Category Archives: News

AI, Call Centre Tech, News

Keep Britain Tidy becomes first environmental charity to launch Futr’s AI chatbot

Futr’s intelligent chatbot, Tidybot, translates queries into several languages to make services accessible to users

Keep Britain Tidy has become the first environmental charity to work with AI technology provider Futr, to launch a new automated chatbot system. The chatbot, Tidybot, sits on the charity’s website and is designed to answer a range of visitor queries 24/7 in just a few clicks, thereby freeing up time for the team to handle more complex queries.

Keep Britain Tidy was receiving high volumes of enquiries from the public – many of which were repetitive. These were time-consuming and costly for the team to deal with so Keep Britain Tidy worked with AI technology provider Futr to find a solution to the challenge.

Since its adoption, Tidybot has significantly helped to manage demand, and improve visitor engagement and access to information in several different languages – within the first few days users had accessed information in English, Afrikaans and Welsh. Within the first two weeks of launching Tidybot —without any promotion— the bot engaged with 122 new users and answered 395 questions.

 

Helen Bingham, Director of Communications for Keep Britain Tidy said: “Tidybot has enabled us to engage with supporters, volunteers and visitors to our website and get them the answers they need quickly. It’s important to us that all our website visitors have a positive experience.

“As an inclusive charity we strive to ensure our content and advice is accessible to all. Tidybot is multilingual, which has meant we can give support and information to users in their native language.”

Andy Wilkins Co-Founder and CEO at Futr said: “The chatbot has been purposely tailored to respond to challenging yet repetitive questions and to use supportive, accessible language for the charity’s customers.

“As the first environmental charity to pioneer an automated system, Keep Britain Tidy’s commitment to making their services accessible to its users is exemplary, and we are honoured to be able to support this vital work. By adopting Futr’s AI-powered solutions, Keep Britain Tidy is democratising services and freeing up employee time to focus on bigger challenges.”

The chatbot, which will be available 365 days a year,  in more than 100 languages, has been designed to enable the charity to manage demand while ensuring people receive the correct information most appropriate for their enquiry.

