Corporate Vision September

‘MOVE UPMARKET TO BEAT BREXIT BACKLASH’ SAYS INTERNATIONAL DELIVERY EXPERT l MASTERPASS GATHERS MOMENTUM IN EUROPE

Corporate Vision l September 2016 www.corp-vis.com

Building Brands - What Do You Do? RESET BRANDING Page 36

Delivering Guaranteed Results with Predictive Software Engineering INTETICS Page 10

Changing Customers' Lives for the Better HOMESERVE UK

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Setting the Precedent in Management Consulting PRECEDENT LAW FIRM CONSULTING Page 48

Experts in Cyber Security Solutions IT GOVERNANCE LTD Page 50

Transformed from Weaving Mill to International Brand BOLON Page 40

Intetics 10

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Bolon HomeServe 44

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Digital Guardian

Editor’s Note Welcome to the September Issue of Corporate Vision Magazine.

In this issue, we recognise many companies in the software and technology industry who are creating innovative products, whilst staying on top of current and future trends. One example is Intetics who develop software products and provide IT support and data processing. Their CEO and President Boris Kontsevoi describes their new software development framework which has helped Intetics stand out in the industry.

Brexit is an issue that is still very relevant in the news. We look at how manufacturers and exporters must have plans to put their products and services upmarket, how professional hiring is stable postBrexit and the ongoing concerns surrounding the impact of Brexit on investment.

Finally, we take a look at a number of significant corporate issues including spotting money laundering, tips to prevent staff from being bribed, guidelines on achieving the best customer value and growth and also eight steps to profitable sustainability.

We hope you enjoy this issue.

Matt Lewis, Editor Phone: +44 (0) 203 725 6842 Email: matthew.lewis@ai-globalmedia.com Website: www.corp-vis.com

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Inside this Issue News Software & Technology 10. INTETICS DELIVERS GUARANTEED RESULTS WITH PREDICTIVE SOFTWARE ENGINEERING 12. TURNING TECHNOLOGIES INTO SUCCESS FOR ACADEMICS 13. PEOPLE POWER HELPING TO HUMANISE THE INTERNET OF THINGS 14. DIGITAL GUARDIAN LEADER FOR DATA LOSS PREVENTION 16. OPUSVL PROVIDES PROFESSIONAL WORLD-CLASS SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS 17. IDENTITY ASSURANCE - THE NEXT GENERATION 18. STRONG CLIENT RELATIONSHIPS KEY TO SUCCESS FOR CGS 20. OUTCOME BASED OUTSOURCING; A WAY OF LIFE FOR QCOM 21. INNOVATION AND DEDICATION MAKE AMI GROUP STAND OUT 22. TRUSTED IT PARTNER FOR ISLAMIC FINANCIAL ORGANISATIONS 23. 20-YEAR PEDIGREE IN RECRUITMENT TECHNOLOGY 24. SIMPLY SMART 25. CLEARWATER INTERNATIONAL ADVISES TOTALSOFT SHAREHOLDERS ON CROSS-BORDER SALE TO LOGO SOFTWARE INVESTMENT SA 26. TRISOFT PROVIDE HIGH QUALITY IT SERVICES 28. MARINE TECHNOLOGY INDUSTRY GROWING

Recruitment 30. NEW AND EMERGING TRENDS ARE THE CORE OF GA GLOBAL’S ETHOS 31. RECRUIT. RETAIN. SUCCEED. 32. DATA PROFICIENCY NOWMORE IMPORTANT THAN ASECOND LANGUAGE HUB 34. PROFESSIONAL HIRING STABLE POST-BREXIT

Marketing 36. RESET BRANDING BUILDS BRANDS. WHAT DO YOU DO? 38. CMO OF THE MONTH: DONALD E. WALLACE, POWERING U.S. BATTERY TO SUCCESS 39. CONCENTRIX SERVES MORE THAN 400 OF THE WORLD’S BEST BRANDS 40. BOLON TRANSFORMED FROM WEAVING MILL TO INTERNATIONAL BRAND 44. HOMESERVE IS CHANGING CUSTOMERS’ LIVES FOR THE BETTER 46. HIGH NET WORTH MARKETING - WHAT AND WHY?

Legal 48. SETTING THE PRECEDENT IN MANAGEMENT CONSULTING 49. BANGLADESH - THE NEW BUSINESS HUB OF ASIA! 50. IT GOVERNANCE: EXPERTS IN CYBER SECURITY SOLUTIONS 52. UNPRECEDENTED ACCESS OF TOP TALENT FOR HUGHES-CASTELL 53. TRANSLATING INDUSTRY REQUIREMENTS INTO RELIABLE SOFTWARE TOOLS

Leadership 54. SIX WAYS TO SPOT MONEY LAUNDERING IN YOUR BUSINESS AND HOW TO PREVENT IT LONG TERM 55. FIVE EXPERT TIPS TO PREVENT YOUR STAFF FROM BEING BRIBED… SOMETIMES THEY WON’T EVEN KNOW THEY ARE TAKING ONE! 56. DON’T FORGET YOUR BUSINESS COSTS WILL STILL BE THERE AFTER YOUR SUMMER HOLIDAYS… 58. THE CUSTOMER JOURNEY REVISITED – THREE TIPS FOR ACHIEVING CUSTOMER VALUE AND GROWTH FROM TELEOPTI 59. NEW MOTHERS NEED MORE THAN JUST EMPLOYMENT PROTECTION 60. EIGHT STEPS TO PROFITABLE SUSTAINABILITY 61. MANY INVESTORS ARE UNEASY, BUT THEY CAN STILL GROW WEALTH WITH THESE TWO RULES 62. NO SUBSTITUTE FOR PERSONAL EXPERIENCE, JUDGMENT AND EXPERTISE

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‘Move Upmarket to Beat Brexit Backlash’ Says International Delivery Expert Businesses can’t afford to bury their head in the sand following the Brexit vote, warns Fastlane International. It says exporters must move away from high-volume, low margin products to avoid the impact of potential trade restrictions with the EU. he leading global delivery company Fastlane International says that, even though the UK Government appears to be in no hurry to trigger Article 50, British businesses can’t continue as if the vote had never happened.

Britain has committed to leaving the EU and, if the UK fails to achieve continued access to the single market, manufacturers and exporters must have plans in place to move their products and services upmarket; warns Fastlane’s Head of Consumer Research, David Jinks MILT.

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David cautions that UK manufacturers and traders should not be lulled by the current period of ‘phoney war’. David says, ‘Britain’s exporters know that trading with the EU could become a lot tougher shortly. UK businesses are holding their breath and hoping for the best; but they should also plan for the worst; and the imposition of duties on British goods being shipped to the EU could make sales of cheaper, high-volume products uneconomic.’

‘Right now, it’s very easy to believe nothing will change following our divorce from the EU. In fact, exporters are enjoying more favourable trading conditions than before the vote; thanks to the low value of the pound making UK goods a bargain abroad. The Fastlane Group is currently enjoying record number of shipments to the Continent because of the success of many of our business customers; but UK companies will be in a very different place if free access to the EU market is not secured. Large, low value items, such as some car parts, will incur high transport costs and potentially steep tariffs. The best bet is to look to smaller, high value, items which are not reliant on small margins to make a profit.’

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Fastlane has already seen a rise in upmarket products shipping to the EU post-Brexit. While some low value exports are down; high-end, hand-crafted products that can command greater profits are up. David explains, ‘since the vote we’ve shipped notably more high-quality products to the EU than previously: varying from traditional Scottish broaches, polo equipment and prom dresses; to toy soldiers, live steam garden locos, dolls house furniture and bespoke hand-made chairs. There are also some specialist industries which have niche products, for instance we have just shipped a number of fog machines for use in theatres! These are all the kind of products that will continue to make money even with increased shipping costs and duties.’

David concludes, ‘we are not saying Britain can’t secure a good deal with the EU; just that businesses should be prepared in case there is the imposition of tariffs at EU borders.

That would alter the pattern of trade with the majority of Europe. Similarly, importers who are already suffering from the low value of the pound, could also face new tariffs on EUproduced items on arrival in the UK: should our Government decide not to adopt a free trade policy. Right now it’s a case of ‘keep calm and carry on’: but UK businesses from the smallest start-up e-commerce company to the largest manufacturer need to have plans in reserve should this phoney war become a real trade war.’

For further information about exporting to the EU see: https://www.wedelivertheworld.co.uk/ international-parcel-delivery/

NEWS

London Entrepreneur Opens Capital’s First Migrant Business Hub Business hub in Whitechapel provides affordable office space for companies. ondon-based Brazilian-born business expert Rafael dos Santos has opened London’s first co-working space dedicated to supporting migrant entrepreneurs.

Located in Aldgate East, Whitechapel, the hub provides an affordable serviced office space to help people grow and nurture their businesses.

their time to help participants train for the future.

The programme evolved to become mi-HUB.

Rafael dos Santos has created mi-HUB to overcome the difficulties that migrant entrepreneurs face when starting or running a business in London. As a successful migrant entrepreneur Rafael dos Santos has a great understanding in how to support entrepreneurs and how to provide opportunities which encourage business growth. In addition to miHUB’s competitively priced serviced offices it also offers training through the Migrant Business Accelerator programme. The 6-month course led by Rafael dos Santos focuses on helping participants to structure their business to access finance, one of the biggest barriers for migrant entrepreneurs.

“mi-HUB has been created to help address these issues and to help migrant entrepreneurs thrive in the modern working world.

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Rafael dos Santos moved to London at the age of 21 in 2002 after living in Sao Paulo, one of the world’s largest cities, for two years. He left his job in Brazil as a support analyst at Microsoft to learn English in London.

Until 2003 Rafael worked as a kitchen porter, cleaner, glass collector and waiter to pay his expenses. An opportunity to manage houses came available and within two years later he was running his own business. In 11 years, his portfolio grew from one to 50 homes, 15 members of staff and a turnover of £1.2 million.

Rafael rented accommodation to more than 2,000 young professionals and student migrants.

In 2015, Rafael began his mission to support migrant entrepreneurs who wanted to start or grow their businesses. He introduced the Migrant Business Accelerator programme as a pilot project which featured 25 mentors who donated

Rafael dos Santos said, “Recent research in Stratford, London showed that the three key issues migrants face when starting or running a business is a lack of network, lack of knowledge and lack of funding.

“I worked hard to achieve my dreams and tackled the challenges migrant entrepreneurs face. It’s difficult relocating to a new country and even harder to start a business. It’s incredibly rewarding that I am now in a position to help other migrant entrepreneurs from around the world.

“My vision is to help one million migrant entrepreneurs in the next ten years. We have just welcomed the first member to the mi-HUB family and we look forward to welcoming many more.” mi-HUB hosts one hundred and fifty entrepreneurs and offers a variety of desk options in a modern environment based in London. The office space benefits from private offices, boardrooms, meeting rooms and the ability to host large events. Alongside the professional facilities a large balcony, kitchen, shower room and multiple relaxing break out areas are provided to the members of mi-HUB. Web address: www.mi-hub.com

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NEWS

Masterpass Gathers Momentum in Europe Market expansion highlights breakthrough year for digital payment service.

s the share of digital payments in Europe keeps on growing to reach 38% of payments by 2020, the continued transformation of Mastercard to an even more digital company is driven by the rapid growth, support and success of Masterpass, the company’s digital payment service. As part of this momentum, Mastercard has announced issuers and merchants around Europe that are making Masterpass available to their customers, enabling fast, simple and secure digital payment experiences across devices and channels – online, in-app and in-store.

By end of June 2016, Masterpass was accessible to 200 million consumers across 18 countries in Europe, almost twice as much as by end of Q1 2016.

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Forty major issuers across 18 countries in Europe, including KBC Bank in Ireland, Intesa Sanpaolo in Italy, SEB, Nordea, Swedbank, ICA Banken and Resurs Bank in Sweden and Viseca in Switzerland are now using Masterpass to integrate digital payments into their services.

Roland Zwyssig, CMO of Viseca Card Services SA said,

“we have chosen Masterpass by Mastercard as it is a global, customerfriendly and secure solution.

From January to June 2016, we have achieved four hundred thousand Masterpass registrations, really impressive.”

As e-commerce spend in Europe is predicted to grow 55% by 2020 and the number of global smartphone subscription grow from 1.9 billion in 2013 to 5.6 billion by 2019, Masterpass offers the only issuer-branded solution that supports multichannel and multi-device commerce. By adding digital payment functionality through Masterpass, issuers can enhance and differentiate their existing product suite, including their mobile

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banking application, and integrate its proprietary services – including balance display, purchase alerts and paying with points – to differentiate its solution from other digital payment options in the market. Key issuers in Asia, Europe and the US have committed to auto-enrol 80 million wallets into Masterpass by year end.

Global expansion and enhancements to Masterpass The Masterpass vision is to support all forms of commerce in order to address the widest range of merchant experiences and consumer needs.

Currently available in 33 markets around the world and with planned expansion to 36 by the end of 2016, Masterpass stores all payment information, including card details from both Mastercard and other payment networks, shipping information, and payment preferences in one convenient, secure place.

In July, Mastercard launched the next stage in the Masterpass journey – an omni-channel all-digital payment service for issuers, retailers and consumers leveraging the most advanced methods of payment security available today, including network tokenisation. Now live in the United States, the enhanced Masterpass service will be rolled out in Europe and Middle East later this year. In Europe, Mastercard is on course to secure more than 225 million cards and payment devices with its tokenisation encryption technology to combat fraud across 18 countries. Retailers offer Masterpass acceptance to provide innovative and secure digital shopping experiences to consumers.

Masterpass is currently available at hundreds of thousands of retailers online or in-app. Consumers are also now able to use Masterpass at the more than five million retail locations in 77 countries that accept contactless payments. New merchants including Galeria Kaufhof, Media Markt and Saturn in Germany, TicketOne in Italy, Letsbonus and Lastminute in Spain, Boots, See Tickets and The Hut Group in the UK join the more than 100,000 retailers in the region that accept Masterpass, including Trenitalia, Alitalia and Czech Railways.

Masterpass provides retailers with multi-layered security, leveraging techniques such as data encryption and card tokenisation, to help protect against the risk of fraud. Masterpass APIs and SDKs available on the Mastercard Developers site

enable merchants to seamlessly integrate Masterpass into their websites and mobile apps.

In the UK, Mastercard is reinventing the way people pay when eating out. With Qkr! with Masterpass, consumers can pay for their food, add items to their order, split the bill, and add a tip all from their smartphone. The service is now widely available in the UK with restaurant chains such as wagamama, Ask Italian, Zizzi’s and Carluccio’s all offering it as a way to pay for their customers.

“Europe is at the forefront of the move to digital at speed and Europeans are demanding not just simple and smart ways to pay and interact but also enhanced experiences which makes life easier digitally.

Together with our partners we are at the leading edge of transforming the way people pay every day and already two hundred million can have access to seamless payments via smartphone or connected device with Masterpass. The global momentum we’re achieving with banks, merchants and consumers is proof-positive of our efforts to create simple and secure digital payment experiences anywhere consumers want to shop,” said Javier Perez, President Europe at Mastercard.

Web address: www.mastercard.com

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NEWS

Three Quarters of Companies Feel They Are Secure from Digital Threats, despite Half Having Previously Experienced a Cyber Attack 86% of respondents think they are doing enough to mitigate the impact of cyber security attacks, yet over 50% have knowingly suffered a data breach.

27% of SMEs reported feeling secure from digital threats due to being ‘too small’ to be of interest to cyber attackers.

Over 80% of founders, C-level executives, board members and directors believe they are doing enough to mitigate the impact of cyber-attacks.

uniper Research has released a report into the business attitudes towards and experiences of cyber security and cyber-attacks in SMEs and enterprises. The research revealed that three quarters of companies feel they are currently secure, even though half of those businesses also reported having previously experienced a cyber-attack.

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Increasingly, businesses are moving critical infrastructure online, making them more vulnerable to digital threats. Yet, the study found that despite increased concern and spend on cyber security over the last year, there is a high degree of complacency, with few common practices in response to this threat. Overall, 86% of respondents believe they are doing enough to mitigate the impact of cyber-attacks. Most respondents still think it’s enough to have the IT or security department involved in mitigating the effect of cyber-attacks, with 33% considering the IT department solely responsible for handling security threats. In addition, almost two thirds of respondents stated that cyber security is not their department’s responsibility. And while over three quarters of businesses have a board that is involved in assessing cyber security preparedness, only one quarter have a dedicated security executive.

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While 87% of businesses reported having some form of continuity plan in place, fewer than half of businesses have secure practice guidelines to ensure employees know how to keep the business safe. In fact, Juniper’s report found that one of the biggest problems when it comes to cyber security in British businesses is not that there are no measures in place, but that they are inconsistently applied, and not reinforced. Nearly 90% of respondents reported having a plan in place for when a data breach occurs, but only 56% of respondents believe they are secure when it comes to digital threats, and 52% of businesses still do not have any secure practice guidelines. Actions that businesses are taking to mitigate the impact of a cyber-attack include: • 48% have secure practice guidelines • 47% give secure practice induction briefings • 25% have a dedicated security executive • 27% conduct penetration tests to assess the likelihood of an attack • 31% monitor emails for phishing attempts While 69% of respondents would contact someone immediately in the event they discovered a cyber breach, 18% would wait until the next working day if they did not consider it a big problem, including 38% of founders and 27% of all board-level respondents.

Windsor Holden, Head of Forecasting & Consultancy at Juniper Research, comments:

“Cyber security is a big concern for businesses of all sizes, as an attack could cost millions of pounds in lost data, reputation, time and customers. Yet, our study shows that businesses believe they are far more secure than they really are. While no business can be completely safe nowadays, there are steps that companies can take to ensure they are as safe as possible, and can recover as quickly as possible in the event of a cyber-attack.”

The research frames some high profile cyberattacks in recent years, such as Target, Ashley Madison, TalkTalk and T-Mobile. Businesses are now looking at their approaches to cyber security and data protection and shoring up their defences in response.

Kristine Olson-Chapman, General Manager at TalkTalk Business added: “For us cyber security is no longer just a technology issue, it’s a business issue for the whole company. Any business that has ever had a cyber-attack will tell you that they never expected it, even with all the processes in place. Businesses need to ask themselves what they need to do now to plan and prepare.”

Web address: www.juniperresearch.com

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Software & Tech COMPANY DETAILS Company: Intetics Inc. Name: Boris Kontsevoi Email: odt@intetics.com Web Address: www.intetics.com Address: 10001 Tamiami Tr N, Suite 114, Naples, FL, 34108, USA Telephone: +1-877-763-8338

Intetics Delivers Guaranteed Results with Predictive Software Engineering

Intetics creates and operates effective distributed technology teams focused on software product development, IT support, quality assurance and data processing. The CEO and President Boris Kontsevoi explains their new software development framework: Predictive Software Engineering.

Software development, especially when outsourced, can be a scary, problematic process for many companies. Intetics, a U.S.-based company with software development centres in Eastern Europe, has a way of guaranteeing software development results and ensure that clients know what kind of system they will get at the end of the partnership.

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In this Q&A, President Boris Kontsevoi tells us all about the latest trends in the software and technology industry and how a new framework for software development, Predictive Software Engineering (PSE), will help guarantee results and improve communication when engaging with clients.

What’s the current state of software services?

Software services are in high demand, as companies launch digital transformation projects and focus on improving their core services and customer relationships. Many companies need help developing and scaling their products and processes – and that’s where Intetics comes in. Market demand in this sphere is driven by two main factors: availability of skilled talent and the provider’s ability to deliver complete and reliable solutions. Companies want to work with skilled professionals, but they also want to know when and how they will be able to use their new technology.

To solve both problems, Intetics builds distributed teams that can deliver the right solution, built by the right people.

What is the biggest concern for clients who choose to outsource their software development?

The biggest concern for companies who choose to outsource software development is getting a quality result on time. When another party is working on your code or platform, it’s very hard to verify how good the new code is or how well the resulting application will perform. What’s more, the tech partner will often ask for more time or say there’s been a bug, which will push the project end date by 3 months. Others go as far as to say that software development is a process and “it’ll be right when it’s right”. That’s actually quite strange, if you think about the fact that computer science is supposed to be a science. Most want to know from the beginning how long the project will take and what the investment is going to be. The main focus for us is how can we guarantee the end result at the very beginning of the project.

What is Predictive Software Engineering (PSE)?

To guarantee results at the very beginning of the project, we use a process we developed ourselves called Predictive Software Engineering (PSE).

