Tag Archives: customers

Appointments, Logistics, News

Kinaxia Logistics strengthens senior team with key appointments

Kinaxia Logistics has strengthened its senior team as part of a management restructure which will see it focus on further developing its customer proposition, driving operational efficiencies and unlocking the potential within the business.

Simon Nelson has been appointed to the new position of chief operating officer and Mark Tabor has joined Kinaxia as commercial director.

Chief executive Michael Conroy said the duo have vast experience at board level and possess great commercial acumen.

He said the appointments form part of Kinaxia’s strategy to work more closely with its customers and deliver high-quality services which are more tailored to their needs.

Simon joined Kinaxia and became managing director of its contract distribution operations after the company acquired Nelson Distribution from KNP Logistics Group last September.

Mark has over 35 years’ experience in UK and European logistics, working with a number of leading businesses including FedEx, Palletforce and Online MBT.

As Palletforce’s European development director, he oversaw the expansion of its cross-border pallet network from 11 to 30 countries and quadrupled turnover.

Michael said: “The new position of COO has been created to ensure our services more closely match our customers’ requirements. This will enable us to get closer to them, better understand their needs and deliver a service which reflects this.

“In addition, Simon will also drive efficiency across the business using technology-enabled solutions that will boost productivity while further enhancing sustainability, allowing us to generate additional value for our customers.

“Mark will play a major role as we continue to align our commercial proposition to best serve the needs of our customers with the agility to flex to quickly meet the demands of a changing marketplace.

“His appointment further reinforces our strategy to be completely aligned with our customers to deliver a stand-out experience to them and ensure we operate in a manner which drives long-term success for the business.

“With some of the highest-quality warehousing facilities in the UK, a depth of regional transport expertise and heritage that is unmatched, skilled and motivated people and a powerful palletised freight offering, we have a full end-to-end solution that can quickly adapt to our customers’ needs.”

Kinaxia, which has its headquarters in Macclesfield, Cheshire, employs more than 1,700 staff nationwide with a fleet of 800 vehicles transporting goods for the retail, leisure, food and drink and manufacturing sectors.

It has 2.7 million sq ft of strategic national warehousing facilities offering contract packing, e-fulfilment, returns management, storage services and a complete distribution service.

News

Intelligent Self-Service experts, 4 Roads, creates experiential design consultation service for British luxury interiors & lifestyle brand, House of Hackney

Visitors to House of Hackney’s new flagship store in East London will now be able to benefit from a pioneering phygital experience, thanks to Intelligent Self Service experts, 4 Roads. 

Situated in “The Playroom”, the specially created moodboard from 4 Roads will enable customers of the British luxury interiors & lifestyle brand to visualise dream concepts on a true-to-life scale, before making a purchase – all while being able to touch and layer fabric, paint and wallpaper samples in real life.

Customers and House of Hackney consultants will be able to use the 4 Roads innovation to create “product shortlists”, either from home or in-store, which can then be projected onto The Playroom walls, in order to aid decision making.

Javvy Royle, founder of House of Hackney commented: “We’ve always thought outside of the box. Although we are inspired by the artistry and craftsmanship of the past, we want to align this with pioneering innovation. It’s also always been important to us that we really get to know our customer and their interior dreams when working on a project with them. This new chapter and our move to St Michael’s felt like the right time to craft a piece of technology that brought our collections to life and enhanced our customers’ experience.”

Rob Nash, founder and CEO at 4 Roads, added: “House of Hackney prides itself not only on selling high quality products, but also on advising customers to make the best choices for their home. This new experience will take House of Hackney’s customer service to the next level. We are delighted to work with such an esteemed brand on our first experiential retail project and look forward to seeing how it adds value to their business.” 

