NGD Europe Bolsters Security Credentials with PCI DSS Certification
Newport, Wales, 7 December, 2012: Next Generation Data (NGD), owner and operator of NGD Europe, one of the world’s largest data centres, announced today that the facility has achieved compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS).
PCI DSS is a globally recognised standard for organisations directly or indirectly storing, processing or transmitting cardholder data. NGD Europe is responsible for securely housing a wide and diverse range of data on behalf of its tenants which includes domestic and global enterprise and service provider organisations. The tier 3+ facility has already attained accreditations for ISO 27001 security management, ISO 9001 quality management and SSAE16 reporting.
Commented Nick Razey, CEO of Next Generation Data: “We believe in ensuring an exceptionally secure and private data centre environment for all our customers including those handling sensitive payment card information. PCI DSS compliance is the latest example of our commitment to making NGD Europe one of the safest and securest data centres in the world and further highlights the integrity and robustness of our systems.”
NCI, a leading Canadian-owned IT security firm, was selected by NGD as its partner for undergoing the required two-month period of PCI DSS assessment and reporting. With a track record of securing hundreds of public and private sector clients, NCI’s professionalism and client-centric focus helped guide NGD through the standard’s rigorous requirements for providing a secure payment environment.
The 750,000 square feet NGD Europe mega data is built to a US earthquake-proof design and features comprehensive physical security including double and triple skinned walls; bomb proof glass; prison grade perimeter fencing; anti-ram bollards; infra-red detection; CCTV; and ex-army security guards.
With a state-of-the-art power management system, 100 per cent commitment to renewable energy supply and an industry leading Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) rating, NGD Europe also boasts ISO 14001 and BREEAM environmental management certifications.
About NGD Europe
NGD Europe is able to support High Density Environments for such power-hungry and intensive applications as Big Data, Cloud Computing, Super Computing and Grid Computing. It is ideally suited to large enterprise organisations wishing to consolidate their existing space- or power-restricted data centre operations, as well as service providers and systems integrators operating single or multiple racks.
Capable of housing up to 19,000 server racks, NGD Europe is a purpose-built tier 3 carrier-neutral facility offering 750,000 sq ft of highly secure and cost-effective space. Racks can be arranged into self-contained and colocation data halls of various sizes all with independent services, resilient power and cooling systems. NGD Europe’s environmentally-friendly high level technology infrastructure has been designed to meet and exceed the ever increasing demand for more computing power. Its many features include a 180 MVA 100 per cent renewable energy power supply connected directly to the super grid via an on-site sub-station. There are also multiple on-site high-speed, low latency carrier interconnects.
For further information, visit www.nextgenerationdata.com
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Cabot Credit Management Invests in Respond
Flexible automated complaints management platform is selected
28 November 2012: Cabot Credit Management (CCM), the UK’s leading acquirer and manager of consumer debt, has selected Respond, from Aptean (www.aptean.com) to centralise and automate its complaints management processes.
The system, which went live in September 2012 is used to register and manage all in-bound customer complaints.
“Respond is already significantly reducing the administrative time and complexity of management and compliance reporting. The ability to produce reports automatically with the knowledge that all the statutory data is included, and any potential issues have long been addressed, is invaluable to a highly regulated business such as CCM,” said Deborah Langley, Compliance Manager, Cabot Credit Management.
CCM is the parent company of Cabot Financial and Apex Credit Management who merged in April 2011. The company inherited two largely manual systems so decided to upgrade to help meet the ever increasing demands from regulatory bodies on fair customer complaints management.
Langley added: “Before the final decision was made we conducted our own research of complaints management systems available on the market. We arranged to see Respond in a similar business and the feedback was very positive. This, coupled with some of the teams’ previous in-house experience of Respond, drove our decision to invest in it rather than to build our own complaints management platform. Additionally, its open APIs mean we can integrate the platform with our existing information system very easily.”
Respond has been modified to interface seamlessly with the advanced debt management system currently under development. It is highly flexible and can interface with most CRM systems. The ability to port customer information between Respond and CCM’s debt collection platform will dramatically cut the time and cost of case administration, whilst significantly increasing the efficiency and time to successful complaint resolution for client and customer.
This sharing of information and single-point data input will also guarantee that the data needed to ensure the fair treatment of customers is always available and presented the right way. This is essential to ensure regulatory compliance not just for CCM, but also for its contingent clients to whom CCM must report. CCM and its financial services clients are regulated by the Office of Fair Trading and the Financial Services Authority (FSA) respectively.
Langley concluded: “Regulators are driving consumer fairness. As independent businesses we have always been highly compliant. As a merged entity it’s vital this continues, but we can only achieve this with absolute visibility across the business. We need to know ahead of time if we face a potential compliance issue and put changes in place if we do. “
Integral to Respond is Root Cause Analysis (RCA). CCM will use the resulting analysis on an on-going basis to pinpoint areas of the business that require review, not only to guarantee the most efficient steps to resolution and compliance for CCM and its contingent clients, but also for customers, as laid down by the FSA in its Treat Customers Fairly (TCF) principles.
As a result of Respond going live in September, CCM’s reporting processes have become automated. Respond populates pre-set templates automatically, ensuring that all the data required for individual reporting and the mandatory bi-annual FSA compliance reports, is included.
The Aptean professional services team worked closely with CCM to ensure that Respond was personalised to meet the exact business requirements of the company. The same team will meet periodically with CCM moving forward to ensure on-going performance excellence as the business grows and regulatory changes inevitably transpire.
