Association for Project Management (APM), the chartered body for the project profession, has announced the appointment of its first female president – Sue Kershaw, UK managing director of Major Projects Advisory at consultancy firm KPMG. As president, Kershaw will advocate for the project profession, host the association’s high-profile events and
Axis Communications, the market leader in network video technology, has been working alongside The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB) to bring a medieval property back to life so that one day it can be used as a home. The UK charity, based in London, sought a unique solution to
Visqueen has appointed Georgia Oxbrough as Business Development Manager (BDM) for the North of England and Scotland. Georgia’s promotion is the latest step in a blossoming six-year career with the gas protection and structural waterproofing specialist. It began straight from school when she applied, successfully, for an NVQ apprenticeship in
In issuing its report “Under Construction: Building the future of the sector in Scotland”, Holyrood’s Economy, Energy and Fair Work Committee said that it wanted to understand the industry’s challenges “to ensure it realises its full potential”. It was a valuable exercise, since the construction business touches every part of
When you first started your business, it was just you (and perhaps a partner or two) and a small office space. Over the years, you’ve added employees, departments, and capabilities. Eventually, you saw the need to equip your corporate office with a designated customer service center. Owning and running your
Association for Project Management (APM), the chartered body for the project profession, has announced the appointment of its first female president – Sue Kershaw, UK managing director of Major Projects Advisory at consultancy firm KPMG. As president, Kershaw will advocate for the project profession, host the association’s high-profile events and facilitate engagements. Commenting on the appointment, John McGlynn, chairman at APM said: “As a well-respected and high-profile project management practitioner and leader, we’re delighted to have Sue as our first female president. She joins us during a period of ongoing growth, but also at a time when there are numerous challenges facing the project profession (including economic uncertainty, digitisation and transformation, and skills shortages). Her experience will be invaluable in supporting us to further help people and organisations to deliver better projects and also to promote our vision, mission and strategy to new and more diverse audiences.” The 2018-19 APM Members’ Review reveals the growth of the organisation. Almost 800 individuals have achieved the Chartered Project Professional (ChPP) status, including 495 within the first five months of the standard being announced in October. APM reported a 17 per cent growth in revenue and individual membership grew to nearly 30,000 (an increase of 16 per cent on 2018 figures). Sue Kershaw, who is also UK head of infrastructure programme and project management at KPMG, said: “As the second woman to receive an APM Honorary Fellowship back in 2011, I have witnessed their fantastic efforts in driving change within the project management space. APM’s work has been essential in equipping people with the skills required to build successful careers in the sector and develop professional benchmarks that demonstrate attainment of technical knowledge, professional practice and ethical behaviour. I’m very much looking forward to getting started in the coming months, helping to shape the future of the sector and drive professionalism. I’m also keen to champion important professional issues like driving gender diversity in project management.” Outgoing President David Waboso, who himself made history as the first black and minority ethnic (BME) president of APM, said: “Three years ago when I took on the role, my ambition was to enhance APM’s status as a body that supported the needs of the profession – and in doing so, further raise the profile of the profession both at home and abroad. Fast forward to today and I see great progress has been made and a profession that has grown in stature and strength. Having secured chartered status, APM is now collaborating with an increasing range of bodies and is building the talent and capability of the profession. As such, we’ve significantly improved the delivery of the programmes – in spite of the increasingly complex nature of organisations and in an extraordinary economic climate. It’s been a true honour to be a part of Association journey and I stand aside knowing that the association is on a skyward trajectory and in safe hands.”
