Verdigris is an AI-powered smart building management platform that optimizes energy consumption for organizations with data, insights, and automation. Through artificial intelligence and IoT-enabled sensors, Verdigris has reduced energy spending for customers by 20-50%. This not only helps organizations save money but also reduces their carbon footprint. Some of the world’s most recognized companies including T-Mobile, Verizon, and Nvidia use Verdigris to combat wasteful energy usage and spending. The company was founded in 2011 by Mark Chung, Jonathan Chu, and Thomas Chung with a mission to sustain and enrich human life through responsive energy intelligence.

Verdigris has thrived over the past two years, seeing strong demand in terms of customer acquisition and expansions with its latest IoT energy meter. It shipped a record number of systems, won significant deals with industry leaders including T-Mobile and ARM, and announced a global partnership for ABB to use its AI. Verdigris received testimonials from more than two dozen tier one customers, including JLL, Verizon, T-Mobile, E&J Gallo, ARM, and Nvidia.
In 2019, Verdigris introduced Adaptive Automation, an adaptive and autonomous building controls product. Adaptive Automation integrates with building management systems to provide continuous optimization of energy consumption without human intervention while adapting to changing building conditions autonomously. Adaptive Automation takes advantage of technological advances in IoT sensors, pervasive wireless communications networks, and AI to continuously learn and predict building patterns. These capabilities make it possible to deliver optimally efficient building performance.

In the first half of 2020, Verdigris released the EV2 energy gateway, the next generation of the company’s superior IoT energy monitoring hardware. The technology enables a set of highly scalable low-cost energy management capabilities not found in other energy meter solutions at scale, since Verdigris samples each circuit at nearly 8,000 times per second. All at the lowest cost per metered endpoint in the industry.

Verdigris was created to help solve the global problem of energy waste. In just the US alone, 97B sqft of commercial and industrial buildings throw away more than $120B each year in unneeded energy costs. Some estimates suggest that more than $600B is lost each year in these verticals. This energy waste takes a tremendous toll on the planet, amounting to about 15% of carbon pollution globally. The Verdigris smart energy management system aims to improve building efficiency, reduce energy waste, and decrease carbon pollution. Verdigris has helped customers and the marketplace lower operational expenses by optimizing energy spending and automating load shedding during peak times using situationally aware and connected AI to reduce demand charges. Verdigris helps customers make smart decisions about energy, meet mandates for energy reduction and achieve carbon reduction goals.

Verdigris won the Silver Stevie Award in The 2021 International Business Awards® for Achievement in Product Innovation.

Interested in The 2022 International Business Awards?

Ideon Technologies Inc. is a spin-off from TRIUMF (Canada’s national particle accelerator laboratory) and a world pioneer in the application of cosmic-ray muon tomography. Ideon has developed a discovery platform that integrates proprietary detectors, imaging systems, inversion technologies, and artificial intelligence to provide x-ray-like visibility up to 1 km beneath the Earth’s surface. 

By detecting sub-surface muons and transforming the data into reliable geophysical surveys and 3D density maps, Ideon helps exploration geologists identify new mineral and metal deposits with precision and confidence. They drill less and discover more with Ideon – reducing cost and risk, saving time, and minimizing environmental impact while meeting the increased demand for critical minerals that power the clean energy transition. Ideon is also expanding the application of muon tomography to use cases in oil and gas, critical infrastructure, and national security. 

Ideon has spent years in research and development and conducting field trials with customers to prove the science behind muon tomography for subsurface exploration. What they have done since the beginning of 2019 is complete a 50x miniaturization of the hardware they use to detect muon flux -- from the size of a kitchen table to a slim rod that is deployable down industry-standard drill holes. 

This sensor offers unprecedented straight-line imaging capability with high-resolution (5 m) and a new form-factor enabling deployment down industry-standard boreholes (<10 cm diameter) with low power (<10 W continuous power consumption).  They combine this new data source with our proprietary multi-physics inversions and data analysis algorithms to bring diverse datasets together into a cohesive understanding of the subsurface, up to 1 km deep. For our customers, this results in reduced costs of exploration (10x), reduced environmental impact in the exploration phase (x10), increased ability to meet ESG targets, increased certainty and confidence of subsurface understanding (95%+), and increased instances of resource discovery critical to the clean energy transition.

The world's first deployment of this new borehole muon detector was slated for early May 2021. Muon tomography is the only straight-line imaging technology available in the geophysics toolkit today, delivering high resolution and precise location information. 

