2022 was a year of recognition for much of the hard work we’ve been doing at CrossComm. Earlier this year, we received three Telly Awards for our collaboration in creating immersive apps introducing students from underrepresented communities to STEM careers. And just a few months ago, our CEO and President, Don Shin, won the Triangle Business Journal’s Leader in Diversity award, for his commitment to fostering diversity in the workplace and in business leadership.
Ending the Year with a Meaningful Win
Though all the accolades reflect our diligent effort towards quality in the work we do and the team we’ve built, our most recent recognition truly encapsulates our biggest mission: to improve quality of life through technology, and provide meaningful impact to as many people as possible.
We are incredibly humbled and honored to have received the 2022 Tech for Good Award from the NC Tech Association. Yet, we are not alone in this endeavor. In this post, we want to take a moment to thank all those who were pivotal in receiving this award.
A Big Thanks to NC Tech
NC Tech is a prolific organization galvanizing the tech community in the region, and unifying our voices so that North Carolina can become a global leader where technology and innovation can thrive. As a Durham-based company, we are especially thankful to NC Tech for inviting us to the NC Tech Awards Gala, and for creating an evening where we and our peers could be celebrated in one room.
If you aren’t already familiar, the Tech for Good award is one category of many in North Carolina’s only technology awards program for companies and individuals demonstrating growth, innovation, and leadership throughout the state. During the awards ceremony, it was exciting to be surrounded by many tech trailblazers and learn about the groundbreaking work they were doing. Our table cheered for the stories of excellence and creativity shared by each awardee, and felt a deep sense of gratitude for being a part of the celebration.
From our standpoint, the Tech for Good award was incredibly competitive. We were up against remarkable change makers including Code the Dream, Datacaliper, NC Dept. of Information Technology, Pairwise, and Relias, all of whom embody the importance of harnessing technology to elevate and enhance the common good. Accepting the Tech for Good award alongside these inspiring organizations reinvigorated our team in the continued responsibility to enact positive change through the technology we build.
Since 1995, the NC Tech Awards have honored excellence and innovation throughout North Carolina, representing the best and brightest. As a winner, CrossComm has distinguished itself as a peer-leader and we are proud to recognize them as a 2022 NC Tech Awards winner.
Brooks Raiford, President and CEO of NC TECH
A Collaborative Win in Tech for Good
You might think that receiving a Tech for Good award is based on the achievement of a singular goal, but we are a company that reaches broadly in support of fellow change agents. At our core, we are a tech-agnostic service provider that employs the spirit of collaboration for those seeking to invent their own tech for change. Our methods allow the impact of the software we build to span diverse industries, using cutting-edge technology, deployed across multiple geographic regions. We’re often behind the scenes, behind the spotlight so to speak, helping our partners move a world-changing prototype to completion through counsel, development, and guidance.
Consequently, it is difficult to quantify and highlight everything we accomplish with our clients, but we believe we won this award based on our philosophy of being a trusted partner to those who want to make a difference. For nearly 25 years, we’ve championed a cross-disciplinary approach to building tech solutions for complex health, environmental, and societal problems. To that end, we position ourselves as the technology support to help businesses and scientific experts seeking to improve outcomes in their respective fields.
It goes without saying, we share this win with our clients, who understand the most pressing problems in their discipline and come up with creative ideas on how to solve them. We have such a wonderful network of empathetic researchers and inventors who share our passion for problem-solving. For example, in the past year, our web development team created a web eLearning platform for The Diversity Movement offering Diversity, Equity and Inclusion training to business leaders.
We additionally partnered with UNC researchers to create a mobile app paired with a low-cost, at-home water testing kit that helps well owners in rural and under-resourced areas of North Carolina assess their water for pollutants. Simultaneously, our augmented and virtual reality team built a VR application to help one of the top 5 U.S. electric companies teach Southern California residents about simple, cost-effective home renovations that can lower carbon emissions.
The breadth of project types that we are privileged to work on keeps us learning, deepening our expertise. Each new experience strengthens our craft, as we forge new partnerships with experts doing the hard work of solving public health and societal problems. And so, to these and all of our amazing partners, we are so immensely appreciative of the important work you do, and for trusting us in helping you bring your ‘tech for good’ projects to life.
Gratitude for Our Team
Lastly, it is with great care and gratitude that we acknowledge the efforts of the entire CrossComm team. We are a group of friends and individuals who deeply respect each other and our mission to transform communities by building quality, user-centric software that drives a positive impact on life, health, and society. For many years, CrossComm has been focusing on building an inspiring workplace culture that aligns with our vision to move from success to significance. We’ve been actively seeking projects that are both intellectually stimulating and altruistically based.
We’d like to think that creating these opportunities to inspire each other is one of the reasons why CrossComm won NC Tech’s Best Tech Company to Work last year. But that is only part of the equation. We are made great by the collective heart of our incredible colleagues, driven by the desire to build and amplify the important work of our clients. The Tech for Good award would not be possible without the entire CrossComm team, who works with tenacity and determination to expand CrossComm’s capabilities and contribute to making the world a better place.
Don, CrossComm’s president and CEO, echoes our Tech for Good sentiments best, “As much as possible, CrossComm lives by the philosophy that there should not be impediments to a good idea taking flight. We hope to continue to be an example that tech companies can stretch their creativity and partner with experts to develop cross-disciplinary innovations that solve real-world problems.”
