12 technology
Content Guru celebrates 10 years of cloud innovation
As Bracknell-based cloud contact centre provider Content Guru celebrates its 10th anniversary, managing director Sean Taylor looks back on an eventful journey
“It’s unusual to find someone that hasn’t heard about cloud computing. Even our specialist area of cloud contact centre and unified communications is relatively well known. When we started the business a decade ago, it was a different story however. We spent the first six to seven years trying to convince a sceptical audience that cloud could bring important benefits to their businesses. It’s now tremendously satisfying to be recognised as one of the top players in our field and to see the business going from strength to strength in a buoyant industry.“
Content Guru was established in late 2005 by brothers Sean and Martin Taylor who, in 1993, co-founded another successful communications hardware and software business in the Thames Valley, Redwood Technologies. The business objective was simple – to use a newly- emerging service delivery model, later known as cloud, for the mass-scale delivery of powerful communications technology.
To realise this ambition, the Content Guru team developed storm, a cloud communications technology platform that represented a complete departure from the traditional communications vendor model. Storm was completely constructed by the company from its own hardware and software and architecturally designed not only to scale but also to integrate and interoperate with virtually any other system.
Netherlands in 2012, Germany in 2014 and the USA in 2015 – with further expansion into Asia-Pac scheduled for 2016.
Storm has evolved not only geographically but also in terms of cloud services and features. Today the platform delivers multi-channel solutions for large and medium enterprises worldwide, with capabilities ranging from contact centre and unified communications solutions to secure integrated payments. Storm also delivers cutting- edge services such as machine-to-machine (M2M) interactions and propensity modelling – a revolutionary new concept that leverages multiple
The Content Guru team
Taylor explains: “Until recently, the communications marketplace has been dominated by a number of large, predominantly US-based technology vendors who manufactured and then installed expensive systems on customers’ premises. The key for the technology vendor was to build a strong addiction to their brand and particular technology.
“Storm disrupted this marketplace; not only through its completely new cloud delivery model but also through the platform’s open architecture and scalability. This approach enables us to interoperate seamlessly with customers’ existing investments in infrastructure, add value to them, and to provide the capacity and flexibility to easily manage peaks and troughs in communications such as email, voice, web chat, SMS and social media traffic.
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“I am extremely proud of the work of the Content Guru team and delighted that we’re now taking on and often beating multi-billion-dollar organisations. What’s especially pleasing is that everything we’ve achieved has been with our own technology, and from our international base here in the Thames Valley.”
Storm first met success in the media and broadcasting industries, where organisations leveraged its capacity and reliability to process sudden huge spikes in communications – a good example being BBC Children in Need, where storm has been used several times (including this year) to process donations through a secure automated service. The platform quickly grew in complexity and scale to address numerous other high-demand verticals, including utilities and travel where customers and passengers demand real-time information – even during enormous, unpredictable peaks in demand such as during an extreme weather event.
The company’s success in the UK led to international expansion with global storm operations starting in Ireland in 2011, the
sources of data and complex algorithms to deliver mass-personalised communications to consumers.
Taylor believes the success of his company has been aided by its location within the Thames Valley region, and especially by the quality of its people, with great success having been achieved through its graduate intake schemes.
“We are fortunate to employ some of the country’s most skilled workers, and this resource allows us to innovate at a far greater pace than our competitors.
“We take very talented individuals with strong communication skills and operate a simple policy; if you’re good enough, you’re old enough. Our junior graduates are supported across the business by seasoned professionals with decades of industry experience. It is the combination of fresh ideas from highly-talented candidates with expert guidance, backed by a commitment and passion for our customers, that has been the recipe for our success.
“As we continue our international expansion, this core team will be essential to ensuring that we fulfil our potential to succeed.”
THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – DECEMBER 15/JANUARY 16
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