The COVID-19 pandemic reduced worldwide CO2 emissions by approximately 4%. Even with a massive shift in human behavior, this falls short of the 7.6% annual reduction that the UN says is needed every year for the next decade to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. A dramatic increase in demand for critical minerals is required to meet the world’s carbon reduction commitments. 

The drive to clean energy highlights how broken the mineral exploration process is. In the last 10 years, the industry has been forced to search deeper underground to find new deposits, without any new tools to facilitate exploration. Discoveries are down 75%, meters drilled/discovery is up 187%, and cost/discovery is up 380%. 

They are competing against the status quo -- the industry relies heavily on drilling, often hundreds of holes sunk in a hit-and-miss approach targeting poorly constrained geophysical and geological anomalies. Drilling is the primary cost driver in exploration today, representing 55% (US$6B) of the annual global spend, with drilling volume currently ~40M meters per year. A shift in approach is required to disrupt drilling and realize substantial increases in the sustainable production of critical mineral resources.

Ideon’s unique integrated subsurface intelligence solution for the global mining industry directly reduces the cost, time, risk, and environmental impact involved in the exploration process, while dramatically increasing outcome certainty. Enabling mineral resource companies to confidently extract key insights from vast quantities of data will help them target high-recovery, low-waste deposits, developing the supply chains needed to fuel the energy transition.

Ideon won the Silver Stevie Award for Energy Innovation of the Year in The 2021 International Business Awards. 

Their Mission: Stevie Award winner New Heights Educational Group, Inc. promotes literacy for children and adults by offering a range of educational support services. Such services include assisting families in the selection of schools, organization of educational activities, and acquisition of materials. They promote a healthy learning environment and enrichment programs for families of preschool and school-age children, including children with special needs.

Award-winning organization New Heights Educational Group (NHEG) was formed in 2006 by Mrs. Pamela Clark. Mrs. Clark discovered that families needed to cooperate, especially in educating children with learning difficulties such as ADHD, bipolar disorder, autism, and neurological disorders. NHEG has served over 350,000 students via online services and courses. Mrs. Clark leads a team of 92 volunteers who research advancements and provide training to teachers and tutors exploring different learning styles.

NHEG provides fill-in-the-gap tutoring to reach students who have been left behind by traditional schools. It offers classes, an educational magazine that has been viewed more than 75,000 times, and a comic book. The organization has published two books: Unraveling Reading and Unraveling Science. Both books are part of the Unraveling series, which provides strategies to parents, teachers, and tutors to support children’s learning processes. The series will include a book for each subject. One Nonprofit’s Journey to Success, written by an NHEG volunteer, was released worldwide in March 2015 and tells the organization’s story. NHEG’s internet radio show, New Heights Show on Education, has over 327,000 listeners. All of this is in despite Pamela Clark's health challenges and overcoming severe malnutrition and 82 surgeries.

NHEG offers over 145 free and 19 low-cost and high-quality courses on its website. It has also made available an international student leadership council, which helps 9th- through 12th-graders develop their leadership skills and an international student advisory group.

New Heights Educational Group (NHEG) grew its reach by over 90,000 people in 2020. Pamela Clark’s leadership of a team of volunteers who are experienced in online learning enabled NHEG to reach families in need of quality remote learning during the pandemic. The organization reduced its tutoring service fees, which include one-on-one learning for three one-hour sessions, from $45 a week to $45 a month. NHEG’s online courses, informational services, and tutoring now reach 351,077 students, and all courses offered can be seen in the learning annex.

NHEG serves the majority of its students through free courses, which are one of the organization’s main expenses. NHEG has expanded its online reading ambassador program in partnership with The 2nd & 7 Foundation, where athletes read stories
to students online.

Partners, affiliates, and New Heights Educational Group offer over 1,280 free and discounted courses. Some families implement their internet radio show into their daily studies, as well.

NHEG has also made available an international student leadership council, which helps 9th- through 12th-graders develop their leadership skills and an international student advisory group.

New Heights Educational Group (NHEG) grew its reach by over 90,000 people in 2020. Pamela Clark’s leadership of a team of volunteers who are experienced in online learning enabled NHEG to reach families in need of quality remote learning during the pandemic. The organization reduced its tutoring service fees, which include one-on-one learning for three one-hour sessions, from $45 a week to $45 a month. NHEG’s online courses, informational services, and tutoring now reach 351,077 students.

