Q&A with Henry Vaage Iversen, CCO & Co-Founder at Boost AI

Henry Vaage Iversen, CCO & Co-Founder at Boost AI, leads Boost.ai’s global sales teams and has expanded the business from the Nordics to Europe and the US. Henry has developed business ideas into real products, landed several deals for startups, and expanded businesses from Norway to Scandinavia.

Conversational AI can be used to make chatbots smarter and more capable, but that not all chatbots are powered by conversational AI.



MEDIA 7: What are you passionate about? What was your inspiration behind building a user-friendly conversational AI platform to help the frontline teams?
HENRY VAAGE IVERSEN:
When my co-founders and I started boost.ai in 2016, we identified a distinct gap in the market, not just here in the Nordic countries but throughout Europe and North America, for an enterprise-grade solution that could automate customer service at scale yet wasn’t so overly complicated to use. At that time there were either simplistic chatbot products that weren’t a great fit for larger organizations or complicated automation solutions that needed a team of data scientists to maintain.

My team and I are deeply passionate about customer experience and know that this is equally true for many businesses. We designed our conversational AI platform to make it simple and fast for large organizations like banks, insurance firms and credit unions to deploy AI-powered chatbots that, through our no-code software, can be operated by anyone.

It means that these organizations can empower their most valuable customer service resource - their customer service staff - to create dynamic and engaging automated customer experiences with their wealth of product knowledge and expertise. To date, we’ve helped leading financial brands like Santander, Nordea and MSU Federal Credit Union to digitize their customer service strategy and put the power of self-service directly into the hands of consumers.

M7: What are the advantages of using a Conversational AI platform? How does it outperform chatbots?
HVI:
Conversational AI is what makes it possible for chatbots to understand, process and respond intelligently to human language. What this means is that conversational AI can be used to make chatbots smarter and more capable, but that not all chatbots are powered by conversational AI.

We prefer using the term ‘virtual agents’ when talking about our conversational AI-powered bots because they can do so much more than just translate website content into simple chat responses. Conversational AI uses sophisticated deep learning and natural language algorithms to allow our virtual agents to perform complex tasks on behalf of customers. Everything from blocking a credit card and filing an insurance claim, to upgrading a data package or scanning a travel invoice, can be automated via a conversational interface that consumers have access to 24/7 without the need to call customer support.

Conversational AI also allows chatbots to understand when they don’t understand something and to respond accordingly. When queried about a topic outside of their defined scope, most basic chatbots will simply be unable to assist and this results in frustrated customers. Our solution includes a proprietary algorithm called Automatic Semantic Understanding that significantly reduces the occurrence of false positives and allows our virtual agents to intelligently transfer customers to an appropriate human operator when the AI identifies that this is necessary.


The pandemic greatly accelerated interest in conversational AI because of its ability to automate service and support traffic at scale but companies that weren’t already on-board needed to get solutions out fast without compromising on quality.



M7: Customers come from different backgrounds and understanding their slangs and dialects by an AI software is something unheard of. How does Boost AI establish a connection and deliver a personal touch while communicating with them?
HVI:
It’s not very Norwegian to brag, but the various algorithms that make up our conversational AI technology stack are actually pretty powerful. We don’t confine ourselves to just off-the-shelf Natural Language Processing algorithms and our team works hard to ensure that our virtual agents are fluent in some of the most difficult languages out there.

This is evidenced by our strong client base in countries like Iceland and Finland that are notoriously difficult languages to crack for AI. Many leading public and private sector organizations in these countries use our solution because of its proven track record at understanding the nuances of the way their customers speak.

Over 50% of our clients have come to us after being dissatisfied with other solutions and they overwhelmingly tell us how happy they are to have found a conversational AI platform that is exactly what they need - from a language understanding perspective and also because we make it easy for them to get started thanks to our experience in successfully launching over 200 virtual agents across Europe and North America.

