Monthly Archives: March 2022

Law, News

Dr Tom Mortimer has joined NALP as Academic Director

Dr Tom Mortimer has joined the National Association of Licensed Paralegals as Academic Director. The role will see Tom leading on various educational initiatives including co-ordinating the review and development of Level 3 to Level 7 curriculum ensuring this aligns with external awards and qualifications.

Dr Mortimer was Director of Law at Canterbury Christ Church University and prior to that was Head of Law at the University of Bedfordshire and Anglia Ruskin University Law School.

Tom has an extensive range of high-quality peer reviewed research publications in the areas of commercial and corporate law, governance and legal education. Tom has also acted as an External Advisor to universities submitting to the Research Excellence Framework which assesses the quality of research in UK Higher Education Institutions.

Tom has been awarded ‘Lecturer of the Year’ on three consecutive occasions by his university students; received numerous ‘Golden Apple’ Awards for ‘outstanding teaching and commitment to the student experience’ and been nominated as Lecturer of the Year with a large publishing company for his work with international students.

“Having served for many years on the Governing Board of NALP, I am very pleased to be joining the organisation as Academic Director. Overseeing a full review and on-going development of NALP’s Level 3 to Level 7 paralegal qualifications will be an exciting challenge. Students deserve the best quality learning materials and curriculum, and NALP has always made this part of its mission, and I intend to do the same.” said Tom.

“NALP’s courses offer the only Ofqual regulated paralegal qualifications in England and Wales, so ensuring that we maintain our existing high standards and offer students the learning they need has always been a priority for us. Bringing Tom on board to oversee the review and development of our courses will ensure we maintain these high standards. I am confident his wealth of knowledge and experience will bring many benefits to our students.” said Amanda Hamilton, CEO of NALP.

ABOUT NALP

The National Association of Licensed Paralegals (NALP) is a non-profit membership body and the only paralegal body that is recognised as an awarding organisation by Ofqual (the regulator of qualifications in England). Through its Centres around the country, accredited and recognised professional paralegal qualifications are offered for those looking for a career as a paralegal professional.

Web: http://www.nationalparalegals.co.uk

News, South East

New staff as a result of further growth at Herts Marketing Agency OnBrand

St Albans based marketing agency OnBrand have had a strong start to 2022 as it celebrates 12 years in business, taking on three new staff members – Phoebe Shergold-Willis, as a new Account Manager, Genevieve Grey as a new Account Executive and Sarah Warren, Digital Account Director.

The new team members will help to service a number of large new clients wins including:

Stanley who are materials handling experts, transforming business efficiency and improving employee welfare with innovative technology. OnBrand are working on their brand & product strategy and marketing positioning, managing monthly PR services, social media and content strategy and website improvements.

Belbin, creators of Team Roles, the original pioneers and ongoing innovators of using behaviour and research-led insight for stronger team performance.  OnBrand are working on their brand positioning for key target audiences, rebuilding their CRM system and launching a new lead prospecting and customer engagement programme.

EOS Aesthetics, leading facial aesthetics business in Sunningdale .  OnBrand are working on their website, logo refresh and targeted lead generation via paid advertising and social media

MoveWell Group Personal Training, a high vibe boutique gym specialising in small group personal training classes and programmes.OnBrand are working with them on brand positioning, advertising design and local lead generation

The Bobath Centre, a specialist treatment and training centre in Watford, Hertfordshire and a charity dedicated to supporting children and families living with cerebral palsy and similar neurological conditions.  OnBrand are building a new website for them, thanks to a grant allocation.

Welcoming the latest successes, Daniel Graham, MD said:

“When I set up OnBrand 12 years ago, I could not have predicted the huge evolution of business growth that we have been through in that time and the many client success stories we have had along the way.  I am delighted that the company continues to go from strength to strength and that is testament to the fantastic team of hard-working, highly skilled individuals we have, all delivering client business objectives and driving hard to smash their targets.”

www.onbrand.co.uk

 

News

The Recruitment and Retention Race

Covid-19 has changed the world for good, and as the world of work has changed, the expectations and demands of employees have grown. As the world starts to emerge from restrictions and lockdowns, the race to secure resources has begun and, within organisations, human resources and the quality of those human resources are crucial. Therefore, it is vital that organisations promote, understand and execute a flexible and attractive recruitment process in order to be in a better position to fill jobs promptly with quality candidates.