Many companies have experience in managing distributed teams, but the market lacks the ability to measure the results. In fact, there’s an entire market shift from paying per hour or per service, to paying for concrete and guaranteed solutions. PSE is a software product development framework that does precisely that; a disciplined delivery process with guaranteed results.

What’s the reason behind developing this framework?

Intetics has provided software development services for twenty years.

Based on experience and industry analysis, we found that 70% of a project’s activities are largely similar. In other words, software development will always consist of certain steps, like system architecture and coding. These

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still vary, but they can all be put under the “software engineering” umbrella.

The remaining 30% can be attributed to vertical expertise and can vary a lot.

These are the attributes of a system that are required in a given industry, like any financial software has to have certain features because of compliance issues. So, while only 30% of a project’s activity will vary based on the team’s experience and domain, 70% of the software development process is fairly predictable. Yet, despite a large portion of the process being predictable, many vendors cannot guarantee when development will be fully complete.

PSE was developed to remedy that and provide guaranteed, replicable results in software development.

How does Predictive Software Engineering work?

PSE is about improving communication and breaking down the development process into smaller pieces, with people developing really specific expertise in a specific field. Therefore, we’ve broken the software development process into 4 main spheres. These are: 1. business analysis (understanding client requirements), 2. project management, 3. engineering (actual programming activities) and 4. support (IT maintenance, feature integration). We have people who specialize in each of the 4 pieces (in addition to their software development expertise), making the development process more precise and predictable. Although this process might sound trivial, we apply 7 specific principles to each sphere[delete s], which is what makes it a truly unique process.

So PSE consists of 4 main fields with specialized people working in each field, what are the 7 principles that makes this model stand out?

All 4 pieces adhere to 7 principles that make PSE truly transformative. First, Meaningful Customer Care ensures clear communication with the client at every stage of the process. It may include a customer portal where a client can check on the progress of their project. Transparent End-to-End Control focuses on instilling productivity and proactivity as the cornerstones of development. Third, Proven Productivity ensures that the team stays focused. It means giving the components of the project to the most qualified members. Next, Efficient Distributed Teams can be created by focusing on

Software & Tech

high communication modes, shared community to troubleshoot problems, and aligning technology to fit the project’s requirements. Fifth, a Disciplined Agile Delivery process gives us a scientific and measurable approach to software development. Then, by creating a Quality Management Platform, we ensure that software is of high quality by measuring key software quality metrics. It’s an actual platform that can be easily accessed by any project stakeholder to check on the project’s progress. Finally, Sound Human Development emphasizes the importance of sustaining and growing talent, as the framework relies on highly trained individuals who know how to operate in a highly proactive environment.

shared and it will be imperative that everything functions together safely.

The big disruptor will be Artificial Intelligence, enabling companies to make sense of their data and use it to make predictions and prescriptions.

Plus, Robotic Automation Systems will revolutionize business services. As these technologies become more available, the focus on quality will be paramount.

What are the key attributes you possess that make you an award winning business leader?

I’ve always focused on results and making sure that Intetics delivers what it promises. When we build a piece of software and call it “quality”, we guarantee results. In addition, we focus on the client. Over the past twenty years we’ve introduced 3 different business models and transformed the process of software development outsourcing. We are able to do this by paying specific attention to our client needs – and designing services that improve services according to those needs. Finally, our engineers constantly help our clients build products that make them leaders in their industry. Technology can be transformative and innovative, and we want to enable our clients to take utmost advantage from it.

What has been the most important thing you have learnt as a business so far and how has this helped you achieve success?

We have learnt to focus on service. As a software development shop, it’s easy to dream about that next big app that you will build, but after we realised that we excel at service, things became much easier. We didn’t constantly have to come up with ideas unrelated to our core business. We could just focus on our customer and delivery technology, like PSE, and ensure we provided good results for them.

How do you think the software and technology industry has changed over the past year, and how has this changed your business?

In the industry nowadays, there is much more demand for guaranteed results as more companies are searching for ways to complete their digital transformation projects. Many companies remember the time when they have ordered apps, and the applications ended up not being quite right.

Others are only just starting to realise that they need to upgrade their systems. Either way, as companies look for a technology partner, they also want to know what results they can expect. And that’s the latest issue we have tackled with the new PSE framework. With this model, our clients know exactly what they will get at the end of cooperation with Intetics.

There’s no guesswork – Intetics is making software development a precise, scientific discipline.

What are your thoughts on the state of your industry currently? Are there any particular issues/changes that are affecting software and technology innovation?

There are a number of exciting trends that are going to change the landscape of software services in the coming years. For example, Internet of Things will create much more demand for apps and integration. At the same time, emphasis on quality will be paramount as everything becomes

Companies will have to create new technologies - and when they do, they will want to know why is custom better than just taking pieces from here and there, and they’ll want to know exactly what to expect.

How do you think software and technology innovations help to improve the development and growth of business operations in the future?

We are in a technology-driven world, where every business will end up using some piece of software to make their business better and more efficient.

We pay attention to what our clients want and strive to provide it before they actually ask for it. For example, we implemented our Quality Management Platform because we saw how it would improve the customer experience.

Not many companies are able to apply new business processes. We have a transparent process in place that allows us and our clients to be sure we can deliver quality software every time.

The framework has the potential to transform how software companies operate. Intetics is proud to be part of an exciting journey towards more transparency and guaranteed delivery.

Boris Kontsevoi is the Founder and President of Intetics Inc, a software development company based in Naples, Florida. He has over 30 years of managing experience and about 40 scientific publications. He holds a Master’s degree in Radiophysics and Computer Science from the Belarus State University and certificates in project management from Aspen (ISIM) University, Colorado, USA. He is Certified Outsourcing Professional (COP), a professional designation awarded by International Association of Outsourcing Professionals (IAOP) to leading outsourcing practitioners that demonstrated ability to design, implement and manage successful outsourcing initiatives.

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Software & Tech COMPANY DETAILS Company: Turning Technologies Name: Gary Morrison Email: gmorrison@turningtechnologies.com Web: www.TurningTechnologies.co.uk Address: 19 Colvin House, Dundonald, Belfast, BT16 1QT

Turning Technologies into Success for Academics

Turning Technologies is an e-learning company that believes in the pedagogic benefits of interactive response technology. We manufacture industry leading hardware and software solutions developed to enhance learning at all levels, and we are committed to innovation, product reliability and developing relevant solutions that will improve instruction.

t Turning Technologies, we all work as a team in the International division. We all listen to each other and come up with solutions that benefits the clients, and we never stop learning. Typically, meetings with clients are set up between the university IT personnel, our own senior management and other company experts to discuss any issues in implementing our solutions. We realise every client is different, therefore we adjust according to their needs.

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We believe in our technology and the solutions we provide for our clients.

As the market leaders in response technology, we ensure our products are the most reliable and secure. In addition, we provide clients with ongoing support and training, a dedicated Account Manager and language specific solutions.

Innovations in the software and technology industry have helped to change the business. We recently moved to a SaaS business model, meaning that our solutions are purchased via a subscription model. This will hugely benefit our clients as they can continue to use our products and services, whilst we can make them better year on year.

An example of a technological innovation is the BYOD (Bring Your Own Device). This is a concept which we hope universities will continue to encourage as our software works via a handset or through the students’ own web enabled device. BYOD encourages students to use devices they are already familiar with, universities don’t have to pay to maintain these devices and it encourages students to stay engaged in classes.

Turning Technologies has learnt that the markets are all different – what works in the US is entirely different to what works in the UK and beyond.

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We have developed our products and services to be flexible and we have adjustable business models on a per market basis. These models help us serve our clients to the best of our ability.

All team members are encouraged to share knowledge and success stories, as well as what didn’t work, so that we can all benefit. We keep on top of current trends in the education sector and try to help clients by seeing the benefits from our users’ point of view. The TEF in the UK is a huge game changer, and our technology will help universities prove teaching excellence. We’ve promoted this via several events, sponsoring TEF shows and writing blogs and press releases on how we can help.

Our company is the market leader in student response - we have offices around the world including the US, UK, Netherlands, Hong Kong and beyond. Every client gets their own dedicated Account Manager who knows their business and needs.

Looking towards the future, we have recently launched TurningPoint 7. It’s the same software that our users love, with added security and features.

Our latest version is the same familiar desktop application, enhanced to provide a richer and more secure product experience. It contains more enhancements than ever before, more mobile options with ResponseWare, and more data capturing capabilities and functionality.

Software & Tech COMPANY DETAILS Company: People Power Co. Name: Mr. Gene Wang, CEO and co-founder Email: gene@peoplepowerco.com Web Address: www.peoplepowerco.com Address: 620 Lowell Ave., Palo Alto, CA Telephone: (650) 799-8065

People Power Helping to Humanise the Internet of Things

People Power, a Silicon Valley-based technology start-up, was created in 2009 by co-founder and CEO Gene Wang with the fundamental goal of improving the Internet of Things (IoT) by starting with people first, instead of technology. Gene talks to us about how the company has grown to become an award winning start up.

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Gene Wang describes how People Power goes about their business with passion whilst building positive and strong relationships with clients.

“We earn the trust of smart home consumers worldwide every day. Our people centric and mobile-first solutions are designed to bring supportive and reassuring outcomes, built on our commitment to superb customer experience. We solve real challenges for real people in their daily lives. We know how to build relationships with consumers at nearly any scale. And our solutions are always built with future proofing and flexibility that evolving IoT opportunities demand. Consumers love us, and we love what we do.”

When undertaking a new project, a solid client relationship is essential for success. It may sound like a cliché, but Gene thinks that the most important thing is to listen carefully to customers as he describes.

“Every project we become involved in becomes successful in part from the trusted relationships we build in every client encounter. Our personal mission is to help protect people and their homes for safety and efficiency, and even keep an eye on loved ones near or far. So it’s about the people, always. That includes our clients, all of whom become friends and trusted partners. And, we manage to have a little fun along the way. I am privileged that the company serves global brands with our highly skilled global workforce, I’m proud that we are able to scale our business to achieve international successes.”

Gene’s job with People Power embodies the same creative process as music, something which he loves.

“As a musician and jazz band leader in my spare time, I’m blessed with a natural desire for cadence, rhythm, improvisation, and exploration – in the same way many of my musical heroes put on display when they work.

My work, the job I love with People Power, is akin to music. It’s an iterative process with organization and structure. That keeps me swinging.”

Future aspirations at the company are discussed often and Gene considers that the continuing trust between the client and the company are the long term aim of the company.

“I encourage our workers to visualize end-states that are valuable, and essentially good. If we as a company continue to treat our customers with the utmost respect, and solve technology challenges leading to better and happier lives, then what else is there, really? The relationships of trust we continue to build around the world are priceless.”

As well as having a good relationship with clients, knowledge of products and services are essential to achieving a positive outcome.

“Everyday business in the IoT (Internet of Things) industry is brimming with tough, complex decisions, daily. However, I’m always reminded of a simple truth - if you are armed with research, and knowledge of what connected end-users love and why, along with a commitment to arrive at well considered decisions with all inputs, then you can build great things that perform greatly for consumers. That’s not just a philosophy, but rather a strategy that all our employees use in their daily work. I encourage my staff, and indeed everyone in the company to guide positive outcomes this way. Staff and industry experts are very important. There’s no replacement for listening. Great ideas often reside in unexpected or nearly hidden conversational moments, ripe for the taking.”

People Power is alert to the changes in a rapidly moving industry and Gene believes it’s vital to speak to industry analysts who can help shape important decisions in the software and technology trade. “I love speaking to and sharing ideas with industry analysts. Often we speak of real trends, and sometimes of trends du jour. The analyst role is clear and valuable. And many of them are fun people and brilliant visionaries who truly help shape the direction of where we’re all going. Staying informed about the winners and those struggling in the industry require some effort. There’s always an influx of new, creative ideas with undetermined lifespans.”

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Software & Tech COMPANY DETAILS Company: Digital Guardian Name: Constance Stack Web: www.digitalguardian.com Address: 860 Winter Street, Ste. 3, Waltham, MA

Digital Guardian Leader for Data Loss Prevention

CMO of Digital Guardian, Connie Stack discusses the challenges and success stories of marketing in a digital age. Digital Guardian is an American data loss prevention company that provides software for corporate networks, servers, databases and the cloud. igital Guardian is focused on protecting the heart of every organisation – their data. Much has changed in how we now do business and many of those changes, such as the emergence of the cloud and mobile devices, leave sensitive data more vulnerable than ever.

The company’s flagship product, the Digital Guardian Data Protection Platform, is purpose built to stop data theft and performs across the network, traditional endpoints, on mobile devices and cloud applications to make it easier to see and stop all threats to sensitive data.

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For more than ten years, Digital Guardian has enabled data-rich organisations to protect their most valuable assets with an on premises deployment or an outsourced managed security program (MSP). The company operates in more than sixty countries while servicing seven of the top ten global patent holders and seven of the ten largest global automobile manufacturers.

Connie Stack, CMO of Digital Guardian lays out the company’s mission and the key principles that make the firm stand out from its competitors.

“At Digital Guardian we’re fond of saying, “We’re focused on doing just one thing, protecting data” and that is our north star. Data is the lifeblood of a modern business and the bad guys have made it their mission to steal it. We aim to stop them.

“I am an unabashed fan of Jim Collins and the key principles he puts forth in “Good To Great.” In developing the business and marketing strategy for Digital Guardian, I keep in mind the importance of having great leaders, hiring the best people and getting them into the right role, focusing on what we are best at and preserving your core capabilities, but stimulating innovation.

“We are a data-driven organisation and technology is extremely important to our marketing function. We use the latest tools and platforms to enhance our brand awareness, customer experience, lead-gen efforts and pipeline tracking.”

Connie has been kept well motivated in her work with Digital Guardian. To achieve success in business, setting goals is important.

“For me this is simple. Setting ambitious but achievable goals and consistently hitting or exceeding them. Nothing feels as good as hitting the numbers. It is clear, measurable and demonstrable success for me, but more importantly, my team members.”

Moving targets is the most challenging aspect that Connie has overcome to become successful in her current role. “In any innovative company change is the only constant. So you have to be prepared to tolerate change – or better yet, embrace it. You know it’s coming, so you have to stay nimble and be ready, willing and able to capitalise on any change in business direction. I read the business parable, “Who Moved My Cheese,” many years ago and I’d recommend it to anyone struggling with change in their business as well as in life.”

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- USA

There have been industry changes since Connie started her career, and she has adapted to these changes to become a successful CMO. One change in the industry has been the growth in digital marketing, which has affected the business positively as Connie describes.

“When I started my marketing career, success was defined as having a great looking billboard or print ad. And, not to diminish the value of great creative (as anyone who knows me will tell you I can be fanatical about design), that was a very subjective measure of success. I believe the key change in marketing is the removal of that subjectivity. Marketing success can now be measured in more precise ways. Whether that’s click-thru rates, leads generated or articles secured, the new world of digital marketing allows marketers to demonstrate the true value of marketing like we never have before and I believe that’s a very powerful thing. Has that affected our business? Of course, and for the better. Marketing can demonstrate to our board members and executives the true value of what we deliver to the business every day.”

As a company in the IT security industry, there are two key trends which Digital Guardian is witnessing. Connie explains how noticing these trends have helped the company identify solutions to assist clients and business partners.

Software & Tech “The first trend that we are seeing is that there is a massive security talent shortage. The need to hire talented and experienced cyber security professionals is difficult for companies due to the lack of professionals. The lack of trained and experienced security professionals is the largest issue facing many in our industry. We offer a Managed Security Program (MSP) whereby we manage our technology on your behalf, reducing your need to hire more security team members.

“Another issue is the explosion of sensitive data volumes. Since the Sony breach occurred at the end of 2014, companies have been re-evaluating what their sensitive data is and how important it is.

Companies are placing a higher value on corporate emails, instant messages, and private communications/non-traditional forms of intellectual property, such as multimedia files. Our data protection platform is designed to protect all types of sensitive data, from structured to unstructured and presentations to spreadsheets, from all types of threats.”

As an award winning CMO, Connie realises that researching the latest industry trends and looking at what the future holds is important to support Digital Guardian.

“Being in the B2B tech space, I constantly have my eye on what’s happening in the direct to consumer space. Selling to an end consumer online or in a store is very different than a complex B2B sale with a year-long sales cycle, but there are always things to learn and tactics to adapt. I’m also watching technology shifts. I was around when many B2B marketers sluffed off the need to leverage

SEO and social media - I didn’t. I embraced the change and benefited as a result. There’s no doubt there will be more changes to come, for example, I have a keen interest in the Digital Native generation. This group simply doesn’t use technology and applications in a traditional way and they will have a few new tricks to teach us. This will only add to our experience and success.”

Digital Guardian plans to expand their business which should help to continue its growth in the industry. Connie wishes to continue using her experience and expertise to help the company in the future.

“Like many CMOs, I think we’d like to expand our organisational span of control. There are many emerging business functions, like Sales Operations, Sales Enablement, etc. While many of these functions are starting to roll to the sales organisation, I believe them to be perfect fits with marketing and CMO-like leadership. Who knows, maybe a CEO role is not out of the question.”

“As for myself, I have been at Digital Guardian for almost three years.

I joined knowing it was a turnaround situation and I’ve been a part of the team that successfully turned it around. We are now on a major growth trajectory and I hope to be an integral part of that next chapter of the Digital Guardian story.”

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Software & Tech COMPANY DETAILS Company: OpusVL Email: enquiries@opusvl.com Web: http://opusvl.com/ Address: Drury House, Drury Lane, Rugby, CV21 3DE Telephone: 01788 298 450

OpusVL Provides Professional World-Class Software Solutions

OpusVL was founded by Stuart J Mackintosh in 1999 and is a UK based software and systems development house, which has specialised in Open Source Solutions. We spoke to Stuart to find out more about the company and how they meet the needs of their clients. pusVL started with the purpose of professionally implementing free and Open Source business management software, working in the private and public sector. We address clients’ challenges with our UK team of expert business and technical staff. Our customers are looking to scale up part or all of their operations, view technology as an enabler and OpusVL as the team to deliver.

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Developed over sixteen years of Open Source implementation, we have nurtured a set of processes which bring a strategic design thinking approach to software projects, with a focus on business outcome. Our method is working in partnership with customers to achieve common goals, enabling them to exploit their competitive advantage. We help free up people to spend time doing what technology cannot, rather than on activities which can be automated and managed by well implemented software. For us, it’s all about the value of the end result and ensuring return on investment. Our strategy is to continue to enhance our processes and lead the market with relevant technology, free from vendor lock-in. Creating a roadmap with our customer helps us remain aligned with their success and strengthens our partnership.

OpusVL focus on the business needs of our customer. We have the mantra: “we only do successful projects”. The first step of any successful project is to discover the need through the analysis component of our process.

Technology is just the tool and it should be designed around the people interacting with it. Open Source is an essential component; without it, we are not able to ensure the outcome is successful. The expert resource pool of business and technical staff work together to deliver professional solutions built on Open Source technology. We support an open culture within the company which encourages creativity and innovation across all departments. This environment also enables the creation of Open Source as a by-product of our work - see govstrap.io as an example.

The past few years have marked a significant period of growth within our industry and Open Source is now dominating technology. A modern business demands real-time, joined-up systems to manage more complex operations and no longer want to juggle spreadsheets and disconnected databases. The UK Public Sector policy now instructs departments to use Open Source & Open Standards first for all projects. The mind-set of the customer has evolved and innovation is a requirement of modern business rather than just doing what everyone else does. Good business management software has become the key enabler to meet the needs of the new business landscape. Probably, almost any piece of software that you need today has been written and is now commodity, the skill is in implementation which is where 80% of budgets should now be spent. For us, these changes have been good for business and play to our strengths.

Most importantly, we must focus on the value that we deliver, and ensure that our customers also understand this. When considering our competitors, we seek the differences and understand when we are the best company to deliver, and also when we are not. OpusVL has learned that developing repeatable processes around our solutions enables us to maintain quality at the same time as being competitive.

The key challenge that we have faced is cultural, not technical. Some customers think that software will solve their problems but they fail to grasp the underlying business need. Our process overcomes this by establishing requirements through to implementation and onboarding the business;

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even good technology will fail if not correctly embraced. Prioritisation of features can also be an issue which we have addressed through our development road-mapping activity.

OpusVL provides a high standard by setting realistic expectations and delivering on them. This is enabled through our process which is supported by really good communications before, during and after delivery. Some of our delivery processes include: - business analysis, production control, technical and cultural change management, milestone reviews with customer, implementation, application deployment, IPR management and support. Each project is assigned an “owner” who takes responsibility from start to end and manages these processes.

