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CMMC Center of Excellence & CMMC COE EU Announce Memorandum of Understanding with Gerico Security SRL of Italy

Interoperability Clearinghouse

The Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification Center of Excellence ( CMMC COE ), hosted by the Information Technology Acquisition Advisory Council (IT-AAC), a public-private partnership serving the public and private sectors for more than 15 years, in collaboration with the UK’s Parava Security Solutions representing the CMMC-COE in Europe, is excited to announce a partnership with Gerico Security SRL through a Memorandum of Understanding to expand presence across Italy and Europe. This unique partnership represents an agreement to jointly drive education, awareness, and adoption of the CMMC standard and other cybersecurity measures to improve protection and resilience of the global supply chain that supports the Defense Industrial Base network of contractors, partners, vendors, and suppliers around the world. Through this bold collaboration, the parties will pursue initiatives that are mutually beneficial and deemed critical to the broad adoption and embrace of the CMMC, NIST standards, and cybersecurity best practices including: Sourcing of Senior qualified CMMC/Cyber professionals (both DoD and industry) serving as distinguished guest lecturers in selected events and seminars. Co-sponsorship of selected/approved webinars to gain a prospective on technology and business trends and giving insight to help propagate innovation that leads to crafting better industry proposals in response to DoD requirements. Co-Developing CMMC/Cyber Training and Education programs that will accelerate CMMC certification AND improved cyber protection and resilience “This is exciting opportunity for us”, said Mr. John Weiler, Chairman of the Board at CMMC Center of Excellence, “This new partnership will further help advance the goals and objectives for improving the supply chain security and resilience of the US Department of Defense (DoD)”. “This is a great moment for the deployment of cyber security and CMMC for the European Defense Industry Base. said Andy Watkin-Child of Parava Security Solutions, who also leads the CMMC COE EU. Having Gerico as a Partner in Italy brings their unique cyber security skills to support companies within one of Europe’s Largest Defense Partners deploy CMMC and cyber Security”. “We are proud of the strategical and cultural relationship between our Countries within which this agreement can be considered to be a missing peace. In an era of asymmetric cyber warfare, cybersecurity is the primary defense tool of the western industrial systems and, we believe that the CMMMC model will be used within both the defense and civilian sectors”, said Mr. Giustino Fumagalli, CEO of Gerico Security. Gerico Security SRL is the CMMC’s reference point in Italy. Through the CMMC-COE and PARAVA agreement, Gerico is aimed at supporting the main defense parties on both sides of the Atlantic and is aimed at defining and achieving high levels of cybersecurity both on large and small Italian companies belonging to the DoD’s Defense Industrial Base. Gerico Security is an Italian center of excellence in advisory on information & cyber security, business continuity, internal and third-party audit and security inspection activities. Gerico supports private organizations in business process certifications through the provision of turn-key projects of Governance Risk & Compliance. For more information on the CMMC COE, please visit http://cmmc-coe.org email info@cmmc-coe.org or call 703-863-3766 For more information on the CMMC COE EU, please visit https://cmmc-eu.com/ For more information about Parava Security Solutions, please visit https://www.parava.org/ For further information about Gerico Security, please visit www.gerico-sec.it or send an email to info@gerico-sec.it About Us ---------- CMMC-COE.ORG is a unique non-profit public-private partnership, with a vision to accelerate Cybersecurity Maturity Model (CMM) adoption, and reduce time & cost for security compliance for our partners by leveraging commercial best practices, CMMC standards, and innovative solutions for a measurable success. Our mission, focused on DOD mission objectives, cost containment and expeditious CMMC compliance, is to help the DIB improve cyber posture and resilience, and simplify its acquisition. The CMMC-COE is hosted by the Information Technology Acquisition Advisory Council (IT-AAC), a public/private partnership (P3) chartered in 2007 as an honest broker to reach outside the confines of the Federal IT advisories that lack dynamic reach into the Global IT Market, and dedicated to the adoption of commercial IT management standards of practice and innovations emanating from the Global IT market. Team IT-AAC has already demonstrated the value of its decade long investment, and provides a unique value to agencies seeking to achieve accelerate the transformation of legacy processes and systems. Our Just-in-Time SMEs apply an innovative suite of Technology Business Management and Agile Acquisition Processes needed to assure the business value of commercial IT. The Interoperability Clearinghouse (ICH), is the managing partner that make up the 24 NGO/SDO organizations that make up the IT-AAC. ICH provides the contract vehicles, clearances, and critical resources proven to guide sustainable, measurable and repeatable processes needed to drive better investment decisions as the speed of mission need, while aligning existing processes, methods and workforce with IT reform mandates contained in Clinger Cohen Act, FITARA, IT MGT Act, EO13838. Contact Details Bob Dix +1 703-975-6633 bob.dix@it-aac.org Company Website https://cmmc-coe.org

January 19, 2021 10:00 AM Eastern Standard Time

Minuteman Press Franchise in Fairfield, CT Empowers Local Businesses to Grow Sales During COVID-19