News

Wrike Enables The Fastest Way To Productivity With New Work Management Platform

The most powerful work management platform, Wrike, today announced new innovations that include the unveiling of its most intuitive, versatile, and scalable platform yet, Wrike Lightspeed, during its annual conference Collaborate. The need for workplace connectivity and greater alignment across teams has increased significantly over the past few years as teams, departments, and organisations adapt to unprecedented workplace changes, economic uncertainty and, most recently, historically low levels of productivity. Today, at Collaborate, Wrike executives announced a newly designed platform, including a streamlined user experience, artificial intelligence capabilities, and powerful new features. With an average performance increase of up to 45%, the new platform is already proven to provide organisations with the fastest way to productivity, giving them the freedom to focus on their most impactful work.
Wrike also introduced Team Plan, a new, cost-effective plan that includes intuitive, modern design and the most essential features that teams need to start working effectively right away. These updates could not have come at a better time, as businesses of all sizes seek tools that enable efficiency and a faster pace of work to positively impact their bottom line.
“IDC predicts that the market for team collaboration applications will grow at a 5-year CAGR of 19%,” according to Wayne Kurtzman, IDC Research VP of Collaboration and Communities. “Collaboration is something people do together, but the right technologies help it inform and scale across an enterprise. In a world where work is more flexible and we are blending workspace and workplace, connecting actual work to core systems becomes an imperative to grow as a digital company.”
Introducing Wrike Lightspeed
Wrike Lightspeed makes it easy for organisations to get started with work management and stay in a single platform as they grow, giving employees the fastest way to productivity. The new interface has been redesigned from the ground up to stand out with the three critical values: intuitiveness, versatility, and scalability. Intuitiveness allows the user to manage work effortlessly and make the time spent in Wrike productive and enjoyable, whether working as a team or individually. Versatility gives the power to manage diverse types of work with configurations specific to each team or department. And all of this work can be managed at scale no matter how complex work becomes as more teams and departments get onboard across the entire organisation.
“Companies of all sizes are experiencing a downturn in productivity accelerated by a more rapid pace of work, unexpected pivots in business strategy, lack of resources, and employee burnout,” says Andrew Filev, Founder and CEO, Wrike. “Wrike Lightspeed is designed to tackle the most pressing business challenges and increase productivity through key collaboration, prioritisation, and automation features. Our Dark Matter of Work research found that 86% of organisations are planning to invest in solutions with AI and workflow automation capabilities to create a single source of truth for work and increase efficiency. Our new platform delivers this today, helping our customers do the best work of their lives in a time where efficiency is paramount. Wrike Lightspeed is not only our biggest launch in two years, but the first one as a newly independent company.”
An intuitive experience 
Wrike Lightspeed delivers a new, user-friendly interface – with a modern look and feel, new views with improved performance, an intuitive set up, and a decluttered workspace – enabling the shortest learning curve for teams of any size. The ergonomic user interface of Wrike Lightspeed allows teams to focus on their work, not being distracted by unnecessary features, while also allowing organisations to introduce more powerful functionality as they’re ready to scale. With the following improvements to the core views, users can expect an average performance increase of up to 45% (based on internal performance testing):
  • Personal Work Experience is our new product homepage where users can configure various widgets to see incoming inbox messages, manage their tasks, and stay on top of their own productivity.
  • Updated Board View presents projects in a Kanban-style board with easy column setup, subtask preview, workflow modification, and one-click assignments.
  • Updated Table View blends the ease of use of spreadsheets with the power of hierarchical work breakdown.
  • Updated Gantt View takes one of the most popular project management views and delivers a simpler user experience to display projects in timeline view with dependencies and milestones and show the impact of rescheduling on the overall project.
  • New Calendar View provides a weekly, monthly, and quarterly view of projects, and allows teams to manage roadmaps.
  • New Analytics View pulls data all together in a birds-eye view, allowing stakeholders to see a summary of any project or workflow.
“The different views are super helpful,” says Nicki Batelli, Vice President, Social and Digital Strategy, Game Shows at Sony Pictures Television. “We use the Gantt chart to understand all of our overlapping projects and timelines. It’s really valuable to understand the full scope of work happening against a calendar view.”
Versatility for all teams
Wrike puts companies back in control and enables teams to configure work their way in the context of one, unified platform. Beyond individual teams being able to configure all aspects of a workflow in their Space, Wrike provides a universal way to view work across the company and report on it top down.
Building upon the track record of continuous innovation, Wrike shipped the industry-first Custom Item Types, a unique platform capability that enables teams to speak the language of their work in Wrike, giving them ultimate flexibility in how they build, manage, and run their workflows.
Custom Item Types works together with foundational Wrike Lightspeed platform capabilities like Work Graph, Dynamic Request Forms, and Blueprints, and is supported across the whole platform both in team-specific Spaces, and account-wide to establish standards across an organisation. Custom Item Types strengthens existing use cases and significantly expands the amount of new use cases Wrike can support.
“Custom Item Types has given us the added flexibility to pinpoint items without additional workarounds, and we’ve been better able to target automations, use specific statuses for items, and use them in dashboards, filters, tables, and reports,” says Allie Zoranski, Copy Manager, Neiman Marcus Group. “We also love that we can customise the item to only show features or specific custom fields that are pertinent to that item type. Custom Item Types are like having a built in custom field that doesn’t need to be as manually managed.”
To further the platform’s versatility, Wrike announced Customisable User Types today, offering more flexibility around user permissions. Customisable User Types gives account admins more control and discretion to provision user access in Enterprise-level organisations looking for infinite scalability.
Scale all the way
Wrike is the only work management platform that allows infinite scale utilising automation, integrations, work intelligence, and security. Today, Wrike introduced Space Workflows, a new feature that empowers teams to configure and control their own compartmentalised workflows, enabling even more granular Space administration, down to each process and status personalisation.
Space Workflows separate organisational and departmental work processes clearly, fostering effective end-to-end process management for those familiar with the day-to-day activities of specific teams. For instance, departmental operations teams, like Marketing Ops and DevOps, now have the power to run their team’s workflows at the Space level, while IT has control over processes that are established across the company using Wrike account settings.
“Wrike provides a flexible system infrastructure that is easily configured to meet our business needs,” says Damian Robles, Head of Solutions, Business Excellence, Region Americas, Siemens Smart Infrastructure. “While there are differences in the use cases across our organisation, we are all working on projects and are able to standardise globally on key functions, as well as exchange best practices in our implementation around the world.”
Wrike also delivers power at scale through:
  • A robust Work Graph data model, which enables flexible hierarchies and advanced reporting needed to effectively manage complex project portfolios, programs, and workflows while providing top-down visibility.
  • Extensive automation capabilities, from work intake, to project creation, assignment and work distribution, collaboration, and reporting.
  • A new feature, External Requester Collaboration, which is based on request forms and enables seamless collaboration between Wrike users and external stakeholders that do not have a Wrike account. For example, an outside marketing agency can submit a request and track its status in email without having to log into Wrike. Similarly, service teams can now seamlessly collaborate on tasks with external requesters not requiring them to learn a new tool.
  • Data integration engine pulls data from third-party applications, including document repositories and DAM solutions, publishes Wrike data to BI and Analytics tools, and connects workflows with specific line-of-business applications.
  • Work Intelligence powered by Wrike’s machine learning and artificial intelligence capabilities. The latest addition, AI Subitem creation, allows users to quickly convert unstructured meeting notes, documents, tables, or checklists into actionable tasks.
  • Unmatched security. Wrike’s Locked Spaces, in combination with SSO, Space-level administration, and Customisable User Types, deliver unmatched security even for customers working with the most sensitive data.
“We’ve spent the last few years honing in on three critical elements that drive the vision of Wrike and future of work – intuitiveness, versatility, and scalability,” says Alexey Korotich, VP of Product, Wrike. “Our teams have been working hard to anticipate current and future market challenges so that we can fulfill our vision to deliver the most powerful work management platform. Wrike Lightspeed gives customers everything they need to work at the speed of light, providing the fastest way to productivity.”
Health, News

