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CSG selected by Charter as Billing Solution Provider of Choice for Residential and Small and Medium Business Internet, Video and Voice Customers

CSG

CSG ® (NASDAQ: CSGS), the leader in innovative customer engagement, revenue management and payments solutions, today announced a six-year contract renewal and extension with Charter Communications (NASDAQ:CHTR). The deal marks a milestone in the nearly 25-year relationship as CSG’s revenue management platform becomes Charter’s billing solution of choice for its residential and small and medium business internet, video and landline voice customers. “CSG’s partnership, willingness to innovate at the speed of our business, and operational reliability align well with how we operate,” said Cliff Hagan, executive vice president of customer operations, Charter Communications. “Our number one goal is to deliver the best experience for our customers, while also providing the best tools for our employees. CSG’s platform helps make both a reality.” “CSG’s unwavering commitment to put our customers first and deliver results are what earned us the right to do more for Charter and become their provider of choice,” said Ken Kennedy, COO and president of revenue management, CSG. “This renewal is a testament to the dedication of our collective teams, who worked side-by-side, day in and day out to help bring Charter’s innovative products and meaningful experiences to its customers. CSG is proud and humbled by Charter’s continued confidence in us to serve and transform its business. We will keep investing in our people and solutions to deliver agile, game-changing technologies that ensure Charter and other leading brands are poised and ready for future growth.” CSG is a leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for its Revenue and Customer Management solutions, which help companies around the world digitally transform their business to monetize and enable exceptional customer experiences. Through this transformation process, CSG empowers companies to focus on core business functions, reduce costs, and increase the reliability, scalability, security, and overall performance of their business and network operations to drive new revenues. For more information on CSG revenue management, visit https://www.csgi.com/capabilities/revenue-and-customer-management/. # # # About CSG CSG is a leader in innovative customer engagement, revenue management and payments solutions that make ordinary customer experiences extraordinary. Our cloud-first architecture and customer-obsessed mindset help companies around the world launch new digital services, expand into new markets, and create dynamic experiences that capture new customers and build brand loyalty. For nearly 40 years, CSG’s technologies and people have helped some of the world’s most recognizable brands solve their toughest business challenges and evolve to meet the demands of today’s digital economy with future-ready solutions that drive exceptional customer experiences. With 5,000 employees in over 20 countries, CSG is the trusted technology provider for leading global brands in telecommunications, retail, financial services and healthcare. Our solutions deliver real world outcomes to more than 900 customers in over 120 countries. To learn more, visit us at csgi.com and connect with us on LinkedIn and Twitter. About Charter Charter Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ:CHTR) is a leading broadband connectivity company and cable operator serving more than 31 million customers in 41 states through its Spectrum brand. Over an advanced communications network, the company offers a full range of state-of-the-art residential and business services including Spectrum Internet®, TV, Mobile and Voice. For small and medium-sized companies, Spectrum Business® delivers the same suite of broadband products and services coupled with special features and applications to enhance productivity, while for larger businesses and government entities, Spectrum Enterprise provides highly customized, fiber-based solutions. Spectrum Reach® delivers tailored advertising and production for the modern media landscape. The company also distributes award-winning news coverage, sports and high-quality original programming to its customers through Spectrum Networks and Spectrum Originals. More information about Charter can be found at corporate.charter.com. Copyright © 2021 CSG Systems International, Inc. and/or its affiliates (“CSG”). All rights reserved. CSG® is a registered trademark of CSG Systems International, Inc. All third-party trademarks, service marks, and/or product names that are referenced in this document are the property of their respective owners, and all rights therein are reserved. Contacts: Tammy Hovey Public Relations +1 (917) 520-2751 tammy.hovey@csgi.com John Rea Investor Relations +1 (210) 687-4409 john.rea@csgi.com Contact Details CSG Tammy Hovey +1 917-520-2751 tammy.hovey@csgi.com Company Website https://www.csgi.com

November 03, 2021 02:01 PM Mountain Daylight Time

Symphony showcases front office, operations, and wealth workflows at Innovate 2021

