| 2023 Excellence in Strategic Partnerships Award Winners | |
2023 EXCELLENCE IN STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS AWARD WINNERS
Read about four successful collaborative relationships.
Avasant Partners with Graduate Business School to Improve Admissions
By leveraging data and analytics, Avasant helped the UCLA Anderson School increase the acceptance rate of its top candidates. This award-winning partnership showcases the value of tapping uncovered datasets to provide vital insights.
Avasant piloted the new data transformation offering with the MBA Admissions Department to enable the institution to improve student intake quality and bolster its position in the US News Best Colleges Rankings.
Avasant developed its methodology based on the “Thinking Like a Data Scientist” framework, which provides a collaborative, scientific engagement framework to identify where and how data and analytics can be applied to the organization’s most important business and operational use cases to drive quantifiable “value.”
This initiative marked the first time the school undertook a rigorous analysis of options and hypotheses in planning and utilized the power of implementing data science within business process functions. Anderson’s IT team now recognizes the power of data. It is building a modern data platform to further aid in analysis and decision-making in various department functions beyond admissions.
“The UCLA Anderson team was kept involved, inspired, and goal-oriented throughout the Data Value Engineering Process by the Avasant team by using all appropriate tactics,” according to the Avasant winning submission to IAOP. “This partnership was a unique endeavor for all stakeholders involved, and the outcomes have produced a satisfied and energized client.”
Colliers Collaboration with BAE Systems Results in Innovative Austin Campus Move
A bold collaboration between Colliers and BAE Systems led to the successful relocation of the aerospace company’s campus in Austin, Texas, allowing BAE Systems to expand innovation and manufacturing capabilities and better attract talent.
BAE Systems engaged the then-fledgling Colliers’ Workplace Advisory team in 2020 to assess its options and develop potential scenarios about the future of its dated and inefficient 400,000-square-foot campus located in a less desirable employment area.
Colliers performed a detailed “stay or go” analysis that led BAE Systems to relocate to a new property on the Palmer Innovation Campus in June 2022. Colliers also secured space for potential expansion, putting BAE Systems in a winning position to reach new talent, grow its business, and continue its investment in the Austin community.
Colliers and BAE Systems delivered the project during the COVID pandemic - arguably the most complicated environment in decades for real estate and development. This raised significant challenges in shifting COVID policies, health and safety, and supply chain disruption. The teams on the ground remained creative and agile, solving problems as they arose while prioritizing safety and well-being. Despite significant headwinds, the project was delivered on time and under budget.
“The BAE Systems project was our largest undertaking at the time, and our team was compelled to be bold and collaborative throughout,” Colliers stated in its application. “The collaboration itself was an innovation, as we were constantly taking risks, testing our approach, and bringing new ideas to the process.”
In addition to leading to a significant investment in the BAE Systems business and the Austin community, the project helped launch the growth of Colliers’ Major Projects Advisory business to new heights, and the firm has since managed more than $1 billion in projects.
Together, Foundever and CallMiner Achieve More
A successful and ongoing six-year partnership between customer experience (CX) provider Foundever (formerly Sitel) and conversation analytics supplier CallMiner has been a win for both companies.
Foundever provides various managed services to help CallMiner meet the needs of their clients when more resources, headcount or delivery speed is needed for numerous projects.
“Through the partnership with Foundever, CallMiner can scale that expertise beyond what our team can do alone,” Foundever said. “Together, CallMiner and Sitel Group can deliver access to two industry-leading organizations offering better support to our joint customers in developing strategy, helping execute programs, and driving ROI. Through our partnership, we can deliver on customer goals and achieve positive outcomes more effectively.”
This partnership has allowed CallMiner to stay true to its strategic vision as a company that focuses on technology and innovation and industry leadership while supporting daily client needs through the Sitel Group partnership.
In turn, this has allowed Sitel Group to excel and showcase their strength in their expertise in professional managed services with a high quality of service, where three-month engagements have quickly turned into year-plus long engagements.
CallMiner clients can now tap into a multi-lingual workforce available through Sitel Group across the various geographies and the contact center expertise that the Sitel Group leadership brings to the table in shaping their future products and releases.
“The two companies have formed an ecosystem that truly benefits and fills a need without having to invest in infrastructure and costs on both sides,” according to the IAOP award application.
RAYA CX Turns Around British Council’s Customer Satisfaction Ratings During the Pandemic
A partnership between customer experience provider RAYA CX and the British Council improved customer satisfaction ratings that were negatively impacted during the pandemic, leading to further business growth.
Raya CX helped reverse the issues of low response rates on social media, failure to earn green badge status on Facebook, long email response times, and a declining CSS score that demanded a new sales and operations approach.
RAYA CX built the solution and the action plan for the main problem areas. The team achieved all the targets, decreasing social media response time from three hours to five minutes and email response time from 48 hours to 12 hours. They successfully helped the British Council achieve Facebook’s green “very responsive” badge for all country pages, increased the Council’s CSS score from a 3 to a 4, and maintained that score.
Based on the positive turnaround results, the Council expanded RAYA’s outbound sales team for the counseling services in the MENA region and also added three new business lines to the HRO team, including a French queue and an ITO Service softphone to facilitate agents to work anywhere and infrastructure technology solutions allowing the British Council staff to perform inbound and outbound calls from the client’s premises and remotely. Moreover, it added a cloud telephony solution with Ziwo that helps RAYA CX manage phone calls, WhatsApp, and SMS conversations on one platform to serve the Egyptian market.
“The RAYA CX team managed to overcome the challenges faced and grew as a team whether in number or services and markets provided,” according to the IAOP application. “With astonishing revenue growth rates, they proved ready for bigger challenges and more delightful customer interactions across all touchpoints. They were able to satisfy the client and be a vital part of the British Council’s success story of empowering young people through art, culture, and the English language.”