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Posted on by Regan Dickinson Posted in News & Trends
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Half a Ton of Food to Fight Hunger in Sarasota

Fight hunger and donate to a food bankThe All Faiths Food Bank in Sarasota, Fla., is doing yeoman’s work to help the needy in the Sarasota area. The organization distributes food to more than 7,100 people weekly in Sarasota and DeSoto counties, and every Christmas LexJet organizes a drive for the food bank to help meet their goal of alleviating hunger.

This year, LexJet went all out to help, dividing employees into competing teams to see who could collect the most non-perishable foods for the food bank, and creatively stack their collections. This year’s winners, pictured here with their Christmas tree stack topped with a poinsettia, were Jason Dragash, Phil Sutton, Sukesh Pathak and Sean Pukajilo.

Runners-up included Brenda Litrenta, Justin Craft, Danielle Jensen and Kara Work for the Best Vegetarian Contribution and Dean Lambert, Pete Petersen, John Lane and Jeff Leto for the Best Carbohydrate Donation.

After all was said, done and stacked, LexJet donated six barrels and one box of food, totaling an astounding 1,180 pounds. “That is an awesome amount,” says Fran Talley, events coordinator for the All Faiths Food Bank. “We may get a couple of hundred pounds here and there, so this was extremely generous.”

For more information about the All Faiths Food Bank, go to www.allfaithsfoodbank.org.

Posted on by Regan Dickinson Posted in News & Trends
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LexJet Recognized for Enhancing the Employee Experience

Better customer service through enhancing the employee experienceA key ingredient in LexJet’s customer service philosophy is enhancing the employee experience; happy employees mean happy customers. LexJet’s ongoing efforts to do so were recently recognized by Florida Trend magazine’s Best Companies To Work For in Florida.

LexJet has appeared in the list each of the three years Florida Trend has been ranking the Best Companies to Work For in Florida. This year, LexJet was 26th in the medium company category and first among Sarasota’s medium-sized companies.

“Our goal is to develop smart, passionate and empowered employees. This is the key to delivering a great customer experience,” explains Art Lambert, LexJet’s CEO. “We are creating smaller, customer-focused squads within LexJet with a common customer-oriented purpose, as well as to facilitate better communication, reinforce relationships and help each other develop professionally.”

Companies that participated in the Best Companies To Work For in Florida process went through a two-part survey. The first part was an evaluation of each company’s workplace policies, practices, philosophy, systems and demographics. The second part was an employee survey to gauge employee satisfaction. The combined scores determined the top companies and final rankings.

“We highlight companies that take sophisticated, enlightened approaches to training, communicate the company’s values clearly, and listen to employees as they try to improve the workplace and make the company more productive,” says Mark Howard, executive editor of Florida Trend.

The move to LexJet’s new headquarters in Sarasota earlier this year was also an important factor in enhancing the employee experience. The new offices were designed to make it easier and more enjoyable for LexJet employees to pursue the company’s goal of providing the best customer experience in the industry.

“I like the fact that we have a no-walls policy and I can call on anyone for anything that I need. I also love that I can learn about any aspect of the business I’m curious about. I’ve never worked for a company that empowers their people as much as we do, and I am certainly glad to be a part of it. The best years for LexJet are still to come and I’m looking forward to being an asset to the team,” remarked one LexJet employee in a recent anonymous survey.

The rankings appear in the August issue of Florida Trend and on FloridaTrend.com. To be considered for participation, companies or government entities had to employ at least 15 workers in Florida and be at least a year old. For a complete list, go to www.floridatrend.com/best_companies.asp.

Posted on by LexJet Posted in News & Trends
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Leto and the Whale Shark: LexJet Product Manager Has Close Encounter

Finding whale sharks near Sarasota, Fla.Imagine you’re diving off the beautiful shores of the Gulf of Mexico and suddenly a shadowy and very large figure emerges behind you. A whale shark nearly as large as a three story building is just feet away.

It was an experience Jeff Leto, LexJet’s product manager, never thought he would have, especially in the shallow Gulf waters off the coast of Sarasota, Fla. But none the less he spent nearly an hour swimming alongside a 25-foot whale shark on Saturday, even capturing the encounter on film.

Leto and four of his friends had spent the day diving and spear fishing. They were on their last dive at Fin Barge, an upside down wreck not far off of Anna Maria Island, when they spotted the shark, who remained in the area with them for almost an hour.

It was a shocking site and not just because of the sharks enormous size. “It’s an endangered species, really rare and not typically in these waters,” said Leto.

Leto has been diving and spear fishing since he was 16 and has never seen a whale shark before. He explained that whale sharks are not native to the local area and at best would generally have only passed through, moving from warmer to colder climates, “They prefer a deeper colder ocean. It’s really rare to see them in 80 feet of water just a few miles off shore. They first started coming down here a year ago after the oil spills, and they’re still in the area,” said Leto.