Symphony Communication Services

Symphony - the leading markets’ technology and infrastructure platform - showcased front office, operations, and wealth workflows that are solving for markets industry challenges in its flagship conference Innovate 2021, held yesterday in New York City. Symphony showcased for the first time how its secure and compliant collaboration platform is integrating the technology of the two companies it acquired earlier this year: StreetLinx’s counterparty mapping platform and Cloud9’s markets voice and electronic communication platform into one powerful inter-firm workflow. Symphony CEO Brad Levy said: “Harnessing networks and connecting with purpose has never been more important. This year’s Innovate gave us the opportunity to highlight how we can help bridge this gap across workflows and client segments, bringing finance and tech together for the benefit of users, clients and counterparties.” The hundreds of financial professionals that joined the day’s sessions in person and online learned about the innovation and digital transformation taking place across markets directly from Symphony partners, customers, developers and innovators. Innovate 2021’s highlights included discussion panels with industry leaders and live demonstrations of Symphony’s platform and partnerships. Chief product officer Michael Lynch added: “We were thrilled to showcase such a diverse set of innovations, all meant to help our customers be more connected and efficient—moving beyond legacy disparate systems into a holistic ecosystem of interoperability and collaboration.” Videos from all the sessions will be posted on innnovate.symphony.com. About Symphony Symphony is the most secure and compliant markets’ infrastructure and technology platform, where solutions are built or integrated to standardize, automate and innovate financial services workflows. It is a vibrant community of over half a million financial professionals with a trusted directory and serves over 1000 institutions. Symphony is powering over 2,000 community built applications and bots. For more information, visit www.symphony.com. Contact Details Symphony Communication Services Odette Maher +44 7747 420807 odette.maher@symphony.com Company Website https://symphony.com/

November 03, 2021 03:05 PM Eastern Daylight Time

Adsmovil Invests in Brilla Media to Develop Original Content Properties, Boost Adsmovil Studios, and Enhance Social Media Distribution

Brilla Media

Hispanic digital media powerhouse, Adsmovil, today announced that it has made a strategic investment in Miami-based Brilla Media to develop original content properties, boost its branded entertainment studios, and enhance its social content distribution. The partnership unites the innovator of the Hispanic mobile advertising industry with the founders of the U.S. Latino social media marketing and influencer industry, Manny Ruiz and Angela Sustaita-Ruiz, co-founders of Hispanicize. “This investment underscores our commitment to better serving the Hispanic market, with top-tier, authentic storytelling and compelling, resonant narratives,” said Adsmovil CEO and founder Alberto Pardo. “Brilla’s founders bring a powerful track record for creativity and innovation that will help Adsmovil evolve faster, stronger and more strategically into the next phase of our own story.” As part of the agreement, the companies will work closely to develop innovative digital media content properties, including films and documentaries, to better serve the dynamic Hispanic cohort in its entirety - across languages and generations. All content will be created for Hispanics by Hispanics and all properties will be 100% Latino owned and operated. Brilla Media will also support all social content distribution efforts. “We are especially proud of this investment because Adsmovil is positively advancing quality storytelling, filmmaking, and marketing in the Hispanic marketplace,” said Brilla Media Co-founder Manny Ruiz. “In Adsmovil, we’ve found a partner that is committed to elevating our U.S. Latino community and building bold, creative storytelling platforms, and that’s truly exciting.” About Brilla Media Latina-owned and operated, Brilla Media provides brand marketers with premium Latinx branded storytelling, distribution, and guaranteed digital and social media engagements. Created by Angela and Manny Ruiz, the innovative entertainment company features five pillars: Brilla Media (digital and social distribution), Nuestro Studios (original storytelling), Brilla Social (influencer marketing with social media amplification), Brilla Live (festivals and virtual broadcast TV and live streams), and Brilla Purpose (social good). Brilla’s innovative management team founded the Hispanic social media marketing, Hispanic influencer marketing, and Hispanic press release wire industries. About Adsmovil Minority-owned and certified, Adsmovil ( www.Adsmovil.com ) is a leading pioneer in Hispanic mobile advertising and digital media. The company reaches almost half (48%) of the total Hispanic digital population in the U.S. across cultural diversity and acculturation levels and has direct relationships with over 2,500 digital premium publishers in the US, LATAM and Spain. Its multi-channel offering spans screens, senses and languages as well as full production capabilities, via Adsmovil Studios. The company consistently ranks #1 within ComScore’s Hispanic Ad Focus Mobile Reporting. The company was founded in 2011 by its CEO, Alberto Pardo, and its U.S. headquarters is in Miami, FL with additional offices in Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago. The company also has offices in twelve other countries in Latin America and Spain. More information can be found at www.adsmovil.com or info@adsmovil.com. SOURCE ( LATINXNEWSWIRE.COM ) Contact Details Maria Twena maria@adsmovil.com

