WPS Health Solutions wins BBB International Torch Award for Ethics

MADISON, Wis.—Aug. 21, 2017—WPS Health Solutions is one of the winners of the 2017 BBB International Torch Award for Ethics from the BBB Institute for Marketplace Trust.

Presented annually since 1996, the International Torch Awards are given to businesses that demonstrate superior commitment to exceptional ethics practices that benefit their customers, employees, suppliers, shareholders, and surrounding communities.

“Being recognized for this award is an honor and a reflection of our company’s commitment to acting with integrity,” said WPS President and CEO Mike Hamerlik. “We are proud of our employees for consistently upholding our values and standards.”

WPS won in the category of companies with more than 500 employees. The award ceremony is Sept. 19 in Atlanta.

“WPS Health Solutions exemplifies what adhering to a fair and principled marketplace means,” said Jim Temmer, CEO and President of BBB Serving Wisconsin. “The Better Business Bureau congratulates this long-standing Wisconsin company, which showcases that ethical standards are key to business success and the trademark of a deep-rooted, successful company.”

The BBB Institute for Marketplace Trust is the educational foundation of the Council of Better Business Bureaus. The Council of Better Business Bureaus is the umbrella organization for over 100 local, independent BBBs in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. WPS became eligible for an international award after winning the local Torch Award competition from the BBB Serving Wisconsin in May 2016.

This is the fourth time a Wisconsin company has won an international award since its inception in 1996. Rockwell Automation won the award in 2012, Briggs & Stratton Corporation won in 2015, and Harley-Davidson won in 2016.

Finalists were selected by an independent panel of business ethics experts. Companies are evaluated against criteria including commitment to and demonstration of ethical practices in the marketplace; high standard of behavior toward customers, employees, suppliers, shareholders, and communities; truthfulness and accuracy of advertising and sales practices; ethical reputation among industry peers and communities in which they do business; and training and communications programs to assist employees in carrying out established ethics policies.

About WPS Health Solutions

WPS Health Solutions is a nationally regarded government contractor and a leading Wisconsin not-for-profit health insurer. The WPS Health Insurance division offers affordable health plans and benefits administration. The WPS Government Health Administrators division administers Part A and B Medicare benefits for millions of seniors in multiple states, and the WPS Military and Veterans Health division serves millions more members who are active in the U.S. military, veterans and their families. In 2017, the international Ethisphere® Institute named WPS one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies® for the eighth straight year. For more information, please visit wpshealthsolutions.com.

New Aircraft On Display at Wis. Aviation

WISCONSIN AVIATION – Dane County Airport – Madison

Aircraft for business and/or pleasure on display.  New aircraft, fresh from the factory.
Cessna, Beechcraft, Cirrus, Pilatus and more.  

Come see brand new aircraft on display from 1:30PM till 4:30PM.  Tax/Financial Experts and Insurance Experts will be availalbe for consultation.  

Browsing is encouraged.  If you simply like aircraft, stop by and see the latest and the greatest!
More info at http://greatplanesairexpo.com/
trevorj@wisav.com
 

Betty Harris Custer receives Circle of Excellence award

Betty Harris Custer, Founding Managing Partner of Custer Plumb Financial Services, will receive the Women in Insurance & Financial Services’ (WIFS) annual “Circle of Excellence” honor for 2017 in October. The “Circle of Excellence” distinction is conferred upon a select number of women in the industry based upon their extraordinary achievements and given out at the WIFS national conference.

