I wanted to take a moment before the year goes into full-swing, to acknowledge what a roller-coaster ride last year was for us and our clients, and as we go into another lockdown, pledge our continued support and give you absolute kudos for mastering the inevitable tough months that happened, and continue to happen for the vast majority of businesses.

In spite of the challenges, the way that everyone has risen to them, levelled up as a result, and continues to do so, makes me incredibly proud and optimistic about the year ahead of us.

There were many times that the Remote team made personal sacrifices to look after our business and our clients' businesses throughout the rocky year last year, and I am deeply grateful to them all and have no doubt that will continue.

There's an understanding that it’s the tough times that prove a person's mettle - their endurance and strength of character, and whether they have the skills, abilities, and traits required to succeed in something - and while these words cannot really convey how incredibly impressed and proud of how committed, supportive, resourceful and driven our team proved to be last year, the feedback I have seen from team members and clients alike has borne witness to that every day. Though incredibly challenging, in many ways it was our best year ever.

What have we achieved, and what have we got coming up for you this year?

In addition to managing the turbulence of the many projects that were either brought forward in urgency or postponed until next year, at Remote we have:

Inwardly

- Managed a seamless transition to home working
- Given laser focus to and refined how we run our sprints
- Defined new best practices to bring to your projects
- Defined new processes for aspects of the development life cycle
- Created new standards for how we design and develop your software
- Launched the Systems Flow Process for software development
- Refined our service offering into three core themes - Automate, Leverage, Disrupt
- Designed new products and services to support our clients for the coming year
- Been commissioned for lots of wonderful projects to look forward to in 2021
- Begin the creation of a new Software as a Service application creation platform
- Written a book about harnessing digital products to transform your business and help you to innovate within your industry, which will be published this year
- Paul was also recruited as one of 15 Dent coaches worldwide. He'll be coaching business as they stand out, scale up and make a Dent in the world

Outwardly

- Re-branded (!) and created this beautiful new website
- Launched a suite of new services with the website, more info coming soon
- Created a new assessment/accreditation platform, helping you to drive sales
- Produced a ton of extra content via articles, webinars, podcasts & videos
- Widened our circle of influence in our industry
- Crafted 5 new client brands
- Completed 12 large digital products for our clients

Through our partnership with B1G1, we also make sure that when something good happens at Remote, something good also happens somewhere else in the world. To this end, in 2020 we funded:

- 300 trees to be planted to increase the forest cover in India
- 32 days of business training for women in Zambia
- 18 days of financial and business training in Tanzania
- A microloan for 5 people in Malawi, enabling them to start their own businesses

Thank you all for your support last year, I hope you all managed to take a much-needed break over the Christmas period. I’m sure I’m not alone in looking forward, and wish you all a very happy, healthy and prosperous 2021.

With huge gratitude,

Jeannie