Not Just a Buzzword: AI Will Play an Essential Role in Your Customer Communications

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Part 1 of an interview with Steve Biancaniello, CEO of Messagepoint; read Part 2 here!

Artificial Intelligence has become a growing component of Customer Communications and the overall experience. Software vendors have started to integrate into their software offerings with some companies further along than others.

Messagepoint has taken a leadership role and has put AI front and center in their offerings, so I wanted to touch base with them and get their thoughts on the subject. What is AI, the value proposition, what should organizations be thinking about, and what recommendations our friends at Messagepoint have.

Steve Biancaniello, CEO of Messagepoint was kind enough to take the time and share his thoughts.

This is a two part interview. Part two is available here.

Skip: Steve, thank you for taking the time.

Steve: It’s my pleasure. Thank you for asking.

Skip: So let’s get right into it. Why is AI important to customer communications and customer experiences?

Steve: First, I think its important to define what AI is. AI is essentially a technology that can learn and perform cognitive functions/tasks independently. This enables the intelligent processing of raw data at scale to perform any number of tasks.

AI adds speed, power, and scale to the processing of complex problems that would be extremely difficult, tedious, and repetitive to accomplish manually or with normal software tools. It also automates repetitive, labor-intensive cranial tasks, recognizes patterns that are not obvious to humans, and can democratize expert knowledge.

This can quickly translate into tangible business benefits, such as lower costs, improved quality of communications, faster and more context-specific responses to customers, and even more intelligent offers to customers.

Skip: Where do you see organizations getting the greatest value from AI in the area of customer communications?

Steve: There are lots of points within the customer experience today where AI already plays a role. For example, online personal shopping assistants powered by IBM Watson, chatbots that handle customer service inquiries, or targeting of personalized offers via email.

But when it comes to customer communications, we feel the greatest value lies in managing and optimizing content. There are a number of thorny problems with content – the sheer volume that most enterprise-scale organizations have and the slight, subtle variations that lead to redundancies and

duplications, the need for the same content to be published across all the different channels through which we communicate with customers. With its ability to handle scale and process information quickly, AI seems perfectly matched to help address those challenges.

That’s why we built The Messagepoint Advanced Rationalization and Content Intelligence Engine, known as MARCIE. MARCIE automates and improves key processes relating to content management, optimization, and migration, all at scale. Think of it as an intelligent assistant for content authors when creating and managing content and communications.

Skip: What should organizations be thinking of when it comes to managing and optimizing content with AI?

Steve: Content operations at scale are very complex, especially when you’re dealing with customer communications. Much of the content leveraged for customer communications is still stuck in old systems that require programming, deep tribal knowledge, and manual processes to work with it in anyway. These systems represent key barriers that stop organizations from being agile and responsive.

First look for content management tasks that you can automate to simplify and scale operations. A good example of this is using AI to analyze content and tag it with the appropriate metadata. Humans are notoriously bad at doing these kinds of tasks at scale.

AI can also perform functions that require understanding the meaning of the content. This formerly required human intervention to make judgements but AI models are becoming increasingly effective here. Given this, it also makes sense to look for ways in which AI can help you improve the quality of your content. For example, you could support a content optimization effort by identifying content that conveys the wrong sentiment.

Some AI-based capabilities will also identify content that performs better, or which content is most relevant to a customer to truly deliver on the right message, at the right moment, to the right person

With MARCIE we have chosen to focus first on enforcing brand guidelines, reading comprehension, sentiment, and consolidating duplicate and similar content. As organizations expand the ways they think about managing and optimizing content, MARCIE will also expand their capabilities by supporting additional AI-assisted content management use cases.

Skip: What recommendations do you have for someone looking at a solution that promotes the use of AI?

Steve: Recognize what you still want humans to control and what you want the machine to control. Many AI solutions learn over time and that is a great thing, but it needs relevant data to learn from to understand nuances in your own communications. This is particularly true when the tasks are complex, such as writing new correspondence. If you automate too much of the content creation process for example, you might suddenly hit the wrong note and end up with a customer experience problem for the sake of efficiency. A solution has to strike the right balance between providing insights that enable more intelligent action and full automation. This can be achieved when AI-assisted authoring is seamless, intuitive, instantaneous, while not restraining the expertise of the content authors.

