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Voices of Leaders
We are more than an editorial company. We are a socially-aware company formed by mindful individuals that are actively taking action for the good of the planet. We dedicate our efforts to empower everyone to not only be conscious, but also become proactive in what's happening in everyday life. As a B2B publisher, we inform and connect the voices of prominent leaders in innovation, sustainability, circular economy and impact investing through our exclusive digital magazine and a new B2B connecting feature.
At VoL, we don't just make digital magazines, we make a digital communication experience. Touch, click, slide, connect and discover how exactly a digital media experience should feel like.
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About this issue
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Voices of Leaders
We are more than an editorial company. We are a socially-aware company formed by mindful individuals that are actively taking action for the good of the planet. We dedicate our efforts to empower everyone to not only be conscious, but also become proactive in what's happening in everyday life. As a B2B publisher, we inform and connect the voices of prominent leaders in innovation, sustainability, circular economy and impact investing through our exclusive digital magazine and a new B2B connecting feature.
At VoL, we don't just make digital magazines, we make a digital communication experience. Touch, click, slide, connect and discover how exactly a digital media experience should feel like.
About this issue
only do this by rethinking the way we produce, work, consume, educate and learn.
Since 2018, Mayor Suarez has been working on citywide initiatives designed to attract and support startups, investors and entrepreneurs in general in Miami. With his recent reelection past November we can call his plan a success. So, we came to Florida to see first hand what we were hearing through the twitter grapevine. According to Forbes’ new ranking of emerging technology hubs in the US, Tampa hit number one followed by Miami in 2021. We handpicked a few companies to tell their story of how they seized the opportunity to have a shot at defying the odds and portray what’s happening in the Sunshine State in spite of the pandemic that continues to shake and rattle our lives worldwide.
Healthcare has been center stage and technology right alongside. We’ve implemented changes in one year that normally would have taken us five. Telemedicine is here to stay and even your grandma now knows how to book an appointment with her doctor online and get certain checkups on video calls. Remote working is also here to
stay; some companies have chosen a hybrid model while others have gone full-blown home working. Companies have widely implemented IT solutions, cloud computing, AI and apps for almost anything and direct mail marketing to communicate with customers, be it B2B or B2C businesses. It’s time we all enhanced our vocabulary with some tech jargon that we’re going to be using soon on a day-to-day basis. Grab some sunscreen…we’re going to Florida!
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About this issue
By VoL Team
What if we move to Florida?
January 2022
home to 26 million residents and one of the most diverse populations in the world. Technology and innovation are disrupting every industry and community. As a market for goods, services, talent and ideas, Florida can take advantage of these trends and become the leading U.S. state in the 21st century.
To achieve that vision Florida has a plan that will address the challenges and opportunities for future growth with bold targets, thoughtful strategies, and a commitment to action. From small businesses to big corporations, many companies are setting an example on how to overcome the challenges the pandemic has brought about and take action to secure future business in a more digital oriented world.
Joy Gendusa, founder and CEO of Postcard Mania, a marketing firm in Clearwater, Florida has put her energy into moving her traditional postcard mailing business towards the digital future, helping the small business owner adapt to the ever-changing world of marketing. With 25 years of cutting-edge printing behind them, and their new digital focus on a steep upward trajectory, PostcardMania is well positioned for the future as Florida’s number-one AdTech force and Gendusa is anticipating the future, “I am going to be listening so I can help small businesses with what they need now, and what they’re going to need for the next ten years.”
The rapid migration to digital technologies driven by the pandemic will continue into the recovery. As of June 2021, employees from different sectors have started to go back to their desks in a hybrid format and the technological expansion brought about by the pandemic has resulted in a 15% increase in demand for Information Technology (IT) solutions and services. System Soft Technologies, a provider of IT project solutions and consulting services in Tampa, has been able to meet this demand thanks to a visionary insight that already had them working on these solutions as early as 2019. The company is focused on helping businesses accelerate innovation through the digital strategies driving today’s businesses to grow. Sreedhar Veeramachaneni, CEO of System Soft Technologies has a clear insight on what the main driver for digital transformation has been and why digital solutions products are key, “Today’s businesses are rapidly realizing they must ensure a fluid and straightforward customer experience that makes it easy for their target audiences to procure their products or services.”
