May 14, 2025 • 24 mins
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What happens when you gather the most innovative companies in enterprise technology and have nearly 200 expert judges evaluate their groundbreaking solutions? The We Love Tech Awards reveals exactly that, and the results spotlight an exciting cross-section of technological innovation that's transforming how businesses operate.
Russell Fordyce of Business Intelligence Group joins us to unveil the winners of this inaugural awards program, showcasing companies that are redefining what's possible in enterprise technology. From AI-powered customer service to quantum computing solutions that were once considered science fiction, these winners represent the cutting edge of practical innovation.
The revelations are fascinating – quantum computing has moved beyond theoretical potential to deliver tangible business applications through Dynex's "quantum as a service." Virtual reality and the metaverse aren't just consumer toys but powerful training tools, as demonstrated by EY's gamified professional development platform and TD Bank's immersive learning environments. Meanwhile, Verity's aviation solution uses AI to predict aircraft maintenance needs before failures occur – essentially providing "pre-healthcare for your plane."
What makes these awards particularly valuable is their spotlight on companies operating behind the scenes – the technological infrastructure providers whose innovations enable modern business but rarely receive public recognition. Many winners represent specialized solutions addressing industry-specific challenges, from ESG reporting compliance to ruggedized devices for first responders
The awards themselves embrace innovation, with winners receiving blockchain-based digital certificates that "live forever" rather than traditional dust-collecting trophies. Looking ahead, the program will return next year with nominations opening in early 2025. Listen in to discover the companies building tomorrow's enterprise technology landscape today, and perhaps find your next technological advantage.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey everybody, it is that time of the year, the
results are in for the we LoveTech Awards and I am thrilled to
have Russell Fordyce here toannounce the we Love Tech Award
results.
Russ, how are you?
Speaker 2 (00:18):
I am great.
I'm so thrilled to be here.
I'm so excited to announce allthe winners.
We had such a great turnoutthis year here.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
I'm so excited to announce all the winners.
We had such a great turnoutthis year.
We had a great turnout.
We had a great list ofincredibly interesting and
innovative companies, a lot ofparticipation and a lot of
judges who really weighed in andgave their time and effort on
the analysis.
Before all that Russ maybeintroduce yourself effort on the
analysis, before all that Russmaybe introduce yourself who is
(00:45):
Business Intelligence Group andwhat is?
What was the we Love TechAwards?
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Yeah, well, this was our first year doing it, and so
Business Intelligence Groupwe've been in operation for
about 13 years.
We run 10 different awardprograms under our own brand,
and now we run some awardprograms for other people who
want to run awards programs,like you and some other folks,
and so we host award programs.
So we're in the business ofrecognition and we thought that
your audience, especiallyenterprise tech, with all that's
going on there and all theawesome stuff that's coming out,
(01:16):
we thought that'd be a greatcategory to award in, and so we
reached out to you and got theball rolling.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
And describe the process.
This was all new to me.
We kicked it off a few monthsago.
The nominations came rolling inRecap the process because it
was fascinating to be a part ofand to sponsor the we Love Tech
Awards.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Yeah, what's interesting about our programs
is we're 100% volunteer judged,and so we are just a platform.
We're an independentthird-party platform and so we
host the a platform.
We're an independentthird-party platform and so we
host the programs and we ask fornominations in and we ask for
judges all over the world tohelp us score and read and score
the nominations, and so we havethousands of judges in our
(01:59):
panel.
We had almost 200 judges scoreall of these nominations, which
was fantastic.
And so they score thenominations.
They're independent.
They get a list to score.
They don't score generallycompetitors against each other,
and so we try to weed that stuffout, and so they're just basing
their score on the content ofthe nomination, and that's, I
think, a little bit unique.
(02:19):
And so then we tabulate thoseresults and tell the winners who
are winners.
It's pretty easy for us, and sothis one was especially
interesting because we had somereally unique applications this
year that I hadn't seen before.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Really unique, really interesting companies.
Some were known to me.
I was excited to recognize somefamiliar names.
Some were unknown, so shall wego through the winners?
Yeah, let's do it.
Let's do it All right.
So let's bring up the slideshere.
And customer experience, a bigtopic of interest to me and my
followers, and a company that Iactually knew, although I wasn't
(02:58):
a judge ClearCom with a K,really automating telecom
testing, ai-driven real-time IVRnumber testing, all the stuff
that makes the telecomcommunications call center
market around the world work.
And, yeah, really interestingcompany, headquartered out of
(03:22):
Ireland, trusted by companieslike Pfizer and MasterCard and
others.
Congratulations, clearcom.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Yeah this is.
I was in telecom for a longtime.
If anything needs AI, it is thecontact center and the call
centers and IVRs.
If you didn't, if you don'tknow what an IVR is, that's the
thing at the very beginning.
When you call somebody thatsays you know how can I direct
you is that's the thing at thevery beginning.
When you call somebody thatsays how can I direct you?
We know how bad these thingsare and ClearCom clearly is
(03:53):
making this stuff better andmaking it more reliable, so they
are a huge winner.
Obviously, they deserve it.
This is a really coolapplication, so people should
check it out.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
And a company headquartered out of Ireland but
a global presence.
