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Velocity Global Report: Tech companies push remote work global

Velocity Global

65% of U.S. companies will increase or maintain global remote workforces this year 61% of U.S. companies to increase or maintain domestic remote teams Growth companies compete with enterprises for global talent Technology companies seek more global remote talent as a result of COVID-19 according to a new report from Velocity Global, the leading provider of global expansion solutions. Responses from 1,000 U.S. and UK tech company decision-makers highlight that 65% of U.S. tech companies and 46% of UK tech companies will maintain or increase their global remote workforce this year. “The global pandemic forced the biggest workforce shift in modern history as businesses adopted remote work en masse overnight, and the changes are permanent,” said Velocity Global founder and CEO Ben Wright. “The worker fundamentally separated from the workplace, including transcending borders. Companies now use the tech tools and manage remote teams almost exclusively. The comfort level rose in 2020 and companies seek top talent around the world like never before.” Remote Work By the Numbers The switch to remote work in response to the pandemic inspired lasting change for tech companies to seek and employ talent outside of their headquarters or employee centers. Remote work at home. Tech companies immediately enabled work from home with the onset of the pandemic. With the tools in place, 61% of U.S. tech companies and 52% of UK tech companies intend to maintain or increase a domestic remote workforce. Scale aids global remote shift. Of the U.S. tech companies (65%) and UK tech companies (46%) with plans to maintain or increase a global remote workforce, large companies lead the charge. However, smaller companies are not far behind. 34% of tech businesses with more than 500 employees are more likely to hire remote workers overseas 27% of companies with 200-500 employees 21% for companies with 100-199 employees 10% for companies with fewer than 100 employees “The global scale of the pandemic forced large enterprises to invest in remote work at scale, but smaller companies are positioned to accelerate the trend going forward,” added Wright. “Growth companies are built with agility to compete with larger companies in all facets of business, and these numbers indicate they must compete for top global talent. That competition forces businesses of all sizes to hire quickly and compliantly in any global market.” Benefits of a Remote Workforce The shift to remote work increases productivity, supplements the bottom line, and engages employees. Employee preference. 74% of U.S. employees prefer to work from home at least two days per week once COVID-19 is no longer a concern, according to a PwC survey this year. Nearly a third (29%) prefer to work remotely five days per week. In the UK, only 7% of UK workers want to return to the office following pandemic restrictions, according to leading international research data and analytics group, UK YouGov. Improved productivity. More than half (52%) of executives in the PwC research report an increase in productivity for remote teams during the stress of the pandemic. Culturally diverse teams earn better returns. Geographically dispersed teams bring diversity of culture, race, and ethnicity. Companies that rank higher in diversity are 35% more likely to see above-average financial performance in their industries, according to longstanding research by McKinsey & Company. Access to skilled talent. Access to the global talent pools allows companies to hire the best candidate for the position, not the candidates closest to the office. Increased recruitment and retention. Remote work improves recruitment and retention for employers. A recent LiveCareer study of remote employees during the pandemic found that 62% stated that in the future they will give preference to employers who offer remote work; while 29% said they will leave their current job if they are not allowed to continue working remotely. Lower costs. A company can save tens of thousands of dollars annually per remote worker who telecommutes half of the time. Last year Global Workplace Analytics found that companies identified real estate savings with full-time telework to equal $10,000 per employee (annually). That research points to companies like Sun Microsystems that saves $68 million annually in real estate costs due to its telecommuting policy. “The benefits of a global remote workforce span business metrics from the employee experience to the bottom line, which go hand in hand” said Wright. “The past year introduced a widespread benefit to employees - work from anywhere. Spend more time with family or friends, save time and money on a commute, live anywhere and get a job in any market. When that benefit matches increased productivity, retention, and lower costs businesses must move quickly to implement remote teams on a global scale or risk losing talent to competitors.” Download the complete infographic here. Methodology Velocity Global surveyed 500 U.S. and 500 UK decision-makers from companies with 50-1,000 employees, focused on the IT, software, hardware, and technology industries. Respondents are director level and above, including C-suite, in the following job functions: business development, legal and business management, finance, operations, and HR. Independent survey consultant, Censuswide, conducted the research. ABOUT VELOCITY GLOBAL Velocity Global helps companies grow globally. Founded in 2014, Velocity Global’s clients rely on its expertise and global infrastructure in 185 countries to hire compliantly around the world, increase revenue, scale efficiently, and access global talent. Named a “Leader” in Global Employer of Record services by prominent analyst firm NelsonHall, Velocity Global is a strategic partner to its clients with comprehensive services led by its core offering of International PEO as well as Immigration, Entity Setup and Support, Global Talent Acquisition, and Consulting. Velocity Global is headquartered in Denver, Colorado, with regional headquarters in Amsterdam and Singapore, and local employees in 14 countries. Contact Details Velocity Global John Hall +1 720-650-4348 johnhall@velocityglobal.com Company Website https://velocityglobal.com/

