Odyssey Systems Mike Odysseas took part in a Live Q & A session with readers from the Guardian Newspaper, Mike discussed the hot topic of deciding when to take on more employees.
Mike gives his tips on when to take on staff, and the best time to do do it.
To view the article and the full discussion Click the image below:
It’s been just over a year since Odyssey Systems had its first success story from its stop smoking campaing. Mike catched up with BBC radio Tees to talk about the success and challenges behind the Odyssey Systems Stop Smokin Campaign. We also hear from Linda Cairns the first successful quitter, and talk about her life after smoking.
Mike Odysseas, took to the airwaves this morning to give his views on the GDP statement and how it would effect business
Mike talks frankly about business conditions over the past 4 years and what he think the future has is store.
We are proud to announce that Odyssey has won the North East Business Awards Service Category for the second year running.
The services award recognises professional service organisations that have demonstrated strength in a number of areas, including Service Excellence, Service Differentiation, Business Growth, and Innovation.This year we faced strong competition from Lemon Business Solutions and Visualsoft eCommerce, both of whom are renowned for their exceptional customer service. We now progress to the regional finals of the competition, held at Hardwick Hall on April 25th.
After our awards success in 2012 we looked into how we could further deliver excellent customer service. We have done this by releasing a new customer focused website with innovative market leading features. Our 360 degree product spins and a customer help and support page with live chat features offer advanced customer engagement and offers another level of customer interaction.
The awards really are a testament to the time and effort we put into delivering excellent customer service and it’s an award that all at Odyssey are proud to receive.
Almost 500 votes were cast in a charity Easter egg decorating competition organised by telecommunications firm Odyssey Systems after the contest was judged via Facebook for the first time.
Eight staff members at Odyssey created their own individual eggs ranging from a depiction of John Lennon and “Yolko” Ono to the Addams Family, with £100 being donated to the Stockton on Tees-based charity Daisy Chain, which supports families affected by autism, a similar cash prize for the winner.
In contrast to previous years, where a director has judged the competition, the winning egg was chosen via Facebook, with members of the public voting for their favourite by clicking the “Like” button after photographs of each egg were posted to odysseysystemsltd Facebook page, with 497 votes cast.
The winner, with 141 “likes”, was James Hay, with his mad hatter egg party. It is the start of a very big week for James, who works in Odyssey’s broadband team, as his partner, Victoria, who helped to make the winning creation, is due to give birth to their baby.
Anthony Suddes. Marketing Manager at Odyssey Systems, organised the competition. He said: “Our Easter egg competition is a longstanding tradition that is a great way to welcome in the Easter period. We’ve now started to engage with our customers and the public through social media and thought Facebook would be a fun and fitting way to decide the contest.
“Matching the prize fund with a donation to charity is something that we are proud to do to help Daisy Chain,where we know the money will be put to good use. James’s design was very creative and a worthy winner.”
James added: “I am delighted to have won the Easter egg contest this year – it is always very competitive within the office, so I’m very proud to be the title holder until next year. The extra cash is a great bonus and will certainly come in handy with the imminent birth of our new baby – I’ve already worked out how many nappies I can buy with my winnings!”
Daisy Chain is Odyssey Systems’ nominated charity, and staff will be taking part in a series of sponsored activities to raise funds for the charity, including Mike Odysseas, Andrew Middlesmiss and Matthew Park cycling 300 miles from Teesside to London.
The race is on, to find 2013 Odyssey Easter Egg Competition winner,
However there is a twist, Normally the annual staff competition is judged by an independent person, but this year its up to you to decide.
All you have to do it go onto our Facebook page and click “Like” the egg or eggs that you think should win.
Get your vote in now, because you only have until 4pm on thursday to register your vote.
Now there is a lot at stake, as the winner will receive a massive £100,
This prize fund will be match this prize fund and donated to the Daisy chain project,
Happy voting
Well done to our friends at the Vela Group for completing the massive feat of climbing Mt Kilimanjaro,
The team, which included Vela Group Chairman Mike Clark, Group Director of Operations Dave Pickard, Board Director Johnny Lighten and Customer Service Advisor Paul Cornforth, completed climb up the 20,000ft mountain in Tanzania to raise funds for the Stockton based Daisy Chain Project,
The trek was dedicated to the memory of John Taylor, Vela group Director of resources who sadly died in an avalanche whilst trekking up Mt Blanc in 2012,
When Odyssey heard the plight of the Vela group and the added poignancy of the climb, we were more than happy to add our sponsorship. In return they were gracious enough to add our Logo onto their corporate banner.