Minuteman Press International Inc

“We are busier than ever and that is becoming true for those we serve. Everything is coming back and people are enthusiastic to move forward and grow.” Minuteman Press in Fairfield, CT is a locally owned design, marketing, and printing franchise that has remained open as an essential business during the COVID-19 pandemic. Owners Cheryl Camarato and Susan Wybiral have worked hard for nearly ten years as business owners to get where they are today, and they weren’t going to let anything get in their way. Cheryl explains, “Over the last four years we took our sales to incredible heights. We have mentored businesses of all sizes and we are proud of our operations and business growth both before the pandemic and during it.” Cheryl continues, “The beginning of COVID-19 was a scary time for everyone, but we made fast moves to remain open and strengthen our clients’ connections so they could survive and eventually resume growth.” From her words to real world actions, her full staff was hard at work within weeks. A grateful community of entrepreneurs, graduates and families were well on their way developing new ways for keeping life and prosperity in Fairfield. “What I did was shut the door and worked,” Cheryl explains. A lot of people were very happy Minuteman Press in Fairfield was still working on their behalf while they were under unbelievable pressure. “We got an email that said, ‘Thank God you are still working!’ and it was from a large landscaping customer with 90 locations. We take care of design and print, advising on strategy for all of them. I’d say we do postcard mailings for them to the amount of 40,000 per week, give or take.” Cheryl’s reputation for meeting complex situations head-on empowers her capabilities as a problem-solver. “Challenging times are opportunities for us to utilize our full-range of technology. We help our clients by leveraging our products and services as well as the combined years of experience Susan and I have rerouting businesses into success stories, even against the odds.” They are unmatched when it comes to taking calculated risks and they share this talent with everyone who entrusts them with projects. As it turns out, Cheryl has an uncanny ability to come out on the winning side of tough decisions during a time when it’s difficult to calculate because facts are still developing. As the world opens back up, she and Susan are part of the reason the local economy is becoming revitalized. “We bought our center with skillsets perfectly matched to make it all work and developed a healthy relationship with our franchise family over the years, too.” She adds, “My wife and I went to our system-wide World Expo in Las Vegas and I met so many great people from headquarters as well as other franchise owners from around the world. We knew we would never have a slow time because our industry is filled with options that we can extend to our customers. We have recently added another large format machine, a heat press and have been printing floor graphics and doing vehicle wraps. So, while the holidays were bonkers around here with orders as might be expected, we are also busy right now. Our restaurants, small business owners, local government and non-profits are coming to us for help and we have them all covered. We do not have slow periods and we can see the good effects of our work in action all around the area.” Cheryl reduced spending immediately and used her innate and earned business intelligence to bolster her bottom line. She called and visited her customer base to check on their welfare and help them strategize. “We remained open and busy because print is an essential business, so we did a great deal of work for the town, including the parks department which needed health and safety signage without delay. Then, we were sensitive to local families hoping to celebrate graduations. So, we designed printed options like lawn signs and put them online, including Esty as a way to create a special tradition and help our area preserve this rite of passage.” The thoughtful designs were met with $15,000 worth of sign orders and happy families. “It was a strong sales month for us in the middle of lockdowns. We remained positive and somehow, we pulled it off. We took care of signage for between six and eight grammar schools, the same number of middle schools plus public works and the board of education. People really needed help preserving monumental moments and businesses needed help adjusting to unusual hours. Signage was in high-demand and our business never slowed down.” Cheryl is humble about her role as mentor, but her reputation for being there for clients grows even as she models how to handle emergencies. Susan is a production master and takes care of the latest technology their modern printing center houses. Cheryl says, “I am on the money end of our business and with that came the decision to diversify years ago. We made wise equipment decisions that allow us to take care of clients in-house the majority of the time and we never stop devising new ways to make real connections with target audiences. The response is a stronger, more enduring business no matter which industry our client represents.” Four years ago, Cheryl and Susan took an A-frame sign and cut it into the shape of a t-shirt, advertising customized apparel. “Within an hour people came in asking if we could print customized t-shirts. We knew we would work to make sure our clients’ options in marketing was not limited, so we provided things some people might not expect from a ‘print shop.’ During the COVID-19 challenge our efforts really paid off as we are able, for instance, to welcome our construction and landscaping customers into much more than they realized they could use to grow business.” Today there are still uncertainties but Cheryl keeps her finger on the pulse of each brand under her care. She has helped them all make swift adjustments. “We move and groove an go on to the next thing while a lot of other printers just print basics. For example, we have a ton of construction companies and when their owners come in, they come in asking for work orders. We then show them how we can letter their trucks and provide A-frame signs, branded facemasks and an entire marketing strategy to take them around hurdles reaching customers.” “Every time I provide a freshly printed, branded facemask as a sample, I get an order for up to several hundred,” she says. It is how Minuteman Press in Fairfield meets the reality of what her community faces and helps make it possible to keep buying and selling. She adds, “We move quickly and when people were working from home and under stress, we used our status as an essential business to create a bridge between their restricted activity and the message they need to keep in front of target audiences.” Her commitment is firm and her approach to sales is no-nonsense but Cheryl’s devotion to the success of every project entrusted to her staff at Minuteman Press in Fairfield is deeply personal. This is met with lasting gratitude as she concludes, “We are busier than ever and that is becoming true for those we serve. Everything is coming back and people are enthusiastic to move forward and grow.” For more information on Minuteman Press in Fairfield, CT, visit https://www.fairfield-ct.minutemanpress.com. To learn more about #1 rated Minuteman Press franchise opportunities, visit https://minutemanpressfranchise.com. Contact Details Chris Biscuiti +1 631-249-1370 cbiscuiti@mpihq.com Company Website https://minutemanpressfranchise.com

