The Silicon Review has published an issue of 50 Most Trustworthy Companies of the Year 2020

1. Kaushik Punjani | Founder | CEO
Secure your transactions and increase
the processing speed with Euro Exim
Bank’s cutting edge solutions
CEOs News
Technology Business Features CIOs
Leadership
U.S. Special
www.thesiliconreview.com
50 Most
Trustworthy
Companies of the Year
SR2020

2. T
echnology is developing
at breakneck speed, so
communicating and working
with teams across the world is also
gaining significance. Accordingly,
Business Process Outsourcing (BPO)
has been growing in popularity. In
almost every industry, businesses
can now outsource non-core
processes while they can focus more
on the core business functions.
The BPO industry is continuing to
develop, and we should anticipate
some interesting trends in this
segment. BPO is basically a subset
of outsourcing that involves
contracting third-party service
providers for various business
responsibilities and operations.
Businesses worldwide are
embracing BPO because they make
it easier for them to optimize the
process management.
BPO provides a high level of
flexibility, improves cost efficiency,
better competitive advantage,
diversity in skills, and a more global
presence. Skybridge Americas is
a business process outsourcing
company that provides customer
care, sales, technical support,
emergency roadside dispatching,
back-office support, medical
and appointment scheduling
across all channels; inbound and
outbound voice, email, chat, SMS
text, USPS mail, and social media.
With their cloud-based, virtual
platform, Skybridge delivers a
uniform experience for all agents
and consumers within a stable,
secure environment across all
contact channels. By providing
real, actionable data, Skybridge
enables smarter decision making
without CapEx Investment or other
operational expenses so often
associated with acquiring and
maintaining technology. Skybridge’s
“Agents Anywhere” platform allows
them to recruit from top talent pools
throughout Canada and the United
States and enables them to ramp up
and down seamlessly quickly.
Skybridge Americas was founded in
1953, and it is based in Minneapolis.
In conversation with
Andrew Bosko, CEO of
Skybridge Americas
Businesses often fail to
speak out with their target
audience due to outdated or
non-compatible marketing
strategies. How do you help
your clients bridge the gap
between their brands and
consumers?
Skybridge has maintained decades-
long relationships with some of
the world's most beloved and
iconic brands. We've stayed so
successful because we've always
taken the concept of partnership
very seriously. We truly collaborate
with our clients, and we're totally
invested in their success. That's
what separates us from most contact
centers: that level of shared stakes,
partnership, and collaboration. Our
clients aren't hiring us just to deliver
a script. They're relying on our
Skybridge Americas leverages disruptive technologies
to deliver undeniably best BPO services
“A long-standing
commitment to process
ingenuity, security and IT
innovation that mitigates
risk and ensures memorable
customer experiences.”
Andrew Bosko, CEO