Skip: Thank you once again. I am sure our readers will benefit from your insight. Best of luck to Messagepoint and thank you and Messagepoint for your support of Xplor and the industry.

Steve: You are welcome and of course if anyone has any questions and/or would like more information they can feel free to contact us.

Look for part two of the interview with Steve Biancaniello, CEO of Messagepoint in the next issue of E-Document News.

About Messagepoint
Messagepoint is a leading provider of customer communications management software. Only Messagepoint harnesses AI-powered Content Intelligence to automate and simplify the process of migrating, optimizing, authoring, and managing complex customer communications for non-technical (business) users. Our customers rely on our award-winning platform to consistently deliver exceptional, highly personalized customer communications across all platforms and channels. For more information, visit www.messagepoint.com.

#XPLOR20 to Feature Antoine Dupont as Keynote Speaker

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Lutz, FL – August 13, 2020 – Xplor International has announced that on Tuesday, September 29th at 10:05am, keynote speaker Antoine Dupont will kick-off Xplor’s first ever virtual conference event. His session is titled ‘The Huge Power of Small: How To Create An Amazing Customer Experience That Drives Results.’ XPLOR20 will take place over four days, starting on September 29th and continuing on October 1st, 6th and 8th. Attendees can register here: www.cvent.com/d/wyq4q8.

Antoine is a recognized expert and strategist in digital marketing. He’s an award-winning marketing agency owner and a speaker at national and international conferences. His experience includes 18 years in marketing and 15 years in the hospitality industry.

His first job out of college was working for Gordon Ramsey in London at Le Gavroche. His past clients include such notable companies as Office Depot, Unilever, The Sports Authority, and Habitat for Humanity. Recent bookings and appearances include CMC19, PRINT19, DigitalSummit19, AICPA19, MPISES19, Florida Restaurant Association, John L Scott Realty, CoachRealtors19 and Digitalium 2018 (Romania), among others.

During his presentation, Antoine will show us how disruption is all around us, that these are truly amazing times and things are moving faster than we ever thought possible. His presentation gives insights into building a business in these times, in amazing ways.  He will show how to unleash the power of tiny actions that make a significant and positive difference to your business instantly. The ideas cost nothing to implement, yet the impact they have is profound, and can be put into action immediately.

Antoine takes you on a deep dive into what he calls ‘Moments of CONNECTION,’ moments that radically redefine how you do business.

“Antoine has contributed to our events in the past. His sessions were filled with great content, always engaging and very well-received,” says Skip Henk, President and CEO of Xplor International. “This keynote is a unique opportunity to leverage the power of small to grow your business. This is a do-not-miss session.”

The keynote takes place Tuesday, September 29th at 10:05 am ET.  For more information regarding XPLOR20 or to access the registration site, please visit www.xplor.org/XPLOR20. Questions should be directed to Xplor HQ via email at events@xplor.org or by phone at +1-813-949-6170, between the hours of 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM (ET), Monday through Friday.

About Xplor International
Xplor International is a not-for-profit association that provides thought leadership to the customer communications industry. As a community, Xplor provides advocacy, education, training, mentoring and networking opportunities.

Our members are decision makers and recommenders who are involved in the conception, design, implementation production and delivery of multi-channel client, member and customer communications.

Xplor’s mission is to enhance organizational success and advance the careers of our members by providing research, publications, industry certification, professional development, web-based events, and conference programming. Xplor International has its worldwide headquarters in Lutz, Florida, with affiliated offices around the world. Further information is available at www.xplor.org.

Facebook: facebook.com/XplorInternational
Twitter: twitter.com/Xplor_Int or @Xplor_Int

Xplor International Media Contact:
Chad Henk
Director of Marketing
+1-813-949-6171
Chad@xplor.org

Registration Now Open for #XPLOR20 Virtual Conference

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Program will include general sessions, panels, educational sessions, exhibits and networking

Lutz, FL – August 6, 2020 – Xplor International has announced that registration is now open for their first ever virtual annual conference event. XPLOR20 will take place over four days, starting on September 29th and continuing on October 1st, 6th and 8th.

