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Thryv, Inc. Appoints Gordon Henry As Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer

October 3, 2019 / Lee Ann Rush / 0 Comments

DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Thryv, Inc. — a leading small business software provider — announced today it has appointed Gordon Henry as executive vice president and chief strategy officer (CSO). Henry moves into his new role after serving Thryv for the past five years as chief marketing officer.

As CSO, Henry will be responsible for formulating long-term strategy, developing new sales channel opportunities, establishing strategic partnerships and M&A opportunities, and generating a range of events and other client acquisition activities. Henry will also be tasked with enhancing Thryv’s image via public relations initiatives and providing direction to the company’s advertising and brand teams. Henry will continue to report to CEO Joe Walsh and serve on Thryv’s Executive Committee.

During his tenure as Thryv’s CMO, Henry helped build the company’s new product lines, develop the company’s client acquisition program, and transform the company’s brand into the recognizable, trusted SaaS leader it is today.

“Gordon has been a key contributor to Thryv’s transformation over the past five years,” said CEO Joe Walsh. “I congratulate him on this new appointment. His understanding of the company’s vision will enable him to refine our strategy for the future and expand our relationships with important outside partners including agency resellers, corporate partners, affiliates and franchise clients.”

This appointment comes during a period of significant transformation at Thryv. Earlier this year the company re-branded itself from DexYP to Thryv Inc. and launched new versions of its flagship SaaS products, Thryv and Thryv Leads. The company has also enhanced its client onboarding capabilities which have resulted in improved client engagement, retention and lifetime value.

About Thryv, Inc.

Thryv, Inc. builds and owns the simple, easy-to-use software Thryv® that helps small business owners with the daily demands of running a business; and allows them to take control and be more successful. Thryv provides modernized business functions allowing them to manage their time, communicate with clients, and get paid. These include building a digital customer list, communicating with customers via email and text, updating business listings across the internet, accepting appointments, sending notifications and reminders, managing ratings and reviews, generating estimates and invoices, processing payments, and issuing invoices and coupons.

Thryv delivers business services to more than 400,000 small businesses across America that enable them to compete and win in today’s economy.

Thryv also provides consumer services through our market-leading search, display and social products—and connects local businesses via The Real Yellow Pages® from the over 25 million monthly visitors of DexKnows.com®, Superpages.com® and yellowpages.com search portals; and local print directories. For more information about the company, visit thryv.com.

View source version on businesswire.com:https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190926005008/en/

First Autonomous Vehicles in Central Florida Now in Service in Lake Nona

September 19, 2019 / Lee Ann Rush / 0 Comments

ORLANDO, FL. - Central Florida’s first autonomous shuttles are on the road in Lake Nona, Orlando’s fastest-growing community. The fully electric, driverless shuttles will operate daily on an inaugural fixed route connecting the community’s entertainment district with residential communities. Together, with mobility solutions provider Beep and shuttle manufacturer NAVYA, Lake Nona’s autonomous shuttles are setting the standard for new mobility technology in the region.

Images available here.

In addition to supporting improved mobility at the local level, Lake Nona’s new autonomous shuttle service supports Florida’s ambitions to become a national leader in autonomous vehicle testing. Florida recently passed legislation to help cultivate the autonomous vehicle sector by bringing more businesses to the state for autonomous testing. Lake Nona, Beep, and NAVYA join a growing list of public and private companies exploring innovative solutions to improve connectivity within this community and beyond.

“In Lake Nona, we dreamed of creating an infrastructure that would enable tomorrow’s innovators to thrive… tomorrow is here!” said Tavistock Group Senior Managing Director Rasesh Thakkar. “As proof, we're excited to advance, along with our two visionary Mayors, the relationship with Beep and NAVYA creating the region’s first autonomous shuttle program launching the future of mobility."

Bringing the first autonomous shuttles to Central Florida further demonstrates Lake Nona’s commitment to testing new technology within its living lab where companies, organizations, and entrepreneurs convene to explore new trends and ideas. From a first-of-its-kind partnership with the local public school system and YMCA to a longitudinal health study for residents, Lake Nona continues to be a model of what a smart and connected community can accomplish.