I love the international natureof the awards.
It's, you know, companies fromall over the world and everyone
sort of gets it.
Everyone loves awards programs,no matter what culture, what
company, what country you know.
It really is a fun project.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Well, it's hard to pick out the good stuff, right,
and how do you know?
You know one from another andyou know just off of a website.
It's hard these days,especially with all the cool
companies being started up.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
Absolutely so.
Next winner and we'll continuedown the list here ViCloud LLC,
cloud software for ERP, a reallyinteresting company, a company
not known to me but doingamazing work, and that's kind of
.
The interesting part of the weLove Tech Awards is not all
(04:55):
these are brands or companiesthat are known to end users.
These are kind of the companiesdoing amazing work behind the
scenes to make all thisinfrastructure work.
And congratulations to ViCloud.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Yeah, and this is one of those things where you know
you can go to the big guys, butwhen you need that boutique
support, when you need, you know, no downtime, synchronization,
all that stuff, in thathand-holding, these are the guys
.
Their nomination was all aboutthat.
The judges recognized it.
It was pretty obvious.
These guys were a pretty clearwinner.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
And this is a virtual award that's on the blockchain.
It also can be a physical awardtrophy, if you will right.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
That's right.
Yeah, this year we announcedwe're doing all digital, so they
have a blockchain digitalcertificate and supplied by
Verix, our partner in this, andwe're very happy to announce
those.
And what's cool about these isthey live forever.
So that trophy might havecollected dust and ended up in a
box somewhere after a few yearsand the digital certificates
live forever.
You can put them right on yourLinkedIn.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
Yeah, that's very, very cool.
I love that.
Next to the company I know aswell, customer experience again
a big, big category.
Ciara, you know, for serviceassurance, again a very hot
topic in customer experience andyou know all brands are trying
to up their customer experiencegame and Ciara is one of the
(06:20):
enablers in that.
So again, really great company,I think.
Big operations in Australia andaround the world.
So again, really a globalplayer.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Yeah, this is my first introduction to them, so
thank you for the introductionand, yeah, they were doing some
really cool things and I wasleading the way with Ciara,
which is really great.
A lot of companies, you see,they're adding it on, they're
bolting it onto applications.
These guys are going straightin.
So it's interesting to see andI look forward to seeing them
grow.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
It's interesting.
I mean, the judges aretechnologists.
You have, like, a lot oftechies and engineers and that's
the kind of judges you need,right, because this isn't
something that you know youraverage man on the street can
judge.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
No average man on the street person on the street can
judge no, and when I firststarted doing these, it was.
You know how do we get judges,and you really do have to get
credible judges.
We have, you know.
These judges were from topcompanies all over the globe and
we'll publish the list.
They should be going on thewebsite soon.
We're just trying to geteverything updated today.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
Fantastic.
Next was new to me Daily Pay.
Revolutionizing payrollproviding real-time access to
wages Payments is hot andflexible.
Payment tools, particularly forB2B, are much in need, so
really interesting approach here.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
This one is the the no brainer of the world.
I remember growing up.
You know you were a kidstruggling to get gas and eat
and waiting for two weeks to getyour payday, or 14 days, or at
the end of the month or whatever.
These guys are doing it everyday and shooting it out to you
know, your debit card or youraccount, and it's the way it
should be.
I think you know.
Yeah, absolutely, I account andit's the way it should be.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
I think, yeah, absolutely.
I mean, paypal was like the800-pound gorilla in this space,
but there are so many moreinnovative and interesting
companies and payments.
It's really nice to see Next onthe list Dynex Quantum Powered
Solutions, a global leaderproviding quantum as a service
technology.
It's amazing to see thatquantum is real now.
(08:27):
They're like real proof ofconcepts, real use cases for
quantum problems that it'ssolving right today.
It's not science fictionanymore, which is really kind of
interesting.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
Finally, right, it's been the thing that's been 10
years away for about what 50years?
It seems like, yes, but yeah,it seems like it's been the
thing that's been 10 years awayfor about what 50 years.
It seems like, yes, but yeah,it seems like it's here now.
Everybody's doing cool thingsand I think this was our only
quantum nomination.
It was in the cloud computingspace, but it was the only
quantum nomination, so I'm gladto see that popping up and it'll
(09:01):
be interesting to see that growin the next couple of years.
Fantastic.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
The next Enablon, esg excellence, enabling companies
to address stakeholder andregulatory expectations
regarding ESG reporting.
Really important topiccompliance in general is is you
know regular regtech it's called?
The category is is a reallyexciting one.
There's so many requirementsbusinesses have to consider now
(09:30):
across the globe, per country,per region, and again one of
those companies that's you know,doing really cool work sort of
behind the scenes in theenterprise really interesting
yeah, wolters Kluwer is is, uh,known to me.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
They are multi-award winner with us.
Um, they really have it goingon.
They've got they're acrossalmost every category in this
space and really seem to be justdriving home.
You know value for theircustomers every day, across all
of it, so this is a big win forthem as well.
Good for Wolters.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Fantastic Evo AI.
Another customer experience.