3. agents to understand their goals,
embrace their brand promise,
and deliver superior customer
experience. Our Agents Anywhere
delivery platform allows us to
carefully identify, recruit, and
retain associates who fit the
profile of a successful Brand
Agent and show a distinct affinity
for our client's product or service.
This creates an intense passion
for pleasing the customer on
every call. Moreover, our clients
count on our leadership team to
share industry trends, provide
key customer feedback, and be
an active participant in their
planning process. Everything
we do is focused on helping
our clients build up their brand
equity.
Trust is a difficult
attribute to measure
and a delicate dynamic
to maintain. How do you
maintain this with your
employees and clients?
We build trust by hiring for
integrity and promoting our
capabilities transparently.
We maintain trust through
consistent, open communication
with all of our stakeholders.
That means we’re in continuous
communication with our
employees and our customers,
using multi-level formal and
informal communications.
Whenever we find gaps, we make
improvements and close the loop
by communicating our actions.
How do you deal with the
“never ending change” in
digital transformation?
There will always be newer, better
technologies – and unforeseen
disruptors – around every
corner. That’s just the reality of
the customer care industry now.
Today, if you don’t have in-house
technology experts to monitor
those developments and the
financial resources to invest in
the right ones – you run very
real risks of failing to keep up
with your customer needs. That
fact was driven home in a very
sobering way when COVID-19
came along. Skybridge Americas
was one of the few North
American providers who had
already invested in total remote
capability and scalability. So, our
agents were already set up at
home and fully supported by the
platform and security technology
they needed to provide seamless
service to all of our customers.
But when that happened, we
pretty quickly recognized that we
were in a position to share what
we knew with other companies.
At that point, we decided to help
our own clients and any company
trying to transition to at-home,
retain their employees, and keep
their business operational.
Do you have any new
services ready to be
launched?
We’re excited to be launching
our new conversational Artificial
Intelligence solution. By mapping
ideal call paths and using cutting
edge speech recognition, we’re
able to seamlessly route calls
between IVR, chatbot, and live
agent, based on call type and
customer need. At any point,
even mid-call, our virtual agents
are capable of transferring the
customer, along with all of the
data collected during the call,
to a live agent. This ability to
automate simple and complex
call types with teams of virtual
and live agents has allowed us
to deliver greater efficiency and
productivity to our clients.
Meet the leader behind
the success of Skybridge
Americas
Since joining Skybridge America’s
in 2016, CEO Andrew Bosko has
been leading the company through a
dramatic brand transformation. With
25 years of executive leadership
experience in the industry, Andy has
a clear sense of how customer care
contact centers need to evolve in
order to stay relevant and in demand.
He has successfully overseen
major technology and systems
upgrades, redesigns of process and
infrastructure, and the transition
to at-home customer care agents.
Prior to joining Skybridge Americas,
Mr. Bosko held executive leadership
roles with a number of sales and
customer care organizations. He
was a pioneer in the work@home
movement as Sr. Vice-President
of Sales and Marketing for
Alpine Access, the contact center
industry’s first pure work@home
BPO Company. Most recently, he
served as Chief Operating Officer at
iPacesetters, LLC. Before earning his
MBA from Northwestern University,
Mr. Bosko attended Loyola University
Chicago, on an athletic scholarship
for swimming and water polo,
helping his team advance to the
NCAA tournament three times.
SR

4. ‘Strategic Focus’: Pioneer
Landscape Centers,
a Colorado-based
Leading Landscape and
Hardscape Materials
Supplier, Continues to
Stick to Basics While
Banking on More
Inclusive and Transparent
Innovation
“We gave every employee a
discretionary bonus as a reward to say
thank you for how well they handled the
pandemic through Q2 and changes in
the business we’d made the year before.”
Mark Adamson, CEO O
pportunity:
That’s what
smart investors
seek, and it’s what Mark
Adamson, a CEO and private-
equity firm director, found in
Pioneer Landscape Centers.
Adamson understands companies
like Pioneer that manufacture materials
used in construction because he’s
been CEO at four of them. Before
stepping into the private equity world,
Adamson ran Fletcher Building Limited,
a $9 billion conglomerate based in
Auckland, New Zealand. Fletcher’s
16,000 employees produce a wide array
of products to support the building
industry, including raw materials,
concrete, wallboard, insulation,
and laminate under the company’s
subsidiary, Formica.
At Pioneer, Adamson has taken the
helm of a regional leader in quarry
operations and retail for hardscape
materials, which are the features of
landscape architecture that augment
the vegetation, such as pathways, walls,
and rock beds. Although Pioneer had
suffered some setbacks in years past,
Adamson could see its potential.
“The hypothesis behind why we
bought Pioneer is still a very valid
hypothesis,” Adamson said. “People in the
future are going to be spending
more and more of their disposable income
on outdoor spaces. That, combined with
the changing climate and increasing
water shortages, will mean that those
outdoor spaces are going to incorporate
more hard landscape versus green
landscape than they did in the past.”

