Merchants offer a variety of ways to pay for their products and services these days, including everything from old favorites like credit cards and checks to newer modes, such as NFC (Near Field Communications)-ready phones and smart watches.

That affords retail customers greater convenience, of course, but it also means more chances for technical issues to arise. This can potentially cause lots of extra headaches for the seller.

However, if retailers work with U.S. payment software firms like PayJunction, they greatly minimize the chance of encountering those stumbling blocks. PayJunction is based in Santa Barbara, California, United States. Working in an industry that doesn’t always enjoy a great reputation for customer service, the company has gone all in on its efforts to satisfy users.

By just about any measure, it’s succeeding in that goal. Their customer service team upped its satisfaction score to 95.3% last year, from 94.2% in 2016. It did so after handling 13,500 more support tickets and 2,475 more calls than in 2016. What’s more, the service team, which operates out of the firm’s California headquarters, was also able to maintain an average wait time of just one minute.

“We've definitely developed a culture of respect,” says Christina Lavingia of PayJunction. “We work hard to value long-term relationships over short-term profits.”

This approach has led to a number of significant achievements, such as going three consecutive years without a single complaint file submitted to the Better Business Bureau and achieving the highest rating for a payment processor on Capterra.

A customer-first approach has also proven to have a positive impact on workplace morale. In 2017, PayJunction was selected as a Best Place to Work on Glassdoor.com.

“We treat our employees and customers like family and have prioritized doing the right thing in every facet of the business,” says Lavingia.

The company’s impressive call center team is one of the reasons PayJunction had a big night at the 16th Annual American Business Awards this summer. The firm captured the Gold Stevie® for Customer Service Department of the Year among financial services firms, as well as a Bronze Stevie for New Product or Service of the Year.

The team adds these accolades to its trophy shelf, which already included a Bronze Stevie for its customer service team from the 2017 awards ceremony.

Leveraging Its Awards

Founded in 2000, PayJunction succeeds, in part, by adeptly navigating the fast-changing world of payment processing. When it started, services like Apple Pay and Google Pay weren’t even around. Now, accepting those methods is increasingly viewed as imperative.

It has also been at the leading edge of efforts to combat fraud, which has long been one of the industry’s biggest challenges. Changes in signature requirements and the introduction of chip-and-PIN cards are having a major positive impact on retailers and businesses that process those cards.

“Equipping them with the technology they need for the future is truly exciting,” says Lavingia.

Today, the company processes $4 billion in sales each year, and thousands of businesses across the United States use its payment terminals and software. To meet this demand, the organization now employs more than 60 employees.

Perhaps, though, it’s the company’s laser focus on customer service that makes it stand out the most. For Lavingia, bringing home two Stevie Awards, including one for its customer care team, is a huge notch in its belt.

She notes the company was already bringing up its prior bronze prize during sales calls and in emails in order to help woo new customers, and she’s confident earning a gold this year will give them even greater prestige.

“We're able to leverage these awards to close deals with new merchants and to accurately showcase in a meaningful way how our software and support will positively impact their businesses,” Lavingia says.

Most information humans take in is visual and depth based. Although we do not emit lasers or lights to perceive our environments (as much as we might wish to), we still see everything very accurately with our comparatively low-quality eyes.

This means the brain is the driving factor behind the impressive results of our vision. Now, imagine a world where every device and machine has those capabilities. How well could that serve humanity?

The AI-based software solution from Lucid empowers dual-camera devices, such as mobile phones, robots, and others, to see in three dimensions, providing the depth perception of human eyes.

Lucid wants to be the platform that allows any device or machine to capture depth data in the world. In late 2018, Lucid is on track to bring in 10 times their 2017 revenue. They anticipate adding staff; opening offices around the world; and continuing to foster their culture of inclusion, work ethic, and continuous improvement.

Tech Giants Are Noticing

Lucid was founded in Palo Alto, California, United States, in January 2015. They focused on mimicking human vision in robots because they believed true depth vision should not be emission-based but AI-based. This defied how the entire industry was working at the time.

Han Jin is the cofounder and CEO of Lucid. He details where the company stood technologically before any tech giants entered the now growing space.

“We decided to build the world’s first VR180 camera, LucidCam, because we wanted to prove our AI-based software technology had a market,” says Jin. “There was no similar hardware until iPhone 7 Plus came out with dual cameras.”

After they successfully launched their device into retail spaces and millions of consumer hands, they observed the trend of dual cameras spreading to more than just phones.