Play Again customer experiencewe sometimes call it contact
center, call center, it's sortof one and the same thing Is the
opportunity for AI this year,in 2025, you know it is the
immediate benefits of real-timeintelligence, real-time customer
(10:23):
service, smart AI.
You know, not the old schoolterrible bots that we had to
deal with online.
I mean, these are coming intoplay and it's just amazing when
you get these AI-powered botsthat can really provide help and
value online, it's like a gamechanger for customers.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
So yeah, it's so great on both sides if it's done
right.
You know you're really, youknow the.
The training issue you have inthe call center and getting you
know somebody up to speed,knowing everything, knowing
products, knowing process isreally difficult.
You know AI takes over.
These guys are doing that kindof personal touch, really kind
(11:01):
of personalize that experience.
It's going to be an awesomespace.
It's going to be a really greatspace to see.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
So many interesting companies here, a lot of
competition.
So congratulations Evo, AI,Ernst Young, EY, Weverse.
The metaverse is alive.
It's not what we thought it wasfrom Mark Zuckerberg.
It's something on the B2B orthe professional side and it's
(11:29):
really useful.
You know the metaverse forbusiness purposes, for design,
for collaboration, forco-working, for communication,
and it's a really cool platformthey built.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
Yeah, this is cool.
This is an internal platformwhere they're kind of
game-finding, their kind ofearly and career professionals
and training and stuff and Ithought that was just genius
Like A.
You're kind of playing intotheir technology needs, assuming
they're younger in age, butyou're playing into the
technology aspect of it but kindof gamifying it, making it fun.
(12:03):
I wish I had corporate traininglike this.
It was usually you're stuck ina room with a PowerPoint when
somebody who was bored oh,that's brutal.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Or stuck on a zoom call, which is probably.
Yeah, so this this is sort ofthe you know Gen Z environment
for learning, so reallyinteresting stuff.
Congrats EY Calltower Company Iknow really well.
They're completelyrevolutionizing the way people
(12:35):
connect, collaborate, the wayenterprises communicate from you
know traditional old-schoolPBXs to you know Teams,
environments for voice and videoand messaging across borders.
Really great company andwell-deserved.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
Yeah, I was actually out in Salt Lake a few weeks ago
and met with these guys.
I did not have any impact ontheir nomination or their
scoring, but super interesting,and they are rapidly developing
to keep in, like keeping trackwith Microsoft and all the other
guys, and so it's they'rereally doing a very cool job
integrating all this stufftogether.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Yeah, If you work at a big you know, industrial
company.
You've got, you know, 20 yearphones, 20 year old phones, on
your desk and voicemail boxes.
You know you need to move tosomething like call tower
because it's uh, it's, it'stotally modern and refreshed,
updated for communications andcollaboration contact center.
Even so, very cool.
(13:35):
I Tara IOT.
This is a company I wasn'tfamiliar with but, um, you know,
I remember my nextel radio backin the day and the push to talk
and that was like the coolapplication for mobile, you know
.
And so walkie-talkies sort ofopened the door to what we have
now, which are, you know,industrial-grade, ruggedized
(13:58):
devices for mission-critical usecases.
You know, construction andfirst responders and firemen and
firefighters and all the kindof the real jobs, russ, the jobs
that we don't do, but thepeople who are out?
in the field, actually doingreal work, not sitting on the
internet all day.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Yeah, the guys saving lives and women saving lives
out there.
This is who that's for and it'sso cool that this is still a
thing.
I remember ruggedized stuff andit.
It kind of seemed to go awayand it seems like our phones
break all the time anyway.
Now and these guys are arebringing back all that coolness
of nextel and all the ruggedizedstuff for the you know first
responders and construction andguys doing real work and
(14:38):
calluses on their hands yeah, Ihaven't had a callus for three
years.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
So good to Highter.
I keep up supporting thefrontline workers.
And more TD again.
Big brands, immersive learningTD Bank is my bank, just FYI.
They do a good job.
But imagine that training in VR.
I mean, this is almost likewe're living in science fiction,
(15:06):
right?
Speaker 2 (15:06):
Yeah, Another again smart application, Super smart.
Let's not bore everybody todeath, you know.
Let's get in the branch, youknow, for me too, it's one of
those things where you'regetting consistency.
You know, in doing somethinglike this, You're getting a
consistent training throughoutyour company.
So this is really cool.
Great application, great use oftechnology.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Yeah, vr again, for you know, consumer has sort of
been middling at best.
But this is a real ROI, a realvalue add to trainers, training
programs and it's being usedacross so many industries.
You know, like UPS is trainingtheir drivers, and here we have
TD Bank training customerservice and employees.
(15:51):
Really cool stuff.
Doctors, nurses, learning in VR.
It's pretty amazing.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
Yeah, we knew it had to go somewhere.
Right, it was too good, not tofind a home.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
Yes, yes, that's for sure.
Next we have a game.
I wasn't familiar with thisgame, but I'm sure your kids, my
kids, some kids know about itpretty well Roblox.
But here it's kind of taking itto a new level, teaching
financial literacy something Iwish I taught my children.
Sadly, they're having to learnit on their own, so this is a
(16:26):
really cool use case.
What can you say about it?
Speaker 2 (16:28):
This is the same thing.
Like now they take kind of thattechnology model.
