As of March 12, 2020, a novel form of coronavirus known as COVID-19 has infected at least 118,000 people and killed more than 4,000 worldwide. Yet up until that date, many businesses the world over had not yet put business continuity plans into place. Concerned this stemmed from an “infodemic” of not-quite-accurate information, the World Health Organization (WHO) has stepped in to clarify that COVID-19 is, in fact, contagious but also capable of containment if the right measures are taken. Therefore, in an effort to galvanize action to fight the further spread of illness, the WHO has declared the outbreak a “pandemic.” And with that, businesses the world over found themselves doing the thing many had fervently hoped to avoid: sending their employees home with instructions to work remotely.

Why so much resistance to remote work?

With more and more companies deploying digital transformation initiatives, remote work has increasingly become a topic of interest, both to businesses and to their employees. Nevertheless, a surprising number of businesses do not yet have in place the infrastructure necessary to offer remote work as an option--even under the best of circumstances, let alone in times like these, where an unexpected turn of events has mandated remote work for the sake of public health. Of the businesses already up-and-running with remote employees, many presumed that even with some employees working remotely, others would be in the office holding down the fort--answering phones, making copies, opening mail, etc. What no one could have fathomed (outside of a dystopian novel) was a situation like the one at hand--one which transformed offices into veritable ghost-towns, even as business was meant to continue as usual.

But, hey, you’ve got this

That being said, once you realize “this is actually happening,” certain things will just naturally fall into place. For example, it’s easy enough to equip employees with laptops. It’s probably even comforting to schedule daily check-ins with your working group, whether via phone, text, or one of the more modern communication tools you’ve already been using. And email, well, thank goodness for email--because everyone uses email. Right? And nothing can fall through the cracks when you’re conducting business on email. Right?

Except...what about mail?

Not e-mail. Real mail. Mail-mail. Snail mail. Post office mail - not to mention FedEx, UPS, and the like. What we’re talking about here is all the mail that is not electronically delivered, and, now that we’re thinking about it, there is quite a lot of it. And we’re not talking about junk mail here. We’re talking important mail. Mail that’s critical to your core business. Tax bills. Tax refunds. Certified mail. Notarized documents. A notice your property is subject to a zoning dispute. A request to appear at an administrative proceeding. Subpoenas and other time-sensitive legal requests and correspondence. For that matter, any time-sensitive correspondence that the sender chose to send the old-fashioned way. Because it happens, and it happens a lot.

But there’s a solution. A simple and rapidly deployable solution, in fact.

Digital Mailroom keeps you in business even with no one in the office

Simply put, Exela’s Digital Mailroom seamlessly automates the full range of processes otherwise performed by your mailroom staff. When you sign up for Digital Mailroom, your incoming paper documentation is automatically re-routed¹ to a designated Exela processing center, where our highly trained professionals scan and transform it into a digital format. Using state-of-the-art technology, including OCR-powered data extraction and our proprietary AI-powered scanning solutions, Digital Mailroom then goes to work, intelligently extracting, indexing, and sorting the digitized contents of your incoming mail, and routing it securely to the intended recipients.

Digital Mailroom isn’t new here at Exela. Businesses of all sizes around the world are already successfully using Digital Mailroom to transform incoming paper into secure, searchable, workflow-ready, actionable digital assets. A crown jewel in the Exela Smart Office suite of solutions, Exela’s Digital Mailroom makes remote work both possible and profitable--not only in extreme circumstances such as these, but in all circumstances.

^[1] Re-routing is accomplished via the USPS within 7-10 days and is terminable upon request to the USPS

Everyone knows the pain and suffering of waiting on hold for a customer service representative after following a winding, push-button menu of too many options that simply lead to another tier of options. What if your customer service system could anticipate needs and anticipate potential issues to get your customer to the right place faster? In order to do so, the customer experience (CX) needs to be at the forefront of your digital business decisions – this includes combining technology with the people who define your company for the best balance going forward.

A newly designed app might seem like the perfect solution at first, as it encourages mobility and ease of use. However, that app won’t mean much if your back-office processes aren’t up to speed and ready to tackle a new approach to the CX as well. All of your data needs to be accessible to create a big picture view, from the front end to the back office. Adding technology to the process is a great step, but the infrastructure behind it needs to be there – people are your biggest asset. Exela’s primary goal is to empower your workforce using technology, not replace your workforce with technology. After all, people still do many things better than machines, such as making value judgements, synthesizing knowledge over time to make decisions, or provide a level of stellar service to boost continued customer loyalty. Machines are great helpers in the process, and once you apply AI to the more basic processes, it frees up your workforce to focus on tasks only they can perform.

