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Stuart O'Brien

Join these great organisations at the Contact Centre & Customer Services Summit

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Register to attend the FREE Contact Centre & Customer Services Summit and you’ll be joining the likes Boots, BT, Tesco and Thomas Cook at the leading event for the customer service industry.

April 24th-25th, London Heathrow

Hear from expert speakers such as Steve McSherry, Country Manager of Daktella, who has over thirty years experience within the Contact Centre market and Kate Law who will discuss the skills and competencies that contact centre leaders need – full details here.

In addition, you’ll meet with suppliers who can help with your upcoming plans and projects, network with other professionals and enjoy an overnight stay, dinner with entertainment and all meals/refreshments.

Those already booked to attend include: 

Anglian Group
Ansell Healthcare Europe NV
Belfius Bank
Boots UK
Bourneville Village Trust
BT Group
Cambridgeshire Constabulary
Carnival UK
G4S
House Of Commons
KCS Education
Kudos Shower Products
Location One
London Borough of Barking & Dagenham
Masabi
Northern Power Grid
Numatic International Ltd
Ocado
Openreach Ltd
PPG Industries
Sure
Tesco
Thomas Cook
Thomas Cook Group
Unipart Group
Urban Outfitters
YOPA Property
Zenith

Would you like to attend? Book your free place here!

Any questions, please get in touch.

Webhelp expands leadership team with new MD Client Solutions

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Webhelp, a leading global customer experience and business solutions provider, has expanded its leadership team further with the appointment of Samantha Williams (pictured) as MD, Client Solutions.

Samantha, who has considerable experience in driving large transnational deals across the CXAAS & SAAS, BPO industry, has worked with many UK and global organisations, so is well placed to deliver a new perspective and innovative customer experience solutions, in line with Webhelps’ growth strategy.

Jonathan Shawcross, Webhelp’s Chief Growth Officer said: “I am delighted to welcome Samantha to Webhelp.  This is a key appointment for us as we extend our team and ability to invest in our digital transformation capabilities and CX consulting for our clients to create value driven end to end customer journeys.”

Webhelp experienced very strong client growth in 2022, globally on boarding over 240 new logo clients, and welcoming more than 25,000 game-changers to the business. In line with increased demand, it continued to bolster its Webhelp Anywhere proposition, which combines best shoring with remote, hybrid and on-site operations and tech-enabled capabilities to deliver flexible and tailored solutions.

This year, Webhelp will continue its strategic growth, expanding further into new and current key locations, as well as investments in people, technology, and innovation.

Digital transformation for finance – and what it means for customer experience

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By Dr. Palanivel Rathinasabapathi Velmurugan is a Lecturer at Berlin School of Business and Innovation (BSBI) in Human Resource Management & Finance Stream

Information technology is becoming an integral part of our daily routines because of digital transformation. All businesses must embrace digital transformation, no matter how large or small. If you fail to incorporate digital transformation into your business, you will fail. As you use digital transformation in your business, you will benefit from improved efficiency, better business agility, and a better understanding of how to deliver value to customers, employees, and stakeholders.

In recent years, the financial sector has experienced a variety of digital transformation trends, which have several advantages for businesses and society at large. Digital transformation in finance is the method of using digital technologies to improve financial services with the objective of making them more efficient, effective, and easy to access anywhere in the world. In the context of finance transformation, it is possible to restructure and implement the finance working model, bookkeeping and finance activities, financial capabilities, and re-platforming of finance and accounting system software. With the advent of digital transformation in finance, various FinTech companies now offer a wide range of digital services to their customers.

Over the last few years, a vast number of banking customers have shifted from traditional banking to mobile banking (Digital Transformation). As a result, customers save time when accessing the bank in person since it is generally less busy, and it is more convenient because they can access online banking anytime, anywhere. Paperless transactions are one of the most significant trends in mobile banking.

Blockchain technology (Digital Transformation) plays a crucial role in this transformation. By introducing blockchain, people will be able to recognize, record, and store assets digitally and will be able to invest their resources and trade in markets better. Through better integration and governance, blockchain can support financial operations more efficiently and effectively. This has resulted in blockchain playing an increasingly significant role in the digital transformation of finance and investments.

Businesses that implement robotic process automation (Digital Transformation) can significantly improve their ability to digitize finance functions. Automating repetitive tasks reduces an employee’s workload and frees them up to emphasize value-added activities. Additionally, RPA can reduce the likelihood of human error, improving accuracy and compliance. It is expected that RPA will play a more vital role in achieving efficiency and measuring success as organizations continue to digitize their finance functions.

