CEC Announces Managed Systems Program (MSP)

Hiawatha, IA (January 29, 2020) – Communications Engineering Company (CEC), a nationally recognized technology systems integrator in the Midwest, is excited to announce its new Managed Systems Program (MSP). Designed as an all-inclusive subscription service, MSP helps organizations of all types and sizes better manage technology initiatives.

The MSP financial strategy makes budgeting for technology easier by providing flexible financing options to support system development needs. MSP is available to supports businesses, schools, healthcare organizations, manufacturing plants, government agencies, transportation companies and houses of worship. Through this initiative, CEC helps organizations deliver on their mission to deploy world class technology for improved communication, collaboration, and safety.

By packaging the latest technology into an affordable monthly subscription, across a multi-year term, the Managed Systems Program allows CEC customers to benefit from:

• Technology investments that don’t require large upfront capital investment
• Continuous software upgrades for improved performance and security
• Streamlined budgeting with monthly payments that remain the same throughout the term
• Access to the latest, most current technology and equipment available – and the opportunity for a technology refresh at the end of the term
• Network readiness assessment and security management
• End-user training for the life of the system
• Preventative maintenance, assuring systems are compliant with codes and regulations

“Our customers continue to accelerate technology investment to improve their operations, keep people safe and secure their valuable assets,” states Kim Lehrman, CEO at CEC. “The Managed Systems Program eliminates capital budget availability concerns. Customers no longer need to build internal technical capabilities to manage and service these complex systems. Over time, we continue to assess the internal systems needs and provide the technology upgrade path and support.”

To learn more about CEC and its new Managed Systems Program, visit www.cecinfo.com/about-cec/managed-systems-program/.

About CEC
With offices in the Midwest serving local and national customers, CEC offers solution design, integration, and technical services specializing in audio/video, fire and security, healthcare communications, IT, and two-way communications. Focused on creating world class technology experiences, the CEC team partners with clients to understand their businesses, tailor solutions, and plan for future technology needs. To learn more, visit www.cecinfo.com.

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Gamifying Music Streaming Through Artist Advocacy

MADISON, WI – January 13, 2019 – The rapidly growing app, LÜM, that combines music streaming with the amplification effects of social media, has launched a virtual gifting system focused on direct-to-artist financial support. The Madison-based tech startup recently closed a $1.4 million seed financing and launched its social media and music streaming app in July 2019. The platform has grown to over 15,000 fans, 22,000 artists and has over 60,000 tracks in its music catalog.

Fans will now be able to use LÜM’s newly created in-app currency to gift their favorite artists. In the music streaming industry, less than 1% of artists earn any material income from fans streaming their music. On LÜM, artists can directly connect with fans and share their music, increasing and monetizing their fanbase all on one platform.

LÜM’s virtual in-app-currency, Notes, can either be bought in-app or earned through streaming music and engaging on the app. LÜM has eight levels of virtual gifts, with each gift representing a specific number of Notes. A Note has a set monetary value that is slightly greater than the royalty payout per stream of other music streaming alternatives. Fans can use LÜM’s virtual gifts to support their favorite artists, earning rewards and achievements along the way.

Current streaming platforms lack the ability for fans to directly support their favorite artists, while crowd-funding platforms lack the necessary incentives to drive fan support. LÜM creates a direct connection between the artists and fans, where artists provide unique content experiences and music to their loyal supporters. Fans can connect with the artists they gift and then compete to be an artist’s top supporter. By gamifying music discovery and enhancing the fan and artist experience, LÜM looks to revolutionize the way music streaming is monetized for artists.

LÜM has also recently partnered with Frank Productions, one of the largest concert promoters in the United States. The partnership looks to explore the relationship between LÜM’s fan and artist data, and its possible uses for live entertainment and other verticals in the music industry.

To Download the App: https://lum.fm/
For Press Inquiries: Jacob.fergus@lum.fm
Press: https://lum.fm/press
Press Assets: Click Here

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About LÜM
LÜM is a music streaming and discovery application built on a stand-alone social network that enables emerging artists to circulate their music and grow their fan base. The LÜM platform focuses exclusively on emerging artists and increases artist-to-fan and fan-to-fan engagement through the gamification of social music discovery. Artists upload their content and connect with fans on LÜM’s platform. Users discover, support and circulate music by sharing and engaging with their friends and peer communities. Founded in 2018, LÜM is headquartered in Madison, WI, with offices in Austin and New York City. For more information, visit https://lum.fm/.