5. Today, Pioneer is well-positioned to
leverage these trends. Established
in 1968, the company is a leading
distributor of landscaping and
hardscaping materials in the
western United States. With 35
retail distribution facilities and
20 company-owned and operated
quarries and production facilities
in Colorado and Arizona, Pioneer
is uniquely positioned to serve
industrial, commercial, wholesale,
and residential customers.
In dialogue with the CEO
of Pioneer Landscape
Centers, Mark Adamson
Q. What was the most
important change you
implemented when you first
came to Pioneer?
A. It wasn’t as much a change as it
was the focus. This is my fourth CEO
gig and I’ve operated across four
continents. I specialize in helping
businesses that have taken a wrong
turn to get back on the right track.
To do that, you need to reinforce
the importance of engagement
throughout the business.
Most businesses turn a profit of
some kind, but maximizing that
profit relies on your ability to
motivate that extra, discretionary
effort an employee can give. What
do I mean by that? Suppose you
show up at a store and you need to
buy something right as that store
is about to close. But, the sales
associate says, “It’s OK. Take your
time. I’ll stay open.”
She wasn’t told to do that. She
did it because she believed in the
business, her team, the leadership,
and the direction that her company
was taking. The customer will
remember it and come back.
In a business like Pioneer’s,
discretionary effort matters because
there are so many employees who
have touchpoints with the customer.
Getting those employees motivated
and having faith in leadership turns
the dial on that extra-effort attitude.
Q. What did you do to
encourage employee
engagement?
A. I often say that our employees
out in the field know more about
the business than we do in the
boardroom. In many ways, that’s
the case, so we focus on two-way
communication--up and down the
corporate ladder.
This is because engagement
requires a virtuous circle of
communication. It’s not a matter of
me deciding what will happen in the
Pioneer world and telling everyone
about it. It’s me trying to find out
what employees think should
happen, running that through the
filter or investment priorities, and
then circling back to employees to
say, “We listened to you. We didn’t
take up every change, but we’ve
taken a lot of it, this is what we’re
going to do, and this is your role in
it.”
Engagement also means training
people to be successful in their jobs
and then rewarding them when
they are. We came through the first
round of COVID-19 with revenue
gains and improved margins, and we
couldn’t have done that if we didn’t
have a great group of folks.
This past summer, we gave every
employee a discretionary bonus
as a reward to say thank you
for how well they handled the
pandemic through Q2 and changes
in the business we’d made the year
before. Store associates, quarry
workers, truck drivers, management
– everyone received the same
discretionary bonus on top of any
other bonus that employees were
eligible to earn.
Q. You said you’ve had
revenue gains in your
business. How did you
achieve that?
A. Again, it had to do with focus.
For one thing, previous leadership
had steered Pioneer toward do-it-
yourself shoppers, but we realized
that even if homeowners come to
the store, it’s often their contractors
who make the purchases.
We redesigned our stores and
processes to help those key
customers – small and medium-
sized contractors – make the most
of their time. For instance, we
implemented Curbside Service, a
system where contractors could
select a product and pay for it
without ever entering the store
because we know time is money for
these people. If they’re in the store,
they can’t be on a job site.
Curbside Service allowed customers
to pay for products at a stationary
outdoor terminal. When COVID-19
hit, we accelerated the development
of systems that enabled us to serve
the customer from any place in one
of our yards. With Honk-For-Service,
we now can come to the customer
and complete the transaction on a
tablet. Contractors tell us they can
get a full extra visit into our stores
each day. That enables them to
spend time serving their customers
and making money in their
businesses.
Q. What about the improved
margins you mentioned.
How do you achieve those?
A. We’ve focused on leveraging our
assets, such as our quarry