Following are four quick tips from Exela on how to integrate tech with your workforce to create the best in CX.

1. Use AI and bots to help with the smaller issues.

Easy and quick tasks, like changes in shipping address, updating customer contact info, or providing suggestions to your customers based on previous purchases, can be outsourced to chat bots or virtual assistants such as Exela’s iCRM, an intelligent virtual agent to help automate customer service. Let AI take those smaller jobs off your plate and free up time for more complex interactions and duties.

2. Make sure all your departments are communicating with each other.

This might sound like common sense, but it can be hard to do, especially in larger companies where different departments may reside in different physical locations and time zones. Get everyone on the same page and on board with your digital transformation.

3. Realize that to unify tech and workforce, it might require a big cultural shift.

Individual, siloed departments are often the norm and can create internal barriers. Implementing effective and high-quality CX depends on an integrated approach that involves everyone. If you use an end-to-end approach with your customers, you should also do so when deploying new technology platforms within your organization. Help shift company culture to embrace your new layer of technology.

4. Transform the CX by making it personal, customized, and easy to use.

Choosing a provider for your new CX initiative is just as important as implementation! Exela’s platforms and solutions transform the CX by making it personal, customized, and easy to use. This sets us apart, as we can either work with your existing legacy software or provide you with a new system. While you’re thinking about how to optimize customer experience, Exela is working to drive your digital transformation to achieve the results you’re looking for.

Now that you’re in the know, you can start thinking about the best ways to take your CX to the next level by adding an efficient technology platform to your roster or integrating one with your legacy systems. While most businesses are trying to figure out just how to optimize their customer experience, you’re on the road to turning thoughts into actions, and actions into an increase in sales and retention, all while empowering your workforce to work more seamlessly within the digital economy.

It’s September, and that means that from coast to coast, students are streaming back into universities by the thousands. Along with them, will be an even larger amount of mail pieces. However, the type of mail pieces pervasive on college and university campuses these days are not akin to what mailrooms were dealing with 15, 10, or even 5 years prior. While the use of traditional mail has waned, the prominence of packages – due to online shopping and textbook rental services – has skyrocketed.

This, and other trends relating to the way that students are using mail are putting pressures on collegiate mail operations; waiting times are growing, undelivered mail pieces are becoming more frequent, and oftentimes, students are not checking their individual, lockable mailboxes a single time throughout the year.

This is leading to a number of questions that campus mail managers are asking themselves such as; how can current workflows be updated to better suit today’s generation of digitally-savvy students? How can we better apply technology to the process? And how can we meet the high demands of students and their families, while respecting the resources of the institution? These challenges are also presenting an opportunity, to transition from a mail room to a true mail service center.

Below, we’ll break down several evolving issues that are putting pressure on university mailrooms, and propose solutions that savvy mail managers are implementing.

Challenges

Increased Volume of Packages – One of the major trends adversely affecting the operating abilities of collegiate mailrooms is the rapidly increasing volumes of packages on college campuses. The number of packages being sent to college students has actually increased by 15% annually in recent years, outpacing the support systems that universities have in place to get these packages into the hands of their recipients. This has led to massive increases in terms of waiting times that students experience when they go to pick up packages, a problem which compounds itself as more and more packages go undelivered; taking up valuable mailroom real estate as well.

Decreased Volume of Traditional Mail –While the amount of packages being sent to college students has grown exponentially in recent years, the amount of traditional mail being sent has trended in the opposite direction. This poses a large scale problem for university mailrooms, which are constructed from the ground up, literally, to deal with the opposite trends. Much of the real estate of a university mailroom is dedicated to individual, locked mail boxes assigned to each student, but recent studies have shown that many of these individual mailboxes go unused for a year or longer.

Missed Deliveries, Long Waiting Times – While smaller mail pieces can be placed into the above-described mailboxes, at a traditional collegiate mailroom operation, packages are delivered by hand. Students are notified that they have a package, and come to pick it up from a mailroom worker. This was a fine strategy in the past, but because of the exponential growth of packages, lines are growing longer, and students are becoming increasingly frustrated with the experience. As of recently, peak wait times at major universities have surpassed the 30 minute mark.