About Frank Productions
Frank Productions is a full-service concert promotion company involved in every facet of live events including talent buying, marketing, ticketing, production, food and beverage, security, venue operations, administration, sponsorships, merchandising, and venue development. Frank Productions produces and promotes live entertainment events in clubs, arenas, performing arts centers, amphitheaters and stadiums across the country. In 2018, Frank Productions entered into a joint venture with Live Nation to continue their accelerated growth. Frank Productions’ brands include National Shows 2 and FPC-Live. For more information, visit www.frankproductions.com, www.FPC-Live.com, www.nationalshows2.com

Naviant Partners with Kryon Systems to Offer Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Solutions

Media contact: Jen Hein | 608-848-0873 | jhein@naviant.com

Naviant Partners with Kryon Systems to Offer Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Solutions

December 6, 2019 MADISON WI & CLEVELAND OH – Naviant, a top partner of Hyland Software within the Content Services industry, is partnering with Kryon to sell intelligent robotic process automation technology (aka a Digital Workforce). Kryon, a world leader in RPA software, provides customers with a full-cycle intelligent automation suite that complements and further automates existing Hyland solutions.

With access to an intelligent digital workforce that continuously evolves and improves, customers can automate transactions, raise productivity levels, and continue to innovate. Additionally, as they streamline their processes, organizations will be able to deliver better customer service.

“RPA is a strategic priority for Naviant and Hyland, and we view it as an excellent complement to the Hyland platform and rich portfolio of automation and integration tools,” said Elizabeth Skolaski, EVP and COO of Naviant.

RPA enables organizations to drive business agility and efficiency by offloading repetitive high-volume work to a digital workforce (think “software robots”). The concept of a digital workforce combines RPA, artificial intelligence (AI), advanced analytics, and machine learning. Robots work 24/7/365 at digital speeds without breaks, enabling employees to focus on business-critical tasks.

“True process automation requires a platform that can bring to bear a suite of automation capabilities to meet our customers’ business challenges, which is why adding partners like Kryon helps us create that ideal mix,” Michael Carr, President of Naviant, said. He adds, “The RPA tool you use should enhance the systems already in place to manage processes, so partnering with Kryon allows us to extend the value of customers’ existing investments with Hyland and expands our RPA offerings to new organizations.” What differentiates Kryon’s full-cycle automation suite from other RPA platforms is its Process Discovery™ tool, which identifies and visualizes business processes that are ideal candidates for automation.

The RPA offering from Kryon Systems is now available. For more information on how to transform your business with AI-based RPA technology, visit Naviant.com.

About Naviant
Business processes and solutions that empower better and faster decisions are what we do best. As a nationally-recognized document management solutions integrator and business process consulting organization with over 30 years of experience, our clients do more with less by streamlining processes and gaining visibility into the information they need to make better decisions. As a long-standing key partner of Hyland Software, Naviant helps organizations operate more efficiently using the OnBase software platform, Brainware intelligent capture platform, and Kryon Robotics Process Automation platform. Naviant is a top-tier partner for OnBase, a single enterprise information platform for managing content, processes, and cases, that combines ECM, case management, business process management (BPM), records management, compliance, and capture functionality on a single platform. In addition, Naviant also partners with Kryon Systems for Robotics Process Automation (RPA) technology to enable organizations to drive business agility and efficiency by offloading repetitive high-volume work to a digital workforce (aka software robots). Process focus. Excellence.

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National Guardian Life Insurance Company and Insurance Capital Group launch strategic partnership

National Guardian Life Insurance Company and Insurance Capital Group launch strategic partnership

Creation of BrightBenefits and investment in Commercial Travelers to be initial transactions

MADISON, WI (November 20, 2019) – A new strategic partnership was launched by National Guardian Life Insurance Company (“NGL”), a Madison-based life insurer with a rich heritage dating back to 1909 and assets of over $5 billion, and New York-based Insurance Capital Group (“ICG”), the leading strategic investor in the mutual insurance industry.

