What's Up with Tech?
Tech Transformation with Evan Kirstel: A podcast exploring the latest trends and innovations in the tech industry, and how businesses can leverage them for growth, diving into the world of B2B, discussing strategies, trends, and sharing insights from industry leaders!
With over three decades in telecom and IT, I've mastered the art of transforming social media into a dynamic platform for audience engagement, community building, and establishing thought leadership. My approach isn't about personal brand promotion but about delivering educational and informative content to cultivate a sustainable, long-term business presence. I am the leading content creator in areas like Enterprise AI, UCaaS, CPaaS, CCaaS, Cloud, Telecom, 5G and more!
What's Up with Tech?
Behind the Scenes: The Winners of This Year's We Love Tech Awards
Interested in being a guest? Email us at admin@evankirstel.com
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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Hey everybody, it is that time of the year, the results are in for the we Love Tech Awards and I am thrilled to have Russell Fordyce here to announce the we Love Tech Award results. Russ, how are you?
Speaker 2:I am great. I'm so thrilled to be here. I'm so excited to announce all the winners. We had such a great turnout this year here.
Speaker 1:I'm so excited to announce all the winners. We had such a great turnout this year. We had a great turnout. We had a great list of incredibly interesting and innovative companies, a lot of participation and a lot of judges who really weighed in and gave their time and effort on the analysis. Before all that Russ maybe introduce yourself effort on the analysis, before all that Russ maybe introduce yourself who is Business Intelligence Group and what is? What was the we Love Tech Awards?
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, this was our first year doing it, and so Business Intelligence Group we've been in operation for about 13 years. We run 10 different award programs under our own brand, and now we run some award programs 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 of recognition and we thought that your audience, especially enterprise tech, with all that's going on there and all the awesome stuff that's coming out, we thought that'd be a great category to award in, and so we reached out to you and got the ball rolling.
Speaker 1:And describe the process. This was all new to me. We kicked it off a few months ago. The nominations came rolling in Recap the process because it was fascinating to be a part of and to sponsor the we Love Tech Awards.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what's interesting about our programs is we're 100% volunteer judged, and so we are just a platform. We're an independent third-party platform and so we host the a platform. We're an independent third-party platform and so we host the programs and we ask for nominations in and we ask for judges all over the world to help us score and read and score the nominations, and so we have thousands of judges in our panel. We had almost 200 judges score all of these nominations, which was fantastic. And so they score the nominations. They're independent. They get a list to score. They don't score generally competitors against each other, and so we try to weed that stuff out, and so they're just basing their score on the content of the nomination, and that's, I think, a little bit unique. And so then we tabulate those results and tell the winners who are winners. It's pretty easy for us, and so this one was especially interesting because we had some really unique applications this year that I hadn't seen before.
Speaker 1:Really unique, really interesting companies. Some were known to me. I was excited to recognize some familiar names. Some were unknown, so shall we go through the winners? Yeah, let's do it. Let's do it All right. So let's bring up the slides here. And customer experience, a big topic of interest to me and my followers, and a company that I actually knew, although I wasn't a judge ClearCom with a K, really automating telecom testing, ai-driven real-time IVR number testing, all the stuff that makes the telecom communications call center market around the world work. And, yeah, really interesting company, headquartered out of Ireland, trusted by companies like Pfizer and MasterCard and others. Congratulations, clearcom.
Speaker 2:Yeah this is. I was in telecom for a long time. If anything needs AI, it is the contact center and the call centers and IVRs. If you didn't, if you don't know what an IVR is, that's the thing at the very beginning. When you call somebody that says you know how can I direct you is that's the thing at the very beginning. When you call somebody that says how can I direct you? We know how bad these things are and ClearCom clearly is making this stuff better and making it more reliable, so they are a huge winner. Obviously, they deserve it. This is a really cool application, so people should check it out.
Speaker 1:And a company headquartered out of Ireland but a global presence. I love the international nature of the awards. It's, you know, companies from all 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:Well, it's hard to pick out the good stuff, right, and how do you know? You know one from another and you know just off of a website. It's hard these days, especially with all the cool companies being started up.