Our technical team are encouraged to participate in relevant events, and to engage with the wider Open Source communities to ensure they are connected to evolving ideas and technology. Internally, we manage shared knowledge through a variety of tools and databases. As CEO, I engage with the global Open Source leaders as well as the UK industry and investor communities. In addition, I am chairman of OpenUK - the UK Open Source Industry Association, therefore we are considered as leaders and innovators in the sector.

OpusVL expect the future to bring continued growth as the demand for Open Source gathers more inertia, and we have already set in motion plans for our expansion to support this. We will remain leaders in Open Source business management software and engage in projects of greater significance whilst improving quality and value of our offering. We will continue to encourage more engagement with local government and healthcare, and expect further momentum working with investor startups. The longer term vision is to further enhance the connection between people and technology to boost efficiency and effectiveness.

Software & Tech COMPANY DETAILS Distributed Management Systems Ltd Stockclough Lane, Blackburn, Lancashire, BB2 5JR, United Kingdom Web: www.casque.co.uk Email: info@casque.co.uk Tel: 44 1254 208419

Identity Assurance The Next Generation

Dr. Basil Philipsz, the founder of Distributed Management Systems (DMS), a privately owned company based in Lancashire UK, talks to us about the success of the company and their new product called CASQUE SNR. The new CASQUE product is the second generation of authentication technology which has previously been used by G4S, O2 Airwave and UK’s Ministry of Defence.

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s the inventor, product designer and main driving force behind the success of Distributed Management Systems (DMS), Dr. Basil Philipsz explains how DMS has overcome the current challenges within the cybersecurity industry.

Requiring remote users to “have” something (other than knowledge of their passwords) is regarded as essential for sensitive online applications.

There is no shortage of product choices that are available in this multifactor authentication market - expected to reach 9.60 Billion USD by 2020, at an estimated CAGR of 17.7% from 2015 to 2020, according to MarketsandMarkets.com. Techniques that underpin these products are varied: - time based dongles like SecurID; biometrics that utilise some human “fingerprint” like iris pattern; software cryptography like Public Private Key Infrastructure (PKI); out of band communication (sending SMS messages).

However, confidence in these current generation technologies has been undermined by exploiting flaws in their foundation architecture. If a manufacturer embeds a key, then compromise within is damaging, as illustrated in the debacle with SecurID’s Headquarters in 2011. If a biometric template is copied and a compromise in security occurs, recovery can be difficult. PKI has been employed in several guises including smartcards and software tokens. If someone knows the private key and it is compromised, then the whole system fails. Also, this may be discovered as factorisation algorithms can be implemented using quantum computing. The validation of certificates is a perennial problem with fake certificates and neglected revocation lookups providing good hacker opportunities. There are two vulnerabilities using SMS messaging to reveal one-off password smartphones: - Firstly, they are not secure and may be infected with malware, and also the actual communication is not secure as witnessed by the large revenues of companies who sell IMSI catchers to perform manin-the-middle spying.

generation and key management. Each CASQUE SNR token contains a secure, EAL5+ rated processor. There are two types: - “Optical” with its own rechargeable battery and display and “Smartcard” with both contact and wireless Near-Field Communication (NFC) capability. The optical token is truly client-less whereas the Smartcard requires a client player. Alternatively, the challenge can be presented as a QR code on any screen and “snapped” by an Android smartphone using the CASQUE SNR NFC token.

In the NIST DAG document’s terms, CASQUE SNR fulfils the description of a “Multi-factor cryptographic hardware device able to address assurance requirements at Level 3” - the highest security assurance level. CESG, the UK National Technical Authority for Information Assurance, has certified CASQUE SNR under its CAPS scheme and CASQUE SNR can be suitable for use at secret and above.

“It is important to have painless deployment options and we were delighted to have been chosen by Pulse Secure (the market leader in mobile VPN) as one of their worldwide technology partners. We work out of the box with Pulse Connect Secure TLS VPN Gateway. Our recent development allows the CASQUE SNR server to act as an identity provider for any web server that implements Open ID Connect”, says Basil Philipsz.

CASQUE SNR is relied upon 24/7 by the UK’s Ministry of Defence and is also NATO approved. “We want to broadcast the message that you can have military strength security at commercial prices so there should be no justification for accepting yesterday’s technologies”, says Dr Philipsz.

NIST, the US National Institute of Standards, recent 2016 publication “Digital Authentication Guideline” https://pages.nist.gov/800-63-3/sp80063b.html (NIST DAG) is an excellent resource describing what should be the determining characteristics of robustness in the various approaches.

Biometrics are not tolerated! Out of band communication “is deprecated, and may no longer be allowed in future releases of this guidance”. Aside from the flaws in methodology, the human factor (greed, revenge, ideology) makes breaches by privileged, malevolent “insiders” especially difficult to prevent.

Distributed Management Systems, winner of the Best Authentication Technology Company UK & CV Excellence Award for Cybersecurity has successfully navigated these turbid waters by producing four innovations that power their CASQUE SNR product and one of the inventions “Scalable Authentication System” was granted a US Patent (No 9,369,464) this year.

Dr. Basil Philipsz, says “The safety of current authentication technologies is based on keeping fixed keys secret. Any compromise may remain undetected, difficult to recover and create significant reputation loss. We change keys dynamically and invisibly, removing fixed targets and so become immune to insider attacks, token clones and manufacturer reveal.”

CASQUE SNR is fully self-contained with no third party IP dependencies.

The product has its own challenge/response protocol which is cryptographically realised using standard algorithms and provides key

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Software & Tech COMPANY DETAILS Company: CGS Name: Phil Friedman, CGS president and CEO Web Address: www.cgsinc.com Address: 200 Vesey, Brookfield Place, 27th Floor, New York, NY 10281 Telephone: 212-408-3800

Strong Client Relationships Key to Success for CGS

CGS (Computer Generated Solutions) has been running for over 30 years. In this engaging interview, the CEO Phil Friedman, talks us through what the company does to stay ahead of its competitors and to stay relevant in the current market. eadquartered in New York City, Computer Generated Solutions, Inc. (CGS) employs more than seven and a half thousand professionals across North America, Latin America, Europe, The Middle East and Asia. CGS was set up to support global enterprises, regional companies and government agencies with business applications, learning systems and outsourcing services to solve the fundamental business challenges they face.

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CGS president and CEO Phil Friedman tells us about the companies’ clients and their ongoing business strategy. “Our clients span across several industries including fashion apparel, healthcare, hospitality as well as technology and telecoms. With offices spanning four continents, CGS delivers services to customers throughout 45 countries. Our strategy has always been one that focuses on our global presence to support our multinational clients, who are looking for business process solutions around the globe. CGS responds to this need. We are continuously looking for ways to meet our customers’ growing objectives, and in an effort to do this we envision further expansion in Asia and central Europe.”

When undertaking a new project, CGS understands that clients’ needs come first. “At CGS, we know that there is nothing basic about the fundamental business processes organisations rely on. Whenever we start working with a new customer or on a new project, we partner with that client to address the requirements to implement powerful, sensible solutions that strengthen our customers’ business and help to develop and support the foundation for future growth.

Throughout its growth, CGS has remained true to its entrepreneurial beginnings. The company values speed over bureaucracy and innovation over the commonplace, directly aligning its objectives with clients’ needs. The staff are the driving force behind every system, process and partnership. CGS’s global teams of experts strive to understand the core business problems each client is looking to address, adapt methodologies to fit clients’ unique culture, design tailor-made solutions and embed staff within client organisations, at times the company’s clients do not distinguish CGS’s team from their own.

With a team approach and attitude, a collaborative working style emphasizes unity, trust and open-mindedness for differing opinions to bring the best ideas and solutions to customers. From national holiday parties to local charitable programs, CGS employees are making a difference. The company offers technical and product training as well as health seminars, providing ongoing programs for destressing and encouraging employees’ healthy living habits, including chair yoga and “Fruitful Fridays.”

“CGS is focused on both the technology needed for success, as well as strong client relationships. We believe that rock-solid systems and reliable tools alongside knowledgeable team members and well-resourced relationships are the keys to successful, win-win projects with our clients.”

This is what has helped CGS to become an award-winning business.

Over the past year, the software and technology industry has changed considerably as Phil explains, “We have seen a dramatic increase in mobile technology and cloud-based solutions. These solutions have become more affordable, scalable and responsive to customer needs. CGS has grown rapidly in this space, delivering cloud solutions – including mobilebased applications and cloud-delivered support. We estimate that within

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ten years, 70-80% of business applications will be delivered via the cloud.”

It is important for any business to stay on top of the current trends in the industry and CGS is no exception. “To stay relevant in the technology industry you must constantly evolve and grow with current trends while understanding what the competition is doing. It is also crucial that you surround yourself with talented people who have technology and industry knowledge in order to drive continuous innovation.” In order to stay ahead of their competitors, CGS listens to its customers to ensure they create innovative and successful products, “Our clients are our best asset in knowing what the industry needs. We have a ‘Customer Advisory Board’ that intimately knows our roadmap, helps shape future goals and adds value to our plans.”

Phil tells us what the future holds for CGS and explains how its software application suite, BlueCherry®, is helping to drive its success forward.

“CGS is a growing company. Within eighteen months, we will exceed ten thousand employees, providing world-class solutions and developing new products and services. In addition, I would add that our flagship software applications, the CGS BlueCherry® Enterprise Software suite is becoming the standard solution in the industry. BlueCherry® was developed for the apparel, footwear and consumer goods market and it would not be surprising if it begins to take hold in other vertical markets as well.

“In business, you are never done. In the event you reach your objective, then you need to set the next plateau to accomplish. The time that you stop challenging yourself, you will go backwards.”

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Software & Tech COMPANY DETAILS Company: Qcom Outsourcing Ltd., Text Supplied by: Neil Anderson, Managing Director.

Email: Neil.Anderson@qcom.co.uk Web Address: www.qcom.co.uk Address: 3 Hampton Park, Wassage Way, Hampton Lovett Industrial Estate, Droitwich, WR9 0NX.

Outcome Based Outsourcing; A Way of Life for Qcom

Qcom has worked within the technology industry for 40 years, starting out as a manufacturer of electronic communications equipment. Today, Qcom is a leading provider of outsourced technical support to OEMs and their channel, offering solutions across a wide range of technologies throughout the UK, Europe and beyond. s a business, Qcom has recently adopted the new descriptor of ‘Business Improvement Outsourcing’ (BIO) - a change that has prompted some to ask: “What’s in a name?” However, this development is much more than a mere exercise in etymology; rather it reflects the dynamic in the way that our outsourced relationships are established and developed.

For more than a decade, Qcom has sought to help manufacturers and resellers of an ever growing range of technical products to support their equipment more effectively. Simply put, we have been about helping such businesses to improve one (usually more) of four aspects of their service model: • To improve quality of service • To save money • To extend the range and scope of service supply

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Increasingly, Qcom has developed an outsourcing methodology that is based on a long term view. While the financials can be a quick gain for everybody, when we’re pitching for business we’re always on the lookout for other drivers so that we can help our ‘would be’ hosts in more holistic ways. For example, how might they sell more technology or more consumables? How can we better service their products? How can they increase service revenues by having a better serviced product? How can they extend the range of what they do either geographically or by time of day? How might they improve the soft aspects of product service in a way that is experienced by the end user? We look for these features before the relationship begins but perhaps more importantly we’re always looking for them so that the improvement due to outsourcing continues over the medium to long term.

A lot of course is down to methodology. We follow a life cycle model which has now become part of BS11000. At the heart of everything lies a relationship management plan – essentially an operational procedures manual that clearly sets out what the successful outcomes of outsourcing are, ensuring that what we’re delivering is what the client is expecting.

Outcome based outsourcing has become something of a buzzword in the industry, but at Qcom it is a way of life.

A big barrier for many who are unfamiliar with outsourcing though, is that they have to cross a Rubicon. Rightly, many will think that customer service is core to their business success but some wrongly conclude that they must own it for themselves. We would argue that whilst they should never abdicate, precisely because customer service is so core, it is best to seek a partner who can do it better. It is counter intuitive to some extent and whilst it can be difficult to start the journey, more and more technical companies are doing so.

We have already referred to the fact that technological products have life cycles – first they emerge, they then grow, consolidate and mature in their markets. During each of these four phases, the reasons for outsourcing will be different. In the beginning all product knowledge is in house, but the problem is often how do you cover a wide area geographically? The knowledge is deep but narrow. The solution is to train up external people and having worked for a whole series of emerging technology products Qcom’s experience is universally positive provided that the hosts training programme is comprehensive. We have yet to find a product where an outsourced engineer can’t equal an in house man.

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The ongoing relationship is of course vital to successful outsourcing. I often get asked, ‘What’s the one thing we need to do as the outsourcing company to make sure this works on the ground?’ My answer is always the same. You have to have senior management buy in to the process from the host company and secondly you need a dedicated project manager to sift out the devil in the detail – not only for ‘Go Live’, but on an on-going basis too. Outsourcing fails when the contract is signed and the host sits back. You’ve got to continue communicating, feeding back and refining. Changes need to be factored in and the process must evolve in order to move on. One of the trends in outsourcing that we have championed is that hosts shouldn’t outsource entire functions – there needs to be an experienced core staff at the host who can manage the relationship once the Rubicon is crossed.

What is emerging from all this is that BIO (Business Improvement Outsourcing) is not so much transactional as relational. It is about a strategic partnership, dedicated to achieving specific outcomes rather than a means to cut costs. Rather than growing tired, a good relationship should get stronger and deeper and Qcom’s desire is always to be seen as a strategic partner in a relationship dedicated to business improvement. In practice, outsourcer and outsourcee have become intertwined.

In summary, BIO has three critical attributes. It is at one and the same time dynamic, long term and mutually beneficial. It is not about the host losing control, rather it is about a relationship of shared responsibility, one in which Qcom has to be permanently focused on the need to deliver on the objectives that have been specified and agreed with the host.

Software & Tech COMPANY DETAILS Name: Gary Stockton Company: AMI Group Email: gary.stockton@amigroup.co.uk Web Address: www.amigroup.co.uk Address: AMI Group, Saxon House, Saxon Street, Denton, Manchester M34 3DS Telephone: 0844 412 4860

Innovation and Dedication Make AMI Group Stand Out

Since 2004, AMI Group has been providing tracking solutions, providing asset protection and plant intelligence to several of the UK’s largest plant hire companies, and have become a market-leader and innovator.

hat does your business do?

AMI Group offers telemetry and tracking systems primarily to companies operating in the construction and plant hire markets. Covertly installed, these tracking devices utilise GPS (Global Positioning System), GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications), RF (Radio Frequency) and battery powered technology and are used in conjunction with AMI Nexis, a web-based platform which customers use as an antitheft deterrent and a total fleet management solution. To date, over £245 million worth of customer assets is protected with AMI tracking devices and 100% of stolen equipment protected with a covertly installed AMI tracking device has been recovered compared to the industry average of just 10%.

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Who are your clients?

Many of the UK’s leading names in the plant hire and wider construction market, such as GAP and Clee Hill Plant, rely on AMI tracking solutions to track all of their plant.

What makes you unique?

Two primary factors - the innovative nature of our technological solutions and our complete dedication to providing great customer service.

What’s your biggest challenge facing you at present?

The introduction of cheaper, inferior products by companies who simply fail to deliver on the service side. Some competitors offer ‘offthe-shelf’ tracking solutions, but our solutions are completely bespoke and are designed to meet the tracking or fleet management needs of individual businesses.

What’s the aim for your business?

Although our roots are firmly based in plant tracking, we are diversifying our product range and our aim is to be on the leading edge of the IoT industry. One new innovation for commercial vehicle fleets is AMI Nexis Fuel Pro which allows customers to monitor fuel efficiency and consumption. The system creates the potential to save up to 40% on fuel costs, translating into a return on investment within two to three months of installation.

Another new development that we’re extremely excited about is the AMI Nexis Personal - a tiny tracking device which can be attached via a watch or belt, or carried in a pocket. With a red centre button, which can be used to call for immediate assistance, the device is ideal for the protection and surveillance of elderly people, dementia patients and the vulnerable.

What business/business person do you most admire and why?

Sir Richard Branson – he started from nothing and has built his various businesses by staying true to his roots.

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Software & Tech COMPANY DETAILS Name: Mohammed Kateeb Title: Group Chairman & CEO Company: Path Solutions Email: info@path-solutions.com Web Address: www.path-solutions.com Address: P.O. Box 592, Safat 13006, Kuwait Telephone: +965 22286760 Fax: +965 22286755

Leading the Way in Sharia-Based Banking Software Solutions

Founded in 1992, Path Solutions is a recognised market leader dedicated to the provision of software solutions for the banking industry with a specialised coverage for Islamic Financing and Investment Banking.

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hat does your business do?

We provide our clients with award-winning, innovative and comprehensive software solutions and services spanning Islamic, commercial, retail, corporate and investment banking to meet and exceed their ever-growing requirements.

Who are your clients?

Over 100 forward-thinking Islamic banks and financial institutions, including payment processing and microfinance companies.

What makes you unique?

We own the only 100% Islamic core banking system designed and built from the ground-up based on the Sharia rules and regulations. We are the first AAOIFI-certified software provider since 2008 and have tremendous industry expertise working with Islamic banks worldwide. In addition, we are committed to continuous research and development specific to the Islamic finance segment. We ensure quick time to market products for Islamic financial institutions with the shortest implementation period than any other IT vendor..

What’s your biggest challenge facing you at present?

The financial services industry is undergoing significant structural and regulatory changes as a consequence of changing customer behaviour,

channel proliferation and the digitisation of operations in general. Financial institutions are responding by making significant investments in core banking systems’ replacement, digital channels and data analytics to ensure their ongoing competitiveness. Yet, there is a lot to catch up with the ongoing shift towards digitisation, market evolution and process change requirements. Apparently, the speed at which it happens has to do with priorities and financial investments. Even though digital transformation is a priority for most financial institutions, reality shows there is still quite some work to do in the area of digitisation, and in the underlying processes that are often overlooked.

At Path Solutions, we help financial institutions to succeed in the digital age, while embarking on cost reduction initiatives - targeting not only significant, but also sustainable efficiency gains, and thus supporting the financial institution in its race to become fit for the future.

What’s the aim for your business?

We will continue to be the most trusted IT partner for Islamic financial institutions worldwide. It is a huge responsibility and thus we look to serve our current clients and expand our offerings to acquire new clients. Our aim is to continue to lead this segment but on a larger scale. Our segment is growing at 16% annually and just keeping up with this growth will be a huge success for Path Solutions.

What’s your company’s biggest challenge?

To keep up with client expectations by developing solutions that are in need, such as data analytics, i.e. flexible reporting, business intelligence and risk management are critical for the success of our clients.

Our operations focus around a very specific area of expertise to a niche market which is developing software solutions to the Islamic financial services sector. Driven by demanding knowledgeable customers, the banking sector in general, is going through a technological revolution.

The customer is expecting to execute his banking needs any time of the day, seven days a week. This is placing tremendous pressure on financial institutions to deliver sophisticated digital channels around the clock, such as internet banking, mobile banking and ebranch.

What business/business person do you most admire and why?

Jack Welch. He is an amazing leader who set the standards in how to run a successful large company. His management style impresses me and I borrow a lot from him in the way I lead.

Powering Islamic Financial Markets

22 l Corporate Vision September 2016

Software & Tech COMPANY DETAILS Name: Charles Hipps Company: WCN Email: sales@wcn.co.uk Web Address: www.wcn.uk and www. wcncampus.com Address: 5-7 Bridgeworks, The Crescent, London, SW19 8DR, UK Telephone: +44 (0)20 8296 5908

Pioneer in Recruitment Technology

WCN is a leading supplier of innovative e-Recruitment solutions, improving the business performance of many of the largest employers in the UK and across the globe.

hat products and services does your firm provide?

WCN is a pioneer in the field of innovative recruitment technology. With over twenty years’ experience, we provide solutions that help organisations rapidly find the best talent by managing their entire hiring process; creating a more engaging and transparent relationship between brands and applicants and considered ‘best-in-class’ by many. Our specialist configurable tools span a broad range of client needs, including volume recruitment for large corporations and household names that require a high intake of employees for similar roles, experienced hires, emerging talent hiring and comprehensive e-recruitment offerings for the public sector and police marketplace.

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How would you describe your firm’s client base?