This innovation keeps the company on track to recreate human vision through software, and they believe the deeper intermingling of humans and technology when both humans and robots are capable of doing and seeing.

Exploring New Territories

AI provides solutions to many problems caused by hardware limitations. For example, smartphone manufacturers need to ensure the price they charge per device continues to be competitive in order to hit volume benchmarks. However, when trying to incorporate depth-sensing technologies, the process becomes both bulky and costly. In consumer electronics, there’s simply not a lot of room for more hardware.

Space margins are extremely thin, and this is especially true of smartphones, where real estate is dire. Additionally, when you add an expensive sensor to a device, the price, unsurprisingly, goes up.

There’s no way around this other than finding solutions that incorporate depth sensing into consumer devices without the addition of hardware. This is precisely why AI software is leading companies like Lucid into territories that weren’t previously accessible.

Massive Potential

Five billion people have mobile phones, but the latest technological upgrades, such as built-in depth sensors, are currently too expensive for most device makers to incorporate. This disallows facial recognition, VR/AR, and 3D scanning.

At the same time, smartphone makers specifically are feeling increased downward price pressure as they try to come out with newer, more advanced devices that outpace their competitors.

The entire market is trying to find new approaches to solve this problem. As phone makers scramble to conceive new features that convince consumers to upgrade, depth sensing is increasingly on people’s radar.

When Lucid won a Gold Stevie® Award for Entrepreneur of the Year for Computer Software, the community took notice. Lucid is already improving its pure software solutions.

“This year, Lucid partnered with elite camera maker RED to build an H4V camera. The RED camera features two moving high-resolution cameras that adjust dynamically,” says Jin. “Our engine allows you to generate multiple views through AI with only two views being captured. This camera will use the new Hydrogen One phone with a holographic display as a viewfinder.”

Technology and innovation are at the core of what Lucid does, and other entrepreneurs and businesses can learn from Lucid’s alternative AI solution. Their work illustrates that software can implement capabilities much faster (and cheaper) than hardware currently can.

Teaching machines to see like humans could have huge ramifications in the technological world, and we’re just beginning to imagine all the possibilities.

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.

Over the past decade, there’s been a sea change in the way people consume video content. Today’s viewers can download and stream multimedia on their computers, as well as on mobile apps, social media sites, and a variety of connected TV devices, such as Roku, Fire TV, and Apple TV.

Thanks to the proliferation of outlets—and a steep drop in production costs—you no longer have to be a major broadcast network or media conglomerate to gain viewers. Now, even small businesses, state and county governments, and churches are using these non-cable outlets, commonly referred to as “over the top,” or OTT, to reach a whole new audience.

While the barriers to entry are certainly less insurmountable than in the past, independent producers still need the tools to upload, manage, and publish their video and audio content on a wide range of media platforms. Lightcast.com has been helping clients overcome this exact challenge since its inception in 2010.

The company, which has offices in the United States (Charlotte, North Carolina) and Europe, bills itself as the one-stop shop for all its clients’ publishing needs. In addition to providing transcoding services—it creates more than a dozen renditions of each video in different bitrates—it offers a fully functional content management system and the ability to distribute multimedia using one of the world’s largest server networks.

It also helps organizations monetize their content by creating advertising, pay-per-view, and subscription strategies. By eliminating the need to work with video ad networks—what it calls the industry middlemen—the company claims content creators can boost their net revenue.

The “Democratization” of Video

“The shift away from mere streaming on websites to OTT has kept all streaming providers and online video platforms on their toes,” says the company’s managing director, Andreas Kisslinger. “Lightcast.com, in particular, has really enjoyed, welcomed, embraced, and promoted this change as we see the new publishing channels and platforms as a huge opportunity for media publishers.”

For Kisslinger, the changes in the media landscape enable organizations of all stripes to amplify their messages and to expand their reach.

“It’s a chance for democratization of information flow, creativity, and entrepreneurship among independent producers, of which many are highly successful,” he says.

Lightcast, whose Media Cloud solution won the Gold StevieⓇ Award  in The American Business Awards® for New Product or Service of the Year in the CMS category, has tapped in to those opportunities as well as anyone. Its software suite now helps support a multitude of media outlets on social media, connected TV, and mobile apps. Today, InTouch Ministries, Foody TV, and All About Golf are among the thousands of clients Lightcast helps connect with new audiences. It’s an impressive achievement for a company that started with little and worked tirelessly with its “bootstraps” mentality.