Solutions

Package Tracking Apps– The main reason why university mailrooms employ the above-described delivery methods (hand delivery from the mailroom) is so that the chain of custody is managed through all points. However, there are now technologies that can provide that information. With a package tracking app, stakeholders can track the collection of data from pickup to delivery without manually logging data. This function helps decrease the probability of losing packages and enables quicker communication at all stages of shipment and delivery. Data can also be posted on a secure website, as one way of notifying recipients when they have a package. When this type of tracking technology is combined with an Intelligent Locker delivery system, the need for mailroom personnel to physically hand a student’s package to them is done away with, automating hours of labor in the process.

Intelligent Lockers– Intelligent Mail Lockers are innovative in a number of ways. First off, they are not individually assigned. For instance, students are notified via email or text message that they have a package. In that notification, the student is given the location of the locker and a one-time-use code they can use to open it. This reduces a number of pain points for a mail operation. It eliminates missed deliveries, long waiting times, and students rushing to the mailroom before it closes. It saves huge amounts of real estate; as the lockers are not individually assigned as traditional mailboxes are. Transitioning from small, individually assigned lockers to larger, shared ones can alleviate a number of issues for university mailrooms.

Utilizing Mail Data & Metrics– Gaining insights into workflows, peak pickup times, and more are essential for mailroom managers attempting to streamline and modernize their operations. Fortunately, there are apps that can provide that information now. For example, there are digital dashboards that mailroom managers can use to establish KPIs, build custom reporting templates, and access historical data so that they can measure their current performance, and any changes they make to their processes or workflows, like the integration of Intelligent Lockers.

The challenges facing college and university mailroom managers are unlike anything we have seen in the past, and the pain points are becoming more difficult to deal with every year. However, there are now more technology-based solutions in place to help manage these processes than ever before. Going forward, the successful mailrooms will be the ones that integrate these technologies in a savvy and timely fashion.

Last month, the National Breast Cancer Foundation held a ceremony during which Exela proudly donated a check for $5,540, which Exela and its employees raised during Breast Cancer Awareness Month through the #ExelaGivesBack philanthropy program, under which Exela pledged to match the charitable donations made by employees on a dollar-for-dollar basis. The ceremony took place at the Foundation’s Dallas, Texas headquarters. Exela’s Senior Vice President of Human Resources, Carlos Mallen, and Katie Beezley, Marketing Event Manager, were on hand at the ceremony to present the check on behalf of Exela.

Accepting the check on behalf of the Foundation were its Senior Vice President of Strategic Partnerships and Charitable Giving, Ken Ramirez, and Manager of Charitable Gifting and Strategic Partnerships, Candice Boeck.“The National Breast Cancer Foundation is grateful for the support from Exela Technologies and their employees to our mission of Helping Women Now,” Boeck stated. “This donation will enable us to continue providing help and inspiring hope to women affected by breast cancer across the U.S.”

The Foundation’s mission is to provide help and inspire hope to those affected by breast cancer through early detection, education, and support services. According to the Foundation’s website, 1 in 8 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer during her lifetime, there is currently no known cure for breast cancer, and early diagnosis is critical to survival. One of the Foundation’s top priorities is educating women on what they can do to be proactive with their breast health. Learn some of the ways you can lower your risk of breast cancer, care of The Foundation.

“We are honored, blessed, and humbled to provide a gift to the Foundation, which has worked tirelessly for decades to support the fight against breast cancer by providing financial grants to research institutions and most importantly gifts of hope to patients and their families,” noted Mallen. Exela has worked with the not-for-profit in prior years and has plans to further its partnership with the Foundation in 2020 and beyond.

Exela’s global presence (basically, we’re everywhere) means two very important things to us. One is that we are wherever you need us to be to advance your digital journey. The other is that we care. We care about people and the work we do. And we care about the future of planet earth and the people who live here. Through our #ExelaGivesBack philanthropy initiative, we turn caring into action.