They were using it inside at TDdoing training.
Now they said you know how canwe turn this outside and do some
good with it?
This is genius Again.
My kids were all over Roblox.
If you want to know a big datacenter company, roblox is it?
Uh, they do a lot of data.
(16:48):
Um, but yeah, it's, it'stotally genius.
Get the kids in there early,get them in their own
environment, where they like tobe, in that roblox world and and
see what happens you know, sofun, great way.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
Yeah, this is not a, not your father's bank.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
No, 18 million impressions too, like that's a
pretty big hit.
If that's North America, that'sa pretty big hit, I would say.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
Yeah, very cool and the future of ed tech and
education, so really interesting.
Verdazo Enterprise TechAnalytics for oil and gas Drill,
baby drill.
So we got technology meetsenergy production.
You know much neededenhancements and improvements to
the way we analyze and deliver.
(17:35):
Um, you know, energy and uh,what?
What a cool.
Again one of the silent, uh,behind the scenes companies
doing amazing work that you justnever otherwise hear of in the
general public.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
So yeah, and I I've got a brother in oil and gas and
I can tell you every dropcounts and these guys are making
sure every drop counts.
So that is a very competitivesector, as we all know.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
That is a very competitive sector, as we all
know, interesting.
So next on the list veryunreliability, ai-powered game
changer aviation.
There's a lot happeningobviously in aviation and we
need solutions right this one issuper cool Logistics and
reliability.
Tell us more about what it'sbringing to the aviation
(18:26):
industry.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
This one is super cool.
I read through this nominationwhen it came in.
So these guys are basicallylooking at all the data from
your plane and checking anddoing all the diagnostic
reporting, looking at all thatstuff and using AI to figure out
what's going to break when, sothey know what to fix before
anything else and before stuffbreaks.
This is genius as far as I'mconcerned.
(18:49):
This is, you know, this is likeyou know, pre-health care for
your plane.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
That is so cool and you know we're so behind in
aviation general aviation and weneed technology to bring us up
to speed.
So what a great use case.
Can't wait to have them onreally all of the winners on my
podcast.
So that's one of the excitingbenefits, and I think we got to
the end of the winners list, butthere were so many more great
(19:17):
nominations.
So, russ, what happens next?
What's next for the winners andwhat's next in your program of
award events?
Speaker 2 (19:27):
Yeah.
So for the winners, we're goingto start.
We're starting to promote themand promote their wins all over
social media and so that's whatwe'll do, and we'll be getting
certificates and trophies outand all that good stuff and
press releases are going out andall the news is being shared
and everybody's doing that stuff.
So you know, kudos to all thesecompanies.
Some really cool uses oftechnology.
(19:49):
I always say that it's theapplications of technology that
are cool, it's not thetechnologies themselves, usually
Kind of like that AR, vr, stuff, like we've been playing around
with that for how long?
And now it's finding a home.
I feel like it's really findinga home and training and those
types of applications.
So it's really cool to see allthese companies submit and get
(20:11):
rewarded.
That's exciting.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
And they'll certainly get my attention on my show, my
podcast.
I can't wait to dive in witheach of them.
And what's next?
What's up with you over thenext few weeks and months?
Describe what's happening at BIGroup.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
Yeah, well, we've got awards programs almost every
month.
So, coming up, we haveSustainability Awards, which is
one of our oldest programs.
It's a big program.
So if you're in thesustainability space, if you're
doing cool things withsustainability in your company
or have projects, initiatives orpeople you want to reward,
check that out.
And we have another programthat we've actually expanded
(20:51):
this year.
It's called the Sales andMarketing Awards.
We shortened it this year.
It's known as the SAMI and weexpanded it this year.
It was mainly focused on salesand marketing technology, and we
expanded it this year to be allthe creative as well, and so
we've got creative campaigns,marketing campaigns, sales
campaigns.
We're doing a big push thereand we've already seen some
(21:14):
pretty cool nominations come infor that one.
So we've always got somethinggoing.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
You do.
You're prolific.
It's amazing to see how muchyou have going on.
If you're a large enterprise, ablue chip company, you want to
have your own awards program.
How does that work?
Is that something you can helpfacilitate?
Speaker 2 (21:32):
Yeah, we've just started this and we call it
recognition as a service, or wemay be changing the name to the
case study machine.
Because what this is?
It's really interesting.
I spent about 30 years incorporate marketing and B2B tech
and I always saw thesenominations and you're like this
is basically a case study.
It's like what went right, whatwent wrong, how'd you fix it,
(21:55):
what'd you do in the results?
And so what we do now is buildawards programs for companies
who want to be thought leadersin the space, and basically what
they get out of it is tons ofnominations.
They get to reward those peopleand then they get all those
case studies out of it and theyget to hear how their customers
are using their products.
And that's what it's all about.
It's about really finding theuse cases where stuff works.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
That's amazing.
I can't wait to dive into someof those opportunities.
And yeah, thanks again forhosting and facilitating the we
Love Tech Awards it was amazingto be a part of and I can't wait
for next year We'll have to upour game, maybe starting with
the kickoff at CES again.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
Yeah, absolutely.
And just to let everybody knowwe are doing this next year.