That being said, employees now have different expectations when pursuing new roles because of the shift in their priorities, especially when considering their work/life balance. Steven Atkins, Global Analytics Enablement Director, SplashBI, discusses how employers need to think about 24/7 recruiting in a way that they’ve never thought of before, to keep up with the change of employees’ expectations and provide long term success.

Putting candidates first

As businesses were plunged into lockdown for months, employers were forced to quickly adapt in order to ensure businesses ran as usual by transitioning to remote working. As a result of this successful approach, 85% of employees want to continue to use a “hybrid working” model to keep a better work-life balance.

It is crucial for employers to ensure flexibility as this is now one of the top incentives for employees. Pre-pandemic, location has always been crucial when searching for a job. What used to be a significant barrier to applying for a new job, is now no longer a problem. If candidates lived five hours away from the workplace, traditionally they wouldn’t apply for the job. Now, with remote and hybrid working, opportunities are farther afield allowing employees to have a vast choice of jobs because they aren’t tied down to a certain location..

Additionally, the hybrid model benefits employers too. It means they can spread their recruitment net much further and look for talent across counties, countries and continents.

Over the past year, employees have proved that they can get the same work done at home just as well as they could within the office. It is therefore viewed as a win-win situation for both employees and employers to continue the hybrid way of working as we move on from the pandemic. Companies will have to adapt quickly or they will be left behind as prospective employees will now expect this type of flexibility in their working lives to be the norm, rather than the exception. 

In today’s rapidly changing world of work, offering some flexibility in employee work schedules is key to retaining and attracting top talent, whether it’s allowing employees to work from home or letting them work outside of the standard nine-to-five schedule, depending on their availability.

Listening to your workforce

Offices are reopening their doors – and business leaders need to start planning. A hybrid model that suits one employee might not suit everyone, and imposing rules that completely undermine the concept of flexible working undermines the concept as well. Employees need to be educated about the advantages of face-to-face interactions with colleagues as well as understand their perceptions of hybrid working. They need to highlight to clients and suppliers the value of hybrid working – before companies stumble by default back into unhealthy, unproductive working models.

The bottom line is that business owners and managers need to acknowledge that managing employees has become  a lot more complicated. As a result, organisations need to put in place a powerful Human Capital Management (HCM) solution. HCM is vital to help HR hire and onboard  the right candidates but even more so for your current employees, to increase engagement with work-life solutions that help motivate employees and deliver a great employee experience. Active management is going to be crucial if they want to build a productive, well-balanced, and committed workforce. In addition, employee wellness and mindfulness are critical things to consider to ensure your teams are best placed to cope with the new demands placed on them.

Understanding and utilising data

As many organisations struggle with the new ways of working, data should sit at the heart of the decision making. Companies harvest all kinds of valuable and usable data from their employees and they need to capitalise it. Decision making is a critical function within any business and decisions that have been taken based on data nearly always produce better outcomes – with 91% of businesses stating that data-driven decision-making is important to the growth of their business. So, if organisations use this methodology for product development or marketing, why don’t they use that approach when it comes to recruitment and retention?

Organisations need to select data from across their HR infrastructure, such as an ATS or Talent System, and then begin the analysis journey to understand employee behaviour.  Organisations are now utilising and maximising people analytics tools that can help drive successful decision making, and more importantly, based on evidence to support these decisions.  In order to analyse past and present data, predictive analytics in HR is needed to forecast future outcomes and identify patterns that may be crucial for organisations retaining their current talent. With the help of these tools, businesses can not only select the important data but crucially analyse the data efficiently.

Conclusion

It is vital for organisations to ensure they never stop recruiting and boosting their investment in Talent Acquisition. Maximising people resources not only helps drive business success but it helps drive recruitment and retention success. For employers, hiring decisions can now be based on talent rather than geography. Employee outlook has dramatically changed over the last twelve months but organisations who don’t adapt, run the risk of losing their talent to other businesses that meet employees personal and professional goals.

Organisations have skills and talents in the workforce but do they really understand what those skills are and where they are located? Do they know how they are measured in terms of diversity? Can they drill into the information to see which areas are doing well and which are doing not so well? Harvesting and utilising people analytics data will ultimately help drive internal mobility for employees and drive better company culture as well as drawing in new talent and retaining your experts, and all the while delivering improved business outcomes.