“We are all young entrepreneurs from various countries. All self-funded and self-made, without any venture capital or connections behind our backs,” says Kisslinger. “Instead of using investment capital, we built our business exclusively with sweat, blood, and tears—and, most of all, the satisfaction of our customers who share their excitement about our products with others."

Kisslinger acknowledges that keeping a trans-Atlantic operation going isn’t always easy, though. The staff has to continually navigate language and time zone differences to make it work. For Kisslinger, however, what they have in common is more important: a desire to go above and beyond for their customers.

One of the company’s keys to success is a relentless pursuit of the perfect multimedia publishing suite.

“We have a proprietary CRM system and database in which we record every feedback, every wish, and every need customers send us. We do this in order to refine the user interfaces and feature sets of our software-as-a-service offering,” says Kisslinger.

This approach helped the company earn numerous awards for product design over the past few years, but for Kisslinger, snagging the Stevie Award was particularly satisfying.

“We regard the Stevie as one of the most important and prestigious awards a business can win,” he says. “It’s boosted the excitement and self-esteem of our teams—especially among our hardworking coders, web developers, and graphic designers. Everyone is especially excited and grateful over this year's award,” he says.

Businesses are rapidly migrating their data and applications to the cloud, and increasingly taking advantage of the flexibility and functionality of providers like Amazon Web Services (AWS). According to one industry report, 71 percent of enterprise-level companies will increase their spending on the public cloud by 20 percent or more in 2018.

While the benefits of replacing on-premises assets with web storage might seem readily apparent, the conversion itself can present some real challenges. In order to avoid a costly misstep, companies need to put a strategy in place that protects their cloud data and ensures applications work as intended.

Cloud Protection Manager (CPM), a solution the United States based firm N2W Software developed, strives to eliminate those worries.

Designed specifically for AWS, the product offers the ability to back up data as often as necessary, and it recovers that data faster than traditional on-site backup solutions.

“It’s a complex and new IT environment that’s viewed with a lot of uncertainty and challenges, but it doesn’t have to be,” says Jessica Eisenberg, an inbound marketer and customer success manager at N2W Software.

Employing a user-friendly web interface, CPM allows users to manage multiple AWS accounts and to configure policies and schedules to take automated snapshot backups. Clients can recover snapshots, individual volumes or even individual files almost instantaneously, and can recover both in another region or in another account.. It does all this while maintaining compliance with various privacy standards, such as HIPAA, a health data security law in the United States, and the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation.

The solution is especially important because, under its Shared Responsibility Model, Amazon is only responsible for the cloud infrastructure itself. However, the customer may assume liability for application software and utilities that it installs on the platform.

The solution is especially important because, under its Shared Responsibility Model, Amazon is only responsible for the cloud infrastructure itself. However, the customer may assume liability for application software and utilities that it installs on the platform.

Big Clients Sign On

The roots of N2W Software date back to 2010, when AWS user Uri Wolloch realized the need for simpler and more scalable backup and recovery capabilities. Wolloch quit his job and began working from home for almost two years to create the first beta version of Cloud Protection Manager.

Since its release, CPM has been used in virtually every vertical market, including finance, health care, mobile, IT, transport, and media. Companies rapidly joined in as enterprises started to weigh the risks of even short periods of downtime. The company’s client list—now totaling more than 1,000 enterprises worldwide—includes the likes of Coca-Cola, Southwest Airlines, Cisco Systems, Oracle, Dyson, Harvard University, and media giant Time Inc.

“Our existing customer base contains the most progressive and forward-looking enterprises in the world—ones which are most interested in acquiring the latest and best cloud backup and disaster recovery technology in order to be prepared for the growing number of data breaches, ransomware attacks, errors, bugs, and weather-related disasters,” Eisenberg says.

The tech community seems to believe growth will only continue as more companies migrate to the cloud. N2W Software, based in West Palm Beach, Florida, United States, completed two rounds of funding in 2017, which was when it also brought in Jason Judge as its new CEO and Andy Langsam as COO.

At that time, the organization’s physical presence swelled to keep up. It now has a development center in Haifa, Israel, as well as satellite offices in Edinburgh, Scotland, and Bucharest, Romania. In January, the private Swiss firm Veeam announced its acquisition of N2W Software for $42.5 million, saying it will continue to operate the business as a wholly owned subsidiary.

Award Boosts Product Awareness

Among the rewards of the buyout was an introduction to the Stevie® Awards, several of which Veeam won in 2015. 

