The Security Guardian
From his time as an athlete and as a member of the US Military, Robert Hessel learned the most valuable lessons of life which he would go on to incorporate in his entrepreneurial journey. Robert went on to build Source 1 Solutions an industry-leading global IT service provider and has been hailed as a guardian-angel for companies worldwide.“Athletics taught me about the values of sacrifice, drive, and competitive spirit which are needed in business. Whereas,the US Military is arguably one of the most wel oiled machines on the planet,” says the steadfast leader. “The code of conduct, chain of command, and teamwork that is dedicated in relentless pursuit of the team mission are the same values and beliefs that need to be implemented to grow and lead a successful organization.”

Today, as the President & CEO of Source 1 Solutions, he has implemented these principals and taken the organization to new levels of success in both profitability and job creation. Source 1 Solutions is an industry-leading global IT service provider with a technical network spanning across 110+ countries. Part of Source 1 Solutions core offering is designed around expanding their customer’s technical capabilities and geographic reach. The team at Source 1 Solutions is expected to take ownership of tasks, follow the decision making process of the organization, and regularly encouraged to make decisions. “Making the wrong decision and understanding why it was wrong and learning from it to avoid the same mistake in the future is much better than not making a decision. This ideology is a big part of Source 1 Solutions culture and why we have continued to grow and be successful,” says Robert.

” Athletics taught me about the values of sacrifice, drive, and competitive spirit which are needed in business. Whereas,the US Military is arguably one of the most wel oiled machines on the planet.”

By partnering with truly great companies and taking the lead, Source 1 Solutions shows their customers what the right solutions are, even if it means having hard conversations. Source 1 Solutions specializes in supplychain management, unified communications, data networking, WiFi + data centers, electronic security and network security solutions. Their skilled pool of field service engineers are from local regions, speak native languages and truly understand the cultures of thei rspecific regions. While collaborating with their high-level, Tier 3 engineers in Source 1 Solutions’ 24×7 network operation center, their specialist providers deliver complex implementation solutions, third-party maintenance offerings and a fully managed services offering with a focus on security.

In order to enhance organizational capabilities Robert makes it a point to every day get out of the office and create distance between him and the company. The reason being he wants his team to come up with solutions and answers to problems on their ownrather than relying on him to provide answers to questions that they probably already know. According to Robert, one of the biggest challenges that CEO’s face especially in rapidly growing companies is their team constantly coming to them to ask questions that they probably already know the answer to. “I think there are probably two reasons this happens, the first being they want to be engaged with the boss and running things buy me is a good way to do that. Secondly it can tend to be easier to just ask the question than to have to have the accountability of making the ‘call’ on something,” explains Robert. “I think trust should be given not earned and pulled back only if the person you have entrusted is not using good decision making processes. As Steve Jobs is famous for saying – I don’t hire really smart people to work here so I can tell them what to do. I hire really smart people to come here and tell me what we should do.”

Creating a Differene
Rather than beginning with a keen focus on what services Source 1 Solutionshave to solve the clients problems, the company concentrates on whattheir clients problems truly are knowing that they may not be able to solve them all internally. “What this allows us to do is determine what resources we have in our global network that we can acquire to become more agile and provide better service for our customers,” adds Robert. “This also creates a unique side effect where we can scale and grow much more rapidly than a business that just assumes naturally that they are the ones that need to provide the service.”

There are two distinct differentiators in Source 1 Solutions’ strategy that are solving the clients growing challenges in the market space. First and foremost, the decommoditized 24x7x365 Global Technical Support Center; all calls are answered by level 1 engineers based in the United States, rather than outsourcing IT issues to a third party. Secondly, Source 1 Solutions only provides services; they are not driven by selling “more equipment” which tends to make their competitors more focused on meeting OEM’s volume commitments for hardware sales, rather than the clients desire to extend the life of their current technology assets.

According to the steadfast leader, Source 1 Solutions is different from the rest because they are one of the few companies that refer potential customers to their competition when they are not in their target. “All too often, companies desperate to make a sale accept any client even if the solution is not their specialty. We learned long ago that to be the best possible service provider we could be, we needed to understand who our customers are and, even more importantly, who they are not,” explains Robert. “If a potential customer does not fall into our area of expertise, we can still help them by referring them to a more suitable service provider that can provide them the actual support they need.” Robert says another reason to do this is it is one of the ways to face market competition. Source 1 Solutions is always looking for Merger and Acquisition opportunities to gain more marketshare and eliminate the competition.

Source 1 Solutions’ comprehensive approach allows the company to protect, secure and monitor customers business to safeguard what is important. Source 1 Solutions’ understands complex technology networks, how they work across multi-location platforms and pay careful attention to ensure the right person is assigned to the right job, everytime.