Irish oncology care platform announces collaboration with NCCN

Irish oncology software company ONCOassist teams up with NCCN to improve HCP’s day-to-day and patient care across 150+ countries

The Irish-founded oncology software company, ONCOassist, today announces a new agreement with The National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®). The collaboration will focus on integrating NCCN Content to create a digital tool that will help oncology professionals around the world stay up to date with relevant clinical content about cancer care. ONCOassist is a CE-approved decision support app for oncology professionals around the world. It is currently the only oncology app on the market with regulatory approval for use in a hospital setting.

ONCOassist hosts tools and content specific to oncology and is used by more than 73,000 professionals across 150+ countries. It is estimated that 40 percent of oncology healthcare professionals (HCPs) globally use ONCOassist. ONCOassist is revolutionizing the delivery of global cancer care and aiding in reaching the goal of improving the quality of patient care globally. 

NCCN is a not-for-profit alliance of 32 leading cancer centres devoted to patient care, research, and education. NCCN is dedicated to improving and facilitating quality, effective, equitable, and accessible cancer care so all patients can live better lives. 

By joining forces, NCCN enables ONCOassist to make key decision support information available to their users around the world, advancing their mission of helping HCPs make more-informed oncology decisions. The new agreement will allow oncology clinicians to access relevant, up-to-date tools and content at their fingertips on the ONCOassist smartphone app. ONCOassist and NCCN are working together to bring their content to oncology clinicians around the world, irrespective of their resources. Through the leadership and expertise of clinical professionals at NCCN Member Institutions, NCCN develops resources that present valuable information to the numerous stakeholders in the healthcare delivery system. 

According to Cancer Research UK, there are around 375,000 new cancer cases in the UK every year which is around 1,000 every day. Globally, 18,094,716 million cases of cancer were diagnosed in 2020 alone according to the World Cancer Research International Fund. With that in mind, DATA-CAN found that there was a significant drop in urgent referrals for early cancer diagnosis along with a noticeable reduction in chemotherapy attendance during the COVID-19 pandemic. This indicates that COVID-19 may have impacted and prevented patients from being diagnosed early on. ONCOassist aims to make life easier for both oncology professionals as well as patients themselves. 

When speaking about the agreement, Co-founder and CEO of ONCOassist, Eoin O’Carroll said, “We are thrilled to announce this opportunity to collaborate with the NCCN. This project has been in the pipeline for some time and we are very much looking forward to working together. This is an exciting step forward for ONCOassist for our work in cancer care and goal to facilitate healthcare professionals by gaining access to the right information and delivering better care to patients.”

When speaking about the collaboration, Robert W. Carlson, MD, CEO of NCCN, said, ”Clinicians need to have frequently-updated, evidence-based, expert consensus information available at their fingertips. This collaboration will help make sure the gold-standard recommendations from NCCN’s expert panels are easily accessible to the people who need them. Ultimately, this means more people with cancer will receive the kind of treatment that is most likely to lead to better outcomes.”

News

Talkwalker and Khoros Release Social Media Trends 2023 Report

Enabling better customer experiences on social, new forms of digital commerce, and increased emphasis on communities highlight report’s findings

Talkwalker, a leading consumer intelligence and deep listening company, and Khoros, an award-winning leader in digital-first customer engagement software and services, today released their annual Social Media Trends 2023 Report.

The report follows the announcement of the companies’ strategic partnership to seamlessly deliver deep listening and social media management through a unified experience.

The Social Media Trends 2023 Report, titled From insights to action: how to disrupt a disruptive consumer, highlights the social media trends that matter most for brands, marketers, and PR professionals to watch in the coming year.

The report leveraged Talkwalker’s social listening and AI-enabled analytics capabilities to uncover the 10 most impactful social media trends to expect in 2023 and demonstrate how consumers are driving these trends.

The insights behind each trend are further supported with industry-specific social engagement actions marketers can take from Khoros’s Strategic Services team. The report also features input from industry experts such as Jonny Bentwood from Golin and Will Hobson from Rise at Seven.