 

 

Appointments, News

BD Matters appoints Anne Harlow as Managing Director ahead of launch

BD Matters has appointed Anne Harlow as Managing Director ahead of its formal launch on April 1st 2022.

BD Matters is a new business development community that was launched informally by Adam Graham during the first lockdown, when he recognised there were very few communities designed around the business development function.

Harlow joins BD Matters from The Agency Collective where she spent four years steering and growing the community and onboarding over 400 members. She also increased partnership revenue and developed a new member referral scheme. Prior to that she grew the sales development team at Pure360 from five to 12 people and increased revenue by 40%.

BD Matters is a like-minded community that gives its members the confidence to grow. The community is welcome to business owners and anyone who contributes to business growth from the top to the bottom of the funnel. For BD Matters, the term “business development” encompasses the cold face of sales and acquisition, through to marketing, nurturing and closing.

Over the past two years the BD Matters community has welcomed over 300 members, creating a new space to empower business developers and give them the confidence to grow. Now with Harlow coming on board, there are plans to scale the business and enhance the offering to members with access to experts, exclusive content, discussion boards, events and away days, guides and templates, plus savings on business development martech.

To date, the community has been free. It will launch its commercial offer on April 1st and anyone who signs up before that date will benefit from 50% off for 12 months.

As part of the original sign-up, members were invited to take part on a study into the perception of business development. 50 business development professionals responded, and these were the findings:

 

  • 50% have a new business team of one person
  • Only 17% could say their pride was ”10/10” to tell people they were a salesperson
  • 62% shared feelings of isolation or not being fully supported
  • 45% believe salespeople are perceived to be untrustworthy
  • 62% have changed their job title to make themselves appear less ‘salesy’
  • 35% believe a sales career has lost its allure (or never had it!)
  • 82% believe it’s possible to change the perception of salespeople for the better

 

To address these findings, part of the BD Matters manifesto is to improve the way sales is perceived, so it’s not seen as a “dirty word”, recognising the mental health impacts of the role, and supporting ‘grassroots’ talent to help them see business development as an exciting career path.

 

BD Matters has also appointed a new advisory board of experts to provide monthly surgeries to help members. Experts include:

 

  • Katy Howell, CEO, immediate future
  • Zoe Mitchell, Global New Business Lead, Wunderman Thompson
  • Oli Richards, Chief Marketing Officer, The Beyond Collective
  • Ellie Ring, New Business Director & Partner, BBH
  • Kim French, Head of Marketing, Preen
  • Anna Stone, Global New Business & Marketing Director, Ogilvy
  • Nathan Anibaba, host of Agency Dealmasters Podcast

 

Adam Graham is the Founder of Gray Matters, a business development consultancy teaching agencies how to attract and win new business, so they can achieve long-lasting growth. He also sits as an Expert Advisor for the DBA Experts and is the New Business Community Lead for BIMA.

 

Anne Harlow, new Managing Director, BD Matters, said: “I have gained a real passion for helping people thrive and have seen first-hand the impact a vibrant community can have on its members and what that means for both professional and personal growth.”

 

Adam Graham, Founder, BD Matters, added: “Growing up in business development at big global network agencies and independents, there was always a lack of community, a lack of learning, muddled career paths, few leaders to look up to, and a general lack of appreciation and understanding of the role. Since then, not much has changed, and perceptions and investment in the discipline are disappointing, so we’re proud to offer something we never had growing up and to provide a voice for the industry.”

https://bdmatters.co/

Appointments, News

Deal adviser Nick Jones promoted to Director at Grant Thornton

Leading business advisory firm Grant Thornton UK LLP has strengthened its Corporate Finance Advisory team with the promotion of Nick Jones to Director.

Nick has worked at Grant Thornton for more than 10 years and his promotion reflects the continued growth of the firm’s South West and Wales Corporate Finance Advisory team.

Based in the firm’s Bristol office, Nick will lead on M&A transactions across the South West and Wales region with a particular focus on the healthcare and consumer sectors.

Major recent deals he has worked on include the sale of Devon-based paddleboard brand Red Paddle to Myers Business Trust, the sale of a minority stake in GTS Flexible Materials to Growth Capital Partners and the investment in Cream Care Group by Civitas Investment Management.

