Winners and Losers – January 2014

This month we bring you news from Plantronics, Netcall, Noble Systems, Azzurri, NewVoiceMedia, Genesys, Vizolution and Interactive Intelligence.

Philip Vanhoutte receives Lifetime Achievement award

Philip Vanhoutte, Senior VP and MD at Plantronics Europe & Africa, received the 2013 Lifetime Achievement award from the Customer Contact Association at their annual gala dinner and awards ceremony.

“I was delighted to present this award to Philip in recognition of the important contribution he has made to developing a strategic vision of the contact centre and knowledge worker of the future,” said Anne Marie Forsyth, CCA Chief Executive. “He has been tireless in his pursuit of excellence in his own organisation and he has provided valuable input to CCA’s work through his role as a CCA Special Adviser.”

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Netcall Wins Gold and Silver at Green Apple Environment Award

Netcall wrapped up 2013 by winning two awards at the Green Apple Environment Awards.

Netcall received a Gold Award for its Electronic Document Management System (EDMS) in the Science & Technology category and a Silver Award for its Appointment Management Cycle (AMC) solution in the NHS category.

“We’re delighted to have been recognised at the Green Apple Environment Awards, this year winning two awards,” said Mark Holmes, Sales Director at Netcall. “Our Electronic Document Management System enables organisations to reduce their physical footprint and paper use, while our Appointment Management Cycle communicates effectively, reducing the need for mailings. Both are cutting-edge solutions which can support environmental best practice by enabling organisations to improve efficiencies and streamline business processes.”

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Noble Systems Wins ‘Best Use of Technology – Vendor’

Noble Systems has won the ‘Best Use of Technology – Vendor’ Award at the Debt Collection Awards 2013. These awards recognise the industry’s outstanding efforts and commitment to best practice.

“Noble Systems was delighted to see so many of our customers nominated for awards and we were over the moon by the end of the evening when more than half of the awards won were presented to Noble customers,” said Colin Chave, General Manager of Noble Systems EMEA. “We would like to thank Credit Today for the award and all of our customers for their support and loyalty over the years.”

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Azzurri wins ‘Managed Services Provider of the Year’ at CRN Awards

Azzurri Communications was awarded ‘Managed Services Provider of the Year’ at the CRN Channel Awards 2013. The award recognises the company’s exceptional achievements for its customers in the managed services industry over the past year.

“We are very proud to have won this award,” said Rufus Grig, CTO, Azzurri Communications. “It is a real testament to the hard work and dedication of our skilled people at designing and then delivering on very ambitious projects for our customers.”

…And receives Networking Project of the Year award

Azzurri communications has won ‘Network Project of the Year’ at the Techworld 2013 Awards.

The Award recognises IT teams that solve the critical issue of businesses becoming more mobile and needing remote access to sensitive corporate information, through using hardware solutions and network management tools.

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NewVoiceMedia named as ‘Red Hot Pre-IPO Company in B2B Tech’

NewVoiceMedia has been named one of 20 Red Hot Pre-IPO Companies in 2014 B2B Tech.

The annual report presents the best privately held technology businesses based on criteria such as good management, a strong story and enthusiastic customers, and recognises NewVoiceMedia for successfully replacing expensive, clunky phone systems with smarter, more flexible true cloud technology.

“We are thrilled to have been recognised by IDG Connect as one of the best privately held technology businesses,” said Jonathan Gale, CEO of NewVoiceMedia. “The contact centre industry is in an incredibly exciting phase as it rapidly adopts cloud technologies and we pride ourselves on the hard work, dedication and innovation it has taken to develop our market-leading cloud contact centre solutions.”

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Genesys achieves Microsoft Lync Qualification

Genesys has achieved Microsoft Lync 2013 qualification. The Microsoft Lync Independent Software Vendor (ISV) qualification programme is designed to help ensure that qualified applications from Microsoft Partners meet customer expectations for specific scenarios.

“The integration of Genesys and Microsoft Lync has already brought unprecedented rich collaboration and multimedia experiences to contact centre agents and non-contact centre employees,” said Merijn Te Booij, Executive Vice President of Products and Strategy, Genesys. “We are proud of being one of the first to achieve qualification on the new Microsoft Lync 2013.”

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Vizolution and Santander named as finalists for Innovation Awards

Vizolution and Santander have jointly been selected as finalists for the 2014 Customer Contact Innovation Awards. The firms were nominated following the introduction of Vizolution’s vScreen solution into Santander’s Telephone Distribution division for credit cards.

“It is a huge honour to be selected as a finalist for the awards,” said Bill Safran, CEO at Vizolution. “The list of finalists reads like a who’s who of excellence in customer service and we’re flattered to be in such prestigious company.”

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Interactive Intelligence awarded G-Cloud 4 Status

Interactive Intelligence has been awarded G-Cloud 4 status and has been added to the government’s procurement framework.

Interactive Intelligence is now certified to supply its full portfolio of cloud-based contact centre, unified communications and business process automation applications within the framework as a SaaS vendor.

“This is a break away from the traditional way of doing things and is really transforming the way government does business,” said Joan Hill, head of public sector, UK, Interactive Intelligence. “The framework allows SMEs to get involved and bring their agile and best working practices in the cloud forward in order to encourage a dynamic and responsive supplier marketplace to the UK government.”