Just another Friday at ABG

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Happy Friday! Has summer gone way too fast for you? It has for us! Anyway, we have just a few things to share before you can head out of the office and enjoy your weekend.

We first want to apologize for not posting this blog series last week. We were having some technical difficulties and were unable to get into the blog. We’re happy to say that we have since then solved the issue and are back up and running!

Moving right along, our office build-out project is moving right along and things look like they’re really starting to come together. Take a look at these pictures and check out some of the new space that’s starting to fill up with employees!

New ABG Capital office space

New office space!

ABG Capital new call center

Our new Call Center!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you know, once a quarter we like to treat our employees to a friendly sporting event. The first quarter was bowling, the second quarter was kickball and the third quarter is softball. Around 1pm today the annual ABG Capital softball game will kick-off. The two teams will battle for victory while having fun away from the office. While some are out at the game, our dedicated support staff will still be in the office ready to support our customers. We’ll be taking pictures, so check out our social media sites on Monday!

That’s all we have for you this week! Thanks for reading and have a great weekend 🙂

Just another Friday at ABG

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Welcome back to our Just another Friday at ABG Capital blog post. We have just a few things to mention and then it’s time for the weekend! I first want to mention that our build-out is moving right along. Earlier this week they started installing the demountable walls and today it looks like everything is coming together. Furniture for this new space is being delivered on Monday and it’s exciting to see all steps of this build-out happen before our eyes! (Click on any picture to enlarge it.)

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Today we had our End Of Month Meeting as well. ABG Capital and its portfolio companies are all thriving in their respective markets and are on track with where they need to be for the third and fourth quarters. During this meeting we had some awards and recognition to give out: Jason Tapolci, President of VoIP Innovations, received his 15 Years of Service award today, Geno Zuccaro was named Employee of the Month and Denise Breide, Jake Crisman and Terri Sams all received Honorable Mentions for the outstanding work they’ve been doing. Congratulations to all for you for these fantastic achievements!

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Sharon Kolesar (HR Manager) and Jason Tapolci

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Geno Zuccaro

 

 

 

That’s all we have to you today, have a great weekend!

Just another Friday at ABG

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Welcome back to the Just another Friday at ABG Capital blog post! Today I have some great things to share with you. Since it’s almost the end of July, it’s time to mention our August birthdays and anniversaries. Our August birthdays include Geno Zucarro on August 5, Matt Bartko on August 10, Tyler Weimerskirch on August 12, Kathy Scheidlemeier on August 20, Ian Hambelton on August 26 and Sharon Kolesar also on August 26. Happy Birthday to all of you, we hope you have some great celebrations!

Next we have to announce a few August anniversaries. Barry Yancosek has been with us for three years as of August 2 and Denise Breide has been with us for two years as of August 23. Congratulations on making it to these fantastic milestones in your ABG Capital careers!

It is the end of the month and this is usually when we announce the topics we’ve discussed in our Month End Meeting, but that meeting has been postponed. We’ve moved the meeting to next Friday, August 2. That means that next week’s Just another Friday post will have all of the great July information.

ABG Capital BuildoutIn other ABG Capital news, our build-out is happen so quickly; old walls are coming down just as fast a new ones are going up! While those new walls are going up, they’re prepping the floors for carpet and then the furniture will be arriving August 5. The office is noisy and full of dust but it’s all part of making the final product happen that we can’t wait to see.

That’s all we have for you today folks. Have a great weekend!

Just another Friday at ABG

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Welcome back to your Just another Friday at ABG Capital! You can really tell that it’s summer around the office because we don’t have that much going right now. Things are moving along nice and smooth, people are taking vacations and most important of all, our build-out is moving along.

Earlier this week Jeff Tapolci, CEO of ABG Capital, and Ron Eggert, President of ABG Capital, spent the day in Cleveland, Ohio at McNeil Industries. They met Jim Hoffman, their strategic coach, and Justin McNeil of McNeil Industries. They got to tour their facility while getting some great coaching tips from Jim. These guys are a close knit group of professionals who always manage to have an enjoyable time with each other while gaining new insight into the way they run their businesses. The last time they all got together was in May; click here to read all about the fun they had!

McNiel Industries Cleveland

 Now I’d talk a little bit about the office build-out project we started in April. We need to expand our office due to the rapid growth of VoIP Innovations and Inspira. We’re constructing a new (bigger) kitchen, a new (bigger) training room and new (bigger) call centers. Unfortunately due to the landlord not getting electric and plumbing permits until late last week, the project has been slightly pushed back.

Phase one should have been completed by now, but because of the later permits, the builder decided to skip Phases three and four. Phase three has been completely finished, but Phase 4 has been only partially completed. Despite the minor set backs, we’re anticipating that we’ll be fully operational by the end of August!

Well, that’s all we have for today. Thanks for reading and enjoy your weekend!