January 18, 2021 10:00 AM Eastern Standard Time

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CMMC Center of Excellence Announces Memorandum of Understanding with Women in Cybersecurity Mid Atlantic

Interoperability Clearinghouse

The Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification Center of Excellence ( CMMC COE ), hosted by the Information Technology Acquisition Advisory Council (IT-AAC), a public-private partnership serving the public and private sectors for more than 15 years, is proud to announce a Memorandum of Understanding with the Women in Cybersecurity Mid Atlantic affiliate. This unique partnership will extend efforts to advance the goals and objectives for improving the cyber and supply chain security and resilience of the US Department of Defense (DoD) global Defense Industrial Base (DIB) network of contractors, suppliers, and vendors. The executed MOU establishes a cooperative agreement between the Women in Cyber Security Mid Atlantic and CMMC COE to partner in the furthering of their respective and complementary missions and objectives regarding the adoption, use, and expansion of CMMC based cybersecurity practices for the DIB contractor community and the information and communication technology community creating a broader CMMC ecosystem to improve security and resilience. Specific actions will include: The co-development of CMMC advisory services, cyber training and education programs to accelerate CMMC certification, increase cyber adoption and improve cyber protection & resilience. Expand and drive diversity across the cybersecurity workforce Co-sponsor symposiums, training programs and podcasts leveraging their combined cyber and IT expertise. Host regular working groups, with other partners, to enable collaboration and communications. Establish an independent Industry Cyber Security Advisory Council with peer organizations to advise and educate leaders across government and industry on the continued evolution and effectiveness of CMMC Through this exciting partnership, the CMMC-COE ( www.cmmc-coe.org ) will also focus on bringing together the many disparate cyber and national security communities of interest to reduce complexity, improve awareness, and accelerate industry effort to become more cyber resilient against the growing threats from nation states and criminal enterprises. The CMMC-COE establishes both a Market Place and Knowledge Clearinghouse that will include resources that support the overall effort, including white papers; tutorials; recorded webcasts; presentations; and more that will help reduce the cost and burden on small/medium size contractors already struggling from the impact of COVID. The CMMC-COE partner network will be sharing a wide range of capabilities from member organizations, including; cyber standards frameworks, education, solution architectures, cyber mentoring, workforce, and other elements needed to scale to the demands of the entire DIB market place in the US and abroad (400,000+ contractors). “This is exciting opportunity for us”, said Mr. John Weiler, Chairman of the Board at CMMC Center of Excellence, “This new partnership will further help advance the goals and objectives for improving the supply chain security and resilience of the US Department of Defense (DoD)”. “The WiCyS Mid-Atlantic is excited to team with the CMMC COE in efforts to enhance the overall security of the defense industrial base supply chain. This partnership clearly demonstrates the CMMC COE’s commitment to a diverse cybersecurity workforce, which is key to defending the nation’s cyber critical infrastructure. Creative and inclusive teaming is essential to the CMMC’s success!”, said Ms. Diane M Janosek, Founder and Senior Advisor, Women in Cybersecurity Mid-Atlantic. WiCyS is a non-profit membership organization with national reach that is dedicated to bringing together women in cybersecurity from academia, research and industry to share knowledge, experience, networking and mentoring. The initiative was created through an NSF grant (Award # 1303441 ) by Dr. Ambareen Siraj at Tennessee Tech University in 2012, and has grown into a wonderful alliance among academia, government and industry. WiCyS offers mentoring, learning, networking and career development to women at all stages of their cybersecurity careers. Whether you are a student just considering a career in cybersecurity or an experienced leader in the cybersecurity workforce, WiCyS provides tangible benefits and a supportive community. The Women in Cybersecurity Mid-Atlantic Affiliate (WiCyS MAA) is a regional affiliate that covers the geographic areas: South New Jersey, South-East Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, District of Columbia, and Northern Virginia, and will continue to undertake activities to promote recruitment, retention, and advancement of women in cybersecurity. For more information on the CMMC COE, please visit http://cmmc-coe.org email info@cmmc-coe.org or call 703-863-3766 For more information on the Women in Cybersecurity Mid Atlantic, please visit https://www.wicysmidatlantic.org/ About Us ---------- CMMC-COE.ORG is a unique non-profit public-private partnership, with a vision to accelerate Cybersecurity Maturity Model (CMM) adoption, and reduce time & cost for security compliance for our partners by leveraging commercial best practices, CMMC standards, and innovative solutions for a measurable success. Our mission, focused on DOD mission objectives, cost containment and expeditious CMMC compliance, is to help the DIB improve cyber posture and resilience, and simplify its acquisition. The CMMC-COE is hosted by the Information Technology Acquisition Advisory Council (IT-AAC), a public/private partnership (P3) chartered in 2007 as an honest broker to reach outside the confines of the Federal IT advisories that lack dynamic reach into the Global IT Market, and dedicated to the adoption of commercial IT management standards of practice and innovations emanating from the Global IT market. Team IT-AAC has already demonstrated the value of its decade long investment, and provides a unique value to agencies seeking to achieve accelerate the transformation of legacy processes and systems. Our Just-in-Time SMEs apply an innovative suite of Technology Business Management and Agile Acquisition Processes needed to assure the business value of commercial IT. The Interoperability Clearinghouse (ICH), is the managing partner that make up the 24 NGO/SDO organizations that make up the IT-AAC. ICH provides the contract vehicles, clearances, and critical resources proven to guide sustainable, measurable and repeatable processes needed to drive better investment decisions as the speed of mission need, while aligning existing processes, methods and workforce with IT reform mandates contained in Clinger Cohen Act, FITARA, IT MGT Act, EO13838. Contact Details Bob Dix +1 703-975-6633 bob.dix@it-aac.org Company Website https://cmmc-coe.org