March 10, 2021 07:01 AM Mountain Standard Time

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Fintech MarketFinance reaches profitability as it returns a record start to the year

Stockwood Strategy

Fintech business lender MarketFinance has kicked off 2021 with a significant increase in lending volumes. Year to date, MarketFinance has deployed over £64m in business loans and invoice finance to businesses across the UK. This is up 50% from the same period last year. As a CBILS accredited lender by the British Business Bank, MarketFinance has been at the forefront of supporting SME businesses throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Profit landmark MarketFinance has played a pivotal role in supporting SMEs. It has provided over £2bn to the most underserved businesses, giving them access to the working capital they need. MarketFinance announced that it turned profitable in February 2021 and will continue to grow at pace as the business scales products and operations. Anil Stocker, CEO at MarketFinance said: “The pandemic has sped up digital adoption across large parts of our society. Business lending is no different. We are seeing a continuing need to provide fast, easy-to-access, digitally available funding solutions to SMEs across all sectors within the UK. Fintech lenders such as MarketFinance are well placed to help power the post-Covid economic recovery across the country.” Partnerships In reaching a wide range of businesses, MarketFinance has deepened its 2018 partnership with Barclays Bank helping more of their business banking customers with invoice finance funding. In September 2020 MarketFinance also partnered with fellow fintech Ebury to ensure SMEs across the UK were able to quickly access the emergency lending, offering loans and revolving credit facilities to Ebury’s UK SME base. Aligning with their £10m BCR commitments, MarketFinance is continuing to partner with high-street banks and business platforms to enable more businesses to access the right financial solutions for them. Anil Stocker added: “A key part of our strategy is partnering with organisations who want to improve access to finance for their business customers. Our mission has always been to give SMEs a fair playing field for them to get access to working capital. We’re now working with partners to embed our finance technology within their platforms, allowing their customers quicker and easier access to the working capital they need.” ENDS Notes to the Editor About MarketFinance MarketFinance is a busi ness finance company with offices in London and Manchester. The online platform enables businesses to access a range of flexible finance solutions - quickly and easily. This smart technology is backed by help from real people so business owners can save time and focus on growing their business. Since 2011, MarketFinance has cumulatively advanced over £3 billion to companies across a range of sizes and sectors, providing working capital and finance for everything from paying staff and suppliers to launching new products or services and accelerating growth. MarketFinance is backed by Barclays, Mouro Capital, European venture capital fund Northzone (invested in Klarna, iZettle and Trustpilot), and private equity group MCI Capital (also invested in iZettle, Azimo and Gett). Contact Details MarketFinance Bilal Mahmood +44 7714 007257 b.mahmood@marketfinance.com Company Website https://marketfinance.com/

March 10, 2021 05:00 AM Eastern Standard Time

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The Limitations of Medicare and Medicaid by Jennifer Lang Financial Services

Jennifer Lang Financial Services, LLC

Contact Details Jennifer Lang +1 877-487-8926 mail@jenniferlangfinancialservices.com Company Website https://www.jenniferlangfinancialservices.com

March 09, 2021 10:05 AM Eastern Standard Time

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CMMC Center of Excellence Announces Engagement Agreement with HKA Technology Solutions

