Monthly Archives: January 2022

News

Year of growth ahead as Q builds on expansion 

A fast-growing Shropshire financial services company is targeting further expansion in 2022 as it builds on a year of success. 

Q Financial Services – which has bases in Wellington and Shrewsbury – launched a new office, new departments and new services in 2021, despite the challenges of the Covid pandemic. 

 And director Steve Parry says the coming year offers the prospect of further growth, with a number of initiatives to develop the business already in the pipeline. 

 Steve said: “There is no doubt that 2021 has been a highly challenging year for everybody in the business community, but it has also been a year which has provided some opportunities and which has seen Q grow. 

 “We opened our new office in Shrewsbury and are already delighted with the way we have been welcomed into the town, and took on seven new recruits as we continued to expand. 

 “In total, Q Commercial Finance was able to access commercial funding of some £20million for our clients over the course of the year – including £13.6million from the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loans Scheme. 

 “This is vital funding which has proved a real lifeline in a time of crisis, helping many businesses ride out the storm of the pandemic. Our work has helped our clients preserve their businesses and protect jobs and means they can now plan for better times ahead.” 

 Steve said Q’s mortgage and protection team had also enjoyed a highly successful year, arranging 379 separate mortgages worth a combined £50 million, including deals for 93 first-time buyers. 

 “The Stamp Duty holiday undoubtedly helped the property market over the last year, but there is still a huge amount of underlying strength in the sector and we expect further growth in 2022,” said Steve. 

 And Q Financial Planning had invested a total of £7million for its clients in the last year, with that figure expected to grow in 2022. 

 “We have detailed plans to develop all aspects of the business in 2022, with the possibility of expanding into new geographical areas including Wolverhampton,” said Steve. 

 “We have new services to offer in our will and legacy department, as well as an enhanced buildings and contents department, and see a greater presence in these sectors as a natural part of our evolution. 

 “A big part of our work in the coming year will be to support businesses as the world hopefully returns to normal. 

 “To that end, we expect areas such as business protection, ensuring clients can access finance in order to grow and advising on mergers and acquisitions to be a key part of our work in the coming months. 

 “And we will also be working with our clients in the property sector to ensure that housebuilders across the region can access the development finance they need to help overcome the national housing shortage.”  

For more information about Q visit  https://www.qfinancialservices.co.uk/ 

Marketing, PR and SEO, Martech, News

With Empathy on the Decline, AI is Helping Brands Connect with Customers in an Empathic Way

Written by Chris Pennington, Chief Customer Officer, SugarCRM

Emotional intelligence is a crucial aspect of customer communication, and key to deliver exceptional customer experiences (CX). Today, leveraging automation in the sales, marketing and customer service arena while balancing the need for empathy is critical. While empathy is seen as a uniquely human trait, developments in artificial intelligence (AI) to help brands recognise and respond in an empathetic manner are on the rise and come at a critical time. Studies show that human empathy is on the decline – a deficit costing the average brand $300 million (£223 million) in lost revenue every year.

For brands to truly connect with their customers to effectively market, sell and serve, they need to really understand the customer mindset. This is where empathic AI solutions are coming into the picture to complement and empower sales, marketing, and service professionals on the customer front lines to detect the customer’s emotional state and intent and deliver a better customer experience.

Empathic AI capabilities have great potential to augment human emotional intelligence. As such, AI is becoming fundamental in the customer experience realm to boost customer satisfaction and improve the bottom line. We know that emotional intelligence can vary from one employee to the next; empathic AI can help level up employees that might otherwise miss the emotional cues from customers.

The Importance of Emotional Intelligence in Business

Customers seek easy, effortless experiences that satisfy their existing and future needs; some 86% will pay more for a great customer experience. How customers feel drives their purchasing habits. This is where brand emotional intelligence plays a critical role. McKinsey recently referenced a study that evaluated 170 publicly traded companies on their empathic abilities and found that businesses with empathy within their culture, and toward the customer, will have a net positive benefit on their bottom line. The top ten leaders in empathy outperformed the bottom ten by two times on the stock market.

Gartner agrees that companies that deploy empathy significantly outperform those that don’t, in terms of sales and profit. Designing an emotionally aware organisation is increasingly becoming a topic at the top of the board room agendas. The truth is, people staff organisations and people have feelings. This goes well beyond the employees of a company; it also extends to its customers.

