Tag: centre

Evolve IP Unveils Powerful Contact Centre As A Service Solution As Omnichannel Focus Accelerates

Evolve IP’s fast-growing EMEA region has added a powerful new contact centre solution to its integrated collaboration services mix – as demand intensifies for a more centralised omnichannel customer experience.

Integrated with its UCaaS collaborations solution, the company has unveiled an enhanced Omnichannel Contact Centre as a Service offering, powered by Enghouse Interactive, a leading global player in the omnichannel market. Anywhere Contact Centre is designed to support valuable use cases for customer service, sales, help desks, or virtually any environment requiring the intelligent handling of communications and digital interactions. 

The solution greatly minimises or eliminates IT resource support and infrastructure investment. Available as a flexible ‘SaaS’ model with a choice of contract term, users can take advantage of the latest omnichannel customer engagement functionality, benefitting from instant scalability, business agility and analytics that combine to create the best possible customer experience.

Raising the game

Evolve IP works with many of the world’s biggest tech companies and innovative industry leaders to create robust and reliable solutions for its growing reseller base. As a global collaboration provider, it specialises in securely integrating unified communications, collaboration tools, voice, and omnichannel contact centre solutions into the cloud.

The new CCaaS development is a natural and progressive step forward which helps accelerate digital transformation – and enable reseller partners to ‘raise their game’ by meeting expanding customer requirements. That’s the view of Evolve IP’s UK Technical Account Director, Scott Rixon, who says organisations need to catch up to their customers’ needs by developing strategies not just fit for today but long into the future.

He highlighted how the latest service enables seats to be added in seconds with ‘flex on demand’ capabilities allowing easy logging in of new agents as needed.

Rixon continued: “This plugs a gap in our UK portfolio and enables our partners especially in the mid-market sector to target major growth opportunities for those looking for an omnichannel experience – much more than just great audio-only interaction.

“Our latest offering makes it easy to execute, manage, monitor and oversee a complete omnichannel strategy – covering standard email and chat options as well as the main social media channels.”

He emphasised: “Backed by the latest industry research, we expect overall CCaaS will hit mainstream adoption for customer service and support organisations this year, based on 50% of contact centres already migrating to a cloud-based model in 2022.

“Multiple platforms, video calls, mobile devices and even traditional deskphones all have a role to play in keeping businesses and their people connected wherever they may be. Driving customer engagement is crucial too.”

He added: “Choice is good. However, businesses need to be able to engage via every available channel – from one centralised, all-in-one-place communications platform – to maximise efficiency and performance.

“It’s an omnichannel approach which requires seamless integration, as technology continues to transform the buying process and how and where people work. Responding to this omnichannel challenge is the next step on our journey.

“We believe it should be all about making things as easy as possible. Regardless of industry sector, location or seat size, the user experience and customer experience are now mainstream concepts at the centre of a fast changing and flexible buying process.”

Understanding customer behaviour

Separation between those channels of communication makes for a resource-heavy, fragmented eco-system with huge potential to frustrate customers and agents alike, Rixon stressed. In addition, this kind of fragmentation is a barrier to the smooth harvesting and interpretation of communication data which is key to understanding customer behaviour and supporting the design of more efficient workflows.

He concluded: “Consumers expect to be able to interact with organisations easily and in their preferred channel of communication. We are supporting our partners to competitively, economically and accessibly deliver services to organisations of all sizes, providing them with the agility they need to develop and integrate communications channels and features, which ultimately drive business growth.”

A webinar to introduce the new solution takes place on June 21st.

 

Features of a Security Operations Centre

Thinking of investing in a security operations center to protect your business against cybercrime? With hack attempts at the highest recorded level, there has never been a better time. 

Your PC, Mac, or Android requires protection against thieves. Just as it requires that protection in the real world, so too does it need virtual world protection. Cyber security systems are the modern must-have for any business, either within or without the world of IT. Statista notes 1,802 data breaches reported last year, with 422 million people affected by the hackers. Unless you want to run the risk of allowing hackers to bring your business to a standstill, organizing cybersecurity into a secure data operations center is the only way to stay safe online. 

What is a Security Operations Centre?