November 03, 2021 01:15 PM Eastern Daylight Time

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Marquee investors tuck into Tre’dish with $10m investment as home-to-home food economy grows

Tre'dish

Home-to-Home food technology platform and community marketplace Tre’dish has today announced a $10m seed funding round as it commercializes and scales operations across the U.S. and Canada. The funding round was led by Tre’dish Founding Team Members; Peter Hwang, Jay Wilgar, Srin Sridharan and lead investor Wes Hall. The group of marquee investors with their past experiences in the round include: Wes Hall – Founder of BlackNorth Initiative, Dragons Den, Kingsdale Advisors, KSS Group of Companies Luis Javier Castro - Founder of Mesoamerica and Alejandria JP Rangaswami - Chief Scientist at Salesforce and British Telecom. Previously Chief Data Officer, Deutsche Bank. Steve Smith – CEO of Recipe Unlimited (Formerly Cara Operations). EVP - Loblaw Andrea DelZotto – Founder of Concrete Cardinal and Director, Tridel Group of Companies Qamar Qureshi – President and CBO - Knowledgehook Tre’dish has created a food tech marketplace platform that focuses on bringing the home-to-home food sharing economy together. Home Chefs have the opportunity to sell to consumers right in their own community, a diverse selection of authentic meals prepared by the person who makes it best. With the home-to-home market growing significantly during the pandemic, home chefs have been selling their meals through social media platforms in an unstructured grey market without proper processes to instil trust for the consumer. Furthermore, other platforms that are coming into the market have simply created a marketplace where Home Chefs meet Consumers, and no support is provided for the Chefs to build a sustainable business. Embedded in the Tre’dish technology is our Chef Education Platform and Chef Portal that allows Home Chefs access to some of the most innovative tools in the hospitality space. Our EdTech platform provides a Home Restauranteur guidance and support to build a business right from their own home kitchen safely and profitably with little to no investment required. The success of the Tre’dish model has been driven by two central trends. Firstly, the hospitality industry for small owner-operated restaurants has been at a breaking point for several years with high overhead running costs (i.e. rent, labour, marketing and delivery) and very low margins making it difficult to sustain a profitable operation. Moreover, to make a living they must sacrifice everything with zero work-life balance. Secondly, the pandemic brought into sharp focus the reality facing 3 million hospitality industry workers in the US and Canada when over 130,000 restaurants were closed disproportionally impacting the BIPOC community. For some, this provided the impetus to take to social media and sell food prepared from their home kitchens. For others, Tre’dish will now provide a new path for opportunity, employment and entrepreneurship. Peter Hwang, CEO and Co-Founder at Tre’dish, commented, "The pandemic was very difficult on small businesses especially owner operated restaurants. Tre’dish was built to level the playing field providing equal access and opportunity for all individuals to once again flourish in the hospitality industry regardless of their cultural background, gender, experience, or financial ability. The only thing anyone requires is an amazing recipe and the desire to share their food with the world” Tre’dish aims to build a global, impact-focused, food tech unicorn by providing equal opportunities for all cultural groups and new immigrants through access to a platform for any food entrepreneur to grow their presence and start a profitable business. Currently, 4 of the 5 largest shareholders represent BIPOC standing as it seeks to elevate a minority owned entrepreneurial movement. Tre’dish has built a bona fide business model, that authentically and organically creates a movement to empower and encourage historically underserved and underprivileged communities to become burgeoning food entrepreneurs and social media food influencers. “Tre’dish is redefining what it means to be a professional chef by taking the hospitality industry beyond its historical confines of bricks and mortar restaurants,” said Wes Hall, Executive Chairman and Founder of KSS Group of Companies Inc. “I am proud to back such an innovative business model not only because of the tremendous future potential this company has but because of the thousands of jobs and opportunity Tre’dish will create for minority and BIPOC community members who have too often been left behind. Tre’dish will connect talented chefs with customers but also provide them with business knowledge and skills that will help them be successful for the long term.” Tre’dish is not only a marketplace for home chefs and consumers but has set out to create a platform which empowers them to create successful businesses and have choice in what they eat respectively. For Home Chefs, Tre’dish is a technology portal that offers: Home restaurant consulting and business optimization technology tools such as, Menu Card Development, SKU Optimization, Consolidated Group Ordering and Geo-Targeted Data Tracking so they can build efficient and profitable businesses from day one. A real time food and safety platform A media content platform and technology training system which teaches home chefs how to become food influencers and content creators. Helping them build user created content and dissemination strategies to maximize engagement and views of their social posts. For Consumers, Tre’dish provides: A marketplace platform allowing individuals to support their local home chefs knowing they are preparing their meals safely with the highest quality restaurant standards that are digitally documented. An amazing culinary experience in your community. The ability to support local chefs and try their authentic, healthy, and home cooked meals delivered conveniently to your door. A technology and data platform that remembers your personalized food preferences to create the best experience possible – dietary, fitness, allergen and personalized meal customization that is geo-targeted in your area. A food content and media platform allowing users to view content from Tre’dish Home Chefs across the globe including Chefs in their own geo-targeted Virtual Food Court. Peter Hwang concluded, “As we launch our commercial operations, we see a massive opportunity to become thought leaders in the growing home-to-home food sharing economy. We are not only creating a disruptive technology, but we are creating a mainstream platform that can positively impact cultural diversity, mass job creation and entrepreneurial growth for generations for the foreseeable future” About Tre’dish Tre’dish is a foodtech marketplace platform that enables and unites home chefs in the home-to-home food sharing economy. It allows individuals the opportunity to monetize their home kitchens and sell home cooked meals to local consumers in their community. Media images can be found here. Contact Details Tre'dish Bilal Mahmood +44 7714 007257 media@tredish.com Company Website https://tredish.com/