 

Empathy: The New Frontier for CX Success

Empathy is critical yet elusive. According to Forrester, consumers are gravitating toward the brands that prioritise people over profits. While nearly all businesses know the importance of showing customer empathy, most struggle to deliver it on a consistent basis.

Using AI to identify how customers feel, so customer-facing professionals can understand and respond in real-time, has many organisations prioritising humans and bots working together to bring out each other’s best capabilities. Today, AI-driven sentiment analysis capabilities are supercharging CRM functions such as sales, marketing, and service interactions with the power of knowing each customer’s and prospect’s emotional state and intent.

Paul Greenberg, President of the 56 Group, LLC and author of The Commonwealth of Self Interest: Business Success Through Customer Engagement, has written extensively about the business empathy imperative – the ability to understand what customers and employees are going through, along with the relevant context, and act accordingly. He states, “One of the highest callings of customer experience professionals and enabling technology platforms is helping customers via an understanding of their struggles and aspirations.”

Empathic AI solutions are becoming increasingly good at using sentiment analysis capabilities to understand the customer better, leveraging a combination of Natural Language Processing (NLP) and AI to surface next-level or next-best action for empathic customer engagement. Greenberg says, “AI-powered sentiment analysis weds customer voice and text to business action, providing every sales and service interaction with the means to account for customers’ emotional tone and attitude – context indispensable to supporting exceptional experiences.” In addition, business professionals can review sentiment data to evaluate overall customer experience and journey effectiveness – providing the means for continuous improvement in meeting and exceeding customer expectations.

Human empathy augmented by empathic AI solutions is helping front-line employees who work directly with customers better understand and respond in context to the range and depth of customer behaviours and emotions to ultimately serve them better.

The Winning Formula

CX is a journey, and businesses need to enable their workforce to deliver something more than a frictionless experience – a human experience that recognises human emotional needs. On many occasions, customers will desire a self-serve interaction that is quick, easy and makes the best use of their time. However, at other times when there is a problem or they want to understand how a product or service will best meet their needs, they will want a human to recognise and deliver the requisite emotional quotient for that customer to be truly understood, felt, and heard.

Today, organisations are focusing on harnessing AI to better understand and deliver on customer needs. Empathic AI solutions can empower customer-facing professionals to produce the right answers and outcomes quickly and confidently, commanding greater customer satisfaction and loyalty by detecting customer intent and emotional state. By identifying and solving the emotions behind the “why,” companies can better serve the needs of their customers. Leveraging AI-powered solutions using sentiment analysis capabilities provides the predictive insights businesses need to recognise customer emotions and intent with accuracy and precision at scale.

 

Education, News

Yorkshire specialist edtech platform partners with first international school

Specialist edtech platform, myphizz which is designed to boost childrens’ health and wellbeing, has partnered with Bishop Hedley High School in Merthyr Tydfil. 

myphizz, which launched in September 2021, is an app built for schools to engage pupils in an active curriculum. Using a live leaderboard, children have the ability to set ‘phizz’ challenges in their classrooms or at home, comparing results across their school, as well as nationally.

Physical activity among pupils fell dramatically during the pandemic, with more than 31% of children undertaking less than 30 minutes of exercise a day¹; this is a huge contrast to Ofsted’s recommendations that pupils should engage in exercise for an average of at least 60 minutes per day across the week².

Adrian Davies, a teacher at Bishop Hedley High School leading the introduction of myphizz commented: “After spending almost two years in a home learning environment, many of our pupils increased the time they spent being static and we wanted to find a new way to get them moving. In secondary schools we need to be innovative to encourage pupils to engage and take part in group challenges. As myphizz is accessed directly from a PC or device, it has proved to be a great tactic to drive engagement with PE via a channel they are comfortable with.

“We have already seen pupils engaging with ‘phizzes’ which are fitness challenges set from the app and have even noticed pupils starting to set their own challenges. Young people are very competitive, especially with teachers, and having phizzes set by teachers is a great way to get pupils motivated to exercise.”

The use of education technology in schools has seen a sharp increase in recent years, with the Covid-19 pandemic and school closures leading to an explosive 71.5% growth in the UK education technology sector³.