We provide clear insights into the requirements for great hiring velocity and results, WCN has become a proven strategic partner to some of the world’s most respected organisations – including HM Revenue & Customs, John Lewis, JPMorgan and Credit Suisse – who trust WCN to assess and hire talent. WCN systems cover over 50,000 applications every week and are used by over 400 employers.

What factors make your firm unique?

At WCN, we are committed to providing a best-in-class and evolving intelligent solution that rapidly identifies great hires, automatically and

efficiently processes them down the right route and provides ongoing insight into how to improve your recruitment. Clients working with get quality assured automated processes that crunch high volumes instantly, cutting admin and costs, driving transparency for candidates and recruiters, expanding reach and diversity, and massively reducing the time-to-hire. Complemented by actionable reporting to enable informed decision making and smart scheduling into the right diaries makes light work of interview planning.

What are the most significant challenges currently facing your business in the months and years ahead?

An acute shortage of great talent means not all organisations will survive.

Successful organisations have transformed the engagement and hiring of talent - they engage early and hire quickly. Leaders, employees, advocates etc. are highly engaged in hiring to build their business; hires are more diverse, more successful. Therefore, they thrive and fit better. In addition, recruitment activities are more virtual, more automated and more personal.

Helping organisations transform is still super stimulating and thrilling.

The pace of innovation continues unabated and so the opportunities for meaningful and impactful transformation remain huge.

What are the main objectives for your business in the future?

Our 20-year pedigree in recruitment technology makes us cutting-edge.

Our offering includes extensive large scale project experience, outstanding customer service, commitment to innovation and a proven track-record in creating significant savings and transformational difference for its customers. WCN’s vision is to help our customers to be able to recruit the best by continuing to innovate in this way.

What business or business person do you most admire and why?

It’s impossible to name one. For me, it’s entrepreneurs who build firms that have fun, give employees a place to grow, support clients through thick and thin and drive meaningful change by improving their jobs day-to-day as well as helping them build the talented teams they need to change the world.

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Software & Tech COMPANY DETAILS Company: Simplisys Ltd Name: Peter Lench Email: peter.lench@simplisys.co.uk Web Address: www.simplisys.co.uk Address: 15 Middle Bridge Business Park, Bristol Road, Portishead, Bristol, BS20 6PN Telephone: +44 (0)1275 240500

Simply Smart

Simplisys is a computer software company which has developed an easy to use, fully featured ITIL aligned management support tool and help desk called Simplisys Service Desk.

hat does your business do?

Enterprise Service Management is our business… we provide the technology that enables companies to adopt “Best Practice” and deliver first class service to their employees and customers alike. Simplisys has developed a web based Service Desk software application that provides a consistent single point of engagement for all issues throughout the enterprise. Of course, service desk software is not new, working practices have been well defined and fine-tuned in many IT departments around the globe but our approach is “Simply Smart”. Organisations typically have some method of dealing with issues at department level, however very few have a consistent enterprise wide approach. We have developed a class leading, easy to use service desk software application that is “Simply Smart” by design and delivers automation at a realistic price.

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Please tell us about your clients.

We deal with many companies large and small however our bread and butter is SMEs’ (Small to Medium Sized Enterprises) employing between fifty and five thousand staff. Mid-sized organisations like NHS Trusts, local authorities, government departments, housing associations, larger charities and large manufacturing companies are typical customers.

Examples include Dairygold, Sue Ryder Care and Alliance Homes.

What makes your firm unique?

Our software is “Simply Smart”, intelligent by design with configuration not customisation guiding design principles. This approach is important because it enables Simplisys to provide regular system upgrades FOC as part of the support service. We have successfully combined flexible workflows, business automation and management information reports as standard in a system that is simple to set up and configure using drag and drop, point and click and Boolean logic which negate the long training courses at considerable expense that our larger competitors like to promote. Moreover, we practise what we preach and provide class leading customer support. In short, if you need or would like to discuss setting up a professional enterprise wide service desk give us a ring.

What’s the biggest challenge facing you at present?

My biggest challenge is to recruit resellers (agents) in other countries… any help you can give will be much appreciated.

Looking to the future, what’s the aim for your business?

Become a big business while retaining our Customer CARE principles.

Our mission statement is “deliver profitable growth by exceeding customers’ expectations” and this is what we do. Customer service is our expertise and it shows.

What’s your company’s biggest challenge?

Our biggest challenge is keeping tabs on emerging technologies especially potential disruptive technologies. Small companies thrive because big companies struggle to deliver good customer service.

What business or business person do you most admire and why?

I think Google is a great business. It has proven to be sustainable and scalable however, I think my favourite business person is Richard Branson or should I say Richard Virgin after all he is the brand.

24 l Corporate Vision September 2016

Software & Tech

Clearwater International Advises TotalSoft Shareholders on CrossBorder Sale to Logo Software Investment SA Clearwater International has advised Greek private equity house Global Finance, the majority shareholder of TotalSoft, in addition to other shareholders, on its sale to Logo Software Investment S.A. (Logo) – a 100% subsidiary of Logo Yazılım Sanayi ve Ticaret A.Ş. Logo has acquired 100% of TotalSoft shares for an enterprise value of €30m. learwater International focuses on providing corporate finance advice for mid-market transactions including M&A, private equity, debt advisory and restructuring services. The business has completed over 1,200 transactions worth an aggregate value of €46bn. Ten integrated international sector teams covering automotive, business services, consumer, energy and utilities, financial services, food and beverage, healthcare, industrials and chemicals, real estate and TMT, as well as our debt advisory, private equity and special situation specialists provide in-depth knowledge and industry experience to every project. The business has 15 offices, 42 partners and more than 200 staff across Europe, North America and Asia.

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According to market reports, the Romanian enterprise application software (EAS) market is expected to grow significantly over the next 5 years. TotalSoft is a leading player in this market and is one of the few companies offering end-to-end services. TotalSoft reported a revenue of over €20m in 2015 and its international sales made up 23% of the overall total. In 2016 the EBITDA is expected to reach in excess of €4m.

The acquisition of TotalSoft offers many synergies to Logo. It will enable Logo’s growth in international markets, and help it gain a competitive position in specialised vertical markets such as finance, leasing, medical and agriculture, as well as providing an opportunity to tap into the highly qualified R&D pool of Romania and to transfer Logo’s SME know how into Romania.

The Clearwater team was led by Partner and head of TMT Carl Houghton, supported by

Director Karen Edwards, Emma Rodgers, Director of TMT Intelligence and Senior Associate Richard Ellis.

George Kourtis, Partner, Global Finance added, “the successful exit from TotalSoft showcases our commitment to value appreciation through growth of sales, new product and services development and regional expansion. We assisted TotalSoft’s strong management team to focus on the Charisma product suite and excel in selective vertical markets with high potential for success internationally. Despite the financial crisis, TotalSoft grew over 50% in sales since 2010 and continued to develop innovative applications for its corporate clients.”

Carl Houghton, Partner, Clearwater International said,

“this deal was all about international ambition. A Romanian IP owner with Greek investors, already driving revenues into wider CEE and the DACH and a high quality and ambitious listed Turkish buyer extending its footprint in CEE brought to the table by a pan-European advisory firm. We’re delighted to be part of such a European success story.”

25 l Corporate Vision September 2016

Software & Tech COMPANY DETAILS Name: Alyson Longley Company: Trisoft Email: marketing@trisoft.co.uk Web Address: www.trisoft.co.uk Address: 3 Canalside, Canal Street, Nottingham, NG1 7ET Telephone: (0)115 8223456

Trisoft Provide High Quality IT Services

Since starting out as a small software company in 1979, Trisoft has become a one-stop shop for all of our customers’ needs, from cabling to IT support and web development.

hat products and services does your firm provide?

Trisoft provides IT & data cabling services. Our team is made up of specialists and experts who provide personal service, working remotely as much as possible so as not to disrupt businesses. We’re Microsoft Gold Partners, so provide top Microsoft cloud services.

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SalesPak is an app for wholesale companies that allows users to present their entire catalogue of goods on the app, and then process orders through it. This means no more paper catalogues, paper order forms, calculators or calls to the back office. The user can process an order through the app which keeps a running total of the order, products, product info and related items. It minimises the chances of human error in the order process, and is a professional looking system for sales agents.

Healthcare management systems: The NHS has been tasked with going paperless by 2020. Our management systems allow the NHS and hospital trusts to do this, and to minimise the possibilities of any errors: • TheatreMan is a theatre and day surgery management system specifically designed to enable total management of the patient episode in a surgical environment. The primary purpose of TheatreMan is to schedule and manage patients and resources effectively and efficiently.

• SSDMan – sterile services management software – delivers trusted tools to track, trace and audit instruments, along with improved access and intelligence.

How would you describe your firm’s client base?

For our IT services, our clients are predominantly SME’s. SalesPak is aimed at wholesale businesses. Our healthcare software is aimed at the healthcare industry.

What factors make your firm unique?

Our dedication to customer service, wide ranging technical capabilities and highly qualified staff.

What are the most significant challenges currently facing your business in the months and years ahead?

Working to stay ahead of the competition. The IT and software markets are highly competitive, so we are always looking ahead and thinking of ways to be more innovative and stand out from the crowd.

What is the main objectives for your business in the future?

To continue to deliver a fantastic set of products and services to our customers, as well as continuing to develop our portfolio to make sure we remain a market leader.

What business or business person do you most admire and why?

Indra Nooyi, CEO PepsiCo because she has successfully steered a multibillion dollar company in a new healthier direction (she has removed aspartame from the Pepsi drinks as well as reducing sodium and eliminating trans fats). She is also a firm believer in investing in her staff and having raised two daughters she is also forging ahead in making the home/work balance easier for parents.

26 l Corporate Vision September 2016

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27 l Corporate Vision September 2016

Software & Tech COMPANY DETAILS Company: Sea & Sun Technology GmbH Name: Heinz Schelwat Email: Schelwat@sea-sun-tech.com Web Address: www.sea-sun-tech.com Address: Arndtstr. 9-13, 24610 Trappenkamp Telephone: 0049 4323 910913

Marine Technology Industry Growing

Sea & Sun Technology GmbH made its name from the development and production of underwater measurement systems, offering alternative energies, production of microalgae and industrial process engineering. With a worldwide reputation, highly qualified employees work in 4 branches of business. n 1998, Heinz Schelwat founded Sea & Sun Technology in Trappenkamp, near Hamburg, in the northern part of Germany. He has worked in the industry since 1987, bringing plenty of experience to the team. The private company now has 30 employees (30% are developers) and has grown considerably over the last two years, working closely with other companies to achieve successful partnerships.

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Heinz takes us through the four fields of Sea & sun Technology and what they all do. “The first and the most important field is the maritime sector.

We develop and produce a range of high-end sensors, instruments, software, and data collection platforms for water quality monitoring and testing as well as environmental technologies. We have more than one hundred products; therefore, the customer has a lot of possibilities to configure the system. For this field, our customers are universities, the industry and the navy of various countries in the world. The second one is the solution department. Here, we produce a lot of customised instruments for industrial customers in the mining industry. The third one is energy, where we offer high end systems for alternative energies. We work as a consultant for governments and private households. Finally, the last one is the organic department which covers the industrial production of microalgae in green houses for human health and diet supplements, as well as algae’s energy efficient system operation.”

Based on the core competences in the field of aquatic measurement technique and energy technology, and inspired by the economic success of the previous years, the decision was made to enter a new branch by going green. In 2010, Sea & Sun Technology built a microalgae production facility, in the heart of Schleswig-Holstein, on an industrial scale. Three years later, Se and Sun Organic already produced over 2,000 m² microalgae in food quality.

Over the last 16 years, Sea & Sun Technology has continued to grow. The core competences are in the development, production, and distribution of highly technological water measurement solutions. The strongest core competence lies in the provision of system solutions from a single source.

An international distribution team realises worldwide availability of the diverse range of products and services, including the distribution and installation of premium photovoltaic equipment and combined heat and power plants as well as ‘on demand maintenance and servicing’.

Combining the core competences, the company is able to build a biotechnological production of microalgae and the engineering of industrial processes.

To date, Sea & Sun Technology GmbH employs highly skilled staff including physicists, engineers, software specialists, biologists, and

28 l Corporate Vision September 2016

mechatronic technicians, many having thirty years of experience in their respective fields. As well as production, facilities include a calibration laboratory that operates according to international standards, providing calibration of products to third parties. This experience makes it easier to develop new products for clients in the future.

Due to their policy of constant investment, the company is better able to face upcoming challenges as Heinz explains. “There are a lot of challenges in our industry. The ocean, deep sea mining, ground water, Limnic water, oil and gas. There are so many necessary things to do and we have the luck to be part of the community. This make me and my team proud.”

For the tasks that Sea & Sun Technology GmbH does not offer in its portfolio, it can offer a network of experienced partners, so they can deliver from a single source. Heinz explains how these business relationships help to strengthen Sea & Sun Technology’s place in the industry. “I have learned that you can´t win the game alone, the field is too big for one company. It is always helpful to have a friend and a company you have worked very closely together with. This community is like a big family” Sea & Sun Technology has grown considerably over the last two years and with new partnerships and products, hopes to grow even more. Heinz tells us the future plans of the company. “At the end of this year, our aim is to bring in our own pill in our organic department and brand ‘Algenial’ in the market. Also, Sea & Sun Technology are planning to make a joint venture with a big company, this is the next step for our company and something which will be very beneficial to us.”

Do you want to increase operational performance without spending a penny?

If you do, take a look at your organisations ITSM strategy…

The results of a recent survey revealed the following benefits by adopting an effective ITSM strategy: • 85% improvement in staff productivity, allowing the business to become more competitive • 83% improvement in quality of service, which increases uptime and enhances customer service • 65% improvement in reputation of the business • 41% reduction in operational costs – money which can be reinvested in newer and more innovative initiatives

For a free ITSM review contact Simplisys Ltd

Tel: +44 (0) 1275 240500 eMail: sales@simplisys.co.uk Web: www.simplisys.co.uk

29 l Corporate Vision September 2016

Recruitment COMPANY DETAILS Name: Matt Goodman Company: GA Global Consulting Email: matt.goodman@gaglobal.eu Web Address: www.gaglobalconsulting.com Address: Suite 102 Rosden House, 372 Old Street, London EC1V 9AU Telephone: 08453 313 485

New and Emerging Trends Are the Core of GA Global’s Ethos

GA Global Consulting was set up to provide recruitment solutions for many world leading businesses.

Matt Goodman, director at the firm, has a quick chat to us about what makes the business stand out and the challenges they face in the future. hat products and services does your firm provide?

GA Global Consulting provides recruitment solutions, partnering with the world’s leading organisations throughout C&I and Financial Services in the UK, EMEA and beyond - our core vertical market specialisms being Audit, Risk, Compliance and SAP. We have established and built lasting recruitment relationships with professionals seeking executive, permanent or temporary employment.

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We have built a foundation of success and an outstanding reputation for quality and delivery through our in-depth specialist knowledge of market sectors. This has been coupled with a genuine dedication towards ensuring integrity in the maintenance of long term candidate and client relationships, through consistently delivering an honest, fluid and timely service.

What factors make your firm unique?

Working within the competitive recruitment market, has also meant that GA Global Consulting have had to constantly innovate in order to stay ahead and maintain our competitive advantage.

Because technology and social media is such an important part of today’s society, we have placed a far greater emphasis on social networking tools and looked at developing new and innovative ways of generating candidates, delivering bespoke recruitment services, resources and building longstanding relationships. GA Global Consulting’s IT systems and software are fully integrated with all major professional social media channels (LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+, Facebook) for improved interaction.

Social media channels have also been integrated into their recruitment process to keep candidates and clients constantly updated on a familiar interface with progress reports, feedback, market information, interview preparation / guidance, additional recruitment services and bespoke client / candidate resources.

In addition to this, the firm utilise remote video interviewing via Skype and FaceTime, especially for international candidates and exploring the uses of Virtual Reality technology within the recruitment process. They also offer candidates and clients SHL personality profiling and psychometric testing, as well as incorporating Bond Adapt software and utilise a number of integrated recruitment software tools.

I firmly believe that this plays a key part in the firm’s success, as we have successfully adapted to a number of technological trends and have used them to our advantage. Our ability to adapt to new and emerging trends that offer more effective ways of working and communicating, remains at the core of our business ethos.

What are the most significant challenges currently facing your business in the months and years ahead?

Gerry Ashison, also a Director at the firm, addresses the significant challenges on sourcing niche candidate skillsets within a candidate driven market and the importance that GA Global Consulting places on its candidates and the way in which it interacts with them.

Gerry believes that “The candidate experience is of paramount importance to the pillars on which our business has been built and we have only been able to achieve our sustained growth in this area through nurturing

30 l Corporate Vision September 2016

and developing long term relationships. We are proud that 86% of our placements in the past year have been directly through referrals or existing relationships, which have been proliferated through our extensive network across the Audit, Risk and Compliance areas.

“Networking, referrals and extensive exposure within our chosen vertical markets are the single most important factors in our strategy for identifying the most relevant candidates in the market for any given job.

When coupled with extensive academic and professional qualification background checks, referencing, criminal and other security background checks, telephone and face to face vetting, mapping of motivators and identifiers and a clear resourcing plan, these practices give both us, the agency and equally our candidates, the assurance that there is a clear plan for meeting expectations for the next step in their career, in addition to ensuring that our clients are hiring the best available talent in the marketplace.”

What is the main objectives for your business in the future?

Looking to the future, the recruitment industry as a whole faces great challenges from a combination of new legislative changes, the impact of the Global economic recovery and uncertainty over the imminent future changes following Brexit.

Within GA Global’s specialist sectors, the introduction of new compliance requirements (Mifid III) will impact Asset Management organisations and the ongoing FCPA, bribery act and code of conduct requirements will lead to an increase in the recruitment of Auditors and Compliance Assurance professionals, ensuring that organisations remain compliant. Uncertainty created by Brexit and the impact this will have on the structure of the EU and implications of the restriction of travel and employment within the region has created a two to three-year timeframe of limbo that we currently find ourselves in.

This presents GA Global Consulting with the greatest opportunity to leverage our powerful network, long standing relationships and market knowledge to continue to effectively source the best passive talent, ensuring that our clients meet their business goals.

Gerry adds “We operate to deliver more than just an effective recruitment service that enables businesses and individuals to meet their desired goals, but a service that develops into a long-term relationship and one in which retention of staff and value added services play a crucial role in ensuring GA Global meets its growth plans in the short to medium term.”

What business or business person do you most admire and why?

In relation to business achievements we really admire both Jeff Bezos (CEO – Amazon, Blue Origin, Bezos Expeditions, The Washington Post) and Elon Musk (Tesla Motors, SpaceX, OpenAI, SolarCity) They are both pioneers, innovators and entrepreneurs with a continuous drive and motivation to push the boundaries of cutting edge development of new technologies and products, creating an extremely successful diverse portfolio of global businesses from driverless cars, Artificial Intelligence, battery innovation / production and are both pushing the space program forwards aggressively. They both have a sense for the greater purpose of their business decisions and goals to create not merely a profitable business but a legacy and an overall benefit to the World, environment and standard of living for the people within it.

Recruitment

COMPANY DETAILS Name: Angela Peart Company: Utility People Email: emmae@utilitypeopleuk.com Web Address: www.utilitypeopleuk.com Address: Utility People, Breakspear Park, Hemel Hempstead, Herts, HP2 4TZ Telephone: 0207 317 2880

Recruit. Retain. Succeed.

As a national recruitment consultancy Utility People gives clients the opportunity to benefit from more than 50 years of combined industry experience. The company invests heavily in a training programme for staff, which shows they are committed to enhancing the quality of the skills base in energy, water and utilities.

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hat products and services does your firm provide?

Utility People are the leading recruiter in the Utilities Industry, we provide staff to electricity gas and water utility companies.

How would you describe your firm’s client base?

We work nationally with the leading utility companies including Npower, Eon and British Gas. We also work with regulators and compliance companies, such as Elexon, as well as brokers that help larger commercial organisations to save money on their energy bills.

What factors make your firm unique?

Our business is built upon our values, the dedication of our team, their expertise, their commitment to quality and their passion, has built the trust that has enabled us to create a virtuous circle of strong relationships between our staff, candidates and clients.

Over the last ten years, we have gained the detailed knowledge necessary to really understand the technical roles within the industry so we have the ability to fill these roles where other recruiters struggle.

We are in a great position to really grasp our client’s needs which enables us to be not just a great recruiter, but also a trusted advisor and source of industry knowledge to our clients.

What are the most significant challenges currently facing your business in the months and years ahead?

