Company Profiles: Spotlight on Travel and Tech

According to the United States Department of Agriculture, the average monthly grocery expenditure for a moderate-cost meal plan for a family of four is about $966.50—or a little more than $11,500 a year. Erin Chase, founder of $5 Dinners, a website focused on budget-friendly family recipes, believes hard working Americans don’t need to spend nearly that much for healthy, nutritious meals. She cut her own food bill in half using a combination of strategic grocery shopping, meal planning and couponing, and now she’s helping others do the same.

Mobile phone, tablet, charger, sunglasses and reading glasses, keys, wallet, passport and more. When you’re on the go —whether just across town or to the other side of the globe— where do you stash all of these essentials? The answer is no longer limited to ‘my bag,’ ‘my briefcase’ or ‘my purse’ thanks to SCOTTeVEST’s innovative garments engineered for the everyday adventurer.

RewardExpert spoke with Scott Jordan, the company’s co-founder, to learn more about the inspiration behind his line of tech-enabled vests, jackets, hoodies and more as well as his plans for SCOTTeVEST’s future.

Owning your own business is a career path that millions of people dream about. The idea of being your own boss, with the freedom to do what you want, when you want, and cash in on the profits at the same time, is quite appealing to many individuals. However, turning that dream into a reality is easier said than done. One company called MyCorporation is helping to make the road easier for budding entrepreneurs, providing guidance every step of the way.

In today’s increasingly expensive economy, a college degree can mean the difference between long-term financial security and a paycheck-to-paycheck existence. In fact, according to data from the Social Security Administration, a U.S. male with a bachelor’s degree will earn approximately $900,000 more in his lifetime than one with only a high school diploma. The same male with a gradate degree would earn $1.5 million more.

Of course, enrolling in college isn’t enough to guarantee financial success—you have to actually finish your studies. Statistics show that this may be easier said than done, with one in three students forced to leave college for at least one semester and 41 percent failing to earn a four-year bachelor’s degree within six years of enrollment.

Customer reward programs are popular with today’s consumers. In fact, a survey commissioned by Hawk Incentives, a division of Blackhawk Network and a leading provider of rewards and incentives to organizations across the globe, found that the average American adult belongs to 6.2 such programs. That number was even higher for consumers in the Millennial generation at 6.5 on average.

We recently spoke with Theresa McEndree, the company’s Vice President of Marketing, to learn more about Hawk Incentives’ reward program services and survey insights as well as how RewardExpert readers can design effective loyalty programs for their own businesses.

We’ve all been there. Something is acting up on your computer and you have no idea how to fix it. As a consumer, you dread taking your machine to the store and having to leave it there for several days and pay a hefty fee. Or if you’re a business, there’s the frustrating call to the IT department and putting in a ticket.

With Bask, you can take a break from the hassles of IT and just make a simple call. One of the technicians will help you over the phone and get you back to your work (and your life) fast.

It’s a major problem that many Americans have never heard of—cargo theft. The FBI defines it as the criminal taking of any cargo, including goods, money or baggage, and it can have a significant financial impact on both a company and the broader U.S. economy. Companies like CargoNet offer solutions to the cargo theft issue.

Ryan Shepherd, general manager of CargoNet, a Verisk business, spoke to RewardExpert. He said companies need to start taking cargo theft seriously, now. “Any assumption that your company is safe simply because you’ve never had a theft incident is a mistake that can end up costing you,” he said.

How often do you scroll through your social media feed, looking at other people’s outfits, new homes or exotic vacations and wishing you too could afford to live the kind of life that would make your Instagram friends green with envy?

Paula Pant knows exactly what it feels like to be on the receiving end of such feelings. When she quit her job ten years ago, bought a one-way ticket to Egypt and spent the next two years backpacking around the world, she was the object of a fair amount of envy.

Let’s face it: the world is full of cyber-criminals looking to steal your data online and use it in malicious ways. We all recognize the need for heightened security when it comes to sharing and securing information.

But what about the information that should be shared with the world? Information like distributed records, information and other documentation that should be available and accessible to others—how do you keep some information transparent while also safeguarding it?

One in three pets will experience an unexpected health issue each year according to Petplan, a pet insurance company on a mission to ensure healthier, longer lives for North America’s four-legged family members. Unless they have insurance coverage, these emergencies can take a vicious bite out of pet parents’ budgets. In fact, the average cost of an unexpected trip to the vet ranges from $769.56 in North Dakota to $1,521.18 in California.

Creating a more sustainable world is quite possibly the most talked about topic as of late. But who’s really doing something about it? When it comes to making changes that will have a positive effect on both the environment and the communities who thrive within it, cooperation is just as vital a part as conservation. Fortunately, there’s a joint international effort happening that is finding such solutions to this very problem.

Have you ever dropped your mobile phone, shattering the screen or causing other irreparable damage? Or lost it while running errands or traveling? If so, you’re not alone. According to Asurion, a global tech solutions company, one in five people—or 2.2 per second—will have their cell phone lost, stolen or damaged this year. Unless they have mobile phone insurance, they’ll be on the hook for the full retail cost of a replacement as well.

In the evolving world of information technology, it’s important to be in the know on new developments and innovations. With new markets and value networks constantly being created, a viable source for industry analysis is central to the success of emerging companies in the IT arena. 451 Research is a research and advisory firm that specializes in data-driven insight for technology and service providers, enterprise IT leaders and financial professionals to help gain a clearer vision into these emerging segments.

When consumers are looking to access greater purchasing power, they turn to Mastercard. When businesses are looking for ways to get inside the minds of consumers and leverage growth, they turn to Mastercard Advisors for expertise and proven solutions.

Most CFOs have run into this problem: they wait endlessly for employees to submit expense reports, and then they’re blindsided by charges that go beyond what the company has budgeted for. What’s the solution? Is it better to have employees use their personal credit cards for company expenses—even though management won’t know how much liability is outstanding until expense reports are submitted—or should employees be given corporate cards, providing real-time transparency around exactly how much is being spent, and where?

What is one thing every business has in common regardless of industry? The need to collect payment from its customers. PaySimple, a leading service commerce platform supporting more than 17,000 businesses across the U.S., makes accepting these payments exactly that: simple.

The digital revolution has made our lives so much easier in so many ways that it’s impossible to list them all here. Smartphone apps let us order food, hail cabs, meet someone special, search for apartments, apply for jobs and more with a few swipes and a tap of the screen—and that’s just for starters.

Purchasing a new home in Australia comes with similar challenges you might face in other countries; credit checks, down payment, grueling paperwork, etc. The typical application process might look something like this:

Turning data points into revenue is both a challenge and an opportunity for companies. Silicon Valley-based Quantifind is helping companies with that challenge by providing artificial intelligence products that cut through the data noise.

Buying new items online comes with many challenges. The seller of the product might be a scam artist with nothing to sell at all or the product advertised might be completely different from the product you receive. When buying used items, such as electronics, it can be even more challenging to ensure you’re receiving the device in good condition or as advertised.