22 minute read
Dialpad
The next decade saw Walker work closely with the likes of Yahoo and Google, before he and a core group of individuals took it into their own hands to grow their own business.
In 2010, Walker and the founding team left Google to set up Dialpad in line with anticipating the future of the workplace.
“Work is not a place you go; it is a thing you do. It should not be restricted by excessive time spent commuting, and can be equally social, and even more productive, than that of the office,” Walker begins. “The movement to cloud-based technology in the workspace has changed the way we can proceed with work. We no longer require to be in one space to do our jobs.”
For Walker, that was what made the technology and communications industry so interesting and exciting — the prospects of a mass-progressive attitude towards streamlining the process of work, and the ability to integrate organisation and communication alongside flexibility and autonomy — each of which are key elements to a successful business.
SERVICES
AT A GLANCE
Craig Walker, CEO At the forefront of its services, the company promotes three innovative products in one platform, all of which are aimed to unite the business and digital realm with seamless efficiency. Dialpad provides services in 65 countries and has a number of large multinational customers.
UBERCONFERENCE FOR CONFERENCING
The first of these is Dialpad’s UberConference — a cloud-based conference system to enhance the fluidity and effectiveness of inter-business communication — that incorporates artificial intelligence (AI) technology, clarity of visuals and audio, and transcribes what has been said into text for any post-meeting stages of work. This transcription process is aided by voice intelligence (VI) as an aspect of the software, powered by AI, to transfer speech into text with accuracy and clarity, and one that is incorporated into Dialpad’s other products.
DIALPAD TALK FOR CALLS AND MESSAGING
Alongside the conference system, Dialpad Talk focuses around providing a unified communication system that integrates cloud-based technology so that no matter if you are using your mobile, laptop, tablet, desktop, or desk phone, there is never any need to switch between them.
CONTACT CENTRE AND SALES DIALLER
Providing businesses with the best possible customer service and enabling company sales teams to communicate more effectively with potential clients and coach new team members is a must have. With the help of VI, communicating swift and informative responses for the purposes of answering questions, or coaching team members, becomes an incredibly valuable integrated tool for individuals and businesses.
Jabra
Deliver Superior Customer Service with Jabra and Dialpad Customer Service? The reality is that most customers simply want to pick up the phone, call a company, and speak to a human. Dialpad partners with Jabra as a recommended headset provider to combine its advanced call center voice solution with best-inclass headsets that eliminate poor call quality and create a superior call experience for both agent and customer. Additionally, Jabra analytics and software enable the management capabilities and customizations needed to assure KPIs are met.
Get the freedom to choose how your contact center operates, whether in office or 100 percent remote -always-on and always-ready.
www.dialpad.com
During the period of the coronavirus pandemic, Dialpad has become an access point to the necessary business software required and utilised in today’s climate—the company has answered the need for a growing digital business base.
One of the key aspects of Dialpad to note is that it is one of the newer companies to be established as opposed to many tech giants that had established themselves in and around the 2000s.
This is a factor that sets it apart from the competition—it is a new company, building new platforms, with the latest technology to serve current requirements. Dialpad is moving forward with, and looking ahead of, the present industry and its needs.
“Using the latest software allows us to bring a new customer into the fold and get them up and running instantly, with no issues surrounding out-ofdate systems or tech,” Walker tells us. “Businesses can have thousands of
individuals using Dialpad’s products within five minutes. Meanwhile, other providers would take companies weeks of time, money, and hassle to get their businesses and its employees fully integrated.
“The products provided by Dialpad are as easy to gain full access to as signing up for Gmail.”
And having recently acquired HighFive, Dialpad has been able to considerably grow the potential of its products to better serve its customer base.
“AI is for robots, VI is for humans.”
One of the software additions
Dialpad has incorporated across its products, VI is an AI-based technology that is designed to interact with human emotion, read and reflect language, and respond in turn.
VI is the first technology to transform people’s conversations into data they can see and use, so they always understand, remember, and learn from everything that’s said long after the conversation is over.
“HighFive was a company that focused on conferencing and video conferencing services,” Walker says. “Bringing the business into the fold consequently brought its experts with it, who have spent more time on conference software and tech then we ever had.
