Movers and Shakers – August 2012

There seems to be a lot of people moving around in the industry this month.

Here we bring you news of Bright UK Ltd, Fusion, Aspect, Sytel, Jacada and Journeycall.

New contact centre manager joins Fusion Peterborough

Fusion Contact Centre Services has expanded its management team with the appointment of a new Contact Centre Manager. Jane Alexander has over 16 years of experience in contact centre management, gained at locally based travel company, Thomas Cook.

As part of her new role, Jane will work with Fusion’s customer service advisors, to help enhance customer communication. In addition, the contact centre is set to roll-out a new Five Star Advisor Development Programme this summer, which will help employees to become brand specialists.

Daren Homewood, Head of Site at Fusion Peterborough, commented: “Jane has fantastic contact centre and people management experience. With her expertise she will be a key member of the leadership team as Fusion continues to strive for customer service excellence.”

Jane Alexander added: “Advisors are the human face of the brand, and with Fusion looking after some very well-known names in financial services, its approach to delivering customer service needs to be second to none. I very much enjoy working in a fast-paced environment, so I am looking forward to helping drive the success of the new Five Star Advisor Development Programme to help deliver even better customer service levels.”

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Donna Steed joins Journeycall

North East Scotland contact centre operator, Journeycall, has appointed Donna Steed as Account Manager for National Railcards, based at its Laurencekirk headquarters.

Trisha Pirie, Journeycall Managing Director, said: “I’m delighted to welcome Donna to the Journeycall team. As a highly experienced Account Manager, Donna will be managing the £35m a year National Railcards online issuing contract.”

Commenting on her new role, Donna said: “National Railcards is a blue chip contract for Journeycall.  I’m looking forward to taking online issuing from strength to strength as people increasingly realise how convenient it is to buy and renew railcards online from the comfort of their home.”

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Bright UK appoints marketing manager

Tina Squire will join Bright this autumn, taking over the responsibility for developing Bright’s marketing and new business. She will oversee both the benchmarking and customer satisfaction brands, as well as the Bright brand in general.

Bright’s MD Mats Rennstam comments: “It is very exciting to get Tina on board. She has a superb contact centre background for the role, with, for example, eight combined years as Operations Manager for Teleperformance and Serco Listening.  She will be instrumental in significantly raising our profile this year.”

Tina joins a fast-growing team, recently strengthened by Richard Beard, who moved to Bright from ShopDirect where he was Customer Experience Manager.

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Aspect Software appoints Stewart Bloom new Chief Executive Officer

Bloom brings over 28 years of experience to Aspect, most recently as CEO of Escalate Retail.

“Aspect is an asset-rich organisation at a time when enterprise businesses are rethinking how they compete through differentiated customer experiences,” said Bloom. “This is a pivotal time for the company to capitalise on its technologies, strategic investments and industry relationships in order to successfully prepare and position ourselves for sustained market growth and investor returns in the years ahead.”

Jim Foy will remain in the full=time role of Executive Chairman of Aspect’s Board of Directors.

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Sytel appoints Richard Compton

Richard Compton comes to Sytel from Azzurri Communications to take on sales for EMEA and market research.

Sytel CEO, Michael McKinlay, commented: “We have enjoyed a great working relationship with Richard for many years, and it is a delight to welcome him onto the team. Richard brings great experience both of direct sales and the reseller/integrator marketplace, and is well placed to communicate the many strengths of the Sytel product set to the enterprise market.”

The move follows the appointment of Ken Brompton as Director of Business Development.

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Jacada appoints Guy Yair as Co-Chief Executive Officer

Mr Yair was previously appointed as Senior Vice President and General Manager, EMEA and APAC in mid-2011 and is now appointed to the role of Co-CEO to share the leadership of Jacada alongside Co-CEO Gideon Hollander.

Together with Jacada senior management, Mr Yair anticipates driving significant new business and taking the company to new heights in the customer service arena.

“I am very pleased to have Guy join me in leading Jacada with his extensive experience in building innovative go to market platforms and penetrating new markets”, said Gideon Hollander, founder and Co-CEO for Jacada. “Guy’s leadership will be critical in the launch of our new visual IVR product, Jacada Mobile Agent, which represents the next generation of technology connecting customers with companies.”