NHEG serves the majority of its students through free courses, which are one of the organization’s main expenses. NHEG has expanded its online reading ambassador program in partnership with The 2nd & 7 Foundation, where athletes read stories to students online. Student groups were opened to international students this year, with great success, to meet demand. And started a 2nd reading program titled, "Reading Time with Rishaan”, where 5-year-old Rishaan reads to other children every Friday. They recently launched the third tier of this program and are now offering a book club, “Reading for a Purpose”.

New Heights Educational Group won three Stevie Awards in The 2021 International Business Awards®. They won the Gold Stevie for Company of the Year - Diversified Services, the Gold Stevie for Education Hero of the Year, and the Silver Stevie for Company of the Year - Business or Professional Services.

Interested in entering The 2022 International Business Awards?

In 2020 alone, Identity Fraud in the US cost almost $56 billion. As digitization and automation are becoming the new norm, personal data is increasingly becoming a hot target for hackers. This is where Identity Verification (IDV) companies like Shufti Pro Limited (SP) come into play.

SP provides a wide range of IDV services, ranging from simple Know Your Customer (KYC) services to Anti-Money Laundering (AML) checks, for people and organizations. Their services enable clients to meet even the strictest data regulatory standard of any industry or region and ensure that they are secure from ID thieves and fraudsters. The company was created in 2017 with basic KYC features. By 2018, they added AML checks, 2-Factor Authentication, Address Verification, Optical Character Recognition (OCR), and Consent Verification Services.

What Separates Shufti Pro from The Identity Verification Competition

In 2019, Shufi Pro began to provide Know Your Business (KYB) services and between 2020-21, they became one of the few IDV companies that offered Artificial-Intelligence and Human-Intelligence based Video-KYC services, and verification through NFC technology, along with a wide range of ‘on and off premises’ IDV services. Headquartered in London, UK, they are a GDPR compliant global services provider, with offices in Cyprus, Sweden, and Dubai.

Although comparatively young in the IDV community, SP’s proactive approach to incorporate regulatory and global data protection guidelines in the delivery of services, and integrate multi-jurisdiction cybersecurity practices, makes them stand apart from competitors.

SP’s OCR services support 150 different Latin and Non-Latin languages, including Arabic and Japanese, which none of their competitors do. 

They also provide on-premises services, and cater to the demands of all clients, regardless of their order size. They offer a 14-day free trial with $50 credits for proof of concept.

They are also among the very few companies that provide payment authentication and Identity Verification through NFC technology which eliminates the need for manual data entries and hence, saves time and operational costs for all clients.

Germany’s Commission for media, Kommission für Jugendmedienschutz (KJM), has approved Shufti Pro’s age verification solution for the protection of minors. Now, the German Media can utilize Shufti Pro’s age verification solution to prevent minors from accessing content that is not suitable for their age.

They are the only IDV company that provides such a wide range of IDV services, all from a single platform, and that too with extreme ease of integration. By using SP's Restful API, Android / iOS SDK, and Hosted Verification page services, clients can integrate the services with their existing system within 30 minutes.

What Shufti Pro Has Accomplished Since their Stevie Award Win

Since their Stevie Award win, Shufti Pro has been approved by Jumpsec, and has won two more awards in the “Business Technology” and “Banking and Finance Technology” category of the Global Banking and Finance Awards 2021. Victor Fredung, the CEO of Shufti Pro, was invited to give his testimony at the hearing hosted by the US Financial Services Task Force on Artificial Intelligence and examining key points related to digital privacy and emphasized how Shufti Pro is making the financial structure secure through the use of AI technology for identity verification. Owing to the entrepreneurial spirit of Shufti Pro, the company has been nominated yet again for an award – the Nordic Startups Award Season 2021. Shufti Pro has successfully made its way into the World’s 100 Most Innovative CyberTech Companies For Financial Services in 2021. As part of its plan for global expansion, Shufti Pro has opened a new office in Kyiv, Maidan Plaza, Maidan Nezalezhnosti, 2. Kyiv, 02000, Ukraine. Shufti Pro has launched its global identity verification services on Salesforce AppExchange, empowering Salesforce customers to seamlessly integrate identity verification solutions and accelerate their business operations. Shufti Pro has introduced an auto-capture feature to its ID document and selfie biometric technology to enhance its face verification and document screening solutions.

