Issue 12 2020

CEO MONTHLY / ISSUE 12 2020 5 , Skills4Stem, a certified women’s business enterprise, IBM, and WEConnect International in Europe, have announced their collaboration in launching a Women in Tech Development Programme. Offering a BCS (Chartered Institute for IT) Level 3 Software Development Technician programme for majority women- owned businesses across England, and in particular, those who are eager to grow and develop their organisations, it is hoped the curriculum will positively influence the progress of female-led enterprise. The programme, delivered by Skills4Stem and funded by IBM, will be delivered in two-day block sessions over an 18-month period. It will begin in January 2021 and complete in June 2022. The training sessions, to include such topics as software methodologies, implementing and integrating code, and good coding practices, will culminate in an invigilated examination, and will aim to inspire, motivate and empower future growth and development in women-owned business. Delivered online from 09:30-16:30, course structure will include monthly one-to-one competency/ePortfolio visits with each candidate; there is no cost for participation. Skills4Stem, a global training provider focusing on offering international technical qualifications, provides pertinent, up-to-date skills for the present and future global workforce, and specialises in delivering BTEC, HNC, HND qualifications and career-focused apprenticeships in the construction, engineering and project management industries. Founded in 2014 by female entrepreneur, Sarah Davis, the organisation actively promotes female business leadership, and inclusion, communication, and management skills through providing technical education. “We are delighted to be delivering the Women in Tech Development Programme and, through its modules and teachings, hope to inspire and support deeper growth in women-owned and led organisations,” says Sarah. “This software engineering programme is aimed at those who are between lower-to-mid career level, is free, and will provide countless opportunities to learn and develop the skills required to progress in the workplace.” Applications to participate in the programme are open to all owners and employees from majority women-owned businesses in England; the business must be either registered or certified with WEConnect International before the first day of the programme. Registration can be completed online, and applications must be received before 6pm GMT on Friday 20th November. For further information, please visit www.skills4stem.com Transactional emails are an essential part of communication between businesses and people they interact with. Currently, the process of creating transactional messages involves time-consuming work for both developers and marketing teams. Every request and change from various teams must go through the development team, which caus- es bottlenecks and slower workflows. MailerSend intends to make transactional emails a team sport by empowering the non-technical team to contribute. MailerSend was born from over ten years of email de- liverability experience led by a group of seasoned email marketing software professionals. The team behind it took all the features that one would expect in transactional email service and reimagined the user experience to make the entire process a smarter and more efficient team sport. Transactional emails are the glue that holds the digital ecosystem together. They are the automated emails that are triggered by events or interactions within a service, website, or app. Transactional email examples include confirmations after paying a bill, resetting a password, or signing up for a new subscription, etc. They communicate mundane yet important information that people need when they make a transaction. MailerSend will be a new kind of transactional email service that is designed with intuitive tools like a drag & drop editor so the entire team can create and send emails without coding. Instead of developers doing all the implementation work, the product and marketing teams can now join in and cre- ate, as well as manage the emails themselves. “The current software tools used for setting up transactional emails make the whole process quite burdensome. They usually require a workflow that goes through the techni- cal teams for maintenance and managing changes. The development team spends their valuable time programming repetitive tasks that can be automated. We are happy to finally share MailerSend, a tool that will solve many issues related to transactional emails,” says Ignas Rubežius, CEO of The Remote Company. “The tool is flexible and designed with everyday users in mind. Now the whole team can join in, see the analytics, and optimize the process as needed.” Whether sending a promotional email, a confirmation mes- sage, or even a password reset email, personalization of the content is what counts. Although the process of person- alizing emails can be tedious, it is a crucial step in connect- ing with customers. 71% of consumers claim a personalized experience would influence their decision to open and read brand emails, while marketers report a 760% increase in email revenue from personalized campaigns. The MailerSend service was designed with personalization from day one. It has powerful tools such as custom fields and dynamic templates with content that changes automat- ically based on the recipient. The flexible sending infra- structure enables businesses to send a few emails or scale to a few million. MailerSend also includes a wide range of real-time, advanced analytics that shows the entire team what works and what needs optimizing. The Future Is Female Skills4Stem, IBMandWEConnect International collaborate to deliverWomen in Tech Development Programme.