In an instance, one of Source 1 Solutions’ large System Integration clients was faced with a Wireless Networking project that was spread across 22 countries with just short of two months to start and complete the project. The challenge they were faced with was having resources with the necessary skill set in all of those countries to deliver the service. The other challenge they were faced with was getting complex reports done and back to them in a consistent format to minimize the amount of time it would take their team to analyze and build out their solution. Source 1 was able to use their local teams in the 22 countries with the required software to perform the necessary on-site data collection. Those on-site activities and report collections were overseen by Source 1 Solutions’ regional project management teams to ensure all required on-site activities were taking place and upon completion collect the raw data from the on-site engineers. That raw data was then submitted into Source 1 Solutions’ Mobility Engineers for analysis to create consistent reports across all 22 to countries so the client could easily review and create the solution and presentation back to their client. “We were able to complete the project in just over 6 weeks,” adds Robert.

Building the Perfect Company
For Robert, any organization that wants to grow should know what or who is important for the firm. He thinks one thing that limits CEOs is hiring key people by their budget ability. “During our growth, all key members of the management team or senior team were outside of our budget. But, we found that hiring the best person for a position, based on their merit and ability to do the job rather than based upon our budget, will benefit our company in the long run,” explains Robert.

The committed and staunch leader also thinks that the best things he has learned through having great mentorship was the importance of working on vital functions of the business and not functional tasks of the business. “I consciously fire myself from functional tasks, and encourage our management to do the same on tasks that are functional and not vital to their particular role. The only way to grow and meet the demands of the business are to continually evaluate yourself and make sure you stay focused only on doing the tasks that you are uniquely qualified to perform,” says Robert. “All other tasks must be delegated to the team to allow time for working on the business and not in the business.”

Robert has built a culture among the team at Source 1 Solutions where they are expected to take ownership of tasks, follow the decision making process of the organization, and encourage everyone to make decisions. “Making the wrong decision and understanding why it was wrong and learning from it to avoid the same mistake in the future is much better than not making a decision. This ideology is a big part of Source 1 Solution’s culture and why we have continued to grow and be successful,” adds Robert.

As with most technology, the telecom industry is continually changing. MPLS and VPNs have been the technology to rely on in the network connectivity industry—that is slowly fading out. The two common mistakes that network providers make are deploying Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLs) that utilize Layer 3 Technology or Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) that traverse the public Internet opening their clients up to security breaches. Massive Networks eliminates this by delivering One Pipe Multi-Connect—a built-in state of the art technology that is provided through a Layer 2 platform taking business-critical data off the public Internet. Massive Networks has been designing, procuring, building, and managing networks for twenty years as a company. “Our relationships with the major providers are invaluable, but what makes us unique is the number of interconnects we have done with local and regional vendors,” says Paul Mako, CEO and Kevin Flake, COO of Massive Networks who bring a refreshing approach to the telecom industry, with their seasoned experience.

According to Mako, high-cost MPLS or security vulnerabilities with VPNs tend to take up a majority of a departments budget, regarding Network connectivity. “This isn’t the case with our solution at Massive Networks. In fact, on average, we’re about 30% cheaper than a traditional MPLS Network. Additionally, the private line connectivity offers the added security any medium to large business should be concerned with,” he explains. Massive One Pipe Multi-Connect Solution can penetrate existing infrastructure and merge multiple and dynamic streams of data through a single pipe. This approach provides clients with superior performance from bandwidth-intensive services like voice, data, web services, video, and backups. Massive Networks offers various services; each one can be actively bolted on at any time, regardless of what the client is currently utilizing.

” Our relationships with the major providers are invaluable, but what makes us unique is the number of interconnects we have done with local and regional vendors “

Massive Network’s success is attributed to having a superior IP network and core infrastructure that is redundant across multiple Networks, multiple ISPs, and fiber providers. As an example, Massive Networks can deliver multiple network solutions on various fiber providers in a single building. With Massive’s proprietary one port, many connections” technology a company can benefit from faster speeds, less latency, better security, as well as save money in the process. In an instance, one of the company’s renowned client’s VOIP and Video Conferencing systems suffered from dropped calls, low call quality, echoes, hissing and gaps in conversation caused by ISP performance problems. Massive Network’s private 10 Gig backbone can enable office to office VOIP connectivity, dedicated LAN solely to VOIP and Video Conferencing traffic, while the external callers benefited from the Premium Blended Internet optimizing VOIP paths through the routed Internet.

Massive Network’s primary goal is to increase their penetration of fiber lit-buildings from 2 million to 5 million. Additionally, Massive Networks would like to expand its Cloud Marketplace reach within the private and hybrid cloud sectors from 6+ providers to one hundred. Massive Networks stands apart from the crowd through its unique technology offerings.There aren’t too many companies offering what Massive Network provides. “We can navigate through the competitive arena by offering all, if not more, of the services. Instead of having to manage multiple vendors, we make it easy for IT Managers, Directors, and administrators to work with by offering everything. It’s a no-brainer, really!” concludes Flake.

Massive Networks

Management

Paul Mako,
CEO

Description

Massive Networks provides one pipe multi-connect solution, premium-blended-internet-connect, megalan-gigalan-connect, cloud-exchange-connect, data-center-direct-connect, private-network-transport, voip-connect, saas-connect, peering-exchange-connect and cloud-backup-service.