The Daisy Chain Project is Odyssey’s charity of choice, and we have been providing the Autism charity telecommunication and broadband solutions for a number of years.
So can we now say, we really do go to the edges of the earth for our customers?
An early scare wasn’t enough to dishearten an emphatic Odyssey team, with a remarkable goal scoring performance from Lee Dowle enabled the team to come from behind to defeat Advanced Vehicle Leasing 6 – 4.
After all of the meticulous planning within the office around the teams formation, it seemed that everything was over within the first 10 minutes.
Advanced Vehicle Leasing took to an early, deserved 3 – 0 lead, with the Odyssey team struggling to find any momentum – their 2nd goal was particularly “peachy” with a shot on the volley going into the top corner, past Rog, who was literally rooted to the spot.
A quick shuffle of the formation, with James Hay moving to the left, along with McKenna dropping back to play down the right side and Dowle pushing up front, meant things started to swing in their favour.
Details are sketchy, but Dowle certainly pulled the first goal back for Odyssey, followed shortly by the player again (though the majority of the office think it was Sowerby).
The comeback was complete was when Dowle scored the 3rd goal for Odyssey, after some fantastic passing movement in the centre of the park.
New and Walters covered the back very well, with Hay defending the left flank, minimising the attacks from Advanced Vehicle Leasing’s star man, Clarke.
Walters lived up to his captaincy very well, barking orders left right and centre, which kept the team’s structure intact.
With the momentum behind Odyssey, some incredible team play between McKenna, Dowle, and Sowerby broke down the Advanced Vehicle Leasing’s defence to put them in front.
Some further pressure from AVL was broken down well, with the defence of Walters, Hay, and New throwing their bodies on the line to block shots from all angles, as AVL started running out of ideas.
A setback for AVL then occurred with one of their players getting hit in a place we would rather not mention, meaning he had to play in goal. Odyssey ruthlessly capitalised on this with Dowle scoring the 5th.
A late rally from AVL, with a sublime goal from Howard made for a nervy few last minutes for the Odyssey team, but the game was put to bed with the last kick of the game, when McKenna got himself on the score sheet to make the game 6 – 4.
Telecoms suppliers love bundled minute packages because 80% of their customers use less than 20% of their included minutes. True value from bundles can only be achieved by using almost exactly the amount of minutes included (but let’s face it, most people buy bundles so they can completely forget about paying attention to call spend all together). Get it wrong by using too much, and you’ll pay extortionate out of bundles rates. Oh and are 0845’s included? Are the minutes included per line, or per account? Bundles introduce confusion, complexity and the opportunity for telecoms suppliers to catch you out. In the telecoms world, if it sounds too good to be true then it usually is.
Far too often procuring telephony is thought of as just another “on or off” utility, however get it wrong and you could find your business in the dark for weeks. Get it right, and telecoms could help develop many areas of your business giving you the edge over your competitors. Only a handful of large corporations have job roles dedicated to management and delivery of their telephony. So for the rest of the business world, where should responsibility lie? With your accounts or IT manager? It’s not just a stereotype, but nine times out of ten a person working in an accounts role will succeed in finding the cheapest deal. But is the cheapest deal the right deal? A person working in IT will no doubt buy the flashiest bit of kit, but will it be configured to add any value to your business? Ultimately, a decision this significant should be made by someone with a detailed understanding of your businesses challenges and opportunities for the foreseeable future. Someone motivated by value, not cost. Someone able to gather information from experts in their field, and make an informed decision.
Next time you sign up for a landline call package, keep an eye out for these nasty tricks often used to increase the charges on your bill: Call connection fees, large minimum call charges, capped rate call packages, per minute rounding, call commitments, bundled minute packages, out of bundle usage charges, existing contract buyouts and non direct debit payment charges.