The world is changing and we need to consider that the world as we knew it may be gone forever. Most experts now expect the COVID-19 virus to become endemic such as
healthcare institutions along with the quality life and real estate opportunities are making moving to Florida a no-brainer.
TAP TO PLAY
PostcardMania’s 23-year journey took them to $64 million in revenue in 2020. Now, with their founder/CEO Joy Gendusa still at the helm, they look to the next era of the company, helping small businesses navigate the ever-growing maze of marketing technologies.
Come to PostcardMania’s campus today, and you will find an on-site café, a gym, multiple facilities and crucially, the 5 commercial printing presses which form the backbone of the company’s business. If you add to this the 300 staff and close to 100,000 clients, then the small startup, setup in a 600 square foot cottage seems a world away. 23 years ago however, that was the reality for PostcardMania. Since then founder and CEO Joy Gendusa has put her energy into moving her traditional postcard mailing business towards the digital future, helping the small business owner adapt to the ever-changing world of marketing. She explains that “marketing is just getting more and more complicated and confusing. I love breaking that down. The foundation of PostcardMania is helping the small business owner, because small business is the backbone of the U.S. economy.”
The success of PostcardMania’s new technology is hardly surprising given print is the fastest growing martech as of April 2020, with 35% year-on-year growth. Gendusa explains print’s long runway to growth, “It’s all about integration — between direct mail, Google, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube ads, QR codes, landing pages, websites. We do it all. But what we are really excited about is triggered direct mail, which lets business owners automate mailings based on specific actions.”
Triggered direct mail automatically sends mail to prospects and customers based on certain triggers. If you made a purchase, that could be a trigger for a “thank you” card. If you usually get a pedicure once a month but skip one, that could trigger a “we’ve missed you, here’s 20% off your next visit” postcard. PostcardMania’s newest triggered product, Website to Mailbox, is Gendusa’s latest step forward. It takes those follow-up ads you see online and puts them in your mailbox, where returns are often heightened. Gendusa admits they aren’t the first to market with this technology, but “we are the most accurate at matching online visitors to their physical addresses.”
These marketing automations make up PostcardMania’s newest division, PCM Integrations, which is growing intensely at the present moment: 625% two-year growth and a 72% quarter-over-quarter growth this year.
Gendusa comments that “Our automations come without a contract and they’re very scalable, whether a client’s budget is $100 a week or $5,000. My mission is to help the small business owner access marketing at an affordable price, so that they ultimately get a positive return on their investment and grow their businesses.” Indeed the generational gap when it comes to understanding new technologies is something she highlights as a target for her company. New marketing technologies often seem at first glance to be beyond small businesses both in terms of their understanding of the technology itself and budgets. PostcardMania attempts
Click to read
Joy Gendusa
Founder/CEO
PostcardMania
to educate small business owners around the accessibility and scalability of these technologies, and help them arrive in the world of modern marketing.
Whilst digital solutions are clearly the future of the company, their traditional printing excellence remains the lifeblood, with decades of experience behind their commercial printing presses. On top of this, their detached on-site USPS mail unit expedites mailing and their entire print facility has the experience of more than 2 billion mail pieces printed and delivered.
Helping small business owners is Joy Gendusa’s raison d’être, as she links the beauty and diversity of the U.S. to a correspondingly diverse business community. When she talks about the solutions she is going to bring over the coming years she declares — “I am going to be listening so I can help small businesses with what they need now, and what they’re going to need for the next ten years. There’s all these different channels — how do you make them work together? How do I do it for the least amount of money? How do I get the most leads for the least amount of money using all the channels so I can stay competitive and get my name out there?”
Gendusa’s passion has paid off. PostcardMania continuing to hire during the pandemic, whilst companies all around the world saw the wheels come off, is testament to the company’s current momentum. With their 25 years of cutting-edge printing behind them, and their new digital focus on a steep upward trajectory, PostcardMania is well positioned for a future as Florida’s (and soon the entire nation’s) number-one AdTech force.
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WATCH VIDEO
For over 20 years this global technology firm headquartered from “The Sunshine State” has been delivering IT solutions in order to help businesses change how they operate and deliver value to their customers.