Today leading Executives are looking for a solution that can offer visibility of global supply chains in real-time. To provide live and real-time visibility of inbound and outbound shipments takes a powerful system architecture and robust carrier integration platform, previously not possible without new technology options. Legacy providers in the transportation industry are unable to provide true visibility of supply chain events real time. SwanLeap—a transportation management system (TMS) shipping technology company and freight and parcel audit provider—developed a real-time, cloud based in both Amazon Web Services which monitors live analytics across all shipments including parcel, freight, and ocean containers.

“Our company was originally founded as a consulting company who focused on cost reduction strategies in freight and parcel shipments,” explains Brad Hollister, CEO of SwanLeap. Since then we have evolved to providing companies real-time tools to monitor exceptions as they occur in real time. Today, SwanLeap has gained momentum in the market and has been awarded the 55th fastest growing company on the Inc. 5000 list for 2017. “This is a big milestone for us since we have had a sole purpose of transforming the global transportation industry through our next generation solution,” adds Hollister.

SwanLeap has focused on delivering an all encompassing technology solution across all modes of transportation, utilizing the latest technology to ensure optimal performance. On the one hand, other technology firms in this space have legacy infrastructure which inhibits their ability be agile and responsive to each supply chain’s needs—SwanLeap’s commitment to both their clients success and enhancing their own standards is what sets the company apart from other shipping industry consulting or technology firms. “We follow a set of core rules: We represent our capabilities honestly. We protect confidentiality of client information. We do not misrepresent our purposes in seeking information. We only make promises we can keep. We consider our actions carefully, asking whether we can defend them openly today and in the future,” explains Hollister.

” We follow a set of core rules: We represent our capabilities honestly. We protect confidentiality of client information. We do not misrepresent our purposes in seeking information. We only make promises we can keep. We consider our actions carefully, asking whether we can defend them openly today and in the future. “

Next Generation TMS Technology

SwanLeap positions itself as a sole provider of a complete range of TMS Technology Cloud Web Integration SaaS customized shipping solutions, including: parcel auditing and freight auditing of shipping processes (including billing, pricing, and management); renegotiation of freight and parcel carrier shipping rate contracts; and a Transportation Management System (TMS) that operates in all three primary shipping modes (Parcel, LTL freight and Truckload freight), and includes freight optimization, inbound/dispatch, and accounting and auditing software. SwanLeap helps clients leverage their shipping volume, resources, and relationships with all carriers.

SwanLeap provides vendor portal for routing and control of inbound freight shipments, as well as dynamic decision making of outbound shipments to determine mode (parcel, freight, etc.), carrier, service, and ability to combine shipments for further cost savings efficiencies. The SwanLeap TMS system has ability to learn by leveraging Artificial Intelligence to ensure that the customer’s can provide better service to their clients and better manage vendors to ensure compliance with best practices.

“Many legacy technologies were created in the 1990’s with a rule-based infrastructure and static decision making. An example of this limited logic would be ‘Everything going to Florida ship via ABC Trucking Company’. Today’s technology should provide more dynamic decision making based on the shipment’s preference of lower price, better service, or faster transit time,” adds Hollister. Hundreds of other criteria should be considered such as whether an order can wait for another order as in a standard stock replenishment order, or whether a shipment should be shipped as a multi-stop truckload. The transportation industry is plagued by rule-based logic as the best practices, and SwanLeap is disrupting the industry by introducing dynamic (automated) decision making with live analytics to closely monitor supply chain performance. SwanLeap is redefining TMS Functionality.

SwanLeap’s proprietary cloud based platform allows a level of global control which is impossible with legacy and on-premise solutions. Simply put Fortune 50 companies who spend millions of dollars on legacy systems cannot get the analytics in real time that only the cloud provides. SwanLeap performs a tremendous amount of processing of data points for even the simplest transactions to ensure the optimal method of delivery was selected consistent with the customer’s expectations and for the best price.

The company was selected as the TMS of choice for North American Business units of a publicly traded multi-national. Tier One TMS solutions costing millions of dollars presented a roll out to 60 locations in 30 months. The world’s largest logistics company planned an 18 month roll-out. The power of the cloud and easy-to-use interface, allowed SwanLeap to deploy a full integration at 60 locations in 60 days. The timeline was aggressive but SwanLeap team rose to the challenge, streamlined the project plan and executed the rollout for our customer who was under a tight timeline due to multiple fragmented solutions which were not performing.

Surging Ahead towards the Future

From a competitive landscape in transportation technology, Hollister feels the market is wide open. “We know our competitors well and we know how limited their capabilities are. SwanLeap is the only company which truly is in the cloud despite many claims that limit a customer’s understanding of SaaS as being in the cloud,” adds Hollister. The steadfast CEO also sees major opportunity for SwanLeap in international growth as numerous multi-nationals have expanded to other continents and the costs of deploying a solution to remote regions being higher than domestically, while shipping volumes in each region tend to be lower. This correlation of lower transportation spends in global regions fits well for the flexibility of cutting edge technology hosted in the cloud. An example is a major electronics manufacturer may spend 1/10th of the transportation costs in another country that they do in the U.S. and will lean toward a flexible cloud based technology which can be deployed quickly for a fraction of the cost and maintenance a legacy, on-premise solution would require.