January 14, 2021 06:00 AM Eastern Standard Time

CMMC Center of Excellence Announces Engagement Agreement with Capitol Technology University

Interoperability Clearinghouse

The Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification Center of Excellence (CMMC-COE), hosted by the Information Technology Acquisition Advisory Council (IT-AAC), a public-private partnership serving the public and private sectors for more than 15 years, is proud to announce a Memorandum of Understanding & Engagement Agreement with Capitol Technology University. This unique partnership will extend efforts to advance the goals and objectives for improving the training and education of the workforce in support of cybersecurity protection and resilience along with supply chain risk management on behalf of the US Department of Defense (DoD) global Defense Industrial Base (DIB) network of contractors, suppliers, and vendors. The CMMC-COE partner network will share a wide range of capabilities from member organizations, including cyber standards frameworks, education, solution architectures, cyber mentoring, workforce, and other elements needed to scale to the demands of the entire DIB marketplace in the US and abroad consisting of over 400,000 contractors. “This is exciting opportunity for us”, said Mr. John Weiler, Chairman of the Board at CMMC Center of Excellence, “This new partnership will further help advance the goals and objectives for improving the supply chain security and resilience of the US Department of Defense (DoD)”. "As a leader in cyber education, Capitol Technology University is excited to partner with the CMMC- COE," said Dr. Bradford Sims, President of Capitol Technology University. "This partnership will allow us to further CMMC implementation through enhanced education, training, and mentoring programs. These programs will advance CMMC implementation guidance issued by the DoD and will allow us to achieve the goals established in the National Defense Authorization Act." Capitol Technology University, located in Laurel, Maryland, is an independent institution that has focused on STEM education since 1927. Capitol Tech, the national winner of the 2020 SC Media Award for Best Cybersecurity Higher Education Program, offers hands-on courses taught by industry experts that lead to undergraduate and graduate degrees in emerging fields such as Mechatronics Engineering and Artificial Intelligence. In addition, Dr. Ron Martin, a Professor of Practice at Capitol Tech in a variety of fields including Access and Identity Management, has been appointed to the CMMC-COE Board of Advisors as Capitol Technology University's representative. Dr. Martin's expertise in identity credentialing will afford the organization access to an expert in this unique aspect of cybersecurity while the leadership position will also benefit Capitol Tech by providing the university a voice during meetings. For more information on the CMMC COE, please visit http://cmmc-coe.org email info@cmmc-coe.org or call 703-863-3766 For more information on Capitol Technology University, please visit https://www.captechu.edu/ About Us ---------- CMMC-COE.ORG is a unique non-profit public-private partnership, with a vision to accelerate Cybersecurity Maturity Model (CMM) adoption, and reduce time & cost for security compliance for our partners by leveraging commercial best practices, CMMC standards, and innovative solutions for a measurable success. Our mission, focused on DOD mission objectives, cost containment and expeditious CMMC compliance, is to help the DIB improve cyber posture and resilience, and simplify its acquisition. The CMMC-COE is hosted by the Information Technology Acquisition Advisory Council (IT-AAC), a public/private partnership (P3) chartered in 2007 as an honest broker to reach outside the confines of the Federal IT advisories that lack dynamic reach into the Global IT Market, and dedicated to the adoption of commercial IT management standards of practice and innovations emanating from the Global IT market. Team IT-AAC has already demonstrated the value of its decade long investment, and provides a unique value to agencies seeking to achieve accelerate the transformation of legacy processes and systems. Our Just-in-Time SMEs apply an innovative suite of Technology Business Management and Agile Acquisition Processes needed to assure the business value of commercial IT. The Interoperability Clearinghouse (ICH), is the managing partner that make up the 24 NGO/SDO organizations that make up the IT-AAC. ICH provides the contract vehicles, clearances, and critical resources proven to guide sustainable, measurable and repeatable processes needed to drive better investment decisions as the speed of mission need, while aligning existing processes, methods and workforce with IT reform mandates contained in Clinger Cohen Act, FITARA, IT MGT Act, EO13838. Contact Details Bob Dix +1 703-975-6633 bob.dix@it-aac.org Company Website https://cmmc-coe.org