Tweet this: @Xplor_Int announces the #XPLOR20 Virtual Conference Registration is now open! You can attend the 4-day event for as low as $49 USD! Register today! #CCM #CX #Data #Technology http://bit.ly/3fEaZd7

The virtual event will feature the same great line up of general sessions, panels, educational sessions, exhibits and networking as the St. Pete Beach event. Sessions will be delivered by end users, analysts, consultants, industry experts, and vendors who will share relevant topics, best practices and trends in the customer communications industry.

The conference program features four areas of focus, each with a unique blend of general and breakout sessions that address best practices and processes driving the CCM industry. The four focus areas include Compliance, Customer Experience, Data and Technology.

For more information regarding XPLOR20, or to access the registration site, please visit www.xplor.org/XPLOR20. Questions should be directed to Xplor HQ via email at skip@xplor.org or by phone at +1-813-949-6170, between the hours of 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM (ET), Monday through Friday.

About Xplor International
Xplor International is a not-for-profit association that provides thought leadership to the customer communications industry. As a community, Xplor provides advocacy, education, training, mentoring and networking opportunities.

Our members are decision makers and recommenders who are involved in the conception, design, implementation production and delivery of multi-channel client, member and customer communications.

Xplor’s mission is to enhance organizational success and advance the careers of our members by providing research, publications, industry certification, professional development, web-based events, and conference programming. Xplor International has its worldwide headquarters in Lutz, Florida, with affiliated offices around the world. Further information is available at www.xplor.org.

Facebook: facebook.com/XplorInternational
Twitter: twitter.com/Xplor_Int or @Xplor_Int

Xplor International Media Contact:
Chad Henk
Director of Marketing
+1-813-949-6171
Chad@xplor.org

#XPLOR20 is Going Virtual

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Program will include general sessions, panels, educational sessions, exhibits and networking

Lutz, FL — July 30, 2020: Xplor International, the worldwide electronic document systems association, today announced that #XPLOR20, which had been scheduled for September 17-19, 2020 at the TradeWinds Island Grand in St. Pete Beach, Florida, will go virtual

Tweet this: #XPLOR20 goes virtual! The updated event will be broken up among 4 days beginning Sept 29th and proceeding into Oct on the 1st, 6th, and 8th. The event will still contain the same sessions, panels, exhibits and networking, just with a little social distancing! bit.ly/3hKj55y

The event will take place over four days, September 29, October 1, 6 and 8, and will include the same great line up of general sessions, panels, educational sessions, exhibits and networking as the St. Pete Beach event. Sessions will be delivered by end-users, analysts, consultants, industry experts, and vendors who will share relevant topics, best practices and trends in the customer communications industry.

“We spent a great deal of time researching various platforms and professional companies to host and facilitate the event,” says Skip Henk, President/CEO of Xplor International. “The platform we selected has great graphics, dashboard and the functionality are amazing. It will significantly differentiate #XPLOR20 from other virtual events.”

The conference site will go live by 7/31.

Questions should be directed to Xplor HQ via email at skip@xplor.org or by phone at +1-813-949-6170, between the hours of 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM (ET), Monday through Friday.

About Xplor International
Xplor International is a not-for-profit association that provides thought leadership to the customer communications industry. As a community, Xplor provides advocacy, education, training, mentoring and networking opportunities.

Our members are decision makers and recommenders who are involved in the conception, design, implementation production and delivery of multi-channel client, member and customer communications.

Xplor’s mission is to enhance organizational success and advance the careers of our members by providing research, publications, industry certification, professional development, web-based events, and conference programming. Xplor International has its worldwide headquarters in Lutz, Florida, with affiliated offices around the world. Further information is available at www.xplor.org.