6. M
ost of the contact centers
in operation today are
running on old technology
and call center software that can't
keep up with the way customers
and businesses now communicate.
A cloud-based contact center is a
modern alternative to on-premise
contact centers using the latest
in communications technology. It
offers many benefits to businesses
who want to meet and exceed their
customers' expectations continually.
With the rise of communications
APIs for contact centers, however,
contact centers are finally evolving.
Building a cloud-based contact
center with APIs is easier and faster
than ever. You can add new features
and channels as you need, in far
less time than it takes to write an
RFP. This type of contact center
is built with APIs; the software
building blocks power modern
communications.
Five9 is the leading provider of
cloud contact center software.
The firm is driven by a passion for
transforming contact centers into
customer engagement centers of
excellence, coupled with a deep
understanding of the cost and
complexity of running a contact
center. The firm helps contact
centers of every size create
powerful customer connections.
Five9 software creates more
successful customer interactions
while increasing contact center
productivity without the capital
expense and premise-based
systems' maintenance costs. With
the experience of thousands of
customer implementations, the
firm is laser-focused on building,
implementing, and supporting an
easy-to-use, complete cloud contact
center solution. The company's
software is built on a flexible
architecture that adapts to your
changing needs. Companies can turn
agent seats on and off as needed,
avoid the hassle of maintaining
infrastructure and focus on
converting interactions into brand
loyalty.
Path-breaking products
and services offered by
Five9
Cloud Call Center Software:
Five9 call center software enables
agents to be more effective when
handling customer interactions,
delivering a better service
experience, or selling more. Smart
We provide digital-first omnichannel
experiences that route your
customers to the agent best equipped
to meet their needs regardless of the
channel they choose."
Five9 – The intelligent cloud
contact center making customer
service a more human experience
"

7. 7
Dialers give agents more time
with live prospects. Intelligent
Omnichannel Routing connects
customers to the right agent.
On-Screen Customer Info puts
information at the agent's
fingertips to personalize
service. And everything is
automatically logged to your
CRM. Five9 provides everything
you need to run an effective
inbound, outbound, or blended
omnichannel contact center,
including interactive voice
response (IVR), real-time and
historical dashboards and
reporting, telephony, workforce
management, quality monitoring,
CRM integrations, and more.
Inbound Call Center: Five9
Inbound Cloud Call Center software
delivers exceptional customer
service by using the omnichannel
routing capability by connecting a
customer to the best agent every
time. With Five9 Engagement
Workflow route contacts to the
right agents and automatically
deliver customer information to
them before they engage, to provide
personalized service. Customers
serve themselves through speech-
enabled IVR and Visual IVR on
mobile devices, freeing agents to
focus their attention on high-value
interactions. Five9 "screen pops"
give agents the information they
need to personalize the customer's
experience, potentially turning
routine service calls into revenue-
generating opportunities.
Digit-first Omnichannel:
Customers expect options on how
they contact your company, and they
increasingly look to digital channels
as a first choice. Five9 Digital
Engagement is fully integrated
with Five9 inbound and outbound
voice to create exceptional digital-
first customer experiences across
voice, email, SMS, webchat, video,
and social messaging apps. Move
customers seamlessly between
channels and engage customers
within multiple channels in a single
interaction to resolve issues quickly.
Rowan Trollope, CEO
The visionary leader behind the
success of Five9
Rowan Trollope serves as the Chief
Executive Officer of Five9. He is
passionate about how digital transformation
revolutionizes how we communicate,
particularly how organizations bring
personalized experiences to their customers.
Mr. Rowan is a recognized Silicon Valley
leader and has a depth of experience in
software solutions and cloud innovation. He is
a self-proclaimed geek and taught himself to
program on a Commodore 64 at a local Radio
Shack and holds several patents in computer
security and operating systems.
Before Five9, Rowan was SVP and General
Manager of Cisco's Applications Group and
an executive leadership team member. Under
Rowan's leadership, he refreshed the entire
collaboration technology portfolio, simplifying
the product line and winning over 20 awards
for outstanding product design. At Symantec
before Cisco, he was Group President Sales,
marketing, and product development,
responsible for cloud security and the SMB
market. He developed and grew its software
as a Service strategy and expanded its cloud-
based delivery and customer support models.
SR

