“We are dedicated to creating a culture that exemplifies teamwork, excellence and fun,” stated Melissa Meeker, VP Marketing at Improving Enterprises, “one that provides our employees with the inspiration and the motivation to continue to achieve amazing things.”

Companies that participated completed a two-part survey about their company’s policies and procedures along with in-depth employee questionnaires, conducted and administrated, by the Best Companies Group, an independent agency. As part of the process, every participating company receives their employees survey results and feedback. Improving uses this feedback to help make their company an even better place to work.

Improving Enterprises will be providing Agile coaching, training, and support services to several application development and support teams throughout PPL’s Information Services organization. In addition, Improving Enterprises will assist PPL Information Services with an enterprise adoption strategy.

PPL Corporation is an international energy company headquartered in Allentown, PA. PPL companies own or control about 19,000 megawatts of electricity generating capacity in the United States, sell energy in key U.S. markets, and deliver electricity and natural gas to about 10 million customers in the United States and the United Kingdom. PPL and its subsidiary companies have about 11,000 employees in the United States and about 6,000 employees in the United Kingdom.

The issue’s research points to the considerable strength in the information, communication and technology sector (ICT) as evidence for the Texas economy outperforming the rest of the nation in recent years. The issue goes on to paint a bright future for continued growth in the years to come as well.

In addition, the issue highlights Improving’s leadership team lead by Curtis Hite, CEO – Todd Girvin, SVP of Microsoft Practice, Melissa Meeker, VP Marketing, Jef Newsom, SVP Consulting, Ric DeAnda, SVP Operations, and Barry Rogers, President Improving Texas. The article speaks to the expertise and dedication of his team and to Improving’s accolades in the industry and awards in the trophy case.

The launch of the DCEO Tech issue took the form of a networking happy hour, held on the evening of January 10^th, 2012 at Park Place Jaguar in Dallas. Curtis Hite delivered the opening remarks and valuable insights to support the findings of the publication. For more information visit www.dmagazine.com.

Dallas, TX – The Dallas Business Journal has selected Improving’s CEO, Curtis Hite, to participate as a panelist for it’s “Building a Best Place to Work” program.

The program is designed to teach attendees how to make their companies a Best Place to Work by interacting with a panel of 2011 Best Places to Work winners. Improving ranked as the #1 Best Place to Work by its employees and the DBJ in 2011.

“It is such an honor to be recognized by our employees and the DBJ multiple times,” stated Melissa Meeker, VP, Marketing, Improving Enterprises, “however, being asked to share our knowledge and experience on this subject is an even greater honor.”

The event takes place on Tuesday, January 17, 2012, from 7:30am – 10:00am, at the Renaissance Hotel in Richardson. The panel of experts includes Sheldon Arora with Liquid Assets, Chris Cook with Sleep Experts, Ray Hammer with Sheraton-Dallas, Curtis Hite with Improving Enterprises and Kelli Valade with Chili’s Bar and Grill.

For more information, visit: http://www.dallas.bizjournals.com

Again this year, Improving Enterprises joined the fight against cancer by participating in the worldwide, month-long event known as Movember.

Twelve courageous Improvers stepped up and grew mustaches during the month of November in an effort to raise money and awareness for men’s health, specifically prostate cancer and men’s depression. By month’s end, the team raised $1,500 for the cause. Improving’s combined fund raising over the last two years totals an impressive $2,825 for Movember.

Along with working to raise money for a great cause, the “Mo Bros” and “Mo Sista” brought smiles to the faces of many coworkers, family, and friends in both the Dallas and College Station offices of the company. We were sad to see the all the great mustaches go at the end of the program, but we look forward to them making an appearance again next year.

Since it’s inception, Movember has continued to grow annually, both in terms of participation numbers and funds raised. This year there were 140,000 participants in the U.S. and over 850,000 worldwide. The final amount raised this year is at $171 million leaving last year’s total of $58 million in the dust. 

To learn more about the cause and how you can get involved, click here.