“A result of the acquisition is that we combined the two pools of expertise into a product line like no other. Having that combination of industry experts makes our video capabilities both
VOICE INTELLIGENCE (VI)
consistently great and in continual VI is there before, during, and after every call that occurs. It’s creating to-do lists, finding answers to tough questions, and uncovering trends and insights that appear over time — and it’s all being done in real time, as the conversation is happening. As long as someone is talking, VI exists to make that conversation better.
What VI does: • Speech recognition • Natural language processing • Machine learning • Real-time coaching
improvement.”
Alongside this provision of expertise, the company incorporates AI as an aspect of its systems to better the experience of its users. This is one element of the firm that Walker notes is paramount to its success, and an aspect of Dialpad that is way ahead of any other business in the field.
“We are in front of our competitors on artificial intelligence. AI provides data that goes beyond the norm and helps tailor customer experiences directly to best suit the individual,” he tells us. “Establishing people with a high-quality connection and a personally customised experience allows Dialpad to provide a high level of service, and as a result, helps those individuals improve the running of their businesses.”
Dialpad’s effective products, high level of service, and innovative technology are reflected in the financial investment granted to the company.
Recently, the company raised a substantial $125 million in financing to aid expansion, evolution, and growth.
“I believe it was a recognition from the market of the promise and opportunity Dialpad holds,” Walker tells us. “The company is the most modern platform in the current market, and this level of investment will really enable us to show the industry and our customers what we can do.”
“It is great to have the trust and support of the market in doing so.”
This support is not only reflected in financial investment. As a global tech company, relationships with various business and industry partners play an important role in the success of Dialpad.
As a software provider, collaboration with external companies with regard to reaching out to potential customers and organising the process of product incorporation is of paramount importance.
The combination of excellent products and service, financial investment, and partner collaboration
LIMITED IN” – CRAIG WALKER
have helped Dialpad reach above and beyond its industry competition. As for the future of the company, Walker elaborates on the promising and optimistic plans for the years ahead.
“We are going to keep investing in and growing company teams, such as the engineering, sales, and marketing teams, and expanding further internationally covering areas we are currently limited in,” he says, bringing the conversation to a close.
“Dialpad has a sales office in Tokyo, Sydney, and London, and we will be expanding more into the Asian market as well as further into Europe, to reach customers and businesses that need our innovative and expert products and services, and to better the future of work.”
DIALPAD
Tel: 415-469-1690 sales@dialpad.com www.dialpad.com
GivingCredit
Atradius Group is a world leader in trade credit risk thanks to a simple philosophy: close collaboration with its customers
Writer: Dani Redd | Project Manager: Sam Love
You always think about insuring your property, or about key man insurance if you are an SME, and insuring your fleet if you have cars. It is mandatory to ensure these assets. But a business’ receivables balance sheet – often its largest asset – goes uninsured a lot of the time,” Gordon Cessford tells us.
He heads up the America region of Atradius, a multinational business specialising in trade credit insurance. In America, trade insurance is not very well known, and the market is underpenetrated.
This is something that Atradius is here to change.
“Credit insurance is a very simple product,” Cessford explains. “Company A sells to Company B. They give them an amount of time – say 60 days – to settle the receivable. If after that time the bill has not been settled, they flag it to Atradius. We try and collect, and if we can’t, then we settle that invoice.”
An insured customer thereby has the assurance that they will receive payment for services they provide. It gives larger companies confidence to explore new markets and offerings while, for smaller and medium businesses, it provides vital financial security.
In today’s current economic climate, trade credit insurance has never been more necessary.
A CLIENT-FOCUSED BUSINESS
The Atradius Group is a world leader in credit insurance and debt collection, having been in operation since 1935. It currently has 3,700 staff members operating in 54 countries and revenues in excess of two billion euros. Atradius has 12 offices across the U.S., Canada and Mexico. The U.S. operation, Atradius Trade Credit Insurance, Inc. (ATCI) is headquartered near Baltimore, Maryland and also has offices in New York, Chicago, Irvine, Dallas, New Jersey and Indiana. ATCI works in two ways – with a range of broker partners and through its agents in the field who bring in direct business.
“One of the challenges in the U.S. market is the geographical spread, because we prefer being close to our clients. Working with such vast geographical distances makes it difficult to be as close as we would like to these clients,” Cessford says.
