Tag Archives: Award

Awards, Business, FInance, News from Wales

Knowledge Bank names Swansea Building Society as Criteria Champion 2024

Swansea Building Society has been recognised as Criteria Champion 2024 by Knowledge Bank. This award underscores the Society’s dedication to supporting mortgage brokers and its expertise in overcoming the toughest client challenges.

The award, which is voted for by brokers across the UK, highlights lenders that consistently deliver an extensive and flexible range of criteria to meet the diverse needs of clients. Swansea Building Society stood out for its dedication to providing tailored solutions and its proactive efforts to share these with brokers nationwide.

The Society’s participation in eight Criteria Clinics annually for the past three years has been a key factor in its recognition. These clinics, hosted by Knowledge Bank, are designed to ensure brokers are fully informed of the innovative and bespoke options available to their clients. Swansea Building Society’s consistent presence in these events demonstrates its dedication to empowering brokers with the knowledge and tools they need to succeed.

In addition, the Society was also a finalist in the Legendary Lender category. Winning one category and being named as a finalist in another is a significant achievement, recognising the impact Swansea Building Society has had on Knowledge Bank’s brokers and the wider market.

Alun Williams, Chief Executive of Swansea Building Society, said:

“We are honoured to receive the Criteria Champion 2024 award. At Swansea Building Society, we pride ourselves on providing exceptional service to brokers and their clients, ensuring we offer solutions that cater to even the most complex scenarios. Being recognised by Knowledge Bank and the broker community for this commitment is a fantastic achievement for our entire team.”

Nicola Firth, Founder and CEO of Knowledge Bank, added:

“Swansea Building Society exemplifies what it means to go above and beyond for brokers. Their active engagement in Criteria Clinics and their innovative approach to solving client challenges make them a deserving winner of this award.”

This achievement underscores Swansea Building Society’s reputation as a trusted partner for brokers, combining its commitment to service excellence with a deep understanding of the ever-evolving mortgage market.

Awards, Business, Pensions, South Wales, Wales

Swansea graduate awarded Quantum Advisory Prize for mathematics excellence

The Quantum Advisory Prize for 2024 has been awarded to a Swansea University graduate, recognising their contribution to mathematics.

 

Hal Peckett, from Exeter, graduated from Swansea University this year with a first class honours degree in Applied Mathematics. Hal was chosen as the recipient of the prize for his dissertation titled ‘The Tragedy of the Commons: Dynamical Systems of Competing Fisheries and Game Theory’.

 

The Quantum Advisory Prize is an annual award presented by corporate pension and employee benefit experts Quantum Advisory that celebrates mathematics students who have transcended throughout their degree. The award recognises the quality and ambition of their work and, as well as acknowledgement of their effort, recipients benefit from a financial grant to support them as they initiate their career.

 

In applied mathematics, researchers can apply mathematical methods and specialised subject knowledge to a range of different scientific, economic and industrial fields. In his winning dissertation, Hal applied two mathematical approaches, dynamical systems and game theory, to the field of biology to analyse access and competition surrounding finite resources in fishery settings.

 

Hal said: “I am incredibly grateful to receive this prize for my final year dissertation. I put a lot of hard work into it, and it was a very challenging undertaking. I thank Quantum Advisory for this award and must also thank my supervisor Dr Noemi Picco for her guidance throughout my project.

 

“I am going to further specialise in mathematical biology, the area of mathematics on which my dissertation was based, by continuing onto a master’s degree in Biomathematics at Exeter University. It is an area of maths that I had never heard about before coming to Swansea, and it is a topic I am excited to pursue further and develop a career out of. The prize money is a massive help for the transition into my master’s and will help support me while I take on this new challenge.”

 

Dr Noemi Picco, Senior Lecturer in Mathematics at Swansea University, said: “Hal has done a fantastic job developing an excellent piece of work centred around the problem of sharing common finite resources: the ‘tragedy of the commons’. Hal was inquisitive and motivated into exploring how this seemingly simple scenario could be described and analysed mathematically. The end result was an outstanding dissertation which brings together two distinct mathematical approaches: game theory and dynamical systems.