M7: To achieve the above, there is a thin line to be maintained between personalization and privacy. How do you strike a balance between both?
HVI:
This is a great question. Privacy and security are important in today’s digitally-connected world and are a key component of our platform. We offer a variety of privacy features on the client-side of our solution such as single sign-on and two-factor authentication and, on the end-user side, we take GDPR very seriously and give users full control over their data. This includes data masking and the ability to delete conversations upon request.

Through user authentication, we are able to give our clients the power to personalize the chat experience for their customers by leveraging account information. This is great for enhancing interactions by suggesting products and services to customers that they may not be aware of but could be to their benefit.

M7: What do you believe are the top three marketing challenges in the post COVID-19 era?
HVI:
The ongoing pandemic has really put the responsibility on conversational AI vendors like us to put our money where our mouth is. It’s easy enough for vendors to say that their solutions are the most user-friendly or have the best technology, but when the pandemic hit last Spring, it really illustrated the weak points in some strategies. We witnessed that our broad-scope approach to conversational AI was very successful in helping our clients handle unprecedented increases in customer service traffic during the early days of Covid. We had real success stories with some clients reporting that their virtual agents handled the equivalent work of 220 full-time employees at a time when it was impossible to scale up human support quickly enough.

We also encountered challenges when it came to implementation. The pandemic greatly accelerated interest in conversational AI because of its ability to automate service and support traffic at scale but companies that weren’t already on-board needed to get solutions out fast without compromising on quality. This led us to develop what we call self-learning AI that allows us to significantly reduce deployment timelines by scanning a company’s existing website, chat logs or even another chatbot and repurposing it into a useable model in a matter of hours. Then, instead of a sandbox trial or limited demo, we can build prospective clients a fully-functioning virtual agent, based on KPIs that they set, in a 10-day POC, for free and with no risk attached.


We live by three words at boost.ai - fast, easy and scalable. It is the basis of everything we do - from the development of our platform to our sales promise.



M7: Being the CCO, what strategies and tactics have you put in place or would you like to put in place to help drive revenue?
HVI:
At boost.ai, we are all about our partner network. We work with some of the biggest consultancy firms in the world like Accenture and Deloitte as implementation partners in key markets. We also work with smaller, specialist partners that understand many of the local markets that we operate in and have a great network of existing clients that benefit from our customer service automation platform. Having this extensive partner network allows us to focus on building a fantastic product that our partners can then take to market with the confidence that it can achieve everything that we promise. We have found that this partner-first approach has been key to driving revenue for the company over the past few years and in 2020 I’m excited to say that we hit annual recurring revenues of $10 million.

M7: What is your marketing mantra to stand out in the fast-paced AI market?
HVI:
We live by three words at boost.ai - fast, easy and scalable. It is the basis of everything we do - from the development of our platform to our sales promise - and believe that it’s only by keeping these goals in mind that we can help organizations around the world build the most transformative customer experiences.

ABOUT BOOST AI

Boost.ai specializes in enterprise-grade conversational artificial intelligence (AI). Inventor of the world’s most user-friendly conversational AI platform, Boost.ai empowers frontline customer service teams to automate customer service interactions with proprietary self-learning AI and a no-code solution that’s quick to deploy, easy to learn and highly scalable. Able to handle unlimited intents while consistently maintaining resolution rates of 90 percent, Boost.ai’s technology is used by companies like Telenor, DNB and Silvercar by Audi to successfully automate thousands of interactions. Boost.ai is a privately held Norwegian software company founded in 2016 with headquarters in Stavanger and satellite offices in Oslo, Stockholm and Santa Monica.

More C-Suite on deck

‘Crypto will promote a huge change in the financial service ecosystem,’ believes Roberta Antunes

Media 7 | November 24, 2021

Roberta Antunes, Chief of Growth at Hashdex, takes us through her wonderful professional journey and shares how Hashdex provides investors with secure access to cryptocurrency assets. Read on to find out how blockchain technology will redefine the financial service ecosystem.