“I’ll give you an example – in China, most of the business is done in Beijing, Shanghai or Shenzhen, so with three offices we captured 60-70 percent of the market. You can’t do that with the
ATRADIUS WORLDWIDE OFFERINGS
Atradius offers the following services through its various units in the group:
CREDIT INSURANCE: Credit insurance protects businesses against credit risks, such as the insolvency of their customers.
BONDING: Each market requires a different type of surety bond. As a global company, Atradius is attuned to these differences. In certain jurisdictions, but not currently in the U.S., it offers a variety of bonds closely linked to local requirements and customer needs in each of its countries of operation.
DEBT COLLECTIONS: Atradius Collections offers debt collections, and will support collections of outstanding invoices in many countries, time zones, currencies and languages.
REINSURANCE: As a trusted global leader in credit reinsurance, Atradius Reinsurance has a team of underwriters supporting major credit insurance, surety and bonding firms across the world. U.S., it’s just too diverse. Our plan in the U.S. is to expand our reach so we can be closer to our clients.”
One can see the company’s commitment to this goal if we look at the growth of offices and employees over the course of the past eight years: ATCI more than tripled the amount of sales people and regional offices since 2012.
Being close to its clients is one of Atradius’ main goals, as well as, according to Cessford, one of the key factors differentiating them from the competition. The success of this approach is reflected in 94% customers renewing their contracts year over year, an industry high record.
The company takes pride in its customer service and makes sure that it is responsive to client requests and queries. On average, it replies to 89 percent of client credit limit requests within 48 hours.
“In order to respond to client request as quickly as we do, we have to have access to information such as credit reports and financials to underwrite it. For small-scale requests, we have artificial intelligence to aid the process, but a lot of it is done with people looking at numbers and giving expert opinions on the clients. We have a significant amount of information we invest in to help give such a quick response,” the President of Atradius in North America explains.
Atradius invests heavily in technology. It has a seamless online application process and a comprehensive analytics tool that clients can use to take a further look at their portfolios. It is also developing an application programming interface (API) that will allow customers and clients to directly interact with its systems – instead of logging on and asking for a credit limit, it is done automatically through their ERPs.
“That’s very much where we see our strong point moving forward – digital tools that will help us better serve our customers when we cannot physically be there in front of them,” Cessford said.
LNS Insurance Services, LLC
LNS Insurance Services has worked closely with Atradius and has maintained a long ongoing relationship with Atradius as well as with our clients.
TESTIMONIALS
“Throughout our 35-year connection with LNS Insurance Services, they have worked alongside ESI Enterprises with every aspect of our daily Credit Insurance needs. From creatively negotiating difficult coverages, handling past due accounts, claims, and policy structure changing as we grew.
We have always been completely satisfied with the high level of service provided.
LNS has always provided professional, friendly, and prompt action as needed putting their clients at the highest level of importance.
I highly recommend them as a topquality insurance brokerage with excellent knowledge and service on all credit insurance needs”
“I believe that working with and having LNS Insurance Services handle our Credit Insurance policies for the past 15 years has been a true advantage for Private Label PC Inc.
Their expert knowledge and personal care in negotiating a policy that works for us, having a broker that will fight for what we need on a daily basis, and working hand in hand with our company on a daily basis on all issues has enabled Private Label to maintain and grow business securely and confidently.
In Today’s unsure domestic and global trade, piece of mind is important and for this we thank LNS.”
(562) 343-5478 lns@prodigy.net
LNS INSURANCE SERVICES, LLC Credit Insurance Specialist Broker
Credit Insurance is the wall between success and failure in today’s uncertain world of trade!
With 35 year’s experience dealing solely in Trade Credit Insurance, our goal is not only to find the best coverage, terms, and structure but to assist you in understanding Credit Insurance; how to administrate it and use it as an asset to your company.
We are a top independent specialist agency in southern California of all the credit insurance policies now being written. Our global services are worldwide with direct access to underwriting.
We market and place credit insurance as well as providing full daily service in all aspects of the daily administration of the policies to our clients such as:
Use it to Grow Safely and Use it to Protect what you have worked so hard to build!