Speaker 1:Absolutely so. Next winner and we'll continue down the list here ViCloud LLC, cloud software for ERP, a really interesting company, a company not known to me but doing amazing work, and that's kind of. The interesting part of the we Love Tech Awards is not all these are brands or companies that are known to end users. These are kind of the companies doing amazing work behind the scenes to make all this infrastructure work. And congratulations to ViCloud.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and this is one of those things where you know you can go to the big guys, but when you need that boutique support, when you need, you know, no downtime, synchronization, all that stuff, in that hand-holding, these are the guys. Their nomination was all about that. The judges recognized it. It was pretty obvious. These guys were a pretty clear winner.
Speaker 1:And this is a virtual award that's on the blockchain. It also can be a physical award trophy, if you will right.
Speaker 2:That's right. Yeah, this year we announced we're doing all digital, so they have a blockchain digital certificate and supplied by Verix, our partner in this, and we're very happy to announce those. And what's cool about these is they live forever. So that trophy might have collected dust and ended up in a box somewhere after a few years and the digital certificates live forever. You can put them right on your LinkedIn.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's very, very cool. I love that. Next to the company I know as well, customer experience again a big, big category. Ciara, you know, for service assurance, again a very hot topic in customer experience and you know all brands are trying to up their customer experience game and Ciara is one of the enablers in that. So again, really great company, I think. Big operations in Australia and around the world. So again, really a global player.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is my first introduction to them, so thank you for the introduction and, yeah, they were doing some really cool things and I was leading 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 straight in. So it's interesting to see and I look forward to seeing them grow.
Speaker 1:It's interesting. I mean, the judges are technologists. You have, like, a lot of techies and engineers and that's the kind of judges you need, right, because this isn't something that you know your average man on the street can judge.
Speaker 2:No average man on the street person on the street can judge no, and when I first started 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 top companies all over the globe and we'll publish the list. They should be going on the website soon. We're just trying to get everything updated today.
Speaker 1:Fantastic. Next was new to me Daily Pay. Revolutionizing payroll providing real-time access to wages Payments is hot and flexible. Payment tools, particularly for B2B, are much in need, so really interesting approach here.
Speaker 2:This one is the the no brainer of the world. I remember growing up. You know you were a kid struggling to get gas and eat and waiting for two weeks to get your payday, or 14 days, or at the end of the month or whatever. These guys are doing it every day and shooting it out to you know, your debit card or your account, and it's the way it should be. I think you know. Yeah, absolutely, I account and it's the way it should be.
Speaker 1:I think, yeah, absolutely. I mean, paypal was like the 800-pound gorilla in this space, but there are so many more innovative and interesting companies and payments. It's really nice to see Next on the list Dynex Quantum Powered Solutions, a global leader providing quantum as a service technology. It's amazing to see that quantum is real now. They're like real proof of concepts, real use cases for quantum problems that it's solving right today. It's not science fiction anymore, which is really kind of interesting.
Speaker 2:Finally, right, it's been the thing that's been 10 years away for about what 50 years? It seems like, yes, but yeah, it seems like it's been the thing that's been 10 years away for about what 50 years. It seems like, yes, but yeah, it seems like it's here now. Everybody's doing cool things and I think this was our only quantum nomination. It was in the cloud computing space, but it was the only quantum nomination, so I'm glad to see that popping up and it'll be interesting to see that grow in the next couple of years. Fantastic.
Speaker 1:The next Enablon, esg excellence, enabling companies to address stakeholder and regulatory expectations regarding ESG reporting. Really important topic compliance in general is is you know regular regtech it's called? The category is is a really exciting one. There's so many requirements businesses have to consider now 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 the enterprise really interesting yeah, wolters Kluwer is is, uh, known to me.
Speaker 2:They are multi-award winner with us. Um, they really have it going on. They've got they're across almost every category in this space and really seem to be just driving home. You know value for their customers every day, across all of it, so this is a big win for them as well. Good for Wolters.
Speaker 1:Fantastic Evo AI. Another customer experience. Play Again customer experience we sometimes call it contact center, call center, it's sort of one and the same thing Is the opportunity for AI this year, in 2025, you know it is the immediate benefits of real-time intelligence, real-time customer service, smart AI. You know, not the old school terrible bots that we had to deal with online. I mean, these are coming into play and it's just amazing when you get these AI-powered bots that can really provide help and value online, it's like a game changer for customers.
Speaker 2:So yeah, it's so great on both sides if it's done right. You know you're really, you know the. The training issue you have in the call center and getting you know somebody up to speed, knowing everything, knowing products, knowing process is really difficult. You know AI takes over. These guys are doing that kind of personal touch, really kind of personalize that experience. It's going to be an awesome space. It's going to be a really great space to see. Yeah.
