VIENNA, Va., Sept. 30, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Savan is pleased to announce that it has been awarded a prestigious contract with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) BioPreferred Program. Under this contract, Savan will provide technical and program support services for up to five years, reinforcing its role as a trusted partner in advancing the USDA’s mission.

The BioPreferred Program, housed within the Rural Business Cooperative Services office in USDA’s Rural Development mission area, aims to spur economic growth in rural communities by promoting the development, purchase, and use of biobased products. These efforts help reduce the nation’s reliance on fossil fuels, contributing to a more sustainable and resilient economy.

“We are honored to continue our partnership with the USDA and support the BioPreferred Program’s mission of fostering innovation and sustainability in rural America and beyond,” said Marissa Mamone, Manager at Savan. “Our team is committed to furthering our partnership of over five years by delivering expert data management and mission support that allows the USDA to make data-informed decisions.”

With this new contract, Savan looks forward to continuing its legacy of providing innovative solutions that empower the USDA BioPreferred Program to achieve its goals. By combining technical expertise with a deep commitment to sustainability, Savan will play a crucial role in fostering economic growth and environmental stewardship across rural communities nationwide. Together with the USDA, Savan remains dedicated to supporting the development of a robust biobased economy that benefits both the environment and future generations.

About Savan     

Savan is a premier data and information management-focused firm that is a trusted partner to public sector clients, helping them solve their most critical data challenges with sustainable success that is uniquely tailored to their environment. Savan Group is headquartered in Vienna, Virginia.

For media inquiries and more information about this project or Savan’s range of services, please contact: hq@savangroup.com.

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SOURCE Savan

COLLEGE PARK, Md., Sept. 30, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Self-preferencing (when a platform favors its own products or services over those of third parties) by large tech companies is scrutinized as anticompetitive in legislation proposed in Congress to restrict the practice. However, passage of the bills could unintentionally raise consumer prices by reducing competition between sellers, according to research co-authored by Associate Professor of Marketing Bobby Zhou at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business.

The American Innovation and Choice Online Act (AICOA) restricts the nation’s largest tech companies from not only engaging in self-preferencing but also other acts, like limiting the number of products competing companies can put on large digital platforms. The Open App Markets Act keeps app marketplaces from engaging in self-preferencing and prohibits marketplaces with over 50 million users from forcing developers to use an in-app payment system owned or controlled by the app store.

“Regulatory agencies in the U.S. are worried that the fate of millions of consumers is being determined by a few big firms,” says Zhou. Under AICOA when a shopper searches for a product, a large online retail platform would have to first display “whatever product aligns with that consumer’s personal preferences with the one with the best fit coming up first,” says Zhou. So, if you always buy Stanley water bottles, when you search for water bottles, Stanley drinking cups would be displayed first instead of one of the platform’s own brands.

Research by Zhou in separate papers — “Antitrust Regulation” with Daniel Sokol at the University of Southern California and “Self-preferencing and Search Neutrality in Online Retail Platforms” with Tianxin Zou at the University of Florida — finds this kind of regulation may lead to higher prices.

If self-preferencing by the largest digital markets goes away, the seller whose product appears first during a search may decide to raise prices because it has enough well-matched customers to extract that profit or surplus. The seller whose product appears second might also charge more for the same reason. “This is a situation where both sellers have very strong incentives to keep their prices high, so they don’t really compete head-to-head,” Zhou says. “To some extent, this ex-ante (preventative) regulation backfires.”

The European Union has already enacted regulations that ban big tech companies from making sure their products are displayed before those of other firms. The rules have been highly criticized and the European Commission recently opened an investigation into whether Apple, Alphabet and Meta are complying with the EU’s Digital Markets Act. 

In their paper, Zhou and Sokol assert that digital markets have become increasingly important for the economy, as they enable new forms of innovation, competition and value creation in the process of exchanging goods, services and information. And Zhou says, “The Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission are justified in looking into big tech platforms. I just caution against hasty decisions that are nearly impossible to reverse.”

About the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business
The Robert H. Smith School of Business is an internationally recognized leader in management education and research. One of 12 colleges and schools at the University of Maryland, College Park, the Smith School offers undergraduate, full-time and flex MBA, executive MBA, online MBA, business master’s, PhD and executive education programs, as well as outreach services to the corporate community. The school offers its degree, custom and certification programs in learning locations in North America and Asia.

Contact: Greg Muraski, gmuraski@umd.edu

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SOURCE University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business

Leader in Customer-facing AI Agent Deployments Prepares for Next Stage of Growth as Enterprise Confidence in Generative AI Increases and Buying Accelerates

BOZEMAN, Mont., Sept. 30, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Quiq, the leader in customer-centric AI for CX, is bolstering its executive bench and CX expertise with the addition of two former Zendesk leaders: Mike Zinne and Cristina Bravo Olmo. Zinne will lead Client Services, Customer Support, Customer Success, Solution Consulting, and Professional Services, and Bravo Olmo will oversee all aspects of Marketing at Quiq.