Facebook: facebook.com/XplorInternational
Twitter: twitter.com/Xplor_Int or @Xplor_Int

Xplor International Media Contact:
Chad Henk
Director of Marketing
+1-813-949-6171
Chad@xplor.org

Gimbel & Associates Releases Printer’s Guide to Better Business

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GIMBEL & ASSOCIATES
400 Garden City Plaza Suite 405
Garden City, NY 11530-3362
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Garden City, NY June 1, 2020

Gimbel & Associates, the well-known printing industry management consulting firm, has published a compendium of articles designed to help their clients and other companies in the printing business develop strategies for protecting and growing their businesses. Roger P. Gimbel’s Guide to Better Business is full of helpful guidance, tips, and resources.

The downloadable eBook includes sections on Business Strategy, Marketing, Sales Acceleration, Production, and more. This 100-plus page comprehensive resource is available to print professionals at no charge.

“Companies in the printing business need new strategies, especially after COVID-19,” says company president and author Roger Gimbel, EDP, “This is the time for printing companies to assess their business models. The way they do business with customers is changing, and we decided it was the ideal time to create the guide.”

The Guide to Better Business is a collection of articles Gimbel & Associates has produced to help companies create successful businesses today and as business recovers from the pandemic shutdown. Printers will find the eBook contains valuable information they can put to use in their own organizations among titles such as “Data Security Challenges in Your Print Environment”, “Enhancing Your Communication Skills”, and “Making More Money with Mail”.

Print company managers tend to focus on delivering the projects of the day to their customers. They don’t spend enough time planning how to improve their businesses. When the economy picks up, print companies will be extra busy. Right now is a great time to browse through the guide and jot down strategic ideas relevant to your organization.

ABOUT GIMBEL & ASSOCIATES

Gimbel & Associates is an international management consulting firm working to ignite business growth through digital technologies. As an independent company, they offer clients customized consulting services to achieve their sales and marketing goals. With an extensive background in print services, print production, digital, marketing communications, database management, training, and direct marketing, Gimbel & Associates helps their clients accomplish their growth and efficiency goals.

An Interview with Harvey Gross on upcoming Customer Communications Virtual Summit

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By: Skip Henk, President and CEO of Xplor International

Xplor Elite sponsor and longtime supporter Crawford Technologies is hosting a virtual customer communications summit on May 6th outlining strategies for staying in touch with your customers.

I had the opportunity to speak with Harvey Gross, Vice President of Products for Crawford to learn a bit more on their decision to put on the event and what people can expect.

Skip: Harvey, what is Crawford’s purpose in putting on the Customer Communications Virtual Summit?

Harvey: Well Skip, in a nutshell – we kind of missed getting together with our colleagues in the industry ad hearing about the new things that everyone has been working on.

Skip: This whole virtual world is coming to the forefront, on a lighter note, what should one wear to this event?

Harvey: This is a really important question given the current environment we are all living in right now. Let me share the good news – what you wear is totally up to you! Be as comfy as you want! You don’t have to wear a suit and tie, a name badge and what’s even more important – there’s no need to worry about social distancing, so you don’t have to wear a mask. That is unless you have a really cool mask that you like to wear around your home or office.

Skip: What is the Customer Communications Virtual Summit and why should you attend?

Harvey: Another good question. While many of the industry events you were planning to attend this spring and summer have either been cancelled or postponed, it doesn’t mean that you have to miss out on gaining the insights from recognized industry experts, customers and enterprise leaders about the technologies and best practices that can help organizations grow and thrive. And to be quite honest, we here at Crawford Technologies miss having the opportunity to share these experiences with you and we know our colleagues do as well. But we didn’t want this to be just be another invitation to a webinar.

We decided that the best way to get everyone together would be to host a full day, complimentary Customer Communications Virtual Summit where our industry experts can share their knowledge and experiences related to improving customer experience, understanding and achieving regulatory compliance and optimizing customer communications across 3 tracks – Output Management, eDelivery and Document Accessibility. With 30 sessions focused on thought leadership, case studies, user experiences and collaboration opportunities, the Virtual Summit is more than just another webinar – it is an ideal and timely opportunity to easily stay on top of the latest industry trends and topics.

Skip: Who will be speaking?

