Content Guru

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Content Guru Ltd
TypeCompany
IndustryTelecommunications
Founded2005; 17 years ago (2005)
FoundersSean Taylor and Martin Taylor
Headquarters
Bracknell
,
England, United Kingdom
Area served
Worldwide
ProductsStorm CONTACT
ServicesCloud communications software, cloud contact centre software
Revenue£ 39.2 million (2019)[1]
Number of employees
300 (2020)[2]
ParentRedwood Technologies Group
Websitewww.contentguru.com

Content Guru is a cloud communications provider based in Bracknell, UK.[3] The company provides services in at least 30 countries[4] through its cloud Contact Centre as a Service solution[buzzword], Storm. These services are provided directly to customers and with partners such as Vodafone, KPN,[5] and Rakuten.[6] In April 2016, Content Guru received a Queen's Award for Innovation for Storm CONTACT, its multi-channel cloud contact centre system.[7] Notable clients include the National Health Service,[8] Serco,[9] and TravisPerkins.[10]

In response to the work it carried out for the National Health Service (NHS), Content Guru has won several awards, including the NextGen Technology Award at the Management Today NextGen Awards (2020).[11] In 2019, Content Guru won Cloud Telephony Product of the Year at the Computing Cloud Excellence Awards,[12] the Digital Leadership - Customer Experience Award at the Ventana Research Digital Leadership Awards, and the Vertical Application Solution of the Year in the IT Europa Awards.[13] Previous awards include Best Use of Cloud Services in the UK IT Industry Awards (2015[14] & 2016[15]), Best in Class - Digital Transformation in the UK Cloud Awards (2017)[16] and Best Public Sector Digital Project in the Computing Technology Leaders Award (2017).[17]

History[]

Content Guru is made up of a number of wholly owned subsidiaries of Redwood Technologies Group across North America, Asia-Pacific and Europe.[18] The vast majority of the revenue generated by Redwood Technologies Group comes from the delivery of cloud services through the Group's Storm infrastructure, provided and supported by Content Guru.[19]

Content Guru was founded in 2005 and provides cloud-based customer engagement and customer experience services and cloud contact centre products.[20][21][22] The company has offices in the US, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, the UK, the Netherlands,[23] Germany, Ireland and Italy.

In 2010, the Storm was used by ComRes on behalf of ITV News to provide live audience polling for the first televised election leaders' debate in the build-up to the UK 2010 General Election.[24]

In 2013, Content Guru co-founded Berkshire Community Foundation (BCF)'s Business Philanthropy Club (BPC), which enables businesses in Berkshire to provide funding for grassroots organisations and projects in their local communities.[25] Content Guru has been a sponsor of the Pride of Bracknell Forest Awards since 2016,[26] along with its parent company Redwood Technologies, which also provides organisational support for the charity. Content Guru supports several local and national charities, including the Red Cross, Lions International, Barnardo's, Kika Kinderfonds, Macmillan Cancer Support, Save the Children, the Soldiering on Awards, Thames Hospice, and Youthline.[27]

In March 2017, the company announced that it would be delivering services to the United States.[28] Later that year (August), Content Guru and Vodafone handled over 16,000 student enquiries for UCAS, the UK's higher education applications service.[29]

In January 2018, a minority stake of Content Guru and its parent company, Redwood Technologies Group, was sold to Scottish Equity Partners in a £25 million cash deal.[30][31][32]

In February 2018, Content Guru announced a partnership with Rakuten Communications to deliver cloud contact centre services to Japan.[33]

In 2019 Content Guru became a leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for CCaaS (Contact Centre as a Service), Western Europe.[34][35]

In June 2019, Redwood Technologies Group acquired Weston Digital Technologies, a contact centre quality monitoring specialist. This acquisition expanded Content Guru's cloud contact centre product to offer screen recording and quality monitoring technology.[36]

In January 2020, Redwood Technologies Group, of which Content Guru is the principal member, was included in the Southern Tech 100 listing.[37] In February 2020, the Group was recognised in the Sunday Times HSBC International Track 200.[38] In 2021, the Group moved from 74th position on the International Track 200, to 21st.[39]

In March 2020 Content Guru announced further expansion in the US market, with the appointment of a new Business Development Manager in California, and the creation of a US channel partner program.[40]

