Forging Partnerships to Deliver Customer Service Excellence

By David Barrow, Finance Director, Cherry Godfrey

There is no doubt that innovation is a primary driver of economic growth and of the rise in living standards since the sixties. Few areas have experienced more rapid growth innovation than the IT industry, which continues to revolutionise how we communicate at home and how we do business. Upgrading IT systems to meet business needs is commonplace, so why should a telephone system be any different?

Cherry Godfrey’s Finance Director, David Barrow explains how partnering with JT to upgrade a 10 year-old phone system has enabled the company to deliver a better customer service and achieve significant business savings.

“Like many Channel Island based businesses, Cherry Godfrey operates across the islands and the requirement to link between Guernsey and Jersey offices in addition to the limitations around an ageing telephone system, lead to us reviewing our telecommunications.

“From the outset we knew that a new solution had to meet three main areas and JT helped us to explore ways to; reduce call costs; upgrade to a multi-location system and centralise management and provision of resources.

“Following JT’s installation of new equipment, our staff now has the advantage of handsets that allow them to switch between desks, they also now have wireless handsets and headsets meaning that they are now able to take calls while recording information at the same time.

“We’re delighted with the seamless connectivity between our Guernsey and Jersey offices thanks to the new system, which has brought with it many advantages. Firstly, improved customer service thanks to calls being routed internally means continuity of service for inter-island customers. Overall, the implementation has simplified communications for staff primarily dealing with client enquiries and feedback of improved functionality and simplified user experience. Secondly, improved control of telecoms expenditure is very pleasing.

“When we originally discussed our requirements with JT they really listened to our needs and provided practical solutions to the business requirements of our operation. Since installation, the support we have received has been excellent, the JT team have been prompt, friendly and efficient and this was a valuable aspect to the success of the overall project.”

JT’s approach is on partnering rather than acting as a supplier and it was this ethos that really cemented our relationship when we were looking to upgrade our phone system.

Paul M Taylor, Business Account Manager at JT echoed this when he said: “For 120 years, JT has operated in the Channel Islands enabling local customers to take advantage of emerging technologies. We take pride in the fact that we work alongside our customers to find the right products and services for them, where possible each solution is bespoke and it is the idea of selling a solution rather than a product that forms the basis of our customer service excellence promise.

“Our knowledgeable and experienced teams work the same way with SMEs as they do with large international corporate customers, demonstrating commitment to designing our services around them rather than adopting the one size fits all approach. We’re proud of our own customer service excellence standards which in turn help our customers meet theirs, in the case of Cherry Godfrey the solutions we provided to them ensure an excellent level of service for the end customer.

“Whether it’s working outside of working hours so that our customers can continue to meet their customer service commitments during installation, getting back to clients when we say we will, or introducing a third party to deliver a service we can’t, our teams are committed to customer service excellence. Through partnering with our clients we also provide them with the right products and services that will grow with them, every step of the way – helping us take one step closer to achieving our vision: becoming the partner of choice for global telecommunications innovation.”

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JT Achieves Top Industry Accreditation

By Andrew Bale, International Managing Director of JT Global Enterprise Business Unit

JT is delighted to have attained the prestigious Avaya ‘Platinum’ status, placing them firmly among an elite group of telecommunications companies to have achieved this and the first in the Channel Islands.

Avaya is a leading global supplier of business communications technology and a long term strategic partner of JT Group spanning 15 years. Avaya award Platinum status only to those Partners that can meet their specific objectives of; certified technical expertise, sales and marketing skills and customer satisfaction levels that are measured on an ongoing basis.

This includes:
• World-class technology capability across the Avaya portfolio.
• Considerable local and market expertise to deliver integrated solutions that fit every customer need.
• Comprehensive technical support and training to ensure a high level of service for customers across all communications technologies.
• Excellent, on-going and audited customer service satisfaction levels.

JT CEO Graeme Millar commented: “I’d like to thank my team for the hard work they have put into achieving this coveted Platinum status from Avaya. We have been partnering with Avaya for 15 years, and they are one of the true global leaders in business communications technology.

I believe we have achieved this thanks to our attention to detail and our focus on excellent product knowledge, underpinned by consistent customer service. Avaya are satisfied that JT have the knowledge and expertise to deliver service excellence to our customers.