Imbibed with unique methodologies and techniques, SwanLeap aims towards transforming the future of supply chain by becoming a distinctive technology provider offering real-time auditing (and settlement) of freight invoices. And, integrating with ERP systems to automate decision making, monitor in real-time, and providing live analytics is powerful. The company is following a out-of-the-box approach by putting these tools along with reviewing the provider’s invoice (parcel, freight, or ocean) that can ensure the decisions at the dock level is consistent with what is hitting the bottom line of the company. Auditing along with shipment execution is vital to ensure service levels are optimized and freight costs minimized which SwanLeap is putting forth for the customers.

Creating the Difference

Hollister believes that the biggest secret of SwanLeap’s success is the people. “Most of our employees have very little experience in transportation when they come to SwanLeap. We’ve created an amazing culture where innovation is encouraged and a dedication to customers like no other company in our space,” he adds. Employees at SwanLeap are focused on the company’s mission: to bring clarity and control to all shipments. The move and expansion of SwanLeap represents its strengths and the work it puts into supplying the best shipping services and TMS software the industry has to offer.SwanLeap has grown nearly 6000 percent in 36 months by white labeling their technology to other transportation technology firms. Many technology companies have reached out to ensure they can remain competitive in the market by offering technology solutions in areas which are not in their core offering. SwanLeap has grown to 50 employees in Madison, WI and is currently planning global expansion with local support in several other global markets. “This latest office relocation is our third move in twenty four months. Growth of 2210 percent in year over year revenue is not an easy thing to accommodate,” says Hollister. SwanLeap is creating new departments and expanding current ones to facilitate theaddition of new employees and clients alike. SwanLeap is committed to creating value for their clients that returns many multiples on their investment. They have set their standard for value creation extremely high, requiring their work to deliver insight and help change the mindset of the clients.

Fran Pierce is Chairman and CEO of Data Systems Analysts, Inc. (DSA), an innovative technology and information management services company that has been providing solutions to federal and state governments and commercial firms for more than 55 years. Fran believes in corporately giving back by volunteering in local communities, creating diversity and inclusion in the workplace, mentoring, and participating in educational organizations. She serves on the board of the International Eye Foundation, a non-profit organization that supports the prevention of blindness and restoration of sight in the developing world. She has been a mentor to young women through her involvement in the Women in Northern Virginia (WIN) group of the Armed Forces Communication and Electronics Association, which offers networking opportunities for career advancement.

” To meet the demands associated with dynamic technological change and serious threats to the peace and security of our Nation, DSA is refining and enhancing its offerings to incorporate innovative technologies and practices. We are also hiring and developing employees with the education, technical knowledge and interpersonal skills to deliver excellence for our customers. “

Fran assumed her role as DSA’s President and CEO in 1991, when the company was struggling to overcome an industry-wide downturn. Over the course of the next 27 years, Fran exhibited tenacious leadership, restructuring the company to broaden its service offerings, expanding its presence in key markets, extending its operations within the US and overseas, growing its employees, and greatly increasing its revenue and profit. In this way, she reversed the course of an organization in decline and led it to reemerge as a thriving business. During this period of dynamic change, Fran learned much about leading in times of crisis, overcoming adversity and building an effective management team capable of navigating the diverse challenges to achieve excellence.

DSA’s core offerings are Cloud, Intelligent Analytics, Digital Modernization and Cyber Security. The company offers customers highly secure, low-risk, cost-effective solutions to mission critical problems. DSA developed the first secure DoD-wide enterprise social business solution, milSuite (milWiki, a knowledge management tool; milBook, a central hub for networking professionals, similar to Facebook and LinkedIn, which enables collaboration on products, constituent polling and information sharing between project partners; milTube, a platform for capturing videos created internal to DoD; and milWire, a means to share and comment on existing content through short microblog-style submissions) currently supporting over one-million users and providing the capacity to scale to support up to four-million users worldwide. DSA works with its customers in identifying advanced technology and innovative approaches to meet their needs. According to Fran, “We are continually refining and enhancing our offerings to address emerging threats and to incorporate new technological advances and business process re-engineering practices to meet the needs of our current and prospective customers.”

In one instance, for example, the Department of Defense (DoD) identified the need to connect soldiers, civilians and contractors dispersed throughout the world and to enhance their ability to accomplish their missions through the application of collaborative tools and processes. DSA recognized that an open collaboration platform with strong knowledge management potential would benefit the entire DoD. There was a critical need to introduce more agile systems that adhered to the principles of the social web and that were similar to those that military personnel were already using in their personal lives. In this context, DSA proposed and implemented a suite of tools modeled after public social media tools, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Wikipedia, Tumblr and YouTube, and which were secured behind the DoD firewall.