Key trends identified in this report include:

  • Customer experience will get even more social – 75% of consumers say the pandemic has driven long-term changes in their behaviours and preferences, including a bigger focus on urgency. Brands must prioritise customer experience by providing support, information, or solutions as fast as possible. In 2023, expect more brands to leverage social media as dedicated support channels, enabling a fast, efficient response no matter which platform consumers use to get in touch.
  • Social commerce will rise and fall – Large increases in post-pandemic digital growth and rising costs of living are driving increased demand for affordability. Soon, consumers will be more willing to explore new shopping channels such as social. However, some countries are more ready to adopt social commerce than others, with social commerce in the UK expected to grow by 5% on an annual basis.
  • Brands will place emphasis on communities rather than personas – 66% of branded communities say that their community has led to increased loyalty. Brands will focus on gaining deeper knowledge of their consumer ecosystems to understand who is driving and sharing brand-focused conversations. Influencers, employee advocates, and consumers will be engaged within brand communities to generate authentic connections and consumer-led content.

“We all know the digital ecosphere has disrupted how marketers engage with consumers,” said David Low, Talkwalker CMO. “In this new environment, marketers must focus on forging symbiotic relationships through a better understanding of online conversations and taking quicker action. It’s this new understanding that will help brands create meaningful experiences and become closer to their consumers.”

“As marketers, we know the value of data and the importance of listening to our customers. But, we need to be more action-oriented and use those insights more effectively,” said Dillon Nugent, Khoros CMO.

“Consumers’ comfort level for doing things online – shopping, researching, socializing – is not slowing down as the world opens up. They also care more about their communities—global, local, IRL, and online. Marketers need to tap into these trends and behaviors more deeply to personalize customers’ experiences and create more impactful strategies that empower your brand to stay connected to customers and grow your presence in the market.”

To read all of the trends brands can expect from social and the actions they should be taking in 2023, download the Social Media Trends 2023 Report here.

Healthcare, News

Battling Data Security Uncertainty to Excel in Patient Care

By Stefan Spendrup, VP of Sales, Northern and Western Europe at SOTI

Digitisation and improved practices are arguably more important for the healthcare sector than any other. After all, the more efficient the sector is, the greater the patient care it can provide. The National Health Service (NHS) is at the beginning of its tech revolution – video conferences are now the norm and the NHS app has already been downloaded more than 22 million times.

Digital transformation is in full swing – SOTI’s A Critical Investment: Taking the Pulse of Technology in Healthcare report found that 77% of IT healthcare professionals have increased the number of tech solutions they use this year, but concerns still exist, specifically around security. In fact, 88% of IT healthcare professionals are worried about patient information being revealed, lost, accessed, stolen or inadequately backed up, with a further 45% of UK organisations having experienced a data breach since 2020.

With a duty of care to protect confidential patient records, this is something the industry must be cautious of as it continues its digital journey. Healthcare services must now face the transition to a digitised system by ensuring there is full confidence in the technologies deployed by their organisations. This can only be achieved with full transparency into how the systemic renovation works, as detailed below.

Security Breaches in Healthcare and How they Happened

A recent report by international law firm RPC revealed that the ransomware attacks handled by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) in the UK increased by 100% during 2021, impacting 45 million people in total. Breaches were rife during the pandemic, including hackers luring people to share personal information via email and text message by posing as the NHS COVID-19 vaccine rollout and hackers creating fake NHS COVID-19 apps. With the frequency of attacks rising exponentially, it is understandable that IT healthcare professionals are worried about patient information being jeopardised.

There are many elements that have led to data breaches occurring internally within the healthcare sector and externally from outside hackers. For example, healthcare organisations in the UK reported that since 2020, 44% of data breaches have been from outside sources or Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) ransomware attacks, like the data breach the NHS experienced last year where national and local IT systems of the Health Service Executive (HSE) were struck by a cyberattack.

The impact of the attack meant the hackers had access to patient details, employee records and financial information, leaving hospitals across Ireland without access to electronic records. This left healthcare workers without access to medical equipment, such as monitor scanners which were disabled, meaning appointments were cancelled.

On the other hand, a proportion of attacks happen internally, with 46% of data leaks since 2020 being planned or accidentally initiated by an employee. This emphasises the importance of ensuring that all employees understand the severity of data breaches and are adequately trained in data protection to prevent detrimental mistakes.

Scaling Up with the Right Date in the Right Places

Interconnected devices help healthcare workers improve patient care by collecting data from equipment such as pacemakers and scanners and using it to regulate doses, improve diagnostics and more. While increasing the interconnectivity of devices enables healthcare workers to improve patient care, it does, however, present opportunities for security breaches. More than half of IT professionals believe some of their interconnected devices are not adequately secure.

By increasing digitalisation in the healthcare industry, such as streamlining healthcare processes, electronic recordkeeping, more frequent app usage and improved security of interconnected devices and patient care services, healthcare workers will have easier access to patient data and know it is secure. This removes the added pressure of feeling responsible for the safety of sensitive patient records maintained by outdated manual and paper entry processes.