“We knew the Stevies were the premier business awards and that the awarding body is an organization that takes honoring achievements and innovation very seriously,” Eisenberg says.

The panel of judges recognized N2W Software this summer for its pioneering technology. In 2018, N2WS won a Gold Stevie Award in The American Business Awards for New Product or Service of the Year category for Software – Cloud Storage & Backup Solution. The judges noted the efficacy and disaster recovery benefits of CPM, as well as its specialized features, such as robust reporting, alerting, auditing, and dashboard functions.

“The excitement surrounding our company and product is clear recognition of the company’s progress and main goal: to create peace of mind for our customers with valuable data and mission-critical applications in the public cloud,” says Eisenberg. “It has already brought added awareness for customers on AWS that both small glitches and disastrous backup failures can be easily avoided and any single level of downtime can be mitigated.”

With more than 1.2 million titles available on Apple and Android devices, the problem video gamers face today isn’t the lack of choice ‒ it’s having more than they can handle.

Enter ANDi. The one-and-a-half-year-old UK firm that recently launched a “personal mobile gaming assistant” Gameway that helps users find new games based on their preferences and provides a single, convenient platform from which to launch them.

The London-based company says it takes the typical player anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour to find a new game. And after all that effort, 72% of the games get deleted after two uses. 

By leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning, ANDi is hoping that its Gameway app will lead to better matches, in a fraction of the time it usually takes to find a game.

“Data is collected from the games our users swipe, install and play,” says Benjamin Woolf, ANDi’s co-founder and CEO. “Machine learning algorithms process the data and display the right games to the right people at the appropriate times.” The company calls the feature “Tinder-For-Games,” a nod to the popular dating app.

Woolf, a graduate of Leeds Business University, says the the software can recommend games in under a minute, and with greater success. When using ANDi, people keep games for 25% longer, on average, than competitors.

An untapped market

The direction the company took was, its founders admit, somewhat accidental.

When Woolf and friend Sam Koch, who has a computer science background, volunteered together at a 2015 TechCrunch convention, they talked about the idea of creating a new mobile game together.

But when they visited the Google Play store to see what was already on the market, they found themselves swimming in a sea of choices. With that amount of selection, zeroing in on a particular type of game was virtually impossible. What people needed, they believed, was a more efficient way to find what they were looking for.

In a matter of just a few months, the pair was able to cultivate a team and put out the first prototype. Woolf says the community user base has grown by more than 15% month-over-month since being released.

Fostering collaboration 

The company’s speed-to-market is the result of a “work hard, play hard” approach. Product development centers on intense two-week “sprints,” in which the team discusses a new feature, designs it and then carries out a test so it can analyze results afterward.

The founders also carve out time for team-building. Employees regularly get together for team lunches where they can air out their concerns. Once a month, staff members will huddle around a video game console and hold friendly competitions.

“All this builds collaboration and fearless positivity, which allows all members individually to want to give their all,” suggests Woolf.

Already, ANDi’s gaming assistant is shaking up the industry, he says. “The larger game studios, publishers and other media sites are concerned how this could equalize the market for the small niche game developers and medium-sized companies who are not able to gain the same face-time due to financial restrictions,” he explains.

Thanks to its innovative solution, the company has recently earned multiple high-level honors. Among them: “Most Innovative Mobile Gaming Application 2017” by Softech and “Best Free Gaming App” at the TMT Global Excellence Awards 2017.

ANDi adds to its trophy case with the Bronze Stevie® Award received for “Startup of the Year - Consumer Products Industries” at this year’s International Business Awards.

“Winning an award as prestigious as the Stevies was a huge inspiration to our team,” says Woolf. “To be recognized by others in the global business community for our hard work is something we very much appreciate.”

Today’s enterprises are more spread out than ever, often consisting of multiple office buildings spread across the United States—and even the globe.

The challenge: finding a way to make those facilities and the people who work there more efficient. That’s exactly what iOFFICE Corporation, a fast-growing software-as-a-service provider, is doing for some 1,400 corporate clients.

The iOFFICE platform allows facility managers and executives to, for example, visualize floor plans and analyze space usage across all their properties. They can use available data to plan for future usage of those spaces in the most cost-effective way possible.

With a separate module, users can pull data from a building’s HVAC, lighting and refrigeration systems to monitor and curb energy use at the site.

But it’s not just the building that iOFFICE is trying to make more efficient. The firm also offers applications designed to streamline the work that employees perform. One of those offerings is a project management tool that enables improved collaboration throughout the enterprise.

