November’s Movers and Shakers

As we approach the end of the year, there still continues to be a lot of positive news.

This month, we share a number of new appointments, news of company expansions and of course, not forgetting to recognise the industry’s award winners…

Donna Walker named as Best Trainer

Donna Walker – Core Trainer for Vertex on the Companies House account in Cardiff, – has won the Best Trainer category in the global Contact Centre World Awards (CCWA).

Donna joined Vertex in January 2003 as a Customer Advisor and moved into the training team just over two years ago. In her role as a Core Trainer, she is responsible for delivering technical and procedural training and development solutions to the contract in line with business strategy.

Donna received her global accolade at the Contact Centre World’s conference in Las Vegas – she secured her place in the global final earlier this year when she was named Best Contact Centre Trainer for the CCWA’s EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) region. During the Las Vegas final she had to deliver a presentation to the CCWA judges and then answer questions relating to her training experiences, the training programmes she plans and delivers, and how she measures the value her training adds.

Donna has said, “I am totally overwhelmed with this accolade, the experience was fantastic. The support from Vertex has been exceptional; they have truly made me feel proud to be representing them”.

Donna is pictured above receiving her award.

Vertex, a leading international Customer Management Outsourcing business with clients in the private and public sectors, has strengthened its executive board with the appointment of Colm Coffey as Chief Human Resources Officer.

Colm Coffey

His role will focus on the development and execution of the company’s people agenda as the business pursues its growth strategy.  Vertex currently employs over 9,000 people in 70 locations across North America, India and the UK.

Commenting on Colm’s appointment, Paul Sweeny, Chief Executive Officer of Vertex said: “We are successful thanks to the extraordinary contribution our people make to our clients’ businesses every single day.  More than anything it is our people that set us apart and it is vital that we continue to nurture and develop this talent. In Colm we have a proven Human Resources leader and I look forward to his contribution to the Board and the wider business.”

Colm joins from Cable and Wireless Worldwide where he was HR Director and a member of the leadership team charged with delivering the 4-year Transformation Programme.

Matthew Bellingham

Qology have announced the appointment of Matthew Bellingham to the position of Marketing Director to continue its drive into the growing UK market for contact centre/call centre callback and queue management technology.

Matthew was selected for his experience in driving sales in services provided on a hosted on demand basis. Qology continue to enhance the functionality of its fully hosted software Concierge – the call centre callback product. Concierge is in use in over 200 contact centres worldwide and is currently being rolled out by finance and utility companies looking to enhance customer experiences throughout the UK.

“Qology’s callback technology for call centres and contact centres offers organisations the rare ability to reduce abandoned calls and control costs whilst creating and improving positive customer experiences,” commented Mr Bellingham. “This is an exciting time for me to join Qology and build on the huge level of interest in Qology’s call back products at Call Centre Expo and following the signing of the reseller agreement with Virtual Hold. We’ll be looking at developing our offering to UK utility and finance customers as well as continuing to develop the value of our hosted and hybrid services for small and medium sized contact centres.”

Kyle, Rachael and Nigel

CallScripter, the call centre software company and part of IPPlus UK Limited, are delighted to announce an expansion of their core team, with the introduction of three brand new staff members.

We have appointed Nigel Harris and Kyle Cooke to help with our continued business development. Their focus will primarily be to increase market penetration, for both our hosted and premises-based solutions, however, they will also be heavily involved in looking after the needs of our existing customers whilst constantly on the lookout for new opportunities.

With Nigel, 44, coming from a long and varied career in sales, and having been based mainly in the Far East, we are hopeful that he will bring some international flavour to the business, along with some bright ideas. Kyle’s background is that of retail sales, meaning that he will be a great asset when it comes to face-to-face selling at the many exhibitions we attend, and dealing with both potential and existing clients on a day-to-day basis.

In addition to Kyle and Nigel, we have also recruited Rachael Drouet to take on the role of Training and Education Manager. Rachael will be writing and delivering training to customers, documenting standard processes, and ensuring consistency in the way in which technical information is presented.

Kevin Ellis, Sales Director of CallScripter, said “It is always exciting when a new consignment of staff is taken on. However we at CallScripter feel that this new intake is particularly creative and innovative, and will make real inroads within the organisation. 2010 is shaping up to be a great year for our organisation, and Nigel, Kyle and Rachael will be instrumental in the forthcoming developments.”

Contact centre services provider Prolog and client Nissan Motor (GB) Ltd have been named winners of the Contact Centre Association (CCA) Best Outsourcing Partnership Award of 2009.

Sandi Toskvig, Lyndsay Meldrum and Nicola Collister.

Within hours of the presentation, Nissan Managing Director, Paul Willcox, praised his West London based outsourced customer and dealership service team:

“Over the 18 months Prolog and Nissan have been partners we have achieved our highest ever Customer Satisfaction Index,” he said.

“This award, and our partnership with such a high-calibre operator, demonstrates that Nissan are extremely serious in our efforts to become automotive No.1 for customer service. It is a very well deserved recognition of quality performance by the Prolog team.”

Speaking after receiving the trophy from Sandi Toksvig at the CCA Gala Awards Dinner in Edinburgh on November 4th, Prolog Account Director Lyndsay Meldrum, enthused: “This award is fantastic for Prolog and for Nissan. From day-one of our partnership we have all worked together to ensure our team is immersed in Nissan’s brand values and customer ethos.

“It is hugely gratifying that the judges in their citation commented on our passion and commitment to our client. The CCA has recognised the strength of our relationship and the trust which both companies place in each other.”

Lyndsay added: “I am extremely proud of my team and everything they have achieved so far. They thoroughly deserve this accolade.”

SugarCRM, provider of commercial open-source customer relationship management (CRM) software, announced the appointment of Larry Augustin as full-time Chief Executive Officer of SugarCRM.

Larry Augustin

Since joining SugarCRM as interim CEO in May of this year, Augustin has led SugarCRM’s open cloud delivery strategy to empower the company’s 250 partners to build and deliver customised cloud-based applications for over 5,000 customers. In particular, Larry has expanded the company’s presence in Europe and worked closely with SugarCRM’s value added resellers in this region to increase the company’s market presence. During this time, Larry has also strengthened SugarCRM’s ties with Microsoft and overseen the development and release of the company’s new web services and mobile functionality.

Since he joined, SugarCRM has been recognised as a winner of the Best of Open Source (Bossie) award, Best Open Source Technology by CRM Magazine, and Best Open Source Solution CODiE Award by the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA).

“Larry has been deeply involved with SugarCRM since joining the board of directors in 2005,” said Scott Sandell, chairman of SugarCRM’s board of directors. “His experience with the company over the last four years, combined with his tremendous knowledge and network in open source and application software, make him the perfect fit to lead this company into the future.”

“I am delighted to lead SugarCRM, a company with a large customer base, extensive partner network and tremendous employees,” said Augustin. “SugarCRM occupies a special and enviable position as a leader in both open source and cloud computing. I look forward to helping SugarCRM capitalise on these incredible opportunities.