Lake Nona’s shuttles each hold up to 10 passengers and will operate at a maximum speed of 15 mph as part of the pilot program. The shuttles operate daily from 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. and 6 - 10 p.m., though hours may change as the shuttles become more integrated with traffic flow. Eventually, the plan is to increase the number of shuttles and expand the route network in the future.

Lake Nona’s autonomous shuttles are operated by Beep and manufactured by French company NAVYA, a global leader in autonomous vehicles and driving systems for the transport of passengers and goods. Beep is the exclusive dealer of NAVYA’s AUTONOM® SHUTTLES in Florida. Earlier this year, the two industry leaders announced an innovative development partnership for shared mobility and autonomous vehicle research. Lake Nona’s autonomous shuttle service is the first pilot deployment of the research partnership.

“We are very excited to announce the deployment of our autonomous mobility services in Lake Nona,” said Beep CEO Joe Moye. “This is a significant milestone for Beep, our partners, and urban mobility altogether. We are pleased to work with Lake Nona, the City of Orlando and Orange County to deliver this cutting-edge transportation solution to the community.”

The shuttles are monitored in Beep’s headquarters and central command center located in Lake Nona Town Center. The command center’s sophisticated system uses the latest technology to monitor the movement and operation of each shuttle providing valuable data that will continually optimize vehicle performance.

“NAVYA is excited to work with our partners at Beep and in Lake Nona to bring its AUTONOM® SHUTTLE, a globally proven first-and-last-mile transportation solution in operation around the globe, to Central Florida. Lake Nona is an ideal environment to showcase the ways in which driverless vehicles integrate seamlessly into our everyday lives,” said NAVYA COO Jerome Rigaud.

Beep’s mobility solution includes integration of a leading fleet orchestration platform from technology partner Bestmile that enables Beep to continually monitor for the safety and security of riders. Additionally, Bestmile optimizes all aspects of shuttle performance, including vehicle maintenance and service delivery, as well as data analytics and machine learning for continuous improvement.

“Bestmile is proud to be part of this initiative that’s truly shaping the future of transportation through intelligent autonomous mobility solutions,” said Bestmile CEO and cofounder Raphael Gindrat. “We applaud the commitment from the forward-thinking community of Lake Nona to deploy safe, modern and scalable mobility solutions.”

Each autonomous shuttle is equipped with interior and exterior cameras and uses effective guidance and detection systems while also optimizing navigation and safety features. The Beep command center can also communicate with the on-board shuttle attendant at any time. Though the shuttles are driverless, a Beep attendant will be on the shuttle at all times during operation to ensure riders have a pleasant and safe experience. In May of this year, Beep and NAVYA hosted a first-of-its-kind training for nearly 100 emergency personnel from both Orange County and City of Orlando fire rescue, EMT, and police departments. The training taught the attendees how to interact with the vehicle in emergency situations and included a hands-on session on how to drive the vehicle manually if needed.

For more information, please click here.

About Lake Nona
Located in Orlando, Fla., Lake Nona is one of the fastest-growing master-planned communities in America developed by Tavistock Development Company. Known for thoughtfully-designed neighborhoods, top-rated education facilities, business and research clusters, retail and entertainment centers, and diverse work spaces, Lake Nona encompass the best Central Florida has to offer. Lake Nona sets the foundation for a collaborative relationship between the people who live, work, and visit there by prioritizing forward-thinking technology, strategic partnerships, education, and wellbeing. For more information, visit http://www.lakenona.com.