Under Fran’s leadership, DSA is continuing to achieve success through a combination of organic growth and mergers & acquisitions. In the case of organic growth, DSA is investing greatly in infrastructure and business development. Fran’s vision requires that DSA continue winning and capitalizing on indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract vehicles and associated task orders that position the company to win new work as a prime contractor. It also requires DSA to continue its role as an integrator of technical solutions to satisfy customers’ complex requirements. In this context, her vision drives DSA’s investment in refining, modifying, and creating new offerings that incorporate emerging and innovative technologies and practices. Fran’s vision also calls for DSA to continue its investment in attracting and sustaining a highly skilled workforce and offering them opportunities for professional growth. With the support of DSA’s highly effective leadership team and skilled professional staff, Fran aims over the next five years to continue to enhance DSA’s offerings in Cloud, Intelligent Analytics, Digital Modernization and Cybersecurity. She also is focusing on doubling DSA’s current size of 400 employees and on expanding its geographical footprint comprising eight regional offices to include new sites that will more effectively support its current and growing list of new customers.

“It makes such a difference to know that Technology Training Associates is in partnership with us, which will in turn help us utilize this powerful tool to its fullest capacity. I look forward to working closely with you and your team in the coming months as our club continues to enhance its software needs,” this is one of the numerous client testimonials that can vouch for Technology Training Associates. The company has been providing advanced solutions to the member-centric golf, hospitality, resort and amenity residential properties for over two decades. This includes, but not limited to; software, hardware, supplies and professional services.

The company offers hands-on training in the leading software–Jonas Club Management–a Constellation Software company. Jonas was first to market and continues to dominate the industry by constantly improving the software to meet any client’s needs. Along with their “Software for Life” philosophy which ensures end users will never fall behind the curve, Jonas Club Management is the gold standard in the member-centric/club industry. Combine the best software with Technology Training Associates’ best in business hardware partners; Microsoft, Dell, Epson, Zebra, Datalogic and other premier manufacturers.

” when you are satisfied with your current or past success you can become complacent. That is not Technology Training Associates. We are continually evolving; improving our resources, our technology infrastructure and our ability to deliver the highest level of service to our clients.”

Jonas Club Management is the go-to solution for a wide range of member-centric businesses; golf & country clubs, city clubs, yacht clubs, tennis & health clubs, hunt clubs, and homeowner/property owner associations with amenities. Technology Training Associates’ have two distinct platforms and hundreds of modules to choose from and also offers specialized hardware, supplies, professional services to support the entire system so everyone wins. Because technology is always moving forward, Technology Training Associates’ job is to be there for the clients every step of the way, including pre-implementation analysis, project planning, data transfer, remote and on-site configuration and training to going live on the new system.

Technology Training Associates has a complete team of professionals to assist both prospective and existing clients with their technology needs. The company’s VP of Sales, Jodda Perry, takes the lead on new opportunities and their VP of Client Solutions, Mike Dowell, leads the team for existing clients supported by numerous others on the marketing and sales front. Together the team conducts a complete assessment of potential and existing clients current & future needs. “Technology Training Associates were proficient and extremely knowledgeable regarding the specific products and how they could be customized to our situation. They came across as genuinely caring about what we wanted and more importantly needed,” says another prominent client of the company. We lead the industry because of seasoned veteran team members such as Janet Taylor, who is CPA certified and Director of Training, and Richard Kaufmann who is the Director of Operations.

For Technology Training Associates 2018 has been a banner year for adding new clients and developing resources as well as improving internal infrastructure. In addition to their solid core product offerings, Technology Training Associates is heavily involved in all types of complimentary products & services, including; credit card processing, virtual payments, cash/gift cards, and of course our clients’ online presence through Jonas Clubhouse Online and MembersFirst web sites. Technology Training Associates welcomes competition, according to the company management, “when you are satisfied with your current or past success you can become complacent. That is not Technology Training Associates. We are continually evolving; improving our resources, our technology infrastructure and our ability to deliver the highest level of service to our clients.”

For the road ahead, Technology Training Associates is concentrating on mobility and security, which are the big trends now and in the future. The company is working closely with clients to make sure they understand the requirements of going mobile and the absolute need for securing their data and access to their network. The company can go WiFi or 4/5G depending on the needs of the client and even have had clients connecting from the Caribbean through satellite connectivity. The company looks forward to enhancing its products and services for clients worldwide on a consistent basis.

TTA

Management

Mike Higgins
President

Description

Technology Training Associates provides certified jonas training, custom cash card and supplies hardware to be compatible with jonas software.

Ohio based Qwickly was started around a single plugin for the Blackboard LearnLearning Management System; this plugin allowed instructors to take actions across multiple courses in a single step, without visiting each course site. Today, Qwickly has changed the paradigm of how users interact with Blackboard.”Most learning management systems are course-centric and require a user to go into a course to complete a task, like posting an announcement to students,” says John DiGennaro, CEO and Co-Founder of Qwickly.The company’s multi-course module turns this paradigm upside down and makes Blackboard user-centric, allowing instructors to complete critical yet time consuming tasks to be across multiple courses in a single action, making the learningmanagement system more efficient and allowing instructors to get back to the real goal: teaching.

The company is solving numerous education challenges like collecting accurate course attendance data and processing that data for retention or compliance all the while filling gaps in the present learning management systems. Founded in 2013, Qwickly, an educational software company that specializes in user experience enhancements to learning management systems has created numerous revolutionary products that are changing the way educational institutes work.

