Click4Assistance MD Wins CEO of the Year Award
CEO monthly is the publication behind the prestigious CEO of the Year awards. This year Click4Assistance’s own Managing Director, Gary Martin, had the fulfilment of being presented with the title of ‘Most Innovative in Software and Technology’.
The publication recognises that organisations are only strong as their leaders. “CEOs bear the majority of the responsibility and risk for any firm; despite this they work hard to ensure that their company remains at the forefront of its industry and provides its clients with the very highest standards or products or service.”
CEO monthly has specifically designed their distinguished awards to acknowledge the crème de la crème, the very best of the best! “Winners are chosen purely on merit, decided through a combination of votes gathered from our network of respected industry partners and our own rigorous in-house research.” [1]
The publication carefully reviews nominees based on their:
- Region
- Performance over the past 12 months
- Commitment to innovation
- Methods
- Competition
Gary commented upon winning the award “It was a true honour winning the award, when I made the decision to start the business and provide live chat nobody had heard of it, and today we are being widely recognised for all the hard work. Awards like this give us the boost we need, helping to drive Click4Assistance into the future wherever that may lead. To be fair, it should have been given to the whole team, they have all made Click4Assistance what it is today.”
The Man and Company Behind the Award
Click4Assistance was started in 2004 by Gary. As a developer from Essex he solely built the first version of the live chat solution with the goal to help organisations provide a more personal service and improve online communication. From his initial vision the solution gained popularity with interest from major publications, Honeywell and Citizen Advice Bureau etc. who remain loyal customers today.
The company today is almost unrecognisable from its humble beginnings in Gary’s spare bedroom! The administrative teams moved from rented offices into larger owned premises in 2014, allowing for more space and expansion in recruitment. 60% of staff are female, which is quite unusual for a software business. Together under the leadership of Gary the new enhanced version of Click4Assistance was released at the beginning of 2018.
‘Experiences’ takes usability to the next level with a completely flexible and unique Dashboard that reflects the way Windows Desktop works. Users are able to customise the central workspace by selecting what functionality is open, their layout (with the ability to minimise, resize and maximise etc.) They can even choose from a range of backgrounds to personalise the view.
Along with being UK based, the introduction of GDPR earlier this year has helped the team to win contracts with Police Constabularies, NHS organisations and charity trust foundations, who all have stringent security regulations to comply with. ‘Experiences’ has been safeguarded with the highest levels of data storage including encryption in transit and at rest.
The Future of the Company
Click4Assistance will continue to invest in staff, research and development, ensuring that we have the best talent amongst us to drive the company forwards, and that we stay ahead of the digital communication trends. Feedback from our customers also shapes our roadmap giving them functionality such as Meeting Rooms, Messenger Integration and Auto Store.
Our latest enhancement to be introduced to ‘Experiences’ is Artificial Intelligence (AI) which allows a chatbot to handle your chats. A chatbot can help save resources and allows a human operator to take the chat when necessary. This can be after the bot has asked prequalifying questions to the visitor, or when the enquirer has asked something that the bot has not learnt etc.
So who knows, perhaps next year not only could Gary win CEO of the Year for Most Innovative in Software and Technology for the second year running, he could be amongst the nominees for Best Artificial Intelligence CEO (or maybe the bot will if it’s taken over by then…)
For more information on Click4Assistance and our solution contact our team on 01268 524628 or emailtheteam@click4assistance.co.uk.
[1] https://www.ceo-review.com/2018-global-ceo-excellence-awards-2018