We're looking at about the sametimeline.
I think the deadline is goingto be about March 27th next year
.
So put in your books and yourcalendar this next year we're
looking at about the sametimeline.
I think the deadline is goingto be about March 27th next year
.
So put in your books and yourcalendar for next year
Nomination deadline around March27th.
We'll get the website updatedas soon as everything's
finalized.
This has been a total blast.
Speaker 1 (22:59):
Yeah, I know it's been fun learning about all
these companies and I continueto learn as we have them on the
show and learn more about their,their vision and mission.
And thanks, wes.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
Yeah, absolutely.
Thank you, evan, and thanks forhosting.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
Yeah, thanks everyone for listening, watching and
engaging with the awards winnerson the social feeds that you're
you're following here.
Thanks, take care.
Bye.
Hey everybody, it is that time of the year, the
results are in for the we LoveTech Awards and I am thrilled to
have Russell Fordyce here toannounce the we Love Tech Award
results.
Russ, how are you?
Speaker 2 (00:18):
I am great.
I'm so thrilled to be here.
I'm so excited to announce allthe winners.
We had such a great turnoutthis year here.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
I'm so excited to announce all the winners.
We had such a great turnoutthis year.
We had a great turnout.
We had a great list ofincredibly interesting and
innovative companies, a lot ofparticipation and a lot of
judges who really weighed in andgave their time and effort on
the analysis.
Before all that Russ maybeintroduce yourself effort on the
analysis, before all that Russmaybe introduce yourself who is
(00:45):
Business Intelligence Group andwhat is?
What was the we Love TechAwards?
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Yeah, well, this was our first year doing it, and so
Business Intelligence Groupwe've been in operation for
about 13 years.
We run 10 different awardprograms under our own brand,
and now we run some awardprograms for other people who
want to run awards programs,like you and some other folks,
and so we host award programs.
So we're in the business ofrecognition and we thought that
your audience, especiallyenterprise tech, with all that's
going on there and all theawesome stuff that's coming out,
(01:16):
we thought that'd be a greatcategory to award in, and so we
reached out to you and got theball rolling.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
And describe the process.
This was all new to me.
We kicked it off a few monthsago.
The nominations came rolling inRecap the process because it
was fascinating to be a part ofand to sponsor the we Love Tech
Awards.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Yeah, what's interesting about our programs
is we're 100% volunteer judged,and so we are just a platform.
We're an independentthird-party platform and so we
host the a platform.
We're an independentthird-party platform and so we
host the programs and we ask fornominations in and we ask for
judges all over the world tohelp us score and read and score
the nominations, and so we havethousands of judges in our
(01:59):
panel.
We had almost 200 judges scoreall of these nominations, which
was fantastic.
And so they score thenominations.
They're independent.
They get a list to score.
They don't score generallycompetitors against each other,
and so we try to weed that stuffout, and so they're just basing
their score on the content ofthe nomination, and that's, I
think, a little bit unique.
(02:19):
And so then we tabulate thoseresults and tell the winners who
are winners.
It's pretty easy for us, and sothis one was especially
interesting because we had somereally unique applications this
year that I hadn't seen before.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Really unique, really interesting companies.
Some were known to me.
I was excited to recognize somefamiliar names.
Some were unknown, so shall wego through the winners?
Yeah, let's do it.
Let's do it All right.
So let's bring up the slideshere.
And customer experience, a bigtopic of interest to me and my
followers, and a company that Iactually knew, although I wasn't
(02:58):
a judge ClearCom with a K,really automating telecom
testing, ai-driven real-time IVRnumber testing, all the stuff
that makes the telecomcommunications call center
market around the world work.
And, yeah, really interestingcompany, headquartered out of
(03:22):
Ireland, trusted by companieslike Pfizer and MasterCard and
others.
Congratulations, clearcom.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Yeah this is.
I was in telecom for a longtime.
If anything needs AI, it is thecontact center and the call
centers and IVRs.
If you didn't, if you don'tknow what an IVR is, that's the
thing at the very beginning.
When you call somebody thatsays you know how can I direct
you is that's the thing at thevery beginning.
When you call somebody thatsays how can I direct you?
We know how bad these thingsare and ClearCom clearly is
(03:53):
making this stuff better andmaking it more reliable, so they
are a huge winner.
Obviously, they deserve it.
This is a really coolapplication, so people should
check it out.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
And a company headquartered out of Ireland but
a global presence.
I love the international natureof the awards.
It's, you know, companies fromall over the world and everyone
sort of gets it.
Everyone loves awards programs,no matter what culture, what
company, what country you know.
It really is a fun project.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Well, it's hard to pick out the good stuff, right,
and how do you know?
You know one from another andyou know just off of a website.
It's hard these days,especially with all the cool
companies being started up.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
Absolutely so.
Next winner and we'll continuedown the list here ViCloud LLC,
cloud software for ERP, a reallyinteresting company, a company
not known to me but doingamazing work, and that's kind of
.
The interesting part of the weLove Tech Awards is not all
(04:55):
these are brands or companiesthat are known to end users.
These are kind of the companiesdoing amazing work behind the
scenes to make all thisinfrastructure work.
