Guest Podcaster: Brooke Bechtold
Have you ever thought something so simple as buying a coffee would significantly change a person’s life? Sound implausible? Think again.
HummbleBragg, a new Chicago-based podcast, is proud to tell the story of Curt’s Cafe in Evanston, IL. A small, but warm and inviting café, it’s a magnet and mortar to the community it serves. But more than the coffee it brews, the real mission of Curt’s Café is cultivating promise.
As we’ve stayed in lockstep with large employers throughout the challenging stages of the COVID-19 crisis, we continue to do so as the next stage comes upon us: return to work. Companies are now entering this transitional period where they have to navigate how to re-open the workplace, so we’ve taken the same efforts we applied to COVID-19 communications and are now applying those to support return-to-work strategy.
In addition to the recent national survey we conducted on employee readiness regarding return to work, we held an exclusive Q&A with an infectious-disease expert to get professional recommendations. We’ve taken our survey findings and the wisdom from this expert to assemble a set of 10 best practices for return-to-work strategy. They culminate to achieve the following mission: “Helping employees feel heard, supported, and safe”.
Below are the best practices, each one listed under an accompanying piece of that mission:
Feeling heard
Feeling supported
Feeling safe
By consolidating this collection of best practices, our goal is to continue to help employers in this complicated journey. These practices will be enabled by our existing platform, as well as new, embedded features—daily symptom surveying, safety checklists, and more—that will give employers valuable insight, inspire employee confidence and comfort, and help keep the workplace safe.
The first Momentum Awards show since the 1871 and Illinois Technology Association merger recognizes seven distinguished individuals and companies for their contributions and commitment to the Chicago technology and innovation community.
[Read more…] about 1871 and the CEC Announce the Winners of The 13th Annual Momentum Awards
Centro Joins Nonpartisan Movement to Increase Voter Participation in 2020 General Election; Time to Vote is a Coalition of 950 U.S. Companies Collectively Employing Millions of Workers
Chicago – Oct. 1, 2020 – Centro (https://www.centro.net), a global provider of advertising technology, announced a policy to provide paid time off for employees on Election Day in the U.S. This action is a renewal of its commitment started in 2018 when it declared Election Day a holiday that year. This aligns with Centro’s participation in Time to Vote, a coalition of 950 U.S. companies that form a nonpartisan movement whose goal is to increase voter participation in the general election on Nov. 3, 2020. The companies within the organization employ millions of workers collectively.
“In the U.S., there are many hurdles to voting and one major deciding factor is choosing between one’s commitment to work or casting a ballot. Centro believes that businesses should empower workers to commit to both. We feel the right thing to do is to ensure that each Centro employee has the requisite time to vote on Election Day,” said Emily Barron, EVP of talent and development, Centro. “When U.S. businesses collaborate and coordinate to give our employees time to vote on Election Day, we are strengthening our economy and our country.”
Centro has added an Election Day paid time off benefit into its employee time tracking system so that its team has ample time to plan and cast their ballot. This policy will also apply to its team in Canada, Europe, and Latin America for future national elections.
Time to Vote companies support their employees’ ability to register to vote, review their ballots and perform their civic duty. In joining Time to Vote, Centro is committing to making accommodations for workers that enable them to vote more efficiently. Time to Vote is nonpartisan and there is no cost for companies to join. Companies with employees in every state in the U.S. have signed up. Members include American employers in industries such as retail, technology, finance and more. The coalition originated during the election season of 2018, in which fifty-three percent of the citizen voting-age population voted—ultimately, creating the highest midterm turnout in four decades.
About Centro
Centro (www.centro.net) is a provider of enterprise-class software for digital advertising organizations. Its technology platform, Basis, is the first of its kind SaaS advertising solution unifying programmatic and direct media buying, along with workflow automation, cross-channel campaign planning, universal reporting and business intelligence. It boosts media, team and business performance by enabling advertisers to plan, buy and analyze real-time bidding (RTB), direct, search and social campaigns in a single platform. Headquartered in Chicago with 40 offices in North America, South America and Europe, Centro has received numerous accolades for its commitment to employees and workplace culture.