In early 2020, prior to the COVID-19 lock-down measures implemented in the UK, Content Guru undertook the UK’s largest contact centre homeworking survey, in partnership with the UK Contact Centre Forum. The study, entitled ‘The UK HomeAgent Study’, revealed the financial and productivity benefits of homeworking within the contact centre.[41] The survey's results were quickly proven in practice as the industry was forced to rapidly move to homeworking set-ups following the Coronavirus pandemic. During the pandemic, Content Guru helped its customers to move their contact centres to homeworking environments. For example, in June 2020, Content Guru was able to assist Jurys Inn in setting up a new contact centre to cope with the 300-400% call volume increases they were experiencing due to travel uncertainty around COVID-19. This new contact centre was completely homeworking, and was deployed within a week.[42] Content Guru helped Rail Delivery Group to move their India-based contact centre to a homeworking set-up within hours, following the pandemic-related evacuation of the building.[43]

Throughout April 2020, Content Guru held a series of webinars exploring the theme of 'CCaaS from Home'. The series discussed how contact centres could successfully navigate the lockdown measures enforced following the Coronavirus outbreak, without shutting down all customer communications.[44] During this month, Content Guru also won Management Today's NextGen technology award for its support of NHS 111 during the peak of the Coronavirus crisis. In the last two weeks of March, NHS 111 responded to more than 1.7 million inquiries from people concerned they might have symptoms of coronavirus. NHS 111 London managed this spike in calls using Content Guru's CCaaS solution.<[buzzword]ref>"NextGen winners: The firms that will lead Britain's recovery". www.managementtoday.co.uk. Retrieved 8 April 2021.</ref>

In early July 2020 Content Guru announced that its cloud contact centre solution[buzzword] could now integrate with Microsoft Teams. This allowed contact centre agents using Content Guru's product to communicate both internally and externally via the popular video conferencing platform, without jumping between systems.[45]

Content Guru has provided Herts Urgent Care (HUC) with ad-hoc Video Consultation technology, allowing them to replace some face-to-face consultations. Traditional general practitioner video consultations need to be pre-scheduled, which did not suit HUC's urgent care service, where patients would make contact on an impromptu basis. HUC wanted to protect patients and clinicians from COVID-19 by replacing as many in-person consultations as possible with video services. Content Guru enabled HUC to offer ad-hoc video consultations wherever possible, and to protect staff and patients from COVID-19.[46]

In July 2020, Content Guru was named as a supplier in Crown Commercial Service's Spark Dynamic Purchasing System. Spark: the Technology Innovation Marketplace, helps British government and public sector organisations to access new technology products. Spark DPS uses a filter system to help customers find relevant suppliers. The filter system includes defined technology areas, developed with customer input, and focuses on emerging technologies predicted to make the largest impact over the next two to five years. Content Guru’s storm LINK product, an On Demand Video Consultation (ODVC) service, is now discoverable through the ‘Artificial Intelligence (AI) and automation’ filter on Spark DPS.[47]

In August 2020 Content Guru won Frost & Sullivan's 2020 European Contact Center as a Service Technology Innovation Leadership Award, featuring in a Best Practices research piece of the same name.[48] One month later the company won Thames Valley Tech Awards' 'Communications Company of the Year'.[49]

In October 2020, Martin Taylor, Deputy CEO and Co-Founder of Content Guru, was named as one of LDC's top 50 most ambitious business leaders of 2020.[50]

In November 2020, Content Guru was positioned as a Challenger in the 2020 global Gartner Magic Quadrant for Contact Centre as a Service (CCaaS).[51]

In January 2021, Content Guru achieved 'Highly Commended' at the Comms Business 2020 Awards.[52]

In February 2021, the company was awarded 'Utility Partner of the Year' at the Utility Week Awards 2020, for its work with UK Power Networks.[53] Content Guru’s cloud customer experience solution helped UK Power Networks to improve its CSAT scores by 28%.[54]

In March 2021, Content Guru achieved 'Highly Commended' at the European Contact Centre and Customer Service Awards, with the company recognised in the Responding in a Crisis – Supporting Customers (Utilities, Telecoms and Technology) category.[55]  

In April 2021, Content Guru's parent company Redwood Technologies acquired US-based Potomac Integration and Consulting (PIC), a consultancy organisation to US federal government agencies, as part of their US expansion.[56]