Qwickly allows instructors to select documents stored in Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, Dropbox and Box and push them out to students for course work. In fact, these documents can be shared with multiple courses using the Qwickly multi-course module, saving time for the instructors. In addition, Qwickly allows linking out to documents stored in these cloud storage services, so large files like video and other multimedia files don’t take up large amounts of storage on the learning management server. This also enables students to contribute to documents stored in the cloud, creating instructor-to-student and student-to-student collaborative document workflows. Finally, Qwickly’s solutions also allow students to submit documents stored in these cloud services as assignments in Blackboard Learn.

” Most learning management systems are course-centric and require a user to go into a course to complete a task, like posting an announcement to students. “

There are three difference integration points for these file selections: the Qwickly multi-course course tool, allowing instructors to share files to multiple courses at once; a course tool, allowing instructors to enter a course and deploy a file in any content area or folder in the course; a Blackboard Mashup tool, which allows instructors and students to create links to documents in cloud storage in any of the text editors within Blackboard. One of the over-arching examples of how Qwickly + Cloud has benefited clients is in the K-12 sector, where many schools moved to Google Apps, and specifically using Google Drive and Google Docs to store and edit documents and wanted to have direct access to these files in their learning management system: Blackboard Learn.

Recently, Qwickly announced two additions to its offerings in the attendance space: Qwickly Attendance+ and Qwickly Attendance Pro. These product lines are currently being developed and will be available in early 2018. The company is also working on a slew of updates to Qwickly Jot to add more power and features for instructors and students alike. Their aim is to provide teachers a way to see how their students are thinking as they complete assignments and provide meaningful feedback. “We aim to accomplish both of these goals in updates coming to the product for the 2018-19 school year. Also our second user event, Qwickly Seminar 2018 will allow administrators, instructional designs, and faculty a chance to see live sessions with our products, discover how other schools are using our solutions, and get a peak at what’s coming for the next school year,” adds DiGennaro.

Qwickly, Inc.

Management

John DiGennaro
Co-founder & CEO

Description

Qwickly is a user-centric platform for Blackboard which provides access to connect students together, facilitating group interaction through modules or course tools.

Employees are embracing technology as a way to make their lives easier, connect with others, and enhance their health and well being. Healthper, a health engagement and achievement platform is a pioneer having developed wellness programs encouraging members to assess, educate, track and ultimately drive positive change. Healthper provides a turnkey health & wellness solution that is tailored to the unique needs of an employer or a plan sponsor population. With a comprehensive approach and a variety of well-being tools, members can stay healthier or manage their pre-existing condition.

” Healthper’s goal is to drive maximum engagement to deliver the true outcome for their clients by engaging their members and making them healthier. “

Most wellness solutions take a one size fit all approach and create a unique app or point solution. They typically have limited integration/configuration capabilities and are difficult to scale across a broad population. Healthper has built the technology platform that has over 300 types of activities that can be targeted to specific population segments, individual profiles or specific individuals. These include assessments, trackers, company-wide challenges, personalized challenges, educational content, verified and self-reported activities and much more. With the rich platform capability new activities are added periodically to sustain engagement year over year. There are about 250 data points that are collected about an individual to create hyper personalization. Healthper uses its proprietary technology platform to create and manage its client’s wellness program. The use of the platform allows addressing the different demographics and wellness needs of a sponsor’s population. The company works with clients to choose a program configuration that addresses their needs and allow that to be customized as program unfolds over the years. The similicity of design with an enhanced onboarding experience has attained 100% participation in certain client populations.

Healthper’s platform allows the collaboration of population management with wellness. The population can be segment into groups or sub groups based on location, age, gender, employee, spouse, health condition. Each segment can have specific activities, communications and rewards associated with that segment. Furthermore, each activity can be filtered for a specific individual based on the individual data points. This provides endless configuration of wellness programming tailored to the unique needs of a population. Healthper architects a customized wellness program for a population that is supported by hyperbolic incentive model.

Healthper has simplified the product packaging for its Enterprise employer clients, Enterprise Wellness Basic — highly simplified and value-priced solution and Enterprise Wellness Complete — standard and full-featured solution with added-value options. The turnkey solution includes the capability to customize branding, program activities like health assessment, education, tracking, challenges, reports and rewards. Healthper client can choose to offer individual or team rewards as premium rebate, payroll credit, HSA contribution, raffle or allow earnings to be redeemed in the rewards mall with global fulfillment. Furthermore, client can choose between various incentive models that are available as a template or configure their own. Telephonic coaching is included in the offering that ranges from healthy living to tobacco cessation (RAS compliant). Additional activities based on client needs like external Weight Watchers program, onsite gym credits, local wellness event credits, well-woman visits, preventive screening, biometric screening, credit for blood donation, a client preferred tobacco cessation program can be added to the program configuration.

In an instance, an HR Administrator of a fortune 500 company commented about Healthper program, “Healthper’s team helped us defined our three-year wellness strategy that was very specific to the needs of our employees at the 6 locations. Healthper aggregated all the program needs in single portal and reward earnings into a single source and sent the specific contribution reports to the HSA providers.”