January 11, 2021 06:00 AM Eastern Standard Time

CMMC Center of Excellence Announces Engagement Agreement with SideChannel

Interoperability Clearinghouse

The Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification Center of Excellence ( CMMC COE ), hosted by the Information Technology Acquisition Advisory Council (IT-AAC), a public-private partnership serving the public and private sectors for more than 15 years, is excited to announce a partnership with SideChannel, an innovative tech-enabled advisory firm providing a wide range of risk management and cybersecurity capabilities working with small businesses, mid-market companies, non-profit corporations, venture capitalist portfolios, startups, municipalities and governments on how to protect their digital assets and bolster their cybersecurity posture. This unique partnership will extend efforts to advance the goals and objectives for improving supply chain security and cyber resilience of the US Department of Defense (DoD) global Defense Industrial Base (DIB) network of contractors, partners, and vendors. The executed Engagement Agreement establishes a collaborative partnership between SideChannel and CMMC COE to partner in the furthering of their respective and complementary missions and objectives regarding the adoption, use, and expansion of CMMC based cybersecurity practices, risk management, and compliance for the DIB contractor community and the information and communications technology community creating a broader CMMC ecosystem globally to improve security and resilience. Specific actions will include: The co-development of CMMC advisory services, cyber training and education programs to accelerate CMMC certification, increase cyber adoption and improve cyber protection & resilience. Co-sponsor symposiums, training programs and podcasts leveraging their combined cyber and IT expertise. Host regular working groups, with other partners, to enable collaboration and communications. Source qualified CMMC/ cyber professionals to serve as advocates. Establish an independent Industry Cyber Security Advisory Council with peer organizations to advise and educate leaders across government and industry on the continued evolution and effectiveness of CMMC. The CMMC-COE ( http://cmmc-coe.org ) and SideChannel partnership will focus on bringing together the many disparate cyber and national security communities of interest to reduce complexity, improve awareness, and accelerate industry effort to become more cyber resilient against the growing threats from nation states and criminal enterprises. The range of capabilities offered by SideChannel, including its virtual and fractional Chief Information Security Officer (vCISO) service, further strengthens the portfolio of technology partner providers supporting the CMMC Center of Excellence. SideChannel’s focus is on the delivery of vCISO services and expert level advisory, from former CISOs, to organizations that cannot attract, fund or retain a full-time employee. Their model provides a subscription to industry recognized experts that will build, guide, and mature any organization’s security program. SideChannel’s adoption by both large and smaller clients has led to significantly reduced risk, better aligned prioritization of resourcing and corrected budgets without sacrificing capabilities. “This is exciting opportunity for us”, said Mr. John Weiler, Chairman of the Board at CMMC Center of Excellence, “This new partnership will further help advance the goals and objectives for improving the supply chain security and resilience of the US Department of Defense (DoD)”. “We are honored and excited about the opportunity to partner with the CMMC COE and support the critical efforts to protect our supply chain, to improve cybersecurity protection and better the resilience across the Defense Industrial Base globally,” said Brian Haugli, Managing Partner, SideChannel. The CMMC-COE establishes both a Market Place and Knowledge Clearinghouse that includes resources and supports the overall effort including white papers; tutorials; recorded webcasts; presentations; and more. This will help reduce the cost and burden on small and medium size contractors already struggling from the impact of COVID. For more information on the CMMC COE, please visit http://cmmc-coe.org email info@cmmc-coe.org or call 703-863-3766 For more information on SideChannel, please visit https://www.sidechannel.com About Us ---------- CMMC-COE.ORG is a unique non-profit public-private partnership, with a vision to accelerate Cybersecurity Maturity Model (CMM) adoption, and reduce time & cost for security compliance for our partners by leveraging commercial best practices, CMMC standards, and innovative solutions for a measurable success. Our mission, focused on DOD mission objectives, cost containment and expeditious CMMC compliance, is to help the DIB improve cyber posture and resilience, and simplify its acquisition. The CMMC-COE is hosted by the Information Technology Acquisition Advisory Council (IT-AAC), a public/private partnership (P3) chartered in 2007 as an honest broker to reach outside the confines of the Federal IT advisories that lack dynamic reach into the Global IT Market, and dedicated to the adoption of commercial IT management standards of practice and innovations emanating from the Global IT market. Team IT-AAC has already demonstrated the value of its decade long investment, and provides a unique value to agencies seeking to achieve accelerate the transformation of legacy processes and systems. Our Just-in-Time SMEs apply an innovative suite of Technology Business Management and Agile Acquisition Processes needed to assure the business value of commercial IT. The Interoperability Clearinghouse (ICH), is the managing partner that make up the 24 NGO/SDO organizations that make up the IT-AAC. ICH provides the contract vehicles, clearances, and critical resources proven to guide sustainable, measurable and repeatable processes needed to drive better investment decisions as the speed of mission need, while aligning existing processes, methods and workforce with IT reform mandates contained in Clinger Cohen Act, FITARA, IT MGT Act, EO13838. Contact Details Bob Dix +1 703-975-6633 bob.dix@it-aac.org Company Website https://cmmc-coe.org