In the world of financial data, artificial intelligence (Digital Transformation) can be useful in identifying gaps and inconsistencies that would otherwise go unnoticed. By using AI, expense reports can be produced accurately and up to date, which is crucial for making informed decisions. The forecasts provided by finance companies are based on past data and current trends, so they can help enterprises foresee future demands and plan appropriately. Using AI-enabled analytics, the digital finance transformation can be supported through improved data quality, truthfulness, and efficiency.

After AI, quantum computing made use of the quantum mechanical phenomenon to tackle a wide variety of computational and algorithmic issues. A financial instrument, such as European call options in the derivatives market, is priced over time using the Black-Scholes-Merton model that uses Brownian motion. A wide range of applications is possible with this technology, including fraud detection, high-frequency trading, payments, and cybersecurity. The use of quantum AI (Digital Transformation) automates the entire crypto trading process to make it easy and profitable for you to invest in crypto. An advanced AI and quantum computing algorithm are integrated into a web-based computer programme. In trading, AI Quantum computing is the first system that combines AI with Quantum Computing.

Increasing accuracy, providing more reliable output, reducing manual intervention, and increasing automation are considered the top business case drivers of the digitalization of finance functions by customers. As mentioned in this article’s introduction, ICT is an integral part of our daily life. In this world, customers and investors will never be able to return to traditional forms of financial trade or services once they have participated in the digital transformation of finance.

Do you specialise in Analytics for contact centres? We want to hear from you!

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Each month on Contact Centres Briefing we’re shining the spotlight on a different part of the customer care market – and in February we’re focusing on Analytics.

It’s all part of our ‘Recommended’ editorial feature, designed to help customer care industry buyers find the best products and services available today.

So, if you’re a supplier of Analytics solutions and would like to be included as part of this exciting new shop window, we’d love to hear from you – for more info, contact Mark Connell on m.connell@forumevents.co.uk.

Here are the areas we’ll be covering, month by month:

Feb – Analytics
Mar – Call Centre Technology
Apr – Automated Customer Satisfaction
May – Social Media
Jun – Artificial Intelligence
Jul – Virtual Call/Contact Centres
Aug – Training & Development
Sep – Knowledge Management
Oct – Web Self Service/Chat
Nov – Display Boards
Dec – CRM
Jan – Agent Coaching & Monitoring

For more information on any of the above, contact Mark Connell on m.connell@forumevents.co.uk.

UK National Contact Centre Awards: Submit your entry today!

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The largest awards programme that recognises contact centre talent in the UK is accepting entries until Friday 24 February 2023.

Entering the UK National Contact Centre Awards is easy. Just register on the website, choose your categories, and fill in the short form. It’s a quick and easy process to follow!

You can enter as many times as you like – it’s free for CCMA members and just £249 +VAT for non-members with discounts for multiple entries.

Now in their 28th year, the UK National Contact Centre Awards continues to recognise the best talent in our industry. Judges are looking for the individuals and teams in our industry who are role models, inspiring others and deserve recognition for the work they are doing in their contact centre operation.

This year, the UKNCCA have refreshed the programme and added several new categories, including:

  • Learning Manager of the Year
  • Trainer of the Year
  • Significant Contributor
  • Leadership Team of the Year
  • Best Colleague Wellbeing Programme
  • Best Approach to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB)
  • Best Approach to CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility)

How many reasons do you need to recognise and reward your talent? Here is just a few…

  • Recognise a significant year of achievement
  • Raise the profile of your team
  • Benchmark your people/teams
  • Give your people real recognition
  • Engage your colleagues
  • Attract new people
  • Celebrate your achievements
  • Join a community of exceptional contact centres, leaders and teams

The UKNCCAs are now accepting entries online at www.ukncca.com until Friday 24 February.

Visit www.ukncca.com for tips and advice, key dates, categories, judging criteria and lots more. And it’s worth following the UKNCCA on social media too #ukncca.

Customer data and analytics ‘top priority’ for achieving customer service goals

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Customer service and support leaders cited customer data and analytics as a top priority for achieving organisational goals in 2023, according top new research.

In a Gartner online survey of 283 customer service and support leaders from August-October 2022, 84% of customer service and service support leaders cited customer data and analytics as “very or extremely important” for achieving their organisational goals in 2023. Eighty percent of respondents ranked digital channel effectiveness as “very or extremely important,” along with employee performance, development and quality assurance.

The Gartner survey revealed improving operations and growing the business are the two most important business goals for 2023.