There is a skills shortage in the industry and we are on a mission to address it by keeping skilled people in the industry, recognising and developing new talent and bringing skilled people in from related industries.

What is the main objectives for your business in the future?

Our overall objective is simple, to maintain our position as the leading recruiter in the industry by making sure that we provide the very best fit for our client’s needs. Putting the right person with the right skills in place with our clients is good for their business and brings them back to us for repeat business as they expand.

What business or business person do you most admire and why?

Sheryl Sandberg, who is chief operating officer at Facebook. She is an icon for millions of women juggling work and family. She urges women to take risks and seek new challenges, to find work that they love and not just to make ends meet. Quote: - “Next time you are about to say a little girl is bossy say she has leadership skills”. What more can I say?!

31 l Corporate Vision September 2016

Recruitment

Data Proficiency Now More Important Than a Second Language Hub Alteryx research reveals businesses in the UK, France, Germany, Denmark, and the Netherlands now expect new hires to be proficient with data over other key skills. ata and analytics skills could be more important in business than industry experience, management experience, or a second language, new research from Alteryx has revealed.

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The Business Grammar Report, commissioned by the leader in self-service data analytics, surveyed over 500 European business leaders and found that almost a third (30%) consider data and analytics skills to be the most important skill or capability for a potential new employee. France places the most importance on data and analytics for new hires, with 37% citing it as the top skill. 59% of European business leaders consider data/analytics to be one of the two most important skills for new employees, compared with only 28% feeling the same way about multi-lingualism.

Out of IT and into line of business users Alteryx research found that the shift in the importance placed on data and analytics has also been reflected in the way businesses manage and interact with data. Recognising that data can no longer be confined to the IT department or technical specialists, the study uncovered that only 15% of European business leaders across the five countries leave data analysis to an IT or centralised business intelligence team, while 29% reported that they are empowering business users with selfservice analytics tools. The UK leads the way in business user empowerment, with a third of businesses (34%) currently harnessing selfservice analytics tools. France and Germany are blazing a trail when it comes to advanced analytics, with almost half of businesses in each country (47% and 46%, respectively) embracing it right now.

Data analytics is now considered so integral to business that four out of five European business leaders surveyed feel that data

32 l Corporate Vision September 2016

analytics should be a compulsory part of all MBA programmes. The opinion was particularly marked in the Netherlands and Germany, where 88% and 87%, respectively, are in favour of this approach.

“Our research found that European business leaders would be willing to offer a 36% higher salary to someone who is data proficient over one who isn’t,” commented Stuart Wilson, VP EMEA, Alteryx, Inc. “The change in attitude that’s taking place in boardrooms today shows the value of being datasavvy and how important it is that effective analytics are made available to business users. It makes sense to equip every business analyst with selfservice tools that allow them to ask questions of their data.”

Driving data decisions Decisions about how data is looked after are spreading throughout organisations. In total, 42% of those surveyed reported that decisions about how data is accessed, integrated and analysed still lie with the IT team, but 30% reported this is the purview of departmental

leaders and 25% attributed this responsibility to the executive leadership. Furthermore, 67% feel it’s become easier to get the data needed for decision making over the last year. Almost a third (31%) of Dutch businesses look to their executive leadership for decisions about data access, integration, and analysis, whereas this is only the case in 15% of French companies.

In fact, French IT teams still take the lead with data management and analysis decisions according to 51% of respondents, compared with 31% in Denmark. Departmental leaders are the most likely to make these decisions in Denmark, taking the lead 40% of the time, compared with only 24% of UK departmental leaders.

“Most organisations depend on the IT department or business intelligence team for analytics-based decision-making, but things are changing. European business leaders are demanding more agile and flexible insight.

Organisations can boost the speed and quality of analytics by adopting a “DIY approach” and providing self-service analytics tools,” Wilson explained.

“In the last few years, we have seen tremendous change in the data landscape,” commented Andy Cotgreave, senior technical evangelist at Tableau. “We’ve moved from a place where data was hidden away in the darkest corners of an organisation to a point where it can be harnessed by almost anyone.

Every business user has the opportunity to uncover value in data, and the research from Alteryx shows this has been recognised at all levels in European organisations.

“Data has opened up competition in the modern business world – we know that the answers companies want are out there, waiting to be discovered. The winners are those organisations which equip and educate their teams to find and share them,” Cotgreave continued.

Challenges remain The research highlighted that a number of challenges still exist around data analytics in business. When it comes to getting the data needed for decisions, incomplete data is the biggest problem for 41% of those surveyed.

(This is particularly true in Germany, with 53% reporting it as their biggest obstacle). Just under half (48%) of the time, data received from another department or business division needs to be cleaned, repaired, or re-organised before it’s ready for analysis. This problem is particularly true of the Netherlands, where it’s an issue 54% of the time. Only a quarter (26%) of European business leaders report that their teams have all the data they need in one place, with almost half (46%) reporting that they use data from more than five separate sources for decision making. Less than a third of Danish teams surveyed (30%) are drawing on five data sources or more for their analysis, compared with 56% of French and 51% of Dutch businesses.

Web address: www.alteryx.com

33 l Corporate Vision September 2016

Recruitment

Professional Hiring Stable Post-Brexit APSCo survey reveals stability in vacancies after Brexit.

Permanent vacancies show 0.2% growth year-on-year.

Contract vacancies within financial services jump 21% and Average salaries dip by 0.8% rofessional recruitment firms reported that vacancy numbers remained stable in the month following the EU Referendum with 0.2% year-on-year growth in July 2016 according to new survey data from the Association of Professional Staffing Companies (APSCo). This is in line with the latest data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), which reported in August that the overall employment rate was 74.5% in the three months to June 2016 – with 23.22 million people working fulltime, 374,000 more than a year earlier.

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The latest data from APSCo reveals notable variations between the trade association’s core sector groups in terms of hiring activity. While permanent vacancies across both financial services and marketing, for example, have increased (6% and 16% respectively), IT and engineering have both recorded dips (7% and 9% respectively).

Contract vacancies within financial services jump 21% Following a steady increase in demand pre-Brexit, temporary and contract vacancies dipped across the professional staffing market in July, with opportunities softening by 2% year-on-year. The clear exception is the finance and accounting sector where vacancies increased by 21% in July. Most likely due to a reluctance to bring on board talent on a permanent basis until there is greater clarity around what Britain’s relationship with Europe will look like post Article 50 – and how this will impact the operations of multinational financial institutions moving forwards.

Engineering vacancies dip Permanent vacancies within the engineering sector dipped by 9% year-on-year in July. This is in line with recent reports from the CBI which found that the UK’s manufacturing output eased back in the three months to August with 34% of businesses reporting a rise in output and 23% reporting a fall. This represents a balance of +11%, which is down from +16% reported in July.

This fall in confidence may be in response to anticipation of a post-Brexit funding gap, with a large proportion of research and development spend in the sector currently coming from the EU. However, this dip in demand is juxtaposed with a simultaneous increase in average salaries with both manufacturing and engineering recording uplifts of 3.4% and 2.3% as ongoing skills gaps, created by a steep retirement cliff, continue to impact the supply of professional talent.

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Average salaries dip APSCo’s figures also reveal that median salaries across all professional sectors dipped by 0.8% year-on-year. This figure is characterised by notable fluctuations in terms of sector, with financial services, for example, recording an uplift of 3.6%. Average salaries within the professional sectors fall short of the national increase in pay as reported by the ONS which found that average earnings grew at an annual rate of 2.3% in the three months to June 2016.

Ann Swain, Chief Executive of APSCo comments, “Pre-Brexit, it was widely hypothesised that market confidence and the UK economy would spin into freefall if Britain was to leave the European Union. However, so far, these fears have proved unfounded. Data shows that both retail sales and the labour market performed strongly in July and August’s Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) reported that Eurozone activity was at its highest for seven months.”

“It is interesting that demand for contractors within financial services remains strong despite widespread volatility in the sector. Lloyds Banking Group, for example, said in July it would axe three thousand jobs and close two hundred branches to cushion against a more testing economic environment caused by Britain’s vote to quit the EU. Similarly, European banks including HSBC and Deutsche Bank have also gone on record to say they may have to move people or activities to France and Germany if rules around passporting rights change post Article 50. It seems that an increasingly flexible workforce is being utilised to keep the wheels in motion until there is greater certainty around what the UK’s future relationship with the EU will look like. Until then, the professional recruitment sector will continue to provide talent to firms’ immediate and short-term needs.”

Adam Pode, Director of Research for Staffing Industry Analysts, which compiles the report for APSCo, comments, “The drop in the demand in the engineering sector comes as no surprise. The oil industry, which makes up an important part of the sector has seen revenues tumbled 96% from 2014-15 to just £60m in 2015-16, according to Government figures. Last year the number of jobs supported by the UK’s oil and gas industry fell by an estimated 84,000 and are forecast to fall by a further 40,000 this year.

Separately concerns about commercial construction are also having a negative impact.”

Web address: www.apsco.org

Award winning suppliers of

Change & Transformation

Alexander Ash is the leading provider of Change and Transformation resource for the financial services, technology and consulting sectors.

T +44 (0)20 7704 5800 alexanderash.com

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Marketing COMPANY DETAILS Company: Reset Branding Name: John Miziolek Email: john.miziolek@resetbranding.com Web Address: www.resetbranding.com Address: 33 Shepherd Road, Oakville, ON Canada L6K 2G6 Telephone: 1-888-552-2045

Reset Branding Builds Brands.

What Do You Do?

Reset Branding is an award-winning, strategic branding and design firm in Ontario, Canada.

John Miziolek, President and CEO talks to us about how the firm works with clients who share the same values.

he CEO of Reset Branding, John Miziolek is an innovative branding professional skilled in strategic development for both consumer and business-to-business products and services. Reset Branding specialise in CPG (consumer packaged goods). They have worked with clients of all sizes, such as Chapman’s Ice Cream, High Liner Foods, Hershey’s and Molson Coors. The company was built to be the most unique and innovative agency in North America. They have purposely reinvented the typical agency model to create an environment of raw creativity, collaboration and brand acumen to ensure clients are consistently achieving great results.

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In such a competitive industry, John is thrilled for his business to be recognised. Vision, intelligence and the desire to change the rules in an industry that still rewards antiquated thinking are the main factors that John believes has made them an award-winning agency.

“We are part of an industry that allows creativity to drive businesses and it is truly a pleasure to be recognised for both our talent and our passion for building brands. This drives us each and every day.”

The design and branding industry is constantly evolving, despite most agencies using best practices and methodologies from twenty years ago.

John explains how industry changes have affected his business.

“One of the biggest changes is the number of ‘boutique agencies’ that are now owned by huge multinational communications companies. This has created a very large gap between small agencies that don’t possess the acumen to take on a large client and the big agencies that have watered down creative due to the many inexperienced, and inexpensive, team members they employ. We built Reset Branding to address the most pressing needs of clients today: speed to market, business acumen, strategic thinking and implementation and raw design talent. We only work with clients that ‘get it’.

As the most unique agency in North America, Reset Branding have successfully reinvented the collaboration model. Staff at the company follow the same philosophy, ensuring they are all working towards the same goals, and share the same values.

“We refer to ourselves as a “design collective”; harnessing the power of senior creative talent from all over the world to build a powerful network.

Our entire network embraces and perpetuates our philosophy on design and brand building.”

There are three main points that John has learnt in his business so far.

“Firstly, building a business which can survive almost any economic fluctuation. Secondly, build an agency that truly meets the most pressing needs of our client’s’ businesses. Thirdly, have as much fun as possible while doing it”

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In the beginning, clients found it difficult to understand the procedures of Reset Branding, however over the years the company has focused on working together with clients who have an understanding of Reset’s values.

“In the early years of Reset Branding, more traditional clients didn’t understand or accept our methodology and we simply walked away from those opportunities. Some agencies will never turn away a client because their business model and practices are built around feeding a hungry machine, instead of collaboration. We only work with clients that share our passion, have the acumen to understand the value of our model and the guts to make it happen. Most agencies actively seek new business through antiquated methods like cold calling and cyber-stalking. We have grown our agency from passionate client endorsements and through clients who intentionally seek out our services.”

“We have developed a very powerful system of collaboration that ensures we only build and work with senior, experienced teams. This allows us to increase the speed to market and provide the best possible range of solutions to our clients. In addition, we developed and believe very strongly in “Design Perspective”. This is a system that stretches a brand to its limit, without breaking it, that allows clients to see it on a full “Brand Spectrum”. We have all the latest technology to ensure we are current but truthfully, we are the trendsetters in the design industry.”

The future for the company is bright. Their plan is to continue to grow their business and absorb clients that are frustrated by other agencies who cannot provide the results they need to survive in today’s economy. Reset Branding is the answer.

John Miziolek President & CEO

Franca DiNardo Vice President & Chief Creative Officer

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Marketing COMPANY DETAILS Company: U. S. Battery Manufacturing Company Name: Donald E. Wallace Email: dwallace@usbattery.com Web Address: www.usbattery.com Address: 1675 Sampson Ave. Corona, CA 92879 Telephone: 800-695-0945

Powering U.S. Battery to Success - USA

U.S. Battery is committed to providing its customers and global partners with dependable products and reliable support information to ensure they receive the very best world-class deep cycle flooded lead acid and sealed AGM batteries. We caught up with CMO Donald Wallace to learn more about the firm and the products it supplies. stablished in 1926, U. S. Battery has evolved from being a full line battery manufacturer to one of the top premium deep cycle and special application niche battery manufacturers in the world. Donald talks us through how he came to join the company and the role he has played since then.

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“When I joined U. S. Battery 21 years ago, as the sales manager, we were a relatively small and struggling company. Our focus at the time was twofold, we built batteries under the U.S. Battery brand to supply our own retail stores as well as our global distributors, and we built quite a lot of private label product for other battery companies. We were making all battery types at the time and struggling to supply our downstream branded distributors. It was apparent that we needed focus. My job over the ensuing years has been to select niche areas where our specific product knowledge would allow us to excel. “ “Throughout the firm’s history we have, first and foremost, been a producer of deep cycle batteries versus batteries used for starting applications. It made sense for us to move away from being an all battery manufacturer and focus on markets and products that were specific to cycling applications. Our customers are made up of a wide range of companies in varied markets to include aerial platform, golf, marine and floor cleaning equipment. Some of the customers that we supply would include Nilfisk, Hyster-Yale, JLG, GM, Polaris, Skyjack, Vantage Vehicle, Motrec, Haulotte and Columbia Par Car, to name a few. We also work the aftermarket through a worldwide network of top level battery specialists. While we still private label for many companies, our primary focus for the past several years has been on creating brand awareness.”

With the global push for advancements in energy storage, the battery industry has become highly competitive, and this is driving U.S. Battery further toward innovation, as Donald outlines.

“Technological advances push us to keep our products on the cutting edge. As designers come out with newer and more advanced energy storage systems, the consumer is going to be faced with additional costs that accompany those advancements. We are taking the same engineering approach in developing new and cost effective options that will provide the same or greater performance in existing product lines.

New engineering and technologies coupled with advanced chemistries and additives are providing us those options. Utilizing existing battery types that include the advanced technologies will aid us in managing consumer cost and keep battery applications similar. Trying to identify an industry standard also makes battery replacement much easier and cost effective at end of life.”

“Within the wider market, battery technologies are varied in function and in cost. New technologies are faced with high costs to enter the existing energy storage markets. Start/Stop technology for automobiles is becoming the global standard. Battery manufacturers are having to gear up for this change. Hybrid and all electric cars are taking battery manufacturers in another direction.”

Donald outlines how his firm is adapting around these developments in the industry, and how its future will be defined around the changing market as it seeks to continue to provide clients with the very best solutions possible.

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“Technology in our industry is on a fast track to change. Everyone is looking for the next best way to store energy. Energy for homes, cars, work and leisure. One of the primary issues in this ongoing development is keeping the process green and minimizing the carbon footprint. The facts are that the conventional lead acid battery is 98% recyclable, easy to recharge and dollar for dollar still provides the best overall kilowatt to cost value available. Our industry is working aggressively to develop new and better chemistries and construction options which will allow our current manufacturing processes to continue as the green leader in energy storage.”

“In addition, with the global push for advancements in energy storage, our industry has become highly competitive. We need to keep advancing our product line in order to stay in the game. With that said, there are new ideas in the testing phase every day so we have to be on our toes and constantly looking at new and innovative ways to educate the consumer as well as launching our advanced product lines.”

“Working in such a fluctuating environment, finding a niche is one key to success. Our company has been focused on specific markets for many years and we will continue to develop our battery line to produce top level performance products in the markets that we service. The other key to success is having a team that is dedicated and committed to upholding the quality standards of the company. Surrounding yourself with people who take pride in their work, makes the job easy. I would be remiss in not giving credit where credit is due, and here at U.S. Battery we have an outstanding team!”

“While there will most assuredly be a “next best thing” at some point in time, we will keep working to ensure that our batteries are both current in function and design. Additionally, we will continue to provide products that are environmentally safe and responsible. Fundamentally our long term goal is to be viewed as the very best in our industry. We will achieve this by being honest and providing our customers with the best possible value, which will continue to be our focus moving forward.”

Marketing COMPANY DETAILS Company: Concentrix Web Address: www.concentrix.com Address: 44201 Nobel Drive, Fremont, CA 94538 Telephone: +1 800-747-0583

Concentrix Serves More Than 400 of the World’s Best Brands

The business challenges of today requires a different kind of partner. Concentrix is a global provider of high value business services. Concentrix is different by design based on our level of expertise, flexibility and deep relationships with our clients.

hat does your business do?

Concentrix improves customer engagement and business outcomes for our clients. By bringing both strategy and execution, Concentrix deploys capabilities and assets to improve revenue, customer experience and service optimization.

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Who are your clients?

Concentrix serves more than 400 of the world’s best brands. Our clients are leaders in ten major industries: Banking and Financial Services; Travel, Transportation and Tourism; Healthcare Services; Insurance; Retail and Ecommerce; Consumer Electronics, Government and Public Sector; Media and Communications; Automotive; and Technology.

What makes you unique?

Concentrix focuses on business outcomes. We are global and have scale, yet operate with visibility, velocity, and value always. We are transparent, collaborative and nimble, with a fanatical focus on our clients’ success. Concentrix delivers global consistency with local intimacy, serving clients in 25 countries and in more than 40 languages. The company is able to adapt quickly to each of our clients’ needs due to our diverse breadth of talent and experience.

What’s your biggest challenge facing you at present?

Our clients’ customer demands and expectations have changed dramatically, and they will continue to do so. As a result, what our clients need in a partner has changed. In this digital economy and with the emergence of the IOT (internet of things) our clients need assistance in ways they haven’t been prepared for. Strategy, design thinking, analytics, technology, and high value services are all capabilities we have. We are working with clients to help them understand how to leverage those services in their ecosystem today.

What’s the aim for your business?

We our focused on our clients’ success. Our objective is to deliver better business outcomes and high value to our clients, across multiple channels, geographies, and lines of business. Our objective is to be their premier partner that helps differentiate them in the marketplace and makes them the leader hands down.

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Marketing COMPANY DETAILS Company: Bolon Name: Helen Emanuelsson Email: helen.emanuelsson@bolon.com Web Address: www.bolon.com Address:Industrivagen 12, SE-52390 Ulricehamn, Sweden Telephone: +46 321 530 400.

Mobile: +46 702 099 575

Bolon Transformed from Weaving Mill to International Brand

Founded in 1949, Bolon is a Swedish design company with one hundred employees, offering innovative flooring solutions for the contract industry. Helen Emanuelsson, their award winning CMO tells us how the company operates. olon is managed by sisters Annica and Marie Eklund, the third generation of the family to own the company. Under their leadership, Bolon has transformed from a traditional weaving mill into an international design brand with a list of clientele that includes Armani, Google, Volvo Cars, Adidas, Skype, Missoni and Radisson Red. Bolon has a very strong commitment to sustainability, and we design and manufacture all of our products at our facility in Ulricehamn, Sweden. The company is recognised worldwide for our award winning flooring and our collaborations with some of the world’s most acclaimed innovators and creatives, such as Cappellini, Jean Nouvel and Doshi Levien. In 2015, Bolon’s turnover was 278 million SEK (32.5 million USD).

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Helen Emanuelsson, CMO of the month, explains the ongoing business strategy for Bolon and how it is just as important tell this story as it is to talk about any Bolon product for all sales people, brand ambassadors and global employees.

“Bolon is a premium brand in the high-end contract industry. Our products are 100% made in Sweden. Our export is 95% to 55 countries worldwide.