How to Make Tech More Secure within Healthcare

Part of the issue with the degree of data protection in the healthcare sector is that organisations are not spending enough money on sufficient data security.

Given the obstacles in play, including a lack of funding, rethinking investments may be the difference between the success or failure of healthcare’s future of digitisation and mobility. For example, almost one quarter (23%) of IT decision-makers believe IT teams are spending too much money on minor issues such as fixing printers rather than focusing on larger, more expensive projects like overcoming backlog appointments and ensuring all devices are effectively protected.

However, when investing in the right data security system, it is about understanding what is best for the organisation and the data that needs to be protected. When protecting healthcare devices, healthcare providers must ensure all technology deployed in their organisation is equipped with an effective Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) solution. These solutions provide increased visibility, security and management of mobile technologies, with the option for IT professionals to remotely manage any mobile device or IoT endpoint and shut them down during a data breach.

The Roadmap to Continuous Systemic Innovation

While the risk of a data breach is not slowing down the need and desire for innovation, it may be reducing confidence in new technologies, devices and processes. For example, there is a lack of confidence among patients when sharing their data, ultimately harming the effectiveness of the devices being implemented. Meanwhile, 32% of global healthcare workers feel they do not have sufficient access to IT support or training apps when IoT/telehealth devices need fixing and are therefore lacking confidence in using new technologies.

With a lack of confidence comes hesitancy, meaning some healthcare providers may go back to old habits like inefficient manual paper processes. With a rise in new integrations and unfamiliar technologies, many IT professionals in the healthcare sector fear a history of catastrophic data breaches will repeat itself. However, there is hope that these technologies instil confidence rather than detract from it and integration becomes more efficient and robust as data breaches become manageable in the healthcare sector.

Awards, Cybersecurity, News

Check Point Software Celebrates Success of its Irish Channel Partners at Awards Gala with Guest Speaker Rob Kearney

Channel partners recognised for their outstanding achievements over the last 12-months at event in Dublin

Check Point Software, a leading provider of cybersecurity solutions globally, has once again celebrated the achievements of its partners at the annual Irish Partner Awards Gala, held in Dublin on the 20th October.

Speaking at the event, Seamus McCorry, Ireland Country Manager at Check Point said: “The volume of incidents in Ireland is alarming, with an organisation being attacked on average 822 times per week in the last 6 months. We understand the challenges that SMBs face in the fight against cybercrime with fewer resources and manpower dedicated to threat prevention. That is why our channel partners are so valuable as an extension of these businesses, building resilience and consolidating cybersecurity without the need for in-house SOC teams.

“There has been a countrywide drive from the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and the Garda National Cyber Crime Bureau (GNCCB) to help business owners recognise and mitigate cyberattacks as hackers move away from bigger targets. It is our responsibility, and that of our partners, to support companies as they navigate this changing threat landscape.

“Our partners have worked tirelessly over the last twelve months to deliver another strong period of growth, and I want to personally thank them for their contribution in Ireland. We are proud to celebrate their success at our first in-person awards gala.”

 

The partner awards

The event took place at the Medley Private Dining and Events Space in Dublin. The Check Point Software Partner Day and Award Ceremony honours the input of Check Point’s affiliate companies and celebrates the growing partner community in Ireland.

During the evening, there was a fundraiser in support of Women’s Aid, with a total of over €1100 raised in donations. Guests were also treated to a talk by Rob Kearney, Ireland’s most decorated rugby player. His list of achievements for Leinster and Ireland includes being in Ireland’s top ten most-capped players of all time, two Six Nations Grand Slams and three Rugby World Cups. Rob was on hand to present the partner awards in various categories, including:

 

Award Winner
Partner of the Year Integrity360
Project of the Year IP Options
Growth Partner of the Year Presidio
Emerging Technology Partner of the Year Pentesec
Distribution Partner of the Year Data Solutions
Sales Champion of the Year Kevin Carragher – Integrity360
Marketing Champion of the Year Aisling Bolger & Anna Zdun – Presidio
Technical Champion of the Year Ernesto Cabello – Presidio
Channel Champion of the Year Stewart Grant – Integrity360

 

Check Point has been making significant steps in the Irish market, having recently partnered with Ireland’s Health Service Executive (HSE) to help upskill staff in cybersecurity, both within the HSE and across the broader health sector. The partnership with Check Point MIND’s SecureAcademy is part of a large-scale digital transformation program within Ireland’s health service to accelerate the adoption of digital technologies and solutions.

Check Point has also launched its new global Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP) Program which gives partners access to a fully integrated security portfolio and automated processes to remove administrative burden and empower a partner service-led approach. Under the new program, MSSPs can provide global SOC-as-a-Service without upfront investment and address major security incidents with streamlined onboarding and flexible pricing. The program includes Check Point’s prevention-first security operations suite Check Point Horizon, which partners can co-brand or white-label.