And congratulations to ViCloud.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Yeah, and this is one of those things where you know
you can go to the big guys, butwhen you need that boutique
support, when you need, you know, no downtime, synchronization,
all that stuff, in thathand-holding, these are the guys
.
Their nomination was all aboutthat.
The judges recognized it.
It was pretty obvious.
These guys were a pretty clearwinner.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
And this is a virtual award that's on the blockchain.
It also can be a physical awardtrophy, if you will right.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
That's right.
Yeah, this year we announcedwe're doing all digital, so they
have a blockchain digitalcertificate and supplied by
Verix, our partner in this, andwe're very happy to announce
those.
And what's cool about these isthey live forever.
So that trophy might havecollected dust and ended up in a
box somewhere after a few yearsand the digital certificates
live forever.
You can put them right on yourLinkedIn.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
Yeah, that's very, very cool.
I love that.
Next to the company I know aswell, customer experience again
a big, big category.
Ciara, you know, for serviceassurance, again a very hot
topic in customer experience andyou know all brands are trying
to up their customer experiencegame and Ciara is one of the
(06:20):
enablers in that.
So again, really great company,I think.
Big operations in Australia andaround the world.
So again, really a globalplayer.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Yeah, this is my first introduction to them, so
thank you for the introductionand, yeah, they were doing some
really cool things and I wasleading the way with Ciara,
which is really great.
A lot of companies, you see,they're adding it on, they're
bolting it onto applications.
These guys are going straightin.
So it's interesting to see andI look forward to seeing them
grow.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
It's interesting.
I mean, the judges aretechnologists.
You have, like, a lot oftechies and engineers and that's
the kind of judges you need,right, because this isn't
something that you know youraverage man on the street can
judge.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
No average man on the street person on the street can
judge no, and when I firststarted doing these, it was.
You know how do we get judges,and you really do have to get
credible judges.
We have, you know.
These judges were from topcompanies all over the globe and
we'll publish the list.
They should be going on thewebsite soon.
We're just trying to geteverything updated today.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
Fantastic.
Next was new to me Daily Pay.
Revolutionizing payrollproviding real-time access to
wages Payments is hot andflexible.
Payment tools, particularly forB2B, are much in need, so
really interesting approach here.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
This one is the the no brainer of the world.
I remember growing up.
You know you were a kidstruggling to get gas and eat
and waiting for two weeks to getyour payday, or 14 days, or at
the end of the month or whatever.
These guys are doing it everyday and shooting it out to you
know, your debit card or youraccount, and it's the way it
should be.
I think you know.
Yeah, absolutely, I account andit's the way it should be.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
I think, yeah, absolutely.
I mean, paypal was like the800-pound gorilla in this space,
but there are so many moreinnovative and interesting
companies and payments.
It's really nice to see Next onthe list Dynex Quantum Powered
Solutions, a global leaderproviding quantum as a service
technology.
It's amazing to see thatquantum is real now.
(08:27):
They're like real proof ofconcepts, real use cases for
quantum problems that it'ssolving right today.
It's not science fictionanymore, which is really kind of
interesting.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
Finally, right, it's been the thing that's been 10
years away for about what 50years?
It seems like, yes, but yeah,it seems like it's been the
thing that's been 10 years awayfor about what 50 years.
It seems like, yes, but yeah,it seems like it's here now.
Everybody's doing cool thingsand I think this was our only
quantum nomination.
It was in the cloud computingspace, but it was the only
quantum nomination, so I'm gladto see that popping up and it'll
(09:01):
be interesting to see that growin the next couple of years.
Fantastic.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
The next Enablon, esg excellence, enabling companies
to address stakeholder andregulatory expectations
regarding ESG reporting.
Really important topiccompliance in general is is you
know regular regtech it's called?
The category is is a reallyexciting one.
There's so many requirementsbusinesses have to consider now
(09:30):
across the globe, per country,per region, and again one of
those companies that's you know,doing really cool work sort of
behind the scenes in theenterprise really interesting
yeah, wolters Kluwer is is, uh,known to me.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
They are multi-award winner with us.
Um, they really have it goingon.
They've got they're acrossalmost every category in this
space and really seem to be justdriving home.
You know value for theircustomers every day, across all
of it, so this is a big win forthem as well.
Good for Wolters.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Fantastic Evo AI.
Another customer experience.
Play Again customer experiencewe sometimes call it contact
center, call center, it's sortof one and the same thing Is the
opportunity for AI this year,in 2025, you know it is the
immediate benefits of real-timeintelligence, real-time customer
(10:23):
service, smart AI.
You know, not the old schoolterrible bots that we had to
deal with online.
I mean, these are coming intoplay and it's just amazing when
you get these AI-powered botsthat can really provide help and
value online, it's like a gamechanger for customers.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
So yeah, it's so great on both sides if it's done
right.
You know you're really, youknow the.
The training issue you have inthe call center and getting you
know somebody up to speed,knowing everything, knowing
products, knowing process isreally difficult.
You know AI takes over.
These guys are doing that kindof personal touch, really kind
(11:01):
of personalize that experience.
It's going to be an awesomespace.
It's going to be a really greatspace to see.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
So many interesting companies here, a lot of
competition.