November 03, 2021 12:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time

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Lexion Launches Email-First Contract Workflows for Rapid, Easy Adoption

Lexion

Lexion, an AI-powered contract management system, today announced Lexion Workflow, a new module that accelerates the in-house legal contracting process. Lexion’s Workflow spans the entire end-to-end contracting lifecycle from intake, drafts, and negotiation, to approvals and signature. Unlike other contract management systems, stakeholders can work with Lexion’s Workflow entirely via email, eliminating the need for complex configuration and training. “Incredibly easy is our key focus,” said Gaurav Oberoi, co-founder and CEO of Lexion. “In-house legal teams are tired of CLMs that over-promise and under-deliver. The root cause of that frustration is nearly always tied to organization-wide change management requirements and lengthy implementations. After speaking with more than 50 in-house counsel, it was clear to us that the key to unlocking value was to give legal teams an intuitive dashboard to manage intake and tasks, while letting the rest of the company simply email in requests, redlines, approvals, and follow-up questions.” “With Lexion, anyone in our company can simply send an email asking for a contract review, and it turns the request into a task on a dashboard,” said Michael Leman, Deputy General Counsel at Fox Factory (NASDAQ: FOXF). “I can then manage the entire process in one place, while my internal clients can remain in email. Unlike the prior CLM system we used, Lexion has made company-wide adoption painless, and given our legal team tools to clearly communicate status, measure performance KPIs, and accelerate contracting.” According to Gartner, legal departments will increase their technology spend 300 percent by 2025, and yet only realize 30 percent of the potential benefit of their CLM investments because of the complexities of requirements gathering, change management, and user adoption. Lexion is positioned to capture this demand by offering a pragmatic platform that delivers on the promise of speeding up contract review and eliminating legal busywork. Lexion will accomplish this with a focus on ease of use and AI-powered automation as key drivers. “Many of our clients are interested in improving the contracting process,” said David Wang, Chief Innovation Officer at Wilson Sonsini. “However, they are wary of the cost of implementation, and the difficulty of getting the entire organization to adopt elaborate systems. Lexion’s novel, email-centric approach, is a game changer in that it addresses the chief barriers to adoption and dramatically increases the chance that the business will realize the benefits of the system.” With the addition of Workflow to Lexion’s AI-powered Repository, Lexion now offers an end-to-end contract management solution for in-house legal teams that helps them capture key metrics and accelerate deals while using AI and automation to help them scale. About Lexion Lexion is an incredibly easy to use contract management system, powered by AI. We're on a mission to make legal teams highly productive and happy, by accelerating contract review and eliminating busywork through automation and AI. We use best in class natural language processing technologies to make it 100x easier for legal teams to find what’s in their contracts and automatically stay organized. Best of all, Lexion’s email-centric approach, and legacy contract onboarding, makes implementation and adoption easy. We built Lexion at Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s artificial intelligence research institute (AI2) and are backed by the same investors that funded OpenAI (Khosla Ventures), helped launch Amazon (Madrona Venture Group), and have advised Google (Wilson Sonsini). With a top notch and experienced team from Microsoft, Facebook, Google, and Amazon, we built a company that CB Insights ranked the #1 most promising AI legal tech startup in the world two years in a row (2020, 2021). Most importantly, fantastic brands trust Lexion to manage their contracts: Outreach, OfferUp, Blue Nile, and many more. Visit https://lexion.ai for more. Contact Details Forrest Carman +1 206-859-3118 forrestc@owenmedia.com Company Website https://lexion.ai/