Law, Midlands News, News

New faces strengthen the team at FBC Manby Bowdler

Fast-growing law firm FBC Manby Bowdler has appointed seven new legal experts in response to growing demand for its private client services.

Managing director Neil Lloyd is spearheading the investment in new talent and says the firm is seeing a sustained rise in enquiries in 2022 for estate planning, probate and Court of Protection work.

He said: “In 2022, we have been the top ranked law firm for our private client services in the areas  in which we operate and these quality appointments allow us to continue to deliver the stellar service and excellent legal advice we’re known for.”

The Wolverhampton office has welcomed two new solicitors to the ranks, Jessica Hubble and Chris Bate. Liverpool University graduate Jessica joins from a regional law firm and Associate Chris will take on a Court of Protection executive role.

FBC Manby Bowdler’s Shropshire private client team expands with the appointment of Associate Jonathan Edwards, specialising in estate administration, inheritance tax, wills, Lasting Power of Attorney, trusts and lifetime estate planning.

The Telford team also welcoming solicitor Adam Hawkes, who will be advising clients on all private client matters as well as specialising in contentious trusts and probate.

Three of the new faces – solicitors Victoria Upton, Nazia Riaz and Charlotte Todd – have joined the private client team in FBC Manby Bowdler’s Redditch office.

Neil added: “I look forward to all of them developing and progressing their careers in the law in the supportive environment that FBC Manby Bowdler offers to all employees.”

News

MemberWise survey reveals Umbraco is most popular CMS for mid to large membership organisations

Umbraco named as number one CMS for creating digital experiences for the UK Membership and Association Sector

A statistically significant survey conducted by MemberWise has revealed that Umbraco was cited as the primary content management system (CMS) for developing websites and digital services for medium to large organisations in the UK Membership and Association Sector.

The MemberWise Network is the largest free professional network representing Membership and Association Professionals in the UK. The network represents 8,000 professionals working for over 2,500 membership organisations and associations.

Professional bodies make up the majority (45%) of MemberWise membership, followed by trade associations (14%), business associations (13%) and donation-based charities (10%), with the remainder comprising unions (4%) sports (4%) and consumer bodies (4%), private members’ clubs (2%), subscription companies (2%) and regulatory bodies (1%).

The MemberWise Digital Excellence (2022) survey sought to discover the digital strategies and solutions that best support the membership sector, considering the switch to online engagement driven by the pandemic.

Richard Gott, MemberWise chair and founder said, “The Digital Excellence report is designed to help inform the Membership and Association Sector on the digitally focused strategies that will provide their members with interactive, engaging and value-driven online experiences. This year, 719 managers and directors participated, making this the largest (and most statistically significant) digital-focused research project ever conducted in the sector.”

The survey found that membership organisations’ top seven priorities were user experience, member engagement, acquisition, retention, value, satisfaction, and participation.

“In 2022 many membership organisations have invested in digital infrastructure in response to one of the most challenging periods in living memory. Most organisations have remained resilient, relevant, and responsive by shifting channels online,” said Gott. “Medium to large membership organisations are in a stronger position (based on available budget/resource) to invest in the membership-focused technology stacks and this is evidenced via the recent shift to online channels, increase in online learning/CPD provision, increased publication of journals/magazines online and online/website help centres,” continued Gott.

Key findings of the survey revealed that:

  • The top three technology tools employed by membership organisations are: Association Management Systems (74%), CMS (62%) and email marketing (58%)
  • Umbraco is the number one CMS used by medium to large membership organisations
  • The first 18 months of the COVID pandemic accelerated digital transformations by 5 years
  • There is now a much stronger emphasis on improving members’ user experience and value
  • Members of membership organisations now expect their associations’ websites to enable self-service and to deliver a value-driven experience with online participation, videos, and images.
  • 40% of member organisations reported that website content is structured via audience, rather than the organisations’ internal departments, up from 30% in 2016.
  • 65% have integrated AMS and CMS
  • Membership organisations that have not integrated AMS and CMS cited cost, time, and AMS incompatibility as the main barriers to integration.
  • 62% use CMS to personalise and automate members’ online experience
  • 37% of membership organisations use CMS to measure engagement levels

Commenting on the findings, Mike Pedersen, Umbraco UK Partner Manager said, “Umbraco’s open-source CMS, which forms the core of our composable digital experience platform, allows digital agencies to more easily integrate third party solutions and select exactly the right mix of technologies to suit their clients’ requirements, adapt to change, and ensure the best user experience for their members. This survey shows that we are continuing to empower our digital agency partners to create tailored digital services for member organisations that help them to engage with, retain and attract new members.”