Part of JT’s strategy is to strongly grow our business outside of the Channel Islands, evidenced by the fact that for the first time in our history our revenues from off-island, now exceed those generated here in the Channel Islands. Achieving Platinum status and recognition like this from a global brand like Avaya helps cement our global reputation, and so continue to punch above our weight on a global stage.”

Andrew Bale, JT’s Global Enterprise Business Unit International Managing Director said:

“This accreditation means JT now joins an elite group of world-wide technology suppliers who have reached the highest level of Avaya certification. When combined with JT’s recent SOC accreditation for our Data Centres, our recent approval from the Alderney Gambling Control Commission and our Cloud services capability, it is testament to the growing stature of JT as a global technology partner. Recognition and certification like this all helps to further demonstrate the very high level of service which our customers can expect from JT.”

Richard Steranka, Vice President, Global Partner Organisation Avaya added:

“I’d like to personally congratulate JT on joining the small group of global technology companies to have reached Platinum status with Avaya. The program is designed to drive excellence across all areas of the business. We’re really proud of the technology solutions we provide for customers, and it is essential that our partners such as JT, reflect that quality. Reaching Platinum status means they have delivered on the high standards we set.”

JT are attending Avaya’s International Users group conference, Converge 2015 in Denver this week www.iaug.com where they will demonstrate how JT is transforming global business through Cloud convergence for Avaya partners and customers, to leverage strategic opportunities worldwide.

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Notes

Avaya is a global provider of business collaboration and communications solutions, providing unified communications, contact centres, networking and related services to companies of all sizes around the world. For more information about Avaya visit www.Avaya.com

For more information about JT Group visit www.jtglobal.com



Building a Global Mindset – TeleForum

By Richard Summerfield, JT Group HR Director

Even for a technology company such as JT, our people will always be our greatest asset. And in a small labour market such as Jersey, that means recruitment remains one of our most significant strategic challenges. It’s an issue that is common to all telecoms operators in small states around the world, and so was one of the first on the agenda for a recent global conference hosted in Jersey. I was fortunate to give the presentation on this topic, and it looks like it might lead to some really exciting new opportunities for our employees, and some useful guidance for local employers.

But first, the background: the TeleForum is dedicated to the issues facing telecoms firms in small jurisdictions, which means more than 70 attendees from places such as Cyprus, Greenland, Gibraltar, the Faroe Islands, Liechtenstein and Iceland, amongst many others, arrived in Jersey recently for this year’s conference.

It is hosted in a member company’s home jurisdiction every year, but hasn’t been to Jersey since 2007, so this was a chance for us to show what JT has achieved in terms of fibre-optic broadband and 4G, but also showcase our thinking on issues such as recruitment: with a potential workforce measured only in the thousands, and significant competition for the top people from other industries, how do you recruit and retain the people who will make your company exceptional?

The title of my presentation was ‘Hiring locally – Acting Globally’, partly in reference to the fact that in recent years, JT has grown considerably, with 2014 marking the year when the balance in our revenues shifted to the majority now coming from outside of our home base in the Channel Islands.

We now have offices in London, Chicago, Boston and Melbourne, meaning that secondments (bringing with them the experience of foreign travel and living in different country) are now very much a possibility for our staff.

But in common with most other TeleForum members, the onus is on JT recruiting locally if at all possible, so the challenge of being expected to ‘look local first’, but also doing business on a global stage, is one which was very familiar.

Recruiting locally is often a legal requirement, but there are also political and social benefits of doings so, notwithstanding the fact that local people can often be more passionate about their home telco. They are also likely to more readily understand the the nuances of a jurisdiction, such as how the government works, and what motivates the community, which will be of great benefit in the efficiency of their work.

Conversely, in some cases, if an employee hasn’t ever experienced life outside of a particular state, then there is the tendency towards a narrower view, which can be one-dimensional. With a smaller choice of candidates then there might also be the need to invest more in training, in order to make sure that all employees have the required skills.

The purpose of the presentation was to share some of the best practice in terms of getting the best ‘local’ people, and being able to give them a wider perspective; but also to invite members to participate in that thought progress, and encourage them to ‘think globally.’