Growing client list

The Houston-based firm has been able to expand its offerings through a series of partnerships with other specialized SaaS (Software as a Service) providers. This “Marketplace,” as iOFFICE refers to this network, includes technology companies that offer expertise in areas like space utilization, energy management and occupancy planning.

iOFFICE provides the user-friendly, mobile-ready backbone that helps users seamlessly search workspace and project data, as well as plan for future needs. The company calls their network “the first app ecosystem for the 21^st-century workplace.”

Corporations in a variety of industries are latching onto the idea. The company’s clients now include the likes of Adobe, Sephora and Under Armour—all trying to build efficiencies into their work environment.

“iOFFICE works hard to ensure that its clients have the technology to support their employees,” the company’s outside spokeswoman, Bethany Morris, says.

Currently, about 2.4 million users around the globe rely on iOFFICE software to gain visibility into their operations.

The business had much humbler roots when Don Traweek and Elizabeth Dukes, both former executives with Pitney Bowes Management Services, founded the business in 2002. But over the past several years, the company has gone through a period of remarkable growth, emerging as one of the leaders in the integrated workplace management system, or IWMS, sector. 

What was once a staff of just two employees has exploded to 49 and counting. Traweek continues to serve as the company’s president and CEO while Dukes holds the title of executive vice president, helping to drive the firm’s sales and marketing strategies.

An evolving workplace

iOFFICE’s solutions are particularly suited for today’s changing corporate environment, where so-called “activity-based working” is becoming more the norm. More and more, employees have the freedom to perform tasks in the type of space that best suits their needs— that could be at their desk, in a meeting room or even in a designated quiet space.

Enterprises see this as a way to increase collaboration and innovation within the organization. By moving away from a static, closed-in environment, they believe it also increases employee satisfaction and helps with retention.

The organization recently released Hummingbird, a software solution that according to a company statement, offers employees “an elegant and user-friendly way to add critical activity-based work functions to find, request, use and reserve the spaces, information, people and events they need every day.”

In The 2017American Business Awards, the company was rewarded for its innovative approach to workspace needs by securing a Bronze Stevie Award for “Most Innovative Tech Company of the Year” in the under-100-employees segment.

For a company that’s followed the Stevie Awards for several years, Morris says the designation was a major shot in the arm for the entire staff. “Since winning the Stevie Award, iOFFICE and its employees have enjoyed a boost in morale,” she says.

Business Awards Program to Celebrate Excellence Worldwide at Barcelona Event

High-achieving organizations and executives around the world have been recognized as Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie® Award winners in The 14th Annual International Business Awards, the world's only international, all-encompassing business awards program.

Nicknamed the Stevies from the Greek word "crowned," the awards will be presented at a gala event on Saturday, 21 October at the W Hotel in Barcelona, Spain. Tickets for the event are on sale now at www.StevieAwards.com/IBA.

See the full list of Stevie Award winners here.

Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie winners were selected from more than 3,900 nominations received from organizations and individuals in 60 nations. All organizations worldwide are eligible to compete in The International Business Awards, and can submit entries in a wide range of categories, including management awards, company of the year awards, marketing awards, public relations awards, customer service awards, human resources awards, new product awards, IT awards, web site awards and more. 

More than 200 executives worldwide participated on 12 juries this year to determine the Stevie winners.

Among the top winners of Gold Stevie Awards are MSLGROUP, worldwide, with 13; Cisco Systems, worldwide (10); Weber Shandwick, worldwide (nine); CallidusCloud, Dublin, California USA (eight); Telkom Indonesia (eight); LLORENTE & CUENCA, Madrid, Spain (seven); and Deutsche Post DHL, worldwide, with six.  Winners of five Gold Stevies include PJ Lhuillier Group of Companies, Makati City, Philippines; Property Exchange Australia Ltd, Melbourne, Australia; PT Petrokimia Gresik, Gresik, Indonesia; Thai Life Insurance, Bangkok, Thailand; and Yapi Kredi Bank, Istanbul, Turkey.

Other organizations with 10 or more Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie wins include, among others, ASDA'A Burson Marsteller, Dubai, United Arab Emirates; FIS, St. Petersburg, Florida USA; Jeunesse Global, Lake Mary, Florida USA; Marico Ltd, Mumbai, India; Odea Bank A.S., Istanbul, Turkey; Ooredoo Group, worldwide; and PRIZM, Hong Kong. 