The modern workplace now has to concern themselves with both physical workplace safety and virtual workplace safety. And SOC allows you to monitor and control any security access points within your virtual office space. Maintaining this control allows for better protection against outside threats while simultaneously giving you one single, manageable platform from which to manage all your security needs in one place.

What are the Key Features of an SOC

There are several key features which make an SOC ideal for protecting your consumer data, company secrets, and securing staff members in the virtual world. Here are the best to keep in mind when shopping for your new Security Operations Centre.

All Security Resources in One Place

The first benefit and key feature of an SOC for your business is the ease of use. Simplifying all your security resources by collecting them on one platform is like keeping all of your files relating to one specific client in the same folder. If you know where all your online security products are, it is far easier to access them quickly. 

Easier Maintenance

When your security products are safely stored inside their own command center, you will find it far easier to maintain them. Prevention is better than cure when it comes to malware, spyware, and other nasty surprises. 

Preventative Protection

An often overlooked area of cybersecurity, prevention can offer a huge boost to your site. Using preventative, or proactive computing security measures, a security provider can anticipate attacks, loopholes, areas of weakness, and even problems with call handling or front desk support – all by running virtual scenarios which mimic your system. This process is known as virtualization, and if you are a business owner outsourcing your IT services to a cyber pro, it is the handiest thing that they will ever do for you.

Ongoing Monitoring

Another key feature of the SOC is that it allows either your IT department or your hired technicians to monitor online and offline security. Monitoring systems means you get alerts when someone is trying to break into your system. IT can alert you to streamlining issues, data loss, and even tell you when backing up your system is a good idea. 

Other Benefits and Features

Installing an SOC in your company can allow you to keep logs, recover data, remediate around security threats, define response strategies, and much more. Keep your business safe from attacks with your own Security Operations Centre.

Guinness Enterprise Centre launches Health@GEC Cluster in partnership with St. James’ Hospital

The Guinness Enterprise Centre (GEC), Ireland’s largest incubator in the heart of Dublin City and home to more than 160 innovative start-ups, today launched Health@GEC, a unique healthcare innovation cluster that connects and enables greater innovation within the sector by fostering collaboration between start-ups, medical practitioners, patients, and problem-solvers.

Following on from its partnership with St. James’ Hospital (SJH) – Ireland’s largest acute teaching hospital – the GEC hosted an event at the centre to launch and showcase some of the activity already underway and to seek new partners to join this successful ecosystem. Twenty healthcare companies are already engaged with the cluster, ranging from early-stage start-ups to established international organisations. 

Innovation projects currently in progress include those focused on specialised clinical research and training, with others involving technologies to support patients – both bedside and outside the hospital setting – alleviating capacity issues which remains a universal challenge faced by healthcare systems worldwide. 

The cluster has also attracted interest internationally from non-clinical partners who are eager to participate, as well as major global healthcare players. To date, this has included visits from the Texas Medical Center, the largest medical complex in the world, and the hosting of a visit from the Enterprise Ireland, Global Healthcare Forum earlier this year.

Beyond commercial engagements, the Adolescent and Young Adult Cancer Programme, a partnership between campus colleagues SJH and Children’s Health Ireland (CHI), has been working with the GEC on a pilot programme whereby a multi-disciplinary team supports adolescents and young adults living with cancer in a non-clinical setting. It also engages with guest speakers and entrepreneurs – all keen to support these young people in an innovative model that may be expanded next year.

In preparation for the opening of the new children’s hospital at SJH campus in Dublin, CHI has also been using the GEC as a base for innovation workshops and upskilling healthcare workers to use Design Thinking to help solve complex challenges. CHI joins Health@GEC as an ecosystem partner, significantly increasing the potential for collaboration and open innovation for the group. The SJH/CHI campus, offering a full suite of ‘womb to tomb’ health services, will rank amongst the largest and most contemporary and comprehensive Academic Health Sciences Centres in Europe – employing in the region of 10,000 persons when fully operational.

Speaking at the event, Orla Veale, Programme Director for the Academic Health Science centre, said:

“St James’ recognises the value of open innovation to ensure it remains a leading healthcare organisation nationally and internationally, but also to continue to meet the needs of our patients into the future.”