November 03, 2021 09:00 AM Pacific Daylight Time

Pano AI Celebrates Successful Wildfire Detection Technology Pilot Partnership with South Lake County Fire Protection District, California

Pano AI

Pano AI, the leader in wildfire early detection and intelligence, is excited to announce the successful conclusion of its initial pilot in Lake County, California. Through the partnership, the South Lake County Fire Protection District received early access to Pano Rapid Detect, an easy-to-use platform that enables district employees to quickly detect, assess, and pinpoint new fires earlier, so that they can be contained while still small. Leveraging a network of connected, ultra-high-definition cameras continuously rotating atop high vantage points, Pano Rapid Detect captures a dynamic 360-degree panoramic view of the landscape every minute. This rich camera data, combined with satellite imagery, emergency call details, and other data feeds enables Pano AI’s artificial intelligence to monitor for threats and provide actionable intelligence in a single, intuitive interface. “With wildfire response, every minute matters. We created Pano Rapid Detect to help first responders get to the scene faster and more safely—with the right equipment, up-to-date information, and enhanced coordination—so that they can stop a new ignition in its tracks,” said Sonia Kastner, founder, and CEO of Pano AI. “By supporting our partners in the South Lake County Fire Protection District, we hope that we can help protect lives, homes and businesses, and our irreplaceable Northern California forests.” Wildfire season is starting sooner and ending later, as the impacts of climate change create the ideal conditions for fires to spread. In 2021, there were over 7,000 California wildfires, burning more than 2 million acres of land. Responding to these wildfires commands significant resources from fire departments across the state. Along with identifying actual fires, one of Pano AI’s advantages is the company’s ability to distinguish false positives, or non-fires, from real wildfires, preserving fire departments’ resources for legitimate fires via their 24/7 Pano Intelligence Center. “Solutions like Pano AI lead a new generation of fire technologies. Advances in hardware, connectivity, and artificial intelligence will make it possible to detect fires faster than ever before, so we can alert the appropriate departments, streamline our response, and allocate important resources where they are most needed,” said retired Chief Jim Comisky, President of South Lake County Fire Protection District. “While we can’t stop wildfires from happening, we can be more aware of their location and spread, and in doing so, continue to protect our communities.” Recognizing the growing threat that global warming presents to wildfire mitigation, Pano Rapid Detect has been adopted by fire departments and private companies to detect wildfires in high-risk areas as soon as the first wisps of smoke appear. Pano AI partnerships include Napa Valley, Sonoma County, Aspen, Portland, Big Sky, and additional regions throughout California. For more information about Pano AI’s wildfire detection technology, please visit: https://www.pano.ai/ Full media kit of Pano Detection images and videos can be found here: https://tinyurl.com/324yzvv6 About Pano AI Pano AI is the leader in wildfire early detection and intelligence. Leveraging a network of connected, ultra-high-definition cameras continuously rotating atop high vantage points, Pano Rapid Detect captures a dynamic 360-degree panoramic view of the landscape every minute. This rich camera data, combined with satellite imagery, emergency call details, and other data feeds, enables Pano AI’s artificial intelligence to continuously monitor the landscape and provide actionable intelligence in a single, intuitive interface, enabling fire authorities to detect, assess, and pinpoint new fires quickly, in order to contain them while they are still small. As climate change creates and escalates the number and size of fires when it comes to dispatching fire departments, every minute matters. Learn more at https://www.pano.ai/ Contact Details Kivvit Akash Gejjagaraguppe +1 603-930-0591 akash@kivvit.com Company Website https://www.pano.ai/