In terms of best practice for overseas recruitment, I suggested to the TeleForum members that firstly they need to make sure they have thoroughly searched their existing workforce first for the right person, before they consider bringing new employees in from other jurisdictions.

Secondly, they need to think carefully about ‘knowledge transfer’: so using JT as an example, if we need to bring someone in from the UK, then we ‘buddy them up’ with a JT person, so that if they later move on, there is someone else with their knowledge and skills embedded within the organisation.

Thirdly, I advised them to be very careful over remuneration; there is a delicate balancing act over what you pay people who come in from other countries, and there is usually a slight disconnect with the levels they may be used to elsewhere. But the bigger you make that gap, the more disharmony you get, and sometimes you need the courage to walk away.

Finally, very often when hiring from abroad you are not just hiring the person you are offering the job to; you are also hiring their family. I think that can be the most common reason why recruiting from outside the jurisdiction fails. It’s not that the new recruit doesn’t enjoy their new job, it’s thRemove featured imageat their family haven’t settled.

Now, one of the main benefits of bringing people in from overseas is to help foster a global mindset throughout the organisation, which is essential when your customer base is also global.

But there are also other ways of achieving that, such as through sending employees abroad to gain their professional qualifications; even if is simply studying in London for one day a month.

In addition, we encourage our employees to get involved with international groups and committees, of which there are many in most industries.

By joining a global committee, or simply doing your qualifications abroad, your employees will be able to broaden their perspectives, understand how other organisations work and build useful networks of new contacts.

JT’s strategy is increasingly around being able to compete on a global scale, and to do that, we develop employees who have that global mindset, initially by building it from within.

For that reason, I’m delighted to say that one of the initiatives which has come out of this year’s conference is potential secondments between the TeleForum members, from a few days in duration, up to a few months. Our hope is there will start to be an inter-change of talented people, perhaps in the early stages of their careers, who will get the chance to move around the member states to experience life in the different jurisdictions.

I’m confident that will be a great way not only to share skills, but also to help our employees to broaden their horizons, and develop the mindset of global competition.

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Mobile Intelligence

By James Trenholme, JT Head of Wholesale Business Development

Back in 2012 JT developed a strategy to grow our business outside of the Channels Islands through activities such as the acquisition of Worldstone, a global Managed Services company that provided us with valuable partnerships in more than 100 countries worldwide. Since then we have grown our Machine-to-Machine (M2M) business significantly and are now providing hundreds of thousands of JT SIM’s to customers across the world. One exciting area benefiting is insurance where this technology enables services such as monitoring a person’s driving that helps reduce insurance premiums and is already being implemented in the UK. Furthermore, we’ve developed new and successful partnerships in a number of other areas of emerging technology with cutting-edge technology businesses, born out of successful testing work in the JT Lab, here on Jersey.

This focus on our off-island activities always has our C.I. customers and local market at its core. For example, revenues that those services generate come back directly into our local economy and support enterprise and development here in Jersey. Moreover, it also means that through this work our customers’ benefit from competitive pricing and access to the latest and cutting-edge innovation.

To put this in context, JT is currently working on a new innovative service that has the potential not just to generate revenue, but that will provide a service to benefit people in Jersey and importantly has the potential to improve things for literally millions of people around the world.

In the last few years, digital technology has transformed the world of retail banking. What used to be perceived as perhaps a rather conservative industry has had to react and embrace the opportunities created by the internet and mobile technology to ensure they are providing their customers with the service they expect, when and where they expect it.

The result for consumers has been a far more convenient and flexible service, and it’s hard to imagine that anyone would want to go back to the days of having to see a personal banker to set up a simple standing order. Those changes have been good for banks too – they have let other firms compete with the major established players in the retail banking sector, and they’ve created better and more efficient ways of working.

But they have also created challenges.

Today’s technology means customers have near total access to their finances at home, in the office, and on the move; be it through their mobile, laptop or tablet device. Yet this access has also brought with it new security threats. In the UK alone e-commerce fraud was worth £110 million in the first six months of 2014 – which was acerbated by the continuing boom in the size of the overall e-commerce market – while increasingly savvy and sophisticated online banking fraud rose 71% over the same period.

However, we’ve created a solution – and it’s relatively simple.