5G, News

Picocom validates 5G Open RAN SoC with Radisys interoperability milestone

Companies partner to deliver integrated Open RAN platforms to joint customers

Bristol, UK – 19 May 2022 – Picocom, the 5G Open RAN baseband semiconductor and software specialist, announced that through close partnership with Radisys, they are delivering joint 5G Open RAN platforms to customers based on Picocom’s PC802 small cell System-on-Chip (SoC) and Radisys’ Connect RAN 5G software. The PC802 flexible, low power device empowers the innovation of a new breed of 5G NR Open RAN products.

The current PC802-based interoperability milestone is based on the O-RAN split 7.2 architecture. It includes the Radisys Connect RAN 5G software (Layer 2 and Layer 3) running on an x86-based server, interfacing to the Picocom Layer 1 (L1) with the Small Cell Forum FAPI interface.

“We only just announced PC802 in December, the world’s first 4G/5G device dedicated to developing small cells with integrated support for Open RAN (Radio Access Networks) standards, so it’s great that several customers have already integrated it into their products. The wider availability of optimised silicon is just the stimulus the Open RAN telecom industry needs,” said Oliver Davies, VP Marketing, Picocom.

“Close teamwork between the Picocom and Radisys teams has enabled a high degree of interoperability in these early days of PC802. We’ve established a plan of interoperability/demo phases over 2022 for different RAN architectures and roadmap features. We recognise the significant contribution that Radisys has provided at this important validation phase of PC802,” added Vicky Messer, VP Product Management, Picocom.

“This has been a great partnership with Picocom to deliver an interoperable Open RAN small cell platform to market,” said Munish Chhabra, head of Mobility Software and Services, Radisys. “Our award-winning Connect RAN 5G NR software suite is compliant with 3GPP and O-RAN Alliance specifications, as well as the SCF’s FAPI specification, and it is playing a critical role in this Open RAN solution, making our joint vision of a thriving Open RAN ecosystem a reality today.”

Radisys and Picocom have cooperated closely to provide complete Open RAN solutions. The joint Open RAN split 7.2 configuration uses Radisys RAN protocol software CU (L3) and DU (L2) running on an Intel x86 COTS server. L1 and Open Fronthaul (OFH) run on a Picocom PC802 SoC on an inline accelerator card.

The interface between L2 and L1 is compliant with the standard Small Cell Forum FAPI protocol. The same FAPI stream is used not just to control L1 processing on PC802 but directly controls OFH Control-Plane and User-Plane processing, transparently marrying together the FAPI and OFH protocols.

The two companies are now preparing an integrated small cell solution based on PC802, with the RAN software running on a low form factor Arm-based network processor.

The PC802 is a purpose-designed PHY SoC for 5G NR/LTE small cell disaggregated and integrated Open RAN architectures that includes support for 4G. The SoC supports industry-leading Open RAN specifications and interfaces with a Layer 2/3 stack via the SCF FAPI interface over PCIe.

PC802 live demos to feature at Small Cells World Summit (SCWS) 2022 May 24-25, in London: smallcells.world. For more information and/or to download the product brief on Picocom’s PC802 5G small cell SoC, visit picocom.com/products/socs/pc802.

COVID-19, Data & Analytics, Marketing, PR and SEO, News

Coronavirus has increased brands compassion

A new survey by the Data & Marketing Association (DMA) has found that brands have become more compassionate in 2020.

The majority of senior marketers (74%) surveyed said their brands or clients have shown more compassion and thoughtfulness amid the pandemic – this included 14% who said this increased, with just 6% reported this happening less.

Over 220 senior data and marketing professionals, who judged this year’s DMA Awards, reported their experiences had been difficult, but that these challenging times have led to an increase in thoughtful marketing.

“The pandemic has had a devastating impact on people and businesses around the world. Although there has been a positive side-effect of coronavirus, in that it has contributed to a significant increase in brands compassionate and thoughtful approaches to how they market to consumers,” Tim Bond, Head of Insight, DMA. “Over recent years, we have seen that the values and ethics of businesses are becoming an important motive for consumers when considering brands. The message is clear – brands who put people first are more likely to engage and connect with consumers post-lockdown.”