 

“Hal has successfully navigated his first experience of independent research work, growing in confidence and critical thinking while overcoming obstacles along the way. It has been a pleasure to witness his journey through this project, and the potential for a future as a brilliant researcher.”

 

Stuart Price, Partner and Actuary at Quantum Advisory, said: “We are proud to support Swansea University graduates as they begin their careers in mathematics and the calibre and talent of their students always greatly impresses us year on year.

 

“Hal’s project and his approach really stood out this year and we are delighted to award him the Quantum Advisory Prize for his outstanding dissertation. We are delighted to hear that he is progressing his interests in this field further and wish him the very best for his master’s degree.”

 

Quantum Advisory provides pension and employee benefits services to employers, scheme trustees and members and has offices in Cardiff, Amersham, Birmingham and London. For more information about Quantum Advisory, please visit https://quantumadvisory.co.uk.

Education, Education News, News

Bradford College Achieves West Yorkshire Fair Work Charter

Bradford College is one of the latest certified members of the new West Yorkshire Fair Work Charter.

Created by the West Yorkshire Combined Authority and Mayor of West Yorkshire Tracy Brabin, the Charter is an ambitious new initiative that supports and celebrates great employers across the region.

The Charter welcomes employers of all sizes and across sectors who are committed to meaningful action, helping provide better pay, conditions, and opportunities for all.

Local employers, trade unions, and regional leaders helped to develop the initiative, overseen by a steering group. The Charter is guided by five themes: opportunity, security, wellbeing, fulfilment, and employee voice.

Bradford College met the criteria owing to its aspirational 2022-2026 strategic plan and the strategic objective to become an ‘employer of choice.’ Work is underway to boost staff engagement and attendance levels, offer outstanding learning and development, recruit and retain highly skilled and motivated staff, and offer a great place to work.

Sarah Cooper, Bradford College Director of People Services, said:

“We are delighted to be approved as an early joiner of the West Yorkshire Fair Work Charter. This endorsement of Bradford College’s employment practices commends our ambition of being an employer that offers an exceptional workplace.

“We recently updated all our HR policies and are investing more in learning and development and wellbeing activities – all examples of how we support existing and future employees. We look forward to building on this success and sharing best practice with other regional organisations.”

Mayor Tracy Brabin unveiled the West Yorkshire Fair Work Charter at the University of Bradford in November. More than 40 businesses and organisations pledged to improve the quality of work in West Yorkshire, with Bradford College being one of the few large employees in the city to achieve this status.

The West Yorkshire Fair Work Charter follows similar charters in other Mayoral Combined Authority areas, such as Greater Manchester and the Liverpool City Region. It is designed to be relevant to large organisations, but also small and medium-sized businesses which make up 99% of employers in the region.

Find out more about working for Bradford College:

www.bradfordcollege.ac.uk/about-us/jobs-at-bradford-college

News

Silobreaker awarded ISO 27001 certification

Security and threat intelligence technology company, Silobreaker, has today announced it has achieved ISO 27001 certification, underscoring its market credibility and ongoing commitment to service excellence, while recognising its adherence to the highest standards of information security.

As an international benchmark for Information Security Management Systems (ISMS), ISO 27001 ensures that organisations implement and maintain rigorous security controls and procedures, in order to protect their customers’ sensitive data and ensure business continuity. Part of Silobreaker’s ongoing strategy to continually bolster its security position, this latest certification demonstrates the company’s ability to withstand attack and deliver the best possible service to its customers.

“At Silobreaker, we enable our customers to identify and mitigate risks to their operations at scale, and in the quickest possible timeframe; it’s paramount that our services are always available and working optimally,” said Andy Grayland, CISO, Silobreaker. “This new ISO 27001 certification reflects our ongoing dedication to cyber security and service excellence, and shows that our customers can depend on us to provide the intelligence they need to safeguard their businesses from all types of threats, each and every day.”

Awards, Midlands News, News

Innovation drive helps Brandauer claim Medium Business of the Year at the Masters

One of the UK’s best kept manufacturing secrets has been named as the Medium Business of the Year at the Business Desk Masters Awards last night.