“Understanding customers’ needs and expectations for their service experience is integral for improving loyalty and creating customer value, especially when organizations are up against economic headwinds,” said Jonathan Schmidt, Sr Principal, Advisory in the Gartner Customer Service & Support practice. “Executing on this vision requires investment in customer data and analytics, knowledge management, and an enduring partnership with IT.”

In light of recent economic headwinds, customer service and support leaders plan to devote more resources to improving, automating or eliminating inefficient processes (59% of respondents), migrating service volume to digital and self-service channels (51%) and contributing to the top-line by creating customer value (46%) in the near future.

“In tough economic times, customer service and support leaders are often encouraged by their CFOs to make do with what they have,” said Schmidt. “Given how difficult it is to hire and retain talent, it makes sense that they are tackling inefficiencies and prioritizing digital channels as a strategy for driving down costs without reducing headcount or sacrificing customer experience.”

With these survey findings in mind, Gartner recommends customer service and support leaders:

  • Collect actionable customer data across channels through a robust VoC program that goes beyond surveys and incorporates more advanced methods such as speech, text and digital experience analytics. Leveraging these methods for decisions on personnel, processes and technologies, is key to a successful customer service function.
  • Build digital self-service teams to oversee the digital channel strategy, manage channels like products, and work closely with data analysts to develop and measure success metrics.
  • Enable customer service agents with technology, such as connected desktops, to help them better guide customers through resolution.

Global government IT spending to grow 6.8%, fuelled by TX demand

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Worldwide government IT spending is forecast to total $588.9 billion in 2023, an increase of 6.8% from 2022, fuelled by demand for consumer-like Total Experience (TX) strategies.

“Government organizations are continuing to modernize legacy IT and invest in initiatives that improve access to digital services as constituents increasingly demand experiences that are equivalent to online customer interactions in the private sector,” said Daniel Snyder, Director Analyst at Gartner. “The total experience (TX) framework, which helps agencies manage employee and citizen interactions, is enabling transformation and will remain among the main drivers of IT spend in 2023.”

Along with improving the citizen experience and engagement, a cohesive TX strategy will help governments advance digital skills and literacy in their workforces by providing modern tools and approaches to  lessen friction in government work. Failing to build a solid TX strategy increases service friction, leading to risk of service delays and underwhelming service experiences.

In 2023, government IT spending is forecast to increase across all segments except devices, as government end-users extend the useful life of their devices that were acquired at the onset of the pandemic (see Table 1). Software will be the highest growing segment in 2023 followed by IT services and internal services.

Table 1. Worldwide Government IT Spending Forecast (Millions of U.S. Dollars)

  2021 Spending 2021 Growth (%) 2022 Spending 2022 Growth (%) 2023 Spending 2023 Growth (%)
Data Center Systems 23,110 7.0 25,042 8.4 25,156 0.5
Devices 37,520 11.6 34,794 -7.3 34,667 -0.4
Internal Services 68,469 -1.9 67,119 -2.0 68,602 2.2
IT Services 185,564 10.8 193,925 4.5 209,261 7.9
Software 148,962 16.2 162,803 9.3 183,103 12.5
Telecom Services 71,757 1.4 67,775 -5.5 68,209 0.6
Total 535,382 8.9 551,458 3.0 588,998 6.8

Source: Gartner (December 2022)

Initiatives such as migrating services to the cloud, modernizing applications, and fortifying network security are among the primary innovation priorities that governments are focused on to improve public engagement and satisfaction.

Government CIOs Will Prioritize Improved Use of Data and Digitalization Across Organizations

According to the 2023 Gartner CIO and Technology Executive Survey, digital transformation, leveraging and using data effectively and technology modernization are the top three priorities of government CIOs.

“Delivering on these priorities depends on establishing a shared, organization-wide digital vision and integrating that vision into enterprise-level strategies,” said Apeksha Kaushik, Principal Analyst at Gartner. “In alignment to these priorities, investments will increase in cybersecurity, application modernization, cloud platforms, integration technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), and business/data analytics tools.”

At the same time, CIOs will have to tackle challenges such as varying stakeholder expectations and developing action plans accordingly. “Government CIOs will need to address concerns of digital transformation with mission objectives. They need to work closely with government executives to ensure a shared understanding of vision, roadmap and linkage to mission critical priorities,” added Kaushik.