About Aptean
Aptean, a global leader in enterprise application software (EAS), gives businesses of all sizes a competitive edge. We empower people and businesses with end-to-end, industry-specific solutions to address complex business challenges more effectively. Our software applications and professional business services enable more than 9,000 customers, in more than 100 countries, to more successfully manage their business. Software built specifically for our target markets, aligned with deep knowledge across vertical industries, allow businesses to satisfy their customers; operate most efficiently; and stay at the forefront of their industry. For more information, visit http://www.aptean.com.
About Cabot Credit Management
Cabot Credit Management is a market leading acquirer and manager of consumer debt. Divided into four specialist businesses, Cabot Financial, Cabot Financial Ireland, Apex Credit Management and Apex Discovery Solutions, it covers debt purchase, contingency collections and customer tracing.
Cabot Credit Management has purchased assets of £7.5bn, managed assets of £1bn, cash collections of circa £20m per month and a 13 year unbroken track record of steady growth.
The Group employs over 700 people with offices in Kings Hill, Stratford-upon-Avon and Dublin. It prides itself on its ethical values and high standards and has an impressive list of accolades. These include Investors in People Gold award (accredited for three years) for Apex Credit Management and Investors in People Bronze award (accredited for two years) for Cabot Financial which also has achieved a Quality Management System ISO 9001 since 2008. In addition both Apex Credit Management and Cabot Financial have been included in the Sunday Times Buyout Track Top 100 best companies to work for.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )CDC SOFTWARE PROVIDES “NEXT DAY” COMPLAINTS MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS AS REGULATORS GET TOUGH ON CUSTOMER SERVICE
Respond as a Service set-up and supporting customer service excellence in less than 24 hours
11 May 2012: Respond, the market leading customer complaints management platform from CDC Software, is now available as a service following demand from retailers, banks, travel companies and service provider businesses for a “next day” solution.
Operational in less than 24 hours, the Software as a Service deployment option of Respond provides the same functionality and business benefits as the time proven on-premise version. Over 800 customer-facing and often highly regulated businesses have relied on Respond for customer complaints management for over 20 years.
“Demand for Respond as a service is high from both existing and new customers. For existing clients it provides a quick an easy upgrade path to Respond Version 5, an essential tool for regulatory reporting, and quick-fire expansion of user numbers,” explained Mark Chambers, Head of Solution Consulting at CDC Software.
“For new customers, the ability to have a proven customer complaints management system set-up in less than 24 hours is compelling and business changing, especially as both consumers and regulators are demanding customer service excellence,” continued Mark Chambers.
Respond as a Service has been extensively tested and piloted over the last 12 months. Tests included independent security and penetration assessments and service delivery processes.
Feedback from Respond customers conclusively demonstrated administrative efficiency gains within days of the application going live. The most immediate being the ability to greatly reduce the time it takes to register, file and resolve a complaint. These processes are now instantly automated, centralised and linked to workflows that ensure the most effective route to resolution is achieved.
Longer term benefits include automated customer correspondence; scheduled daily or weekly management status reports; regulatory compliance reports; integration with other customer databases via open APIs and the ability to analyse the stored data to establish the root cause of complaints and service issues so these can be put right before creating widespread concerns.
“Under the pressure of business growth and regulatory changes, manual complaints management processes are no longer reliable or cost effective. Purchasing Respond as an on-demand application, rather than a capital investment means businesses can have a fully functioning complaints management system in hours, without impacting IT budgets and internal IT resources,” explained Mark Chambers of CDC Software.
Billing for Respond as a Service is flexible. This makes the on-demand application ideal for businesses faced with sudden or seasonal increases in customer complaints or enquiries. It also offers businesses the same tools as their larger competitors, without the time and cost commitment of purchasing and maintaining the supporting IT infrastructure.
Alternatively, businesses that are looking to manage temporary peaks in customer complaints, for example those managing huge volumes of PPI claims would be ideal candidates for Respond as a Service. Whilst many of these customers are facing pressure from the industry regulators to improve customer complaints management or face fines and potential product recalls, others have accepted that a cultural shift back to customer service excellence is needed if their businesses are to prosper and a review of processes is required.
“Respond as a Service offers businesses an alternative deployment option. It is set-up in less than 24 hours and requires minimal IT skills at the customer end. User training is included in the hosting agreement and there is a range of online tutorials and support guides to ensure maximum benefit is had from the application,” concluded Mark Chambers of CDC Software.
Respond as a Service is managed by CDC Software and hosted by an industry-leading hosting provider. Advanced monitoring systems guarantee service and each customer’s database is partitioned to ensure security.
NOTE TO EDITORS: Currently, Respond is offering a 15 month contract for the price of 12 months for customers looking to go live with Respond as a Service before 1 October 2012.
About Respond
Respond provides customer complaints management excellence and regulatory compliance assurance for all customer-facing businesses and organisations. For more information: visit http://www.welovecustomerfeedback.com or Twitter @cdcrespondmark.
About CDC Software CDC Software is a global provider of enterprise software for on-premise and cloud deployments. Leveraging a service-oriented architecture (SOA), CDC Software offers multiple delivery options for their solutions including on-premise, hosted, cloud-based Software as a Service (SaaS) or blended-hybrid deployment offerings. CDC Software’s solutions include enterprise resource planning (ERP), manufacturing operations management, enterprise manufacturing intelligence, supply chain management (demand management, order management and warehouse and transportation management), global trade management, e-Commerce, human capital management, customer relationship management (CRM), complaint management and aged care solutions. CDC Software delivers innovative and industry-specific solutions to approximately 10,000 customers worldwide within the manufacturing, distribution, transportation, retail, government, real estate, financial services, health care, and not-for-profit industries. For more information, please visit www.cdcsoftware.com.
Press contact Caroline Howlett / Nicky Feakes
Strategic Public Relations 01494 434434 cdc@strategicpr.net @strategicpr
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )
Strategicpr's Blog 