• Processing and recording all limit requests and coverage decisions as needed • Negotiating and dealing directly with underwriting on difficult coverages. • Assisting in obtaining needed buyer documents if necessary • Processing & handling buyers reviews, past dues, and coverage issues • Receiving, reviewing, recording and handling claims • Negotiating new policies, renewal terms, and competitive quotes
3350 E 7th Street, Ste 501, Long Beach, CA 90804 Telephone: (562) 343-5478 Fax: (562) 343-1179 Email: LNS@prodigy.net www.lnsinsuranceservices.com
Gordon Cessford, President of Atradius North America
– GORDON CESSFORD
RELATIONSHIP-BUILDING
Cessford believes that building relationships is key to growing and maintaining business.
“We have our own sales team but broker partners are our lifeblood. We are very committed to working closely with them,” he explains.
“We have open, honest, transparent dialogue with them. They are brokers so their role is to find the best possible deal for their clients, but we work closely with them. I call it a true partnership. We have tough discussions with them – I don’t shy away from it, and neither do they; they like to engage.”
ATCI relies on brokers for constructive feedback about its products and services. Before COVID, it would hold regular meetings with its brokers to see what they are looking for and how they can improve. In 2021, it will undertake an extensive survey project to help ascertain the company’s strengths and areas needing work.
“Feedback is such a valuable thing. It lets you know whether you are going in the right direction or if a particular area, such as underwriting or claims, needs a stronger focus. We rely heavily on our broker partners to give us that feedback,” the President of ATCI says.
Atradius’ continued high performance is a key aspect of relationship-building with brokers.
“We have to make sure we offer the service that is sold to clients – if they tell their client ‘go with Atradius, they are the best in class, have great underwriting skills and are fun people to work with,’ and then we’re none of those things, it doesn’t work. [Brokers] are good people to work with because they are always challenging us,” Cessford explains.
Moving the focus inside of the organization, he believes that Atradius is a high-performing company thanks to its excellent staff.
One Source Risk Management
One Source Risk Management and Funding was established in 1988 and today stands as the largest speciality credit risk broker in North America.
The company manages over 1,000 clients and operates out of its global operations and service hub located in Houston, Texas.
Bolstering its presence are additional offices in both the USA and Canada, along with more than 550 dedicated specialists around the world who provide access to expertise insurance, risk solutions, support services, monitoring, credit consulting, marketing, collections and risk management.
One Source Risk Management and Funding is a member of the International Credit Brokers Alliance (ICBA).
mike@onesourcerm.com
Growing business, Securing success
Mike DeLuca - Phone: (443) 838-4141 Email: mike@onesourcerm.com
OUR SERVICES
RISK TRANSFER
Credit Insurance Structured Credit Political Risk Insurance RISK FINANCING
Collateral Enhancement Supply Chain Finance Factoring
RISK SOLUTIONS Receivable PUT Options Alternative Risk Transfer Strategic Use of Captives RISK MANAGEMENT
Credit & Collections Consulting Credit Management Support Commercial Collections
ARI Global, Inc. Global Brokers of Accounts Receivable Insurance
Credit Insurance Offers:
• Catastrophic Loss Protection • Safely Increase Existing Credit Lines • Safely Sell to New Clients • Include A/R concentrations
• Offices throughout the United States • Correspondent Brokers in Europe, Asia, America, Canada, Australia www.ariglobal.com
1311 N. Westshore Blvd. • First Floor • Suite 315 • Tampa, FL 33607 Office: (800)320-7338 - (813)288-8680 info@ariglobal.com | creditinsurance.com
“Our people are the core of the business, and we have the best people in the business on our team,” he tells me.
Cessford believes that attracting and maintaining the best talent is fundamental to the business. Atradius ensures staff are well supported, both from a wellbeing perspective and in terms of their growth within the company.
It is important to understand each individual staff member – their goals, areas of strength and areas of development. Cessford welcomes internal feedback as much as he does external feedback, as it helps him develop his staff, which he believes is Atradius’ biggest asset.
“I have to give credit to our team who are hardworking, dedicated and committed to providing the best possible service to our clients, with a good deal of fun and smiles at the same time,” he says.
COVID-19
During 2020, the business landscape changed drastically on a week-byweek basis. Businesses have had to adapt and become more resilient. ATCI is no exception. The company put the health and safety of its staff first and foremost, so employees have been working from home since the onset of the pandemic to provide uninterrupted service to their clients.