About Beep
Beep is an autonomous mobility solution company delivering the next generation of services for passenger mobility to fleet operators in planned communities and low speed environments across the public and private sector, including transportation hubs, medical and university campuses, town centers and more. From route planning to interactive managed services, Beep’s offerings are designed to drive differentiation and innovation, and delight the passengers of our customers. For more information visit http://www.go-beep.com

About NAVYA
NAVYA is a leading French name in the autonomous driving systems. With more than 290 employees in France (Paris and Lyon) and in the United States (Michigan), NAVYA aims at becoming the leading player for the supply of autonomous driving systems for passenger and goods transport. Since 2015, NAVYA has been the first to market and put into service autonomous mobility solutions. The AUTONOM® SHUTTLE, main development axis, was launched in September 2015 and more than 130 units have been sold as of 30 June 2019, notably in the United States, France, Germany, Switzerland, Japan and Australia. The AUTONOM® TRACT, whose first road tests will start shortly, is dedicated to goods transport. Created in 2014 with the support of Robolution Capital, investment fund managed by 360 Capital Partners, his reference shareholder, NAVYA’s shareholders also include the Gravitation fund and Paris Region Venture Fund (Région Île-de-France) managed by Cap Decisif Management as well as Valeo and Keolis groups.

NAVYA is listed on the Euronext regulated market in Paris (ISIN code: FR0013018041- NAVYA). For more information visit http://www.navya.tech/en

Hello Mobile Launches Plans With Free International Calling

September 19, 2019 / Lee Ann Rush / 0 Comments

DANIA BEACH, FLA. - Q Link continues an aggressive pricing roll-out for its prepaid cell phone service, Hello Mobile, by offering free international calling with all of its plans. The unlimited talk plans are available to all customers and cover free calling to over 60 countries around the globe. With unlimited talk and free international calling, Hello Mobile anticipates its plans will be particularly attractive to non-native customers whose family members still live in their home country.

“There are lots of apps out there that let people make international calls without using their cell phone’s talk time; however, you have to be connected to a WiFi signal to use these apps. Our free international calling does not rely on a WiFi signal. You can call from the car, the beach, wherever,” said Issa Asad, founder and CEO of Hello Mobile. “This makes our service extremely valuable to consumers who need to connect with their friends and families back home and need a reliable solution that works without depending on WiFi.”

While prepaid plans have become more popular in general, they are particularly useful for customers who do not have established credit. Newly arrived residents from other countries, including those visiting the U.S., those emigrating from their native country, and even asylum seekers, rarely have the necessary credit to qualify for a conventional wireless plan offered by the nation’s “big four” legacy carriers. Facing these limitations, Hello Mobile’s free international calling has unique, vital importance for this segment of the prepaid market.

“I was lucky to be born in this country and build a credit history like most Americans,” said Q Link’s Issa Asad. “My parents weren’t as lucky. They came to this country without any money, and certainly without credit. So I understand the challenges immigrants face today, and I’m proud that Hello Mobile can alleviate at least a bit of their financial stress by offering free international calling.”

In addition to no-cost calls to other countries, Hello Mobile’s low rates compete head-to-head with rival prepaid giants like Mint Mobile and Metro by T-Mobile. In fact, Hello Mobile’s customers can get 1GB data as well as unlimited talk, text, and international calling for just $10 per month. Customers can choose to bring their own phone or purchase one through the company. In addition, users can port their existing numbers to Hello Mobile when they sign up.

Hello Mobile is also currently offering a special “buy your first month, get the second month free” for new customers. Plans start at $10 per month, and free international calling does not expire at any time.

To sign up for Hello Mobile’s services, visit HelloMobile.com. For more information, or to schedule an interview with Issa Asad, please contact Meieli Sawyer at 305-668-0070 or msawyer@weinbachgroup.com.

About Hello Mobile

Hello Mobile, a Quadrant Holdings Company, provides data and voice service to customers throughout the U.S. through its low-cost, prepaid mobile phone plans. The company is headquartered in Dania Beach, is recognized as one of the “Inc. 5000,” and earned an “A” rating from the Better Business Bureau.

Innovating ‘Green’ .ORG Site Yellow Pages Goes Green Announces Rebranding As YellowPagesDirectory.com

August 25, 2019 / Lee Ann Rush / 0 Comments

NEW YORK, NY - A New York based Yellow Pages company has announced it is re-branding itself as YellowPagesDirectory.com. An innovator in Yellow Pages listings, the website, which began as InteractiveCities.com in 2006, hosts over 27,000,000 business listings and over 280,000,000 residential White Pages listings in the United States.

