News and Media

Ilvo Forgiarini appointed Managing Director for Conexus

JOHANNESBURG - Global market research firm Synovate has announced that Ilvo Forgiarini will take on the position of managing director of its company Conexus, an award winning outsourced call centre company.

Ilvo brings with him a wealth of operations, call centre and BPO expertise.  His background includes a number of senior positions around the management of systems, products and call centre standards, primarily in the automotive and IT sectors.

Forgiarini assumed the role in April 2011.

“We are delighted to have Ilvo on board,” said Jake Orpen, Managing Director of Synovate South Africa. “Taking his technical knowledge and rich experience into account, I am confident that Ilvo will contribute very positively to the continued success of Conexus. Ilvo’s strengths lie in his ability to work and manage people effectively as well as using technology and innovation to increase efficiency and effectiveness.”

As Managing Director, Ilvo is responsible for the strategic direction of the business and overseeing sales, operations and people at Conexus.

Forgiarini replaces Mirna Wessels, who fulfilled the role of managing director for two years and departed to pursue new ventures. “Mirna played pivotal roles in her career at Conexus and Synovate, and has served the company well. She always displayed energy, passion, a hard-working ethic and will be sorely missed by the Synovate / Conexus businesses,” comments Orpen.

 

 

Conexus recognised at the Assegai Awards

  

Conexus is proud to accept a Bronze Assegai Award from the DMASA (Direct Marketing Association South Africa) for an integrated CRM campaign in partnership with Land Rover Sub-Sahara.

 

Conexus successfully assisted Land Rover in their endeavor to enter the Sub-Saharan market.  Conexus’ approach was to use our outbound follow up call centre to:

  • Retrieve and clean customer data and prepare a base from which an integrated CRM campaign could be launched
  • Implement and maintain service standards and improve customer satisfaction levels by gathering customer feedback, rectifying complaints and monitoring this on an ongoing basis.

 In addition, various databases have been compiled for communication and prospecting purposes. From these efforts, Land Rover in Sub-Saharan Africa established and maintained customer satisfaction levels, monitored these levels competitively and offered a branded and consistent experience to their customers. With updated client, prospect and staff databases, Land Rover was able to implement an integrated CRM campaign to obtain face time with the owners they were targeting, ultimately increasing customer satisfaction and vehicle sales.

 

The Conexus team recognised for the award includes:  Justin van Zyl (Sales and Marketing Manager), Charmaine Jacobs (Call Centre Manager), Ayanda Maduna and Rocky Rembombo (Call Centre Consultants).

 

The Assegai Awards celebrated its 11th year recognising and rewarding excellence in multi-channel Direct Response Marketing. Conexus was recognised in the category Relationship Marketing: CRM & Loyalty.

 

Media utilised included e-marketing, direct distribution and mobile customer contact.

 

“We are very proud of the recognition from the DMA. Although Direct Response Marketing is not our core business, the award is a testimony of our commitment to contribute in meaningful ways to our clients’ business success,” states Mirna Wessels, Managing Director of Conexus.

 

Conexus is an award winning contact centre and CRM company, driven by passionate people.

 

This Assegai Award follows hard on the heels of Conexus being certified as a Level 1 contributor to BBBEE. Wessels goes on to state that "our clients not only enjoy the benefits of partnering with an award winning business but can also be confident in the fact that they are dealing with a company that is both integrated and empowered."

 

"We would like to thank Land Rover Sub-Sahara and all of our clients for their faith in our capabilities and the opportunities that they have opened to us to demonstrate that we are truly a market leading business."

 

 

Level 1 BBBEE Rating for Conexus

 

Johannesburg – Conexus has received a Level 1 rating for its commitment to the principles of BBBEE. This is according to independent rating company SERA who provided an impartial verification of the BBBEE initiatives undertaken by Conexus.  

 

Conexus is an award winning outsourced call centre company which has been in operation since 2004, with 6 years proven service in the South African market and beyond into the African continent. Conexus prides itself on its people, its quality and its use of technological advancements to deliver outstanding service.

 

Conexus was assessed in terms of the Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment Act, 2003 (Act 53 of 2003) in light of the Code of Best Practice for Qualifying Small Enterprises (QSE). As such, Conexus was rated on the four elements of Employment Equity, Skills Development, Preferential Procurement and Socio-Economic Development.

 

“Conexus has always been committed to the principles of Empowerment states Mirna Wessels, Managing Director at Conexus, “and since our last rating in 2006 we have really been committed to improving our rating in the areas that we were already doing well on, for example training and skills development. These are significant areas of our business that enhance the overall service offering to our clients, as well as giving our employees valuable work skills. Since we knew what we were doing right, we focussed on these areas and perfected our practices around them. This has led to our Level 1 rating which is (happily) just more than we had banked on. This is very much aligned with our vision of being the outsourced call centre of choice in the African Market.”