8. F
inancial market data is a
key part of the financial
professional's workflow, as
this data equips the user with real-
time quotes and up-to-date and
accurate financial information. The
financial market data industry can
be broadly classified into Terminals
and Proprietary Data & Value
Add Service Providers. Terminal
businesses dominate the Financial
Market data industry. These
suppliers play a significant role in
banking and financial companies'
business data gathering to gain
knowledge on market rates, indices,
exchange fluctuations, and credit
pricing, among others. They also
play a significant role in analytics
and chat support. Hence, the
demand for financial market data
is driven by investment bankers,
corporate financiers, and portfolio
managers who are top contributors
to the annual demand increase
during the past five years.
PitchBook is a leading financial
data provider covering the global
venture capital, private equity, and
public markets. It is also a research
firm that works tirelessly to arm
professionals within the global
private equity, venture capital, and
M&A markets with adequate data,
technology, and services so they can
make the most informed business
decisions efficiently. It has its offices
in London, New York, San Francisco,
and Seattle. Serving clients in
19 languages, the firm provides
thousands of global business
professionals with comprehensive
data on the private and public
markets to discover and execute
opportunities with confidence. The
firm also partners with industry
organizations and business schools,
giving them special access to
PitchBook and supporting their
events.
Revolutionary products
furnished by PitchBook
Pitchbook Desktop: The award-
winning software gives you access
to the company's data and the
analytical tools you need to get
answers fast, discover promising
opportunities, and more. Each
feature of the PitchBook Desktop
is designed to help you work
smarter. One can leverage granular
search criteria to sort through
data and generate a tailored list
of the companies, deals, investors,
or individuals that you're looking
for. Set custom alerts, so you're
the first to know if a new company
pops up, a professional connection
changes jobs, or a competitor makes
an acquisition. The company's
Research Center combines
Morningstar's thematic and
company-specific equity research
with PitchBook's own extensive PE,
VC, and M & A research to provide
a holistic view of the private and
public markets.
PitchBook Mobile: It helps to
access curated news as well as the
in-depth private market analysis
straight from your phone. One can
get the data you need instantly with
advanced search and customizable
alerts. Discover opportunities before
your competitors with on-the-go
insights and monitor your space
activity, from significant deals
to new hires. Work seamlessly
across devices. Your search history
saved searches, lists, and more
automatically sync across PitchBook
Desktop, Mobile, and Chrome.
Evaluate targets, uncover critical
deal details, gain competitive
insights, or prep for your next
We track every aspect of the public and
private equity markets, including venture
capital, private equity, and M&A."
PitchBook – Providing trustworthy
and revolutionary tools to analyze
data in the private investment lifecycle
"

9. The formidable leader behind the success of PitchBook
John Gabbert is the Founder and also serves as the Chief Executive Officer of PitchBook. He has
more than 20 years of experience in building information technology products for capital market professionals.
Before founding PitchBook, he was the Managing Director of Private Markets for Dow Jones & Company and VP of
Worldwide Research for VentureOne, VentureSource, and The Private Equity Analyst. He has played a key role in six
acquisitions/mergers (three as the acquired target and three as part of the acquiring/merged organization) by both
strategic and private equity investors.
meeting no matter where you
are with easy access to in-depth,
interrelated data on public and
private companies, people,
transactions, funds, and more.
PitchBook Excel Plugin: It helps
to strengthen your analysis and
build better financial models.
Harness the depth of PitchBook's
global public and private market
data to streamline your workflow,
create and update financial
models quickly, and catalyze
confident investment decisions.
PitchBook's prebuilt templates
give you immediate access to
investor tear sheets, comparable
and valuations whenever you need
them. The data it pipes into the
templates is dynamic and always
up-to-date. Because variables
can be manipulated to evaluate
all possible outcomes, you can
feel confident in your decision-
making. Ensure efficiency and
accuracy in your work by utilizing
a formula builder to select the
specific data you want to be
populated in your models.
John Gabbert
Founder & CEO
SR