Anthony McBride, co-founder of myphizz, said: “By drawing on the expertise of schools, myphizz has been built to give pupils control over their own physical activity, whilst  contributing towards the national curriculum’s physical education objectives. We’re absolutely thrilled that Bishop Hedley is seeing the benefits first hand of myphizz. With schools still being impacted by the pandemic and children potentially missing out on physical activity whilst isolating at home, myphizz provides a way for schools to continue communicating and engaging pupils in exercise whilst not in a school setting.”

Endorsed by The World Championship gold medallist and former World Junior Champion, Adam Gemili, myphizz was created by a group of four former teachers who wanted to encourage children to engage in a more active, healthier and happier lifestyle.  The technology, which runs through secure schools networks, is only visible to school communities and can be accessed via PC, tablets or mobile phones.

Over the next five years, myphizz hopes to have signed up 700 schools and solidify the link between elite sporting organisations and schools, to scout the next generation of talented athletes, as well as make a positive impact on the lives of young people across the UK.

For more information, please visit myphizz.com.

Mental Health, News

MYNDUP and CVC partner to deliver free mental health services to NHS staff

British mental health startup MYNDUP is today delighted to announce that in partnership with the CVC foundation, it will be continuing its relationship with the National Health Service (NHS), providing free mental health services to NHS staff until the end of March 2022.

The news means that thousands of NHS employees will be able to continue to book live weekly one to one sessions with leading mental health practitioners, anonymously and completely free of charge. With the service designed to provide much-needed additional support for healthcare workers who have been under immense strain over the past few years.

Unlike traditional offerings, the MYNDUP platform provides a well rounded, no one size fits all solution and puts the power of choice back into the employee’s hands. This means users, including NHS staff, can access a wide array of services across the entire mental health spectrum, best fit for their needs. 

The offering includes access to industry leading professionals working across the fields of therapy & counselling, life & career coaching and meditation & mindfulness. The company is the brainchild of UK entrepreneur Joel Gujral, who founded the organisation in 2019. 

As an addition to the free one to one sessions, NHS staff will also be able to enjoy lifetime 20% discounts off all future bookings. An addition which will further support key workers during these most difficult times.

Speaking today Joel Gujral, Founder of MYNDUP said: “The NHS and its key workers have always been critically important, but the pandemic has really brought home just how much we rely on their services.

“We owe our NHS heroes so much for what they have sacrificed over the past few years, and know that many will have faced mental health battles in the line of duty. We’re therefore delighted to announce a continuation of our scheme alongside CVC, meaning more free mental health support sessions for NHS staff and a lifetime discount going forward.”

NHS staff looking to book their free sessions can access the MYNDUP x NHS website here: myndup.com/nhs

About MYNDUP

MYNDUP is stopping the “one size fits all” approach to mental health by offering live 1-1 video sessions across the whole mental health spectrum: Therapy, Counselling, Life & Career Coaching and Mindfulness & Meditation. We have recently extended our offering free of charge to NHS workers in partnership with the charitable foundation of private equity firm CVC.

 

MYNDUP is currently servicing 50,000+ employees in 30+ countries across 4 continents, working with organisations such as Dentons, Avast, Savills and The Prince’s Trust.

News

Top asbestos expert urges firms not to ignore hidden killer

A company director who has spent two decades protecting people from the dangers of asbestos is giving organisations the chance to take advantage of his expert advice for free.

Ian Stone, of Northampton-based Acorn Analytical Services, entered the asbestos industry in January 2002 and has dedicated the majority of his career to raising awareness about the world’s biggest workplace killer.

For several years Ian ran ATAC, the UK’s leading association for the asbestos testing and consultancy industry, and he has actively lobbied governments about asbestos in schools.

With his Acorn colleagues, he wrote the highly acclaimed book, Asbestos The Dark Arts, produces educational podcasts about asbestos, is helping to train the next generation of asbestos consultants and surveyors and has launched a campaign to tackle the issue of asbestos in UK schools.

Over the past 20 years Ian has seen different pieces of asbestos legislation introduced but he feels more needs to be done to make people take the threat of asbestos seriously.

Ian said: “Every week we receive emergency calls from businesses across the country that fear they have disturbed asbestos during routine maintenance or building work.

“It’s heartbreaking when we visit these workplaces and then have to tell people they may have been exposed to asbestos. These are awful conversations to have and they shouldn’t still be happening.