Interoperability Clearinghouse

The Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification Center of Excellence ( CMMC COE ), hosted by the Information Technology Acquisition Advisory Council (IT-AAC), a public-private partnership serving the public and private sectors for more than 15 years, is excited to announce a partnership with HKA Technology Solutions, an IT Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) consulting company providing a wealth of GRC solutions for clients from the U.S. Government to the private sector. This unique partnership will extend efforts to identify and include proven capabilities within the CMMC COE Marketplace to improve cybersecurity protection and resilience for the global defense industrial base network of contractors, vendors, and suppliers. By facilitating results that customers want to reduce costs and risks, HKA provides the CMMC subject matter expertise that creates business value co-creation to help the DIB contractor think critically about establishing, documenting, and testing their CMMC administrative, technical, and physical controls to support the nation’s warfighters. Furthermore, HKA uses a unique Service Value System (SVS) to ensure that within the CMMC Practices and Processes Lifecycle, DIB CMMC practices and processes continuously co-create value with all stakeholders. The executed Engagement Agreement establishes a collaborative engagement between HKA Technology Solutions and the CMMC COE to partner in the furthering of their respective and complementary missions and objectives regarding the adoption, use, and expansion of CMMC based cybersecurity practices, risk management, and compliance for the DIB contractor, vendor, and supplier community of providers creating a broader CMMC ecosystem globally to improve security and resilience. Specific actions will include: The co-development of CMMC advisory services, cyber training and education programs to accelerate CMMC certification, increase cyber adoption and improve cyber protection & resilience. Co-sponsor symposiums, training programs and podcasts leveraging their combined cyber and IT expertise. Host regular working groups, with other partners, to enable collaboration and communications. Establish an independent Industry Cyber Security Advisory Council with peer organizations to advise and educate leaders across government and industry on the continued evolution and effectiveness of CMMC. The CMMC-COE ( http://cmmc-coe.org ) and HKA Technology Solutions partnership will focus on bringing together the many disparate cyber and national security communities of interest to reduce complexity, improve awareness, and accelerate industry effort to become more cyber resilient against the growing threats from nation states and criminal enterprises. “This is exciting opportunity for us”, said Mr. John Weiler, Chairman of the Board at CMMC Center of Excellence, “This new partnership will further help advance the goals and objectives for improving the supply chain security and resilience of the US Department of Defense (DoD)”. "Through the partnership with the CMMC-COE, HKA Technology Solutions scopes, tailors, and publishes CMMC policies, procedures, and standards to safeguard data Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability for our Defense Industrial Base members who support our nation's warfighters." said Mr. Glenn Axelrod, President & CEO. The CMMC-COE establishes both a Market Place and Knowledge Clearinghouse that will include resources that support the overall effort, including white papers; tutorials; recorded webcasts; presentations; and more that will help reduce the cost and burden on small and medium size contractors already struggling from the impact of COVID. For more information on the CMMC COE, please visit http://cmmc-coe.org, email info@cmmc-coe.org or call 703-863-3766 For more information on HKA Technology Solutions, please visit https://www.hkatechnolgysolutions.com/ About Us ---------- CMMC-COE.ORG is a unique non-profit public-private partnership, with a vision to accelerate Cybersecurity Maturity Model (CMM) adoption, and reduce time & cost for security compliance for our partners by leveraging commercial best practices, CMMC standards, and innovative solutions for a measurable success. Our mission, focused on DOD mission objectives, cost containment and expeditious CMMC compliance, is to help the DIB improve cyber posture and resilience, and simplify its acquisition. The CMMC-COE is hosted by the Information Technology Acquisition Advisory Council (IT-AAC), a public/private partnership (P3) chartered in 2007 as an honest broker to reach outside the confines of the Federal IT advisories that lack dynamic reach into the Global IT Market, and dedicated to the adoption of commercial IT management standards of practice and innovations emanating from the Global IT market. Team IT-AAC has already demonstrated the value of its decade long investment, and provides a unique value to agencies seeking to achieve accelerate the transformation of legacy processes and systems. Our Just-in-Time SMEs apply an innovative suite of Technology Business Management and Agile Acquisition Processes needed to assure the business value of commercial IT. The Interoperability Clearinghouse (ICH), is the managing partner that make up the 24 NGO/SDO organizations that make up the IT-AAC. ICH provides the contract vehicles, clearances, and critical resources proven to guide sustainable, measurable and repeatable processes needed to drive better investment decisions as the speed of mission need, while aligning existing processes, methods and workforce with IT reform mandates contained in Clinger Cohen Act, FITARA, IT MGT Act, EO13838. Contact Details Bob Dix +1 703-975-6633 bob.dix@it-aac.org Company Website https://cmmc-coe.org