In August 2021, Content Guru was positioned as a Challenger in 2021 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Contact Centre as a Service (CCaaS).[57]

Controversy[]

The company came under fire for its role in the Manchester Arena bombing of May 2017 during which Storm failed to operate. This resulted in those affected by the attack not being able to contact police or emergency services.[58][59]

Vodafone had subcontracted its services out to Content Guru for providing the National Mutual Aid Telephony system. However, when they tried to use it they found an "inability to amend the recorded message and technical difficulties with the server. This suggests there was an inadequate level of knowledge or expertise within Vodafone or its sub-contractor Content Guru."[60]

Vodafone and Content Guru continue their partnership, with Vodafone marketing Content Guru's product under the brand Vodafone Storm.[61]

References[]

  1. ^ "Redwood Technologies Filing History, Companies House".
  2. ^ "Content Guru: how to make the most of your resources during a pandemic". CBI. Retrieved 28 June 2020.
  3. ^ "Stephen K Amos presents Bracknell-based cloud provider with top IT award". 27 November 2015.
  4. ^ SEP: A leading cloud contact centre and customer engagement solutions provider
  5. ^ "KPN & Content Guru go Dutch with storm".
  6. ^ "News : Rakuten Communications & Content Guru Announce Strategic Partnership". ContactCenterWorld.com. 23 February 2018. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
  7. ^ "Queen's Awards for Enterprise 2016 - Press book" (PDF).
  8. ^ "NHS 111 takes home top award at UK Cloud Awards 2017".
  9. ^ "Serco-Content Guru Alliance to Offer Contact Center Platform in Public Sector".
  10. ^ "Travis Perkins Creates Virtual Contact Centre In The Cloud".
  11. ^ "Home". www.mtnextgenawards.com. Retrieved 1 July 2020.
  12. ^ "Content Guru Announced as Winners at Computing Cloud Excellence Awards 2019 - Directors' Club Newswire". Retrieved 1 July 2020.
  13. ^ "2019 Winners | IT Europa Awards". www.iteawards.com. 15 March 2019. Retrieved 2 April 2019.
  14. ^ "Watch Content Guru walk away with UK IT Industry Awards 2015 Cloud Provider of the Year | Computing". computing.co.uk. Retrieved 16 April 2018.
  15. ^ "Watch Content Guru power to victory at the 2016 UK IT Awards | Computing". computing.co.uk. Retrieved 16 April 2018.
  16. ^ "2017 Winners". 16th of May 2018: County Hall South Bank, London. Retrieved 16 April 2018.
  17. ^ "Digital Technology Leaders Awards 2018". events.computing.co.uk. Retrieved 16 April 2018.
  18. ^ "REDWOOD TECHNOLOGIES GROUP Ltd - Filing history (Free information from Companies House)".
  19. ^ "REDWOOD TECHNOLOGIES GROUP LTD - Filing history (free information from Companies House), Group of Companies Accounts, p.3". beta.companieshouse.gov.uk. Retrieved 30 June 2020.
  20. ^ "Content Guru Reviews, Ratings, and Features - Gartner 2021".
  21. ^ "Content Guru". 4 February 2019.
  22. ^ https://www.contentguru.com/
  23. ^ "Content Guru".
  24. ^ "Comres And ITV News Deliver First Results Of Leader Debates".
  25. ^ "Berkshire Community Foundation Launches Business Philanthropy Club - Blandy & Blandy Solicitors". www.blandy.co.uk. Retrieved 16 April 2018.
  26. ^ "Redwood Supports Annual Pride of Bracknell Forest Award | Comms Business". commsbusiness.co.uk. Retrieved 16 April 2018.
  27. ^ "Community and Voluntary". Content Guru. Retrieved 2 July 2020.
  28. ^ "Content Guru to storm America on Three Fronts".
  29. ^ "Vodafone UK and UCAS rise to the challenge on A-level results day". Vodafone UK News Centre. 23 August 2017. Retrieved 24 June 2020.
  30. ^ "SEP invests in Redwood Technologies Group".
