Innovation Awards 2009 short-list shows how contact centres are beating the credit crunch
Fifteen diverse organisations reached the closely fought short-list for the Contact Centre Innovation Awards 2009. These projects have transformed the role of call centres, driving efficiency while also making them better places to work and contact.
Presented by the Professional Planning Forum, the winners are announced at Contact Centre Planning 2009 in April 27-28 in London, where the finalists will all be speaking about how they achieved such outstanding results.
“It’s inspiring to see how tough economic conditions can encourage great change in truly innovative organisations”, explains Paul Smedley, Executive Director of the Professional Planning Forum. “It was especially impressive to see such a great depth to the project entries in the current circumstances. Many demonstrate well-integrated strategies which bring together target setting, resource planning, performance management, training, recruitment and process improvement to create a major and positive benefit to the organisation and its employees and customers.”
The full list of finalists is: Aegon, British Gas Services, Coventry Building Society, DWP Job Centre Plus, London Borough of Haringey, Holiday Extras, Kwik Fit, Late rooms, Norwich Union Healthcare, QVC, Stockton Council, Thames Valley Police, Three Valleys Water, TSC and Vodafone.
Paul Milloy of British Gas commented, “we are absolutely delighted to be short-listed and are looking forward to sharing our work with the judges”. His words were echoed by Derek Williams of 3 Valleys Water who explained, “this means an awful lot to us. I can’t wait to relay this to all my team and colleagues”.
The 2009 awards saw record numbers of entries of a particularly high quality - and the judges commented on the tight competition in the short-listing process. Entries covered a wider range of sectors and initiatives than ever before and included a huge number of projects that have matured and demonstrated great results to the benefit of employees, customers and performance. These prestigious awards recognise successful initiatives which make innovative centres great places to work and to contact.
The judging panel combines Planning Forum specialists with independent external judges who bring a wide range of industry experience from the contact centre world. The 2009 Judging Panel includes: Penny Wright Head of Resource Planning at EDF Energy, Sean Canning UK Operations Director at Firstsource, Nick Lane Director of Planning at Orange UK, Trish Lincoln Head of Operational Support at the Metropolitan Police Central Communications Command and Peter Massey Managing Director at Budd, in addition to members of the Professional Planning Forum.
The judges visit all finalists in February or March for a more in-depth evaluation, and each finalist is asked to make a commitment to host a site visit in June or October and to talk about their work at Contact Centre Planning 2009 on 27- 28 April where the awards are presented. Each short -listed nomination is written up and added to a much-consulted case study series; the 2009 case studies will also form part of the Planning Forum’s 2009 Best Practice Guide.
Further information can be found at http://www.planningforum.co.uk/conference/innovation-awards/2009-finalists.aspx and full details will be available after judging in April 2009.