NGL and ICG, through its Federal Life Group, Inc. (“Federal Life”) affiliate, have jointly developed and launched a national dental and vision insurance business called BrightBenefits, which will be led by insurance industry veteran Danny Bentley. BrightBenefits policies will be issued by Commercial Travelers Insurance Company, an A.M. Best A- (Excellent) rated affiliate of NGL, in which Federal Life will make a significant equity investment, subject to receiving regulatory approval.

“This new strategic partnership with ICG allows NGL to diversify its investments into new markets without losing its focus on being a leading provider of preneed insurance for customers nationwide. ICG brings exceptional talent and additional capital to this partnership that will allow growth in new and exciting ways,” said Knut A. Olson, NGL President & CEO.

“We are honored to have been selected by NGL as its strategic partner and we are extremely excited about the launch of BrightBenefits and the broader strategic partnership with NGL. We are confident that BrightBenefits, led by its talented management team, will develop into one of the nation’s leading vision and dental platforms,” said Matt Popoli, founder and CEO of Insurance Capital Group and Director of Federal Life.

“Our goal for BrightBenefits is to be a trusted partner and leading provider of employee benefits products and services that help employers and their employees protect their families,” said Danny Bentley, President of BrightBenefits. BrightBenefits will offer both employer and employee paid dental and vision insurance and will look to expand the product offerings as the company grows.

Bentley is a leader in fostering innovation, driving organizational change and delivering profitable growth. Bentley most recently served as President of Davis Vision, the nation’s third largest vision insurer with approximately 22 million members.

Bentley began his career at Protective Life where he created and pioneered the voluntary, ancillary benefits products industry by introducing the nation’s first voluntary dental product. He later joined A.G. Edwards Investment Banking, serving as a Managing Director and Head of the firm’s Insurance Practice before rejoining the insurance industry.

The closing of the investment by Federal Life is subject to certain regulatory approvals, including the approval by the New York Department of Financial Services and the Wisconsin Office of the Insurance Commissioner.

Foley & Lardner LLP are serving as legal counsel, and Grace Global Capital LLC as financial advisor to NGL. Purrington Moody and Debevoise & Plimpton are serving as legal counsel, and Insurex, LLC as financial advisor to ICG and Federal Life.

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About National Guardian Life Insurance Company and Commercial Travelers

Established in 1909 National Guardian Life Insurance Company is an insurance company headquartered in Madison, Wis. Licensed to do business in 49 states and the District of Columbia, NGL markets preneed and individual life and annuities, as well as group markets products. NGL is rated A- (Excellent) by A.M. Best. Information about NGL can be found at www.nglic.com; Facebook: Facebook.com/NGLIC and LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/national-guardian-life-insurance-company.

Commercial Travelers Life Insurance Company (CT) has been providing insurance coverage since 1883. CT is rated A- (Excellent) by A.M. Best and became a wholly-owned, stock subsidiary of NGL in 2017.

About Insurance Capital Group
Insurance Capital Group is a holding company which acquires and makes investments in insurance businesses across targeted sectors with a focus on sponsored demutualizations and other complex conversion transactions. Our objective is to create long term shareholder value as measured by growth in tangible book value through the ownership and oversight of our partner companies. For more information about us, visit  www.insurancecap.com.

About Federal Life Group, Inc.

Federal Life Group, Inc. (OTCMKTS:  FLFG) is the parent of Federal Life Insurance Company (“FLIC”), an independently operated provider of quality life insurance and annuity products, incorporated in 1899. FLIC is headquartered in Riverwoods, Illinois, a suburb approximately thirty miles north of Chicago. FLIC is proud of its longstanding tradition of financial strength and stability and serves over 28,000 policyholders. For more information, go to www.federallife.com.

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NGL reported $4.1 billion in consolidated liabilities for 2018. Financials current as of 12/31/18. Ratings current as of 02/21/19.

National Guardian Life Insurance Company is not affiliated with The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America a/k/a The Guardian or Guardian Life.