Communication is the life blood of business. Trusting your business telecoms to more than one supplier introduces confusion, unnecessary complexity and countless opportunities for things to go wrong. Ever experienced an issue where fingers are always pointing somewhere else? Dealing with a single supplier for your telephone lines, calls, system and connectivity allows you to assign ownership and clear responsibility for ensuring your business remains connected. Find someone who will visit your office and ask questions. Where has your business come from, what are your challenges and what are your plans over the next few years? If your telecoms supplier has not asked these questions then how can they possibly understand what’s right for you?
Directory enquiries, premium rate and personal calls can drastically inflate your business phone bills. Is there really an excuse for spending £3.50 to a 118 number when a quick Google would have done the job? Define an acceptable use policy within your business for telephony usage or you’ll continue to sign blank cheques. If you’re still struggling to bring costs under control, find a provider who will bar destinations at network level, or ask your business telephone system maintainer to setup a “class of service” to limit which handsets or members of staff can make calls to high cost destinations.
Almost every telephone system in the market place can deliver statistics to help you run your business, and it’s surprising how few people use them. Which staff or departments are taking too long to answer the phone? Instead of hiring more staff, monitor average call length and take steps to bring it down. Spot trends in busy periods, and adjust shift patterns to suit. Monitor line usage and scale up or down as required. Advertise a different DDI telephone number on your marketing activities to track return on investment. Find out which of your customers are taking up the majority of your customer service teams time. Spot how many missed calls you’re receiving, at what time and to whom. Why not build a set of telephony KPIs and display them on a wallboard in the office – you’ll soon find staff start managing their own telephony practices.
It’s not just the mobile telephone world that has developed new technology over the last few years. There have been plenty of developments and innovations in traditional landline telephony. Your competitors are probably taking advantage of them, so perhaps it’s time you did too?
Make sure you cover telephony as part of your induction process with new staff. There are hundreds of powerful features that can really help your business function, but as a starter for ten ensure staff can complete the following: blind transfer, attended transfer, call parking, call pickup, monitor, barge, conferencing, call forwarding, DND, and voicemail. Cover your acceptable use policy for calls, and set expectations for answer time, standard greeting script and usage of the above features. If you’re not sure yourself, ask your telephone system provider to pop down and spend 30 minutes going over everything.
Many actions in the telecoms world are time sensitive; drop the ball and you’ll find yourself playing catch up or incurring unnecessary expense. Acquire your telephone system via a lease? Don’t forget to notify the leasing company of your intentions a couple of months before expiry or you’ll end up paying secondary rentals. Porting of landline numbers between providers is a black art, and can take anywhere from a few days to a few years (if it’s possible at all)! Don’t forget to record your holiday message and upload it on to the telephone system. If you need your supplier to do this for you, give them a couple of days’ notice at least. Moving premises? Start talking to telecoms suppliers way sooner than you would think is required, a couple of months is best to make sure everything happens as smoothly as possible. Analogue lines can take between two to three weeks to go live. Broadband to go on top will take another 10 working days (unless you’re able to get a simultaneous provide where both go live at the same time). ISDN2 lines will take four to six weeks, and an ISDN30 will take eight to ten weeks. Throw an MBORC in to the mix (Matters Beyond Our Reasonable Control –BT Openreach declare these whenever there is really bad weather), and the standard lead times go out of the window.
Technology always fails. If you’ve managed to escape any form of communications’ down time in the past few years, you’re in the minority. Here are our top reasons why things go wrong:
Your ability to access effective support with a predictable amount of effort and time can make all the difference. So first on the agenda is making sure you’re working with a single supplier who will take responsibility when you need help. How long could your business survive without telephones or internet access? Can a reseller of a reseller truly look after you as well as a tier one provider? If your lines go down, where should your network supplier redirect calls to? Will a single mobile phone do? To cover hardware failure, any system maintainer worth their salt should maintain a stock of hardware to replace any part that’s required to keep you up and running (even for equipment that’s long since been discontinued by the manufacturer). Having the spare part however, is only one piece of the puzzle. Access to fully trained engineers with detailed knowledge of your business, telephone system and its configuration is just as important. For power, consider running your telephone system and associated equipment via an uninterruptable power supply or UPS. A UPS includes components to protect devices from power surges, and battery packs to supply enough power to keep things running for short periods of time without mains supply. Spending just five minutes understanding your options before things go pear shaped can save you so much trouble. If you’re out of your depth, lean on the experts and come up with a plan together.