Nick said: “I’m delighted to be taking the next step in my corporate finance career, which feels like a huge achievement for me personally. I’m very grateful for all the support I’ve received from within Grant Thornton over the last 10 years to enable me to progress to this point.

“We’re one of the most active M&A advisers in the region and have a fantastic team and I’m really looking forward to continuing to build out our presence even further.

“I’ve spent my whole career based in the South West and I’m really passionate about supporting SMEs in the region to access the next stage of their growth. It has therefore been great to see such an increase in private equity interest and investment throughout the patch, and with UK and overseas trade acquirers also very active, it’s an exciting time.”

Trefor Griffith, Corporate Finance Partner and South West and Wales Corporate Finance team lead, said: “Nick is a much-valued colleague and this promotion is very well deserved. It recognizes his success and development and is in line with our focus of continuing to build a market leading team across sectors and regions.

“As a business it is a priority of ours to invest in our people and develop talent from within, and I look forward to seeing Nick’s career continuing to flourish.”

https://www.grantthornton.co.uk/

News, Telecoms

Spectralink DECT devices now integrated with Microsoft Teams SIP Gateway

Empower your business critical ‘frontline workers’

HORSENS, DENMARK –24th March 2022– Spectralink, a leading international enterprise mobility solutions provider, today reveals the launch of its DECT devices integrated with Microsoft Teams SIP Gateway.

Enterprise organisations rely heavily on business critical ‘deskless workers’ – those that must go to a business location to carry out their role. We have all come to rely on those in Healthcare, Manufacturing, Retail & Logistics recently.

At the same time, Enterprise businesses globally have embraced the significant business benefits of cloud-based Collaboration tools.

Those ‘deskless workers’ must be able to communicate and collaborate easily with their colleagues who work across locations, shifts and time zones from anywhere, enabled by cloud-based communication and collaboration tools like Microsoft Teams.

Spectralink has over 30 years of experience in bridging between Enterprise communications platforms & infrastructure, from on-premise digital PBXs to Private and Public cloud-delivered Collaboration tools, and engineering the world class devices that deskless workers need to do their job – wherever they are and whatever the environment.

This new integration further enables Enterprise customers to migrate to Microsoft Teams while keeping those business critical deskless workers connected through and after the process.

“Open integration is part of our DNA,” declared Julien Bertheuil, Managing Director EMEA at Spectralink Corporation, “and this latest integration proves our commitment to the objective of providing customers with choice over their preferred systems. As more and more businesses were coming to us asking for support migrating to the cloud to improve worker collaboration and safety, our experience in enterprise grade DECT, combined with our knowledge of the UCaaS market, meant we were ideally placed to develop this much-needed integration with Microsoft Teams. We hope more and more businesses will now be able to complete their digital transformation journey seamlessly.”

Mahendra, Sekaran, Vice President, Teams Engineering at Microsoft concludes: “Spectralink DECT integration with Microsoft Teams SIP Gateway enables Teams users to use their DECT devices as another Teams endpoint, while getting access to all of Teams collaboration capabilities. Frontline workers rely on these devices to get their work done, and this new integration allows them to stay connected with their colleagues while on the go.”

Ask your Microsoft Partner about how Spectralink can support your business communications needs with DECT integration with Microsoft Teams SIP Gateway, or contact us directly at www.spectralink.com/microsoft or email us at microsoft@spectralink.com

Finance and Banking, News, Travel, Wales News

Luxury holiday park expands with multi-million HSBC UK finance package

A five-star country and leisure park in Mid-Wales has secured a multi-million finance package from HSBC UK to develop its facilities and offering.

Meadow Springs is a luxury holiday park in Caersws, Mid-Wales, that boasts 65 lodges, 72 static caravans and 70 tourers. The multi-million finance package will enable the park to develop its facilities, including adding a spa, gym, swimming pool and building a new restaurant and bar.

The restaurant, Arthur’s Restaurant & Bar, is now open to both residents and members of the public dropping by and serves home-cooked food, using locally sourced products. It boasts 150 covers in total, with both outdoor and inside seating and the swimming pool and spa are expected to open in 2023.

