Gradwell successful again at DTI-Interforum awards28 September 2005
Customer care initiatives harnessed by Gradwell dot com (www.gradwell.com) to its expertise with broadband paid good dividends this month (September 2005) when it carried-off two runner-up awards in the DTI-Interforum’s West of England e-commerce competition.
Gradwell also provided an “assist” to Gloucestershire-based firm Cookability, which was the outright winner in the awards’ Best sales and marketing online category: in addition to its VoIP (internet telephony) services, Gradwell manages domains - one of which belongs to Cookability. “We have an excellent relationship with Gradwell,” commented Cookability’s Gareth Kitchen. “I met Peter Gradwell at a previous DTI-Interforum event, where we discussed Cookability’s requirements; Peter’s company on that occasion won awards also, so it’s obvious he and his team is creating quite an impact.”
Cookability’s website can be found at www.cookability.biz
The runner-up awards won by Gradwell this September were for its prowess
in the awards’ Best customer care online and Best use of broadband categories.
Judges found, for each category respectively, that Gradwell was “informative, focused, accessible and easy to navigate” and “proactive in its approach to broadband.”
The DTI-Interforum awards organised for e-commerce companies based in the South West were divided into six separate categories, with a total of 28 companies shortlisted. Fabian King, head of ICT at the government-funded South West Regional Development Agency, said: "These awards demonstrate how companies in our region are making much more sophisticated use of ICT.”
"ICT is one of our priority sectors and plays an important role in the region's economic prosperity.”
The awards encourage excellence in internet and telecom technologies. “It is great to witness the uptake of broadband in the region,” commented Peter Gradwell, “though I echo the view of the judges that there is still some way to go.”
“For a second time the Gradwell team has been acknowledged for its customer care and technical expertise; the recognition is a real encouragement to us all.”
Customers opting for the benefits of Gradwell’s VoIP system can either choose to have their landlines adapted or their PCs enhanced with new software.
“Most of our 3,000-plus customers opt for the former,” explained Peter.
“With the Centrex system we employ we can implement all the customer’s needs - such as speedy routing, music downloads, texts indicating a voicemail - at the Gradwell end, giving us excellent economy of scale. “
Features include:
· interactive voice recognition
· very fast routing
· music downloads
· texts indicating a voicemail.
“The economies we achieve are passed on to the customer in the form of low charges.”
“We built our VoIP service from the ground-up, and canvassed the opinion of our customers so that all components act seamlessly. Self-management by customers is available via the web: for example, they can easily divert to mobiles by logging-on to the Gradwell website. Input the instruction, and it’s done.”
Gradwell’s VoIP performance
“We achieve the industry standard - known as 4-9s, ie: 99.99% - with great regularity,” said Peter. “Downtime is almost non-existent, thanks to the systems we have and the clusters of servers we have built.
“Currently, there are 14 servers for our e-mail system, in 3 locations. Any glitches are acknowledged immediately on our website; we also send a note via text message, and emails are sent out explaining the situation to customers in real time.
“Overall, we take a very pro-active approach. We are developing new approaches all the time, and the DTI awards have given us added incentive,” commented Peter.
PHOTO CAPTION:
Peter Gradwell receives his Best customer care online runners-up award from Nigel Ashcroft, Project Director of Cornwall’s ActNow broadband project, who said: "Amongst the thousands of businesses in the South West which are embracing the benefits of broadband and IT, there are a few which stand out as really breaking new ground; they use IT to completely transform their businesses. It is important that their achievements are recognised through the DTI-Interforum eCommerce awards because they are crucial to the growth of the local economy. These businesses show what can be achieved.”
For more details about the services Gradwell offers, please contact:
Peter Gradwell,
Managing Director - 01225 800800 (www.gradwell.com)
Jack Ozanne,
Full-Media Solutions - 01985 841375 and 07973 770942
NOTES TO EDITORS:
Peter Gradwell has sponsored the creation of www.voip.org.uk. It is a community-led VoIP forum aiming to become the UK’s main reference point for internet telephony.
For two years (April 2002-April 2004) he contributed to the work of Nominet, the think-tank for UK domain name policy. As Chairman of Nominet’s policy advisory board he was instrumental in guiding extensive debate.
He is a member of the Internet Telephony Service Providers Association (ITSPA), the UK trade body that, among other activities, lobbies OFCOM.
Additionally Peter Gradwell is a non-executive director of two firms that focus on hosting, connectivity and collocation: NewNet plc and Loud-n-Clear Limited.
His current studies for a PhD at the University of Bath in digital settlement systems comprise an analysis of the use of auctions to manage and procure resources via agent computer networks, known as The Grid. “Auctions are an excellent way of managing resources on a big computer network,” comments Peter.
More details about Peter Gradwell’s work can be found at
http://peter.gradwell.com/
Definition of VoIP:
VoIP is hardware and software that enables people to make telephone calls over the internet. Voice signals are converted to packets of data, and are transmitted on shared/public lines to avoid the charges raised on traditional, public-switched telephone networks.
VoIP can be delivered via microphone and computer speakers; IP telephones or VoIP boxes can also be used, similar to normal telephoning.
Source: SourceWire
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