It’s provided via a system that can take alerts of potential fraudulent activity on a card (flagged up by testing meta-data for a transaction in an unusual place, for a large amount, or at an odd time of day) and cross check it against a strong indicator of where a person actually is.

How does the system know where you are? By simply identifying the geographical location of your mobile phone!

The deal that JT has with a number of UK operators provides access to location data, which means we can – in milliseconds – provide a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer to a query from a bank, or payment company about a transaction taking place in an unusual location. By confirming the locality of a customer’s phone and identifying important changes such as a swap of SIM or whether the customers’ handset has been cloned , JT is able to help verify that the card transaction being made is actually them, and not by a fraudster.

What makes this innovation unique is a careful combination of a custom made platform, our 530 global roaming partners and importantly our size – in comparison with our UK counterparts – and location. Being based in the Channel Islands has enabled us to sign deals with major mobile operators such as EE and Vodafone to provide authorised access to mobile data, so JT can use their information to verify the location of a customer for a bank. It’s a real challenge for operators to develop a service like this especially given an alliance with competitive operators in a market are few and far between. So, using a third party like JT is ideal because; we’re a trusted Tier 1 operator; we don’t compete with them or threaten their domestic market; and we operate in a trusted regulatory environment with firm data protection laws. In turn, being authorised to access mobile data of all major UK operators means we are singularly able to offer almost universal coverage of a banks customer base.

Now, after a two-year development project this new market leading mobile intelligence service launched in late 2014 and is already being used by two UK banks to help protect their customers.

It’s estimated that every year each of the big UK High Street banks potentially loses a staggering £200 million, and frequent “false-positives” where cards are declined over legitimate transactions, causing inconvenience and frustration to customers. These two facts alone have made both banks and payment companies sit up and take notice of this new, innovative service..

Developing the technology that sits between JT’s platform, the other operators and the banks has presented significant technical challenges. However, it is a strong example of the expanding and agile “fintech” sector that is developing here in Jersey, and which has the potential to make significant changes to the way that everyone in the world does their banking. By playing our part in this JT hope to further develop the already-close links that we have with the Island’s international financial services and digital sectors in order to bridge that gap.

We have every confidence that our Mobile Intelligence platform has the potential to be a hugely valuable tool across the thriving mobile payments and banking sphere – as well as many other sectors using mobile devices to conduct business; and we’re excited about placing Jersey into the heart of that innovative business. That move is just one further part of our plan to realise our vision of becoming the partner of choice for global telecommunications innovation.

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Why JT is Leading the way in Roaming Technology

By Cara Murphy, JT Head of Roaming and Carrier Relations

Roaming is big business.

Analysts predicted earlier this year that by 2019, global mobile data roaming will be worth an eye-watering £31.8 billion – more than half of the total value of current roaming revenues.

Growth of data roaming demands in Europe and Asia is being driven by a simple factor: we’re growing more accustomed to accessing data connectivity at all times to the extent that it’s simply accepted that we can make video calls, access Cloud platforms and rely upon quick download and upload times. Our expectation is that data services are available wherever we are, 24/7 – and now that 4G mobile networks are being established globally and accessed widely, this is becoming a reality.

At JT, we have seen these developments emerging and made certain we’re at the forefront of the roaming revolution for three reasons:

Firstly, over the last 15 years our team of dedicated roaming experts, who sit in the wholesale division here at JT, (distinct from the part of the business that offers domestic residential and business services) have focused significant efforts, into developing a network of roaming agreements with operators from all over the world.

JTs’ independence and that we operate our own infrastructure has become an asset because major foreign operators are more prepared to deal with a smaller, agile company than to cut a deal with their competitors.

The result is that, JT has a widely spread network of 550 direct roaming agreements that cover multiple networks in virtually every country in the world – that coverage rivals, and indeed surpasses in some cases, some of the major established players in the global telecommunications industry. This is a major asset to be proud of as by contrast, some of our domestic rivals have around a third of that number.

Secondly, the volume of traffic that passes over our network is vast, predominantly due to our growing M2M business and wholesale roaming products that allow smaller operators to access our roaming interconnections. For example, JT has recently partnered with two global organisations to help provide their customers with enhanced roaming services, which run into the millions, Thirdly, we have recently invested £12 million in a state-of-the-art 4G LTE Advanced network in the Channel Islands to ensure we have the latest, innovative technology.