COVID-19 and the impact of social distancing has officiated as the ultimate tech disrupter, kick-starting the “Data Decade” and accelerating digitalization innovations that could outlast the pandemic. The world is an everchanging habitat but in this particular scenario, speed has been key. System Soft Technologies has positioned itself with a robust business model built on top of technology and expertise sustained by excellent workforce talent that has enabled it not only to keep up the pace but anticipate the changes in an unforeseeable context such as a pandemic.
For a company that carries digital transformation services in its DNA, being able to continue to provide these services without interruptions or compromising security and safety for their clients while employees worked fully remote since march 2020 was crucial. As of June 2021, employees have been going back to their desks in a hybrid schedule and the technological expansion that has brought about COVID-19 has resulted in a 15% increase in demand for IT solutions and services for the first half of 2021. System Soft Technologies has been able to meet this demand thanks to a visionary insight that already had them working on these solutions as early as 2019. Helping companies leverage data and accelerate innovation through IT, AI/ ML services and solutions is essential for business success in their respective industries. It not only enables worker productivity, increasing
the ability to better manage business performance through data analytics that help identify new opportunities while also meeting customer experience expectations which in turn lead to smarter business decisions, more efficient operations and higher profits.
The 2020s are being called “The Data Decade” and many companies are discovering that data can be a burden or an advantage depending on how data-ready the business might be. System Soft Technologies is focusing on the digital transformation solutions in the workplace catering directly to the needs of the industry verticals.
When we spoke to Sreedhar Veeramachaneni, CEO of System Soft Technologies about which of all their services has received the biggest demand since COVID he explained: “Today’s businesses are rapidly realizing they must ensure a fluid and straightforward customer experience that makes it easy for their target audiences to procure their products or services. This has driven digital transformation on a grand scale.” Businesses are encountering the need for mobile applications, data analytics solutions, the use of Microsoft Collaborations tools, cloud migration and content sharing solutions and System Soft Technologies is providing a 360° approach to these demands with low code/no code solutions for agile application design and development resulting in cost reduction and higher productivity.
Click to read
Sreedhar
Veeramachaneni
CEO of System Soft
Technologies
With the first half of 2021 under the belt and 2022 already on the horizon, Veeramachaneni is looking to expand into healthcare, banking, retail and manufacturing sectors with a view to becoming a major supplier of digital solutions products and services for these key industries and R&D is essential in order to stay on top of their game innovation-wise. Although they are a small company they are committed to research and development and for this they have two innovation labs, one in Santa Clara dedicated to Big Data and security analytics research, and one in Dallas dedicated to UX/UI platform design where the company has developed two new major products. Delphian Trading is a predictive analytics and options strategy design platform for trading strategies and Elysium Analytics, a cybersecurity analytics Big Data platform that identifies modern threats in real-time using machine learning.
Looking down three to five years from now the plan is to expand further into geographies where the firm does not have significant presence, from South and Central America, to Europe and Asia replicating the US business model in terms of talent and technology. As Veeramachaneni explains, “recruiting talent for this industry has always been a challenge.” System Soft Technologies is a people-centric company where cultural transformation is inextricably linked to the upsurge of digital transformation. They foster a culture that helps the organization embrace and enable innovation, be more agile and dynamic. They offer competitive salaries and flexibility, moreover, a great place where people want to come work. Understanding that for digital transformation to be successful, an intelligent transformation must be existent at the core of System Soft Technologies, and they are equipped with the technology and talent to navigate this process into the future.
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WATCH VIDEO
Returning to Screening in a Pandemic Context
The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the spectrum of cancer care, resulting in decreases and delays in identifying new cancers, delivering treatment and even halting clinical trials to prioritize urgent needs and reduce the risk of infection in healthcare settings. One effect of this has been a large drop in cancer screening. In such a critical context, Miami Cancer Institute, part of Baptist Health South Florida has had to adjust in order to ensure that patients continue to receive essential attention.
“In a November 2020 report, The Journal of Clinical Oncology quantified year-over-year decreases in different types of cancer screenings and the data was alarming,” says Michael Zinner, M.D., CEO and executive medical director of Miami Cancer Institute. These problems, if unmitigated, will increase cancer morbidity and mortality for years to come.