January 06, 2021 06:00 AM Eastern Standard Time

Minuteman Press Printing Franchise in Beaver Falls, PA Wins Small Business of the Year

Minuteman Press International Inc

Karl and Nancy Chapple first bought their Minuteman Press franchise located at 920 7th Ave., Beaver Falls, PA in June 2007. Their full-service design, printing, and marketing center has remained open throughout the COVID-19 pandemic as an essential business. As a result of their continued hard work and dedication to the local business community over the years, Karl and Nancy have been awarded Small Business of the Year by the Beaver County Chamber of Commerce. “Winning small business of the year is a great honor,” says Karl Chapple. “It is a confirmation that we are fulfilling our promise to provide an Awesome Customer Experience.” According to the Beaver County Chamber of Commerce website, award winners such as Minuteman Press Beaver Falls are “being recognized for exceptional contributions as business people and community leaders” as well as working “well beyond their own self-interests, in collaboration with others in the community, to improve the quality of place and lives of all residents in our region.” Since the pandemic first took hold in March, Minuteman Press Beaver Falls has been there for their clients. Karl reflects, “In March and April, many of our customers were calling to ask if we were still open for business, and they were thrilled to hear that we were. While we offer COVID-19-related products to promote safety and social distancing, it was obvious that our ability to deliver the printed products that our customers depend on to keep their businesses going was a welcome relief, and that we were one constant during a time of turmoil and uncertainty.” As a local business leader with over 13 years of experience, many other small business owners have turned to Karl for advice in addition to his products. Karl explains, “My advice to small businesses at the start of the pandemic was to 1) conserve cash; and 2) continue to market. While those still apply as strongly as ever, it is time to look ahead. The pandemic will not last forever, but many businesses will see a lasting paradigm shift. It will be important to understand what things need to change and what things need to stay the same. Be careful to avoid ‘throwing the baby out with the bathwater’ as you chart your course forward.” Minuteman Press Beaver Falls is locally owned and operated by Karl and Nancy and yet they are part of the larger Minuteman Press International franchise network. Karl credits his franchisor for providing ongoing support over the years including during the pandemic. “We took over our franchise on June 1, 2007. My wife Nancy came from a customer service background. Previously, I was an operations manager for Xerox Business Services (XBS) in-plant customers, and in sales as a Production Print Specialist for Konica Minolta and for Ricoh. While we both brought industry skills to the business, the ongoing support and systems Minuteman Press provides has been a great help.” “I’d like to congratulate Karl and Nancy Chapple for winning Small Business of the Year for all of the fantastic work they do for their clients and in their community,” says Bob Heimbuch, Regional Vice President (Mid-Atlantic and Pittsburgh), Minuteman Press International. “Minuteman Press Beaver Falls is a real asset to both their local community as well as the Minuteman Press franchise family.” For more information on Minuteman Press Beaver Falls, visit https://www.beaverfalls.minutemanpress.com. Learn more about #1 rated Minuteman Press franchise opportunities and Minuteman Press franchise reviews at https://minutemanpressfranchise.com. Contact Details Chris Biscuiti +1 631-249-1370 cbiscuiti@mpihq.com Company Website https://minutemanpressfranchise.com

January 05, 2021 10:00 AM Eastern Standard Time

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Observability platform LOGIQ raises US$1.8 million in seed funding from Leo Capital