The service originally re-branded itself YellowPagesGoesGreen.org in 2010 when the business took a significant turn towards an environmentally sound mission pushing hard for the total elimination of print phone books. Together with online petition site PaperlessPetition.org, the two urged for an environmentally sound solution for consumers to opt-out of print phone book delivery gathering thousands of signatures which were then forwarded on to phone book companies. The service was the only one of its kind and attracted tremendous response from consumers looking to opt-out creating an undeniable and needed response from phone companies.

For years, YellowPagesGoesGreen.org continued to work with municipalities and local governments around the country to establish ordinances to mandate Yellow Pages and White Pages only be delivered to home and offices that ask for them. As a result, in 2010, the city of Seattle passed the first ordinance requiring phone-book companies to let residents opt out of getting the yellow pages and assigned the companies penalties for each unwanted book delivered.

The law was the first of its kind and was fought by the Local Search Association, an organization representing Yellow Pages publishers with the organization winning the case and striking down the law, however, the growing awareness of the case and its purpose did ‘prompt’ or ‘persuade’ the Local Search Association to create the first opt-out mechanism now found online at www.yellowpagesoptout.com.

Today, with its mission firmly remaining in place, the business believes it is time to move forward with its new URL which has already been implemented and a new look and feel to be replaced in the coming weeks. After nine years of operations as the only true economically known ‘green’ Yellow Pages, the sites web address changed last month from yellowpagesgoesgreen.org to yellowpagesdirectory.com and its design was completely revamped.

"The key in an effective website service is online traffic and visibility. We hope these changes will make our site so much better and easier to navigate. We continue to be one of the lowest cost yellow pages solution in America and our goal to improve our client’s businesses and website visibility will remain a top priority,” said CEO Michael Keegan.

Yellow Pages Directory Inc., owner of both YellowPagesGoesGreen.org and PaperlessPetition.org, offers an environmentally friendly Web-based alternative to paper telephone directories. Both YellowPagesGoesGreen.org and PaperlessPetition.org were instrumental in promoting opt-out awareness across the United States.

Further Declines in Print Yellow Pages Ads Expected

February 21, 2019 / Lee Ann Rush / 0 Comments

Print Yellow Pages are expected to see a 19% decline in an industry said to remain a $3 Billion dollar a year business.

NEW YORK – Research firm eMarketer has released a study that expects digital advertising to surpass spending on traditional TV, billboard and print by the end of this year.

A portion of that decline is expected to be print Yellow Pages which are expected to see a 19% decline in an industry said to remain a $3 Billion dollar a year business. This translated to figures in the area of $570 Million fewer ad dollars for print yellow pages books.

Winners in the online ad space sector remain to be Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) and Google (NASDAQ: GOOGL)which are expected to capture a whopping 60% of all online ad spending, with Facebook taking in somewhat more than Google since it is also the owner of popular social platform Instagram.

The Yellow Pages business, specifically the print product, has seen continually declines over the years with our own Homepage poll reflecting 64% of people using online versions of the Yellow Pages most, versus the 36% claiming to still use print more often.

According to QZ.com the Yellow Pages Opt Out Movement has been particularly painful for print Yellow Pages publishers as consumers have the new-found opportunity to choose not to receive delivery of the print book, an effort which began after Yellow Pages Goes Green and Paperless Petition began online petitions for opt-out regulation.

Author: Lee Ann Rush (page 1 of 55)

Thryv, Inc. Appoints Gordon Henry As Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer

First Autonomous Vehicles in Central Florida Now in Service in Lake Nona

Hello Mobile Launches Plans With Free International Calling

Innovating ‘Green’ .ORG Site Yellow Pages Goes Green Announces Rebranding As YellowPagesDirectory.com

Further Declines in Print Yellow Pages Ads Expected

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