In yet another outstanding showing of philanthropy, Exela recently presented the American Cancer Society (ACS) with a check for $22,630 raised in connection with the ACS Relay for Life event that took place at the Rockcastle County Middle School in Mount Vernon, Kentucky on June 19, 2019. This amount reflects an impressive $12,630 raised by Exela employees—plus $10,000 contributed by Exela, which had pledged to match all employee donations up to $10,000.

Every single one of Exela’s 639 full-time employees located in Exela’s Mount Vernon, Kentucky and London, Kentucky workplaces contributed to the effort in some capacity, whether by directly soliciting donations, selling raffle tickets, walking the track, or cheering on and otherwise supporting those walking. It was the second time Exela participated in this signature ACS fundraiser. Last year, the Exela Rators, as Exela’s “Team Kentucky” likes to be known, raised $10,328.

Exela’s involvement in Relay for Life began in 2018 at the suggestion of Supervisor Amie Jo Campbell and former Director of Operations Karen Knox, both of whom saw an opportunity for Team Kentucky to take an active role in the local community. Campbell and Knox were this year’s top two ‘Rator fundraisers, and both feel a deeply personal connection to the ACS’s mission to save lives, celebrate lives, and lead the fight for a world without cancer. Campbell lost a beloved cousin to cancer just one day before his 13th birthday. Knox, herself, is a proud cancer survivor.

“We’re passionate about this cause because we have all been affected by cancer in some shape or form,” says Clarissa Hubbard, the ‘Rators’s third highest fundraiser this year. “We all know someone who’s fought or is currently fighting this battle.”

Exela’s strong participation in this year’s Relay for Life earned it awards in four categories:

• Team Spirit (for the second year in a row, in connection with its dominating the games hosted at the event)
• Movin’ On Top (for the largest percentage increase in funds raised from last year to this year)
• 1st place in Business Teams (for the second year in a row, for raising more money than any other team in the Business category)
• Top Team (for the second year in a row, for raising more money than any other team overall).

According to Team Lead Kristen Adams, it was Exela’s pledge that provided the extra kick of motivation to the team. “We are so grateful our company could come together and help in a huge way,” notes Adams. “We’re already trying to come up with new ways to raise MORE money for next year!!

Special thanks to all the ‘Rators who walked in the Relay on the night of June 19:

• Kristen Barron-Adams^*
• Steve Adams
• Danny Bishop
• Lisa Burdine
• Christy Camel
• Amie Jo Campbell^*
• Treena Chasteen^*
• Linda Damrell
• Bernice Griffieth
• Darlene Hamilton
• Kristi Hansel^*
• Vernice Hargis
• Clarissa Hubbard^*
• Antonia Jones
• Karen Knox (Exela Emeritus)
• Kelli Lake
• Jacob Lawrence
• JaDawn Lopez
• Morgan McGuire-Renner
• Robert Payne
• Danny Pelly
• Krystal Powell
• April Smith
• Sam Snyder^*
• Hannah Sowder
• Pamela Sowder
• Alexis Stewart
• Tyler Vaughn
• Tausha Woods
• Kathy Wright

*Indicates one of the Top 7 Exela fundraisers for this event.

Since the first business transaction took place, marketing has played a crucial role in developing the desire and need that is essential in all business models. Midway through the 20th century, marketing became the difference between mere “invention” and true “innovation.” But in the decades since then, innovation’s been driving marketing just as hard, empowering businesses with previously unavailable information about their customers at virtually every stage of the “marketing funnel.” The challenge of leveraging that info was met with further innovation, kicking marketing into warp speed.

And that’s where it is today. Effective marketing means constantly keeping your eye on the innovations available to push your marketing forward and keep it competitive. But since it’s all moving so fast, it’s helpful to keep these four fundamentals in mind:

1. The marketing funnel has evolved into a kaleidoscope

The marketing funnel was traditionally static, with marketing materials created and deployed at each stage, and each stage remaining distinct. For example, Exela’s Intelligent Marketing solutions analyze the stages as they interact, making it possible to predict inter-stage and multi-stage behavioral trends.

2. Your customers are inundated, but that’s okay

Communications-saturated customers have an effective tool to combat the deluge of information: spam filters. So the question becomes how to make it through those filters and add value. Here at Exela, we make use of our own hyper-targeted marketing solutions whose automated analytics engines produce detailed customer profiles and whose messaging capabilities target the right customer at the right time.