Digital agency, Cantarus, is a long-standing market leader in the membership sector with nearly sixty clients in the space including The Law Society of England and Wales, Royal College of Physicians, Nominet, British Computer Society and Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. Cantarus has been an Official MemberWise Network Partner for six years and an Umbraco gold partner since 2019. Lee Adams, Cantarus CEO, comments, “We’ve been heavily invested in the membership sector since 2016 and it’s now our most important individual sector. MemberWise conducts a unique role within the Membership and Associations Sector by bringing together senior professionals, providing support and assembling a strong collective voice. The network allows us to demonstrate our knowledge and expertise by sharing success stories, thought leadership and guidance on best practice. We have partnered with the network to publish a number of best practice guides under the Ultimate Guide series and we’ve run many webinars and seminars to share knowledge on how to build websites to better retain and engage members. It’s a fantastically useful channel for us to reach the sector and showcase our capabilities.”

Commenting on the Digital Excellence (2022) survey finding that Umbraco was the number one choice of CMS for mid-to-large membership organisations in the UK, Adams said, “Umbraco appeals to a wide range of organisations looking to engage with their respective audiences/stakeholders. It’s an open-source product and there’s a fundamental element of trust that comes with that. Umbraco solutions avoid vendor lock-in and allow for low-cost implementations whilst also being a very powerful platform.

In the UK there are 24 Royal Colleges covering all of the medical disciplines. We work with the Royal College of Physicians and, because membership organisations talk to each other, if something’s good and people are having success with it, there is a natural inclination for other Royal Colleges to see what the largest organisations are doing. Umbraco appeals to agencies as well as clients. It’s easy for us to build great solutions on the platform. It’s reliable, it’s secure, it’s not putting our reputation at risk. Umbraco is also pursuing the composable digital experience platform (DXP) model which we see ever-growing demand for, particularly among bigger organisations.”

“Cantarus also uses Umbraco Cloud. Developers and clients like and trust it. It has a rich ecosystem of add-ons from the developer community to enhance its capabilities. Umbraco encourages that and the development of a vibrant ecosystem to the benefit of everybody. We can source an add-on to solve a particular problem and be confident that it is of a high quality, well supported, and won’t disappear in six months’ time. When you’re responsible for the security, performance and stability of a site, it’s really important to have confidence in the quality of the add-ons,” asserts Adams.

Novicell is a large international digital consultancy and Umbraco gold partner since 2011 that has been working with its open-source CMS for more than fifteen years, creating websites and digital solutions for membership organisations such as the British Medical Association (BMA), Denmark’s Nature Conservation Association (NCA), the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), The British Library, The Red Cross and the Blue Cross.

Anders Holt, CEO, Novicell comments, “Novicell is very well known for working with membership organisations and we were introduced to MemberWise by our client, the British Medical Association. During the COVID pandemic, the BMA had to swiftly respond to deliver vital information to its large, diverse membership. Using Umbraco, we were able to quickly develop a progressive web app, allowing people to access information on their mobile phone. The great thing about MemberWise is that membership organisations share information on the agencies and technologies that have helped them to successfully navigate such digital challenges, so that they know that they are working with tried and tested technologies and trusted partners.”

Novicell is a proponent of developing microservices, connected by APIs, which allow organisations to be more agile in their approach: quickly adding or retiring technologies in response to changing customer requirements. The consultancy also takes a ‘headless’ approach, where content can be quickly changed in the backend and accessed via multiple channels (‘heads’), to provide a consistent user experience on web, chat and mobile.

“As the survey shows, membership organisations are being challenged to create content that is relevant and engaging, to help retain existing members and attract new ones. As an example, the BMA has had to adapt its written content for the new generation joining the medical profession. This means providing more videos and social media links to cater to that younger audience. We’re helping membership organisations to be ready for this shift,” says Holt. “We’ve been using microservices, API-based, cloud-native and headless technologies for almost a decade and recently joined the MACH Alliance to help more organisations to benefit from this flexible and modern approach.”

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About Umbraco

Umbraco was founded in 2003 with the vision of making the complex simpler. The Danish company offers a flexible, user-friendly content management system at the core of its composable digital experience platform (DXP), which seamlessly integrates with best-of-breed third-party applications to provide unlimited functionality and customisation.

A leader in open-source tools and server applications, its success lies in the open-source model, a unique community of more than 220,000 developers and users, and a well-established partner network of digital agencies. Umbraco has 100+ employees, is headquartered in Odense, Denmark, with a branch office in Charlotte, North Carolina. For more information, visit www.umbraco.com.