# # #
| Logical Media Group has been awarded as a Top Digital Marketing Agency for B2B Companies in Illinois by Clutch and our clients! Our mission is to craft an exceptional digital experience for people to transact, connect, and explore. We are a full-service digital marketing agency with specific teams dedicated to online channels such as SEO, PPC, Amazon Marketing Services, Social Media, Web Design, and Email Marketing. Logical partners with companies within all different industries including healthcare, software & technology, real estate, consumer packaged goods, manufacturing, and many more. Clutch is a B2B market research firm and review resource that connects service providers and buyers through data and verified research. Central to their process is client reviews. In this unique process, analysts at Clutch have spoken directly with many of Logical’s clients to learn more about the services that we have provided and the results generated. With an overall 4.9 rating out of 5.0, we have seen strong results from Clutch’s extensive research process. We are thrilled to be recognized as a top search engine marketing service in 2020.“Logical has made a concerted effort to fortify our B2B experience, knowledge, and process for digital marketing over the past few years,” Director of Business Development Matthew Murlas said. “It is very rewarding to be recognized by Clutch for this achievement and also from the great reviews provided by our clients!” Our clients’ participation made this award possible, and we want to thank them for their time and honest feedback. Below is an excerpt from a recent review (which is anonymous based on the Clutch platform), along with a project summary from this client: “Logical Media Group truly is a member of our team, and they have taken the time to understand what drives our business.” As part of our ongoing digital marketing efforts, our team drove brand awareness and increased visits to the client’s physical locations. We also improved their website structure, evaluated backlinks, and provided content as part of an overall SEO and paid search strategy. Thank you to everyone who has contributed to Logical’s success and helped us win this award, particularly our clients who spent the time to provide us this valuable feedback! Check out our Clutch profile page here and please reach out to Logical Media Group for assistance on your digital marketing needs. |
Effort combines best in class use of building security technology with the latest thinking about public health preparedness for COVID-19 and Flu
WASHINGTON, D.C. (Sept. 30, 2020) — Building on its widely recognized KastleSafeSpaces health safety and security platform, Kastle Systems announced today it is partnering with some of the nation’s leading public health and medical institutions to provide safe and efficient returns to the workplace for their tenants and clients in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. Kastle Systems will work with a multidisciplinary team from the George Washington University (GW) to enhance its existing platforms and implement state-of-the-art public health and building technologies to support their clients in achieving this goal.
GW’s multidisciplinary team includes public health experts from Milken Institute School of Public Health, as well as pathology, infectious disease, and emergency medicine specialists from GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences and the GW Medical Faculty Associates.
The partnership will also look at ways that Kastle’s access control and video management technology solutions can be used to help public health officials as they begin implementing health screenings and contact tracing to reduce the spread of COVID-19. Securing more than 41,000 businesses, 3,600 buildings, and 1.3m cardholders, Kastle is the nation’s leading security managed services provider.
“We are pleased to partner with GW and two of the leading schools of public health and medicine in the country,” said Kastle CEO Haniel Lynn. “We both share a common belief that for America to successfully return to the office, we need to work together in unprecedented ways across all stakeholders in the building, from owners and operators, to tenants, to visitors. We look forward to sharing work from our collaboration in real time to help building owners and tenants.”
“We are impressed by Kastle’s commitment to public health. They have already integrated a lot of public health measures into KastleSafeSpaces,” said Gene Migliaccio, DrPH, associate dean for applied public health at Milken Institute School of Public Health at GW. “We look forward to working with Kastle to bring the latest thinking about a safe return to the office to stakeholders all over the country.”
Public health and medical experts recommend that building owners, managers, and operators as well as employers work to create a healthy workplace environment before resuming normal business operations.
“The Covid-19 pandemic necessitates that clinicians, public health specialists, and business leaders innovate and collaborate to find meaningful and actionable solutions to the problems faced by our communities,” said Tenagne Haile-Mariam, MD, assistant professor of emergency medicine at the GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences. “The Kastle-GW collaboration is emblematic of such a collaboration and underscores the commitment of both institutions to craft and implement programs that increase the health and welfare of the communities that they serve. We are honored to be part of such a collaboration.”
###
About Kastle Systems
Kastle Systems has been leading the security industry since 1972 with advanced managed security solutions and services, protecting commercial real estate, multi-family residential, global enterprises, educational institutions, and critical government facilities. Kastle’s state-of-the-art security solutions include access control, video surveillance, visitor management and identity management, as well as a suite of mobile security applications, all integrated on an open, standards-based platform and supported by a team of experts 24x7x365. Headquartered in Falls Church, Virginia, Kastle is on CIO Review’s 2019 List of Top 10 Physical Security Providers. For more information about KastleSafeSpaces or any of the other advanced security innovations from Kastle Systems visit https://www.kastle.com.