EU businesses fined over 830m euros for GDPR violations in 2022

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As of December 2022 companies based in the EU paid a total of €2.83 billion in 1,401 cases for violating various data protection laws. Out of that, GDPR fines in 2022 total €832 million, which is 36% lower than the €1.3 billion paid in 2021.
However, according to the latest data analysed by Atlas VPN last year stands out not in the total sum fined, but in the severity of the charges imposed on a single entity — Meta.
The data for the analysis was extracted from Enforcementtracker, though not all cases are made public.
While the heftiest sum charged for violations was recorded in Q3 of 2021, the third quarter of 2022 was also significant, as businesses were penalized €430 million.
The Data Protection Commission (DPC), an authority for GDPR enforcement in Ireland, imposed a €405 million fine for Meta Platforms Ireland Limited (Instagram) on September 5th, 2022.
Two issues were found with the processing of personal data pertaining to child users of Instagram.

The children’s email addresses and phone numbers were publicly exposed when using the Instagram business account function, and Instagram profiles of kids were public-by-default.

Another hefty sum of €265 million was penalized to the same entity on November 25th, 2022, when the DPC declared that Meta had infringed two articles of the EU’s data protection laws after details of Facebook users from around the world were scraped from public profiles in 2018 and 2019.

Moreover, the DPC issued a “reprimand and an order” forcing Meta to “bring its processing into compliance by executing a range of specified remedial activities within a specific deadline”.
Meta complied and made the adjustments within the required timeframe. To date, Meta has paid around €1 billion for GDPR violations.

Contact Centre Summit: Your key to success in 2023 – Register today!

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There’s a complimentary guest pass reserved for you to attend the Contact Centre Summit on 24 – 25th April – join your fellow professionals and leading suppliers at the Radisson Hotel and Conference Centre London Heathrow.

Your place is entirely free of charge, included will be:

– An itinerary of pre-arranged meetings with suppliers based on your requirements and upcoming projects
– Seminar sessions led by Industry Leaders*
– Lunch and refreshments throughout the event
– Numerous opportunities to network with other industry professionals

– Complimentary accommodation (on the evening of 24 April)

– A seat at the Gala Dinner (on the evening of 24 April)

This innovative event is the most time effective way to meet solution providers and is completely flexible too – join us for both days, one day or half day – whichever suits your busy schedule best.

CONFIRM YOUR PLACE TODAY!

Alternatively, contact us today for further information.

Daktela enhances its automated chat functionality with Coworkers.ai acquisition

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Daktela has acquired Coworkers.ai, with the technology set to be integrated into its software by the end of this year, enhancing the company’s existing chatbot capability and enabling businesses in the UK to deploy complex automated chat solutions in their customer communications.

Coworkers.ai are intelligent virtual assistants that use contextual AI. This means they understand the intent of the person they’re communicating with; they recognise moods and understand any cultural, historical and situational features. This type of AI uses machine learning combined with algorithms that listen and learn, taking a human approach to process content.

Intelligent voicebots, chatbots and mailbots can speed up resolution times and deliver more meaningful, accurate, and relevant recommendations and answers. They ultimately allow customers to get answers faster, self-serve 24/7 and free your staff from time-consuming, repetitive tasks.

The Coworkers’ pronunciation, intonation, and reactions are also natural, so many users don’t even know they’re communicating with a bot.

For Daktela, this is the first of many planned acquisitions. In addition to organic growth and global expansion, this should place the company among the top 10 global providers of CCaaS services in the next five years.

David Hájek, Co-Founder and Head of Global Expansion at Daktela, said: “Our acquisition strategy has two parts. We are looking for companies with a similar focus and profile, as Daktela, in those foreign markets where we are not present today or where we are starting. The second type is technological acquisitions, which will help us fundamentally improve our product portfolio and scale our core technology; Coworkers.ai is an example of this. Artificial intelligence is no longer a buzzword today; within a few years, it will become a necessary reality in companies.”

His words are echoed by Gartner’s analysis, which stated that by 2026, 10% of customer and business communication should be automated due to artificial intelligence, saving companies an estimated 80 billion US dollars.

Daktela’s acquisition of Coworkers.ai comes three years after its inception. A significant benefit of their solution is that it uses its own natural language processing (NLP) technology based on artificial intelligence.

Coworkers.ai co-founder Luboš Urbančok added: “Thanks to this, our voicebots and chatbots are significantly ‘smarter’ than others and can solve even more complex requests. At the same time, we are a low-code platform, which means that practically anyone can handle the implementation in the company even without programming knowledge,” C

The Coworkers.ai enhanced chatbot and voicebot technology will be available in the UK from December 2022

If you’d like to find out how this technology can help your business communications, please get in touch with Daktela UK. Tel: 0800 470 2159 Email: info@daktela.co.uk