So congratulations Evo, AI,Ernst Young, EY, Weverse.
The metaverse is alive.
It's not what we thought it wasfrom Mark Zuckerberg.
It's something on the B2B orthe professional side and it's
(11:29):
really useful.
You know the metaverse forbusiness purposes, for design,
for collaboration, forco-working, for communication,
and it's a really cool platformthey built.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
Yeah, this is cool.
This is an internal platformwhere they're kind of
game-finding, their kind ofearly and career professionals
and training and stuff and Ithought that was just genius
Like A.
You're kind of playing intotheir technology needs, assuming
they're younger in age, butyou're playing into the
technology aspect of it but kindof gamifying it, making it fun.
(12:03):
I wish I had corporate traininglike this.
It was usually you're stuck ina room with a PowerPoint when
somebody who was bored oh,that's brutal.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Or stuck on a zoom call, which is probably.
Yeah, so this this is sort ofthe you know Gen Z environment
for learning, so reallyinteresting stuff.
Congrats EY Calltower Company Iknow really well.
They're completelyrevolutionizing the way people
(12:35):
connect, collaborate, the wayenterprises communicate from you
know traditional old-schoolPBXs to you know Teams,
environments for voice and videoand messaging across borders.
Really great company andwell-deserved.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
Yeah, I was actually out in Salt Lake a few weeks ago
and met with these guys.
I did not have any impact ontheir nomination or their
scoring, but super interesting,and they are rapidly developing
to keep in, like keeping trackwith Microsoft and all the other
guys, and so it's they'rereally doing a very cool job
integrating all this stufftogether.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Yeah, If you work at a big you know, industrial
company.
You've got, you know, 20 yearphones, 20 year old phones, on
your desk and voicemail boxes.
You know you need to move tosomething like call tower
because it's uh, it's, it'stotally modern and refreshed,
updated for communications andcollaboration contact center.
Even so, very cool.
(13:35):
I Tara IOT.
This is a company I wasn'tfamiliar with but, um, you know,
I remember my nextel radio backin the day and the push to talk
and that was like the coolapplication for mobile, you know
.
And so walkie-talkies sort ofopened the door to what we have
now, which are, you know,industrial-grade, ruggedized
(13:58):
devices for mission-critical usecases.
You know, construction andfirst responders and firemen and
firefighters and all the kindof the real jobs, russ, the jobs
that we don't do, but thepeople who are out?
in the field, actually doingreal work, not sitting on the
internet all day.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Yeah, the guys saving lives and women saving lives
out there.
This is who that's for and it'sso cool that this is still a
thing.
I remember ruggedized stuff andit.
It kind of seemed to go awayand it seems like our phones
break all the time anyway.
Now and these guys are arebringing back all that coolness
of nextel and all the ruggedizedstuff for the you know first
responders and construction andguys doing real work and
(14:38):
calluses on their hands yeah, Ihaven't had a callus for three
years.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
So good to Highter.
I keep up supporting thefrontline workers.
And more TD again.
Big brands, immersive learningTD Bank is my bank, just FYI.
They do a good job.
But imagine that training in VR.
I mean, this is almost likewe're living in science fiction,
(15:06):
right?
Speaker 2 (15:06):
Yeah, Another again smart application, Super smart.
Let's not bore everybody todeath, you know.
Let's get in the branch, youknow, for me too, it's one of
those things where you'regetting consistency.
You know, in doing somethinglike this, You're getting a
consistent training throughoutyour company.
So this is really cool.
Great application, great use oftechnology.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Yeah, vr again, for you know, consumer has sort of
been middling at best.
But this is a real ROI, a realvalue add to trainers, training
programs and it's being usedacross so many industries.
You know, like UPS is trainingtheir drivers, and here we have
TD Bank training customerservice and employees.
(15:51):
Really cool stuff.
Doctors, nurses, learning in VR.
It's pretty amazing.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
Yeah, we knew it had to go somewhere.
Right, it was too good, not tofind a home.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
Yes, yes, that's for sure.
Next we have a game.
I wasn't familiar with thisgame, but I'm sure your kids, my
kids, some kids know about itpretty well Roblox.
But here it's kind of taking itto a new level, teaching
financial literacy something Iwish I taught my children.
Sadly, they're having to learnit on their own, so this is a
(16:26):
really cool use case.
What can you say about it?
Speaker 2 (16:28):
This is the same thing.
Like now they take kind of thattechnology model.
They were using it inside at TDdoing training.
Now they said you know how canwe turn this outside and do some
good with it?
This is genius Again.
My kids were all over Roblox.
If you want to know a big datacenter company, roblox is it?
Uh, they do a lot of data.
(16:48):
Um, but yeah, it's, it'stotally genius.
Get the kids in there early,get them in their own
environment, where they like tobe, in that roblox world and and
see what happens you know, sofun, great way.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
Yeah, this is not a, not your father's bank.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
No, 18 million impressions too, like that's a
pretty big hit.
If that's North America, that'sa pretty big hit, I would say.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
Yeah, very cool and the future of ed tech and
education, so really interesting.
Verdazo Enterprise TechAnalytics for oil and gas Drill,
baby drill.
So we got technology meetsenergy production.