Remote work was a hot topic before many of us had no choice but to spend 6+ months working from home. Prior to March 2020, 3.6% of Americans worked from home >50% of the time and 43% worked from home some of the time. Those numbers paled in comparison to the numbers that wanted to (80%) work remotely.
Fast forward six months and plenty of employees are enjoying the freedom and flexibility they get working from home. Things have escalated quickly – dozens of major companies have announced partial or complete remote working policies. And they are aggressively targeting your employees. Especially if your policy is antiquated or ambiguous. HR / Business leaders have some big decisions to make. What are they going to do when we finally can work in the office?
We’ve been getting A LOT of questions about this from clients and job seekers. What should they do? What are other companies doing? So we put together a survey and we’d love your input. It is quick and painless – I promise.
Stay safe, healthy, and continue to wear your masks!
There’s a saying about products and brands on the internet and it goes something like this…if your brand or product isn’t online then it doesn’t exist. This has become even more true as the years have progressed, as the buying age of shoppers has widened, and as a new generation of wealth is up-and-coming. But where are these buyers shopping? More importantly, are your products displayed where they’re looking?
The history of online shopping is rich with change from how websites were built, who hosted them, search engine wars (I think we know who won that), to marketplaces allowing anyone to sell just about anything on a website they don’t even own. These marketplaces aren’t new and examples include Ebay, Amazon, Wayfair, Walmart, etc. They’ve made many millionaires over the years and have become a vital part of most brands and products’ online strategy in terms of marketing, brand awareness, and sales. So let’s talk about strategy and which marketplaces you should be on.
The question we get the most on this marketplace topic is, “Which one should we be on”? It’s an interesting question because it asks which “one” should you be on. The answer is not just one. The answer is, you should be where your customers are searching for your products. Seems obvious, but you don’t see any used cars on Amazon so why try and sell them on there. If you want a marketplace you likely can’t afford to not be on, it’s Amazon. There’s a reason nearly 66% of all product searches start on Amazon according to Emarketer. Amazon has become THE place to find products, read reviews, and compare pricing. Further, according to Episerver, nearly 68% of shoppers use Amazon as a source to compare products found on other websites and/or in retail stores. So, if you had to choose just one marketplace to be on, our answer almost every time is Amazon.
So what does that mean for these other marketplaces, is there even a market for them? The resounding answer is, yes. A recent statistic came out about consumer behavior and where they are shopping. According to consumer research from Tinuiti, 57% of those who buy on Amazon, also shop on Walmart.com. The reverse is a much more staggering statistic…91% of Walmart buyers also shop on Amazon. While Amazon is certainly the 800 pound gorilla, the recent COVID-19 pandemic has showcased other marketplaces and set them up for extreme growth. Now that we know there is a market outside of Amazon, let’s take a look at some of the advantages of being on multiple ecommerce marketplaces.
You’ve heard the phrase, don’t put all your eggs in one basket. A marketplace strategy shouldn’t be any different for your company’s strategy. Picture this, your only selling channel outside of your website is a nationwide retailer that just filed for bankruptcy. Doesn’t sound unlikely, does it. But, thanks to COVID-19, Hertz, JCPenny, Neiman Marcus, Chuck E.Cheese’s, and Pier 1 all filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy. These are just a few of major companies in the US that have filed. Now imagine your only other channel is Amazon and you’ve just been deemed nonessential. This likely means your sales just plummeted because Amazon has deprioritized your products. Unfortunately, this was the reality for a lot of sellers out there. How can one combat this potential risk? Diversification.
Now that we’ve had a chance to review a few of the advantages, let’s take a look at some of the hurdles you may encounter.
If I told you, according to Sellbrite, brands that sell on their own website and at least two other marketplaces sell 156% more than those brands who just sell on their website, would you consider a multi-marketplace strategy? So the question now is, can you afford NOT to be on multiple marketplaces? If you’re going at it alone, our suggestion is start with one, the one you know where your customers are looking for your products or products like yours. Get really good at it, then branch go after another. If you want to tackle more than one because you’re the ambitious type, then go for it! Don’t be afraid to ask for help though. There’s a lot of support systems out there in terms of software, forums, and agencies that can help you navigate these marketplaces.