Axis Communications, the market leader in network video technology, has been working alongside The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB) to bring a medieval property back to life so that one day it can be used as a home. The UK charity, based in London, sought a unique solution to protect a circa C15 chapel in need of restoration and deployed a network camera solution to monitor the site remotely for intruders and to act as a deterrent against theft of materials. The SPAB is dedicated to protecting and repairing historic buildings, and recently purchased former chapel St Andrews near Maidstone, Kent, with the aim of breathing life back into the structure. In recent years its main roles have been advice, training and campaigning. However, the recently purchased building, its first new repair project in almost 50 years, will allow the SPAB to teach others the practical skills required to care for such a building, whilst also returning a historic building to the housing market. The Axis solution has negated the need to have a security resource on site to protect the premises. The system has already successfully identified intruders entering the grounds of the building. Additionally, the cameras can document the restoration work as it takes place, and have also been useful in detecting local wildlife to provide the Kent Wildlife Trust with an idea of the range of animals with homes around the location, including many foxes. The technologies used included: Four AXIS Companion Bullet LE cameras, delivering HD video quality with built-in IR illumination for effective surveillance in darkness An AXIS Companion Cube camera with a built-in microphone and mini-speaker to effectively deter intruders AXIS Companion Recorder, providing a wireless access point for mobile devices. Matthew Slocombe, director of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, commented: “The image quality of the cameras is fantastic, especially at night when it is, of course, usually more difficult to identify potential threats. We are grateful to Axis Communications for providing this work and equipment free of charge, it means we can put our resources into saving St Andrews, Boxley – a truly special building.” The SPAB believes that ensuring the future of our culturally and historically important buildings can improve our environment and wellbeing. Because this drive to create a better world is in line with Axis’ ethos of innovating for a smarter, safer world and doing good in the community, the cameras were donated for the purposes of securing the premises during the conservation works. David Needham, UK & Ireland Sales Manager at Axis Communications, said: “We felt we wanted to get involved with this project as we recognised an organisation that was trying to help others and do good in the community, which is core to our values as a business. Since the installation, the cameras have identified young adults entering the building’s grounds, but not harming the property. It’s also seen local residents stopping and challenging people looking to enter unlawfully. This has meant there is no need to deploy security personnel to secure the site, saving the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings time and money.”
Visqueen has appointed Georgia Oxbrough as Business Development Manager (BDM) for the North of England and Scotland. Georgia’s promotion is the latest step in a blossoming six-year career with the gas protection and structural waterproofing specialist. It began straight from school when she applied, successfully, for an NVQ apprenticeship in business and administration. Since then Georgia has risen through the ranks from Key Accounts Support & Development Executive to Senior Specification Support & Development Executive, then Construction team leader looking after a team of 10 people. As a BDM, she will have a more external role, with duties including building close relationships with merchant customers, distributors and end-users to increase awareness and ensure the message gets across that it pays to invest in quality solutions and products. “There are tremendous opportunities for growth in the sector,” she said. “I have already gained experience working with customers in the North in a previous role, and I’m excited to have the opportunity to build on that with a broader remit covering Scotland.” Laura Guy, National Sales Manager for Visqueen, said: “As a company, we are committed to investing in our people as well as in the development of our range of market leading products. “That includes creating a pathway for talented employees such as Georgia, who joined as an apprentice and whose hard work has been recognised with her appointment as BDM for the North and Scotland.” Visqueen is the market leader in the manufacture and supply of structural waterproofing and gas protection systems. Visqueen offers complete support at every stage in the specification process and supply chain. This includes a comprehensive range of advanced products, a dedicated technical support team of specialists – offering specification, design advice and a best in class level of customer service. With a team of highly trained and experienced technical experts offering the highest level of support to our customers, including, architects and specifiers, contractors and merchants – all of Visqueen’s technical team have been awarded the CSSW award (certified surveyor of structural waterproofing), a nationally recognised professional qualification – aiming to promote excellence within the industry, improving consumer confidence and encourage professional development.