“On average 5,000 people die from asbestos-related diseases in the UK every year and thousands more will continue to die each year if people aren’t educated about the dangers.

“If you work in a property which was built before 2000 it may contain asbestos and a dutyholder must be appointed to manage that risk.

“If businesses aren’t managing their asbestos we’d invite them to have a conversation with us. We’re not a charity but I’m happy to have 100 conversations and get no work from them if it means people go away more educated.

“It isn’t a good idea for people to ignore their asbestos – they could end up putting lives at risk and they may find themselves and their organisations being prosecuted.”

For further information visit www.acorn-as.com or call 0844 818 0895.

News

6 Effective Tips To Successfully Grow Your Business Through Diversification In 2022

As the UK moves away from lockdown restrictions, businesses can start making solid plans for growth; diversification can be the most efficient route to take as businesses who spot an opportunity to capture a broader market and are the ones who flourish.  

The team at private and commercial banking firm Arbuthnot Latham have provided a helpful guide for both new and old entrepreneurs with six tips on how to grow your business through diversification.  

  1. Know why you’re diversifying. Is it to reach a new market, add further value to your existing client, balance risk? There are many reasons to diversify and knowing your end goal can help you remain focused.

  2. Have a goal. Whether that’s a new income target, penetration in a new market, units sold, or simply a timeframe in which to experiment. By setting a framework and identifying key metrics to measure, you’ll know if your diversification strategy is performing.

  3. Ensure your plans align to your brand and values. By ensuring your new direction aligns to your overarching brand, you can be confident you’ll remain true to your core values. For example, Lego’s values are creativity, imagination, learning, fun and quality which are evident across all their products and experiences.

  4. Buy an existing company. If you know the direction you want to go in and you recognize where you can add value and the price point is right, purchasing an existing business with expert colleagues, sound products and client base could provide the diversity you need with an immediate income stream.

  5. Grow with your customers. You know your customers and they know you. By listening to your customers, you can develop new products and services to meet their changing needs.

  6. Enjoy it. Business expansion through diversification can open many doors. Be open to new ideas, while remaining true to your core values. 

When to start thinking about diversification 

Understand where you sit in the market 

“You might just consider your business proposition to be suitable to one sector or type of client but think if you can make small adjustments and enter a new market. This is how you begin your diversification journey.” Paul Beach, Head of Executives and Entrepreneurs at Arbuthnot Latham 

Be able to spot new opportunities 

“At first, the tangential leap from one sector to another will likely be quite small. But as you start to explore and understand new sectors, bigger opportunities might arise, ones more separate from what you are currently doing.” 

“Key in this success is networking. Build your network, make connections with people in other sectors. Learn as you go, but make sure you become a valuable counsel on the way. Help people solve problems and always be agile and willing to adapt to new opportunities” Paul Beach, Head of Executives and Entrepreneurs at Arbuthnot Latham 

Cybersecurity, News

Barracuda strengthens security for MSPs with SentinelOne’s AI-Powered XDR

Alliance enables MSPs to experience autonomous cybersecurity at machine speed

SentinelOne, an autonomous cybersecurity platform company, today announced that Barracuda Networks, Inc., a trusted partner and leading provider of cloud-first security solutions, selected the Singularity XDR platform to help MSPs prevent, detect, and autonomously respond to threats at machine speed with AI-powered XDR.

Barracuda protects more than 200,000 global customers to safeguard their data and employees from threats. Barracuda selected SentinelOne to strengthen its endpoint protection and response portfolio due to SentinelOne’s superior API capabilities, flexible workflow integrations, and platform efficacy. Through the integration, MSPs using SKOUT Managed XDR and SentinelOne will be able to benefit from streamlined analysis, detection, and incident reporting.

“Security teams are challenged with monitoring and protecting every edge of their network, yet are drowning in data and alerts,” said Neal Bradbury, SVP, Barracuda MSP. “There aren’t enough skilled people to operate cybersecurity products at scale. Our alliance with SentinelOne will empower MSPs to stay one step ahead of attackers and address intrusion attempts in real-time.”