November 03, 2021 09:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time

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British fintech Nimbla attracts £5.1m investment as embedded insurance takes off

Stockwood Strategy

Fintech business insurance startup Nimbla has today announced a £5.1m funding round led by Silicon Valley venture fund Fin VC with participation from Barclays Bank. The funding comes as Nimbla seeks to scale its operations with increased demand from embedded credit risk solutions through its API with banks and alternative lending platforms. Founded in 2016, the Nimbla platform has given businesses the confidence to trade with a peace of mind using invoice insurance with quotes provided within seconds. Their proprietary digital automated credit risk platform is able to process requests immediately and provide real time quotes. Nimbla has processed over 67m invoices worth £2.5b. During the pandemic, volumes of invoices tripled as economic uncertainty and supply chain concerns increased and Nimbla continued writing new business. Flemming Bengtsen, CEO at Nimbla commented: “We have been growing steadily over the past few years, ramping up our technology and team to better understand businesses, the nature of B2B debt and to make faster decisions to serve our growing customer base. 2020 was a seminal year for Nimbla, at a time of global crisis, we were there for businesses enabling them to trade with a peace of mind and giving them confidence to carry on. This funding round will enable us to expand our platform, grow the team as we enable a confident and trusted trading environment for businesses across the UK and beyond”. Nimbla has worked directly with businesses and brokers to provide invoice insurance cover and more recently has launched a new API for Banks, fintech lenders and B2B platforms to enable more business to access the service. Nimbla partnered with Barclays Bank in 2020 to give their one million small business customers the ability to take out insurance against individual invoices, rather than the whole book. “We have built a powerful and robust credit risk model, automated large parts of the process and have now launched a new API to enable others to embed seamless credit risk solutions into their platforms” added Flemming Bengtsen. On investing in funding round Henry Cashin, Head of EMEA at Fin VC, commented: “Nimbla is giving businesses the confidence to trade again. They have a proven credit risk model and its tech is being adopted by top tier banks and a host of lending platforms. We believe this will scale their reach and help more businesses benefit long term”. Looking ahead, Flemming Bengtsen commented: “UK companies have added £1.9tn debt in 2020 to their balance sheets, taking the total amount outstanding to over £6.6tn. This number was inflated by the various government loan schemes. Over half of them are carrying ‘toxic debts’ which carries enormous risk for their trade creditors, there is a huge opportunity and responsibility for Nimbla to give companies a peace of mind and insure their invoices against insolvencies”. About Nimbla Nimbla makes sure businesses get paid for their hard work, even if a customer becomes insolvent. Founded in 2016, the company is on a mission to give SMEs the confidence to trade with a peace of mind using invoice insurance. Nimbla’s digital insurance platform backed by expert risk analysts, allows businesses to check a buyer’s ability to pay and insure individual invoices against non-payment in a fast and affordable way. This will enable business owners to safeguard against insolvent customers, expand into new and existing markets and secure better borrowing terms. The platform can be accessed directly (www.nimbla.com) and through partnerships with Barclays and insurance brokers. Based in London, Nimbla aims to bring the trade credit industry into the 21st century. Challenging traditional insurance models, the cover is flexible and adapts to fit your business — whether it’s a one-off invoice or multiple transactions. Contact Details Nimbla Bilal Mahmood +44 7714 007257 b.mahmood@stockwoodstrategy.com Company Website https://www.nimbla.com/

