Hinda Incentives Announces Closing of Its Acquisition of Universal Rewards Exchange
Hinda Incentives has announced that it has closed its acquisition of the Universal Rewards Exchange (URE) from Engagement Technology (ET) LLC, a division of Engagement Enterprises. The URE will become a division of Hinda and its current management team, including Vice President of Sales Jim Kilmetis and Andrea Lightman, will lead the new Hinda division, and will report to Mike Donnelly, President of Hinda Incentives.
“Hinda is excited about the early reaction to the news of this acquisition, says Donnelly. “While Hinda’s customer’s enjoy a full-service solution to their rewards and recognition programs that enables them to focus primarily on selling or on their other core businesses, the URE provides a unique, transparent marketplace for the incentive, recognition and other types of do-it-yourself solution providers who seek to have their own relationships with vendors, or who wish to utilize their own catalogs or front-end program management technologies. We are excited to be in the role of helping bring this invaluable industry marketplace to the next level to address the do-it-yourself solution providers who might not have considered Hinda in the past. We look forward to working with all of the wholesale suppliers in the URE marketplace to produce more volume for all and to improve industry efficiencies.”
Hinda will immediately add to its Value Chain Network strategy the technology and marketing services of the URE’s parent company, Engagement Enterprises. These include the Solata Engagement Express and Portal program management technologies and the Engagement Agency licensee program, both of which are designed specifically for marketing, HR, recognition and other solution providers seeking to help clients achieve specific goals by integrating all of the traditional levers of engagement. The program management technology is specifically built to support the engagement framework created by EE’s Enterprise Engagement Alliance Curriculum Development Program and to help solution providers and their clients profit from engagement.
The acquisition and marketing agreement demonstrates the commitment of both companies to helping incentive, recognition, loyalty and other engagement solution providers maximize their business opportunities by having access to the most complete suite of technologies and methodologies to help their clients of all sizes achieve the most measurable results.
Jim Kilmetis, a co-founder of the Universal Rewards Exchange, will join Hinda as Vice President of Sales. “My goal has always been to help the solution providers and vendors in this marketplace expand their businesses and enhance their customer relationships by providing the tools and support they need,” says Kilmetis. “The sale of the URE to Hinda helps not only the solution providers by providing them with even a broader range of services and support, but also the leading rewards suppliers who participate in the URE by expanding the potential marketplace for the benefit of all.”
The Universal Rewards Exchange, launched by Engagement Technology in 2010, is a virtual marketplace of rewards consisting of over 70 vendors and growing. It offers solution providers a choice between receiving real-time reward feeds or utilizing customized catalogs and a highly automated redemption system powered by a virtual logistics platform that serves up millions of merchandise, gift card, travel and digital rewards on a real-time basis. The URE is ideally suited for solution providers seeking a do-it-yourself, highly transparent pricing model and direct connections with suppliers.
The URE will now be able to offer its customers Hinda’s complete suite of full-service, customer service, award customization, pricing advantages and personalization services as needed for maximum program engagement. In turn, Hinda’s solution provider network will benefit from a new catalog platform for those who wish to manage award administration on their own, as well as a suite of front-end program management technologies to better measure the ROI of traditional incentive, recognition and loyalty programs.