If you’d like to learn more about which marketplaces you should be on or just have questions about the ones you’re currently on, please let us know by emailing sales@logicalmediagroup.com. We’d be happy to chat and see how we can help.
By: Terri Brax, CEO, Women Tech Founders
Aviva Rosman is co-founder and COO of BallotReady, a startup that helps voters make informed decisions down the ballot. Aviva is also the recipient of the 2017 Midwest Women in Tech Award for Social Impact.
As a pioneer in voter education, Aviva recently spoke with Women Tech Founders to discuss how startup leaders can get involved this election season and what the tech community can do to build a culture of civic engagement for the long term.
Businesses tend to overlook eligibility for R&D tax credits related to technology investment. Much like technology advances and evolves along with your organization, rules and regulations for R&D tax credits continuously change. It’s always worth reviewing your businesses technology investments to determine if anything qualifies under the credit’s current rules.
Here are the basics of the R&D tax credit and what you need to know to get what your organization deserves. Identifying and properly documenting the R&D costs that qualify for the credit is key to successfully claiming and sustaining this tax benefit. Don’t make assumptions about what is or isn’t eligible — take the time to understand the wide array of products, processes, systems, and platforms that could be eligible. You just might save a lot of money!
Download The Hiring Guide: Cybersecurity in Manufacturing
With the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 came a blitz of new and urgent concerns over cybersecurity. Manufacturing’s growing reliance on automation, advanced control systems, and remote work only expands the attack surface for cyber criminals.
MxD’s Hiring Guide addresses a daunting challenge: America must build a new army to protect manufacturers’ intellectual property, factories, and products from cyberattackers that lurk in the shadows, and mutate as readily as any virus.
The Hiring Guide: Cybersecurity in Manufacturing is a playbook for building that urgently needed workforce. It describes 247 job roles; recommends how to train and upskill workers to handle these jobs; and breaks out detailed descriptions for three specific roles crucial to the future of cybersecurity.
The Hiring Guide, developed in partnership with ManpowerGroup, is an indispensable roadmap and must-read for manufacturing executives, HR departments, educators, and policy makers.
Download The Hiring Guide: Cybersecurity in Manufacturing
With the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 came a blitz of new and urgent concerns over cybersecurity. Manufacturing’s growing reliance on automation, advanced control systems, and remote work only expands the attack surface for cyber criminals.
MxD’s Hiring Guide addresses a daunting challenge: America must build a new army to protect manufacturers’ intellectual property, factories, and products from cyberattackers that lurk in the shadows, and mutate as readily as any virus.
The Hiring Guide: Cybersecurity in Manufacturing is a playbook for building that urgently needed workforce. It describes 247 job roles; recommends how to train and upskill workers to handle these jobs; and breaks out detailed descriptions for three specific roles crucial to the future of cybersecurity.
The Hiring Guide, developed in partnership with ManpowerGroup, is an indispensable roadmap and must-read for manufacturing executives, HR departments, educators, and policy makers.
Download The Hiring Guide: Cybersecurity in Manufacturing
With the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 came a blitz of new and urgent concerns over cybersecurity. Manufacturing’s growing reliance on automation, advanced control systems, and remote work only expands the attack surface for cyber criminals.
MxD’s Hiring Guide addresses a daunting challenge: America must build a new army to protect manufacturers’ intellectual property, factories, and products from cyberattackers that lurk in the shadows, and mutate as readily as any virus.
The Hiring Guide: Cybersecurity in Manufacturing is a playbook for building that urgently needed workforce. It describes 247 job roles; recommends how to train and upskill workers to handle these jobs; and breaks out detailed descriptions for three specific roles crucial to the future of cybersecurity.
The Hiring Guide, developed in partnership with ManpowerGroup, is an indispensable roadmap and must-read for manufacturing executives, HR departments, educators, and policy makers.
How did you get started?
Many engineering organizations struggle to integrate security into their SDLC while maintaining development velocity. Carve was created to provide modern security services to customers who want to move beyond penetration testing.