Leto and his group were never in any danger from the shark. Though their vast size and striking features suggest otherwise, whale sharks are docile creatures. “They’re harmless. Whale sharks are filter feeders, they eat plankton and stuff like that, just like a whale,” Leto said.

In fact of all the things in the water that day, the whale shark was the least of their worries. “We saw lots of bull sharks, which kind of put a hindrance on spear fishing. When you see one of those guys around you stop fishing,” said Leto, explaining that bull sharks account for most local shark attacks.

Bull sharks or not it was a day Leto will surely never forget. “That was a once in a lifetime experience; I’ll probably never see one again.”

Check out the full video below, courtesy of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune…

Posted on by Regan Dickinson Posted in News & Trends
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LexJet Looking for a Customer Service Oriented Network Administrator

Find a job at LexJet network administratorLexJet’s primary goal is to enhance the experience of each of its customers and is looking for a network administrator who will gear their expertise toward fulfilling this mission. Recognized as one of the best places to work in Florida, LexJet is equally dedicated to enhancing each employee’s experience.

To find out more about how you can be part of an award-winning, fast-paced and fun environment on the cutting edge of technology integration and development in Sarasota, Fla., click here.

Posted on by Regan Dickinson Posted in News & Trends
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LexJet Moves this Weekend: How it Works in Your Favor

LexJet moves to new offices in SarasotaThe time was right for LexJet to move into new offices. With Florida’s commercial real estate market in the doldrums and the opportunity to design the perfect space from scratch for its employees, LexJet seized the moment to create a state-of-the-art technology center that uses technology to ensure more personal interaction with its customers.

“We had the unique opportunity to design the space to our customers’ needs, which was our number-one priority. Our next and equally important priority was making it as employee-friendly as possible. After all, happy employees mean happy customers,” explains LexJet founder and CEO Art Lambert. “Our customer is never out of the reach of their customer specialist, as well as important and timely information about their account and the delivery of their products.”

The new offices are awash in the latest WiFi technologies, including Mediascape digital signage centers that provide real-time delivery tracking and various alert boards to keep account specialists updated on potential problems, like severe weather, that may affect product delivery. The new office was designed with functionality in mind. WiFi and the digital signage system will allow for meetings on the fly and employees to work from anywhere in the office.

Moving logistics and technology
Almost there... Final touches are being made to LexJet's new offices, which are designed to make it easier for customers to connect with their rep quickly and find what they need when they need it. There will not be (and never has been) any Press 1, Press 2, Prensa Quatro nonsense when you call into LexJet during regular business hours, just a friendly person on the other end of the line ready to help.

“Since one of our policies is to connect our customers with a real person in less than ten seconds we will have an alert board that flags our customer specialists when someone is on hold so they can hop on the phone immediately and take care of the customer,” explains LexJet’s CIO Pete Petersen. “We’re able to wirelessly project any screen from any system in our network so that we can make real-time, informed decisions for our customers. We’ll also upgrade our Cisco phone system platform for smart phone integration. Customer specialists can tie in their smart phones to their extensions so that they’re available anytime, anywhere. It’s really about making technology work for personal, customized support.”

The new office space, located just a block or two away from LexJet’s Fruitville Road headquarters in Sarasota, parallels LexJet’s overriding goal to provide the best customer service experience in the industry while being fiscally responsible.

“We’re being very frugal and sensible with this – how we spend our money and where we spend it. We’re not building the Taj Mahal,” adds Lambert. “We spent a lot of time and effort searching for this space and took advantage of the fact that Florida’s commercial market is down as well as incentives from local, county and state governments. We’ll end up spending less than if we had stayed in our current space.”

The big move is scheduled this weekend, Feb. 26-27. LexJet’s offices will close today at 8 p.m. EST to begin the transition to the new space over the weekend. There will be no interruption in service and LexJet will be ready to roll on Monday morning, Feb. 28.

LexJet’s new address is:

1605 Main Street, Suite 400
Sarasota, FL 34236

Posted on by Regan Dickinson Posted in News & Trends
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Plan Ahead for Holiday Shipping: UPS and FedEx Schedules

Shipping schedules UPS FedExSure, it’s a bit early to discuss upcoming holidays since the next one that will affect shipping isn’t until the end of May (Memorial Day), but it’s always a good idea to plan ahead and know what’s coming before it’s right on top of you.

UPS and FedEX have graciously released their holiday schedules for 2011 so you know when packages can and can’t leave or arrive. Look for LexJet’s 2011 holiday schedule for its headquarters in Sarasota, its office and distribution center in Los Angeles and the other distribution centers across the country in the coming days.

Generally speaking, LexJet shipping will align with UPS and FedEx, but we’ll verify those dates for you. Here are the 2011 holiday schedules for UPS and FedEx:

UPS Holiday Schedule

FedEx Holiday Schedule