Who are nvisage?

• The customer contact services provider to npower. (both nvisage and npower are Innogy companies).
• Our aim is to contribute value and integrity wherever possible to their customers.
• nvisage offer unrivaled service and are committed to putting the customer first.
• Our customer service team are committed to giving the best deal and are always looking to achieve the highest standard.
• nvisage have sites in Peterlee and Stoke on Trent. We have recently opened another contact centre in Peterlee.
• In 1999 nvisage employed 120 staff, currently they employ 740 and within 12 months they estimate that will be 1500.
  

The company has its origins in Mailcom which was founded in Milton Keynes in 1982. Mailcom established a North East presence in the mid eighties originally from premises in Washington. The company dealt mainly with direct mail and mail order fulfillment. In 1996 Mailcom opened a second site at Follingsby Park in Gateshead. At this time the Mailcom board recognised that Call Centre services had started to become a significant part of the services provided to clients, and in 1997, our Managing Director concluded terms to develop the Peterlee site.

We occupied our current premises at Bracken Hill Business Park in November 1998 and changed our name to Virtutel, to signify the split from the traditional business activity to that of Call Centre services. At the same time Mailcom at Gateshead also underwent a re-branding programme and changed its name to Spark Response. The Washington and Milton Keynes sites still trade as Mailcom.

Virtutel offered a distinctive customer management service carefully tailored to the requirements of the individual client, and by working in partnership with the Client Company, absorbed the values and characteristics of their brand and reflected these in their customer service delivery.

One of Virtutel's major clients was Calortex (now part of npower). This particular contract continued to grow to the point at which npower requested exclusive use of the Peterlee call centre facility. Subsequently, in April 2000 contractual negotiations were concluded and the Peterlee Call Centre began to operate solely on behalf of npower, and to reflect the spirit of the agreement and to align us with the npower brand a new company name nvisage was created.

Following the continued success of nvisage, npower's parent company Innogy Holdings plc conducted a due diligence exercise during January 2001 in order to acquire the nvisage business, and in February 2001 nvisage became an Innogy company.

nvisage continues to support npower in their delivery of world class customer service and handles all of npower's frontline call centre activity, both in the North East at Peterlee and at Stoke on Trent.

We have a great culture in our organisation. Our success is based on the skills and commitment of our people. Our staff enjoy coming to work in an environment where support is always available. Our building is light and airy and canteen facilities are available. There is an active sports and social scene outside of the workplace. We have occasional theme days (e.g. Murder Mystery) and regular dress down days where we raise money for local charities. We have recently had one member of staff win an all expenses paid trip to New York and another a trip on the Orient Express.

To support the recent Children In Need day, nvisage staff dressed up in everything from their pyjamas to old school uniforms and raised a staggering £959.99 which was doubled by parent company Innogy to raise £1919.98.

Every month nvisage has a dressup/down day and staff can nominate their favourite charity for which we can raise money. Previous theme days include 'cowboys/girls, Halloween and bad taste'.

There were also some strange goings on, when Count Dracula turned up for Halloween joined by a few witches and ghosts, we raised £339.69 for RNLI.

In November nvisage announced it's plans to create 500 jobs in customer service and Telesales at it's peterlee sites. A series of open days have been introduced to give potential staff the opportunity to have a look round our state of the art contact centre and see the working environment. There is also the opportunity to ask current staff about their roles and find out what the job involves. We have had a really great response so far with over 300 people coming along.

All employees are invited to join the Sports and Social club, a chance to get to know your team mates outside your normal working hours. Recent events included a shopping trip to Leeds as well as a trip to the Theatre to see 'Grease. Things for members to look forward to are the annual panto and a trip to Dublin in March.

Contact Centre Staff come from all types of background and education. Brian Bailey, retired from the army after 37 years service and is now with nvisage as a Telesales Advisor. He says "when I first joined nvisage I was the oldest member of the team, I had no experience in sales but knew I could talk to people. When I started I enjoyed a two week training period which prepared me for job I was going to do. Customer Service and Sales is a real skill and it always looks good on your CV, no matter what age you are. It shows that you can communicate well and think on your feet!. A lot of people laughed when I joined the company pension scheme, but I hope to be at nvisage until I retire for the second time".

Kevin Appleby from Seaham, County Durham joined nvisage as a Telesales Advisor after completing a degree, now after 18 months he is already a Team Manager. Kevin said "gas, electricity and telecoms are things everybody needs and as a Telesales advisor you will be offering people excellent savings for these services. Over the past year and a half I've also been able to develop my own career with the help and support of the company and now I am earning more money than some of my University friends!

Brian Watson, from Whitley Bay, Senior Team Manager in Customer Service

He left a long-term job with the council after being knocked back for promotion and has moved through the ranks with nvisage. Brian said: “I was stuck in the same job for a number of years. But at nvisage, I'’ve really been given the chance to develop my career. They’re very proactive to promote within the company. “In my previous role I was managing a team of four – now I’m managing a team of 200! “My advice to anyone who is not sure about going into this type of work would be to take the chance – it worked for me.”

Sue Sowerby-Scott, from Trimdon, Customer Services Advisor

You name it she’s done it. Sue has served in the Army, been a Policewoman, run her own business and been a Trades Union Representative, but she finds her latest job within customer services gives her the best of all worlds. Working with the team, Sue relishes finding solutions to customer queries. She’s found her job offers her all the camaraderie and team spirit that she enjoyed in the army. With the added bonus of being part of a fast expanding business that offers new challenges and career opportunities on a day-to-day basis. She says: “There is a lot of socialising between the teams outside of work. I recently had a fancy dress house warming where 30 people from my section attended as well as my friends and neighbours at home.”

Linda Younghusband, from Washington, Senior Customer Account Manager in customer services

Linda wanted a part-time job so that she and her husband could take their children on holiday. Six years later Linda is still with nvisage, she says: “I never thought that I could do this job as I’m a quiet and shy person, but, after the training and taking the first few calls, you get into the swing of things and the job gets much easier. “It gives you a sense of satisfaction when you can make a difference to someone’s problems and help sort them out, and people are often very grateful too.”

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Innogy Holdings plc (formerly the UK operations of National Power plc) is a new dynamic integrated UK energy business. With 5m customers it is one of the largest energy suppliers in the UK - 'Gas and Electricity at low cost with no fuss plus other essential services'.

Innogy, through it's subsidiary npower, offer the combination of a solid history of power, with the experience of local names like Calortex, Midlands Electricity, Independent Energy, Yorkshire Gas and Electricity and very recently Northern Electric and Gas.

As such, Innogy are the UK's largest Electricity supplier and the UK's second largest Gas supplier

Their Strategy

• to optimise the performance of each of its business areas
• to maximise the value that can be derived from the vertical integration of generation, trading and supply
• to develop new business and technology opportunities in the energy industry, leveraging upon its extensive skills base

In growing the business they seek to:

• Protect earnings from its generation portfolio in the competitive UK generation market
• Build further on its position as a major UK energy retailer with a strong domestic presence, and seek to achieve significant growth for its retail business
• Expand its cogeneration and renewable energy sources business by continuing to invest in value added projects in the UK and internationally
• Expand operations and engineering activities to sell services to third parties
• Develop the innovative energy related new technologies for which it holds the rights and patents

More information can be found on the following web sites www.innogy.com and www.npower.com.

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