Shufti Pro won the Gold Stevie Award for Company of the Year - Computer Services and the  Bronze for Company of the Year - Financial Services in The 2021 International Business Awards®. 

Interested in entering The 2022 International Business Awards?

Zii is the world’s first FinTech platform focused on enabling better business travel. Specifically designed for corporate travel leaders, by corporate travel leaders, Zii’s innovative, unique functionality and user experience can’t be seen anywhere else in the marketplace. The platform is specifically designed to complement TMC functionality, enabling easy implementation and seamless integration into any travel program.

The proprietary scoring mechanism uses social motivation and immediate feedback to show the direct implications of non-compliant travel behavior and influence employee travel decisions to align with travel policy. Zii’s real-time data & analytics capabilities get to the root causes of overspending at both macro and microeconomic levels, significantly reducing travel spending.

Companies are wasting millions of dollars each year on unnecessary travel expenses. According to a recent report by Mastercard, Travel, and Expense (T&E) costs are usually an organization’s second-highest indirect expense, behind labor. The report also revealed that 80% of the organizations surveyed lacked real visibility into their T&E spending. With no insight into how travel spending is being managed, many companies are leaving money on the table.

With corporate travel set to rise 25-50% as the pandemic decreases, this means another $1.2 trillion will be wasted through 2025.

That’s where Zii comes in:

The solution is Zii. Zii works with three main pillars to identify and address areas of non-compliance and overspend within the organization.

Financial Optimization

By identifying and addressing specific areas of unnecessary spending, organizations will be able to save millions of dollars annually.

Distribution of Responsibility

Travel managers waste approximately 500 hours annually in faulty T&E management protocols, costing companies hundreds of thousands of dollars in wasted wages. By improving productivity and reducing bottlenecks, you can amplify cost savings across multiple departments.

Automation & Gamification

It’s time to bring T&E management into the 21st century. Using data analysis to automate cost savings and applying gamification techniques to encourage and maintain usage, companies can consistently save millions year over year.

From the moment a trip is booked to when the expense report is submitted, Zii makes T&E spending and reporting automated and compliant. Using gamification tools to modify behavior and improve employee engagement, Zii turns your traveling workforce into independently-managed cost-savers. With its easy-to-use interface and intuitive booking technology, Zii revolutionizes travel across all levels of your organization.

Zii is designed to enable information delivery that is Personalized, Relevant, and Timely:

Personalized – Advanced data analysis achieves personalized information for travelers and administrators, enhancing the user experience across all levels and verticals of the organization.

Relevant & Timely –Sorting through information to try and understand what is critical and what isn’t costs you valuable time and money, factors that are essential when it comes to travel. Zii does this for you, prioritizing relevant information and delivering it when and where you need it. 

Zii empowers travelers to take control of their entire trip life cycle. Designed specifically to be both comprehensive and user-friendly, Zii’s online booking tool makes travel arrangements a simple task, accomplished in minutes.

Many competing enterprise travel booking tools require a certain level of training in order to effectively use their system. Zii’s interface is straightforward - users at any level of technical ability can quickly learn how to manage their trips from start to finish. With 99% uptime, users enjoy uninterrupted use of the application in any location, at any time.

Since entering The International Business Awards in 2021, Zii Travel Technologies has been hard at work developing a sustainability solution product that will revolutionize the corporate travel industry when it comes to bridging the gap between corporate travel and sustainability.  Zii hopes to bring to market a solution that will: Inform, Educate and make it easy to measure and report overall progress and achievements tailored to each organization’s goals and objectives.

Interested in The 2022 International Business Awards?

The Stevie Awards are now accepting nominations for The 19th 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 6 April. The final entry deadline is 11 May, but late entries will be accepted through 15 June with payment of a late fee. Entry details are available at www.StevieAwards.com/IBA.

Juries featuring more than 150 executives around the world will determine the Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevie Award winners. Winners will be announced on 15 August and celebrated at a gala banquet in Europe in October.