Brandauer, which produces millions of high tolerance metal pressings and stampings every week for customers in 25 different countries, beat off competition from across the region to claim the prestigious prize in front of 250 people in Birmingham.

The company was praised by judges for the way it diversified during the pandemic, creating its largest ever innovation project that has seen it become the lamination expert of choice for companies involved in electrification.

It’s an approach that has already delivered £1m of sales and seen it work closely with Jaguar Land Rover, Ricardo and Saietta on Government-funded projects.

Stuart Berry, Manufacturing Director at Brandauer, picked up the award: “The pandemic was tough for everyone, but it did give us time to consider the future and where we wanted to take the business.

“We had growing expertise in creating wafer thin laminations and wanted to innovate the bonding process so we could offer ‘stacks’ used in motors and stators in electric drivetrains. This has been achieved and we are now able to commercialise this in the UK and overseas.”

He continued: “The Business Desk Masters Award, which was sponsored by Azets, is a major honour for our company and underlines that SMEs can innovate their way out of difficult circumstances. A big thank you to all 69 staff, this prize is for you and your hard work, commitment and passion for UK manufacturing.”

Brandauer has increased its workforce by 20% and successfully secured more than £1m of lamination work as a direct result of the transformation project.

This includes rotor/stators for a tier 1 Slovenian automotive supplier of HVAC systems and a global tier one, the latter using them in a new $3m Supercar.

The final contract success is a £250,000 deal, which uses its in-house bonded stack capability to drive the motors in the next generation of military reconnaissance drones.

News

Top plaudits for FBC Manby Bowdler lawyers

A leading Midlands law firm is celebrating a host of top accolades in the annual Legal 500 rankings.

FBC Manby Bowdler’s commercial litigation, family law and agriculture and estates teams were all named in the top tier by the high-profile law guide.

Three of the firm’s lawyers were also highlighted as leading individuals in their field, the highest ranking a lawyer can achieve.

Sarah Baugh (agriculture and estates), Anne Thomson (family law) and Guy Birkett (commercial litigation) were all cited by Legal 500 as among the top practitioners in the UK.

The Legal 500 uses a comprehensive research programme to assess the strengths of law firms in more than 150 jurisdictions.

FBC Manby Bowdler’s managing director Neil Lloyd said: “These Legal 500 rankings are a real feather in the cap for our teams, who have continued to provide a fabulous service to our clients throughout the past year.

“In all, no fewer than 33 of our lawyers were mentioned in the guide this year, which is an amazing achievement. I’m very proud of all our teams and individuals that have been recognised and know they will continue to go above and beyond to offer the very best service possible.

“FBC Manby Bowdler has long been a prominent feature of the Midlands’ law scene and these rankings are further assurance to our clients that they can rely on our dedicated teams to provide the top-rate service they have come to expect.”

The other FBCMB lawyers mentioned in the guide are:

 

Rising star

  • Suzanne Tucker (planning)

Next Generation Partner

  • Charlotte Clode (commercial litigation)

Practice heads

  • Gareth Ruddock (debt recovery/insolvency and corporate recovery)
  • Tim Gray (personal injury and clinical negligence)
  • Susan Todhunter (personal injury and clinical negligence)
  • Charlotte Clode (contentious trusts and probate)
  • Angie Manley (contentious trusts and probate)
  • Kim Carr (personal tax, trusts and probate)
  • Graham Fuller (personal tax, trusts and probate)

Key lawyers

Commercial litigation

  • Gareth Ruddock
  • Brian Aikman
  • Mohammad Ahsan
  • Elisabeth Glover
  • Claire Bentick

Debt recovery

  • Emma Northall
  • Claire Bentick

Insolvency and corporate recovery

  • James Sage
  • Brian Aikman
  • David Preece

Personal injury and criminal negligence

  • Michael Portman-Hann
  • Sharaz Khan
  • Michelle Hartshorn
  • Adam Wilson

Family

  • Philip Cowell
  • Sarah Millington
  • Claire Darley
  • Elizabeth Harris-Clark