Read More

'There is a revenue relationship between marketing and sales,' says Debbie Qaqish, Partner and Chief Strategy Officer at The Pedowitz Group

Media 7 | October 21, 2021

Debbie Qaqish, Partner and Chief Strategy Officer at The Pedowitz Group, takes us through her passion-fuelled worldview of marketing operations that are strategically aimed to drive revenue. In this interview, we had the opportunity to take a peek at her concept of "revenue marketing," strategic marketing operations, and her inspiration behind authoring several award-winning books. Read on to find out how to optimize sales and marketing collaboration tools, and how to leverage data to create powerful marketing campaigns.

Read More

‘Crypto will promote a huge change in the financial service ecosystem,’ believes Roberta Antunes

Media 7 | November 24, 2021

Roberta Antunes, Chief of Growth at Hashdex, takes us through her wonderful professional journey and shares how Hashdex provides investors with secure access to cryptocurrency assets. Read on to find out how blockchain technology will redefine the financial service ecosystem.

Read More

‘Crypto will promote a huge change in the financial service ecosystem,’ believes Roberta Antunes

Media 7 | November 24, 2021

Roberta Antunes, Chief of Growth at Hashdex, takes us through her wonderful professional journey and shares how Hashdex provides investors with secure access to cryptocurrency assets. Read on to find out how blockchain technology will redefine the financial service ecosystem.

Read More

'There is a revenue relationship between marketing and sales,' says Debbie Qaqish, Partner and Chief Strategy Officer at The Pedowitz Group

Media 7 | October 21, 2021

Debbie Qaqish, Partner and Chief Strategy Officer at The Pedowitz Group, takes us through her passion-fuelled worldview of marketing operations that are strategically aimed to drive revenue. In this interview, we had the opportunity to take a peek at her concept of "revenue marketing," strategic marketing operations, and her inspiration behind authoring several award-winning books. Read on to find out how to optimize sales and marketing collaboration tools, and how to leverage data to create powerful marketing campaigns.

Read More

‘Crypto will promote a huge change in the financial service ecosystem,’ believes Roberta Antunes

Media 7 | November 24, 2021

Roberta Antunes, Chief of Growth at Hashdex, takes us through her wonderful professional journey and shares how Hashdex provides investors with secure access to cryptocurrency assets. Read on to find out how blockchain technology will redefine the financial service ecosystem.

Read More

Related News

Payments

Plooto Launches Enhanced All-In-One Payment Automation Solution for Scaling Businesses