Speaker 1: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 was from Mark Zuckerberg. It's something on the B2B or the professional side and it's really useful. You know the metaverse for business purposes, for design, for collaboration, for co-working, for communication, and it's a really cool platform they built.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is cool. This is an internal platform where they're kind of game-finding, their kind of early and career professionals and training and stuff and I thought that was just genius Like A. You're kind of playing into their technology needs, assuming they're younger in age, but you're playing into the technology aspect of it but kind of gamifying it, making it fun. I wish I had corporate training like this. It was usually you're stuck in a room with a PowerPoint when somebody who was bored oh, that's brutal.
Speaker 1:Or stuck on a zoom call, which is probably. Yeah, so this this is sort of the you know Gen Z environment for learning, so really interesting stuff. Congrats EY Calltower Company I know really well. They're completely revolutionizing the way people connect, collaborate, the way enterprises communicate from you know traditional old-school PBXs to you know Teams, environments for voice and video and messaging across borders. Really great company and well-deserved.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was actually out in Salt Lake a few weeks ago and met with these guys. I did not have any impact on their nomination or their scoring, but super interesting, and they are rapidly developing to keep in, like keeping track with Microsoft and all the other guys, and so it's they're really doing a very cool job integrating all this stuff together.
Speaker 1:Yeah, If you work at a big you know, industrial company.
Speaker 1:You've got, you know, 20 year phones, 20 year old phones, on your desk and voicemail boxes. You know you need to move to something like call tower because it's uh, it's, it's totally modern and refreshed, updated for communications and collaboration contact center. Even so, very cool. I Tara IOT. This is a company I wasn't familiar with but, um, you know, I remember my nextel radio back in the day and the push to talk and that was like the cool application for mobile, you know. And so walkie-talkies sort of opened the door to what we have now, which are, you know, industrial-grade, ruggedized devices for mission-critical use cases. You know, construction and first responders and firemen and firefighters and all the kind of the real jobs, russ, the jobs that we don't do, but the people who are out?
Speaker 1:in the field, actually doing real work, not sitting on the internet all day.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the guys saving lives and women saving lives out there. This is who that's for and it's so cool that this is still a thing. I remember ruggedized stuff and it. It kind of seemed to go away and it seems like our phones break all the time anyway. Now and these guys are are bringing back all that coolness of nextel and all the ruggedized stuff for the you know first responders and construction and guys doing real work and calluses on their hands yeah, I haven't had a callus for three years.
Speaker 1:So good to Highter. I keep up supporting the frontline workers. And more TD again. Big brands, immersive learning TD Bank is my bank, just FYI. They do a good job. But imagine that training in VR. I mean, this is almost like we're living in science fiction, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, Another again smart application, Super smart. Let's not bore everybody to death, you know. Let's get in the branch, you know, for me too, it's one of those things where you're getting consistency. You know, in doing something like this, You're getting a consistent training throughout your company. So this is really cool. Great application, great use of technology.
Speaker 1:Yeah, vr again, for you know, consumer has sort of been middling at best. But this is a real ROI, a real value add to trainers, training programs and it's being used across so many industries. You know, like UPS is training their drivers, and here we have TD Bank training customer service and employees. Really cool stuff. Doctors, nurses, learning in VR. It's pretty amazing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we knew it had to go somewhere. Right, it was too good, not to find a home.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, that's for sure. Next we have a game. I wasn't familiar with this game, but I'm sure your kids, my kids, some kids know about it pretty well Roblox. But here it's kind of taking it to a new level, teaching financial literacy something I wish I taught my children. Sadly, they're having to learn it on their own, so this is a really cool use case. What can you say about it?
Speaker 2:This is the same thing. Like now they take kind of that technology model. They were using it inside at TD doing training. Now they said you know how can we 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 data center company, roblox is it? Uh, they do a lot of data. Um, but yeah, it's, it's totally genius. Get the kids in there early, get them in their own environment, where they like to be, in that roblox world and and see what happens you know, so fun, great way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this is not a, not your father's bank.
Speaker 2:No, 18 million impressions too, like that's a pretty big hit. If that's North America, that's a pretty big hit, I would say.