Dallas, TX – Improving Enterprises has been named, for the third consecutive year, as one of Dallas’ fastest-growing private companies – ranking #35 on the prestigious list of 100 – by the Dallas Business Journal and The Caruth Institute of Entrepreneurship at SMU’s Cox School of Business.

All honorees were recognized at the awards ceremony held at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center, Wednesday evening November 16th, which featured an inspiring and uplifting keynote presentation by Phil Romono, CEO of Romono Concepts.

“We are truly grateful to be named to the Dallas 100 again for the third year in a row”, stated Curtis Hite, CEO of Improving Enterprises. “It is truly an honor that our efforts have yet again been recognized by SMU and the Dallas Business Journal.”

The Dallas 100 award winners are selected based on increased growth in sales, both on the percentage of growth and absolute growth between 2008 and 2010.

In addition, to be eligible, a company must be an independent, privately institution and meet strict criteria including location, legal status, credit report and character.

Dallas, Texas – For the third consecutive year, Improving Enterprises was honored by the Dallas Morning News as one of the Top 10 of the Top 100 Workplaces in the DFW area. Improving ranked #6 on the list of 40 small companies as defined by having fewer than 150 employees.

More than 1,149 companies were invited to participate for 2011. The surveyed companies employ over 82,000 people in the Dallas-Ft Worth area. Of those, 62,459 received surveys and 42,369 responded.

The answers were compiled and ranked by an independent, third party research firm, Workplace Dynamics. Ultimately, the opinions and comments of the employees determine whether or not a company earns a place on this prestigious list.

“Our employees have once again voted Improving as a Top100 Workplace,” stated Melissa Meeker, VP of Marketing at Improving, “This is an incredible honor and an inspiration for us to continue building upon our extraordinary culture.”

On November 9^th, over 1,000 people took part in the luncheon awards ceremony at the Fairmont Hotel. In addition, honorees were highlighted in a special publication included in the November 13th Sunday edition of the Dallas Morning News.

College Station, Texas

Improving, along with the other Aggie 100 honorees were formally recognized Friday during the seventh annual luncheon in The Zone Club at Texas A&M’s Kyle Field.

“It is an extraordinary honor to be included in the Aggie 100 again this year”, stated Curtis Hite (class of ’91), “I believe the values, work ethic and team spirit that I learned at A&M continue to influence my style as a leader as well as contribute tremendously to the continued success of Improving Enterprises.”

The Texas A&M Center for New Ventures and Entrepreneurship sponsors and compiles the annual list and this year’s winners were ranked by compound annual revenue growth between 2008 and 2010.

Read more about the Aggie 100: http://aggie100.com/

Again, for the fourth year, the conference delivered an impressive line-up of presentations covering topics such as .NET, Java, Flex, Cold Fusion, PHP, and Windows IT Pro – which were presented by highly respected experts and practitioners from the DFW area including Improving’s own Latish Sehgal, Amir Rajan, Devlin Liles, Chris Weldon and Ben Floyd.

Tim Rayburn, Principal Consultant for Improving and Microsoft MVP, has organized this event in the Dallas community for the past 4 years with great success. Each year he has seen an increase in attendance that not only speaks to the value that Dallas TechFest offers, but also the strength and growth of the IT Industry in Dallas/Fort Worth. Improving Enterprises was proud to be a supporter of this community effort.

For more information about Dallas TechFest visit www.dallastechfest.com

Now in its 10^th year, this two-day conference hosted over 1,600 attendees, held three keynotes and delivered more than 200 sessions all designed for attendees to be able to take away practical ideas useful in their daily work environments.

An award winning speaker at this particular Agile conference, Don presented, “A Complete (and fun) Scrum Simulation”, which was a tutorial covering the Scrum process, but more importantly, the different roles within teams using Scrum.

In addition, Don presented, “Agile Game Incubator”, along with colleague, Mike McCullough, which was an interactive workshop focused on creating agile games for teams to play as they learn.

You can learn more about these talks and the event in general at http://agile2011.agilealliance.org/.