3. Interaction is the new action

Your website and social platforms provide countless opportunities for eliciting relevant information from your leads and customers, as well as for letting your leads and customers know they’ve been heard in real time. The omni-channel communications and engagement automation options available through Exela’s intelligent marketing solutions maximize the productivity of those interactions.

4. If it’s something you’ve thought of, there’s an automation for it

Ever wish you could find all your analytics in one place, rather than signing into multiple platforms? No worries, there’s an automation for that! At Exela, we combine our industry specific and cross industry Data Analytics tools with our Enterprise Information Management solutions to generate analyzed and actionable data on a unified platform.

Seek out solutions that will help to drive your marketing forward. As Exela continues to innovate, we are growing our suite of marketing solutions to fit your current and growing needs.

You had to have noticed by now. The new decade began with unseasonable warmth. The most obvious sign was rain followed by more rain in many parts of the country, but that didn’t seem like more than a minor annoyance. In addition to the odd fact that the Canada Geese still haven’t left New York in mid-January. But what might be marginally annoying to us translates to extremely worrisome for environmental scientists, who see the rain and can’t help but notice the increase in West Nile Virus cases. Where we see goose-poop, they see an increase in Lyme Disease and an overall change in bird migration patterns.

Earth’s climate is changing

“The Earth's climate is changing,” warns the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA[KH1] . “Temperatures are rising, snow and rainfall patterns are shifting, and more extreme climate events – like heavy rainstorms and record high temperatures – are already happening.” Scientists offer a variety of reasons for the warming trend, including both the possibility that the earth’s temperature is actually in the process of stabilizing following the most recent Ice Age or that human activities are causing the rising levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in our atmosphere.

Greenhouse gas emissions are real

We’re not here to convince you whether climate change is or is not a manmade process. However, greenhouse gas emissions have demonstrated some impact on climate change, which proves that we do in fact have some degree of control over how hot it’s getting and can make change by reducing those very same greenhouse gas emissions. Here are some of the major factors provided by the EPA that are responsible for the increase in the release of greenhouse gases:

Transportation: Nearly a third of greenhouse gases are attributable to cars, trucks, ships, trains, plains, and other forms of fueled transportation.

Electricity Production: Over a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions can be attributed to the burning of fossil fuels like coal and gas.

Industry: Nearly a quarter of our greenhouse gas emissions come from the use of fossil fuel-based energy and chemical reactions that occur in the production of goods from raw materials.

Commercial/Residential: Over 10 percent of greenhouse emissions come from heating, gas, and handling of waste.

Agriculture: Nearly 10% of greenhouse gas emissions are, perhaps ironically, produced in farming, including methane gases from livestock, the working of agricultural soils, and rice production.

The “Paper Problem”

One thing that helps offset greenhouse gas emissions is the presence of forests and natural green land, which the EPA states can be credited with cutting slightly over 10% of greenhouse gas emissions. Unfortunately, forests are disappearing, and research indicates our planet’s reliance on paper is a factor in at least 10% of worldwide deforestation. These are not new facts and by now many people are aware of the paper problem, and are already in the process of reducing paper consumption through digital transformation initiatives.

The power to make change happen

But who can ignore the fact that 2019 ended as the second hottest year on record, capping off one of the hottest decades on record? Whether you believe Earth is going through nothing more than a mundane “inter-glacial cycle,” as opposed to a melting trend being hastened by humans, reducing greenhouse gas emissions has the power to slow the creeping up of the thermometer. Which means that we all have the power to control what we’re putting out there.

Who are “we”?

By “we”, we’re referring to both ourselves as individuals and as global citizens. With regard to ourselves as individuals, there are a great many actions to take or refrain from taking , and there are equally as many with regard to ourselves as global citizens. As a company whose mission is to help the business world reduce its reliance on manual processes, Exela is in a unique position to facilitate change amongst our fellow global citizens in the corporate arena.