Through SentinelOne’s capabilities, organisations experience XDR – more preventative actions, faster response times, and automated workflows across their dynamic, technology-bound perimeter. SentinelOne replaces traditional antivirus (AV), next-generation antivirus (NGAV), endpoint detection and response (EDR), and a variety of point products with the AI-powered Singularity XDR platform.

“Every place where data resides is vulnerable from device to server to the cloud,” said Brandon Andrews, VP Worldwide MSP, SentinelOne. “Combining SentinelOne’s AI-powered XDR and Barracuda’s SKOUT Managed XDR helps MSPs close security gaps and simplify their cybersecurity stack, eliminating the inefficiencies associated with legacy and crowd-powered solutions.”

 

News

Using OKRS to transform business in a new working environment

Managing the challenges of rapid business growth while also adapting to a hybrid world of working forced by the global pandemic will be among the topics raised at this year’s international OKR Forum 2022.

National business coach Peter Kerr will highlight how the business management framework tool of OKRs can help overcome the challenges faced by hypergrowth companies, while also helping create a strong team culture to establish resilience to adapt to new ways of working.

Peter Kerr, MD of the rapidly expanding UK-based specialist coaching consultancy AuxinOKR, will be a key contributor to the OKR Forum event, being held virtually on February 3. He will be talking to Lavanya Gopinath, director of operations at Chargebee, about the challenges of rolling out OKRs across a global tech business with a geographically dispersed workforce.

The OKR Forum is the fourth event of its kind featuring a mixture of keynote speakers, expert workshops, and case studies of OKR implementation. Delegates can learn from international brands such as LinkedIn, Colgate-Palmolive, and Renault on how to engage teams for better outcomes with the agile goal and performance management framework, known as OKRs.

AuxinOKR, which has clients around the UK and overseas – including SAP, ASOS, Which?, Bitstamp, Chargebee and South African bank absa – has a proven record of helping ambitious companies and organisations establish an OKR strategy that enables them to achieve their goals.

Chargebee is a leading international subscription billing platform on a fast-track trajectory powering some of the fastest-growing SaaS and subscription-based businesses in the world. The company, valued at $1.4b in April 2021 has more than 3,000 customers across the US, Europe and rest of the world. Digital transformation has accelerated the opportunities for Chargebee, and the company saw OKRs as a tool to drive cultural change across the business.

Peter Kerr says: “Chargebee is a fabulous company with a great product. Digital transformation across more companies has created huge opportunities for Chargebee but they recognised they needed to change themselves to become a stronger, more agile, and resilient business.

“Chargebee saw OKRs as a way to create a focus and clarity across the entire business, spread across several countries. OKRs have helped establish a new culture, one where everyone is clear about the company vision and key goals and their roles in helping achieve growth and success.

“And, of course, this was made even more challenging by being implemented during a pandemic. OKRs helped Chargebee accelerate the push for collaboration, transparency and understanding during this difficult period.”

This year’s OKR Forum online event will feature world-class OKR experts such as Ben Lamorte, Felipe Castro, Francesca Nardocci, Melanie Wessels and many more, along with leading international companies.

For more details visit: https://hopin.com/events/okr-forum-2022/registration

News

The University of Law announces exclusive new partnership with White & Case

The University of Law (ULaw) has secured a new and exclusive partnership with leading law firm White & Case to deliver training and development for all its future London trainees enabling them to pass the Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE) and prepare them for practice. 

White & Case is one of the largest US law firms based in the UK and the contract to prepare the firm’s trainees for SQE1 and SQE2 will apply to law and non-law graduates. The University was awarded the contract following a competitive tender process.  

ULaw’s SQE programmes focus not only on excellent technical skills but also on enhancing those commercial and personal skills and behaviours needed to equip junior lawyers for the future world of work. This approach will enable White & Case trainees to deliver excellent service in a dynamic and pioneering firm with an international client base. 

White & Case views the appointment of ULaw as a significant first step in evaluating its response to the changes to the qualification pathway for future lawyers. The firm is working with ULaw to identify the right time to implement this change for the maximum benefit of White & Case, its trainees and its clients 

Inigo Esteve, White & Case partner, who leads the firm’s trainee solicitor programme in London, said: “We are pleased to have appointed ULaw to develop and deliver bespoke SQE prep courses for our future trainees. ULaw’s expertise and innovative approach to learning will ensure that our trainees develop both legal and professional skills that ensure White & Case continues to deliver outstanding service to clients in an ever-changing and more complex environment for legal services.” 