Harvey: We are thrilled to have an amazing lineup of the most respected customer communications industry experts and enterprise leaders for this event. Our Keynote speaker, Matt Swain, managing director and practice lead at Broadridge Communications and Customer Experience (CX) Consulting, will share his perspective on the future of communications relative to business priorities and customer preferences in the wake of COVID-19 and how some temporary measures are likely to morph into new norms for communications in the future. Attendees will also have the opportunity to hear from Kaspar

Roos, founder and CEO of Aspire Customer Communications Services; Gina Ferrara, senior analyst at Madison Advisors; Pat McGrew, managing director of The McGrew Group; Laney Feingold, lawyer and writer at the Law Offices of Lainey Feingold; and Pina D’Intino, founder of Aequum Global Access.

Our customers will also be sharing their insights and strategies for optimizing customer communications including John Slaney from Content Critical Solutions, Kathy Lovell from Regions Bank, Birkir Gunnarssen from Truist and Ken Schmidt from Ameritas. And you will also hear from our partners – BlueCrest, Canon, BCC Software, Nuxeo, Delphax Solutions, enChoice, Microsoft, Pitney Bowes Software, Deque, AO Docs and Open Access Technologies.

Skip: Any closing remarks?

Harvey: Make sure to check out the agenda and register for this exciting industry event. And if you need another reason to attend? You definitely won’t have tired, aching, blistered feet at the end of the day.

Register today and I hope to “see” you at our first Customer Communications Virtual Summit on May 6th.

Until next interview! Take care.

skip_Henk_Photo_2011

 

Skip Henk, EDP
President/CEO
Xplor International

Dealing with the Pandemic and Making Today a More Productive Day

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Antoine DuPont is a recognized expert and strategist in digital marketing. He’s an award-winning marketing agency owner and a speaker at national & international conferences including a keynote presentation at #XPLOR20 September 17-19 in St. Pete Beach Florida.

Recently, Antoine shared some thoughts on dealing with the pandemic and making today a more productive day (or at least he hopes).

From Antoine:

Some days are productive and some aren’t.

Yesterday wasn’t productive. I kept getting distracted by  Facebook or by the latest news article on the pandemic.

So I went in the kitchen looking for a snack. I kept telling myself “you’re not hungry, you’re just distracted & anxious”. I made myself a sandwich anyway. Just because.

Today will be a more productive day! I hope…

One of the simple ways I found to stay focused is to take one simple project at a time, like “create 2 short videos” or “redesign my landing page”, “write one blog”

Many of my friends lately have reached out to ask me about the tools I use to run my business. Below are ALL my favorite tools and what I use them for

So if you have good intentions on being productive today (or next week), here you go:
(not in any particular order of preference)

  • InVideo: to create a quick animation or video on the fly
  • RemoveBG : to remove the background on any picture
  • TubeBuddy : to get intelligence on how best to win with my YouTube videos
  • SEM Rush : to get intelligence on keywords and traffic on my website (and my competitors)
  • Custom Thumbnails : when I don’t have time to create my own thumbnails
  • Canva : when I need a graphic done quickly on a tight budget
  • AnswerThePublic: to know what question people ask on the internet with any keyword
  • Zoom : when I need to Zoom with people 😉
  • Basecamp : to manage all our projects
  • Moz Local : to win at the local SEO level
  • Buzz Sumo : to get intelligence on which content is going to perform best
  • Rev : to quickly get a video transcript
  • Videvo: for free stock video footage and clips
  • Death To Stock : for unique non-stock photos and images
  • GT Metrix: to check the load speed of any website
  • Splasheo : to customize a video for social media with captions

Have a happy productive day. Cheers!

Stay safe & be well. Hope to meet you in St. Pete Beach.

Antoine Dupont
Sales & Marketing Speaker + Consultant
W 561-272-8567

M 561-441-5478
antoine@katapult.biz
Speaking: www.antoinedupont.com
Join: www.facebook.com/groups/antoinedupont
Subscribe: www.youtube.com/antoinedupont

For more information on #XPLOR20 please visit: http://bit.ly/3eewLVH

An Interview with Kaspar Roos of Aspire CCS

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By: Skip Henk, President/CEO of Xplor International

I have known Kaspar for almost a decade and he is the consummate professional. His enthusiasm and dedication to the industry have made him a recognized expert, consultant, and thought-leader in the Customer Communications Management (CCM) industry.