In issuing its report “Under Construction: Building the future of the sector in Scotland”, Holyrood’s Economy, Energy and Fair Work Committee said that it wanted to understand the industry’s challenges “to ensure it realises its full potential”. It was a valuable exercise, since the construction business touches every part of the economy in Scotland, generating £21.4 billion per year, employing 170,000 people – or 10% of all Scottish jobs – and sustaining 45,000 businesses. When giving our evidence to the committee, we suggested that any programme for improvement should focus on Four Ps: Procurement, Payment, Professionalism and Policing. As well as a requirement for government to take proactive action, there always remains the challenge of effective implementation and review. Procurement At the root of most of the contentious areas in construction is the business model for procurement, where practices and procedures have not fundamentally changed over many years. In usual circumstances, a main contractor, appointed to deliver a contract, proceeds to sub-let the works to myriad sub-contractors who may then further sub-sub-contract. There is very little if any engagement with sub-contractors on issues such as design or risk before the work starts on site and this often leads to a spiral of issues, including challenges over costs for extras, extensions of time etc. etc. This highly fragmented and costly delivery process, driven by the lowest price and the most onerous of contract conditions aimed at wholesale transference of risk, creates a race to the bottom which places an intolerable burden on businesses who often don’t appreciate how exposed they are. Often this race is won by businesses that spend little time and capital in investing in up-skilling their workforce or recruiting and training the workforce of the future. The Scottish Government has made some sterling efforts to address some of the issues, but many others still require to be addressed including: •avoiding the use of multiple schemes of pre-qualification; •requiring contracting authorities to consider if the work could be done by SMEs or SME joint ventures; •encouraging early involvement of key specialist contractors to inform the design and planning process; and •insisting on approval of sub-contract conditions to deter tier 1 contractors from transferring risk along the supply chain. Above all else traditional procurement systems are no longer fit for purpose. We need to be radical and bring in more innovative systems such as insurance-backed alliancing. Research from 10 years ago suggested that every £1 spent on construction created up to £5 in GDP growth. We believe that the economic impact could be far greater if we were able to eradicate the endemic process waste in delivery systems. For example, failure to engage the supply chain early enough to inform design decisions often means that construction costs are increased to reflect changes to designs to make them fit for manufacture. Payment Section 15(5) (d) of the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 – a measure widely welcomed – requires contracting authorities with an annual spend of more than £5 million to include strategies for 30-day payment to sub- and sub-subcontractors. However, our surveys show that, in 2016, 45% of reporting authorities were non-compliant. New figures will be available soon, but in order for this objective to be fully realised, the government should now legislate to mandate 30-day payments. Project Bank Accounts are the most effective way of ensuring that cash is disbursed to the supply chain without delay and, we were delighted when Scottish government reduced this to £2 million. We are keen to work with government to see how we can promote the use of PBAs more widely. Professionalism We believe that the Scottish Government should have the courage of convictions over their own Approved Certifier of Construction scheme and mandate that for all directly funded work that only those on the scheme to ensure that only properly qualified people carry out public sector work. In addition, recognising and legislating on our campaign to introduce Protection of Title would raise the bar of the status of electricians who work across Scotland. Policing We must invest more resource in ensuring compliance with regulation and best practice. To this end we have been urging the Scottish Government to create a properly resourced Office of Public Procurement Regulator. The Regulator would have powers to challenge poor practices and, if necessary, impose penalties on regular offenders. We need to move the sector towards the value systems inherent in many other sector supply chains – close collaboration; payment security shared risk and reward; effective communication; and a shared focus on the product. Only then will construction take its rightful place in 21st century business.
When you first started your business, it was just you (and perhaps a partner or two) and a small office space. Over the years, you’ve added employees, departments, and capabilities. Eventually, you saw the need to equip your corporate office with a designated customer service center. Owning and running your own startup requires an unparalleled level of dedication, vision, and hardwork. But in addition to these qualities, you need a desire to keep your customers happy and to meet their expectations every step of the way. You have to be in lockstep with trends in product quality and the customer service experience. Nothing preserves customer loyalty more than ensuring that even during the busiest times, their concerns are addressed in a timely and helpful manner. But what about unpredicted spikes in call volume? How can your call center handle that? Tracking trends in call volume In order to best handle unpredicted changes in call volume, you must first establish when your busiest hours are and ensure that you’re well equipped for those times. Inbound calls tend to come in waves, with high points and stagnant points during the day. However, if you have international clients, your agents may be receiving calls all day in waves. Make sure that your supervisors are tracking your busiest hours, so that you can make sure that your team is well staffed. You should also track the reasons behind your fluctuations in call volume. Have you had a recent sale? Has a product been recalled? Keep in mind that high call volumes may not be a permanent situation, but rather a temporary one. Outsourced call centers After analyzing your average call volume, you may find that you’re missing coverage in the event of unexpected call spikes. In this case, it may be time to consider bringing on an outsourced call center. Outsourcers are typically more fully staffed and more capable of handling unanticipated increases in volume due to their larger capacity. They also tend to train their agents to be flexible and able to handle a variety of customer complaints, while in-house staff tend to be focused on single products or scenarios. Using skill-based routing, call centers can ensure that calls are dealt with efficiently and adequately, saving your customers time and you money. Additionally, an outsourced call center will be well equipped to capture and analyze data in reference to customer needs, requests, habits, etc. In the case of more advanced, cloud-based call centers, all of this information can be stored in the easy-to-access cloud. When searching for your ideal customer service solution, look for an Oracle call center.