Miami Cancer Institute took extreme precautions in order to resume screening tests. “We’re committed to community
outreach and are pairing with local organizations to conduct screenings,” Dr. Zinner says. “There are obviously areas of particular need within our community, we have been reaching out to these medically underserved populations with the goal of providing better access to the lifesaving technology and expertise available here.”
With 6,000 new cancer patients every year since they opened five years ago, the institute has gone from being virtually unknown to becoming the third largest cancer center by volume of patients in the state of Florida. As the only member of The Memorial Sloan Kettering alliance in Florida, they are aligned with the leading academic cancer center’s standards and have also developed research relationships with them. This association enables them to develop technology in new areas of cancer care making Miami Cancer Institute a leading expert in the development of cellular cancer therapies by way of world-class cancer experts, multidisciplinary patient care, cutting-edge technology and innovative treatments.
Click to read
Guenther Koehne, M.D.,
Ph.D., deputy director and chief of Blood and Marrow Transplantation at Miami Cancer Institute
Manmeet Ahluwalia, M.D.,
deputy director, chief scientific officer and chief of solid tumor medical oncology at Miami Cancer Institute
M. Beatriz Currier, M.D.,
medical director of the Cancer Patient Support Center and chief of psychosocial oncology at Miami Cancer Institute
Michael Zinner, M.D.,
CEO and executive medical director of Miami Cancer Institute
Outsmarting Cancer with Immunotherapy
Immunotherapy is one of Miami Cancer Institute’s major development areas. It’s an advanced cancer treatment that helps boost your body’s immune system to fight cancer. The institute’s Clinical Research Program is designed to focus on breakthrough research, discoveries and therapies. With a team of approximately 95 people and 6 major investigators, they are concentrated on immunotherapy as the future of cancer care.
As clinical trials move forward and studies continue, physician scientists are gaining more insight into which patients respond better to immunotherapy versus chemotherapy. Guenther Koehne, M.D., Ph.D., deputy director and chief of Blood and Marrow Transplantation at Miami Cancer Institute expressed: “This is not one size fits all care. Every day we are learning new facts about how to choose and integrate the best medications and procedures for the specific individual. And we are finding new treatments for those with extremely complicated cases. This improves outcomes and gives us hope.”
Technology has also been a great disrupter for healthcare, and it will play an increasingly important role in clinical trials. “Perhaps the biggest change has to do with how we recruit, monitor and communicate with patients in our trials. As a clinical investigator, you want to be able to keep a close eye on your patients to make sure they’re not experiencing any adverse effects. But with COVID-19, we also want to eliminate any unnecessary face-to-face appointments.” Physicians and patients both are growing much more comfortable with telemedicine, said Manmeet Ahluwalia, M.D., deputy director, chief scientific officer and chief of solid tumor medical oncology at Miami Cancer Institute.
“Healing with Arts”
Despite the substantial progress made in the early detection and treatment of multiple types of cancer, it’s known that psychosocial issues affect patients in all stages of the disease. Emotional response can influence both morbidity and mortality. The increased emphasis on psychosocial oncology in recent years has led to more research, education, and training programs as more professionals appreciate the importance of this aspect of care.
That is why a patient support system is such
an important part of cancer treatment. “Building resilience during a cancer patient’s journey is pivotal in terms of improving their outcomes,” says M. Beatriz Currier, M.D., medical director of the Cancer Patient Support Center and chief of psychosocial oncology at Miami Cancer Institute. Bringing the arts to Miami Cancer Institute not only soothes patients and reduces their stress, Dr. Currier says, it also improves the wellbeing of their caregivers and the hospital staff.
Cancer patient support services offered at Miami Cancer Institute include massage therapy, counseling, support groups and, now, art and music. According to Dr. Currier, these artistic interventions can help diminish anxiety and depression in patients and improve their overall wellbeing. Dr. Currier and her team are studying the impact the arts are having on patients’ clinical outcomes.
Strength comes from teamwork and that’s why Miami Cancer Institute and Lynn Cancer Institute, partners in Baptist Health Cancer Care, are integrating their programs to become the largest provider of cancer services in South Florida.