Personal tax, trusts and probate

  • Julie Burn
  • Sara Simson
  • Christina Polychronakis

The Legal 500 rankings are based on a series of criteria and highlight the practice area teams who are providing the most cutting edge and innovative advice The results are available to view free of charge at www.legal500.com/rankings/

Business, News

Kofax Announces 2022 Customer Excellence Award Winners for Digital Workflow Transformation

Eight Standout Customers Honored at Kofax Accelerate 2022

London, July 21 2022 – Kofax®, a leading supplier of Intelligent Automation software for digital workflow transformation, today announces the winners of its 2022 Customer Excellence Awards at Kofax Accelerate, the company’s annual virtual customer event. Customers who received awards are honored for their stand-out achievements with Kofax products, and for demonstrating the ability to Work Like Tomorrow™ – today. Nominations were submitted for recognition across award categories for the Americas, EMEA and APAC regions:

  • Innovation Excellence: Honoring new and cutting-edge innovations using Kofax’s solutions that delivered substantial business value.
  • Changemakers: Recognizing customers that prompted real-life changes to transform businesses and lives.
  • Lifetime Achievement: Celebrating longtime Kofax customers that have built proven automation programs that deliver consistent results over time.

“Customer Excellence Awards are important because we recognize and showcase businesses around the world that are transforming and winning by partnering with Kofax,” says Chris Huff, Chief Growth Officer at Kofax. “This year’s winners underscore the power and impact of cloud-based intelligent automation – including tips for sustaining scalable programs among a distributed workforce.”

The winners implemented automation solutions to create digital workflows, ranging from invoice processing to fraud detection. Following are some of the ways the Kofax Intelligent Automation Platform has driven tangible value for these customers:

  • Using AI to process over 50,000 monthly commission disbursements, saving 15,000 hours yearly
  • Automating vendor management system (VMS) processes reducing over eight hours of work down to minutes, ensuring talent is paid on time and freeing up consultants to focus on more valuable activities
  • Creating a digital mailroom to support remote employees — eliminating waste and increasing accuracy
  • Implementing automated data capture and transformation to reduce customer transaction times from days or weeks to hours or minutes, while allowing customers to self-serve
  • Transforming the claims fraud program, leading to an expected savings between $580,000 and $1.1 million this year alone
  • Reducing customer onboarding time from weeks to 15 minutes with banking automation, saving 1,600 person days a year
  • Simplifying accounts payable to reduce data capture time and increase accuracy, visibility and control of the process
  • Processing 1.4 million invoices annually through procure-to-pay automation, achieving less than .0005 percent duplicate payments and auto-verification of over 85 percent of purchase order-based invoices

The Kofax Customer Excellence Awards 2022 recipients are:

Americas

Innovation Excellence: Acrisure, Grand Rapids, Michigan. Acrisure is a sophisticated and intelligence-driven fintech company that provides customers with intelligence-driven financial services solutions for insurance and reinsurance, asset management, real estate services, and cyber services.

Changemakers: Randstad USA, Atlanta, Georgia. Randstad is the largest HR services company in the world, offering a range of human resource consulting services including online talent acquisition, managed services programs (MSP), recruitment process outsourcing (RPO), outplacement, and talent mobility.

Lifetime Achievement: Physicians Mutual, Omaha, Nebraska. Founded in 1902, Physicians Mutual helps customers with their needs for health insurance, life insurance, and retirement planning. Its combined companies have more than $4 billion in assets and consistently maintain some of the highest financial strength ratings in the nation from independent insurance analysts.

EMEA

Innovation Excellence: Allied Irish Banks, Dublin, Ireland. Allied Irish Banks (AIB) is one of the largest Banks in Ireland and offers a full range of personal, business and corporate banking services, along with a range of general insurance products including home, travel and auto.

Changemakers: Aviva PLC, London, United Kingdom. Aviva is a UK-based and globally reputed insurance company with businesses across various domains including general insurance and life insurance. It’s the UK’s leading insurance, wealth and retirement business with the purpose of being with customers today for a better tomorrow.