In 2011, that looked a lot different than it does today. Mike, Jeremy, and Max had come through traditional penetration testing companies and saw a clear gap and a way to better serve customers. We started with a couple of core customers in telecom, mobile, and IoT and started delivering services earlier in the development cycle and working directly with the engineering teams.
We’ve grown through referrals and word of mouth. We have a fantastic customer base who have been with us for a long time, and a small number of strong industry partners who share our philosophy on security services and customer service.
What problem do you solve and how do you solve it better than the competition?
Our clients need to know that their products are free of major security flaws, that their own customers’ data is secure, and that they have expertise they can count on to develop and improve the technology supporting their core business.
A traditional approach in this space is based on so-called penetration testing: hiring an outside firm to attack a system prior to (or after!) public release and report all the vulnerabilities. This can have shortcomings, especially because it is relatively expensive to fix flaws late in the product development cycle.
Carve prefers to partner with clients throughout product development, working alongside engineering teams to solve security issues before a line of code is even written. Yes, we will test and assess the finished product, but we will also make it less likely that you will have security flaws in the first place.
Are you headquartered in Chicago? What made you choose Chicago? If you are not headquartered in Chicago, what made you open an office here?
Carve is headquartered in midtown Manhattan, but that doesn’t mean the majority of our team is there. Denver and Chicago are the other cities popular with our consultants (who can be anywhere).
Carve has several clients based in Chicago and the Midwest. Chicago’s deep experience with industry and agriculture, and the technology innovation happening in these sectors, make it a strong fit for Carve’s IoT expertise. We have made a conscious effort to be present and part of the community, and it has now been a home for us for years.
What are the biggest challenges you face as you scale your business?
Consulting scales linearly. But as we gain size, we can specialize in more areas. That has been a real win, with our consultants able to spend their non-billable research time going deep on certain technologies. That translates into one individual being able to support the entire team on engagements when those technologies show up in client systems.
What’s the coolest perk Carve System’s office has?
Maximum flexibility. Carve is a remote-first office, with consultants working across North America. This lets our high-performing technical experts balance their lives as they need to and gives them long periods of deep concentration. In normal times, there’s also plenty of opportunity to travel to client sites across the globe. These are great perks to be able to offer to our experts, and is a reason so many talented folks are working here and not somewhere else.
The whole company also gets together twice a year, often in a retreat setting somewhere on the continent, to socialize, share expertise, and guide the firm.
How has your company culture evolved as Carve has grown?
Cybersecurity has a natural counter-culture element, and that is true at Carve too. But it is paired with pride of craftsmanship – we love that we can use our expertise to help our customers be good stewards for everyone in the digital sphere.
As Carve has grown, we have put systems in place to help us manage projects, communicate effectively, and collaborate. These are necessary as the head count goes up, and we take pride in our management practices, too. That ultimately helps us be effective. The trick for us has been to automate the boring stuff without automatically making Carve boring and stuffy.
How does Carve Systems interact with the Chicago community?
Chicago is home for many of us. We are involved in the local tech ecosystem, including at ITA and the Chicago Connectory. We have attended ThotCon, Chicago’s hacking conference, in recent years, and sponsored high schoolers interested in technology and security there. One of our consultants will be presenting at THOTCON 0xB, whenever the pandemic allows us to gather again. Hopefully in 2021!
What is Carve’s core industry or vertical served?
We joke that our best customers are the ones who actually wanted to hire us! But in reality, that is true – we take great pride in our work and customer service, and our most successful customers are really looking for something more than just checking the box when it comes to security services.
Creative enterprises start with ideas, and those ideas – initially – are brought into the world through founders and entrepreneurs. Unfortunately, one person’s ideas don’t make for growing, sustainable, and agile businesses. Instead, creativity, and the value it brings to organizations, is a team effort. While every individual holds creative potential, that potential depends on an environment and culture built for creative risk taking.
CHICAGO, IL – September 16, 2020 – The National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), have awarded physIQ a contract to develop an AI-based COVID-19 Decompensation Index (CDI) Digital Biomarker to address the rapid decline of high-risk COVID-19 patients. Today, high-risk COVID-19 patients and their providers, are finding out too late that in the disease continuum they are getting sicker and need urgent care. The new early warning system under development could allow providers to intervene sooner when a COVID-19 patient is clinically surveilled from home and begins to worsen. Rather than relying on point measurements, such as temperature and SpO2, that are known to be lagging or insensitive indicators of COVID-19 decompensation, continuous multi-parameter vital signs will be used to establish a targeted biomarker for COVID-19.