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

• Management Awards 
• COVID-19 Response Awards
• Entrepreneur of the Year Awards
• Company of the Year Awards
• Customer Service Awards 
• Human Resources Awards 
• Information Technology Awards
• Marketing Awards 
• New Product Awards 
• Public Relations Awards 
• Web Site, App, Event, Video and other media awards
• Social Media Awards
• Thought Leadership Awards

There are many new and revised features of The International Business Awards for 2022:

• Nine new event awards categories, ten new innovation in social media categories, three thought leadership categories, three video categories, three mobile site & app categories, two new product categories, and categories for Achievement in Diversity & Inclusion and Influencer Marketing Campaign of the Year
  
  
• Nominations that won in the 2021 IBAs may be resubmitted for consideration in the 2022 IBAs.  If they have been updated with recent achievements, they may be submitted to the same categories in which they won.  If they have not been updated, they must be submitted to categories different from those in which they won.
  
  
• In many of the category groups and categories, you may now submit a video of up to five (5) minutes in length, illustrating the nominee's achievements, instead of the traditional Stevie Awards written essay.

Stevie Award winners in the 2021 IBAs included Ayala Land (Philippines), Cvent (USA), Ernst & Young Global Limited (UK), Etihad Airways Group (UAE), IBM (USA), Halkbank (Turkey), HP Inc. (USA), Google (USA), Nestle India (India), PJ Lhuillier, Inc (Philippines), Rufus & Coco (Australia), Philip Morris International (Switzerland), Polish Railway Lines (Poland), SAP SE (Germany), and many more.

ASCIRA COO Belynda Lee was named the winner of a Bronze Stevie® Award in the Woman of the Year category in The 18th Annual International Business Awards®. 

Belynda is a dynamic corporate executive with over three decades of experience in building strong international industry relationships with key corporate vendors and sales teams. She has an excellent reputation with high-profile, high-volume business associates.  She has been involved in the building of billion-dollar companies like Usana Health Sciences, Elizabeth Arden, Organo Gold to name a few.

In the past two years, Belynda bravely moved across the world to Dubai UAE to set up a brand new startup ASCIRA Global. It is a digital platform offering personal and business development in a subscription-based model.  Having launched in March 2020, right at the onset of the COVID 19 outbreak, the company has recorded numerous accomplishments, including surpassing 10,000 new members worldwide in less than a year.

More on Belynda's Experience

Belynda brings international business acumen and her unique ability to perform as a cross-functional strategist to the team. Born in Singapore and formally educated with a Master of Business Administration, Belynda's multilingual background helps her facilitate multi-channel distribution strategies that benefit both corporate and sales teams globally. Her ability to work directly with the sales field to develop winning strategies has resulted in many individuals achieving success, both professionally and personally. 

As a public figure and inspirational speaker, Belynda has moved crowds globally. With her personable character and the ability to resonate with individuals from all walks of life, Belynda has garnered a large following of fans around the world. She also serves as a mentor and coach for numerous young professionals learning the corporate system, thriving to excel in their careers. Her other interests involve restoring unloved homes, and she has left her mark in multiple properties in one of the most aggressive real estate markets in Vancouver.

Belynda penned her first autobiographical book, "Five-Inch Heels - When Women Step Into Power and Success," in 2014. The book delves into how one person can realize their worth and power to alter the course of life. In it, she teaches how effective servant leadership can be compassionate and inspiring. "Five-Inch Heels" went on to become a bestseller in North America. Influenced by her struggle, Belynda is also passionate about empowering other women. Whenever possible, she speaks on different platforms to share her story of adversity and conquers and how the Power of Choice-Change-Mind can alter anyone's destiny.

Belynda is exceptionally passionate about empowering women. In 2008, Belynda started the Canadian Women in a Business tour to highlight the success of female entrepreneurs. Her ongoing mission is to create personal and professional examples for others to follow while making a global impact on females today and in the future. 

In 2012 she presented an Outstanding Leadership Award from Global Women Summit in Vancouver, Canada, for creating a platform to recognize successful female entrepreneurs. 

In 2013, at the 13th Annual International Leadership and Financial Summit, Dr. Deavra Daughtry, CEO of Texas Women's Empowerment Foundation (TWEF), presented Belynda with an International Leadership Award for her leadership role as a vice president and her contribution to society as an inspirational speaker at various empowering platforms. 

In 2014, she was awarded "Leader of the Year" at the 10th Annual Women of Worth Conference. In the same year, she was also awarded the "Top Chinese Women of Canada" award from United Global Chinese Women Association in Canada. 

In 2021, she was presented "Champion in Global Women Empowerment" by Her Highness Sheikha Jawaher Bint Khalifa Al Khalifa in Dubai, UAE.

Interested in The 2022 International Business Awards®?

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?

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?

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?