March 08, 2021 08:00 AM Eastern Standard Time

Fintern launches consumer lending driven by AI and Open Banking

Stockwood Strategy

The UK consumer lending market is worth £160bn, yet over 15 million people in the UK are denied access to affordable loans. These people are resorting to unsustainable means including high-cost lenders and buy-now-pay-later schemes to manage their lives. Today, digital consumer lender Fintern has launched to radically transform the financial well-being of people with an innovative and sustainable lending approach that goes beyond traditional credit scoring and puts affordability first. Fintern’s next generation credit technology bypasses credit scores in making lending decisions, focusing instead on affordability. Fintern builds relationships with customers helping them to understand how much they really need, how much they can afford to take on, and how they will repay. Fintern integrates its AI platform with Open Banking* to smartly connect the dots in consumers’ banking data enabling Fintern to obtain the most accurate view of borrowers’ affordability and spending behaviour using real time transaction information. Gerald Chappell, CEO and co-founder of Fintern commented: “Fintern will help people to really understand what is affordable for them, rather than offering yet another faceless transactional process. Currently, lenders either lend money or don’t, and then don’t engage with the borrower again until the loan terms ends or payments are missed. “Our success as a lender lies in the ability of our customers to repay their loans. Our AI-powered technology helps us and all our customers to understand their finances in a deeper, more hands-on way than ever before. This approach allows us to increase approval rates, lower APRs and empower our customers to make the best and most responsible borrowing decisions for them.” The approach of banks to personal lending inappropriately results in “computer says no” answers for millions every year. While traditional behavioural credit scoring (the industry’s approach for credit decisioning) works well to separate the highest quality customers from the lowest, it performs poorly in differentiating risk among the majority of people. Often the consumers hardest hit are those who have had historical blips in their credit records or, for example, those people who are new to credit or have moved countries. Dr. Michelle He, COO and co-founder of Fintern added: “We will be closer to our customers than incumbent lenders can ever be, and this will differentiate us in the marketplace. Intelligently integrating AI and Open Banking data disrupts credit decisioning for the better of all customers. Doing it well requires the right experience. Data and technology are Fintern’s bread and butter. We have an amazing team with extensive experience in digital lending and credit analytics. They are customer obsessed and have made the Fintern App a unique experience.” Looking ahead, Gerald Chappell added: “As we emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic, Fintern is needed now more than ever. While many existing lenders are reducing credit supply given the shock to their existing portfolios, Fintern uses high frequency transaction data to understand consumers’ real time financial circumstances and lend responsibly. Over the next 4-5 years, we intend to rapidly grow in the UK building a £1bn loan book alongside broadening our product range and considering expansion to other geographies.” Fintern received its FCA authorisation as a regulated consumer credit lender in February 2021. The co-founders have built an exceptional team that includes credit experts with over 100 years’ experience in finance and technology. Ends * Open Banking regulation requires UK banks to open up customer transaction data in a secure and standardised form, which means the third party providers have access to consumer data from banks via APIs. While the UK is leading globally on Open Banking, adoption is under way in 35 economies. About Fintern Fintern is a digital consumer lender on a mission to expand access to low cost personal finance and transform financial well-being. Fintern’s next generation credit technology bypasses credit scores in making lending decisions, focusing instead on affordability. Fintern builds relationships with customers helping them to understand their repayment capacity and credit appetite. Fintern integrates its AI platform with Open Banking to smartly connect the dots in consumers’ banking data enabling Fintern to obtain the most accurate view of borrowers’ affordability and spending behaviour using up to the minute transaction information. Fintern was founded in 2020 with a team from McKinsey, EY, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, HSBC and XiaoMi. Fintern is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, firm reference number 929244, a member of Cifas (the UK's leading anti-fraud association) and registered with the UK Information Commissioner's Office in compliance with the Data Protection Regulations 2018. Contact Details Fintern Bilal Mahmood +44 7714 007257 press@fintern.ai Company Website https://fintern.ai/