Our pledge to Planet Earth

Accordingly, “We” at Exela, both as individuals and as global citizens, are pledging to make 2020 the year we make an impact by making less of an impact. We have several initiatives already in development and as a business, we are working to emphasize to our customers and potential customers the importance of incorporating digital transformation, automation and innovation into their businesses for the betterment of the planet. We are planning our inaugural 24-hour global “One River” event, during which Exela employees, friends and family will step in to literally stem the flow of plastic into the vast ocean that comprises nearly three-quarters of the Earth’s surface. As a collection of 23,000 humans across the globe, Exela is, this month, ushering in its “I’m Accountable” campaign, through which we will be asking every single one of our employees to make a personal pledge to take specific action in the interest of environmental sustainability--and to hold themselves accountable. We’ll be keeping track of our progress here on the Exela Blog, so please stay tuned for updates on our “I’m Accountable” campaign.

We look forward to making a big impact by lessening our environmental impact in the coming year and we hope you will do so as well.

About Exela

Exela Technologies is a global leader in digital transformation, information strategy, and business process automation. Our innovative data-driven business solutions drive growth, competitive advantage, and agility for businesses in all industries. Let us transform your business processes into efficient workflows generating actionable intelligence. Here are just some of the solutions Exela offers that promise to change make your business more efficient and the world a cleaner, more sustainable place.

Exela Technologies is leveraging its status as a global technology influencer to focus heavily on Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and cognitive automation solutions. As businesses desire more efficient, streamlined ways of accomplishing tasks within processes such as transactions, data gathering initiatives, and IT support, Exela will be there to turn those business goals into reality through cutting-edge automation platforms.

Robotics and AI have long held a place in pop culture as a driving force behind everything from Iron Man’s fleet of crime-fighting suits to the tech that helps James Bond fight bad guys with sensors in his cufflinks and a self-driving car. AI is sometimes portrayed as an evil force, thwarting our heroes as they try to save humanity, but in real life, technology is most often an ally rather than an adversary. In fact, most of us carry around an augmented intelligence in our pocket every day: our smartphone. Just as apps can synthesize traffic information to make our commute easier or virtual assistants such as Siri can fetch the answers to millions of questions, the principles behind those smaller processes can be scaled to fit a company’s needs for much larger and more complex solutions. That’s where RPA comes in.

Exela’s RPA solutions leverage robotic software to automate repetitive, standard business processes. Each bot has its own virtual workstation, much like a human worker. The bot uses keyboard and mouse controls to take actions and execute automations. These actions take place in a virtual environment. Often, clients approach Exela with a variety of problems that need solving and the desire to implement one or more of Exela’s custom solutions. Applying the RPA platform allows for cutting-edge innovation across numerous industries and may give businesses that implement RPA an edge on their competition.

Exela’s RPA platform, part of the Exela Business Process Automation (BPA) suite, is a full-featured platform for designing, configuring, and deploying robotic tools to replace or enhance routine business processes with robotic functionality. It can do repetitive tasks more quickly and consistently than humans, freeing them to do other things such as reasoning, judgment, and interaction with customers. Exela’s BPA suite also includes server process automation (SPA) and cognitive process automation (CPA), enabling businesses to see the power of BPA, as these solutions span multiple categories.

Don’t just take Exela’s word for it – The Institute for Robotic Process Automation and Artificial Intelligence states on their homepage that “by freeing up human labor to provide additional capacity for more strategic work, RPA simply creates more value with less investment.” The next generation of smart processes is here and ready for us to use, first in higher-level business concepts and then in repetitive tasks such as data entry, as the bots can allow seamless attended automation of client-side tasks, leaving key decision points or intervention up to the user. Bots can also be deployed in unattended situations where they perform all scripted tasks according to the rules and data that have been provided in advance by an administrator. Exela is already taking its clients on this transformative digital journey, leading them into the future of business process automation by moving at the speed of creative innovation.

Through RPA, Exela lives up to its mission of embracing complexity and delivering simplicity in the best possible way. RPA is at the leading edge of market intelligence but still needs the industry leaders at Exela to create avenues for further exploration and implementation. With new and original strategies for using RPA, Exela is ready to take on the challenges faced by a global, integrated community of businesses and solutions.

Find out more about how Exela is disrupting and innovating global business solutions by following @exelatech on Twitter and LinkedIn!

Team Exela believes that raising awareness and funds for important causes is part of our corporate social responsibility and, more importantly, part of good citizenship. This month we are trying to do our part to raise funds for breast cancer research. Additionally, our team will wear pink on Wednesdays and champion the cause on social media and in our internal communications.