November 03, 2021 08:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time

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SMEs “keep calm and carry on” despite rising costs from suppliers

Stockwood Strategy

Supply chain issues and increasing costs have impacted SMEs countrywide and yet they seem to be handling it in their usual resilient stride. Fintech business lender MarketFinance asked 1,000 SME owners 1 across the UK how they are managing rising supplier prices, what measures they have put in place and sought their long term outlook on the increasing costs of doing business. Supplier costs Four out of five (79%) SMEs have faced increased prices from suppliers over the past 6 months. An increase of cost of raw materials was the top ranked rationale for price increases by suppliers, most keenly felt by businesses in the north west of England (85%). This was followed by staff shortages, the ongoing impact of the pandemic slowdown and supply chain disruptions owing to a shortage of truck drivers. Across the UK, a quarter of SMEs reported supplier prices have almost doubled over the past 6 months. Impact A third of SMEs (32%) have been able to absorb the increased costs without passing them on to customers, suggesting that these businesses have the necessary cash reserves to handle the impact. Only a fifth (21%) are passing a portion of the increased costs onto customers. Businesses in the south west of England and Northern Ireland are least likely to absorb the costs while businesses in the north west and Yorkshire are the most likely to do so. Their customers are proving to be equally understanding of the wider supply chain situation with only a fifth (20%) challenging business owners about the price rises. Outlook Looking ahead to the festive season, SMEs feel they will be able to manage the situation but some could increase prices if the pressure gets too much. Two fifths reported they could increase their prices by as much as 10% in the run up to Christmas. Longer term, three quarters (73%) of SMEs are already preparing for the current higher prices to be the norm until at least the end of 2022. A third of SMEs (34%) have taken out loans or are using other finance facilities to manage the increased cost of doing business. Anil Stocker, CEO at MarketFinance, commented: “ The current economic environment with rising costs is presenting some headwinds and headaches for SME owners but they are proving to be as resilient as ever. The vast majority have been thinking ahead and accounted for the longer term scenario, which will hold them in good stead to do business. It’s great to see that SME owners are taking the long view and preserving their customer relationships and managing suppliers by having a finance facility in place to deal with the overhead for now. The British Business Bank announced last week that it will extend its Recovery Loan Scheme to June 2022. This extension will give SMEs easier access to more affordable finance they need to continue running and growing operations in the face of ongoing challenges such as staff shortages and supplier price increases.” 1 Research findings based on a survey of 1,000 UK companies (who are employers with a minimum turnover of £100,000) conducted for MarketFinance in October 2021 by LMRMC Research (a Market Research Society approved partner and ESOMAR corporate member). About MarketFinance MarketFinance is a fintech business lender which believes that SMEs are building the world. By making finance frictionless, they’re solving the cash flow issues getting in the way of progress. MarketFinance uses smart technology to deliver better access to faster, more affordable finance; with one-to-one help whenever businesses need it. Since 2011, MarketFinance has advanced over £2.6 billion worth of invoices and loans, enabling thousands of UK businesses to bridge today’s funding gaps and fuel tomorrow’s big ambitions. MarketFinance is an accredited Recover Loan Scheme lender and has a wide-reaching network of strategic partners including Barclays Bank UK PLC, Tide, Equals Group and Ebury. MarketFinance is backed by Barclays Bank UK PLC, Mouro Capital, Paul Forster (co-founder of Indeed.com) European venture capital fund Northzone (invested in Klarna, iZettle and Trustpilot), Viola Capital and private equity group MCI Capital (also invested in iZettle, Azimo and Gett). Contact Details MarketFinance Bilal Mahmood +44 7714 007257 b.mahmood@stockwoodstrategy.com Company Website https://marketfinance.com/