We work very closely with ca twenty-five partners (exclusive distributors) in the local markets, where USA, UK, France and Japan are the biggest.

Scandinavia and Germany are direct market, where we have our own sales people. A very important part of the brand is the Bolon story. Bolon is a family company with the 3rd generation running it. The grandfather founded the company in 1949. The Eklund sisters, who own the company today, took it from being a traditional flooring industry to an international design brand in only a few years. They have more than tripled the turnover since they took over in 2003.

“One of our core principles is also to work with great innovators and wellknown architects and designers, to exchange knowledge and experience.

We have a collaboration with Jean Nouvel right now, and we will launch a new flooring collection together in 2017, with a pre-launch in Paris this October. During the years we have worked with Giulio Cappellini, the Campana brothers, Ilse Crawford, Paul Smith, Tom Dixon, Missoni, DoshiLevien and many more.”

When approaching a new project or client, Bolon believe that personal relations with clients are still very important. They have a rather complex sales process and has to build relations with several different segments in the buying chain.

“Architects and designers are, besides the end-users, our most important target group since they specify our products in their projects – mainly offices, hotels and retail. The buying client is either a flooring contractor or the end-user. It can also be a real estate developer. Besides regular A&D and client visits in the local markets, we have international guests coming to Sweden every week. A very high service and a personal treatment is in Bolon’s DNA and we see direct effects on the business from our international architect and client visits to the factory. With Bolon’s three guest houses in Ulricehamn; The Lake House, The Urban House and the Farm House, we can give visitors and clients a fantastic experience, far beyond their expectations. Together with the Eklund owned La Villa Madonna vineyard in Piemonte, Italy, this has been developed into a hospitality concept, to support our core business.”

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On being a successful CMO, Helen describes how she has managed to motivate herself with the help of her colleagues, as well as the challenges she has had to overcome.

“I could never be successful without my team and my colleagues. If they are motivated and engaged, then I am. It’s my responsibility to give the team the right prerequisites to make a good job and reach the targets. My strategy as a leader is delegation and management by objectives, and at the same time being supportive in the daily work. I believe in involving the team as much as possible along the journey, it’s so important to make middle management and employees grow and feel motivated.

“Leadership is about leading yourself, then leading others and then leading the business. All three are equally important and dependent on each other. As a leader, you are working with human beings and you have to learn to understand how your own behaviour affects your team, and how this, in turn, actually affects the business result. This is a learning process and it’s nothing you do perfectly from day 1. This is an important insight and I try to be observant and humble to this fact.

“To be able to do my job, I have to spend time out in the local markets, meeting partners and clients, so I travel quite a lot. Also, I strongly believe that it’s important to constantly challenge yourself and not get stuck in old patterns.”

According to Helen, digitisation has transformed the communication landscape, therefore Bolon has had to adapt to the changes in marketing over the years.

“I have had a background in brand development and communication strategy for many years. When I started in the business, brand building was seen only as something that was taken care of in the marketing department. Today, companies see the importance of implementing a brand platform that involves everybody and permeates the whole organisation.

“An important change now is that we are going from outbound to inbound marketing. The technical development brings about a transparency where brands and commercial interests are perused and eyed-up in a completely new way, which gives the consumer increased power. Peerto-peer and word-of-mouth recommendations are by far the strongest powers in marketing today. Networks of people create new, disruptive businesses. To stay relevant and engage consumers meaningfully, brands will need to be clear about their identity and values, and develop collaborative platforms that let people play the role of co-creators. The communication is not from company to consumer – it is peer-to-peer, and people-to-people.”

In general business-to-business buyer behaviour is changing. Helen explains that Bolon has had to respond to the changes in the industry, mainly adjusting to clients’ needs.

“Potential customers are readily turning to their personal networks and publicly available information online to self-diagnose their problems and form opinions about solutions. The average customer has completed up to 70% of the purchase decision-making process prior to engaging a

supplier sales rep directly, and more and more B2B purchases take place online. As a company, if we fail to “show up strong” in this context we are underserving potential customers and at risk of losing clients and sales opportunities. We have to be responsive, have a nimble organisation and improve knowledge in buyer understanding.

“Sustainability is extremely important – I think the design industry have turned, where people today are much more interested in the production process and material; some years ago it could be enough with a cool label or a famous designer. To have all our manufacturing in Sweden gives us control and the possibility to constantly challenge ourselves with new thinking and development with sustainability as a lead star. Bolon invested 150 million SEK (17.5 million USD) over the last 5 years to be able to offer a product that is recyclable and with no added phthalates, just to mention a few of our initiatives. We do not only want to be trailblazing in our own industry, but also lead the development from a sustainable perspective.”

Technology is extremely important to Bolon, as Helen describes, “As John Chambers, chairman of Cisco Systems put it: “Digitisation will change all companies equally brutal”. Bolon has so far built the brand very successfully through differentiated marketing and communication, but we have to follow the technical development very carefully or competitors will be faster in embracing new digital tools and strategies.

“We have created a digital team and are working in different projects across the organisation, to ensure we are moving along – or even moving ahead - the extremely fast development of technology and are absolutely up to date within social media and digital tools for our different target groups.”

To ensure the continued success of the company, sustainability and digitisation are two very important areas to follow, “The climate anxiety has matured and has gone from denial and passivity to action. We see a much broader questioning of lifestyles and consumption. To the new generation of conscious consumers, the future life of a product is important; can it be inherited, recycled, shared

or reused? Younger generations’ adaptive behaviour to the new digital business models like Spotify and Netflix means that we move from owning and using things, towards having access to them when we need them. Companies will own the products to a greater extent – maintain and update them, repack and resale them, rent them out or provide new services around the product.

“The exponential growth of digital development and sustainability consciousness will lead to new strategies and disruptive business models.

Not only does the brand have to permeate the whole organisation; so does innovation and sustainability. If the consumer’s demand is: reuse, recycle, reduce – then I believe the answer for the company is: redefine, rethink and remodel.”

Helen is aware that change in the industry can happen very quickly and is not naïve to future challenges the company may have. However, she plans to continue with Bolon to explore these changes head on.

“Hopefully I am still with Bolon! But by then a lot will have probably happened in the way we work with our brand building and marketing.

With the exciting changes in our surrounding world, not the least when it comes to sustainability and digitisation, I hope to work even more with management and development of business strategy. I believe we have a very exciting future ahead of us where we will have to cope with an increasingly complex environment. Being an international certified future strategist, I have a great interest in a holistic view on strategy, through the whole chain from external environment and trend analysis, to development of robust and sustainable future strategies.

“I am fortunate to work for a company where the owners have a very strong vision and a lot of courage. Bolon always has a lot of projects in the pipeline, and we never stand still. If some companies might have a lack of ideas for the future, our problem is the other way around; we have so many ideas that we want to realise, that it’s sometimes difficult to prioritise and ‘kill your darlings’. We are currently developing our next 5-year business plan, which will be implemented in the beginning of next year, and we see a very exciting future ahead of us that will take Bolon to the next level.”

- SWEDEN

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Marketing COMPANY DETAILS Company: HomeServe UK Name: Greg Reed Web Address: www.homeserve.com Address: HomeServe, Cable Drive, Walsall, WS2 7BN Telephone: 0800 694 4167

HomeServe is Changing Customers’ Lives for the Better

HomeServe Membership is one of the UK’s leading home assistance providers. Greg Reed, CMO of the Month, tells us how the company has been making customers’ lives easier for more than 20 years by delivering a range of services, including plumbing, drainage, electrics and heating through their own nationwide network of HomeServe approved engineers. hree years ago, HomeServe was far removed from the company that it is today. Under the leadership of our UK CEO Martin Bennett, and supported by a fantastic executive team, we’ve spent huge amounts of time and resources reshaping our business and culture. It’s not been an easy journey by any means, but by building the HomeServe brand from the inside out, we’ve achieved something incredibly special.

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Our headquarters are in Walsall in the West Midlands and we have two thousand nine hundred employees across our UK sites, which also include Preston, Banbury, Nottingham and London, as well our nationwide network of engineers helping our Customers every day. We’re proud to serve more than two million customers across the UK who trust us when it comes to fixing, maintaining and looking after their homes.

We also work alongside a range of major utility and energy companies – eighteen in total, including many familiar household names – to deliver our products and services into the nations’ homes. Our aim is to make our services as effortless as possible for customers and be recognised as the number one home assistance company in the UK. We started the process by focusing on our people, as our staff own the customer experience each and every time. I’m a big believer that if you take care of your people, they will take care of your customers, and the rest will take care of itself. I’m very fortunate to have a fantastic team working with me. By getting the right people beside you and having them all driving towards the same goals, it’s pretty easy to stay positive and focused.

Martin Bennett, our CEO, has been a tremendous support to me both professionally and personally and is getting all the recognition he deserves. He won the UK’s ‘Most People-Focused CEO’ at the 2016 HR Excellence Awards and his Glassdoor ratings – which includes anonymous ratings from our own people – put him alongside some globally-recognised leaders, along with the CEOs of Google, McDonalds and American Express.

Our ongoing approach is our ‘Effortless 2020’ strategy which aims to always make life easier and ensure our customers have an effortless experience. That means our people are empowered and we’re all pulling in the same direction to make HomeServe a successful, customerfocused business. It’s a business now that is a reflection of its people, and that makes it authentic.

Everything we’re seeing – whether they are customer numbers; satisfaction and retention figures; new partnership signings; employee engagement levels; independent review scores or recognition and awards – are testament to the fact that our strategy is working and we’re getting a lot of the important things right.

My personal motivation is to deliver a product that really helps customers when they most need help. If we can get this right, then we can change their lives forever. We have a truly engaged workforce; they are a powerful positive force to have with you. I think one of the pillars of that has been absolutely trusting and empowering our people to get it right for customers. It’s a joy to walk into work each day and I don’t think I’ve ever felt that way before.

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We’ve created ‘Customer First’, where any of our staff can take responsibility on what they feel to be the right thing for a customer. We meet at 8.30am every day to consider specific customer matters. Since launch, we have helped over two thousand customers who weren’t actually covered for the work we did but it was the right thing to do to help them.

"Our focus on honest, open and twoway communication has also been intense and exciting. We’ve committed to everything from huge set-piece faceto-face events, to broad adoption of social conversations or personal one-toones with me. I try and make myself as available as possible for the one to ones as they’re incredibly valuable – but so fulfilling! If you encourage feedback from your customers and your people, they will trust you more. If you use it to evolve what you do, you will become a stronger business."

Our people know we want them to challenge us and make suggestions for improvement. They understand our strategy, the role they play and, most importantly, why it matters. They understand all this because we’ve shaped this strategy together.

I think everything I have done before I joined HomeServe has served as an apprenticeship for what I do now. In term of my own personal development, I think the biggest change is how I view the world from a position of leadership. In the past, I used to come at everything from a position of knowledge. However, as my experience has grown I have really understood what it means to be a leader. For me, that’s about empowering my people to become the best they can possibly be and setting them free.

I think one of my key leadership strengths is that I find the right ways to get a lot of people moving in the same direction. We’ve done that by focusing on our people and getting the customer experience right. It’s how you build a brand from the inside out. In the last three years, we have gone from being a business that wants to sell something to customers to being a business that genuinely wants to help them. We want to earn the right to retain their business, by doing the right things.

Focus on the end goal is crucial. For us, everything we have done and everything we continue to do must add to or improve the customer experience. In general, if it doesn’t add value for the customer, we don’t do it. An example is cancellation charges. I don’t like them because I believe that customers can leave when they want if we’re not doing our jobs right.

It’s then up to us to get them back with us later down the line.

Everything you do should do exactly what it is supposed to for customers.

If our customers have a good experience, they will tell other people about us. Word of mouth and personal recommendations are such incredibly powerful marketing tools for businesses like ours.

I think the key word for us should be authenticity. In today’s world of social media and real-time feedback, there is nowhere to hide so we have to make sure this business is completely customer-focused. Our TrustPilot and Reevoo scores are reaching some of the highest levels in the company’s history, our customer feedback and social media sentiment has been more positive than ever, customer numbers are on the up, retention is strong and the awards cabinet is starting to bulge a little bit more too!

Our brand marketing is all about our customers too – telling stories about the experiences they’ve had with us. If a company is going to have any credibility, sincerity and authenticity in its storytelling, it is better keeping its powder dry until it has a story worth telling. That’s what we did as we focused on getting our business right first. We got our people engaged in our strategy. We committed to Effortless 2020 and making life easier for our customers. As John Greaves, our Brand Director says: “It’s about getting organised so you’re not paying lip service but actually giving the best possible service for your customers and finding ways to make their lives easier. It’s not rocket science.”

Only recently, I was asked about how some businesses can rebuild trust with customers, while others can’t. For us, if it’s not something that directly helps us give customers a better service, then we don’t do it. In my opinion, that’s what all truly customer-focused businesses should do. All too often, insurance businesses are intent on telling people why they can’t claim on their policies. We’re not like that which I think makes us unique. In that “moment of truth” when the customer needs us, I want us to be there for them. It’s not a difficult thing to do but I think it’s not something that every business in our sector does. We’re trying to make sure that we are doing exactly what the customer thinks we are going to do.

opportunities we have as insurers to stop something from happening.

One of our “How to Wins” at HomeServe Membership is to nurture an innovation culture. This means we empower our people to be able to experiment with new ideas and inventions that will help us make life easier for our customers and grow the business at the same time.

Many of the ideas looked at digital technologies, and one of the most exciting innovations was created very recently, called LeakBot. Unidentified water leaks in homes are the single biggest cause of claims on home insurance policies – more is paid out on this issue than for anything else. So, we’ve created a smart gadget that identifies leaks anywhere on your home’s fresh water plumbing system and alerts the homeowner to a potential problem which we can solve before the costs rack up. It’s just one example of the ongoing work we’re doing to make life as effortless and easy for our customers as we can.

Five years from now, we’ll be stronger because of the experiences and challenges we have faced. Since 2014, we’ve been working on ‘Effortless 2020’, our long term strategy. We hope we’ll be able to have more HomeServe customers because they will know more about us and they will want to take advantage of the range of products and services we provide. I want HomeServe to be a name that people associate with making their lives easier and recognised as the UK’s number one home assistance provider.

In terms of our people, we want them to continue to feel empowered and to know they’re making a difference when they come to work. We’ve got targets for where we want to be by 2020 and, alongside Martin, the Executive team, my marketing team and every one of the 2,900 people who represent our business, I’ll make sure we use every day until that point to get there.

There’s also a seismic shift currently underway in the insurance sector, and it’s taking us from responding to problems to preventing them in the first place. Innovation and technology are creating so many opportunities in this space and we have ambitions to capitalise on that. It’s all about the

- UK

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Marketing

High Net worth Marketing - What and Why? What’s an HNWI? Anyone know for sure?

HNWI is the abbreviation used for ‘High Net Worth Individual’. Why is this important to your marketing?

Most CMOs will tell you that the best way to blow away a target CPA number is to market to high net worth individuals, i.e. promote your wares in front of an audience who can instantly afford whatever it is your company does, not waiting for next pay check, not waiting for a business partner, just ‘I like it, so I’ll have it’. Not only this, but HNWIs have a habit of purchasing goods and services in multiples. This is usually music to the ears of most Sales Directors, ergo the Board.

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HNWI definitions vary according to where in the world you happen to be. For example, Investopedia has it as, “The most commonly quoted figure for membership in the high net worth “club” is $1 million in liquid financial assets”, whereas other countries have lower definitions, and some specialist agencies significantly higher.

In particular, one regulatory body defines high net worth for investment purposes as having an annual salary over £100,000.00 per annum, whereas an international high net worth agency may define this as high as £5M liquid assets, sterling.

To classic marketers the realm of high net worth marketing may seem like a mysterious target to reach. Many companies have tried and become disillusioned with trying to reach HNWs for a variety of reasons, not least of which is the size of the budgets necessary to achieve it as a standalone firm. Most approach it in the spirit of a customised B2C campaign, or even a B2B campaign if the targets also own significant businesses. However, these approaches have historically reaped minimal success if executed only once or twice.

Depending on your company’s offerings, most HNWs are highly likely to have an advisor, or even several advisors, with whom you must ‘pass muster’ before you will be allowed access directly to them. This can be frustrating for most sales forces, and, unsurprisingly, most sales forces give up due to the fact that they have more pressing targets to meet, thus contributing further to the HNW project challenges.

However, for those lucky to have good timing, or a well-known product and suitably attractive service,

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direct access can be gained and very quickly they discover what all HNWs have in common. They are all ‘time poor’. They will want to be convinced of your offering, although rarely have time to address it, and are much more likely to stack up a few good things with one of their trusted advisors and crash through them in an afternoon at the Dorchester. So we see also that knowing and cultivating their advisors is key.

You will also quickly discover the immense complexity of each HNWs set up in terms of tax, holding structures, estate planning, philanthropy and more. So be prepared. It might also be wise to have senior sales personnel assigned to these tasks, preferably from a background with which your target HNWs will be familiar. Likewise, it may be beneficial to have in your arsenal several possible offerings as during the cultivation phase of your fledgling relationships you will be uncovering actual needs from your HNW which you may be able to fulfil for them quickly and efficiently. Needless to say, personalised attention, and lots of it, is an absolute must, which leads us to the next challenge.

Time is money, and these approaches take up an inordinate amount of person-hours. If you are unable to commit these kinds of resources to your HNW project, you might consider also a high net worth marketing agency, of which there are surprisingly few, although one of two of them do actually deliver excellent results.

In addition, you may find that most HNWs are averse to risk, especially with the current global economic considerations. Once you have your first HNW client, it’s advisable to spend as much time on and with them as you are able. HNWs usually travel in the same circles, holiday in similar places, know a lot of the same people, and from this first account you may be able to segue others by way of referral. As we all know, word of mouth is the best marketing tool on the globe.

Furthermore, in the early stages of your new relationship with your first HNW you might want to consider taking every conceivable opportunity to demonstrate exclusivity, loyalty, and a willingness to always ‘go the extra mile’. Remember too that discretion is a big word in this space, so not the best of ideas to naturally assume your new HNW client might want to mingle with others, including other HNWs, for many reasons.

Ian Gordon, Head of Banks Research at Investec commented recently, “In theory at least, your high net worth customer ought to be a source of new business account possibilities. It is about making the whole worth more than the collective individual parts.”

That’s all very well you may think. But this still leaves most companies with the problem of how to start their active efforts in the high net worth marketing stakes. And how to get past the immense effort and number of person-hours required to get things moving properly.

John Winters, a Senior Director at SKS Media Singapore, a global high net worth marketing agency comments, “We are familiar with the challenges facing most companies looking to enter or expand within the high net worth marketing space globally. It can indeed be daunting at first due to the immense efforts required, which is why many clients come to us to help get them started.”

As an example, SKS Media have one of the largest high net worth databases on the globe which can be included in client campaigns for HNW attraction in a variety of sectors including luxury goods and services, asset and wealth management, private banking, real estate, and investor attraction for various top drawer offerings.

Adding in to the digital efforts, SKS also have a sizeable ‘agent base’ globally who carry client offerings directly to their individual ‘black books’, thus generating interest through this direct oneon-one engagement, and various other channels designed to attract interest to specific offerings.

Digitally, these also include ‘Intellipost’, invented and invested by SKS in 2010 whereby client messaging is left if highly targeted areas of the web known to be fertile for a cause, often exploring

new niches for which clients are unlikely to have resource e.g. polo, super yachts, golf, luxury cars, and certain types of financial instruments only ever used by HNWs and UHNWs. They also sport a sizeable HNW social network globally through which client messages can reach their HNW targets, and a HNW Partner Network to match. Interestingly, SKS also offer the PCN (‘Private Capital Network’), through which clients can receive direct referrals via ‘word of mouth’.

Also offered are the TV, Radio, Outdoor, Events, PR and Partner Development areas as a full service advertising agency, albeit only in the HNW space.

But given the subject matter, what about the ‘personalised approach’? Winters continues, “Once significant interest is collected for a particular client, the strength at SKS is in the pre-qualification and individual ‘old school’ follow up we afford each potential new prospect for a client. In the HNW space this is both expected and prerequisite to any campaign. In this regard, we are extremely ‘granular’, as this is proven to be a superior option for direct ROI to the client. Many clients prefer to use us as their ‘marketing/direct sales arm’ for the HNW space as we have been doing this so long now.”