“Despite the technological advances and attention paid to COVID-19, the healthcare community is still monitoring patient vitals the very same way as we did in the 1800s,” said Steven Steinhubl MD, Director of Digital Medicine at Scripps Translational Science Institute (STSI) and a physIQ advisor. “With the advances in digital technology, AI and wearable biosensors, we can deliver personalized medicine remotely giving caregivers new tools to proactively address this pandemic. For that reason alone, this decision by the NIH has the potential to have a monumental impact on our healthcare system and how we manage COVID-19 patients.”
PhysIQ will develop and validate a CDI algorithm that builds off existing wearable biosensor-derived analytics generated by physIQ’s pinpointIQTM end-to-end cloud platform for continuous monitoring of physiology. The data will be gathered through a clinical study of COVID-19 positive patients in collaboration with University of Illinois Hospital and Health Sciences System (UI Health) and build upon work already in-place for monitoring COVID-19 patients convalescing at home.
For patients who participate in the program, physiological data will be collected before and after their admission to the hospital. “Since March, when the COVID-19 pandemic began, UI Health has been at the forefront of clinical research, patient care and community-based efforts to support the Chicago community. Working with physIQ is an opportunity for us to study and adapt new technology and potentially improve patient care and make a difference among the many vulnerable patients we serve, many of whom are experiencing COVID-19 disparities in their communities,” stated UI Health Chief Medical Officer, Terry Vanden Hoek MD.
In the development phase of this project, physIQ and its clinical partner will monitor participants who are confirmed COVID-19 positive, whether recovering at home or following a discharge from the hospital. During the validation phase, physIQ will evaluate lead time to event statistics, decompensation severity assessments, and the ability for CDI to predict decompensation severity. “The application of the CDI may provide a universal indicator of decompensation,” said Karen Larimer PhD, ACNP-BC, study PI and physIQ’s Director of Clinical Development. “Application of this technology could detect COVID-19 decompensation and prevent hospitalization or morbidity events in both scenarios.”
The study is designed to capture data from a large, diverse population to investigate CDI performance differences among subgroups based on sex/gender and racial/ethnic characteristics. This project will not only enable the development and validation of the CDI, it will also collect rich clinical data correlative with outcomes and symptomology related to COVID-19 infection.
“We are honored to have been selected by the NIH to pursue such a worthy cause in such challenging times,” said Gary Conkright, CEO of physIQ. “This is a culmination of many years spent in the pursuit of developing a clinical grade product to address serious medical conditions, without taking shortcuts, that has the ability to monitor the most complicated machine in the world, the human body.”
This index will build on physIQ’s prior FDA-cleared, AI-based multivariate change index (MCI) that has amassed more than 1.5 million hours of physiologic data, supporting development of this targeted digital biomarker for COVID-19. This will enable new research and further insight into using digital health to advance the public health response.
This project has been funded in whole or in part with Federal funds under Contract No. 75N91020C00040 as a component of the Congressionally supported response to COVID-19 from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering and the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services.
###
In a year of constant change, CSC Corptax, the leading corporate income tax solution provider, successfully met the challenge of delivering customer product training without connecting in person. To remedy the restrictions of the global pandemic, CSC Corptax employees created a distance-learning program to replace the in-person training customers relied on for years.
The“Corptax Compliance Series” wasn’t an ordinary training program. It was a two-day virtual event, featuring 17 distinct one-hour training sessions. The company’s first-ever attempt at a large-scale, multi-session virtual training event attracted more than 3,400 attendees. The successful program was planned and executed in just two weeks. How did all this come together?
“We pulled together as a team to help prepare our customers for the upcoming compliance season. It entailed a subset of our virtual training, along with a roadmap to support our customers while they worked remotely,” said Angela Warren, senior technical trainer with CSC Corptax.
The entire education services team contributed to the project. “It wasn’t just the training coordinators and the trainers; it included the technical writers and multimedia specialists as well,” says Christina Hulett, senior training coordinator. “We also worked with staff on the support, professional services, and marketing teams to ensure the series flowed. The executive team were major advocates as well.”
“The summer is an important training time for tax professionals because they file their tax returns later in the year,” says Christina. “Typically, we host many in-person training sessions to complement our regular online training, but that wasn’t possible due to the pandemic.”
