛰어난 성과들을 인정하는 일을 하고 있다. 상세한 정보는 홈페이지(www.StevieAwards.com)를 통해 알 수 있다.

Increased efficiency. Unified processes. Lower costs.

This combination of benefits has led to rapid growth for SmartLinx. The U.S.-based company provides a workforce management suite that helps organizations, including long-term and post-acute care facilities, simplify everything from hiring and payroll to scheduling and time recording.

Among the organizations that saw substantial results from the SmartLinx universal software solution is the Parker Jewish Institute for Health Care and Rehabilitation. The New York, New York, United States, senior living facility was suddenly able to make payroll more efficient and streamline employee work practices within one platform. Ultimately, this saved the company hundreds of thousands of dollars in labor costs.

Numerous organizations have experienced similar results across the United States. Oriol, a health care agency in Massachusetts, United States, was able to slash inefficient overtime costs. The Greek Rehabilitation and Care Center near Chicago, Illinois, United States, was able to reduce a process from 60 reported work hours down to just two minutes. Outcomes like this consistently help SmartLinx achieve high user retention rates and average more than 50 percent annual growth.

SmartLinx was also the first software company to offer a complete solution for Affordable Care Act compliance, and the company routinely expresses a commitment to staying ahead of all ACA regulations.

While health care and senior living facilities are a core part of the company’s business, its software also serves the needs of government agencies, hospitality programs, and manufacturing enterprises. With the SmartLinx software, companies are able to unify their processes and departments and make them more efficient, saving them significant money in the process.

SmartLinx was founded in 2000 and maintains 100 staff members. It operates from its headquarters in Edison, New Jersey, United States, and has a support center in North Charleston, South Carolina, United States.

A Focus on Customer Service

A personal approach with their partners only improves business relationships and increases success for SmartLinx, according to CEO Marina Aslanyan.

“We don’t work with ‘clients,’” she told Forbes. “We consider them our partners, and we provide services to them that allow them to transform their businesses.”

The company’s laser focus on customer service, which includes using scorecards to enable customer health monitoring and value confirmation, earned it the Bronze Stevie^® Award for Best Use of Technology in Customer Service in the Computer Industries category.

It is not, however, the first time SmartLinx has crossed the stage at a Stevie Awards ceremony. In 2017, the management team won a Bronze Stevie Award for Innovation in Customer Service. In 2016, the firm earned a gold Stevie for Customer Service Management Team of the Year.

The company’s commitment to creating a satisfying user experience made this latest accolade all the more special, according to Darcy Grabenstein, a content manager at SmartLinx.

“The Stevie Awards, particularly those for customer service, underscore the priority SmartLinx places on customer success,” Grabenstein says. “They validate our efforts to ensure our customers are satisfied, not only with our products but with the support behind them.”

Two SmartLinx customer support team members also earned individual awards in the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service this year. Thomas VanAntwerp, a customer support team leader, won the gold award for Young Customer Service Professional of the Year in the Technology Industries segment, and Brandon Tahquette, a customer support specialist, won a silver award as Front-Line Customer Service Professional of the Year.

The leadership team consistently ensures innovation and diversity are part of the company’s culture. Grabenstein says the team regularly evaluates and advances technology concepts; targets industry challenges, such as those evolving in the ACA, senior care, and health care fields; and encourages growth, training, and sharing perspectives in the workplace. This fosters a healthy working environment and company growth.

“We are growing rapidly, but we are committed to maintaining the level of service our clients are accustomed to,” says Grabenstein. “We are committed to their success.”

Although Alan Stillman didn’t invent the phrase “TGIF,” he knew how universal the feeling was, and he opened the first TGI Fridays restaurant in 1965 in New York, United States.

As the original casual dining bar and grill, TGI Fridays offers authentic American food and legendary drinks, and it’s all served with genuine personal service.

Bringing people together to socialize and to celebrate the liberating spirit of Friday was the restaurant’s founding premise, and from this was born the brand promise: in here, it's always Friday.

To share the Friday experience all over the world, TGI Fridays proudly serves guests in over nine hundred restaurants in more than sixty countries. Making every day feel like Friday wouldn't be possible, however, without creating a place where friends feel free to get together. TGI Fridays takes pride in their nearly 74,000 skilled and knowledgeable team members who help serve their guests each and every day.

Connected Experiences

Technology is revolutionizing the restaurant industry, and the influx of mobile capabilities, tablets, online ordering, and even AI-driven automation in the food and beverage space continues to accelerate and to create more meaningful and connected dining experiences.

Chief Experience Officer at TGI Fridays, Sherif Mityas, affirms the impact they’ve felt since winning a Gold Stevie Award®, especially as it pertains to their IT department.

“This is an amazing award for our team and for the organization as a whole. Being recognized as the best IT department of the year in The American Business Awards® is truly an honor, and it has created an immense sense of pride for every team member in the organization.”

By incorporating technology into the dining experience for their guests, TGI Fridays continues to make a concerted effort to create an innovative mindset for their entire brand. In many ways, according to Mityas, they consider themselves a “technology company that happens to sell beer and ribs.”

The team has also been recognized as a two-time winner of the CIO100 award (by CIO Magazine), a Digital50 award winner, and the Most Innovative Team (by the International Franchise Association).

Be Better, Do Better

TGI Fridays doesn’t just celebrate the Friday brand in their restaurants; they also pass that mentality to their staff members. As such, they allow all IT team members to leave early on Friday, which gives people time to enjoy their friends and family and, in turn, to be better and more productive at work.

Their IT team also comprises men and women from all walks of life and backgrounds. Ranging in age from twenty-two to seventy-five, the team members are over 60 percent women, and the minority workers hail from over twelve countries.

“It’s truly an exceptional team that does great things together for the benefit of our millions of guests around the world every day.”
 
A never-ending drive to be better and to do more has allowed a relatively small group to accomplish great things. One of the keys to their success is never settling for how things are expected to be.

“We're always challenging the status quo and asking what’s next,” says Mityas.