Healthper’s technology is built with an engagement engine to drive personalization. The company is continuing towards adding capabilities to increase engagement in different populations. Healthper offers performance assurance with a pricing model that is based on pay per performance. Healthper’s goal is to drive maximum engagement to deliver the true outcome for their clients by engaging their members and making them healthier.

With each passing day there are new emerging threats which can affect the stability of nations and threaten economies and businesses. There is a need of enhanced situational awareness for maximizing the performance and decision-making capabilities of defence, security and industry clients the world over. Canada based CarteNav Solutions Inc. is a pioneer in mission system software and industry leading solutions that enhance situational awareness and mission effectiveness on airborne, land-based, and maritime platforms.

In 2002, CarteNav was founded by Rick MacDonald, Michel Lechmann and John Garden. Originally it was set up to do R&D work for defense labs in Australia and Canada but the company grew over the years and began to look at commercial opportunities for Vessel Tracking for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) in Canada and continued the opportunities in Australia and Canada. CarteNav’s AIMS-ISR software product was brought to life in the early 2000’s and the first customer was the Royal New Zealand Air Force. Soon after, the Royal Australian Air Force deployed AIMS-ISR and CarteNav continued this success inside of Canada with the Royal Canadian Air Force on the fleet of CP-140’s and Griffon Helicopters. Following its acquisition in 2016, CarteNav is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Provincial Aerospace Ltd. and part of the Exchange Income Corporation (EIC) group of companies.

” Focusing on our customers and their feedback is a continual process within CarteNav. All feedback received is reviewed and often results in new features and functions being introduced into AIMS. “

CarteNav’s AIMS-ISR and AIMS-HD products are the preferred mission system software for a wide range of customers and end-users, including military, governmental and non-governmental organizations. In total, CarteNav’s software has been installed in over 400 platforms, in over 40 countries across 6 continents. “Today, AIMS-ISR has an enhanced user interface, accessible via both point-and-click and touch commands, which enables the operator to simultaneously interact with the Local Operating Picture (LOP) and control multiple sensors,” says Paul Evans, CEO of CarteNav.

Showcasing CarteNav’s capabilities is the UK’s National Police Air Service (NPAS) who commenced a project in 2014 selecting AIMS-ISR software as the core component of a mission system upgrade of seven EC135 T2 helicopters.The software integrates with not only the EO/IR camera but other sensors too, including a searchlight and vehicle tracker. AIMS-ISR ingests all of these sensor outputs and geo-spatially overlays them onto the moving map as well as the live video. The user interface is flexible and incorporates multiple filter options ensuring that the display remains de-cluttered.

CarteNav is committed to investing in the AIMS family of products, with an R&D roadmap heavily influenced by operator-feedback that ensures the software remains international recognized as a leading situational awareness solution.“Focusing on our customers and their feedback is a continual process within CarteNav. All feedback received is reviewed and often results in new features and functions being introduced into AIMS,” says Paul. One of CarteNav’s key market differentiators is the ability to a manage and control multi-mode surveillance radars. 2018 has seen CarteNav sign agreements with Thales and Leonardo to integrate AIMS with these market-leading radars – an indication of how well AIMS is regarded by these giants of the defence industry.

CarteNav is also investing in growing the training division in order to provide more flexible training options and to meet the training demands from all over the world.

The uniqueness of companies in the metalcasting business include some out-of-the-box requirements from an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. The batch process inherent in metals-related production formulates a degree of variability in end-product attributes, which must be tracked and tied to lot, batch and even customer order. Here, most ERP systems are struggling and where B&L Information Systems has created a niche for themselves in the market. The company has been designing enterprise resource planning (ERP) software for metalcasters since 1976.

At first, B&L built custom computer systems for metalcasters followed by BLIS which they designed to work with IBM 400 systems, commonly used in all manufacturing. The next evolution was the creation of Odyssey, built to run in the “new-fangled” Windows operating environment, for metalcasters. By 2014, B&L was debuting the browser-based version of Odyssey, the first metalcasting specific ERP to be available as SaaS. Philip Laney, CEO of B&L, says, “We serve metalcasters — foundries, die casters and investment casters – exclusively. Which means our software has features built in for them – certifications, heat tracking, surcharges – that generic ERP can’t match.”

” We serve metalcasters — foundries, die casters and investment casters -exclusively. Which means our software has features built in for them-certifications, heat tracking, surcharges – that generic ERP can’t match.”

For metalcasters, using Odyssey ERP means that there is one set of data — for the whole company. Everyone is operating with real-time data that results in: sales understanding lead-time; management being able to see if production is being met for the day or week or preferred measurement; shift supervisors being able to monitor job time; quality monitoring the heats and outputs were run; and scrap can be tracked. “With the latest addition of graphical KPI displays for over 60 pre-set measures, information is available at a glance. All software systems require some explanation or management, when Odyssey users need help — our 2-time Steve Award winning Customer Service Desk is available,” adds Laney. That CSD team has also created Rapid Support, over 700 visual step-by-step instructions for common tasks and issues which allow Odyssey software users to learn on their own schedule 24/7.