So it may be of some reassurance that whether you are starting out in the HNW space, or looking for increased exposure and direct sales from this potentially lucrative area for your business, there is help at hand so that you don’t necessarily have to incur the enormous cost of doing it alone. Either way, high net worth marketing is still extremely attractive for many reasons. In fact, it you are going to promote anything it is good common sense to put it in front of an audience who can instantly afford whatever it is, right?

Web address:,www.sks-of-london.com

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Legal COMPANY DETAILS Company: Precedent Law Firm Consulting, LLC Name: Julie Howard, CEO / Law Firm Management Consultant Email: Info@PrecedentLaw.com Web Address: www.PrecedentLaw.com Address: Atlanta: Queen Building, 5 Concourse Parkway, Ste. 3000, Atlanta GA 30328 Minneapolis: IDS Center, 80 S 8th St., Ste. 900, Minneapolis, MN 55402 Telephone: Main: Atlanta: 678-832-7894 | Minneapolis: 612-371-2040

Setting the Precedent in Management Consulting

The CEO of Precedent Law Firm Consulting, Julie Howard, consults to law firms across the United States. Julie talks to us about how the firm operates and the challenges that are present in the legal industry. ulie Howard spent nearly a decade as a managerial consultant with Ernst & Young. She received her Bachelor’s in Management in 1991 from the University of MinnesotaTwin Cities and MBA in Marketing in 1998 from Southern Illinois University – Carbondale. Julie went on to launch her own law firm management consulting business, Georgia Practice Management Consulting. Later, when she opened an office outside of Georgia, she changed her company name to Precedent Law Firm Consulting.

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“We strive to set the precedent in law firm management excellence. We take care of the business side of solo, small or mid-sized law firms so that they can focus on their clients. Our services include virtual consulting through scheduled conference calls or shared screen sessions, onsite consulting including assessments, training, change management initiatives and leadership or team development initiatives. Also, we can take on specific need-based projects such as ‘Owner Exit/Succession Planning’, recruiting talent, and more as discussed individually with our clients.”

In a competitive market, with an overwhelming number of competitors, Precedent provides services beyond clients’ expectations as Julie explains, “Our consultants are not only savvy law firm managers, but deeply skilled in executive level management knowledge and strategy development skills to incorporate the latest business techniques in a law firm environment.

“I hear often from our clients that previous consultants focused only on telling the law firm owners what to do, when, in fact, work is done in conjunction with our clients. For example, our smart law firm clients can easily grasp the fact that they need to create some type of formal review process to allow stability and career growth within their firms, but how to actually create that program is not something that comes easily for any business to create.

“We have detailed documentation our clients can leverage to build their own programs or work via shared screen in conjunction with their assigned consultant to create customized, end-to-end programs in a short amount of time. Our clients go from learning a new managerial technique to implementing a robust program, fully customized to their specific needs, in a remarkably short timeframe.”

Recently, Precedent has started their marketing in Canada and using their influence to gain new clients. Julie describes what challenges they have faced whilst expanding their business.

“We are using our connections with Amicus Attorney software, based out of Toronto and other business ties. Any time a firm does implementation of a new software, it kicks off the need for changing processes and procedures, and sometimes even entire job descriptions. We piggy-back marketing campaigns to coincide with the products we support and find the tie-ins naturally lend themselves to expanding our services to those in need, regardless of where they are located!”

The legal industry is currently undergoing a near-revolution in its approach to what it means to be a quality attorney and quality law firm. There are technology changes, the Millennial’s approach to work-life-balance,

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and a complete shift in consumer expectations which are presenting a challenge in the industry. Some companies which are adapting to the changes are thriving however the legal profession is not known for its adaptability, so there is still some uncertainty of what effect these changes will have.

Adopting new technology (many courthouses are just now allowing electronic document filing), work-life balance initiatives and enhancing client experiences, are just some of the changes in critical areas where the legal industry is lagging behind in. Julie describes how Precedent has created solutions to these issues to keep clients happy.

“Our consulting practice uses tried and true marketing fundamentals, “translates” productivity methods learned in the manufacturing industries to create efficiencies in services delivered without burning out staff, and applies the latest in strategic planning initiatives seen in the corporate world to train the leaders in the legal industry.

“We’ve heard many times from our clients that they feel they have received an Executive MBA-level training while learning and working hands-on with the principles our consulting firm provides.”

The most important business lesson that Precedent has learnt involves key performance metrics - the ability to use data to plan for future goals and to measure progress and success. “At its core, law firm managers need to be able to quantify the actions they are taking against the reactions that are occurring and clearly see an “Action > Reaction” relationship in order to make the best informed business decisions”, Julie clarifies.

Julie believes there are many factors in why Precedent is an award winning consultancy firm. “Firstly, strict quality controls on work products, robust training programs and continuous knowledge acquisition are vital.

In addition, retaining outside counsel and industry experts to create the best practice standards and documentation that are delivered to clients, as well as sponsoring their own research.”

Precedent has just opened a second office in Julie’s home state of Minnesota. Julie is planning more speaking engagements to get to know her current and potential client-base better. She also has a book in the works which translates business-speak into law firm manager-speak of key business strategic growth and business sustainability concepts, telling us “I’m very excited about this project, even though it is taking much more of my time and resources than anticipated; I think it will be well worth the effort!

“I truly believe that what sets a consulting company apart is the passion and sheer joy of providing quality products and services to our clients. I strive to ensure my staff, the experts I call into projects, and those I refer business to, all have a driving passion and deep pride in their work.”

Legal CONTACT DETAILS Name: A.S & ASSOCIATES Address: Suite D5, 3rd Floor, Mukti Bhaban 21/1 Purana Paltan Dhaka 1000 Bangladesh Email: f.rahman@as-associates.net Telephone: +88 017 300 66 321 Web: www.as-associates.net

Bangladesh - The New Business Hub of Asia!

Ferdausur Rahman, Barrister (Lincoln’s Inn) and Partner at A.S & Associates, highlights the business opportunities in the fast growing economy of Bangladesh and the legal services his firm can provide to the investors.

angladesh is a booming economy. According to the IMF, the Bangladeshi economy is projected to grow from $180 billion to $322 billion by 2021. The rate of GDP in 2015 was $195.1 Billion and the gradually escalating growth rate was 6.6%. High-growth domestic markets, government support, lower valuations of takeover targets and ready access to capital have provided unprecedented opportunities for investors all across the world to explore the new market in Bangladesh.

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The region is already one of the leading FDI targets in the Asia Pacific.

In the last six years, net FDI inflows into Bangladesh have grown enormously, hitting $2.2 billion in 2015. China alone is planning to increase the Chinese FDI in Bangladesh by 50% in the coming years.

Bangladesh has the third largest capital market of South Asia with two full-fledged automated stock exchanges, hosted on computer based trading system. Consequently, the country is seeing more and more of direct foreign and local investments in different corporate sectors and in the capital market. The Central Bank has started to give permission to local investors for making investment abroad.

Truly, Bangladesh has become investors’ new destination. At A.S & Associates, we provide specialised legal services to the potential investors and businesses for secured investment. A.S & Associates, is a leading Bangladeshi Corporate Law firm, specialised in foreign direct investment, corporate and project financing, capital market, corporate restructuring including M&A, energy and power sector, banking and financial institution related matters, construction sector, employment law, real estate/land related matters, corporate governance and compliance, telecommunication and admiralty matters and litigation and arbitration.

The Global Law Expert-recommended firm has 19 lawyers and operates from its principal office in Dhaka, branch office at Maymensingh, and network firm at Moulovibazar. The firm is the exclusive Bangladesh member of TAGLaw, a worldwide alliance of international law firms over 90 countries.

The increased need of investment is facilitated by various legislations, development of infrastructure through public private partnership and supported by multiple commercial banks, financing corporations and NBFIs. Tax holiday has been given for new businesses, special Economic Zones and new Deep Sea Port to facilitate export-import have been established. The Govt. is aiming to increase power generation capacity from 12,339 Megawatt to 30,000 MW by 2021 by establishing multiple LNG, coal, solar and wind based power plants by foreign/local companies on BOT/ BOO basis. The Real Estate, Telecommunication and Tourism sectors are also expanding.

49 l Corporate Vision September 2016

Legal COMPANY DETAILS Company: IT Governance Name: Alan Calder Email: acalder@itgovernance.co.uk Web Address: www.itgovernance.co.uk Address: Unit 3, Clive Court, Cambridgeshire Business Park, Ely CB7 4EA Telephone: 0845 070 1750

IT Governance: Experts in Cyber Security Solutions

Alan Calder, founder and executive chairman of IT Governance describes how the organisation operates. As a leading global provider of IT governance, risk management and compliance solutions, the company is dedicated to delivering results and exceeding clients’ expectations.

T Governance has a special focus on cyber resilience, data protection, the PCI DSS, ISO 27001 and cyber security.

The company has helped firms of all sizes, achieve their information security objectives through a mixture of tools, training, consultancy and penetration testing, with affordable bespoke and packaged solutions. IT Governance has the knowledge and insight to provide unparalleled support and advice, tailored to meet any organisation’s specific needs or budget. Alan Calder explains the approach they take to their work and the clients they work with.

information assurance for more than ten years and, in the last eighteen months, the press has realised how important this is, with the result that our agenda is now increasingly that of all our customers.

“We have worked with companies in a range of sectors, including major banks, telecommunications providers and healthcare organisations, right down to SMEs and micro-organisations all across the UK, Europe and the rest of the world.

“Our challenges are those of growth: growing management and process capability to handle rapidly growing, client delivery requirements. In addition, we ensure that incoming managers learn and contribute to our existing culture, which is critical to our continued success.”

“We are a one-stop shop for any organisation’s IT governance, risk management and compliance (GRC) needs, and we take advantage of the benefits and economies Internet-enabled business systems has to offer in order to support our clients in a timely and economical manner.

We maintain subject matter expertise across the entire IT GRC landscape, which means that we can be agile and intelligent in our offerings.”

IT Governance has a mature and comprehensive quality management programme that ensures all of their products and services meet the same high standards. Clients help them to achieve the highest quality.

“Everything we produce - from tools, white papers and pocket guides, right through to embedded consultancy, software, web applications and training courses - is informed and directed by our subject matter experts. We then have rigorous processes in place to polish and hone our offerings, and many are further refined by direct interaction with our clients.

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Alan still likes to work with clients directly himself, which builds up a healthy, working relationship between customers and IT Governance.

“I still deliver to a number of clients directly myself; together with a relatively flat management structure, this means I am relatively close to the customer on a wide number of fronts. The ability to communicate a clear strategy consistently, and integrate this with commercial insights from close work with clients, means that we can be quick to market with new initiatives - the EU GDPR Foundation course being a case in point. we were the first to market this course and every course we have scheduled since has been over-subscribed. Listening to customers is the most important aspect of running a successful business, we adapt to meet their requirements, but do not hang onto initiatives that aren’t working.”

IT Governance has invested in its staff which are an important aspect of the company. The knowledge and experience across the team and the dedication to apply them consistently is essential. The depth of their implementation experience, the breadth of their knowledge, and the adaptability of their client-engagement model is what sets them apart from others in the market.

“The competence shortfall has pushed the cost of good staff up. We’ve invested across the board in keeping hold of our staff at all levels, and our consultants in particular. The key change has been that the market is beginning to catch up with us - we’ve been working on cyber security and

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“Being in GRC, we advise staff on best practices to ensure consistency and to make sure that the outcome is fully aligned with their objectives.

We have taken a dose of our own medicine and achieved ISO 27001 and ISO 9001 accredited certification. We are also certified to Cyber Essentials Plus and meet the PCI DSS requirements for payment card handling, among other criteria.”

“We pride ourselves on our ability to serve an international customer base and deliver a broad range of integrated, high-quality solutions globally, while meeting the real-world needs of today’s organisations, directors and practitioners. We also encourage customer feedback, on our website and directly, and then we act on that feedback.

“We are represented on a number of committees and forums that develop best practice – this investment enables us to stay ahead of the curve.”

Alan is maintaining a positive outlook when referring to the future of the industry as he describes. “In the cyber risk arena right now it’s impossible not to be both motivated and positive. Every day there is a new headline, a new story that reminds me and our competitors that now is the time to act - any later is too late when criminals can act with such speed, anonymity and impunity.”

Looking toward the future, the aims of IT Governance are to continue to build on their sound, client base by exceeding clients’ needs in an economical manner. Recently, Brexit has brought challenges however the company will establish a business outside the UK in order to be sure they can continue to serve the fast-growing pan-EU business, along with the continued expansion in the UK and the US.

51 l Corporate Vision September 2016

Legal COMPANY DETAILS Name: Doreen Jaeger-Soong Company: Hughes-Castell (Hong Kong) Limited Email: hughes@hughes-castell.com.hk Web Address: www.hughes-castell.com Address: Room 2103, 21/F, Tower 2, Admiralty Centre, 18 Harcourt Road, Admiralty, Hong Kong Telephone: +852 2520-1168

Unprecedented Access of Top Talent for Hughes-Castell

Hughes-Castell (Hong Kong) Ltd. was the first legal recruitment consultancy to target Asia and began recruiting lawyers from London to Hong Kong in 1985. Over the years, they have maintained their status as Asia’s premier legal recruiter.

hat products and services does your firm provide?

Hughes-Castell has a thirty-year history in legal and compliance recruitment in Asia, covering all major and developing markets’ jurisdictions from Japan and Korea and Greater China to Australia and India and all ASEAN countries. Hughes-Castell has also recently added HR search and selection to our suite of services.

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How would you describe your firm’s client base?

Our clients are global Fortune 500 corporations, major listed and private Asian companies and leading law firms in the region.

What factors make your firm unique?

We take enormous pride in our track record of long-lasting placements, with a high number of successful recruitment into major corporations lasting between 10-23 years. This is a testament to our abilities to understand both client and candidate goals and expectations. Our 30-year history of success has given us the reputation as the leading specialized recruitment firm and also enables us to have unprecedented access to the most senior and top talent, not only in Asia but in the rest of the world.

What are the most significant challenges currently facing your business in the months and years ahead?

The increased digital presence of sites such as LinkedIn and the growing trend of in-house talent acquisition will see an industry consolidation, and only those firms that can genuinely add value will survive and thrive.

Global economic challenges also drive merger and acquisition activity, lowering the number of clients we act for. With megamergers, specialist firms like ours often need to seek waivers as the volume of work for legal or compliance is marginal compared to sales, marketing, engineering and thus boutique specialists will struggle to be placed on PSL lists, as HR departments continue to cut down the number of service providers to simplify things and leverage better fee rates with larger multi-function recruitment firms.

What are the main objectives for your business in the future?

To move increasingly to high-end bespoke legal and compliance leadership roles, to increase our geographic footprint and to ensure the same passion and commitment in delivering the highest quality service and continuing to build on our track record of long-lasting placements.

What business or business person do you most admire and why?

Elon Musk, for his bold vision and his commitment to improving the environment.

52 l Corporate Vision September 2016

Legal COMPANY DETAILS Name: Mark Hewitt Company: Rebmark Legal Solutions Email: mark.hewit@picalculator.co.uk Web Address: www.picalculator.co.uk Address: Blenheim Reach, 861 Ecclesall Road, Sheffield, S11 8TH Telephone: 0114 2663300

Translating Industry Requirements into Reliable Software Tools

In 2007, Mark Hewitt started Rebmark Legal Solutions to produce software, and has worked with personal injury and clinical negligence lawyers to refine and perfect piCalculator (a cloud based, fully encrypted software tool).

hat does your business do?

We primarily develop software for the legal industry, in particular the claims sector. We work with industry leaders to understand how they are adapting to marketing pressures and seeking efficiencies, enabling us to translate their ambitions into software solutions.

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Who are your clients?

Claimant and defendant lawyers, insurance companies, claims handlers and barristers.

What makes you unique?

Rebmark Legal Solutions operates in a very niche market and one that is notoriously difficult to crack. However, we combine previous hands-on expertise of working in the sector as a lawyer with a cutting edge software development. We are able to translate the industry’s requirements into practical, accurate and reliable tools that don’t take long to implement or adopt.

What’s your biggest challenge facing you at present?

The injury claims market is still going through some seismic changes in terms of how claims are dealt with. Restrictions imposed on the amount of legal costs that can be recovered have been fairly brutal, therefore lawyers are increasingly focused on how technology can help them be more efficient, and ultimately more profitable. We don’t just want to keep abreast of these changes, we aim to involve ourselves in thought-leadership discussions on the future of the sector and how technology can be applied.

What’s the aim for your business?

Our aim is for all law firms, insurance companies and barristers involved in injury claims to use our software and services - from the first moment a claim is notified, to the final court hearing. We believe that this is possible because we don’t just produce software that’s useful to one side of a claim; the very same software can also be used by an opposing party.

In addition, we aim to continue advising on and implementing the development of bespoke software for organisations, to allow them to remain profitable and competitive in this market.

What business/business person do you most admire and why?

The inventor and businessman Thomas Edison. He didn’t just invent the electric lightbulb and record player, he was one for the first inventors to apply the principles of mass production and large-scale teamwork to the process of invention.

Edison is quoted as saying, “There is a way to do it better – find it”, which pretty much sums up our approach.

53 l Corporate Vision September 2016

Leadership

Six Ways to Spot Money Laundering in Your Business and How to Prevent it Long Term EU legislation continues to target money laundering and terrorism financing. A corporate crime expert says tough new laws should act as a “wake-up call” for finance professionals. Aziz Rahman, a leading lawyer, issues an action plan to help you spot signs of money laundering.

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inancial professionals need to ensure they’re equipped to spot signs of money laundering within their company, as the European Commission continues to introduce tough new laws.

Aziz Rahman, Senior Partner at serious and corporate crime defence specialists Rahman Ravelli, has urged accountants, auditors and IFAs to treat the EU’s ongoing drive to eradicate money laundering and terrorism financing as a “wake-up call”.

The European Commission unveiled an Action Plan earlier this year, which followed on from the adoption of the Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Package in 2015. Both are clear indications that the authorities are desperate to prevent unlawful money from being hidden within businesses.

With the maximum penalty for money laundering set at 14 years, Mr Rahman warned that finance specialists simply must know how to prevent this kind of wrongdoing.

“If we are being honest, the new EC regulations could be seen as a wake-up call to anyone who has been sleepwalking through business unaware of money laundering risks – but everyone should, by now, be alert to the dangers,” he commented.

The legal expert said you can highlight examples of money laundering by asking the following six questions: 1. Has someone been vague or reluctant to talk about the exact sums of money involved in a deal, or who the investors are? You need to flag it up.

2. Have some unusual instructions or conditions been introduced into a deal? Find out why.

3. Has somebody contacted you out of the blue to express an interest in investing money into your company? Do your research. Do they have an ulterior motive?

4. Have there been sudden changes to your working

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5.

6.

relationship with partners or other businesses? Do some digging.

Has money been moved without a proper announcement of where it’s gone and why, or has there been a request to use a different account?

These are clear warning signs that you should act on.

Have assets appeared suddenly or has somebody floated the idea of making a loss? Also, if someone has asked to make payments in cash, you should immediately be on your guard.

Even if you are completely innocent and money was being moved around behind your back, you can still receive a substantial penalty if your business is taken to task.

As well as asking the six questions above, Mr Rahman offered a six-point action plan to ensure money laundering cannot happen on your watch.

• Devise a clear anti-money laundering policy and appoint an anti-money laundering officer who is aware of the company’s legal obligations to report anything suspicious to the authorities.

• Make thorough checks on the identity of a client, trading partner or anyone else involved in moving money into, out of or around your company.

• Take the time to identify the real beneficiaries of a deal or the exact nature of a business relationship between two parties.

• Introduce accounting and cash handling procedures into the workplace that make it as hard as possible for money laundering to happen within your company.

• Enforce a no-cash policy on transactions of a certain size.

• Appoint senior staff to scrutinise the source of funding for deals or investment – or devise a procedure for third parties to disclose their funding sources.

Web address: www.rahmanravelli.co.uk

Leadership

Five Expert Tips to Prevent Your Staff from Being Bribed…

Sometimes They Won’t Even Know They Are Taking One! The government has been clamping down on bribery, but many companies are at risk of being accused, without even knowing it. Aziz Rahman, a leading lawyer offers five expert tips for accountants, auditors and finance officers to follow.

leading lawyer has warned businesses that they need to be more proactive in their attempts to prevent bribery. Aziz Rahman, a senior partner at serious and corporate crime defence specialists Rahman Ravelli, believes that many organisations are failing to adequately brief their staff on what does and doesn’t constitute a bribe. With punishments including up to 10 years in prison (as per the Bribery Act 2010), it’s crucial that accountants, auditors and finance officers are extra vigilant.