Plooto | January 16, 2024

Plooto, a leading payment automation solution for small-to-midsized businesses (SMBs), has launched a payment orchestration offering that is custom-designed to support the complex workflows and security requirements of rapidly scaling businesses. As the size and operational complexity of businesses increase, the risk of fraud and human error grows. This leads businesses to implement more rigorous security and control policies to keep the management of cash flow secure and reliable, placing additional burdens on finance teams including time, effort, and resources spent upgrading or building in-house solutions. Similar challenges extend to accounting and bookkeeping firms, as their robust compliance processes and corresponding reputation are critical drivers of growth. Firms' ability to retain and expand client accounts hinges not only on strong relationships but also on their adherence to rigorous compliance standards, especially when it comes to financial data protection. With this launch, Plooto brings to market the first solution in Canada to address these unique cash management challenges faced by midsize enterprises. This offering is priced at a competitive rate as organizations often cite cost as a barrier to adoption of cash management solutions. As volume and complexity of operations increase, businesses can trust Plooto to scale their needs seamlessly without straining their resources. Coupling end-to-end payment automation with stringent security controls and seamless connection to enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions, Plooto is now capable of helping even more businesses scale efficiently within their ecosystem. Building upon Plooto’s core offering of simplified, all-in-one payables and receivables automation, new capabilities include Dual Controls: Limits human error and protects against fraud through comprehensive approvals on changes to sensitive financial information Single Sign-On: Enterprise-level safeguards that enable security personnel to manage both user access to sensitive data and removal from a centralized hub as teams scale Integration with Oracle Netsuite: Seamless two-way sync automates reconciliation protecting against costly human error, reducing billable hours, and helping finance teams save time "Our new offering enables finance teams to easily scale their workflows and gain the visibility they crucially need into their cash flow,” says Hamed Abbasi, Co-Founder and CEO of Plooto. “I’m thrilled that Plooto is expanding how we support growing SMBs, and that we are the first company to fill this critical gap for Canadian businesses.” Having recently been awarded with Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500™ and Technology Fast 50™ designations for a staggering 3-year 433% growth rate, Plooto continues to provide industry-leading support for SMBs with a platform that enhances cash management through its all-in-one payment automation. Plooto has also recently expanded its leadership team, bringing extensive experience from major financial services companies such as Varo Bank, Xero, and PayPal. About Plooto Plooto partners with growing small-to-midsize businesses to give them complete control over their cash management. The all-in-one payment automation platform securely automates all payable and receivable workflows, offers extensive payment capabilities, and seamless integration with accounting software to automatically reconcile invoices. Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Toronto, Plooto serves over 10,000 North American businesses, and integrates with top accounting software platforms Quickbooks, Xero, and NetSuite. Simplifying complex processes at scale, Plooto is the financial engine businesses rely on to achieve their growth potential.

Read More

Payments

ServiceNow announces five-year strategic alliance with Visa to transform payment services

ServiceNow | January 25, 2024

ServiceNow the leading digital workflow company making the world work better for everyone, announced a five-year strategic alliance with Visa, a world leader in digital payments, to transform payment services. The initial phase includes the launch of ServiceNow Disputes Management, Built with Visa—a single, connected disputes resolution solution for issuers. Managing disputes currently involves multiple systems and teams, and many financial institutions often use siloed solutions that are not fully integrated with one another. This disconnected approach creates complexity, delays crediting and resolving disputes, can create potential losses, and ultimately, impacts the customer experience. ServiceNow Disputes Management, Built with Visa is a streamlined solution that blends the best of ServiceNow’s AI-first platform and the company’s Financial Services Operations solution with Visa’s deep technology investments. Each year, Visa helps prevent $30 billion in fraud for consumers and small businesses using cutting edge technology, including tokenization and AI, deployed throughout the entire payments ecosystem, including disputes management. “At the heart of our alliance is a commitment to build industry-leading products that help financial institutions boost employee productivity, create great customer experiences, and drive business growth,” said John Ball, senior vice president and general manager, customer and industry workflows, ServiceNow. “By making Visa’s services available through ServiceNow’s intelligent, AI-first platform, we’re powering innovation and setting a new standard in the payments industry.” “Solving customer pain points is core to our business at Visa, and collaborating with an industry leader like ServiceNow will allow us to help issuer partners resolve disputes more efficiently,” said Vanessa Colella, global head of innovation and digital partnerships, Visa. “ServiceNow and Visa look forward to offering clients the latest technology solutions, so they can focus on delivering an excellent experience for their customers.” ServiceNow Disputes Management, Built with Visa will unite the entire dispute management process – from the first indication that a charge is questionable to early resolution, investigation, and final resolution. It includes a single experience for solving disputes so that employees can have high quality engagements with cardholders, as well as dashboards, automation, alerts, and the ability to audit all transactions. Two standout features enhance its efficiency: a modern, user-friendly low code platform that allows financial institutions to make swift updates to their disputes management process, and generative AI-powered experiences that improve customer intake and agent investigation. The solution also incorporates ongoing changes to disputes rules and applies industry best practices for processes, workflows, and staying ahead of fraud. “Banks should prioritize their CX efforts around the drivers that most influence customer loyalty. For example, resolving problems and issues quickly remains one of the most important drivers of CX and retention for many banks,” wrote Alyson Clarke, principal analyst at Forrester Research. “Banks that adopt modern and flexible digital banking processing platforms will find it easier and faster to deliver innovative (and profitable) customer solutions.”1 ServiceNow is committed to revolutionizing financial services with new products and services. This initial integration marks the beginning of a more extensive, multi-phased relationship between Visa and ServiceNow. The companies will continue to build new solutions and will distribute Visa products and services to joint customers. Together, ServiceNow and Visa will help clients improve dispute management. 1Forrester, Consumer Banking Trends, 2024: Trends Shaping Retail Consumer Banking In The Current Economic Climate, Jan 17, 2024 About ServiceNow ServiceNow makes the world work better for everyone. Our cloud‑based platform and solutions help digitize and unify organizations so that they can find smarter, faster, better ways to make work flow. So employees and customers can be more connected, more innovative, and more agile. And we can all create the future we imagine. The world works with ServiceNowTM.

