Winners and Losers – August 2010

August has been a very busy month and we have been sent many ‘good news’ stories.

This month we bring you a summary for Kent Police, NextiraOne, DLA Piper, Lagan, Office Response, IPPlus, Nexidia, Journeycall,  Aspect, Noble Systems, The Listening Company and BSH Home Appliances…

Gold star for Kent Police Training and Development Team

Kent Police control room

The Kent Police Force Contact and Control Centre’s Training and Development team have been accredited with the Gold Standard in training in the Institute of IT Training (IITT) award.

It is the sixth time the team have been accredited by the IITT and the fifth year in a row that the team have been awarded the Gold Standard.

The Training and Development Team are responsible for training all of the Force Contact and Control Centre’s operational staff from their very first day with Kent Police and in their progression through the roles. They also offer continued development training and refresher opportunities. The Team train operational staff on Kent Police’s computer systems, such as the Police National Computer (PNC), and all other systems that are used in the command and control of incidents that occur across Kent.

Michelle West, Training and Development Manager, said: “It’s vital that our operational staff and call handlers are trained to the highest possible level to ensure that when the public call us, we are able to help swiftly and effectively. This is the fifth year in a row we have achieved the Gold Standard and perhaps the most satisfying of all years. We work in a fast-paced environment where we constantly have to adjust our training and development programmes to meet changing demands and this award is testament to the hard work that the team puts in every day.”

A barge on the British Waterways

Under the agreement, NextiraOne will continue to provide Managed Services and nationwide support for the British Waterways communications network, ensuring the reliability and availability of voice and data communication services and the long-term health and stability of the infrastructure.

The company supports British Waterways’ communications infrastructure with a comprehensive Managed Services agreement and support contract that delivers end-to-end service. An Operational Support Agreement covers the day-to-day maintenance and repair of the multi-site, multi-vendor voice and data network and also the long-term monitoring and review of its performance.

“We chose NextiraOne because of its nationwide footprint that meant we could expect timely and speedy support for all our locations, even the most remote ones. NextiraOne has become – and continues to be – a close business partner who understands our aims and responds to them. Working with NextiraOne has given us a smoothly running, robust network infrastructure that delivers voice and data communications to support our wide-ranging activities,” said Richard Walsh, Head of ICT at British Waterways.

John McKinlay

DLA Piper has been awarded Advisor of the Year at the European Outsourcing Association (EOA) Awards.

DLA Piper fought off tough competition to win the award, in well-earned recognition of the firm’s outstanding capability and experience in the sector.

DLA Piper’s Technology and Sourcing team works with leading global organisations, helping them reduce risk and drive commercial value through their outsourcing arrangements.  The Scottish team has advised a number of banks and other global businesses on their outsourcing needs.

Commenting on the award, John McKinlay, Head of Intellectual Property and Technology at DLA Piper in Scotland, said: “We’re very proud to have been honoured as Advisor of the Year at the EOA Awards. It’s a testament to our growing profile, not simply in our individual geographic markets, but as a true global player. I would like to thank each and every member of our team throughout the world who has contributed to this well-earned success and all of our clients who have made this possible.”

Four customers of Lagan have been short-listed for the 2010 Good Communication Awards.

Cheshire West and the London Borough of Richmond-upon-Thames are among the finalists in the Contact Centre of the Year category, while Northampton Borough Council and South Ayrshire Council are vying for the accolade of Contact Centre Technology of the Year.

The title of Contact Centre of the Year is awarded to the local authority call centre that best demonstrates an effective increase in call handling, complaints management, staff training and staff support over the entry period. The Contact Centre Technology Award goes to the local authority that presents the most innovative use of call centre technology in order to increase call handling levels and improve conditions for the workforce.

The team at Office Response

Office Response have been recognised at two local business award events.

Winning the People Development Award at the South West Contact Centre Forum awards, and picking up the Skills Development Award and runners-up in the Youth Development Award at the South West Jobcentre Plus awards, further recognises the company’s commitment to supporting young people in the South West.

The company recently formed a partnership with City of Bristol College to offer 16 to 18 year-olds contact centre skills and experience based apprenticeships.

The Contact Centre Apprenticeship gives on-job training, allows the apprentice to gain NVQ2 in Contact Centre skills, a technical certificate and functional skills. This includes taking inbound and outbound calls in the contact centre environment, day release, college work, classroom-based learning, communication skills, employability skills, IT skills and practical English and Mathematics.

Left to Right – Geoff Forsyth, Technical Director; William Catchpole, Managing Director; Philip Dayer, Chairman; Stuart Gordon, Financial Director; Steve Allen, Non Executive Director.

IPPlus PLC have been awarded Investors in People accreditation for the second consecutive term.

A varied cross-section of the staff within IPPlus were interviewed during the assessment, and the subsequent report produced demonstrated that this Suffolk-based company is ‘a great place to work’.

