Allison Steedman Email and Phone Number

Since leaving the corporate world for family reasons, I have spent my time between South Africa and the UK working in the adult social care sector as well as spending periods in South Africa supporting my daughter and her family, whilst also supporting my mother.I am now ready to rejoin the corporate world as I am in a position where I no longer need to be as available to the family as I have been for the past 10 years, and I believe that my many years of experience can add value to an organisation which demands a high-quality customer care experience for their customers as well as a nurturing and inspiring mentor for staff and colleagues.

Responsible for the strategy and operational management of 4 call centres across South Africa, providing the services to +- 10,000 retail, wholesale and quick service restaurant customers. Vector Logistics is the leading 3rd party logistics provider in the frozen, ambient and fresh food distribution market in Southern Africa. This role was focused on:* Reduction of costs through the elimination of waste and errors made at capture point.* Reduction of costs through the implementation of cutting-edge technology allowing greater flexibility for customer interactions, cutting down on repeat calls and saving of agent and caller time.* Customer Relationship Management* Providing inspirational leadership to team* Changement, introduction of new processes and procedures, adapting the wider company and clients to new systems and technology* Business process re-engineering* Business Development / Improvements* Standard Operating Procedure Development and Management* Technology Support and Implementation* Design of ACD/IVR workflows* Financial Management * Business metrics analysis and reporting * Learning and development* Quality management and continuous improvement programmes* Project management* SLA and vendor management

This role entailed the evaluation and assessment existing call centres with a view to implementing service improvement practices, implementation of processes and procedures, and to find a solution to problems experienced in relation to the loss of business due to customer dissatisfaction and loss of revenue due to agent errors, lack of training or unclear processes.After a period of providing assessments and relevant feedback to Vector Logistics, I was offered the permanent position as Business Support Specialist (Customer Services & Call Centre focused) with the objective being that I would carry out the recommendations put forward.

Responsible for inbound and outbound customer services and sales campaigns.

Senior Call Center Manager - ICON - 24/7 Technical Call CenterSenior Operations Manager - Merchants - Outsourced Call CenterClient Services Manager - Miraculum - iProcurement SpecialistsAccount Executive - Internet Solutions, Durban

Management of client relationships, sales, upgrades, support

This role involved the development and management of all processes, procedures and documentation relating to client services and training of Oracle online procurement services to large corporates. I managed a team of client services agents as well as technical support staff.I took part in the design of the front end systems of the Oracle iProcurement system and ensured that systems were user-friendly.

I managed the transition of ICON/Worldonline into Merchants SA (first live Merchants SA project). I then was part of the project team which brought Alexander Forbes Financial Services Pension Fund campaign into Merchants SA which was the Merchants first South African financial services project.Once the project went live, I managed the campaign operationallyI was involved in implementation of Nice Voice Recording and Blue Pumpkin systems at Merchants SA

ICON Call Centre offered 24/ telephonic support to users of the Internet Solutions Dial Up Services. Duties involve day to day running of the service desk with emphasis on the following:• Management of supervisors, team leaders, recruitment officer, training officer and credit controllers/admin staff;• Participation in drawing up and monitoring of budgets for department;• Design (planning) of call centre systems, training programmes, procedures and policies;• Management of call centre systems, training programmes, procedures and policies;• Management of recruitment and scheduling process;• Ongoing management of call centre call logging, ACD, IVR and PABX systems;• Management of inbound call volumes;• Management of out of line situations including necessary escalations;• Ensuring consistent standards of service are maintained;• Management of staff, the recruitment process and ongoing staff appraisals;• Liaison with higher management, HR, Sales, marketing Operations, Administration, Information Technology & Systems; • Ongoing training and coaching / mentoring of call centre staff;• Management information reporting;• Trend reporting

IT Service Management Trainer/Facilitator. ITSM/ITIL Accredited at Foundation and Practitioner LevelsFocused on the provision if ITIL training to large corporates and para-statals such as Standard Bank, Eskom, Transnet plus various financial institutions in Zimbabwe, my focus was primarily on the Service Desk/Problem Management modules, however, I provided the full range of ITIL training and consulting where needed. As Training Manager, I ensured that all training materials were up to date, in line with the ITIL best practices and were presented in a clearly understandable and professional manner.

During this period, I was responsible for the management of the IT Operations Department with Credit Guarantee Insurance, the largest credit insurance company in South Africa. Until 1991 Credit Guarantee had an outsourced IT department, and I was intrisincly involved with the move of the IT services to an II house operation in 1991. This entailed extensive training in the areas of Dec/Vax equipment training to setup and operate Dec/Vax equipment, and all relevant processes and procedures.The role involved technical support for:Dec/Vax (ensuring availability, software updates performed, backups/restoring of information, writing procedures in DCLNetworking equipment - bridgers, routersTerminals, PC's, printers Management of company consumables budget/procurementHelp Desk & Problem ManagementConfiguration ManagementChange ManagementAvailability Management