Roses are red violets are blue,
That’s what they say but it just isn’t true,
Roses are red and apples are too,
But violets are violet, violets aren’t blue,
An orange is orange, but Greenland’s not green,
A pinky’s not pink, so what does it mean?
So imagine our surprise, when suddenly appeared,
5 bunches of flowers, for Odyssey peers,
But who were they from? The flowers all alike,
If I could hazard a guess I’d say it was…
…Mike
Odyssey Systems are proud to announce that we have been shortlisted for the service Award category at the Teesside heat of the North East Business Awards 2013.
The service award recognises professional service organisations that have demonstrable strength in the following areas:
• Service Excellence
• Service differentiation
• Business Growth
• Innovation
The Teesside business awards will take place on Thursday 14th March 2013 at Teesside University, Middlesbrough, with the winner automatically entered for the North East Business Awards Regional Final 25 April at Hardwick Hall.
To follow Odysseys progress on the night, follow us on twitter and we will keep you updated. https://twitter.com/OdysseySystems
Thousands of people across the country will be phoning their place of work this week to tell their employer’s that they unable to come to work. This scenario will be faced by many businesses over the coming weeks, cost millions of pounds in lost time and revenue. But what is the cause of this mass abandonment of desks?
The weather, I hear you cry!
During this bout of recent bad weather, phones will be ringing of the hook with employees offering a multitude of excuses for not being able to attend work. “I’m sorry i’m snowed in”, “the weather conditions are too bad to travel in”, or “My children’s school is closed, I have no child care”, all legitimate problems faced by the daily commuter.
However there is a solution, why not make it possible for your staff to work from home?
Advances in modern communications technology have made working from home as easy as working from the Office.
An Odyssey business telephone system can make it possible for your staff members to have extensions at home linked to the office telephone system, or calls can be diverted or transferred to their mobile.
The same principal applies if nobody can get into the office, all calls can simply be accessed from the home extension as if you were sat at your desk.
With the advancements of superfast broadband and rollout of FTTC across the country employees can use video conferencing services, access emails and use remote desktop services without the fear of timing out or low bandwidth restrictions.
The possibilities and solutions are endless, but what is certain in this day and age there is no need for your business to grind to a halt because of the weather
Odyssey has deployed home working, disaster recovery and linked office telecoms solutions for hundreds of businesses in the North East. Call 01642 661800 to see how we can add value to your business.
It’s that time of year again, snow falling, roads freezing, and the Odyssey elves are hard at work packing up the Odyssey Christmas truffles.
Look out for our delicious gift in your Odyssey bill, and grab one while you can.
Plans for Government, police and intelligence officers to be able to monitor anyone’s real time phone and internet records will be “pointless and a major embarrassment” if they appear in the Queen’s Speech, according to IT entrepreneur Mike Odysseas.
Mike, managing director of Tees Valley business to business telecoms provider Odyssey Systems says:
The plans do not take into account what is realistically feasible.
Internet Service Providers (ISPs) will be expected to hold the information on behalf of any government department.
Some ISP’s could choose to sell their new ‘legal snooping’ database (as BT attempted two years ago but failed due to consumer backlash).
It’s likely that the £2bn+ cost to businesses, of this bill would be passed on through government taxation or higher charges for consumers.
The timing of the leak of this story is an attempt to make it “old news” when it is included in the Queen’s speech.
Mike strongly believes that his Stockton-based firm is one of the many smaller Internet Service Providers (ISPs) which will suffer, along with millions of consumers.
Mike Odysseas, Managing Director of award-winning Tees Valley telecommunications business, believes Government needs to take decisive action and make short-term pain lead to long term improvements to the economy.
He said: “At the rate action is being taken on the economy, our generation’s children and grandchildren are going to be suffering the pain of the recent recession, because the Government has its head in the sand.
“We need some real pain for everyone, whatever they do, however much they earn, to actually get some results and start to solve the financial problems this country is facing.
“There are some signs of improvement, for example with the Treasury closing the £500m tax loophole in relation to Barclays, but Government at all levels needs to start operating at more realistic levels of cost, more in line with private sector business.
“As far as I can see, very little has actually been achieved and decisive action is needed now.”