A desire for more compassion was also discovered in the DMA’s latest ‘Customer Engagement: How to Win Trust and Loyalty’ report, where most consumers (77%) stated that, in their opinion, brands should be more compassionate during the pandemic. Most felt they should do this by communicating both how they’re helping customers (66%) and supporting staff (58%).

How are brands demonstrating compassion?

Most industry leaders point to tailoring content and thoughtful messaging (68%), trying to be useful to consumers (62%) and taking a more customer-centric approach (55%). In addition, around half (50%) mentioned being more generous to essential workers and even reducing marketing spend and volumes (42%) to reduce the impact on consumers during this time.

When asked about the key benefits of compassionate and thoughtful approaches, the two areas most cited focus on people – both the brand’s customers and its staff. Creating a truly ‘customer first’ experience (65%) and improving the wellbeing of their own employees (64%) were followed by a feeling of providing more harmony to society (61%).

Further information can be found on the DMA website: https://dma.org.uk/research/dma-insight-coronavirus-creates-opportunity-for-compassionate-marketing

Marketing, PR and SEO

Marketers and consumers agree on email’s importance across the customer lifecycle

According to the latest insights from the Data & Marketing Association (DMA), most marketers believe ‘Discounts and offers’ (49%) and ‘Advice, information or tutorials’ (45%) are the types of email content that help achieve their campaign goals.

The figures come from the ‘Marketer Email Tracker 2020’, part of the DMA’s annual series of studies into the channel, in partnership with Pure360. They reveal email’s multi-faceted role in communicating with consumers across all stages of the customer lifecycle – not just as a transactional channel, but one that can be used to inform and build long-lasting relationships.

“The importance of email to a business cannot be understated. It remains the primary channel that both marketers and consumers prefer across all stages of the customer lifecycle. It’s able to assist brands to enhance customer experience across each stage of this journey like no other channel”, said Tim Bond, Head of Insight at the DMA.

“During these challenging times for many people, we are seeing email used as a key medium for organisations to communicate with their customers. Brands are using email as the primary way to provide customers with advice, reassurance and updates.”

Comparing consumer preferences with what marketers believe is the most effective email content reveals both influence and opportunity. Emails influence as a means to share engaging content and the latest information with customers is clear, moving it far beyond simply a channel to share ‘Discounts and offers’. However, there remain potentially missed opportunities for brands in ‘Email receipts’ and ‘Access to other benefits’, with both having a significant disparity between consumers liking this information in emails and marketers seeing them as effective.

What types of email message/content helps you to achieve this email campaign objective? (Select all) & [Consumer] How much do you like or dislike the following in emails you receive brands? [Sorted by difference]

Email’s role across the customer journey

This year’s figures also reveal that email continues to lead all other channels for most marketers, across the contexts and touchpoints that the DMA queried. Although, notably, social media is being increasingly used to inform customers of for ‘New products or services’ (61%), ‘Discounts, offers or sales’ (54%), and ‘Advice, information or tutorials’ (52%).

Meanwhile, phone calls are still seen as useful for ‘Customer Service’ (53%) and online ads offer opportunities when it comes to ‘New products or services’ (40%), and ‘Discounts, offers or sales’ (38%).

Mark Ash, CEO at Pure360, added:

“Email continues to evolve to meet the challenge of an integrated digital world by providing a more diverse range of messages than ever before and delivers impact across every stage of the customer lifecycle. With customer experience now being the driving force behind marketing effectiveness, email marketers need to focus their energies on understanding how we can properly maximise its effectiveness in the right way to add value to the customer experience.”

Which of these does your organisation use for the following types of content/message when contacting customers? (Select all)


To read more about the DMA’s new research, visit the DMA website: https://dma.org.uk/research/marketer-email-tracker-2020