March 08, 2021 06:00 AM Eastern Standard Time

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Cyvatar Creates First All-in-One Cybersecurity Membership Platform

Cyvatar

Cyvatar today unveiled its all-in-one platform to deliver the first-of-its-kind cybersecurity-as-a-service (CSaaS) offering. The Cyvatar platform is now the de facto operating system for all of its members’ security programs. Cyvatar’s unique membership model levels the playing field by democratizing cybersecurity and making the best protection accessible and affordable for every size organization, even if they have no cybersecurity expertise in-house. With the introduction of the Cyvatar platform, members also get complete visibility into the management of all their security tools from a single pane of glass. The platform demonstrates immediate and concrete results from their cybersecurity efforts with executive-level analytics, rising compliance and risk grades, time to remediation, and ROI calculations. “We’re losing the battle against hacks and breaches; even though more and more security tools are available, sensitive data isn’t getting better protected,” said Corey White, Cyvatar co-founder and chief executive officer. “We launched Cyvatar as the industry’s first subscription-based CSaaS to solve this problem. Rather than simply identifying issues, the Cyvatar platform gives members complete and continuous transparency into all remediation activity to support their security and compliance goals.” By replacing ownership with membership, Cyvatar members can select the freemium plan in seconds at no cost. They can later choose the packages and pricing that meet their unique business needs and they can cancel anytime--another industry first. “Without Cyvatar, you’re basically going to the supermarket and stocking up on all of the best ingredients without a recipe or general know-how to turn those ingredients into a meal,” said Cyvatar Co-Founder and Chief Product and Strategy Officer Craig Goodwin. “If you want to eat, you can’t just keep buying more ingredients; at some point, you have to combine them in the proper order and prepare them at the right temperature to create the necessary outcome--that’s what we do for our members. Our expert team of Cydekicks use the platform to remediate all vulnerabilities in a member’s system and provide CyValue in 90 days or fewer with full transparency into every action they perform.” Become a free member to get your vulnerability scan, remediation plan, and platform access today. About Cyvatar Cyvatar is committed to cybersecurity for everyone. As the industry’s first subscription-based, cybersecurity-as-a-service (CSaaS) company, it’s our mission to transform the way the security industry builds, sells, and supports cyber solutions. We empower our members to achieve successful outcomes by providing expert advisors, proven technologies, and a strategic process roadmap to guarantee results that map to their business drivers. Our approach is rooted in proprietary ICARM (installation, configuration, assessment, remediation, maintenance) methodology that delivers smarter, measurable security solutions for superior compliance and cyber-attack protection faster and more efficiently, all at a fixed monthly price. And because we’re a subscription, members can cancel anytime. Cyvatar is headquartered in Irvine, California with locations around the world. Begin your journey to security confidence at https://cyvatar.ai/ and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter. Contact Details Cyvatar Media KC Higgins +1 303-434-8163 kc@cyvatar.ai Company Website https://cyvatar.ai/