Read More

Financial Management

H.I.G. Capital Completes Acquisition of CHA Consulting

H.I.G | January 23, 2024

H.I.G. Capital (“H.I.G.”), a global alternative investment firm with $60 billion of capital under management, is pleased to announce that one of its affiliates has completed the acquisition of CHA Consulting, Inc. (“CHA” or the “Company”), a leading full-service engineering, design, consulting, and program management firm providing a range of technology-enabled services to public, private, and institutional clients. CHA’s existing management team, led by President Jim Stephenson, will continue to lead the Company and remain shareholders in the business. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Founded in 1952 and headquartered in Albany, New York, CHA operates under three main sectors: infrastructure, power & manufacturing, and commercial & institutional. The Company serves clients across diversified end-markets including government, manufacturing, transportation, utility, water resources, commercial, and education. Through a combination of experienced and high-quality engineers, end-market expertise, and diverse capabilities, CHA provides industry-leading service to its blue-chip customer base. Jim Stephenson, President & CEO of CHA Consulting and Holdings, Inc., commented, “H.I.G. brings tremendous financial and operational resources with a great track record supporting companies and delivering value. We are confident this partnership will further position CHA for continued growth and will provide opportunities to better support our clients and the markets we serve.” “We are excited to partner with Jim and his exceptional management team. CHA provides critical engineering services through its talented team and is well-positioned for continued growth, capitalizing on accelerating investments in the end markets they serve across the United States and Canada. We look forward to supporting the team’s growth strategy and strategically broadening its operational scope across North America, both organically and through additional add-on acquisitions,” added Matt Hankins, Managing Director at H.I.G. Capital. Houlihan Lokey, Inc. served as lead financial advisor with support from AEC Advisors, and Simpson Thatcher & Bartlett LLP served as legal counsel for CHA. Harris Williams LLC served as financial advisor, and Ropes & Gray LLP served as legal counsel to H.I.G. About CHA Consulting CHA Consulting, Inc. is an innovative, full-service engineering, design, consulting, and program management firm providing a wide range of technology-enhanced services to public, private, and institutional clients. They are focused on delivering sustainable, integrated solutions to the world's most challenging infrastructure projects across utilities, transportation, water, and other critical commercial and industrial end-markets. CHA was ranked 69th largest engineering firm in the U.S. in 2023 by ENR, with approximately 1,800 employees and 50 offices throughout the U.S. and Canada. About H.I.G. Capital H.I.G. Capital is a leading global alternative investment firm with $60 billion of capital under management.* Based in Miami, and with offices in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco in the United States, as well as international affiliate offices in Hamburg, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, Milan, Paris, Bogotá, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, and Dubai, H.I.G. specializes in providing both debt and equity capital to mid-sized companies, utilizing a flexible and operationally focused/ value-added approach H.I.G.’s equity funds invest in management buyouts, recapitalizations, and corporate carve-outs of both profitable as well as underperforming manufacturing and service businesses. H.I.G.’s debt funds invest in senior, unitranche, and junior debt financing to companies across the size spectrum, both on a primary (direct origination) basis, as well as in the secondary markets. H.I.G. also manages a publicly traded BDC, WhiteHorse Finance. H.I.G.’s real estate funds invest in value-added properties, which can benefit from improved asset management practices. H.I.G. Infrastructure focuses on making value-add and core plus investments in the infrastructure sector. Since its founding in 1993, H.I.G. has invested in and managed more than 400 companies worldwide. The firm’s current portfolio includes more than 100 companies with combined sales in excess of $53 billion.