According to Forrester, “Conversational AI is entering an entirely new phase, thanks to genAI and LLMs. Usable chatbots and IVAs that will deliver far better customer (and employee) experiences – plus those much-vaunted cost savings – are finally within reach for brands. Specifically, genAI and LLMs will improve conversational AI for brands by: massively reducing application development time…reaping significant ROI that will only rise…[and] making usable, friendly chatbots the norm.” (The State Of Conversational AI, Forrester Research, Inc., 6 September 2024.) A complimentary copy of the report is available here.

Both executives are critical hires as an increasing number of enterprise brands turn to vendors with deep CX expertise, like Quiq, when building industry- and brand-specific AI agents. Simultaneously, current Quiq customers are rapidly expanding into new cases, including those that are customer-facing, as trust in Quiq’s customer-centric AI for CX grows. As a result, Quiq’s daily conversation volume has nearly doubled year over year in each  of the past five years.

“There is no one better at delivering client service in the CX space than Zinne,” said Quiq Founder and CEO Mike Myer. “It’s hard to find someone who is truly an expert in building authentic relationships with enterprise executives, mastering technical details, and establishing scalable processes, but Zinne possesses all of these skills and much more. I worked with him at RightNow and then Oracle after the acquisition, and I have been hoping to work with him again ever since. I’m thrilled to welcome Zinne back to my team.”

Zinne will make his first public appearance on behalf of Quiq at Customer Contact Week (CCW) in Amsterdam on October 7. He will join Quiq customers, Panasonic Head of Customer Service Governance Adam Neale, and Panasonic Digital Service Manager Eugen Majeri, in leading a workshop entitled, “A Path to Personalized CX that Maximises Business Outcomes.” If you are attending CCW and would like to meet with Zinne or another member of the Quiq team, please contact Press@Quiq.com.

“This is a great time to be in CX SaaS and I’m honored to join Quiq in its quest to keep consumers at the center of every decision as more and more brands embrace AI,” said Zinne. “I am confident that combining all of our technical interactions with clients into a single team will help us accelerate our clients’ successes and turn their customers into brand loyalists.”

Previously, Zinne was the Chief Customer Officer at Outreach, the VP of Customer Experience at Zendesk, and the VP of Sales Consulting at Oracle. Mike has a proven track record of building and scaling world-class professional services and customer success teams. He has successfully managed global customer organizations and thrives on delivering custom yet simple approaches to customer experiences. While his passion is customer delight, Mike has experience in a wide range of executive roles and is an asset in managing profitability and growth in SaaS organizations.

“Cristina is phenomenal at putting herself in the shoes of our clients and seeing everything we produce through their eyes, which is critical when you’re working with emerging technology,” added Myer. “I am an engineer by trade so I can ensure our product is best-in-class, but I depend on domain superstars, like Cristina and Zinne to tell the Quiq story and deliver CX results. They will be instrumental in Quiq’s growth because they are the best at converting clients into champions and ensuring every CX leader who believes in the value of seamless journeys and is relentless in their pursuit of CX excellence knows the Quiq name.”

Previously, Bravo Olmo held marketing leadership roles at Sigma Computing, Wrike, Zendesk, Marketo, and Trend Micro. She has extensive B2B SaaS marketing experience, a legacy of building successful go-to-market strategies, and a proven ability to lead high-performance teams. While at Zendesk, Bravo Olmo was a key member of the internal IPO team, and while at Marketo, she founded Marketing Nation, the company’s customer community.

“Since Zendesk, my heart has been in CX. I have been waiting for the right company to come along so I can return to it, and I found what I have been looking for in Quiq,” said Bravo Olmo. “The CX space had been more or less stagnant since the first wave of cloud-native solutions transformed how brands engage with consumers in the early 2010s. The introduction of Generative AI has brought much needed excitement to the space, and I am thrilled to join a company that is leading customer-centric AI for CX innovation.”

About Quiq
Quiq is an AI for CX platform and the leader in customer-centric AI for CX. Quiq creates best-in-class solutions that enable seamless customer journeys across channels and between AI agents and humans. Built by CX and AI experts, Quiq delivers on the promise of generative AI by driving revenue, reducing costs, and improving CX outcomes. With Quiq’s AI Studio, enterprise brands get the best of “build” with control and customization, and the best of “buy” with expert support, security, and scalability. The world’s leading brands, including Terminix, Volvo, and IHG Hotels & Resorts, trust Quiq to improve CX outcomes. Learn how your team can be their best https://quiq.com/.

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SOURCE QUIQ, INC.