You know much neededenhancements and improvements to
the way we analyze and deliver.
(17:35):
Um, you know, energy and uh,what?
What a cool.
Again one of the silent, uh,behind the scenes companies
doing amazing work that you justnever otherwise hear of in the
general public.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
So yeah, and I I've got a brother in oil and gas and
I can tell you every dropcounts and these guys are making
sure every drop counts.
So that is a very competitivesector, as we all know.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
That is a very competitive sector, as we all
know, interesting.
So next on the list veryunreliability, ai-powered game
changer aviation.
There's a lot happeningobviously in aviation and we
need solutions right this one issuper cool Logistics and
reliability.
Tell us more about what it'sbringing to the aviation
(18:26):
industry.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
This one is super cool.
I read through this nominationwhen it came in.
So these guys are basicallylooking at all the data from
your plane and checking anddoing all the diagnostic
reporting, looking at all thatstuff and using AI to figure out
what's going to break when, sothey know what to fix before
anything else and before stuffbreaks.
This is genius as far as I'mconcerned.
(18:49):
This is, you know, this is likeyou know, pre-health care for
your plane.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
That is so cool and you know we're so behind in
aviation general aviation and weneed technology to bring us up
to speed.
So what a great use case.
Can't wait to have them onreally all of the winners on my
podcast.
So that's one of the excitingbenefits, and I think we got to
the end of the winners list, butthere were so many more great
(19:17):
nominations.
So, russ, what happens next?
What's next for the winners andwhat's next in your program of
award events?
Speaker 2 (19:27):
Yeah.
So for the winners, we're goingto start.
We're starting to promote themand promote their wins all over
social media and so that's whatwe'll do, and we'll be getting
certificates and trophies outand all that good stuff and
press releases are going out andall the news is being shared
and everybody's doing that stuff.
So you know, kudos to all thesecompanies.
Some really cool uses oftechnology.
(19:49):
I always say that it's theapplications of technology that
are cool, it's not thetechnologies themselves, usually
Kind of like that AR, vr, stuff, like we've been playing around
with that for how long?
And now it's finding a home.
I feel like it's really findinga home and training and those
types of applications.
So it's really cool to see allthese companies submit and get
(20:11):
rewarded.
That's exciting.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
And they'll certainly get my attention on my show, my
podcast.
I can't wait to dive in witheach of them.
And what's next?
What's up with you over thenext few weeks and months?
Describe what's happening at BIGroup.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
Yeah, well, we've got awards programs almost every
month.
So, coming up, we haveSustainability Awards, which is
one of our oldest programs.
It's a big program.
So if you're in thesustainability space, if you're
doing cool things withsustainability in your company
or have projects, initiatives orpeople you want to reward,
check that out.
And we have another programthat we've actually expanded
(20:51):
this year.
It's called the Sales andMarketing Awards.
We shortened it this year.
It's known as the SAMI and weexpanded it this year.
It was mainly focused on salesand marketing technology, and we
expanded it this year to be allthe creative as well, and so
we've got creative campaigns,marketing campaigns, sales
campaigns.
We're doing a big push thereand we've already seen some
(21:14):
pretty cool nominations come infor that one.
So we've always got somethinggoing.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
You do.
You're prolific.
It's amazing to see how muchyou have going on.
If you're a large enterprise, ablue chip company, you want to
have your own awards program.
How does that work?
Is that something you can helpfacilitate?
Speaker 2 (21:32):
Yeah, we've just started this and we call it
recognition as a service, or wemay be changing the name to the
case study machine.
Because what this is?
It's really interesting.
I spent about 30 years incorporate marketing and B2B tech
and I always saw thesenominations and you're like this
is basically a case study.
It's like what went right, whatwent wrong, how'd you fix it,
(21:55):
what'd you do in the results?
And so what we do now is buildawards programs for companies
who want to be thought leadersin the space, and basically what
they get out of it is tons ofnominations.
They get to reward those peopleand then they get all those
case studies out of it and theyget to hear how their customers
are using their products.
And that's what it's all about.
It's about really finding theuse cases where stuff works.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
That's amazing.
I can't wait to dive into someof those opportunities.
And yeah, thanks again forhosting and facilitating the we
Love Tech Awards it was amazingto be a part of and I can't wait
for next year We'll have to upour game, maybe starting with
the kickoff at CES again.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
Yeah, absolutely.
And just to let everybody knowwe are doing this next year.
We're looking at about the sametimeline.
I think the deadline is goingto be about March 27th next year
.
So put in your books and yourcalendar this next year we're
looking at about the sametimeline.
I think the deadline is goingto be about March 27th next year
.
So put in your books and yourcalendar for next year
Nomination deadline around March27th.
We'll get the website updatedas soon as everything's
finalized.
This has been a total blast.
Speaker 1 (22:59):
Yeah, I know it's been fun learning about all
these companies and I continueto learn as we have them on the
show and learn more about their,their vision and mission.
And thanks, wes.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
Yeah, absolutely.
Thank you, evan, and thanks forhosting.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
Yeah, thanks everyone for listening, watching and
engaging with the awards winnerson the social feeds that you're
you're following here.
Thanks, take care.
Bye.
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