 Professor Peter Crisp, Deputy Vice Chancellor Law at The University of Law, said: “Students are at the heart of all we do and we are delighted to be working with a leading US firm White & Case. 

“We look forward to supporting the firm’s future trainees on their individual learning journeys to become technically excellent lawyers with the appropriate people and commercial skills. We aim to support the next generation of White & Case’s lawyers to fulfil their ambitions and enjoy their studies with a sense of purpose and excitement.”  

 For more information about ULaw, please visit https://www.law.ac.uk/about/ 

 

Food & Drink, News

Hell Yeah Hospitality Group to double Pizza Punks sites in 2022

Hell Yeah Hospitality Group, which operates three hospitality brand concepts; Pizza Punks, Mamasan and Veganizza, is set to double the number of its Pizza Punks restaurants in the UK in 2022, with four new openings

The unlimited-topping and sourdough pizza brand, Pizza Punks has existing sites located in Glasgow, Belfast and Newcastle, and a recently opened Leeds restaurant on Bond Street. The team has now revealed plans to expand into Leicester, Durham, Liverpool and Cardiff within the next 12 months, increasing the total Pizza Punks sites across the UK – from four to eight.

With all current Pizza Punks sites profitable and turnover trebling since 2019, Hell Yeah Hospitality aims to expand even further beyond 2022, setting its sights on locations in Birmingham, Manchester, Sheffield, Nottingham, the London boroughs, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, and Dublin.

The expansion follows the success of the brands’ e-commerce and delivery business during lockdown, which saw the brand grow from strength-to-strength as they were able to quickly flip the business model to an innovative delivery service. With Pizza Punks Bake at Home service, customers can order award-winning sourdough pizza to be delivered next day to anywhere in the UK. For the more adventurous customer, there is also the option to order make your own pizza; complete with hand-crafted sourdough, secret San Marzano tomato, basil and garlic sauce, mozzarella, and a collection of 25 toppings to choose from.

As the expansion unfolds, the brand is continuing to evolve, including adding a selection of fresh pasta dishes, hand-made each day, to the menu. As with the brand’s bespoke approach to pizza, guests will be given the option to punk up their pasta with a choice of sauces and the finest Italian ingredients. Guests can choose from 35 toppings such as Nduja, Tuscan Sausage and Salt & Chilli Chicken, all made from scratch in their kitchens, to create their own personalised punked up pizza and pasta. Vegan, gluten-free, vegetarian and Halal options are available so there is something for everyone.

The new pasta menu will sit alongside Pizza Punks’ signature, 48-hour double fermented, sourdough hand-crafted pizzas that differentiate them from their competitors, who offer classic Neapolitan style pizzas.

Hell Yeah Hospitality are confident in its aspiration to roll out the Pizza Punks brand UK wide; combined with the current success of the Pizza Punks restaurant sites, which are ranked first across all four cities on Tripadvisor, and it was voted the best Italian restaurant in the UK by Deliveroo restaurant awards in 2019.

Brad Stevens, Founder & CEO of Hell Yeah Hospitality said: “The overwhelming response we had to Pizza Punks Bake at Home was incredible, it showed the teams’ strength and ability to flip from a restaurant to a delivery business and trade well. Even though we couldn’t operate as normal, our customers still wanted to enjoy our pizzas, which is testament to us doing things differently, no one does pizza the way Pizza Punks do. This alongside the success of our existing sites has given us the assurance to extend the Pizza Punks movement by rolling out more sites across the country.

“We are planning some exciting changes for all our sites too; we’ll be extending our menu to encompass more top-quality classic Italian dishes with a twist, but still staying true to our roots with our punked up pizza with the largest array of handmade toppings available for no extra cost. What will stay the same is our unrivalled level of customer service and hospitality, we always want guests to have fun and enjoy some great food, cocktails and music at the same time. The Pizza Punks success so far has been way beyond our expectations, and we have seen unprecedented demand at our new Leeds site too.”

To bolster the business throughout this new period of growth, Hell Yeah is thrilled to announce the appointment of Gordon Fraser as the group’s Financial Director. He joins the organisation from Trump Turnberry, an iconic Scottish Luxury Collection Resort, where he has held the position of Director of Finance since 2018.