Having everyone focus on the same goal was the key to success. “Our teams realized we couldn’t have in-person engagements,” stated Christina. “We were all on the same page and understood we needed to deliver training as soon as possible.” From production to presentation, team members also took on roles outside their normal work scope to create the series.
With expectations for the program set high internally, the results spoke for themselves. “To average more than 200 people per live session was amazing,” says Jamey Heim, manager of CSC Corptax education services. “At times we had three concurrent sessions, reaching more than 600 people simultaneously.” The team discovered that virtual events breakdown attendance barriers associated with in-person events, such as travel, lodging, and cost. The virtual event platform also enabled the CSC Corptax team to track thousands of data points, allowing them to respond to customers more proactively and gain insight for upcoming virtual events. It’s an experiment worth repeating.
“Teamwork was key to all of this,” said Angela. “We had people with great attitudes who were willing to make this happen, so it didn’t even feel like work. At times, you miss the camaraderie working virtually. Even though we weren’t physically there together as a team, I felt the commitment and that made a big difference.”
Customers are relying on a company’s ability to understand their situation and adapt to the current environment. As we’re likely to see virtual events be the norm for quite a while, it’s important to have an effective strategy in place. From road mapping and planning, to creation and execution, CSC Corptax learned it takes a coordinated team with a common goal to make it a success.
Guest Author: Lewis Lee, CEO, Aon’s IP Solutions
[Read more…] about Intellectual Property: A Top Priority During Uncertain Times
Chicago, IL, September 10, 2020 — Steadfast, a leader for over 20 years in complex cloud consulting, engineering and managed hosting, is proud to announce a new partnership with Convesio – the first self-healing, autoscaling, platform-as-a-service for creating and managing WordPress sites. This exciting venture sets a path for a seamless and stress-free experience for businesses that want to move to a more friendly development and performance driven WordPress.
Steadfast and Convesio’s New Partnership Paves the Way for Businesses to Quickly Design and Deploy Exceptional Websites with Dynamic Increase in Network Performance.
This recipe of Convesio’s WordPress expertise and Steadfast’s world-class hosting services offers businesses a worry-free WordPress experience as these two exceptional providers bring a full circle of technical savvy to the table. This partnership expels service gaps most companies experience, having to spend time and money researching and navigating a wide array of hosting and web development services to simply set up an efficient website. This partnership solves uncertainty and weight of searching for fast and reliable WordPress/hosting, re-directing that energy to focus on growing their business.
“We were pleasantly surprised when we connected with Steadfast and discovered the amazing speed and reliability nested in their infrastructure and network. Establishing speeds from 30% – 60% faster than ‘Big Box’ providers is astounding.” – Tom Fanelli, Convesio CEO/Founder
The Simple and Stress-Free Difference with Steadfast and Convesio
“Steadfast was established over 20 years ago on the foundation of helping companies build websites and then providing a high performing hosting service to ensure continuity and personal support. This venture feels like ‘home’ as we are once again weaving complete website development services back into our foundation with Convesio’s WordPress expertise.” – Tim Monner, Steadfast Vice President of Marketing and Business Development
About Steadfast
We make IT work, so you can take care of business. Specialists in Cloud Consulting, Engineering and Hosting for over 20 years, offering customized services at all stages of design and deployment to maintenance and expansion planning. As an extension of your team, Steadfast’s goal is to ease technology constraints, making your life easier so you can Strengthen Your Focus on your core business. www.steadfast.net
About Convesio
Convesio is the first self-healing, autoscaling, platform-as-a-service for creating and managing WordPress websites. www.convesio.com. Start a free trial today at https://account.convesio.com/.
Contact Information:
Steadfast
Tim Monner
312-602-2689 ext. 240
www.steadfast.net
Read the full story here: Steadfast Joins Forces with Convesio, Helping Provide 30% – 60% Increase in WordPress Platform Speed and Performance
Press Release Distributed by PR.com
Blockchain is a paradox. The technology made famous by bitcoin has simultaneously boundless disruptive potential and boisterous skeptics. Like most things, the truth is likely somewhere in the middle. As a startup founder, the question that really matters to you is often left unanswered – what can you really do with blockchain today?
[Read more…] about Guest Blog: Blockchain for Startups – Two Paths to Adoption