A Brief History
In the mid-1990’s, Global corporations began to integrate online strategies into their business plans for the communication and marketing of products and services. Sales organizations were quickly trained on new sales tools, products, and communication techniques that could drive activity and track their progress via the World Wide Web. As companies recognized the benefits that their online strategies could offer their customers, a similar culture shift took place with regard to communications to their employees and throughout their distribution networks. There quickly became a need for companies to transition traditional paper-based reward & recognition programs, into exciting online promotions using the Internet to drive performance and save money.
While all of this was happening, Ralph Burton and Ben Levenbaum were forming a business relationship in Atlanta, Georgia. Ralph was driving New Business Development for an incentive provider and Ben was working for one of the first global corporations managing their sales incentive and employee recognition programs online. As they worked together, Ben and Ralph discussed the evolution of the incentive industry and how it looked from their different viewpoints. Their combined view was that the majority of incentive and recognition providers were slow to adapt and create online solutions for the marketplace. Based on their combined knowledge and experience, Ben and Ralph were confident they could capitalize on the opportunity and within a year, Xceleration was launched.
Founded in 1999, Xceleration began its business with four employees, version 1.0 of our point-based platform RewardStation®, and a mission “To be one of the leading business-to-business, Internet-based incentive and recognition companies driving client performance online.” Our first client programs were managed within the Telecommunications Industry, not coincidentally, for some of the first companies to adopt online strategies using the Web. Over time, the market evolved and companies in many industries began looking for online solutions to drive both sales incentives and non-sales recognition.
During our ten years in business, Xceleration has launched programs ranging in size from 50 to 50,000 participants, delivering thousands of awards in more than 60 countries and supporting clients in multiple industries, including: Telecommunications, Insurance, Pharmaceutical, Manufacturing and Business Services. Our implementations have included Sales Incentives, Dealer Rewards, Training & Education, Peer-to-Peer and Manager Nominations, Years of Service, Health & Wellness and Employee Referral programs. As the applications for Xceleration’s services grew, so did our RewardStation platform. Today, RewardStation is truly one of the most user friendly, feature-rich and cost effective online applications in our industry. Built on the best practices of our clients and years of experience creating solutions for Global Corporations, you will not find another tool or another team more qualified to lead your Incentive and Recognition strategy.
In 2008, Xceleration re-branded our company with a new tagline: “Inspiring People to Achieve”. Corporations today are continually challenged with engaging their People (employees, dealers, partners & customers), to drive business performance, often with less financial and human resources than before. Xceleration is again filling an industry need by providing the tools and expertise to develop, manage and drive incentive and recognition strategies across entire organizations – from the production workers, to the call center employees, through the global sales team. Our new tagline brings with it a renewed focus to provide creative, motivating solutions for our clients that engage each participant with an individual, creative and motivating experience that will drive them to have a positive impact on your business.
Xceleration remains a privately-held company with the same goals of delivering effective reward programs for our clients that drive results. We have become an industry leader with a proven history of successful implementations and satisfied clients. Our company remains committed to providing first-class solutions and support, led by our dedicated management team, many of whom were amongst the first employees to work at Xceleration.