StartingBlock Announces Pilot Parking Project with ParqEx and City of Madison for S. Livingston Garage

Contact: Chandra Miller Fienen, Exec. Director, StartingBlock Madison, (608) 334-7522, Chandra@startingblockmadison.org

StartingBlock Announces Pilot Parking Project with ParqEx and City of Madison for S. Livingston Garage

MADISON, Wisconsin – October 30, 2019 – StartingBlock announces a pilot project with a locally-connected startup, ParqEx, and the City of Madison at the City’s newest public parking garage at S. Livingston and Main Street, adjacent to the Spark Building at 821 E. Washington Avenue.

The pilot will allow StartingBlock’s members – currently a community of over 250 members — to make parking reservations from the parking spots in the S. Livingston Garage that were allocated to StartingBlock. With ParqEx’s technology, StartingBlock members can make hourly or monthly parking reservations online or using the ParqEx app.  The platform increases the number of users that can access StartingBlock’s limited parking allocation.  Rather than a few persons having an assigned monthly permit in the traditional one car, one permit model, the ParqEx platform will allow any StartingBlock member to reserve parking online and through an app.  “By sharing the monthly permits, the entire StartingBlock community can take advantage of cost-savings as well as greater flexibility,” explains StartingBlock Executive Director, Chandra Miller Fienen.  With ParqEx, participating members can reserve parking for the times they need it, rather than locking it up for the full month.   

Other advantages include a guest parking solution that allows members to make reservations for guests.  Guests will receive a guess pass on their cell phone that will provide access to the garage, eliminating the inconvenience of dealing with reimbursements or sharing physical access cards.   “The ParqEx solution allows a limited resource to be shared more fairly, efficiently, flexibly, and cost-effectively than the one-permit per car status quo,” says ParqEx CEO Vivek Mehra. ParqEx is a 2016 alum of the nationally-ranked accelerator, gener8tor, which is headquartered at StartingBlock.  Founded in 2014, the company is the “Airbnb of parking” by allowing parking owners to rent their parking spots to drivers on an hourly, daily, weekly or monthly basis.  The StartingBlock-ParqEx pilot, which will allow StartingBlock members to access the spaces leased from the City at the South Livingston Street Garage as well as other parking locations on the platform, will be ParqEx’s largest community in Madison and the first at a public parking garage.

“The City of Madison is excited to continue its partnership with StartingBlock and participate in this pilot.  We need more innovative solutions, especially around parking, to make our transportation system successful in the long term,” says Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway.

The pilot will provide StartingBlock with the opportunity to understand members’ parking trends and usage in a more robust and detailed way, and for the City to trial the technology and explore options to enhance the convenience and ease of parking in public parking structures. 

The public parking garage, which opened last December, is the City’s first public garage outside of the central downtown and campus area, and was part of the three-development project that included the Spark Building where StartingBlock and American Family Insurance are located and the Gebhardt Building with the Sylvee music venue.  Madison Gas and Electric, to support the redevelopment project and growing Capitol East District, sold the property to the City of Madison to construct the public parking garage.

ABOUT

StartingBlock Madison is Madison’s startup hub.  Our mission is to create the meaningful intersections that cultivate entrepreneurs, grow successful companies, drive innovation and build a startup community that gives back.  Since opening in June 2018, StartingBlock has housed 50 local startups that raised over $15.5M in 2018 and support over 160 full-time employees.  Through collaborations with existing business leaders and partner organizations, such as Capital Entrepreneurs, Doyenne Group, gener8tor, and others, StartingBlock is helping galvanize Madison into a global leader in entrepreneurship. 

Chandra Miller Fienen, Chandra@startingblockmadison.org

ParqEx is a smart parking platform for real estate owners and managers to better manage & monetize their parking assets. By improving efficiency & utilization, the platform delivers value by reducing operating costs and generating new revenue. ParqEx is a gener8tor company headquartered in Chicago, Illinois and operates in 9 cities including Madison and Milwaukee, WI.   

Vivek Mehra, vivek@parqex.com

S. Livingston Garage opened in December 2018.  The first public parking garage east of the Capitol Square, the S. Livingston ramp reflects Madison’s commitment to the growing Capitol East corridor.