Its second objective was to build more flexibility into products for its clients. In particular, Atradius Group offered some extensions in reporting deadlines and premiums settlement to ensure that businesses affected by Covid19 related closures and supply chain disruption could continue being protected by its insurance policies.
“This allows companies to still have the benefit of the coverage, which is what they need at the moment, because there’s such uncertainty around lockdown and businesses remaining solvent,” Cessford explains.
Trade Credit Insurance
During these difficult times, our services create a meaningful difference to our customers, their employees, and their families.
Trade Credit Insurance Agency (TCIA) assisted several customers in receiving critical claim payments during the pandemic. One customer with a seven-figure loss avoided bankruptcy because we were able to get their claim paid early. Another business would not have made it if they had not insured their largest customer who closed their doors permanently.
We are proud that TCIA plays a role in keeping these companies and their employees afloat during difficult times.
www.tciallc.com
Grow and protect your business with Trade Credit Insurance
Contact us today to see how a Trade Credit Insurance progam can benefit your company.
T 716.932.7713 E info@tciallc.com
WWW.TCIALLC.COM
PROTECTION AGAINST BAD DEBT
Insolvency, Non-Payment, and Political Risk loss protection.
ACCESS TO RISK INFORMATION
Our professional relationships with carriers provide your risk team with invaluable information on customers and prospects.
BE MORE COMPETITIVE
Safely extend terms to customers to increase sales.
IMPROVE BORROWING ABILITY
Receive additional working capital from your bank with insured accounts receivable.
EXPERT EXPERIENCE
TCIA, LLC is a brokerage of experts with over 140 years of experience working with companies like yours to address your credit risk and financial needs.
The pandemic, however, negatively affected the trade credit insurance sector as well.
“We are very up front about this issue,” Cessford says. “Clearly, the impact of COVID-19 on businesses means we have to manage our exposure levels, by reducing or sometimes removing credit limits. It’s not great news, but we are very transparent about what we’re doing and how and why we’re doing it.”
Atradius learned how to react from the 2007-2008 global financial crisis. “This time around, communication has been key. We’ve made coverage reductions with full transparency to the client. We have had great feedback from clients and brokers praising us for the way that this has been done. Despite the fact that reducing coverage is not what we prefer, the positive feedback we’ve received has been really heart-warming.”
Cessford stresses that coverage reductions should not be seen as Atradius working against the client; rather, it is working with them to help manage their credit limit.
“We are in the business of risk management and we are true partners with our clients,” he says. “We are in the business of supporting them – it’s not just about risk transfer. For example, with accident insurance, you have an accident, you get paid. With credit insurance, someone does not pay, you get your claim settled. But we are also managing that relationship so we ask our clients to only take risks they can afford. We’re adding value to that relationship and complementing what a company is already doing for their credit management procedures.”
Adding value to client relationships is what ATCI wants to continue doing. Like any business, it wants to continue growing, with plans to expand its reach throughout North America. But Cessford stresses the importance of growing sustainably and continuing to build partnerships and nurture staff talent.
“I want to work with clients and brokers who have a long-term goal in mind, not those who are here today, gone tomorrow. That is not the kind of relationship we look for,” he concludes.
ATRADIUS TRADE CREDIT INSURANCE, INC.
Tel: +1 410 568 3850 info.us@atradius.com www.atradius.us
INSURANCE Moves to the Cloud Progressive digitalisation paves the way for businesses around the globe, we spoke to Sentry about how data and technology are changing the insurance industry
Writer: Marcus Kääpä | Project Manager: Sam Love
Insurance companies are an important contributor to many organisations and small-scale businesses that are pitched in competition against the giants of their markets.
In a world where larger companies serve to provide goods and services to a broad swathe of customers, often with fast delivery times, cheaper prices, and larger varieties, the smaller business owner is not just competing, but also having to survive.
Having the right insurance partner provides businesses of all sizes a competitive advantage.
An aspect of business most accentuated by 2020’s coronavirus pandemic has been individual companies’ abilities to adapt to increasing digital means of operation, and a shift to the online workplace.
Sentry has been a key player of the insurance industry for more than 115 years. On the commercial side, they provide everything from traditional property and casualty to worker’s compensation and 401(k) services. On the personal side, they provide non-standard auto and motorcycle coverage.