 

 

ABG Capital has 21st Annual Company Picnic

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This weekend we had our 21st Annual ABG Capital Company Picnic at South Park V.I.P. Pavilion in Bethel Park. We were very fortunate that we had great weather, great people and most of all great times! We organize these picnic every year so we have a chance to get together with our employees and their families. It’s a carefree time where everyone can just let loose and have some fun.

ABG Capital's Sharon and Sara

Sharon (left) and Sara (right)

We first want to give a huge shout out to Sara Warhold and Sharon Kolesar. These two worked hard to make sure everything went off without a hitch. Thank you both for all of your hard work!

The picnic ran from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. with TONS of fun activities going on the entire time. There was basketball, volleyball, horseshoes, corn hole and mini golf. We had water balloon and egg tosses, spoon races and the kids could even get their faces or fingernails painted.

Now, we mentioned already that we played a few friendly games of corn hole… But there were a few professionals at the party! Kathy Scheidlemeier brought her husband and son to the picnic and those two were knocking teams out left and right. We have reason to believe they are part of some sort of secret corn hole society because of the accuracy and technique they brought to the table. No matter how bad people won or lost, every game was a truly enjoyable one.

If you want to check out some pictures from the picnic, please visit our Facebook page!

ABG Capital Picnic

Just another Friday at ABG

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Happy Friday everyone! We just have a few quick things to mention and then you can enjoy your weekend knowing you’re all caught up with your ABG Capital news.

Matt and EmilyWe want to start by congratulating one of our employees on getting married last week. Matt Bartko and his wife Emily tied the knot on the Fourth of July. Yesterday we helped him celebrate even more by bringing in a cake for everyone to enjoy. Congratulations Matt and Emily, we wish you both many years of love and happiness!

As for some other exciting ABG Capital news, we were notified today that we have been selected as one of the 2013 Best Places to Work in Western Pennsylvania! Our employees filled out a survey a few months ago and it was their responses that got us on that list. We truly strive to make our office a place where people want to come every day and by making it on the list again this year, it reassures us that we’re doing something right! Our official ranking won’t be released until the banquet in November.Breakthrough!

Today we also got the surveys that will put us in the running for the Best Places to Work in the entire State of Pennsylvania. To any employees reading this post: if you love working here, why not tell the whole world about it by filling out the survey you all received today.

We’re extremely excited for the weekend since we’re having our Annual Company Picnic tomorrow! It’s going to be a day filled with employees and their families enjoying a nice summer day. We’ll be playing corn hole, badminton, volley ball and tons of other great picnic games. Don’t worry, we’ll be taking pictures the whole time so keep an eye out for them on Facebook!

Have a great weekend everyone. 🙂

Just another Friday at ABG

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From everyone at ABG Capital, Happy Fourth of July! This week has gone pretty fast, but there’s been a lot of excitement. Last week we had our month end meeting where we recognized our May Employee of the Month, Spot Light of the Month and Honorable Mentions. Today I’d like to introduce those employees who have been outstanding for June: Geno Zuccaro is our Employee of the Month and Kathy Scheidelmeier is our Spot Light of the Month. Jake Crisman and Denise Breide also deserve some recognition for being our June Honorable Mentions.

While we’re making these monthly announcements, we want to give a shout out to all of our July anniversaries and birthdays. The anniversaries are Jeff Tapolci on July 7th (16 years), Sharon Kolesar on July 19th (2 years), Jaime Doyle on July 25th (2 years) and Joe Golubski on July 26th (3 years). Congratulations everyone!

The July birthdays are Justin Cornish on July 2nd, Jaime Doyle on July 9th, Jennifer Williams on July 13th,  Jerry Eddy on July 19th, Lowell Smith and Ryan Rice on July 21st, Collin Ballantine on July 24th, Eric Butler on July 30th and Bruce Smith on July 31st. Happy Birthday to you all!

In other news, ABG Capital is going through a network evolution project that will move ABG Capital and its portfolio companies’ network resources to the world of virtualization. One of the first pieces was installed this week when we added our brand new SAN (Storage Area Network) to our ACM Co-location.

ABG Capital SAN

Lastly I want to mention that we are currently undergoing a website reconstruction. The look and feel will remain the same, but we’ll be adding more of our own pictures and refreshing the content. We’re looking to have Phase One completely by the end of July. We’ll be making another announcement when it gets closer to the unveiling.

Just another Friday at ABG

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Happy Friday everyone! I hope you’re ready to hear all about the exciting things we’ve been up to all week. I want to start off by mentioning that our CEO, Jeff Tapolci, was featured in the Pittsburgh Business Times as part of an executive survey they did. There were 97 executives and managers who offered their advice on business traveling. Jeff was featured in the “Through business travel I have learned to never…” section where he replied with, “Put your car keys in a checked bag.”

ABG Capital Anniversaries

Jeff and Jessica

ABG Capital Anniversaries 2

Erica and Jeff

Since June is coming to an end, we had our Month End Meeting today. Unfortunately our Employee of the Month, Randy Stegner, wasn’t in the office to accept his award but we’ll make sure he gets in on Monday! We also named Matt Chapman as our Honorable Mention. We also congratulated Erica Penrod and Jessica Young for making it to important anniversaries at ABG Capital. Erica has been with us for 5 years and Jessica has been with us for 10 years.