Lifetime Achievement: Société Générale Algérie, Algiers, Algeria. Société Algérie is an innovative digital bank that seeks to satisfy customers by effectively handling their complaints, implementing an innovative approach to better meet their needs, and practicing quality management to ensure continuous improvement.

APAC

Innovation Excellence: McConnell Dowell, Melbourne, Australia. From remote resources and energy projects to city-shaping infrastructure, McConnell Dowell has built thousands of quality assets and facilities for customers and communities. Its expertise has grown steadily to span building, civil, electrical, fabrication, marine, mechanical, pipelines, rail, tunnel and underground construction, and its customers benefit from its combination of local knowledge and international experience.

Lifetime Achievement: MAS Legato, Biyagama Export Processing Zone, Sri Lanka. MAS Legato provides financial shared service solutions to its group of companies. Equipped with a high level of advanced technology, the company provides time- and cost-efficient processing thanks to capabilities that remove manual touchpoints and thereby completely automating processes.

In addition to the award recipients listed above, Kofax recognizes the following finalists and semifinalists:

  • Blue Valley Schools
  • Tangoe Inc.
  • National Library Service for Blind and Physically Handicapped
  • Litera
  • Cerner Corporation
  • Logitech Inc.
  • Cleardata UK Ltd
  • M Group Services Limited
  • DSV
  • Liberty Global
  • Randstad
  • Nyrstar
  • Qatar Aluminium Limited
  • Lottomatica S.p.A.
  • Fovárosi Vízmuvek
  • Rabobank
  • Borusan Cat
  • Krungsri Consumer
Awards, News

AlgoSec Wins ‘Hot Company Policy Management’ at the Global InfoSec Awards 2022

AlgoSec, the leading provider of business-focused network security management solutions, has announced that it has won Hot Company Policy Management at the tenth annual Global InfoSec Awards during RSA Conference 2022.

AlgoSec was recognized for its ability to manage the entire security policy lifecycle, including single pane of glass visibility to auto-discover connectivity requirements, ObjectFlow to avoid duplication, errors and mismatches, and its unique chatbot offering, AlgoBot, the first intelligent chatbot for security management.

In its tenth year, the Global InfoSec Awards, by Cyber Defense Magazine, is a global program that celebrates any startup, early stage, later stage, or public companies in the information security space who believe they have a unique and compelling value proposition for their product or service.

Jade Kahn, Chief Marketing Officer at AlgoSec commented: “It’s been our mission to enable even the most complex organizations to gain visibility, reduce risk and process changes at zero-touch across the hybrid network, and to win Hot Company Policy Management is a true testament to our team’s efforts in achieving this.”

“AlgoSec embodies three major features we judges look for to become winners: understanding tomorrow’s threats, today, providing a cost-effective solution and innovating in unexpected ways that can help mitigate cyber risk and get one step ahead of the next breach,” said Gary S. Miliefsky, Publisher of Cyber Defense Magazine.

Business, News

Westcon UK&I celebrates partner success at 2022 Partner Awards

The awards recognise stellar growth and technology adoption amongst partners in a challenging year for the IT channel.

LONDON, UK – 7th June 2022 – Westcon-Comstor, global technology provider and specialist distributor, celebrated another successful year with its reseller partners and vendors, issuing annual awards to top performers at the Green Room in London.

The distributor of Security, Networking, UC and Cloud solutions hosted over 80 UK and Ireland partner leaders to celebrate the many achievements and milestones enjoyed in FY22. Partners saw growth in new technologies and markets, strengthened relationships with vendors and drove impressive sales despite another challenging year with ongoing headwinds from Brexit, the pandemic and component shortages.

“Our annual partner awards are a chance for us to pause and recognise our UK and Ireland partners that have not only achieved impressive growth in such a turbulent market, but also those that have stood apart from the crowd,” comments John Nolan, Sales Director UK&I. “FY22 saw us work with countless partners to introduce new technologies, enhance their projects with training, support and billing services as well as building bespoke managed services offerings. It’s that investment and foresight which has driven the success we celebrate tonight.”