Combining, the quality of our roaming coverage, the volume of traffic carried over it and launching our own 4G network has meant that much larger operators are now actively beginning to approach us. Having a roaming agreement with us, allows them to benefit from JT’s existing roaming traffic, and in turn it means that our growing volume of data traffic will also pass over their network.

More importantly, it means they’re able to set-up a 4G roaming agreement with us.

Why are they so keen? Because they are already beginning to see customers move their business purely on the basis of who can provide them with 4G roaming. That alone has placed operators, big and small, in fierce competition to establish extensive 4G agreements quickly.

To give an example, at an event last month, our roaming team were invited to meet with the second biggest player in the business – a company with more than 216 million customers and revenues of £35 billion – because they are keen to negotiate an agreement with JT to capture the growing traffic we have currently and predict for the future, based on the growth of our M2M and wholesale roaming products, and ekit, the innovative roaming telecommunication specialists’ who JT acquired in 2011.

The agreements between operators are set-up to ensure we can easily add-on further services as technology progresses; however these new services still need to be tested and launched, which has become the JT roaming teams priority for 2015. We are currently on the threshold of announcing our first 4G roaming agreement with the UK and will have 4G roaming in place across Europe, Asia and the US by the end of the year.

JT are, for the first time, leading at an industry level. The fact that our 4G system is built on a future-proof LTE Advanced network that is essentially the highest-grade 4G system available today – means we’re a very attractive business partner. But why is all this important for you our local customers? Firstly the work of teams involved help to bring valuable revenue back to the Island, which means we can continue to invest in our infrastructure locally and is good for the overall economy of Jersey. Secondly through the relationships that have been forged over years, means our local-customers can ‘roam with confidence’ knowing that thanks to JT they can be assured of best pricing and superfast, worldwide roaming.

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Service Excellence in action, not just words

By Susan Sproston, Head of SME Sales, JT Global Enterprise

No matter what business you’re in, no matter how big you are or how long you’ve been around there’s one rule that holds true – if you don’t keep your customers happy, you don’t have a future.

As a business that is this year celebrating their 120th anniversary of operating in the Channel Islands, JT understands that very well.

That’s why when we focus on our business services, we focus on what our customers want, not on what might be convenient for us to sell to them.

That’s more important to our customers in the modern environment now, more than ever, because doing business today and having the right mix of connectivity services –whether that’s broadband, mobile, or fixed lines – is a basic necessity, not a luxury.

Even if you’re not in the technology field, you need to be able to communicate effectively with colleagues and clients whether they’re at a desk across the room or in another location, you need access to information and systems both in the office and out on site, you need the right infrastructure in terms of hardware, bandwidth and storage, and above all, you need your systems to be reliable and fast..

Our approach to business customers is to design a service that is tailored for their individual needs and to monitor that service so that we can ensure that they’re getting what they need proactively recommending changes if they’re appropriate. We also will only ever sell where we have the expertise, and partner with experts for the areas we don’t.

When a customer comes to us, they are often uncertain of what they need – and often unaware of the various options that we can offer them.

Once they have made contact one of our Relationship Managers will visit the client on-site spending time to qualify their requirements – they will then work with a pre-sales design architect to build the best solution to accommodate the customers requirement, giving consideration to business needs, future proofing and budget. The design will then be presented to the customer, ensuring our interpretation of what is required to enhance the customers’ business works for them.

We don’t see ourselves as simply taking orders for clients, we see ourselves as business partners. That’s why we take the next important step, which is to monitor your needs and the services that you obtain from us to ensure that they continue to support your needs. That may mean building in some scalability – a particular strength of our Cloud service– or seeing the demands that new or growing areas of business can place on your systems.

Moreover, that monitoring has to be done on the basis of evidence, and that’s why our team will be monitoring your business through our dedicated Service Management Centre. The team is there to notify you of anything you need to know under the set of parameters set by you. This means you’re able to focus on what your own clients, instead of being concerned about your systems and infrastructure.

All of this isn’t just available to our large corporate clients with offices in other jurisdictions – it’s available to all of our clients whether they’re in trust services or hospitality, fund management or construction, eGaming or, retail.