Earlier this week we had a big birthday in the office. Rich James, our legal counsel, celebrated his 50th birthday! After work he was surprised with a birthday party at the O’Reilly Theater. Everyone enjoyed a pasta bar and the show, Other Desert Cities. Later in the week Jeff Tapolci and Ron Eggert joined Pete Ferraro from KFMR at the Cigar Bar at Cioppino of Pittsburgh.

In the office this week our IT crew, Steve Korbett and Jake Crisman, kept themselves very busy. They always have numerous issues to solve on a daily basis, but this week they’ve ramped up their IT efforts and completed over 22 tasks! Keep up the great work you guys!

On Sunday, June 23rd, we celebrated our 21st birthday. We’ve grown as an organization so much since 1992 and we love where we are today but our history is still a vital part of our existence. Next week we’ll be posting a more in-depth article on our history and how our values then still hold true today.

ABG Capital 21st Birthday

Just another Friday at ABG

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Isn’t it great that the first day of summer falls on a Friday? We think so! Before you head out of the office to enjoy your weekend, we want to give you a recap of what’s been going on all week. Inspira and VoIP Innovations have been the busiest out of all the companies, but we did have some exciting things to celebrate this week! June marks the anniversaries of three great people: Bruce Smith (Inspira) celebrates 2 years, Erica Penrod (ABG Capital) celebrates 5 years and Jessica Young (VoIP Innovations) celebrates 10 years! Congratulations for hitting each of those milestones; you’re all fantastic members of the ABG Capital family 🙂

Inspira had a few guests from the General Accountability Office (GAO) visiting to conduct some research on Automatic IRA Rollovers for Congress. They even got to experience one of our fabulous lunches made by one of our lunch committees. They really enjoyed their visit and their lunch and even joked about paying for it since they ARE THE GOVERNMENT. If you want to read more about what Inspira has been up to this week (which is a lot!) then visit their blog and read the Checking in with Inspira post.

Moving on to VoIP Innovations, they are preparing for their trip to ITEXPO in Las Vegas. The show is in August but you can never prepare enough for such a huge tradeshow like this one. They’re feature their BackOffice, Titanium III and also their Titanium Private Label BackOffice (TPL). Earlier this week they posted an article with a timeline of features they’ve added since the beginning of the year and boy have they been busy! You can find that article and much more in this week’s Chat with Nat.

That just about sums up this weeks Just another Friday at ABG post. Have a great weekend and enjoy the rest of your summer!

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Just another Friday at ABG

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Who’s happy it’s Friday? We are! We just have a few things to cover and then it’s time for the weekend. We’ll start with the outings that Jeff Tapolci, ABG Capital CEO, and Ron Eggert, ABG Capital President, attended on Tuesday. They first went to the PVCA 2013 Outstanding Entrepreneur of the Year Luncheon. Later on in the day they attended a Client and Colleague Reception hosted by Clark Hill Thorp Reed. They were celebrating their new identity and thanking everyone who supported them in the process. To read more about these events, take a look at the Around Town with Jeff blog post!

As you remember from last week, we started Tend to You at 10 and 2 breaks as part of a new wellness program. So far it’s been going pretty well! Everyone can get away from their desk and go outside to blow off some steam. We’ve seen people using footballs, Frisbees and a hockey net even showed up. Check out the GlobalPOPs Facebook page if you want to see pictures from the pick-up hockey game.

ABG Capital Tend to You

A great action shot of Nate!

We want to give a shout out to our lunch committee this week for cooking up some great stuff for lunch today. Barry Yancosek, Sally Stewart, Joe Golubski and Jenn Williams have come up with a BBQ menu that includes BBQ chipped ham, BBQ pulled pork, vegan linguini salad, and a vegan bean bake. Doesn’t that sound delicious? They also brought watermelon and chips and for dessert they had ice cream and fruit bars. Thanks for the fantastic lunch!

Next I want to talk a little about the 12 Chimes of Life. While our Executive Team was at the Gazelles Leadership Summit a few weeks ago they got a book called Live a Thousand Years by Giovanni Livera. The book examines how measuring your time and success by moments and experiences can be very powerful. If you take these strategies to heart and apply them to your life you’ll experience 12 times the life experiences of the average person. If you want more information on each chime, we’ll be posting them individually on our social media sites every Monday. Here is the list of the 12 Chimes of Life:

  1. Time for yourself
  2. Time to be positive
  3. Time to give
  4. Time for relationships
  5. Time to learn
  6. Time in the moment
  7. Time to dream
  8. Time to play
  9. Time to work
  10. Time to forgive
  11. Time to be brave
  12. Time to reset

Lastly, I want to share a video that’s been floating around our office. It highlights the proper procedures that need to be taken when trying to get something fixed by our IT Department. Employees who DON’T follow the correct steps will face the consequences. Watch the video here!