Farwell Earns Inc. Top 5000 Fastest Growing Companies, 184th Nationwide

NEWS RELEASE – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:  Jason Potter, CEO, Farwell, 608/807-0615, Jason@gofarwell.com

FARWELL EARNS INC. TOP 5000 FASTEST GROWING COMPANIES, RANKS 184^th NATIONWIDE

Madison-based Firm Places 2^nd in WI for Rapid Growth, Flexible Change Advisory Services

Madison, Wisconsin – August 16, 2017 – Farwell, a Madison-based firm specializing in strategy and execution services for businesses experiencing growth-based, transformational and organizational change, was named to the 2017 Inc. 5000 list of fast-growing private companies. Ranking 184th nationally, and 2nd in Wisconsin, Farwell has expanded by 2,347 percent over the past three years, solidifying a strong trajectory for further growth throughout the Midwest. The Inc. 5000 is heralded as one of the most prestigious business rosters including the nation’s most successful private companies, and is a stamp of entrepreneurial achievement having once recognized business powerhouses Zappos.com, Under Armour, Pandora and GoPro, among others. Only four Wisconsin companies ranked in the top 500 on this year’s list of independent small to midsized businesses. 

With a management team and growing network of project, process and change experts, Farwell works with a variety of regional clients including Lands’ End, MillerCoors, Fiskars, SubZero-Wolf, Promega, WPS Health Insurance and CUNA. Services include, but are not limited to: strategic planning for organizational or transformational change; project execution including project management, business analysis and process optimization; and partner services like research and trends; technical staffing and recruiting; and data architecture and business intelligence.

“Being named to the Inc. 5000 celebrates our amazing team at Farwell, and our flexible, collaborative, client-centric approach,” states Jason Potter, Founder & CEO. “It is also confirmation that changes in technology and competition are causing companies of all sizes to rethink how they do business. In the last 18 months, Farwell clients have been recognizing the great value of managing change on their most strategic and impactful projects.”

Starting with two employees in a co-working space, Farwell has grown largely based on its unique and dedicated approach to right-sizing efforts. Now occupying a 2,500 square foot office on Madison’s vibrant east side, Farwell offers solutions for companies of varying size and industry. “The key is that we meet our clients where they are from a size, budget and complexity standpoint. There is no minimum engagement duration and our team ramps the effort up and down based on the needs of the client. There is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ solution to managing this change based environment,” states Steve McQuin, VP of Client Solutions. Currently, Farwell has over 30 advisors leveraging established frameworks and methodologies to strategize, manage and implement change.

“On a macro-level, lower cost and ubiquitous technology have caused a massive disruption across all industries,” states McQuin. “We are seeing a fast-paced mix of increased competition, multitude of vendor solutions, and aggressive growth goals. This results in a wide breadth of transformation including things like modernization, organizational restructuring, consolidation, customer experience redesign, partnerships and automation. This affects all businesses – yet we’ve found only the largest have the resources to effectively develop their own change strategy and implementation plans. Farwell is dedicated to building a top team of experts in order to help all companies navigate change.”

About Farwell

Based in Madison, Wisconsin, Farwell provides services that help companies navigate varying types of growth-based, transformational and organizational change. The Farwell team includes Project, Program and Portfolio Managers, Process Improvement Engineers, Business Analysts, and Change Management experts.  Farwell’s Partner Services include managed service providers, technical staffing firms, data experts, application development teams, and IT security consultants, among others.  Farwell and its partners work together to develop custom, client-focused solutions.

For more information, visit www.gofarwell.com or connect with Farwell on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook to follow how change affects your industry.

About Inc. 5000

The Inc. 5000 list ranks private companies by overall revenue growth over a three-year period, offering a unique look at one of American economy’s most dynamic segments – its independent small and midsized businesses. The 2017 Inc. 5000 is among the most competitive in the list’s 36-year history with the average company achieving a three-year average growth of 481%. The 2017 list has aggregate revenue of $206 billion and collectively generated 619,500 jobs over the past three years. All 5,000 honoree companies are individually profiled on Inc.com. The top 500 are featured in the September issue of Inc. magazine. Inc. also ranks the fastest-growing companies by industry, metro area, revenue, and number of employees, and highlights women- and minority- run companies. 

For more information, and complete results, visit: www.inc.com/inc5000.

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Acumium Promotes Clients and Innovation at the 2017 neXXpo

MADISON, August 17, 2017 /PRNewswire/ — To showcase innovation in Madison and among our client base, Acumium is a proud sponsor of the Greater Madison Convention and Visitors Bureau event neXXpo. It’s all part of an eight-day conference called Forward Fest, Wisconsin’s largest technology and entrepreneurship festival.