 

Jonathan Williams, owner of Meadow Springs, said: “I always had an ambition to open a holiday park where visitors come to escape the hustle of everyday life. Since opening our idyllic holiday park in 2020 with its natural spring water lakes and green fields, our turnover has grown to four times more than we anticipated. That has put us in a great position to re-invest and expand our facilities.

“We’ve banked with HSBC UK since opening the park and the support we’ve received, in particular from our Relationship Manager at the bank Alison Talbot, has been instrumental.”

 

Zena Perry-Hartle, Area Director for HSBC UK Business Banking Wales, added: “It’s been great to support the business in realising their vision over the past few years. Meadow Springs has had a great start and really benefitted from the rising popularity of staycations. Holidaying in the UK is set to remain a popular choice this year as uncertainty lingers over travel restrictions, so we expect the business to continue to flourish.”

 

The holiday park, which opened in 2020, was previously a shooting centre that held shooting World Championships, European Championships and hosted Olympic champions.

News, Technology

Secure Code Warrior Launches Integration with GitLab to Help Developers Build and Release Secure Software Faster

The partnership will enable developers to shift-left and leverage Secure Code Warrior contextual learning

Secure Code Warrior, the global developer driven security leader, today announced it has joined GitLab Inc.’s global partner program. As part of the partnership, Secure Code Warrior will make its learning platform capabilities available to developers on GitLab’s DevOps Platform, supporting a developer-led security approach. Additionally, this integration will enhance real-time secure coding guidance that is pivotal when detecting and fixing vulnerabilities efficiently.

Secure Code Warrior Co-founder and CEO, Pieter Danhieux, said: “Developers are expected to deliver code faster than ever before, which can make security oftentimes an afterthought. However, if developers can get actionable secure coding guidance throughout their workflows, they’ll be enabled to find and fix vulnerabilities whilst taking their security knowledge to the next level. We’re proud to partner with GitLab to give millions of developers an easier pathway to make this a reality.”

Secure Code Warrior’s goal is to embed security into developers’ workflow, assisting them to rise to the challenge of creating a higher standard of code quality. The current culture around the role of the developer in security best practices is, in most organisations, limited at best. However, with true developer enablement – implemented in a way that makes sense in their world – organisations can ignite a passion for cyber defense through secure coding, maximising developer’s productivity and code quality.

“GitLab is excited to cultivate a partnership with Secure Code Warrior,” said Nima Badiey, Vice President of Global Alliances at GitLab. “Security has become top of mind for many organisations; however, software development teams still contend with increasingly complicated security policies and sophisticated tools just to prevent potential vulnerabilities from slipping into production. By offering Secure Code Warrior’s contextual learning across secure coding in our DevOps Platform, we provide another tool for developers to utilise as they take more ownership and control of establishing security practices earlier in the development chain.”

For more information on Secure Code Warrior, visit https://www.securecodewarrior.com/company/partners.

About Secure Code Warrior

Secure Code Warrior builds a culture of security-driven developers by giving them the skills to code securely. Our flagship Learning Platform delivers relevant skills-based pathways, hands-on missions, and contextual tools for developers to rapidly learn, build, and apply their skills to write secure code at speed.

Established in 2015, Secure Code Warrior has become a critical component for over 450 enterprises including leading financial services, retail, and global technology companies across the world.

Gaming, News

Strategic Partners Perforce Software and Microsoft, in Collaboration With GitHub, Announce New Gaming Initiatives

To Help Game Creators Spend Less Time Setting Up and Managing Their Pipeline, Perforce Software Debuts New Game Development Virtual Machine with Microsoft as well as Helix Core Actions with GitHub

MINNEAPOLIS, March 23, 2022 – Perforce Software, a provider of versioning and collaboration tools across the software development lifecycle, together with Microsoft and GitHub, launches new game development initiatives at the Game Developers Conference 2022.

Building a great game requires time to bring a vision to life. But too often teams spend more time setting up their environment and building their CI/CD pipeline, rather than innovating. Together, strategic partners Perforce Software and Microsoft, in collaboration with GitHub, are removing these challenges by providing automation and preconfigured virtual machines so studios can get to work fast.

The new GitHub Actions authored by Perforce allow studios to automate their build process so they can iterate faster and test more. Using Perforce Helix Core Actions saves creators time that would have been spent managing and performing repetitive manual processes, allowing them to become more agile in the cloud.