  31. ^ "Berkshire-based Redwood Technologies Group gets £25m". 16 January 2018.
  32. ^ "Scottish Equity Partners has completed a £25m investment in Redwood Technologies Group".
  33. ^ "Rakuten Communications & Content Guru Announce Strategic Partnership".
  34. ^ "Content Guru in Magic Quadrant for Contact Centre as a Service - Contact-Centres.com". Contact-Centres.com. 1 November 2016. Retrieved 16 April 2018.
  35. ^ "Who's Leading Gartner's CCaaS Magic Quadrant 2019?". uctoday.com/. 17 October 2019. Retrieved 30 January 2020.
  36. ^ Heggie-Collins, Sam (6 June 2019). "Redwood Technologies Group Enhances Quality Monitoring Expertise with Weston Digital Technologies Acquisition Directors Club® News Directors Club® News". Directors Club® News. Retrieved 15 July 2020.
  37. ^ "Redwood Technologies Group listed in Tech 100". Contact-Centres.com. 14 January 2020. Retrieved 14 July 2020.
  38. ^ TWK. "Fast Track". Fast Track. Retrieved 14 July 2020.
  39. ^ TWK. "Fast Track". Fast Track. Retrieved 8 April 2021.
  40. ^ "Content Guru expands US team and enhances global partner program -". uktechnews.co.uk. 13 March 2020. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  41. ^ "UKCCF Research: 2020 HomeAgent Survey". Content Guru. Retrieved 8 July 2020.
  42. ^ "Jurys Inn chooses Content Guru to deploy new contact centre with remote working capabilities amid COVID-19 pandemic -". uktechnews.co.uk. 7 May 2020. Retrieved 9 July 2020.
  43. ^ "RDG - WFH in Hours". Content Guru. Retrieved 10 July 2020.
  44. ^ "Webinars". Content Guru. Retrieved 21 July 2020.
  45. ^ "storm Integration with Microsoft Teams". Content Guru. Retrieved 17 July 2020.
  46. ^ "Herts Urgent Care". Content Guru. Retrieved 20 July 2020.
  47. ^ "Content Guru Named as a Supplier on Crown Commercial Service's Spark Dynamic Purchasing System -". uktechnews.co.uk. 15 July 2020. Retrieved 16 July 2020.
  48. ^ Frost & Sullivan. "2020 European Contact Center as a Service Technology Innovation Leadership Award" (PDF).{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  49. ^ admin (25 September 2020). "Thames Valley Tech Awards – hat-trick for Aker Systems". The Business Magazine. Retrieved 8 April 2021.
  50. ^ "Martin Taylor". LDC. Retrieved 8 April 2021.
  51. ^ "Content Guru Positioned as Challenger for Contact Centre as a Service". Contact-Centres.com. 12 November 2020. Retrieved 12 November 2020.
  52. ^ "Winners 2020". Comms Business Awards. Retrieved 8 April 2021.
  53. ^ "2020 Winners". Utility Week Awards 2020. Retrieved 8 April 2021.
  54. ^ "Content Guru Wins "Utility Partner of the Year" at Utility Week Awards 2020 -". uktechnews.co.uk. 15 February 2021. Retrieved 8 April 2021.
  55. ^ "Content Guru Hailed in COVID Response Awards". CX Today. 22 March 2021. Retrieved 15 April 2021.
  56. ^ Sharpes, Donald K. (7 September 2020), "The Politics of Federal Education Organisation", Education and the US Government, Routledge, pp. 172–182, doi:10.4324/9781003034148-16, ISBN 978-1-003-03414-8, S2CID 225288907, retrieved 9 April 2021
  57. ^ "Content Guru Named in 2021 Magic Quadrant for CCAAS". Contact-Centres.com. 16 August 2021. Retrieved 31 August 2021.
  58. ^ "Manchester Arena attack: National Mutual Aid Telephony system failed". Retrieved 29 March 2018.
  59. ^ "Manchester terror attack: why did the Vodafone telephone line fail?". iNews. 27 March 2018. Retrieved 29 March 2018.
  60. ^ "Kerslake_Arena_Review_PROOFED.docx" (PDF). The Kerslake Report: An Independent Review into the Preparedness for, and Emergency Response to, the Manchester Arena Attack on 22nd May 2017: 140. 27 March 2018.
  61. ^ "Vodafone Global Enterprise Storm". 16th of November 2018. Retrieved 16 November 2018.
Retrieved from ""