Paul Anglim, Health Lead at GEC added: “Health@GEC promotes innovation in health by linking healthcare providers and institutions with companies and a supporting ecosystem of partners and investors. It is a hub from which innovators can access the network, locations, supports and people to bring their product to market successfully, thereby improving patient outcomes and new product adoption.”

EY Ireland Launches new AI centre of excellence to supercharge AI led growth for Irish businesses

EY has today launched AI Labs – a unique AI centre of excellence – offering clients access to game changing capabilities in big data, AI, smart automation, VR/AR and advanced analytics. EY Ireland’s expanding data analytics and technology consulting team, encompassing 220 people, will run and manage AI Labs to deploy a set of advanced technology client solutions and highly specialised client services. The skills and resources provided through AI Labs will ultimately equip organisations with the resources, tools, and insights they need to drive growth and market leading innovation.

AI Labs, run in collaboration with the EY wavespace innovation centre, will introduce a host of services to clients across maturity assessment, strategy, solution deployment, business training, rapid prototyping/POC, and Solution Development/MVP. The suite of AI capabilities and services on offer will allow organisations across multiple industries and sectors to deploy these advanced technologies to optimise new growth opportunities and to solve their most complex industry challenges. AI Labs will expand EY’s existing technology consulting business across AI, automation, machine learning, and big data over the next three years.

Speaking at an event to launch the AI Labs today, Paul Pierotti, EY Ireland Partner, Data Analytics and Emerging Technology said: “AI and smart automation present endless opportunities for organisations to solve complex issues in their respective industries. By adopting these technologies and embedding them in their operational models, organisations will find themselves at the forefront of positive industry and societal change. By taking the necessary measures to adopt these technologies Irish organisations will be set on a new path of digital optimisation and success. AI Labs at EY epitomises the value we place on innovation as a firm as reflected in the ongoing expansion of our vibrant technology consulting business.”

The unique offering of AI Labs will include capabilities across natural language processing, predictive analytics, optimisation, expert systems, and advanced computer recognition. By leveraging these AI capabilities, organisations will be at the forefront of the digital economy. EY will also be able to build on its rapid prototyping capabilities, using design thinking, agile methodology, discovery sessions, and the latest technology and industry insights to solve critical business issues alongside cutting-edge AI technologies.

Frank O’Keeffe, Managing Partner, EY Ireland, commented: “The launch of AI Labs here in EY Ireland is a natural evolution of our already extensive suite of services to clients in the technology space.  I’m hugely excited about the opportunities it will unlock for our clients right across the island of Ireland. Long term sustainable success in business requires innovative thinking and access to the latest cutting-edge ideas and technologies. Through our new AI labs and our partnership with the ADAPT centre, will be able to bring the incredible potential of AI alive for our clients through bespoke workshops and demonstrations. We can’t wait to bring together the brightest minds in AI across this island to co-create game changing solutions with our clients.”

To ensure AI Labs is supported with the advanced research, skills, and insights it needs to thrive, EY will enter into a 4-year strategic collaboration with the ADAPT Centre – the world-leading Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) Research Centre for AI-driven digital content technology. The collaboration will facilitate the application of advanced technology and research initiatives that address real-world industry challenges. These will consist of a portfolio of collaborative projects, initially co-funding two PhD students in 2022 but scaling to include research fellowships, targeted projects and other collaborations, including but not limited to health, transport, and utilities.

Declan McKibben, Executive Director of the ADAPT Centre added: “The ADAPT Centre brings together the best researchers in Human Centric AI across eight universities in Ireland to drive AI Adoption and Innovation here in Ireland and internationally. By building and valuing strong relationships with academic institutions, the innovation ecosystem, and businesses, we ensure that knowledge transfer can happen much more rapidly in line with the pace of innovation today. This partnership signals a new strategic approach to our engagement with EY which will nurture talent, drive innovation and turn good ideas into great solutions for tomorrow.”

The ADAPT collaboration will allow EY the opportunity to invest in research initiatives that align with its digital strategy, through creating additional research capacity and driving innovation. Research will be focused on initial use cases in data governance, customer content & engagement, intelligent supply chain and manufacturing, and sustainability.