The event is a celebration of innovation and entrepreneurship, and its goal is to highlight businesses that will help drive our success in the next wave of the economy. Acumium, a Madison, Wisconsin-based digital marketing and web development agency, is proud to sponsor the following companies:

DROPP

www.dropp.co

One of the first major financial commitments college students and young professionals make is signing an apartment lease. What many of them don’t realize is that the credit reporting system in the United States does not include on-time rent payments as part of their credit history.

Scott and Matt Johanek, recent graduates from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, learned this the hard way but were smart enough to do something about it. They created DROPP, a web application that helps people establish and build credit worthiness through monthly payments that traditional credit reporting agencies ignore when compiling credit histories. These payments include such significant expenses as rent and childcare. What’s more, DROPP makes all this possible without the need for credit cards.

Standard of (k)are

http://www.sok401k.com/

“Retirement readiness” has become a buzz term in the financial planning industry. Retirement planning professionals now recognize that it is not enough to simply track participant rates, deferral rates and fund performances. They must be able to demonstrate and measure an individual’s ability to retire successfully — which means providing a higher level of service.

Chris Krueger and Dan Helf, veteran retirement planning advisors based in Madison, Wis., recognized this gap in the industry and worked to formulate a more efficient and personable way to help people achieve long-term feelings of security in the retirement planning process. They developed Standard of (k)are™ — a full-service web application that uses best fiduciary practices to create a retirement readiness tool for 401(k) advisors, plan sponsors and participants.

Cellara

http://www.culturetrax.com/

Stem cell research is revolutionizing science and technology, and scientists need exceptional tools to keep pace in this rapidly evolving field. Enter Cellara, a dynamic team of stem cell and biotechnology professionals which is leading the way in establishing a global laboratory standard. Their approach will help fellow scientists better communicate with each other, more precisely document their work, and more effectively share knowledge and research.

Through development and collaboration with scientists and software experts, Cellara has introduced CultureTrax^® — the first platform for stem cell culture researchers and scientists. The company’s vision is to accelerate scientific discoveries and breakthrough therapies based on advanced cell culture technology.

My Life and Wishes

https://www.mylifeandwishes.com/

When Michelle Braddock’s father, a private man who didn’t share household information with family members, passed away unexpectedly in 2013, she not only grieved the loss but also struggled to tie up all the loose ends. Michelle and her husband, Jon, spent months locating and obtaining access to her father’s bank accounts, insurance policies, safe deposits, retirement and pension accounts, online profiles and other valuable data that required closure.

The frustration that went along with that process led to conversations with friends who’d lost loved ones and experienced similar challenges. With Jon’s entrepreneurial experience and Michelle’s 30-plus years in the insurance and financial services industry, the couple created My Life & Wishes — a secure, online end-of-life planning platform and digital record that eliminates many of the anxieties survivors typically experience.

Innocorp

https://fatalvision.com/

In 1992, a drunk driver barreled into the front yard of a home in Dane County, Wis., and struck a friend of Michael Aguilar’s 5-year-old son. The boy spent a week in the hospital and survived. Knowing how much worse the incident could have been, Aguilar — then the owner of a management consulting and training company — was determined to do something to help prevent future drunk driving-related injuries and fatalities.

He and his friend, Patrick Flaherty, developed the concept of so-called “drunk goggles” to simulate alcohol impairment as a tool to educate people about the dangers of drunk driving. The roots of Innocorp were in place, the start of a line of awareness-boosting impairment-simulating products and educational materials.

Acumium Innovation

Acumium, a digital marketing and application development agency based in Madison, takes the time to understand at a deep level the problems their clients’ products and services aim to solve, which is how the company’s team of technology experts can arrive at powerful and effective solutions. Each of the above sponsored companies has been given a leg-up with Acumium custom software solutions and business consulting.

Want to experience what’s next for Greater Madison’s economy? Join us for neXXpo 2017 on Monday, Aug. 21 at the Overture Center!