Clear Ideas provides communications solutions which use APIs and access Artificial Intelligence to reduce the time to resolve conversations and support self-service across all media channels.We use toolkits from Twilio, Microsoft, Google and Meta plus our in-house expertise to deliver solutions to provide automation, systems integration and Artificial Intelligence solutions.Artificial Intelligence (AI) is reshaping the landscape of communications. Advanced AI capabilities empower staff with intelligent tools that streamline tasks, automate routine processes, and provide real-time insights.

Transformed a 10 year old lifestyle business into a high growth DevOps solution provider and Twilio Gold Consulting Partner. Responsible for acquisition of clients from multiple sectors and geographies enabling organisations to deliver pioneering and innovative customer engagement and management solutions to address all manner of cloud telephony, social media and digital experiences.

One Payment was developed as a brand of Ciptex, offering advice and technical solutions to help MOTO organisations achieve PCI-DSS compliance at low cost and with minimal disruption to the customer and agent journies.

Precium started out as a management consultancy business helping clients in the telecoms sector develop go-to-market strategies and improve sales performance. It acquired a number of end customer clients along the way, and was bought by Ciptex Ltd in 2019.

Formed in 2001 as an MBO from C&W by late 2005 IP Integration was a loss making £5m Avaya reseller with significant debts. I was asked to join by the owner to oversee a 5 year project to turn the business around and deliver a capital gain on exit. Highlights included:The cost base was reduced and the business returned to profitability in 1st year.All sales and marketing activities were aligned to vertical markets and yield per head improved by over 70%.The improved sales performance moved our partner status with Avaya from Silver to Platinum and we were awarded UK SME partner of the year in 2008. Our focus and reputation enabled us to win many significant opportunities including multi-country contact centre projects for Autoglass (Belron), Carnival, Ladbrokes and VMWare. We rolled out a 2,500 site IP network for Ladbrokes in the UK, delivered a 1,100 seat contact centre for an outsourcer in Scotland and designed and delivered a managed service contract to support over 5,000 sites across the UK for The Co-op.Our in-house developers productised previously bespoke IVR solutions to provide the company with valuable IPR and double turnover in this area of the business. In 2010 this team successfully delivered a £500k IVR project for NHS Professionals.The business experienced double digit growth throughout the recession and at my exit in 2011 was profitable, debt free and had doubled turnover to £10m.

Formed in June 2000, Azzurri was a 3i backed buy and build vehicle which made a total of 15 acquisitions before its sale for £182m in 2006 to another private investment house Prudential Ventures (PPM). To begin with, each acquisition was left to operate semi-autonomously under its pre-acquisition name, however, after the purchase of Convergent Systems (9th acquisition) it was decided to consolidate operations and develop the Azzurri brand. It was my responsibility to manage the integration of Convergent into the Azzurri group and then amalgamate the four other southern based acquisitions into a single operating division. The division comprised around 150 staff with a turnover of £25m.I developed and applied the accreditation and lead referral scheme I had introduced at Convergent. This enabled us to harness the skills of each business to provide holistic solutions to our customers. The integration was a resounding success with all quota bearing staff retained and performing better than ever. We smashed our annual target to become the best performing division within the group and added £5m to our annual turnover. Due to its success, this scheme along with our forecasting and reporting methodology was adopted by the group.We won several large contracts during this period including a multi-million pound Cisco data centre refresh for UBS, a contact centre and back office solution for Allianz and the group’s first multi-discipline managed service contract for the contact centre outsourcer Teleperformance.

Direct Voice & Data was one of the largest resellers of SDX phone systems and had won several clients with locations in Ireland. Siemens (through its acquisition of Norton) was the distributer for SDX in Ireland, but as a direct competitor to SDX was not doing a great job. I persuaded the Sales Director of SDX that we could do better and so Direct Voice & Data opened an office in Dublin in late1999. After the sale of the business to Convergent Plc and a name change for the Irish business, the Plc decided it did not require an overseas location and agreed in that I and the management team in country could buy back the business, which we did in early 2001.The business established itself as a force in the burgeoning contact centre market in Ireland, providing both Avaya contact centres and consulting services to a number of multi-nationals and government departments. The most significant win was that of Citibank’s entire Irish operation, which was secured in 2005 and was a catalyst for the acquisition of the business by Calyx later that year.

Convergent Communications Plc acquired Direct Voice & Data in Aug 2000 and amalgamated it with four other acquisitions to form Convergent Systems (CSL), a £20m telephony and infrastructure business. As Sales Director, my immediate tasks were to unify targets and compensation plans across all teams, and to redefine our sales proposition to take advantage of the wider portfolio of products and services at our disposal both within CSL and across the wider group.The new commission plan provided a single scheme ranging from Telesales to Major Account Directors with built in promotion and demotion to encourage exceptional performance. Some of the best performing salespeople in the industry came through this system starting as juniors and ending up delivering in excess of £1m GM per annum. It also enabled better management of poor performance; where previously people may have exited the business, they dropped down the ladder, many returning to deliver strong results with confidence restored.The sales proposition drew on all aspects of our portfolio including our in-house contact centre solution – Callmedia. When focused on specific vertical markets this enabled us to win many significant clients including AIG, Bristol & West, Chelsea Building Society, MWB, Npower, SAGA & Thales (Network Rail). Whilst CSL had grown to around £25m by 2003, the Plc had over extended itself with its buy and build strategy and CSL was sold to Azzurri as a going concern and the rest of the business placed into administration.

My first attempt at a start up business was formed in August 1994 and aimed at the Medium Enterprise and Contact Centre markets, reselling the SDX (then Lucent/Avaya) product range. From a one-man-band and no external investment the business grew (with the help of my business partner Steve Purvey) organically by approx £1m turnover per annum. It achieved ISO 9001 accreditation after 18 months’ trading and as a small business benefited greatly from the disciple and structure this brought to bear. In 1997 we launched our first in-house developed integration product linking the telephone system to a client’s customer database to handle calls more efficiently. We used this USP and our growing reputation for service excellence to secure orders from many household names including: Aon, Amex, Heath Lambert Group, Industrial Society, Laithwaites (Direct Wines), Legal & General, Nacanco, Pershings, Tetra Pak and WPP.We were on the pilot scheme for the governments All Employee Share Ownership Program (AESOP), and everyone having a vested interest in the business definitely helped us to achieve the amazing results we did. By 2000 the business had four offices (London, Leeds, Glasgow and Dublin), 55 staff, a turnover of £5.5m, produced a net 10% profit and had a net worth just short of £1m. We were approached and the business acquired in August 2000 by Convergent Communications Plc.

The start of my sales career and my introduction to telecommunications as a junior sales rep, cold calling to sell Mercury enabled phone systems to SMEs. I had greater success selling to larger businesses and progressed to Major Account sales and the Customer Sales Manager. For a time I was Regional Manager at the Leeds office before leaving to set up Direct Voice & Data Ltd.