March 04, 2021 08:30 AM Eastern Standard Time

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YELP SPRINGS FOR HOME CLEANING TO HELP SINGLE PARENTS

Yelp

While virtually no one has been left unchanged by the pandemic, single parents have been especially burdened by the disruption to their lives. America has the highest number of children living in single-parent households, and single parents across the country have been saddled with additional stressors for the past year due to COVID-19 — from balancing work with childcare and distance learning, to additional house chores. Trying to maintain a clean and tidy home can be challenging on top of all of the roles single parents are juggling. Kicking off just in time for spring cleaning and ahead of National Single Parents Day (March 21), Yelp is springing for single parents’ cleaning bills for a whole year. When it comes to maintaining the house, parents spend an average of seven hours per week cleaning - that’s seven valuable hours that could be spent with kids or for selfcare.* With spring cleaning season upon us, Yelp wants to help curtail one of the stressors for single parents - cleaning the house. As part of our Spring for Cleaning fund, Yelp will award five selected users a $4,000 gift card to cover the cost of a professional cleaning service once a week for one year, for two hours each week.** Single parents can enter for a chance to win by using Yelp’s Request a Quote feature to find a cleaner in their area, and submitting the quote at YelpSpringsforCleaning.com starting March 3rd through March 21st. See the Official Rules available at YelpSpringsforCleaning.com/Rules. * 2018 ACI National Cleaning Survey **See the Official Rules available at YelpSpringsforCleaning.com/Rules. Annual costs of a professional cleaning service based on an average cost of $39.00 per hour. About Yelp Yelp Inc. ( www.yelp.com ) connects people with great local businesses. With unmatched local business information, photos, and review content, Yelp provides a one-stop local platform for consumers to discover, connect, and transact with local businesses of all sizes by making it easy to request a quote, join a waitlist, and make a reservation, appointment, or purchase. Yelp was founded in San Francisco in July 2004. Contact Details Alison Brod Marketing + Communications Media Contact +1 212-230-1800 Yelp@abmc-us.com Company Website https://www.yelp.com

March 03, 2021 07:03 AM Eastern Standard Time

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Women Retirees Underestimate the Coming Long-Term Care Tsunami by Jennifer Lang Financial Services

Jennifer Lang Financial Services, LLC

Contact Details Jennifer Lang Financial Services, LLC. Jennifer Lang +1 877-487-8926 mail@jenniferlangfinancialservices.com Company Website https://www.jenniferlangfinancialservices.com

March 02, 2021 10:05 AM Eastern Standard Time

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How New Airbnb Hosts Have Earned $1 Billion During the Pandemic

YourUpdateTV

The COVID-19 pandemic has sent travelers looking for safe, comfortable settings in which to connect with family and friends, creating economic opportunity for others to earn needed extra income by listing their homes on Airbnb. New hosts with only one listing who have welcomed their first guests since the start of the pandemic have already earned more than $1 billion. Recently, Christopher Nulty, Head of Global Public Affairs at Airbnb, discussed this trend and what it means for the future of travel. A video accompanying this announcement is available at: https://youtu.be/kjxmBO8MLKc Families and workers around the world have struggled financially because of the economic hardship caused by the pandemic, and in the US, one in four adults have had a hard time paying bills and one third have tapped their savings or retirement funds. For many, sharing their homes on Airbnb has provided a critical and urgent COVID social safety net to help stay economically afloat in these unprecedented times. In the US, the typical new Airbnb host with only one listing earned $3,900 since March 2020. This is income being used to pay important bills with half of all hosts worldwide using their Airbnb earnings to stay in their homes. During the pandemic, three in 10 US hosts (29 percent) have used their hosting income to pay their rent or mortgage—including half (49 percent) of hosts aged 25-34. One quarter of hosts (26 percent) have used the income to pay down debts, and 10 percent have used it to pay for healthcare. For more information, visit Airbnb.com About Christopher Nulty: Christopher Nulty is Airbnb's Head of Global Public Affairs. Prior to joining Airbnb in 2015, Christopher led public relations for Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer. Christopher started his career in Washington, D.C., where he worked on Immigration and Healthcare Policy at the 2.2 million member Service Employees International Union (SEIU). A proud native of upstate New York, Christopher is a graduate of Colgate University where he currently serves as a director on the Alumni Council Board of Directors. About YourUpdateTV: YourUpdateTV is a social media video portal for organizations to share their content. It includes separate channels for Health and Wellness, Lifestyle, Media and Entertainment, Money and Finance, Social Responsibility, Sports and Technology. Contact Details YourUpdateTV +1 212-736-2727 yourupdatetv@gmail.com

March 01, 2021 11:00 AM Eastern Standard Time

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