After leaving InfoTrends’, where he lead the global production workflow and customer communications advisory service, Kaspar founded Aspire, specializing in the CCM and Digital Customer Experience (DCX) industries.

Aspire is working on a new study that deals with “How to be successful with digital and omni-channel services at this time of deep disruption”, so I wanted to speak with him about the study and what to expect.

Skip: Kaspar, thank you for taking the time to speak with me. I am intrigued by your new study. Tell me a little about it and what can recipients expect to learn from it?

Kaspar: Obviously, the industry has been on a track toward digitization for two decades now. We’ve seen postal volumes plunge precipitously in Europe and North America since the turn of the last century.

Alongside the march toward digital, the other obvious trend is the shift in the balance of power in the B2C communications market in favor of the consumer. Customer experience has become such an important metric that improving it and perfecting omni-channel messaging have become the top communications priorities for businesses worldwide.

So, with that in mind, when we conceived this research study very early in the year, we were committed to surveying consumers and businesses in the US and Canada to find out what “next gen” use cases and applications were gaining traction in the real world so that service providers could invest accordingly. Of course, in the weeks since its inception, the multi-client has taken on even more pressing relevance than we could have predicted.

Skip: I assume you are speaking about COVID-19?

Kaspar: Yes, North America has only been in COVID-19 “lockdown” for three or four weeks — Europe for a bit longer — but the digital reality has arrived. Changes that seemed unthinkable have found fast roots. Schools and universities have closed and set up for remote learning. Doctors are conducting tele-appointments. WebEx stocks are soaring as businesses use them for virtual meetings and grandparents in quarantine use them to connect with grandchildren they can’t visit. Anyone would have thought those kind of changes would have taken months, if not years, to set up, but the threat of a global pandemic pushed up the timetable to just a few days. What we’ve witnessed is a significant acceleration of the digital evolution.

It reminds me of the Canadian postal strike that sped up digital adoption and dealt postal volumes a blow from which they’ve never recovered. This event is magnitudes larger and more impactful. Whether social distancing measures last for three months or eighteen, these new ways of interacting are changing the model and altering the ecosystem. This research will help us quantify those changes so we can help providers understand what that means for their business and operating models.

Skip: What’s your timeline for this research? Will it be affected by any economic downturn?

Kaspar: We’re planning to field throughout most of the month of May, so we’re asking for early bird subscriptions before Friday, April 24. Participants signing up before that date will have the opportunity to review a draft of the survey questionnaire and offer feedback before it goes live. After the results have been analyzed, we will deliver a written report of the findings in June and schedule remote briefings with every subscriber thereafter.

We know that the economic uncertainty has people scrambling, but surveys take time to develop and field, and these questions need to be asked, now more than ever. No matter what the economic outlook, communications will continue — they will just be communications in a new reality and on a different mix of channels and through emerging applications and use cases. Business users will need to own communications and manage them from wherever they’re working. Providers will also be facing new competition. Traditional players will need to evolve because digital agencies, business consultancies, solutions integrators and software vendors will all be pursuing the omnichannel opportunity.

What will they all need to do to be successful in the new paradigm? It’s an important question. It’s THE question. That’s why we’re moving now. We have to capture this data while it is most relevant.

Skip: So, what will this study entail?

Kaspar: We’re taking a two-step approach to help service providers transform for digital success. First, will gather the latest market intelligence by surveying 2,000 consumers and 300 businesses in the US and Canada. We want to know what experiences consumers value and what challenges businesses are facing in delivering them. What are these businesses’ investment plans and what do they need from providers? Second, based on these findings and how they rate on the scale of digital maturity, we’ll help subscribers navigate their way to success in this new paradigm by providing input on business planning and strategy so they can align people, process, and technology to create competitive value and differentiate themselves in the market.

Skip: Kaspar, thank you for your time an insight. I look forward to seeing the finished product. Any closing thoughts?