The various recognition and reward strategies that are in place within IPPlus are highly valued by staff, particularly those in the call centre. Examples include: being able to leave their work stations as necessary (often rigorously monitored in call centres), and assistance from other staff members if calls begin to back up (with even senior level management being known to lend a hand).

Nexidia has been named the Winner of the 2010 Speech Technology magazine Market Leader Award in the Speech Analytics category for the fourth consecutive year.

Since last year’s award, Nexidia has extended its technology into other traditional contact centre areas including quality management, performance management and workforce optimisation.

“This recognition from Speech Technology magazine demonstrates that the industry is responding positively to Nexidia’s speech analytics technology and the tangible economic value we deliver to customers,” said John Willcutts, president and chief executive officer of Nexidia Inc.  “Nexidia is committed to extending the benefits of speech analytics to improve every aspect of contact centre operations.”

The Journeycall Contact Centre

Scottish contact centre operator Journeycall have reached the 2010 European Call Centre Awards final stages.

Journeycall Managing Director, Trisha Pirie, said: “We are delighted to have been shortlisted in both the Small Contact Centre of the Year and Large Team of the Year categories.  This is acknowledgement of the consistently high-quality services our staff are providing to the UK public transport industry.  The European contact centre sector is extremely competitive, so to be shortlisted among the final six competitors, against a record number of entries this year, is a very positive accolade for Journeycall and the Scottish contact centre industry.”

Trisha Pirie added: “Much of Journeycall’s expansion in recent years, despite the recession, has been in the very competitive rail sector.  Unlike most of our competitors, we specialise in public transport services, believing that they will play an increasing role in future travel needs, as the sustainable option that will preserve our environment and quality of life.”

Aspect has been selected as a finalist for the Microsoft Partner Awards in the Information Worker Solutions, Communications and Collaboration Solution Partner of the Year award category.

This nomination is in recognition of Aspect’s system architecture and network planning services for a unified communications deployment at the State of Arkansas’ Department of Human Services (DHS) that empowered the agency’s 7,500 employees in more than 125 office locations and in the field.

“This recognition from Microsoft further validates that we are providing significant benefits to help our customers see the significance and value in not only unified communications, but all Microsoft-related solutions,” said Kevin Schwartz, executive vice president of global professional services, Aspect. “The State of Arkansas’ enthusiasm and willingness to welcome new technologies and ideas has presented tremendous opportunities for them as they have experienced cost savings and improved employee productivity. We look forward to their exploration of new capabilities, always with our continued support.”

Noble Systems has received a “2010 IP Contact Centre Technology Pioneer Award” for Noble SIPhony.

Noble SIPhony is a next-generation Unified Communications platform, supporting contact centre environments regardless of their telephony infrastructure and offering virtually limitless expansion potential and reduced costs.

Colin Chave, General Manager of Noble Systems EMEA, says, “We believe SIPhony to be a truly unique solution, as the first of its kind to offer an easy migration path to a server-based platform and to allow hybrid applications by combining traditional TDM telephony and IP environments. Noble SIPhony gives the best of both worlds – seamless integration to existing environments or a stand-alone unified system – to help companies achieve greater performance, improve customer service, and lower the cost of doing business.”

Team spirit at The Listening Company

The Listening Company received the award for Best Youth Employer at the second annual Jobcentre Plus awards.

The organisation was entered in the South East of England category and selected from a shortlist of three large companies after championing a scheme designed to recruit candidates on Jobseekers Allowance.

Neville Upton, CEO at The Listening Company, said: “We value our local communities so it’s rewarding to be able to give something back. At The Listening Company, we believe in giving people a chance to prove themselves and the calibre of candidates recruited using the Jobcentre scheme justifies our commitment to this cause. I’m incredibly proud of this achievement.”

BSH Contact Centre

BSH Home Appliances is proud to announce that it has just won the Total Excellence and Quality (TEQ) Customer Service Award for the second year running.

The BSH Customer Service Centre, based locally at ProLogis Park in Kettering, Northamptonshire played a vital role in winning the white goods manufacturers’ category of this national customer service award.

Employing a total of 125 customer service staff in the Contact Centre, IT and Field Support Teams, Customer Service is responsible for taking calls, arranging engineers’ visits, ordering replacement spare parts, product advice and liaising with customers before and after repairs.

95.2% of respondents rated the customer service provided by BSH as ‘excellent’ or ‘good’, beating last year’s record score of 94.5% by 0.7% to take first place in the TEQ award once again.  This award is highly sought-after as it is decided from an independent survey sent to customers following an appliance service visit to their home within the last 12 months.

Related Pages

Winners and Losers – August 2011

  

Winners and Losers – September 2010

  

Winners and Losers – October 2010

  

Winners and Losers – December 2010

  

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