Stockwood Strategy

LOGIQ, an observability platform for IT administrators and DevOps teams, announced that it has raised US$1.8 million in its first institutional seed funding round, led by Leo Capital. The funding will be used to expand its AI/ML capabilities and onboard more customers. LOGIQ solves the ubiquitous problem enterprises are faced with when handling the variety and volume of data in the organisation, while running their IT infrastructure and applications. Half of all organizations* process more than 100GB of log data in different formats every day, and the numbers continue to rise. This is just the tip of the iceberg. There is such a flood of data available from APIs, databases, data lakes, etc. The lack of a unified platform that can converge this data has long been a pain point for IT practitioners, DevOps users, and developers alike. LOGIQ's mission is to make all IT data accessible and analyzable. By unifying data types, such as logs, metrics, databases, and APIs, LOGIQ's Observability platform enables them to harness the power of machine data analytics for applications and infrastructure in a single platform with 1-Click simplicity. Users can aggregate log data, gather performance metrics, access API's and connect databases such as Elastic, Mongo, Postgres, Druid, and Mysql for real-time visibility into the health of their IT infrastructure and application environments. Commenting on the fundraise Ranjan Parthasarathy, CEO and Co-Founder, at LOGIQ, said, “We started with the goal of helping enterprises transition from managing their data in silos to a more unified manner in which they can harness their data. With LOGIQ, we want to empower developers and administrators in keeping their infrastructure and applications always running. The funding raised will enable us to widen our reach and also enhance our AI/ML capabilities.” Tito George, Co-Founder, LOGIQ, said, “Data is the new oil across enterprises. However, there is also a need for a solution that helps them manage this data efficiently without hampering their operational efficiency or infrastructure. This is what LOGIQ has set out to do with its products and offerings. This funding will help us take our solutions to more industry stakeholders.” Commenting on the investment, Rajul Garg, Managing Partner, at Leo Capital, said, “There is a huge amount of data being generated across all sectors today. Consequently, the need of the hour is a platform like LOGIQ that can help enterprises organize, manage, and categorize this data without affecting their processes and infrastructure. We are thrilled to back them and have tremendous faith in both the company and its leadership.” LOGIQ can be hosted as a self-service or managed SaaS, providing maximum flexibility to the user. LOGIQ’s support for industry standards ensures full compatibility with legacy infrastructures like bare-metal servers, VM's, switches, and more modern cloud-native environments like Kubernetes and public cloud infrastructure. Some of their USPs include unified view, predictable pricing, one-click set-up, and zero tax storage management tax. LOGIQ has a strong and motivated team with over 100 years of expertise in production engineering, building and running IT, DevOps, and DevSecOps in private and public cloud environments. LOGIQ plans to democratize the observability space and make it more accessible for organizations of all sizes. Ends * International Data Corporation (IDC) survey, The Pivotal Role of Log Analytics in Modern IT Infrastructures Notes to the editor About LOGIQ LOGIQ is the creator of the LOGIQ platform, a converged data analysis software that brings ingest, indexing, search, SQL, and streaming capabilities backed by any S3 compatible object-store. LOGIQ Log Insights is built on this converged architecture bringing scalability and simplicity to your IT operations analytics projects. The converged architecture enables rapid integration with AI platforms for gaining valuable business insights from your data. About Leo Capital Leo Capital, a venture capital firm focused on early-stage technology investments, has built a portfolio of over 20 companies since its launch in 2018. Tech is the common denominator for the venture capital fund that has invested in software-as-a-service companies, consumer internet, logistics, health tech, ed-tech, and fintech startups. Its portfolio includes automation testing tool Lambdatest, cloud PC Workspot, diabetes management app BeatO, logistics startup Vahak, gaming platform – Bombay Play, video shopping app Bulbul and ed-tech startup Edureka. Contact Details Bilal Mahmood +44 7714 007257 b.mahmood@stockwoodstrategy.com Company Website https://logiq.ai/

December 16, 2020 08:00 AM Eastern Standard Time

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Hashnode funding round attracts marquee tech investors as traction gathers pace