Kaspar: Thank you for the opportunity. If people are interested in subscribing, have questions, or would like additional information please reach out to Paul Abdool (paul.abdool@aspireccs.com) or Will Morgan (will.morgan@aspireccs.com).

Aspire Customer Communications Services
The Junction
Station Road
Watford
WD17 1ET
United Kingdom

Tel: +44 1923 605 526
Email: info@aspireccs.com

About Kaspar Roos: Kaspar is a leading expert, consultant, and recognized thought-leader in the Customer Communications Management (CCM) industry. He is the CEO and founder of Aspire, a boutique consulting firm specializing in the CCM and Digital Customer Experience (DCX) industries. Kaspar has more than 15 years of experience in the CCM space and is a regular speaker at industry conferences and events. He has worked with every leading CCM technology vendor and many leading service providers to help them with strategy and business development.

In June 2018 Kaspar spearheaded the launch of The Aspire Leaderboard, the industry’s first interactive CCM vendor positioning portal. Designed to take the complexity out of CCM decision-making, the Leaderboard features independent vendor evaluations, supported by dynamic filtering capabilities, alongside the latest CCM news, insight and events.

Prior to establishing Aspire, Kaspar was responsible for running InfoTrends’ global production workflow and customer communications advisory service. Here he provided market research, insights and strategic consulting services that helped leading technology vendors and service providers understand the shifts in the customer communications and workflow markets.

Kaspar received a Masters of Science (MSC) degree in Industrial Engineering and Management from the University of Twente (Netherlands), with specializations in information systems and business-to-business marketing.

Xplor International Announces Re-Scheduling of 2020 Event

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#XPLOR20 is rescheduled for Sept 17-19, 2020 in St. Pete Beach, FL

Lutz, FL — March 25, 2020: Xplor International, the worldwide electronic document systems association, today announced the re-scheduling of their 2020 annual conference. #XPLOR20 has been rescheduled for September 17-19, 2020 at the TradeWinds Island Grand in St. Pete Beach, Florida.

Tweet this: @Xplor_Int announces re-scheduling of #XPLOR20 to September 17-19th at the TradeWinds Island Grand Resort (@TWResorts) in St. Pete Beach, FL http://bit.ly/2yctJAN

Known as The Customer Communications Conference, the two-and-a-half day event brings together end-users, analysts, consultants, industry experts, and vendors who will share relevant topics, best practices and trends in the customer communications industry.

“We have been able to re-schedule the conference for later this year with the support of TradeWinds Island Grand Resort,” says Skip Henk, President/CEO of Xplor International.  “Everything will remain the same – great sessions, 24 great vendors, daily networking at a great location, just a different date.”

Xplor’s Conference is known for its educational sessions and networking. The 2020 event will continue that tradition.

Questions should be directed to Xplor HQ via email at events@xplor.org or by phone at +1-813-949-6170, between the hours of 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM (ET), Monday through Friday.

About Xplor International
Xplor International is a not-for-profit association that provides thought leadership to the customer communications industry. As a community, Xplor provides advocacy, education, training, mentoring and networking opportunities.

Our members are decision makers and recommenders who are involved in the conception, design, implementation production and delivery of multi-channel client, member and customer communications.

Xplor’s mission is to enhance organizational success and advance the careers of our members by providing research, publications, industry certification, professional development, web-based events, and conference programming. Xplor International has its worldwide headquarters in Lutz, Florida, with affiliated offices around the world. Further information is available at www.xplor.org.

Facebook: facebook.com/XplorInternational
Twitter: twitter.com/Xplor_Int or @Xplor_Int

Xplor International Media Contact:
Chad Henk
Director of Marketing
+1-813-949-6171
Chad@xplor.org

Xplor Announces 2020 Application and Technology of the Year Award Winners

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Recipients to be recognized at XPLOR20 in St. Pete Beach on April 14th

Lutz, FL — March 11, 2020 – Xplor International, the worldwide electronic document systems association, today announced the recipients of its 2020 Technology and Application of the Year Awards. The awards will be presented at a ceremony Tuesday, April 14, during the XPLOR20 event in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Application of the Year Award:

The Application of the Year Award is presented to an individual, company or organization to recognize outstanding achievement in the imaginative application of current technology and/or unique implementation of existing document and communication systems.

