Monday, October 4, 2021
"It was a pleasure to acknowledge the ETA Star Award – Response to COVID-19 honorees for the important work they did to adapt and help their customers engage in commerce in new ways and to support their employees and their communities during the pandemic," Kelley said in a statement. She further noted that each 2021 ETA star had gone above and beyond to help business owners access working capital and vital services during the recent global business shutdown.
Celero Commerce responded quickly to the crisis, ETA representatives noted, by fashioning a Celero COVID-19 Survival Kit designed to help merchants process eGift cards, ecommerce, curbside, and pickup and delivery services while adhering to social distancing and best practices. In addition, the company partnered with Pinnacle Bank to ensure Nashville-based merchants had information about PPP loans and access to products and services, Celero Commerce stated, adding that they launched similar projects around the United States.
Celero also served the Nashville community by hiring area engineers, half of whom joined Celero after experiencing employment cutbacks due to COVID-19, Celero stated, adding that its relationship with LLR Partners, a private equity firm, helped sustain the company through economic hardships.
"As a result of our partnership with LLR and its faith in our team, we were also able to not only avoid cutting our team, but also to take advantage of others doing so," Celero Commerce stated. "[W]e moved several offshore roles to our Nashville HQ as some outstanding technology talent freed up through furloughs and cuts elsewhere."
The ETA recognized Homebase for helping its national customer base remotely track employee clock-ins across cities, states and industries while making an array of financial resources available via a customer portal. The site, which provided critical information and live support from certified HR professionals, helped numerous companies and employees navigate the crisis, ETA representatives stated.
Homebase representatives explained that throughout the crisis, it became critical to stem the flow of small and midsize business closures, which is why the company created solutions to pause merchant billing and help employees get paid faster. In March 2020, Homebase sent data to economists and members of the press to raise awareness of these issues, they added. "As the impact continued, we realized we needed to get this data and story into as many hands as possible, so we made it public," Homebase stated. "It was used widely at the beginning to help shape policy responses to COVID, including PPP programs, and afterwards to understand the impact and ongoing policy responses."
NCR Corp.'s COVID-19 Response Task Force provided real-time data to protect merchants, employees and customers while maintaining business continuity, ETA representatives noted. The ETA praised NCR's social media campaign #KeepCommerceRunning for raising awareness and keeping commerce moving across communities and regions.
"By rapidly transforming its internal operations and customer focus to respond to pandemic conditions, NCR became a trusted resource for customers seeking government assistance, product development, and support to keep commerce running with contactless payments, online solutions, and stand-alone solutions for hospitality and retail merchants," ETA stated.
NCR cited helping its own employees as a critical element of the #KeepCommerceRunning campaign, noting its updates and information helped keep its staff informed about health and safety conditions in their immediate geographic areas, countries and world. This included NCR's "Seven steps for staying mentally strong during coronavirus," as well as stories about employees who successfully transitioned to work from home situations and back again to onsite workplace environments, NCR representatives stated.
Nominations for next year's ETA Star Awards will open in 2022 and be awarded at TRANSACT in April 2022, the ETA stated. 
The Green Sheet Inc. is now a proud affiliate of Bankcard Life, a premier community that provides industry-leading training and resources for payment professionals. Click here for more information.
Notice to readers: These are archived articles. Contact names or information may be out of date. We regret any inconvenience.