Brad Hart, CTO at Perforce says, “These new Actions will help automate and orchestrate game development pipelines ensuring a studio’s team can focus on more creative and important aspects of game creation.”

In addition to the release of the Perforce Helix Core Actions, the Perforce team is pleased to announce their participation in the Microsoft Azure Game Development Virtual Machine (VM). The Game Development VM is a collection of industry leading game development software — including Perforce clients — deployed on Azure via a click-to-start template.

The VM quickly spins up pre-built workstations in the cloud for faster remote development, making it easier for teams of all sizes and skills to produce games remotely. When combined with the Enhanced Studio Pack by Perforce, teams get the necessary infrastructure to build great games on Azure.

“Any game creator big or small, can get started in the cloud quickly and easily with the best tools for the job using Microsoft’s Game Development VM. We are honored to be included in this set of necessary tools for game development,” Hart says.

These gaming initiatives, coupled with the latest offering from Perforce — Helix DAM now available in beta — reinforce Perforce Software’s commitment to empowering teams so they can build great games.

Learn more about additional information on the partnership between Perforce, Microsoft, and GitHub here: https://www.perforce.com/resources/events/vcs/game-developers-conference.

Customer Experience, News

SANDSIV Named Gold Medallist and Leader in the 2022 SoftwareReviews VOC Data Quadrant

Customers have spoken: sandsiv+ is rated #1 Voice of the Customer (VOC) software in the world

ZURICH – March 23, 2022 – SANDSIV, the global leader in Customer Experience Management (CXM) and Voice of the Customer (VoC) enterprise solutions, announced today that it has been recognized as the #1 leading software vendor and the Gold Medalist in the 2022 Voice of the Customer (VOC) Software Data Quadrant report from SoftwareReviews, a division of IT research and consulting Info-Tech Research Group. The report is unique as the results are based solely on feedback on user satisfaction related to product features and the customer experience with the vendor.

The top 8 companies in the world were determined through customer interviews with actual software users. The interviews were used to gather intelligence and analyze the performance of a company’s products and services. Customers gave scores between 1-5 in the areas of service, negotiation, product impact, conflict resolution, and strategy and innovation – to create a powerful indicator of overall user feeling toward the vendor.

SoftwareReviews named SANDSIV a gold medalist as it received an 8.8 composite score for its VOC software sandsiv+, which represents the complete and aggregated satisfaction score from end-users. Availability and Quality of Training, Ease of Implementation, Support and Usability and Intuitiveness were amongst the strongest capabilities associated with SANDSIV. sandsiv+ also secured the highest satisfaction scores in a variety of areas representing product features including Multi-Channel Data Collection, Text & Sentiment Analytics, and Data Visualization.

The company was also named number one in SoftwareReviews’ 2022 Emotional Footprint – an index that illustrates the customer experience with software vendors, showing a complex relationship spanning procurement, implementation, service, and support – with a score of +94, receiving high scores around Relationships and Interaction with Technical and Product Specialists, Service Experience, and Conflict Resolution Experience.

SANDSIV outscored Qualtrics (scored 7.9) in every category, including vendor capability, product features, strategy and innovation, product experience, and conflict resolution. sandsiv+ also outscored Medallia (scored 7.1) and doubled its scores in strategy and innovation, service experience, and negotiation and contract. The company also outscored SurveyMonkey, Alchemer, Forsta, AskNicely, and SurveySparrow.

“Customers are at the center of everything we do at SANDSIV, and we place great importance on collecting and acting on their Voices,” said Federico Cesconi, CEO of SANDSIV. “We believe our care for the customer and our ability to continuously innovate and address emerging market needs is the reason we leapt ahead on vision and were named a Leader in the Info-Tech report.”

This recognition follows others the company has received over the years. In 2021, SANDSIV won the Frost & Sullivan Best Practices Product Leadership Award in the European Voice of the Customer and was recognized by Gartner, OMDIA, and Forrester Research as a VoC market leader, marking SANDSIV’s arrival as a global leader in the CX/VoC space.

SANDSIV will continue to work hard to best serve medium and large companies with complex needs worldwide. For more information or to request a demo, visit sandsiv.com.

To view the report results and product scorecard, visit https://sandsiv.com/2022-softwarereviews-voice-of-customer-data-quadrant/