The company’s product is unique as is their market focus — metalcasters – and adheres to that market’s needs and growing the software to meet them. Lean manufacturer Acme Alliance, LLC relies on the Software as a Service (SaaS) Odyssey ERP system from B&L Information Systems, to optimize its operations while reducing costs. Based on Progress OpenEdge, Odyssey supports the unique requirements of the Acme Alliance while freeing the company from the burden and resources required to maintain an on-premise ERP application. Since implementing Odyssey, Acme has gained real-time visibility across its operations and increased its business agility to react to change or potential problems in order to maximize its processes and boost its bottom line.

The B&L’s Community Feedback Forum is built into their website lets users give suggestions in the forum on how Odyssey could work better for other users; and readers can vote for the idea. “Literally hundreds of our software enhancements come from that. It’s one of the ways we design our software to meet the needs of metalcasters,” adds Laney. “The value of this kind of interaction is immeasurable. And this kind of depth of service and customer intimacy within a specific manufacturing segment is something larger software companies can’t match.” B&L has maintained status as a small but steadily growing firm, so that each and every client is gets the utmost. B&L software is in place across North America at large firms like Pace Industries and American Axle & Manufacturing (recently recognized on the 2018 Forbes 500 list), but also at family firms like Plymouth Foundry and California Castings — because B&L specializes in helping metalcasters of every size make better decisions…faster.

The major changes occurring in the legal industry are not related to law but technology. Although many practitioners in the estate planning field believe opportunities have diminished due to the vast increase in the estate tax exemption, technology has expanded the field – provided the attorney can deliver services promptly and inexpensively. InterActive Legal, headquartered in Melbourne, Florida, is a technology company offering products designed to allow estate planning and elder law attorneys to do just that.

Interactive Legal Suite (ILS) programs are co-authored by Jonathan Blattmachr, a former leader of the Trusts and Estates department at Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy, LLP, in New York, and Michael Graham, a prominent Texas estate planning attorney and President of Graham Law Firm, P.C., in Dallas. Nationally recognized as creative strategists and estate planners of the highest caliber, the founders are trailblazers in the profession who have shaped the foundation of the ILS programs, and remain actively involved in determining the program content. ILS has always provided the highest quality documents through a most sophisticated system. It offers forms (and, therefore, solutions) that are unique, and available nowhere else, alongside being completely customer centric. Today, the planning and drafting system is so robust and sophisticated, it helps attorneys in virtually every state tackle even the most complicated planning challenges with the utmost confidence.

” The future of the industry is so exciting, particularly with all of the rapid developments in AI that we are seeing, and will continue to see in the future. That is the reason the strong ILS team is so important – we focus on the future, today! “

The lawyers and staff at ILS always have put the needs of subscribers and their clients first. ILS studies developments in the law and offers opportunities and solutions before any other document assembly system. The client intake system used to build a specific set of planning documents for a client provides specific guidance to the attorney in an easy to understand manner. Virtually every option offered is accompanied by help text to provide the drafter with guidance to make the most appropriate choice for the client. In addition, the company’s listserv is constantly peppered with insightful questions which receive responses from the legal team at ILS as well as other subscribers.

The company takes pride in giving their subscribers tools that allow them to offer a comprehensive solution for their clients’ estate plans. Jonathan offered the following example: “A subscriber told us how much his clients appreciate our pet trust options. A pet trust will not be appropriate for every client, but for the clients to whom it applies, it shows that the estate planner really cares and understands what matters to them.” An additional benefit of the programs, says Jonathan, is enhanced efficiency. “A long-time subscriber recently joked that he might have to raise his hourly rates because our system allows him to be too efficient in terms of the time he spends drafting documents.”

InterActive Legal is, at its core, a knowledge company. Their future is fully focused upon the potential that technology offers in automating repetitive tasks and the role artificial intelligence (AI) can have to increase productivity for the subscribing attorney. Their goal is to continuously provide attorneys with sophisticated, but simple to use, tools to provide the highest possible value to their clients. “The future of the industry is so exciting, particularly with all of the rapid developments in AI that we are seeing, and will continue to see in the future. That is the reason the strong ILS team is so important – we focus on the future, today!” adds Michael. “We refuse to wait for those most experienced to retire; instead we elevate, as soon as possible, at every level in the company, the next generation of leadership and creative thought. This allows combining continued mentorship with multigenerational thought, leadership, and energy. As with estate planning itself, this multigenerational focus is the key. As an example, Vanessa Kanaga, currently InterActive Legal’s Director of Content Development, will soon step up to lead this highly functioning team. Continued expansion of the company and shaping the future of the practice, whatever that may hold, is our mission.”

In addition to its role as a knowledge company within the estate planning and elder law arena, InterActive Legal is often lauded for its dedication to serving its subscribers. From prompt customer service and technical support to providing topical and timely webinars — [InterActive Legal sponsored a webinar on the Tax Cut & Jobs Act only two weeks after signed into law in December 2017] — the team at ILS lives up to their tagline by enabling subscribers to Connect, Collaborate and Create.