Delivering partner success is a key strategic focus for Westcon. It’s the trusted partnerships, culture, expertise and mindset of the Westcon team, which has consistently made its partners successful for over 35 years.

In today’s rapidly evolving IT channel, it’s also the new, transformative approach, digital tools and data-driven processes that the specialist distributor uses to drive sustainable Partner Success and end customer business outcomes.

FY22 Award Winners

UK Avaya Partner of the Year FY22:

IP Integration

UK Mitel Partner of the Year FY22:

Wavenet

UK Extreme Partner of the Year FY22:

LAN3 Ltd (Part of Convergence Group)

UK Check Point Partner of the Year FY22:

Ultima Business Solutions

UK F5 Partner of the Year FY22:

IBM

UK Palo Alto Networks Partner of the Year FY22:

CAE Technology Services

UK Networking Partner of the Year FY22:

Charterhouse Group

UK Security Partner of the Year FY22:

CDW UK

UK XaaS/UC Partner of the Year FY22:

Blackstar Solutions Ltd

Ireland Partner of the Year FY22:

Damovo

UK NGS Partner of the FY22

Ricoh UK

UK Emerging Partner of the Year FY22:

BlueFort Security Ltd

EMEA Cloud Partner of the Year FY22:

Sabio

Partner of the Year UK&I FY22:

Maintel

Construction, Construction News, News

MC Construction wins corporate supporter of the year award from cancer research charity

Salford-based MC Construction has been honoured for its fundraising efforts in aid of North West Cancer Research.

The company won the charity’s Corporate Supporter award at a gala dinner and ceremony held at the Isla Gladstone Conservatory in Liverpool.

North West Cancer Research is an independent charity dedicated to tackling cancer across the north west and North Wales. Its team aims to tackle the causes of the disease and prevent it, to improve the care of those who are diagnosed with it and, ultimately, to find a cure.

Staff at MC Construction voted for North West Cancer Research as the firm’s charity of the year for 2021, which was the company’s 50th anniversary year.

They undertook a variety of fundraising activities, including a skydive, the National Three Peaks Challenge, the Great Manchester Run, Tough Mudder, the company’s annual Golden Trowel golf tournament, raffles and a Bake-Off.

The company smashed its target of £10,000 to raise a total of £11,169. The money is being used to fund a year’s laboratory costs for research into early detection of prostate cancer, the most prevalent form of male cancer in the region.

In addition, MC Construction undertook an extensive campaign to raise awareness among staff, their families and friends and the company’s supply chain. This included the distribution of leaflets and posters at its offices and site cabins, and social media postings on healthy living tips and early warning signs.

Alastair Richards, chief executive of North West Cancer Research, said: “MC Construction chose to support the charity to mark its golden jubilee and the entire workforce got behind the fundraising with a great variety of events throughout the year.

“Not content with smashing its target, the company set about raising awareness of cancer prevention among its staff and clients, making it a very worthy winner of the North West Cancer Research Corporate Supporter Award 2022.”

MC Construction, which employs more than 60 people, undertakes building projects throughout the north west with a focus on the commercial, education, heritage, hospitality, industrial, local authority, social housing and healthcare sectors.

The company was founded in 1971 by Charlie Lowe and John Purcell. John’s sons Mike and Chris and Charlie’s sons David and Ian Lowe are currently serving as directors.

David, who is MC Construction’s managing director, said: “North West Cancer Research raises vital funds for painstaking research which saves lives, and we were proud to support the charity in our golden jubilee year.

“It’s a local charity which is close to the hearts of everyone in the business, and the whole team got behind our fundraising efforts from day one.

“Thanks to their tremendous efforts we smashed our fundraising target and the money is funding laboratory research at the University of Liverpool which will hopefully make a huge difference in years to come.

“Most cases of prostate cancer are discovered too late, mainly because men are too afraid or embarrassed to go for a check-up. The lab project hopes to discover ways to improve detection rates through urine samples.

“We wish the research team every success, and we are thrilled that our efforts to support them have been recognised with this award.”