Xplor will award two honorable mentions in addition to the 2020 winner.

  • The winner of the 2020 Xplor Application of the Year Award is NEPS, a Taylor Company, for Empowering Customers with Simplified Self-Service Solutions by implementing their award winning NSite Platform with the Editor self-service UI and utilizing their Clear Communications practice, driven by the LUNATM  The Simplified Self-Service Solutions empowered their customers’ non-technical employees to create and manage their customer communications and maintain ownership of their business. The Clear analysis and transformation services drove an improved look and feel, the use of plain language and significantly reduced the number of working templates, optimizing internal delivery from months to weeks while converting a large percentage of customer applications from paper to digital. 
  • An Honorable Mention is being awarded to AFP Habitat and BlueRush for their implementation of IndiVideo platform. AFP Habitat observed a 65% increase in account openings and contributions from viewers who watched the IndiVideo versus customers that did not watch. 70% of the viewers watched 100% of the video, fully engaging with the experience and 90% of consumers reported increased satisfaction and better understanding of their pension statement.
  • A second Honorable Mention is being awarded to Content Critical Solutions, Inc. and Crawford Technologies, Inc. for their implementation and integration of PRO Conductor. The implementation has facilitated total control over production at CCS’s three plants enabling major efficiency improvements reducing costs significantly. The improved document integrity has allowed CCS to meet its Six Sigma standards, and a 200% reduction in their key metric job rejection rate.

Technology of the Year Award:

The Technology of the Year Award honors an individual, company or organization that has conceived and developed an original concept leading to a significant advancement in the industry.  This can be a new program, product or technology that notably enhances the capabilities of document and communication systems.

Like the Application of the Year award, Xplor will present two honorable mentions, in addition to the winner of the award.

  • The winner of the 2020 Xplor Technology of the Year is being awarded to Crawford Technologies for their GoMobile product. Launched in 2019 GoMobile creates and delivers customer communications in an HTML5 format from any PDF file, creating responsive, mobile-ready communications without requiring changes to upstream document composition or archiving workflows.
  • An Honorable Mention is being awarded to CommonLook for their CommonLook PDF, a premier tool for testing, remediation and certification of documents for accessibility compliance whose benefits include validation against Section 508, WCAG 2.0, PDF/UA 1.0 and HHS standards as well as a host of other features.
  • A second Honorable Mention is being awarded to Compart for their DocBridge Impress product. DocBridge Impress reduces costs and time, allowing for a steady distribution across all channels, leading to an uninterrupted user experience. The platform allows seamless integration of new and emerging channels that can be scaled to any size and allows future digital channels to be integrated as needed.

“The 2020 awards were very difficult for our judges who had to pare down the submissions to only three award recipients in each category,” said Skip Henk, EDP, President and CEO of Xplor International. “A big congratulations to all of our 2020 award recipients; I look forward to seeing all the recipients at XPLOR20.”

For more information regarding XPLOR20, or to access the registration site, please visit www.xplor.org/XPLOR20. Questions should be directed to events@xplor.org or +1-813-949-6170. Vendors interested in being a sponsor or exhibitor can contact Xplor HQ, at +1-813-949-6170 or via email at sales@xplor.org.

About Xplor International
Xplor International is a not-for-profit association that provides thought leadership to the customer communications industry. As a community, Xplor provides advocacy, education, training, mentoring and networking opportunities.

Our members are decision makers and recommenders who are involved in the conception, design, implementation production and delivery of multi-channel client, member and customer communications.

Xplor’s mission is to enhance organizational success and advance the careers of our members by providing research, publications, industry certification, professional development, web-based events, and conference programming. Xplor International has its worldwide headquarters in Lutz, Florida, with affiliated offices around the world. Further information is available at www.xplor.org.

Facebook: facebook.com/XplorInternational
Twitter: twitter.com/Xplor_Int or @Xplor_Int

Xplor International Media Contact:
Chad Henk
Director of Marketing
+1-813-949-6171
Chad@xplor.org