Speaker 1:Yeah, very cool and the future of ed tech and education, so really interesting. Verdazo Enterprise Tech Analytics for oil and gas Drill, baby drill. So we got technology meets energy production. You know much needed enhancements and improvements to the way we analyze and deliver. 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 just never otherwise hear of in the general public.
Speaker 2:So yeah, and I I've got a brother in oil and gas and I can tell you every drop counts and these guys are making sure every drop counts. So that is a very competitive sector, as we all know.
Speaker 1:That is a very competitive sector, as we all know, interesting. So next on the list very unreliability, ai-powered game changer aviation. There's a lot happening obviously in aviation and we need solutions right this one is super cool Logistics and reliability. Tell us more about what it's bringing to the aviation industry.
Speaker 2:This one is super cool. I read through this nomination when it came in. So these guys are basically looking at all the data from your plane and checking and doing all the diagnostic reporting, looking at all that stuff and using AI to figure out what's going to break when, so they know what to fix before anything else and before stuff breaks. This is genius as far as I'm concerned. This is, you know, this is like you know, pre-health care for your plane.
Speaker 1:That is so cool and you know we're so behind in aviation general aviation and we need technology to bring us up to speed. So what a great use case. Can't wait to have them on really all of the winners on my podcast. So that's one of the exciting benefits, and I think we got to the end of the winners list, but there were so many more great nominations. So, russ, what happens next? What's next for the winners and what's next in your program of award events?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So for the winners, we're going to start.
Speaker 2:We're starting to promote them and promote their wins all over social media and so that's what we'll do, and we'll be getting certificates and trophies out and all that good stuff and press releases are going out and all the news is being shared and everybody's doing that stuff. So you know, kudos to all these companies. Some really cool uses of technology. I always say that it's the applications of technology that are cool, it's not the technologies 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 finding a home and training and those types of applications. So it's really cool to see all these companies submit and get rewarded. That's exciting.
Speaker 1:And they'll certainly get my attention on my show, my podcast. I can't wait to dive in with each of them. And what's next? What's up with you over the next few weeks and months? Describe what's happening at BI Group.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, we've got awards programs almost every month. So, coming up, we have Sustainability Awards, which is one of our oldest programs. It's a big program. So if you're in the sustainability space, if you're doing cool things with sustainability in your company or have projects, initiatives or people you want to reward, check that out. And we have another program that we've actually expanded this year. It's called the Sales and Marketing Awards. We shortened it this year. It's known as the SAMI and we expanded it this year. It was mainly focused on sales and marketing technology, and we expanded it this year to be all the creative as well, and so we've got creative campaigns, marketing campaigns, sales campaigns. We're doing a big push there and we've already seen some pretty cool nominations come in for that one. So we've always got something going.
Speaker 1:You do. You're prolific. It's amazing to see how much you have going on. If you're a large enterprise, a blue chip company, you want to have your own awards program. How does that work? Is that something you can help facilitate?
Speaker 2:Yeah, we've just started this and we call it recognition as a service, or we may be changing the name to the case study machine. Because what this is? It's really interesting. I spent about 30 years in corporate marketing and B2B tech and I always saw these nominations and you're like this is basically a case study. It's like what went right, what went wrong, how'd you fix it, what'd you do in the results? And so what we do now is build awards programs for companies who want to be thought leaders in the space, and basically what they get out of it is tons of nominations. They get to reward those people and then they get all those case studies out of it and they get to hear how their customers are using their products. And that's what it's all about. It's about really finding the use cases where stuff works.
Speaker 1:That's amazing. I can't wait to dive into some of those opportunities. And yeah, thanks again for hosting and facilitating the we Love Tech Awards it was amazing to be a part of and I can't wait for next year We'll have to up our game, maybe starting with the kickoff at CES again.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. And just to let everybody know we are doing this next year. We're looking at about the same timeline. I think the deadline is going to be about March 27th next year. So put in your books and your calendar this next year we're looking at about the same timeline. I think the deadline is going to be about March 27th next year. So put in your books and your calendar for next year Nomination deadline around March 27th. We'll get the website updated as soon as everything's finalized. This has been a total blast.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know it's been fun learning about all these companies and I continue to learn as we have them on the show and learn more about their, their vision and mission. And thanks, wes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. Thank you, evan, and thanks for hosting.
Speaker 1:Yeah, thanks everyone for listening, watching and engaging with the awards winners on the social feeds that you're you're following here. Thanks, take care. Bye.