The truth is that when you have the kind of broad and diverse client base that we look after in Guernsey, having a limited set of options to apply to clients on an off-the-shelf basis is just not going to work for everyone. From the 1st of June we will also be able to add further benefit to our customers through providing landline services to our portfolio, offering even more options – further building on our expertise in those areas – to our diverse range of clients.

In short, our teams are supported by not only their own knowledge and experience, but the global solutions available locally enabled by our global reach and the quality of our partners. We’re confident that whatever field you’re in, however long you’ve been in business and whatever size you are, we can help you to find a set of services and solutions tailored to your precise and unique needs.

If this sounds like the kind of service and attention that you’re looking for in a communications partner, then get in touch with us.

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To find out more call our business team on 882345





Harnessing the Power of 4G

By Tim Knights, Head of Mobile Networks, JT

In a world of fast paced technology and at times, confusing language, the arrival of 4G across the Channel Islands can be summed up very simply: it’s all about speed. A 4G connection on your mobile device – and it’s important to stress that this is as relevant to tablets as it is to phones – will give you far faster connections, much quicker down or uploading times, and better quality streaming on video-calling apps such as Facetime or Skype. For those of us using The Cloud for storage or access to systems and data for work, it also means easier and better service.

JT’s investment in a £12 million state-of-the-art Long Term Evolution (LTE) Advanced 4G network has ensured that the Channel Islands will be ahead of many similar jurisdictions across the world, meaning Islanders can enjoy the very best 4G services available anywhere today. This was a significant project for us and we’re proud of our team that worked hard to deliver it on time, ensuring some of the fastest data speeds in the world are available for our customers, and that is great news for local businesses too.

Data usage continues to grow at an exponential rate, which is being driven by the fact that virtually all services are available online and that we want access to them wherever we are, 24/7. Furthermore, the majority of us have more than one device that we use, and coupled with more people wanting to access the network all at the same time be it; running a small business from home, shopping online, e-gaming, social networking and downloading high definition videos and music, it all adds up to a major fast growing demand for data. The ‘leisure’ use of mobile data is evident, but

the composition of our work-force is also changing rapidly to become an increasingly mobile workforce, constantly needing to be connected – wherever they are in the world. Thankfully that technology is here, already providing the flexibility to hold an early morning or late night video conference from home, to suit the time constraints of a global client base and we’re working hard to provide the technology to support and enable that.

In terms of speed, our new network will mean that data connections will be at least 100% faster. Moreover, the underlying network we’ve installed will be even more robust and better able to handle periods of peak use.

So, one question we have been asked is perhaps why we would need a fixed network in the future, if 4G is capable of delivering such super-fast speeds? Our answer to that is, that for a device capable of picking up both 4G and Wi-Fi, your connection also needs to be seamless, wherever you are in the Island. Which is why together, both our 4G network and our Gigabit Jersey fibre programme – with effectively unlimited broadband speeds – will soon mean that our coverage is almost universal.

Seamless connectivity means that you have the ability to start watching a video on a tablet at work (through your office Wi-Fi), continue watching on your mobile while waiting for the bus or walking to the car (through your 4G connection) and then finish on your HD screen at home (through your fibre broadband connection). Indeed some of the latest handsets already have ‘miracasting’ available, which is the technology and applications to easily switch between platforms. Furthermore, JT have recently announced another milestone; the launch of 4G roaming services. This may not seem like a big deal, but it is and JT are the first local network to offer this.

In fact there are only a handful of global providers currently offering 4G roaming. This means that thanks to the quality of our roaming coverage and the volume of traffic carried over it and plus launching our own 4G network has meant that much larger operators are now actively beginning to approach us also. This means only JT customers can enjoy the benefits of keeping their business communications running across 4G while away from the islands on business as well.

In a world where connected devices such as Smartwatches, Smart TV’s and household appliances controllable through Smartphone apps are no longer a futuristic; robust and reliable mobile connectivity is an increasingly important part of day-to-day life.

This is why, at JT, every decision we take and every investment we make is driven by the needs of our customers’. This is why we were so keen to bring this technology to our customers first; and we’ll continue to do just that for the next 120 years.

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