“We received a record number of nominations in the IBAs this year, and the judges were astounded by the inspiring stories of workplace success from all over the world,” said Stevie Awards founder and president Michael Gallagher.  “We look forward to honoring the Stevie winners who join us in Barcelona on 21 October, and to sharing their stories with the world throughout the coming year on the Stevie Awards social media channels."

During the week of 21 August the winners of the Best of the IBA Awards, five best-of-competition prizes, will be announced.  Winners will be determined by a tally of the total number of Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevies won by organizations, and will be presented with Grand Stevie Award trophies in Barcelona.

For high-resolution photos of the Stevie Award trophy or International Business Awards logo, visit http://stevieawards.com/iba/photos-and-logos. Other information and resources for press are available at http://stevieawards.com/iba/media-inquiries-news-service-list

The Stevie® Awards have issued the call for entries for The 14th 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 12 April. The final entry deadline is 10 May, and late entries will be accepted through 14 June with payment of a late fee. Entry details are available at www.StevieAwards.com/IBA.

REVIEW THE ENTRY KIT HERE

An international judging panel of more than 150 executives will determine the Stevie Award winners. Results will be announced 10 August. Stevie Award winners will be presented their awards at a gala banquet at the W Hotel in Barcelona, Spain on 21 October.

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

• Management 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 Awards, Smartphone and Tablet App, and other media awards

Stevie Award winners in the 2016 IBAs included ABS-CBN Corporation (Philippines), BSES Yamuna Power Limited (India), Clickky (Ukraine), Dogus Group (Turkey), Dubai Statistics Center (United Arab Emirates), Forter (USA), Foundation Telefónica  (Spain), Freelancer.com (Australia), Itaú Unibanco Holding S.A.  (Brazil), KEPCO Nuclear Fuel Company (South Korea), Mondelez International (United Kingdom), Ooredoo (Qatar), PJSC Aeroflot - Russian Airlines  (Russia), Polystar  (Sweden), PRIZM (Hong Kong), QLess, Inc. (USA), RheinBrücke IT Consulting (Germany), Roshan (Afghanistan), SABC Pension Fund (South Africa), SUNNY SIDE UP, Inc. (Japan), Telkom Indonesia (Indonesia) and TELUS International (Canada), among many others.

An interview with Ralf Heim the Co-CEO at Fincite GmbH

Fincite GmbH of Frankfurt, Germany won two Stevie Awards in the 2016 German Stevie Awards. Fincite GmbH won the Gold Stevie Award for Technology Startup of the Year, and a Bronze Stevie for Management Team of the Year.  2017 The German Stevie Awards are accepting entries through January 27.  Review the entry kit to begin your nominations.

What does Fincite GmbH do?

Financial Advice today is often confounding and not made for the benefit of the customer. Technology can change this. We can make investments smarter by giving customers easy access to sophisticated analytics. We help banks, asset managers and insurers offer this technology to their customers.

What is your role as the Co-CEO?

As Co-CEO I’m responsible for growing the business. This covers marketing, business development, partnerships and recruiting.

What is the organizational vision?

Our mission is to engineer the future of finance. We see that technology will replace large parts in Financial Advice, Retail & Institutional Asset Management and even funds. Our aim is to grow and become the #1 Digital Asset Management company in Europe.

What sets your company apart in this category?

It’s the unique approach of our Digital Investment Management Software: We built a complete modular system that can easily connect to all private customers’ financial assets, analyze the status quo and make recommendations. Banks can build upon our software their own frontend and thus keep customer relationship while still providing most modern analytics and account integration capabilities.

What was it like for your company to win the Stevie award?

It was a great honor for us to win this award, especially in the category, Technology Start-Up of the Year because from the outset we wanted to focus on innovative products and organic growth. The nomination for Management Team of the Year indicates to my partners & I that we’re on the right path in how we conduct our business.

How has the win affected your business?

The direct effect is hard to tell, but I think the award is great feedback for us and it was acknowledged by our partners and clients.

What results have been gained since you've won this award?

The size of our workforce has nearly doubled since April and the cash flow is still positive without external financing.

What inspires you to continue your work?

We’re inspired by our mission to change the world of finance and the good feedback we get from our partners, clients, employees and also the press.

What do you expect to change in your industry in the future?

We believe that Finance can be nearly 100% digitized. As a result, digital services will largely replace large branches and offices. We are intrigued by the thought of working on this more efficient next generation of Finance.

Learn more about Fincite GmbH

From left to right - Ralf Heim (co-CEO), Friedhelm Schmitt ( co-CEO), Stefan Post (CTO).