November 02, 2021 10:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time

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New Akeneo Product Release Takes PXM to the Next Level

Akeneo

Product experience management (PXM) leader Akeneo today announced some major new product features and benefits as part of their Autumn Product Release Cycle. Akeneo released over 70 product enhancements this year alone, adding powerful new capabilities to its industry-leading suite of SaaS solutions. The new release includes substantial upgrades to Akeneo PXM Studio, underscoring Akeneo’s commitment to continuous cloud-first and API-centric innovation as part of a well-connected product and partner ecosystem. The new release brings a series of key updates to Akeneo’s flagship Akeneo PIM product, including: Table Attributes which give users a simple but compelling way to present complex product information in tables — an ideal approach for use-cases such as product dimensions, packaging information, nutritional information, and product comparisons. Tailored Exports lets users easily customize product data export structure, content, and sources, with customization for different data sharing needs. Thanks to Tailored Exports, manipulating product data in spreadsheets will become a thing of the past, making exporting data and sharing product information easier than ever before. Enhanced user interface, because continuously optimizing the user experience is what makes Akeneo the most powerful product collaboration tool in the market. Users will experience an updated proposal screen, faster category management, enhanced settings navigation, an intuitive activity dashboard, and more. The new release also brings important updates to Akeneo Shared Catalogs and Akeneo Onboarder, enhancing product data collaboration and synchronization between brands/manufacturers and their retailers, distributors, and suppliers. Users can access all attributes and metrics for shared products, with improved sorting, filtering, and advanced search capabilities, as well as support for additional languages to facilitate global collaboration. Building on the industry’s most robust and comprehensive partner ecosystem, Akeneo’s Marketplace also gets a major upgrade: now fully embedded in Akeneo PIM, customers can quickly access powerful functionality to easily discover connectors and third-party extensions –– all without leaving the Akeneo PIM dashboard. The new Embedded Marketplace makes it easier than ever for all levels of users to tap into the latest and greatest innovations from Akeneo partners to unleash their PIM productivity without having to toggle between different interfaces. Users, prospects and partners can also find out more about Akeneo’s path forward with its new public-facing product roadmap, “ What’s Next with Akeneo PIM.” The highly anticipated page featured in Akeneo’s Help Center highlights new and upcoming product features, and gives a taste of innovations currently in development. This enables brands and digital agencies to closely align their product experience initiatives with Akeneo PIM’s exciting new features, so they can make the most of their PXM investments while freeing up precious IT resources. Akeneo is one of the first in the PIM market to bring true transparency to its product evolutions and deliver on its commitment to Open SaaS, trust and collaboration. “With this ambitious release, we’re showing Akeneo’s continuing commitment to innovating in the PXM space, and also to being completely transparent about our journey forward as a truly cloud-native Open SaaS solution provider,” said Akeneo CEO Fred de Gombert. “We already have the richest partner ecosystem and most powerful PIM solution on the market, and we’re continuing to redefine the industry and reimagine the possibilities for powerful, partnership-driven PIM solutions.” About Akeneo Akeneo is a global leader in Product Experience Management (PXM), helping businesses to unlock growth opportunities by delivering a consistent and compelling product experience across all channels, including eCommerce, mobile, print, points of sale, and beyond. With its open platform, leading PIM, add-ons, connectors, and marketplace, Akeneo PXM Studio dramatically improves product data quality and accuracy, simplifies catalog management, and accelerates the sharing of product information across channels and locales. Leading global brands, manufacturers, distributors, and retailers, including Staples Canada, Fossil, Air Liquide, and Myer, trust Akeneo to scale and customize their omnichannel commerce initiatives. Using Akeneo, brands and retailers can improve customer experience, increase sales, reduce time to market, go global, and boost team productivity. More information at https://www.akeneo.com. Contact Details Ran Xu +1 213-309-2373 ran@rosebudpr.io Company Website https://www.akeneo.com

November 02, 2021 10:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time

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