Stockwood Strategy

Global blogging community for developers Hashnode, today announced it has raised US$2.1m in funding led by Sequoia Capital India’s Surge. A range of marquee investors* also participated including Naval Ravikant (early investor in Twitter, Uber and co-founder of AngelList), Ritesh Arora and Nakul Aggarwal (founders of BrowserStack) as well as Shashank Kumar and Harshil Mathur (founders at Razorpay). Founded just 6 months ago in June 2020 by Sandeep Panda and Syed Fazle Rahman, Hashnode helps developers and engineering teams start technical blogs and share them with the broader developer community. The platform is growing at a rate of 25% month-on-month in. More than 20,000 new developer blogs have been created on the platform in a few months and over 500,000 readers visit https://hashnode.com every month. Developer blogs are the heart of many developer communities that share, learn, and drive innovation around specific products, projects, hacks, and code branches. The rapid growth of the API economy, which is underpinning the tech sector's growth, has been fuelled by these developer communities. Currently, there are two types of blogging solutions. Publishing networks (like Medium) help a blogger with social media credibility and reach at the cost of content ownership and customization. There are self-hosting solutions, like WordPress, but distributing the content is difficult, which makes it hard to create large, active communities. The cost of running the software also keeps increasing. Hashnode helps writers focus on writing and gives them the freedom to blog without the risk of losing their content or losing control of traffic and SEO. Fazle Rahman, CEO at Hashnode commented: “We realised many writers just want a platform that helps them focus on writing and gives them the freedom to blog without losing control over their content or thinking about traffic and SEO. Hashnode allows developers and businesses to create a blog on a custom domain and stay connected with a central community for content distribution. This solves both the problem of content ownership and distribution.” Hashnode powered blogs are easy to use, set up, configure, highly optimised for SEO, and have built-in community interaction functionalities like reactions, comments, bookmarks, and more. “Hashnode allows developers and businesses that want to build developer communities to create a blog on a custom domain, and stay connected with a central dev community for content distribution. The platform also allows publishing articles directly from Github, a feature not available on other publishing tools,” added Fazle Sandeep and Fazle are avid developers, bloggers and authors who have both published several books on various web technologies. They graduated together from IIIT Bhubaneswar in Computer Science Engineering and have a shared passion for building products for the web and teaching developers online. * Angel investors in the round include: Naval Ravikant (AngelList, Uber, Twitter, Stack Overflow, Yammer), Ed Roman (Pluralsight and Hack Summit), Shashank Kumar (Razorpay), Harshil Mathur (Razorpay), Ritesh Arora (BrowserStack), Nakul Aggarwal (BrowserStack), Christopher Golda (BlackType, acquired by Twitter), Girish Mathrubootham (Freshworks), Salil Deshpande Uncorrelated Ventures) and Guillermo Rauch (Vercel). Ends About Hashnode Hashnode is a free content creation platform and community that allows people to publish articles on their own domain and helps them stay connected with a growing developer community. Contact Details Bilal Mahmood +44 7714 007257 b.mahmood@stockwoodstrategy.com Company Website https://hashnode.com/

December 15, 2020 11:30 AM Eastern Standard Time

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Richpanel raises funding to eliminate customer service tickets for ecommerce

Stockwood Strategy

Richpanel, a revolutionary customer service platform for the ecommerce industry, has raised an undisclosed investment as part of Sequoia Capital India’s Surge with the aim to eliminate customer service tickets with an “Amazon-like” customer account section. Founded in January 2019 and headquartered in both India and the US, Richpanel was created with the purpose of helping ecommerce companies scale business without hiring more agents. The platform allows merchants to design an account page on their online storefront where they can automate order tracking, exchanges, returns, cancellations, and any other scenario which would otherwise result in a support ticket. While tech giants like Amazon and Uber have made massive investments to automate their purchase & post purchase flows like “where is my order” and “change trip destination”, these kinds of queries result in support tickets for every other business. They rely on a team of agents and a ticketing system to handle them, creating costs and inefficiencies. Richpanel’s platform helps these businesses launch a self-service portal on their stores, allowing customers to perform actions without ever having to contact a support agent. This means businesses can scale their operations without constantly expanding their support team. “The first time I disputed a cancellation fee on a ride-sharing platform, I mentally prepared myself for a 15-minute-long chat with a support rep, but I was pleasantly surprised when the entire process took less than 60 seconds. This automated customer service support technology can save ecommerce businesses millions of dollars, and we felt there was a real need to productize this for everyone else,” said Amit RG, CEO at Richpanel “At Richpanel, our goal is to help clients eliminate unnecessary support tickets. Businesses have tried chatbots, FAQs and help center solutions, but what they need is a solution that does not ‘deflect’ customers but ‘resolves’ their issues. Currently, our platform is able to resolve 40-50% of incoming queries and we will take this up to 80% over the coming months,” Amit RG added. Richpanel is the next generation in customer service support and seeks to disrupt the help desk software market as well as customer care outsourcing services, where businesses are expected to spend $110b by 20241. The platform provides a seamless experience for both visiting customers and businesses to handle cases where customers need to speak with a human. The ‘agent inbox’ helps brands manage all their support channels - email, live chat, social media & phone - from one place. The integration with ecommerce platforms help agents see complete purchase history, take order actions and respond to customers from one screen. Clients such as US-based apparel company Pawz.com are seeing positive results with Richpanel. “As one of Richpanel’s early adopters, we have been extremely happy with the platform and the team’s ability to deliver well on projects. Currently, our self-service flows powered by Richpanel are able to close nearly 60% of all incoming queries or tickets, without the need to interact with an agent,” said Julian Quintães, CEO at Pawz.com. Ends Notes to the editor 1 Radian Insights, Outsourced customer care services market worth $84.7 billion by 2020 Richpanel is a customer service solutions platform, purpose-built for the ecommerce industry. Founded in January 2019 with headquarters in both India and the US, Richpanel’s self-service platform allows merchants to design an Amazon-style account page on their store, where they can automate order tracking, returns, exchanges, cancellations, order changes and more. The platform also has an agent help desk to help customer support agents manage incoming queries across various touch points such as email, live chat, social media and phone. Today, over 1,000 merchants all over the world use Richpanel every day to support their customers. Contact Details Bilal Mahmood +44 7714 007257 b.mahmood@stockwoodstrategy.com Company Website https://richpanel.com/

December 09, 2020 10:30 AM Eastern Standard Time

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