In 2018, Exela has participated in multiple fundraising efforts for causes that include disease research initiatives and Red Cross disaster relief assistance. Recently, the team participated in a 5K & 10K run and raised over $20,000 for the Orthopaedic Institute for Children, an organization comprised of medical professionals and volunteers that provides care for patients with musculoskeletal disorders, regardless of a family's ability to pay for the care.

This week we will be posting links from leading cancer research websites and campaigns. The first is "Know Your Lemons," a campaign started by Corrine Ellsworth Beaumont, PhD, for the Worldwide Breast Cancer charity completely focused on breast health education. We encourage you to visit the website and learn more:https://worldwidebreastcancer.org/

“The future is undeniably female.” – The Next Web

On May 9 and 10, 2019, Exela Technologies (Exela) will be in Amsterdam at #TNW2019—the 2019 Tech Conference hosted by The Next Web, a cutting-edge media company founded in 2006 to showcase tech advancements and connect and inspire innovators.

“Women around the world are breaking the glass ceiling every day in order to achieve a diverse and equal tech industry,” The Next Web (TNW) goes on to say. Well, happily, Exela is here for it—both TNW2019 and all the glass-smashing. But to give credit where credit is due, it was actually a man who brought to our attention all that TNW is doing to promote women in STEM: Thomas Bagnall, Exela’s Vice President of Strategy and Digital Marketing in our Netherlands offices.

If you’ll be at #TNW2019, you’ll have the chance to meet Tom, who’ll be demonstrating our Exela Smart Office suite of solutions. Tom will also be offering his own insights on women-in-tech and why it matters. For now, this mini-interview will have to suffice:

What prompted Tom to begin considering the role of women in technology?

“I’ve always thought of myself as equality-minded, but I guess I wasn’t particularly proactive until my daughter [now 2] was born,” Tom told us, “or more specifically, when I witnessed how drawn Sophie was to STEM-inspired toys.”

“Did that surprise you?” we asked (because come on, we had to).

“No, but have you seen how boy-oriented those toys are? All the blue packaging and the photos of boys. Clearly, the marketing’s aimed to boys, Tom points out. “Toys aimed at girls tend to be all about traditionally feminine pursuits. And the STEM toys can’t be found in the aisles with the girl-marketed toys. So, yes, the marketing stacks the deck against girls finding their way to STEM.

So then how’d Sophie find her way to STEM toys?

Tom had to consciously lead her to them—literally, to the “boy” aisles at the toy store, where Sophie’s eyes lit up in a way they didn’t amid the pink and fluffy“girl” aisles. So naturally, Tom “kitted out” his house with “all the STEM stuff.” But if Tom hadn’t taken that initiative, Sophie might not have discovered her “inner engineer.”

And it got Tom to thinking: “Maybe we haven’t come as far as we thought.”

“The stats are abysmal,” Tom discovered upon doing a little digging. “Female CEO’s of Fortune 500 companies dropped by 25% last year, and in tech, women make up only 13% of senior executive roles. Only 20% of engineering college graduates are female, and even less go on to work in engineering professions, with only 11% of all engineers being women.

Hang on…is Tom blaming the toy store?

“Clearly the pigeon-holing starts early, but there are women who’ve gotten through despite the obstacles,” Tom points out—name-checking our colleague, Nikita Khadse, our dedictated Exela Smart Office Business Analyst. “She’s been instrumental in preparing for TNW and the upcoming Exela Smart Office demos and presentations,” Tom says. “We’d be lost without her.” That being said, if we want to really change the game for women-in-tech, we’re going to have to start with changing the assumptions.

Tom’s call to action

“Parents, please pay attention to the pigeon-holing/stereotyping, and please offer your daughters ways in to STEM,” Tom suggests. “In the tech business, we all have to bear in mind that hiring is not a tick-box exercise. Recruiting women isn’t enough. We need to offer the best possible environment and infrastructure for women to succeed.” In fact, Tom is walking the walk in his own hiring practices and seeing others doing the same all across Exela.

What Tom wants to know from everyone else is, “What more do you think can be done to pave the way for women in technology?”

If you happen to be in or around Amsterdam on May 9 or 10 and want to chat some more on this topic, or if you’re if you’re interested in seeing what Exela’s Smart Office suite of solutions can change the game for your business, stop by and see Exela at TNW. To see what Exela Smart Office can do for the environment, check out A Smart Office For a Sustainable Planet.