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“Even though it’s common for people to accept bribes without realising it, ignorance is never a suitable defence. By granting additional funding to the Serious Fraud Office to aid its investigation into accusations of bribery at Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation (ENRC), the Government recently demonstrated that it is stepping up its attempts to prevent this kind of wrongdoing,” Mr Rahman commented. To raise awareness of the issue, and to ensure that businesses aren’t unwittingly accepting bribes, Mr Rahman offered the following five tips.

Should you really be accepting that gift?

“Much depends on the timing. If your staff are receiving gifts right at the time that you’re about to award contracts, alarm bells should be ringing,” Mr Rahman warned. It doesn’t have to be big, expensive gifts either.

Sometimes, an accumulation of small gifts over time can be interpreted as bribery. On a very small scale, if a student buys their room cleaner a box of chocolates to say thank you for doing a good job, this is fine. If this is then followed up with similar gifts as a means of “sweetening the cleaner up” so they’ll clean the person’s room first, this can be classed as bribery.

Hospitality – Is this the first time you’ve been taken out by a client?

The Financial Conduct Authority is putting the squeeze on companies that use perks such as trips to sporting events or meals out as a means of bribing somebody.

“Is the hospitality timed to coincide with a business

decision being made? Is it the first time the person has offered such hospitality? Is it being offered only to the people who are making a particular business decision?

If the answer to all these is yes, it could be considered bribery,” Mr Rahman added.

Be wary of clients offering services for free “It may be that you or your colleagues need some extra workplace resources. If a current or potential client offers to provide any of this for free or at a reduced rate, you have to ask why they are making this offer,” Mr Rahman remarked. Scenario: you’re looking to procure some new technology services. While you’re still in the decision-making process, one such company has offered to provide your staff with some free equipment.

Is this a gesture of goodwill to cement a strong relationship, or is it a bribe?

Are they really doing you a favour?

“Someone offering to sort out a problem, give free advice or put you in touch with someone who can help can all be favours offered with the best intentions,” Mr Rahman added. “But these are not favours if the person giving them expects something specific in return. Is the timing of the favour linked to any business decision?”

Sometimes it’s difficult to differentiate between a “nice turn” and a bribe. Again, timing is key.

Do “mates’ rates” exist or is it just an elaborate bribe?

“Everyone loves a bargain. Often people doing business with each other tend to ‘look after’ each other. This can be a genuine attempt to help out an acquaintance.

But it could also be bribery,” Mr Rahman continued. If you’re receiving goods or services for a knock-down price, you need to flag it and ensure there’s nothing untoward happening. You can read more about how to spot examples of bribery in your business, and where you should turn to if you are accused of wrongdoing, in Rahman Ravelli’s latest article.

Web address: http://www.rahmanravelli.co.uk/

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Leadership

Don't Forget Your Business Costs Will Still Be There After Your Summer Holidays…

Survey shows a lack of understanding in business between cutting costs and strategic cost management. uditel is the UK and Ireland’s leading provider of strategic cost management.

Over the last two decades, their team of over 200 highly-skilled professionals has built a reputation as trusted advisors to medium and large organisations.

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Chris Allison, Auditel’s Managing Director says, “Many companies still choose to divert in-house resources from their strategic roles to carry out time-consuming cost management exercises. These may do little more than scratch the surface of what is achievable. By outsourcing your organisation’s cost management to Auditel, your team will regain the time and peace of mind to use their talents and excel in their specific areas.”

Auditel began to lay the foundations of Strategic Cost Management in 2012. Extensive independent research was undertaken. Together with leading business publication Management Today a survey was conducted. The results, from over one hundred and twenty business leaders, underlined the fact that there is a genuine lack of understanding in the business world between simple cost cutting exercises and strategic cost management.

The survey showed that cost reduction is just part of the process. You need a strategy in place to make sure that those costs are monitored on a regular basis. You need the right people, tools, knowledge and processes.

In addition to these features, Auditel provide independence, aggregated buying power and experience of the supplier market. This means that their service, far from becoming yet another cost can pay for itself, over and over again, by delivering highly effective and sustainable cost management solutions for the long term.

Over the past 20 years, Auditel has helped more than 5000 businesses. Here is a case study taken from one of their recent clients.

WBC – better known as The Winebox Company – is the UK’s leading trade supplier of gift packaging to

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independent delis and some of the biggest names in the specialist food and drinks market. Success depends on anticipating trends and offering the right products at the right price.

Joint Managing Directors, Tim Wilkinson and Andrew Wilson were sure that they were on top of their business costs, but felt there would be no harm in examining the rates and benchmarking some of their suppliers. They initially asked Auditel to investigate their logistics, merchant cards, energy and insurance costs. Andrew says, “It made sense to ask an expert to check”.

First of all, Auditel analysed WBC’s tariff for palletised freight and reported that these were competitive. “We would never recommend changing supplier unless it was truly in the client’s interest.”

Next, Auditel helped to better a well-priced insurance renewal offer from WBC’s existing brokers while obtaining an improved level of cover. A simple example of how a fresh pair of eyes can make a real improvement.

With millions of pounds taken via credit and debit cards, with multi-currency accounts, card processing fees were next under the microscope. Auditel saw that although the headline rates for processing looked reasonable, the premium and other charges meant WBC were paying too much. Four unused merchant accounts were quietly racking up minimum usage charges.

Cancelling the dormant accounts and finding a better deal for the online processing gateway were quick wins that will return some £2,500 to cash flow. Careful tendering of the card processing achieved a 29.5% reduction in charges, worth around £52,600 over the next three years.

Energy was next, and Auditel is in the process of bringing the various head office and warehouse supplies of gas and electricity under one umbrella.

This has already resulted in some £700 of savings with further economies to come. The next project will

be energy efficiency, seeking to make further savings while minimising WBC’s environmental footprint.

“Auditel has achieved substantial economies and process improvements, leaving us free to concentrate on running the business,” says Andrew Wilson. “The cash released can now be put to strategic use, helping us to innovate and grow. At first I was sceptical, but now I’m an Auditel convert!”

Total savings to date on electricity, insurance and merchant cards: £59,620 Chris Allison adds, “As with most companies, there is a constant barrage of sales calls offering a wide range of products and services. With Auditel on board, the staff no longer have to spend their time dealing with those calls. They simply pass them on to us.”

“With the current uncertainty about the economy, strategic cost management could play an important part in your continuing success. If you would like to enjoy the tangible benefits and peace of mind between now and your next summer break that Auditel delivered to WBC why not contact us today to book your Strategic Cost Review”?

Web address: www.auditel.co.uk

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Leadership

The Customer Journey Revisited – Three Tips for Achieving Customer Value and Growth from Teleopti Magnus Geverts at Teleopti looks more closely at raising the customer service bar in contact centres. ustomer Journey mapping is becoming an increasingly popular term in contact centres. Many organizations are using customer journey initiatives to drive customer value and growth. But what does the term ‘customer journey’ mean and why is it important to the contact centre? Quite simply, the expression refers to the interactions a customer has with an organization from beginning to end – from when they first establish a need for a product or service to when they no-longer use the product or hopefully, keep coming back to become a repeat customer.

dedication to understanding our customers’ individual journeys, essential to increasing satisfaction levels.

Organizations recognize that these customer journeys occur across multiple channels (e.g., email, Web Chat SMS and website), over time and because humans are fickle, they can appear random and stuttering.

Sounds familiar? Contact centres today are already multi-channel environments supported by agents who have to use all their experience, skills, knowledge and sometimes diplomacy to win over customers daily, often in difficult situations.

We’d like to share some of the lessons learned since we started out nearly 25 years ago. Here are our top three tips for acknowledging the importance of the customer journey to improve customer service and attaining the holy grail of true customer value leadership in the contact centre:

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Empathy and Touch-Point Mapping In an attempt to add clarity and structure to the customer journey, companies use techniques such as empathy and touch point mapping to establish how a customer feels at each stage of the journey (empathy mapping). Then draw up a list of all the possible points of contact a potential or actual customer has with the business before, during or after purchase (touch point mapping). This means tracking a customer’s conversation, real or virtual, every step of the way from the customer seeing an advert or user review, visiting a website for product info or walking into your online shop or store.

Does all this sound very complicated and a little too scientific? Although the very idea of the customer journey appears very clinical and detached from human experience, the concept also opens up some distinct and real possibilities for today’s multi-channel, multi-faceted contact centres.

Top tips for achieving customer value leadership At Teleopti, we are proud of our achievement to win Frost & Sullivan’s 2016 EMEA Customer Value Leadership Award. It’s an incredible milestone that, we believe, recognizes our work on raising employee engagement. At the same time, it reflects our

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For example, our consultants stay with customers and support them long after the installation phase, ensuring not only that their workforce management (WFM) solution is up and running properly, but that it’s tailored, fine-tuned and maximized in its usage, therefore fully meeting each customer’s needs. A thorough and detailed hand-over of the customer from pre-sales and consulting to service desk secures the well-formed circle of continuous customer care.

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Schedule the right person, with the right skills at the right time. This is the core objective with a WFM solution. Our experience is that a featurerich product set enables you to innovate and improve both the customer experience and employee engagement.

“The right skills” includes both hard skills and soft skills (for example empathy). What makes an agent perform well in your line of business? Use competence management to find out and take the right actions to manage your talent pool and resources.

Keep employees happy and empowered – with easy-to-use and visually appealing access to technology that allows them to plan their work around their life while still optimizing service levels. Make the most of gamification techniques to motivate agents in an enjoyable way, enabling them to see their achievements and therefore perform better in the long run.

Following the above points is a step towards creating a highly efficient contact centre that boasts wellmotivated, productive agents who actively drive customer value and support business success.

Magnus Geverts is head of business development at Teleopti.

Web address: www.teleopti.com

Leadership

New Mothers Need More Than Just Employment Protection According to The Clear Company, women need extra support when they return to work after returning from maternity leave. omen don’t just need employment protection whilst on maternity leave, they also need support to transition back into work, according to diversity consultancy, The Clear Company.

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In light of recent reports from The Women and Equalities Committee and calls from MPs to address the discrimination pregnant women and new mothers face at work, The Clear Company has urged businesses to consider long term support for these individuals.

The diversity consultancy has outlined that while ensuring women can return to work after maternity leave is vital, providing them with the training and support they need to transition back into work is crucial to prevent them from feeling alienated from the rest of the workplace upon their return.

Kate Headley, Development Director at The Clear Consultancy, explains, “While the numerous initiatives to encourage more women back to work after maternity leave are positive moves to address the issue, there are additional supplements that employers must consider in order to retain these individuals long term. Yes, more females need protection at work in terms of being able to return to their job, but they also

need support in making this transition. Business owners need to remember that these individuals have gone through a time of incredible change and have been away from work for a lengthy period. Not only are they likely to consider the impact of working hours on their home life, but there’s also the potential that they will hit a few bumps in the road when they start back as they learn to juggle their new personal and professional lives.

“By providing greater support for women once they are back in employment, companies will really benefit from an engaged employee who feels valued and respected and is subsequently likely to have better productivity levels and be more loyal to the brand. That’s not to say that huge amounts of money need to be invested in schemes – simple moves such as linking them up with other mothers or new parents in the business will give them a support group to turn to for advice. If you still need convincing of the benefits of encouraging more women into work, a recent report from The Anita Borg Institute (The case for investing in women) found that Fortune 500 companies with at least three female directors saw an increase in return on invested capital by at least 66%, return on sales by 42%, and return on equity by at least 53%.”

Web address: www.theclearcompany.co.uk

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Leadership

Eight Steps to Profitable Sustainability There are eight ways in which companies can engage employees to foster business sustainability – and in doing so improve profits, according to CB Bhattacharya, the Pietro Ferrero Chair in Sustainability at ESMT Berlin business school.

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Define the company’s long-term purpose Why does the company do what it does?

Leaders should ask this question and share the answers with employees. Thinking about the social purpose that a company serves enables employees to latch onto the higher purpose and use the company as a means to express their values, which in turn, creates meaning in and at work.

Spell out the economic case for sustainability Research has shown that truly sustainable business is profitable business. In 2014 alone, IBM implemented energy conservation projects at 341 locations globally, cutting usage to the tune of $37.4 million in savings – 6.7% of IBM’s total energy use. Leaders should make this case to their management teams.

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Create sustainable knowledge and competence.

This is where training comes in – train employees so that they understand how to do things in a sustainable way. Teach them strategies that lead to sustainable practices.Make every employee a sustainability champion.

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Leaders should tap into their employee’s personal lives and highlight what matters to them. We can create businesses that are sustainable for our children and our children’s children – and make a profit while doing so.

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Co-create sustainable practices with employees Involve employees in sustainable idea generation – those that contribute to the process will be much more likely to engage with the process than those that feel sustainable practice is being forced on them from the top of the company.

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6.

Encourage healthy competition among employees Run competitions for the best sustainable business ideas. Encourage competition by rewarding the best.

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Make sustainability visible inside and outside the company Employees will feel a sense of pride and ‘buy in’ if the efforts they make internally are recognised publicly.

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Showcase the higher purpose by creating transformational change.

No company can go it alone and beat the tragedy of the commons. We need to learn to collaborate with traditional competitors to solve thorny environmental and social issues.

Bhattacharya says, “We should all aspire to leave our world a better place. For a company, that means having a meaningful and strategic purpose and finding ways to tie that purpose into the values and day-to-day work of individual employees.

Every person wants his or her working life to have a higher purpose that goes beyond doing a job and earning an income. Yet too many people spend most of their waking hours in workplaces that fall short of providing this. Companies that can resolve the tension people feel between their personal values and the best interests of the business will benefit by having a highly engaged and productive workforce—proud to play a part in bringing positive change to communities around the world.”

Leadership

Many Investors Are Uneasy, but They Can Still Grow Wealth with These Two Rules Nigel Green, chief executive of deVere Group believes investors should feed new money into markets at a steady pace and be cautious and selective with business opportunities.

any investors are currently uneasy, but there is abundant opportunity for investors to build wealth if they live by two key rules: continue to drip-feed new money into the markets and properly diversify portfolios.

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This message from Nigel Green, founder and chief executive of deVere Group, which has more than $10bn under advice, comes as investors hang off every utterance made by the Federal Reserve committee as interest rates are expected to soon rise, amid ongoing concerns over the impact of Brexit, and against a backdrop of overheated equities, unstable oil prices, the forthcoming U.S. presidential election, unusual central bank policies in many developed countries, the economic slowdown in China, and international security threats, amongst other factors.

Mr Green says, “Many return-hungry investors are having a bad time of it at the moment. They will tell you that decent returns are hard to come by. Global growth isn’t what it was. And that storm clouds are brewing on the horizon due to potentially seismic geopolitical factors that will impact markets. They are viewing this period of relatively low market volatility as ‘the calm before the storm’.

“This downbeat sentiment is fuelled by analysts, economists, politicians and media commentators who are all contradicting each other. But it is just that – sentiment. All too often the fundamentals are being overlooked.”

He continues, “There are two key rules by which investors should live in order to accumulate wealth.

First, they must continue to drip-feed new money into the markets at a steady and pre-established pace. They shouldn’t withdraw from investing. History shows that over the longer-term stocks go up. As such, if investors are serious about growing wealth over the next ten years they must carry on putting new money to work.

Just sitting back and waiting to see what happens is not an option if you want to achieve this aim.

“By contributing extra money to portfolios now, rather

than putting it off, investors are able to capitalise on the potential gains of the longer-term stock market projections sooner rather than later. Putting off investing means the exact opposite, of course.

“Also, not all stocks are currently overvalued. Due to Brexit for example, there are lots of high quality equities at very attractive prices. If investors proceed with caution and are extremely selective, there’s plenty of buying opportunities to be found in order to build wealth.”

He goes on to say, “Second is to ensure that portfolios are properly diversified. All too often investors think their portfolios are adequately diversified when they’re not. No one asset class, sector or region wins all the time, therefore in order to mitigate risk and benefit from opportunities, investors need to spread their funds around.

“Markets work in cycles and when one asset class, sector or region is up, others are going down. The aim is to minimise exposure to one class, so that if that class is not performing well, the others are holding up the portfolio and keeping your investment objectives on track.”

Mr Green concludes, “Despite the general sense of unease in the markets, by drip-feeding new money into the markets at a steady pace and ensuring portfolios are truly diversified, investors can still build wealth. It is a matter of proceeding with caution and being highly selective.”

Web address: www.devere-group.com

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Leadership COMPANY DETAILS Name: Louise Gatenby Company: The Orcid Partnership Email: louise.gatenby@orcid.co.uk Web Address: www.orcid.co.uk Address: 49 Jamaica Street, Liverpool, L1 0AH Telephone: 0845 8055958

No Substitute for Personal Experience, Judgment and Expertise

Orcid is a search and leadership consultancy which has contributed to the development of world class teams and organisations for well over a decade.

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hat products and services does your firm provide?

Orcid is a senior executive and non-executive search and leadership consultancy. We partner with our clients to identify, engage, appoint and develop outstanding business leaders who fit culturally and deliver commercially.

Within executive search, we specialise in general management positions and functional director level appointments, particularly in sales, marketing, finance and HR. Within our non-executive practice, we support a range of private, pubic and third sector clients to develop balanced and diverse boards.

How would you describe your firm’s client base?

We work on a regional, national and international basis with a broad range of clients who include leading global multi-national organisations, private SME’s, family owned and third sector organisations in the consumer, retail, travel, B2B and service sectors.

What factors make your firm unique?

We believe there are three things which make Orcid unique – our approach, our team and our model. We are passionately client-focussed and outcome driven in approach. The Orcid Partners personally deliver all aspects of each assignment, which means we each work on fewer assignments than in a typical search firm, investing more time and focus on delivering outstanding results on each and every assignment we handle.

From a team perspective, we believe there is no substitute for personal experience, judgment and expertise. Each of the Orcid Partners is a trusted, credible and proven sector specialist with direct industry experience and at least ten thousand hours of executive search and industry expertise, enabling us to provide a depth of understanding insight and advice to clients at the most senior levels.

Finally, our innovative business model and reward structure frees partners from the usual bureaucratic/target constraints of a typical firm, enabling them to be totally focussed on delivering great work for their clients.

What are the most significant challenges currently facing your business in the months and years ahead?

The 4th Industrial Revolution is going to have a big impact on our business, sector and the way we all work. At a macro level, as technology continues to develop and the world ‘gets smaller’ there are significant implications on global talent and leadership development and the role of a search firm.

Technology can also be a great enabler, and at Orcid we are an early adopter on a number of platforms and will continue to embrace and invest in new ways to streamline processes, improve the quality of services we provide and to add value in innovative ways.

What are the main objectives for your business in the future?

To continue to deliver outstanding work for our clients, and to be further recognised as the place where the best client-driven, ambitious and proven executive search specialists want to work as part of a vibrant, collaborative team.

What business or business person do you most admire and why?

Can I cheat and pick two? The first is Forrest Mars Jnr who passed away recently. I spent most of the 1990’s at Mars Inc. and the ‘Five Principles’ which guide the business are values I still apply every single day and are one of the things which makes Mars such a world class employer.

The second is Sir Richard Branson, another principled and ‘values led’ leader who builds fantastic businesses based on outstanding leadership, customer focus, commercial and innovative flair which I’m sure we would all like to emulate.

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Legal

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Winners Directory

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REGIONAL DISPUTE DISTINCTION AWARDS Company: Jincheng Tongda & Neal Email: shanghai@jtnfa.com Website: www.jtnfa.com Address: 9/F Standard Chartered Tower, 201 Century Avenue, Pudong District, Shanghai, 200120, China.

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UK TOP 50: TECHNOLOGY Company: ADDMUSTARD Name: Jen Balshaw Email: jen.balshaw@addmustard.com Address: 19, Pavilion View, New Road, Brighton, East Sussex, BN1 1UF Telephone: 01273855400

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Management Consultancy Company: CRO Management Consulting LLC Email: cro@cromanagementconsulting.com Website: www.cromanagementconsulting.com Telephone: ++1 541 598 6534 Address: 4446 Wood Forest Drive Peachtree Corners, GA 30092

Winners Directory

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RECRUITMENT Company: Company Fusion Ltd (Head Hunters and Search & Selection) Name: Mike Edwards CEO Email: info@companyfusion.com Website: www.companyfusion.com Address: Third Floor, Tring House, 77-81 High Street, Hertfordshire, HP23 4AB, UK Telephone: 0207 993 3368

65 l Corporate Vision September 2016