About MemberWise

The MemberWise Network is the largest free professional network for professionals (working at all levels and career stages) working for membership organisations and associations. The network was set-up in 2008 and has 8,000 members who work for circa. 2,000 membership organisations and associations in the UK and overseas. The network promotes best practice, sector specific thought-leadership and promotes solution providers providing products/services to membership organisations and associations. Visit: www.memberwise.org.uk

About Cantarus

Cantarus is a UK-based provider of digital solutions across its seven core competencies of web, apps, community, design, consultancy, data and infrastructure. They take a human-centred approach to technology, defining success as a first step and taking a collaborative ‘think and do with you’ approach to working with clients to deliver optimal outcomes. Visit: www.cantarus.com

About Novicell

Novicell is a full-service digital consultancy. They combine strategic, creative and technical skills to help companies optimise their business online. Their services cover all the core digital services from digital strategy, website design and user experience to web development, e-commerce, digital marketing, content creation, and business intelligence. Visit: www.novicell.co.uk

 

L&D, News, Training

Mediaocean Launches Digital Product Training Certifications Program with Credly, Continues Expansion of Education Division

Mediaocean, the mission-critical platform for omnichannel advertising, today announced the launch of its product training certification program, supported by Credly’s digital badging service. The new seamless certification process bolsters the company’s continued commitment to providing dynamic professional development offerings through Mediaocean Education, the division dedicated to supporting the company’s agency partners, clients, and teams around the world. 

The news comes on the heels of the company’s announcement of an expanded partnership with Strigo, whereby Mediaocean Education now provides 70% of its training through Strigo, a hands-on learning platform that, coupled with Mediaocean education’s 1,000 eLearning videos and 1,575 learning articles, provides a comprehensive blended learning experience for  learners. 

“As we continue to join forces with best-in-class partners, we are particularly proud to be able to partner with Credly as part of our mission to provide quality training for our partners and clients,” said Dan Braithwaite, Director of Product Training at Mediaocean. “Mediaocean has long offered a blended pathway for our users through on-demand, live, and eLearning resources. Providing digital certification is an essential component in continuing our commitment to value and credibility to the community.” 

The new digital product training program will have the following benefits for its users: 

  • An all-in-one way for learners to showcase their levels of knowledge 
  • The opportunity to earn badges across both Flashtalking and Prisma, with additional platform badges to come
  • An easy way to share badges across social platforms and even in email signatures
  • A badge structure designed to incentivize continuous learning and skill-building

 

For more information about Mediaocean Education, and the newly updated product certifications, please visit the Customer Experience portal.

About Flashtalking by Mediaocean

Flashtalking by Mediaocean is the leading global independent primary ad server and analytics technology. We use data to personalize advertising in real-time, independently analyze its effectiveness and enable optimization that drives better engagement and return on spend for sophisticated global brands.Our platform leads the market with innovative products and services to ensure creative relevance and actionable insights across channels and formats, powered by unique cookieless tracking, data orchestration and advanced analytics. We support clients at the crossroads where data, personalized creative and unbiased measurement intersect with expertise, service and a deep partner ecosystem to drive successful digital marketing. Flashtalking is part of Mediaocean, the mission-critical platform for omnichannel advertising. For more information visit www.flashtalking.com or www.mediaocean.com.

About Credly
Credly, a Pearson business, is helping the world speak a common language about people’s knowledge, skills, and abilities. Thousands of employers, training organizations, associations, certification programs, and workforce development initiatives use Credly to help individuals translate their learning experiences into professional opportunities using trusted, portable, digital credentials. Credly empowers organizations to attract, engage, develop, and retain talent with enterprise-class tools that generate data-driven insights to address skills gaps and highlight opportunities through an unmatched global network of credential issuers.

News

Burger King joins the British Franchise Association

In a commitment to ethical franchising, and ensuring franchisees feel confident about the viability of their businesses, Burger King is proud to announce their membership into the bfa.

Burger King are excited to join the bfa, who’s associations core aim is to support and influence high quality, ethical business format franchising, in accordance with the European Code of Ethics, and seek to educate, influence and provide advice and guidance about what franchising is, and the fantastic opportunities available via this business model.

Tom Ward, Partnerships Director BKUK states, “We’re incredibly proud to become a member of the bfa and work with the community to share best practice and learnings. We have ambitious expansion plans for the coming years with both new and existing franchisees and look forward to working with the bfa as a commitment to ethical franchising across our estate.”

Burger King first entered the UK market in 1976, with Burger King UK® established in 2017 through Bridgepoint’s simultaneous acquisition of the master franchise agreement in the UK, and an initial 74 Burger King restaurants to directly own and manage. Today, Burger King UK® is the third most recognised Quick Service Restaurant chain in the UK with 533 restaurants as of June 2022, 266 of which are directly owned, and the remainder sub-franchises. The business employs around 4,600 people.

bfa CEO, Pip Wilkins says, “The bfa are thrilled to announce a brand of Burger King’s stature joining the Association, to help further promote ethical franchising in the UK. By becoming members of the bfa, Burger King have committed to the ethics and standards we promote. We are looking forward to working closely with the team to support their growth in the UK Franchise Market over the coming years.”

To learn more about the Burger King® brand and franchising opportunities available, please visit www.bk.com, or find out more about the British Franchise Association at www.thebfa.org.