Parago

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Company: Parago, Lewisville, TX USA
Entry Submitted By: The Fletcher Group
Company Description: Parago is the innovative provider of rewards-based incentive solutions that deploy technology to drive better results from consumers and sales channels. Parago provides a full range of corporate and consumer incentive programs to Fortune 500 companies. Its offerings include incentive solutions targeted at customer acquisition and retention and sales and channel incentives solutions.
Nomination Category: Company/Organization Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Best Overall Company of the Year – Service Businesses – up to 2,500 Employees

Nomination Title: Parago

Describe for the judges the activities and accomplishments of the nominated company during the eligibility period (up to 500 words):

Juli Spottiswood was a founder at Parago at its inception in 1999 and served as
the company’s CFO until her promotion to President and CEO in 2007. Since then
Parago has quickly become one of the largest consumer incentives companies in
America and gone from nearly breakeven cash flow to generating in excess of
$10mm cash flow per year.

From its beginning, Parago has introduced significant paradigm shifts - drastically
improving the consumer incentive experience as well as clients’ results. Juli had
the foresight to recognize the impact modernizing rebates could have on the
consumer incentive industry. One way Parago did this was with the introduction of
paperless rebates.

While rebates have long been tools to drive store traffic and short-term sales
lifts, Parago reinvigorated the rebate industry with the introduction its paperless rebate
solutions, in which rebates are redeemed through a simple online platform rather
than the traditional mail-in process. In 2009, Parago surpassed the 30 million mark
in total paperless rebates processed since it launched the offering – establishing
Parago as the largest provider of paperless rebates. Customer satisfaction with the
program has driven the strong returns and also created longer-term customer
loyalty for Parago’s clients.

Paperless rebates are also attractive to eco-conscious businesses. These 30
million paperless rebates translate to a savings of 60 tons of paper annually and
more than $12.5 million in postage since 2004.

In 2010 Parago advanced paperless rebates again by partnering with online
payments giant PayPal to offer rebate payouts through PayPal’s online payments
service. This eliminated the need for printed paper checks, envelopes and postage
to mail rebates, resulting in more green initiatives.

Under Juli’s direction, and during a recession, Parago now enjoys EBITDA CAGR
of 129% over the last 3 years and nearly 20% EBITDA margins. Spottiswood and
Parago have been recognized for outstanding management and organizational
achievement, winning more than seven prestigious trade, women-leadership and
industry accolades during the award period:
- Juli was named the Entrepreneur of the Year in the Southwest Area North region
by the prestigious Ernst & Young awards program
- Juli was named a Best Entrepreneur at the 6th Annual Stevie Awards for Women
in Business. Parago was a finalist in the Best Overall Company of the Year
category
- Parago was amongst the Top 50 Fastest Growing Women-Owned or Led
Companies in North America, as determined by the Women Presidents’
Organization
- Parago was amongst the 2010 CIO 100, a distinction presented by IDG’s CIO
magazine recognizing organizations that exemplify the highest level of excellence
in IT
- Juli was named one of the Top 25 Industry Leaders by the Dallas Business
Journal’s 2010 Women in Business Awards
- Juli was named one of the 10 Most Powerful Women in Prepaid by the leading
prepaid trade outlet Paybefore
- Parago ranked number 19 on PROMO magazine’s 2010 PROMO 100 list of the
top U.S. promotion agencies, up from number 22 last year

List the URLs (web addresses) of any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that you would like the judges to see that support your entry. IMPORTANT: List each URL on a separate line, begin each URL with http://, and enclose each URL in square brackets. For example, [http://www.yourcompany.com/pressrelease.html]:

PrePaid Press article: Modernizing Rebates- Paper Checks to Prepaid Cards
http://www.prepaid-press.com/news_detail.php?t=paper&id=3075

Parago Consumer Incentives: http://parago.com/consumer-incentives.shtml

Parago Rebates: http://parago.com/rebates.shtml

Press Release: PARAGO HONORED WITH “PROMO 100” RECOGNITION FOR
SECOND CONSECUTIVE YEAR
http://www.parago.com/promo-100.shtml

Press Release: PARAGO CEO JULI SPOTTISWOOD ONE OF DALLAS’ TOP 25
WOMEN INDUSTRY LEADERS
http://www.parago.com/top-25-women.shtml

Press Release: PARAGO RECOGNIZED BY CIO MAGAZINE AS ONE OF THE
CIO 100
http://www.parago.com/cio-100.shtml

Press Release: PARAGO CALL CENTER SELECTED AS ONE OF THE
TOP CALL CENTERS OF THE YEAR
http://www.parago.com/top-call-center.shtml

Press Release: PARAGO LEVERAGES PAYPAL TO EXTEND GREENER
CONSUMER PROMOTIONS
http://www.parago.com/pr-name.shtml

Press Release: PARAGO NAMED TO LIST OF 50 FASTEST GROWING
WOMEN-OWNED OR LED BUSINESSES IN NORTH AMERICA
http://www.parago.com/pr-name2.shtml

Press Release: PARAGO RELEASES RESEARCH ON REWARD PROGRAMS
AND THE “NEW CONSUMER”
http://www.parago.com/pr-name3.shtml

Press Release: HOME DIAGNOSTICS SELECTS PARAGO TO DELIVER
CONSUMER INCENTIVES FOCUSED ON BEST CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
http://www.parago.com/home-diagnostics.shtml

Press Release: MICRO CENTER ENHANCES REBATE PROGRAM WITH
PARAGO
http://www.parago.com/micro-center.shtml

Press Release: JITTERBOOK SELECTS PARAGO FOR TEXTBOOK TRADING
http://www.parago.com/jitterbook.shtml

Press Release: PARAGO SURPASSES 30 MILLION PAPERLESS REBATES
DELIVERED
http://www.parago.com/paperless-milestone.shtml

Provide a brief biography of the person or persons who lead the nominated company (up to 100 words):

Ms. Spottiswood helped form Parago in early 1999 as the company’s CFO and
was promoted to President and CEO in 2007. She is responsible for strategic
expansion of the company’s incentive services offerings and driving innovation
within the rebate processing and incentives industry.

Ms. Spottiswood also serves as a board member and Treasurer of the Network
Branded Prepaid Card Association (NBPCA), an association formed to promote
the use of prepaid rebate cards as an alternative payment vehicle. In 2009, Ms.
Spottiswood was the recipient of the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in
the Southwest region.

Choose one (even if both apply)

The CEO (or other principal manager) of this company is a woman, and at least 40% of the management team is comprised of women.