“There is a real buzz in the office when a new call centre goes live,” says Bruce Ferguson, Delivery Manager at JAM IP. Bruce, who is one of about 20 staff based at the company’s Maidenhead office, has been with the business since 2005.

One of JAM IP’s strengths is that it is a close-knit team where they all like to join in, even if it’s just making the tea. That also goes for the Delivery Manager, whose role, he says, involves a bit of everything. “I am Resource and Project Manager, which is about getting the right people in the right place at the right time, while ensuring the correct resources are available.”

Bruce’s is a mainly office-based job, with a day starting at about 8.30am where one of his first tasks is to check what has happened during the night and that everything has gone OK.
There is no typical day or typical job, but as with any call centre installation, he has to help the team establish what customers’ requirements are, then build the solution and configure the requirements.
As well as the daily project work, Bruce is also contributing to the formation of a KCOM contact centre solutions ‘Centre of Excellence’, looking at synergies across the Group.

“JAM IP was acquired by the KCOM Group in 2006 and the intention now is to create a centre of
excellence for contact centre consultancy and implementation. I believe we have fantastic opportunities from combining the existing call centre knowledge of JAM IP and Cisco with that of KCOM and Nortel, and the Affiniti Open Solutions team. It is something that I am currently focusing on!”

With such an office-based job, Bruce is keen on outdoor pursuits when not at work. Now 47, he lives in Berkhamstead, Hertfordshire, with his wife and two daughters.
“We spend a lot of time together as a family, and we like to camp and holiday in France, and I also enjoy skiing and mountain biking.”
But Bruce’s real sporting love is rugby union, following the Zurich Premiership club Saracens, and turning out as scrum-half and captain of Tring thirds.
“I want to carry on playing,” he says, “but the knees are starting to give me a bit of trouble.”

Lorna Maclean says she can spend her time at work “spinning plates and juggling balls.” No, she’s not a circus performer, but Head of IT with KCOM.
“Because of the complexity of the job, the only things that remain the same every day are that it’s always challenging and always varied,” explains Lorna.

As one of two Heads of IT, she is the primary contact into Business Transformation and Technology Services for directors and senior managers in Affiniti and is responsible for ensuring that BTTS delivers the appropriate services to enable Affiniti to deliver its business objectives and responsibilities to its customers. Managing the mix “If there is a typical day, it’s a mix of managing issues and progressing
new initiatives.
“There may be a problem with our incident management system. If it’s not operating properly, it has a
significant effect on our ability to service customers. It can affect the customer service desk’s ability to
effectively log faults, which in turn impacts on our ability to fix the call within agreed service levels, which results in a poor customer experience.”

She also oversees initiatives using new technology and is currently facilitating investigative workshops into cutting-edge resource and demand technology which the business unit team is interested in adopting.
“We may think it’s a great idea and will drive benefits but we need to understand how it’s going to work; what benefits can actually be realised and when; what it’s going to cost, and then generate a business case for funding,” she explains.
She adds: “Another part of my job is looking for new opportunities that will enhance the relationship
between BTTS and Affiniti, such as how can we optimize shared knowledge and skills to
deliver a joined-up service to the other KCOM business units.”

Lorna got involved in IT in 1986 – quite a switch from her early ambitions to be a psychologist.
Having qualified in Scotland with an MSc in Educational Psychology, she moved to Manchester and ended up on a Common Business Oriented Language (COBOL) computing course. The rest, as they say, is history.