Michelle Accardi

Star2Star is a unified communications company that offers collaboration, voice, video and text chat integration capabilities, as well as contact center and desktop-as-a-service offerings. Michelle Accardi is President and Chief Revenue Officer at the company, responsible for the entire sales and go-to-market strategy of the organisation. “We offer a way to take companies into the cloud and great mobile applications to keep people connected, whether they're in a work from home environment because of the pandemic or because that's just part of the way the world is working these days.”

Star2Star’s huge experience as a communications company has stood it in good stead for the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and re-emphasised the benefits of strong communication. “We've really taken a very agile approach to making sure that we're doing daily calls, helping people understand where they need to be focused, overcoming whatever obstacles and giving them the focus for the next day. And then we use our great tools and everything from our own video meetings to our own mobile applications to help us all stay connected.” That use of technology is informed by a culture of transparency at the organisation. “I really try to facilitate people bringing forward any challenges they're having so we can remove those obstacles,” says Accardi. “It's certainly why we've won workplace awards, because we foster that kind of open but hard working culture.”

Its approach is why it is favoured by its customers as a solution provider, with the highest customer retention rate in the industry at 99.4%. “We are one of the only vendors I know of that focuses so much on customer retention, with our retention rate being due to putting the customer at the center of everything that we do,” says Accardi. “During the pandemic, for instance, we've rolled out many different types of programmes - free months, deferments, anything to help our customers.” The holistic nature of its solution is another key part of its appeal. “There are a lot of single-threaded vendors out there who can only do one thing. The fact that we can do so much is very unique to us. I don't know of any other solution provider like Star2Star that has things like employee alerts as packaged applications that can be built into workflows, for example.”

As the world bends to precisely the mode of working that Star2Star can facilitate, Accardi is clear that the company’s future is bright. “We see a future where it is going to be a mix of remote and working from home. Once vaccines come about, there will be a return of some workers to the office. But they're going to want the flexibility to have mobile applications that enable them to work from home when they want to.” Star2Star is perfectly positioned to allow companies to straddle that gap. “I often like to say: it's with irritation that you make the pearl. For Star2Star, we build solutions that enable companies to not just get through the pandemic, but to actually thrive as they digitally transform because of it.” 

Read the full story HERE