Read More

Payments

Plooto Launches Enhanced All-In-One Payment Automation Solution for Scaling Businesses

Plooto | January 16, 2024

Plooto, a leading payment automation solution for small-to-midsized businesses (SMBs), has launched a payment orchestration offering that is custom-designed to support the complex workflows and security requirements of rapidly scaling businesses. As the size and operational complexity of businesses increase, the risk of fraud and human error grows. This leads businesses to implement more rigorous security and control policies to keep the management of cash flow secure and reliable, placing additional burdens on finance teams including time, effort, and resources spent upgrading or building in-house solutions. Similar challenges extend to accounting and bookkeeping firms, as their robust compliance processes and corresponding reputation are critical drivers of growth. Firms' ability to retain and expand client accounts hinges not only on strong relationships but also on their adherence to rigorous compliance standards, especially when it comes to financial data protection. With this launch, Plooto brings to market the first solution in Canada to address these unique cash management challenges faced by midsize enterprises. This offering is priced at a competitive rate as organizations often cite cost as a barrier to adoption of cash management solutions. As volume and complexity of operations increase, businesses can trust Plooto to scale their needs seamlessly without straining their resources. Coupling end-to-end payment automation with stringent security controls and seamless connection to enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions, Plooto is now capable of helping even more businesses scale efficiently within their ecosystem. Building upon Plooto’s core offering of simplified, all-in-one payables and receivables automation, new capabilities include Dual Controls: Limits human error and protects against fraud through comprehensive approvals on changes to sensitive financial information Single Sign-On: Enterprise-level safeguards that enable security personnel to manage both user access to sensitive data and removal from a centralized hub as teams scale Integration with Oracle Netsuite: Seamless two-way sync automates reconciliation protecting against costly human error, reducing billable hours, and helping finance teams save time "Our new offering enables finance teams to easily scale their workflows and gain the visibility they crucially need into their cash flow,” says Hamed Abbasi, Co-Founder and CEO of Plooto. “I’m thrilled that Plooto is expanding how we support growing SMBs, and that we are the first company to fill this critical gap for Canadian businesses.” Having recently been awarded with Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500™ and Technology Fast 50™ designations for a staggering 3-year 433% growth rate, Plooto continues to provide industry-leading support for SMBs with a platform that enhances cash management through its all-in-one payment automation. Plooto has also recently expanded its leadership team, bringing extensive experience from major financial services companies such as Varo Bank, Xero, and PayPal. About Plooto Plooto partners with growing small-to-midsize businesses to give them complete control over their cash management. The all-in-one payment automation platform securely automates all payable and receivable workflows, offers extensive payment capabilities, and seamless integration with accounting software to automatically reconcile invoices. Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Toronto, Plooto serves over 10,000 North American businesses, and integrates with top accounting software platforms Quickbooks, Xero, and NetSuite. Simplifying complex processes at scale, Plooto is the financial engine businesses rely on to achieve their growth potential.

Read More

Payments

ServiceNow announces five-year strategic alliance with Visa to transform payment services

ServiceNow | January 25, 2024

ServiceNow the leading digital workflow company making the world work better for everyone, announced a five-year strategic alliance with Visa, a world leader in digital payments, to transform payment services. The initial phase includes the launch of ServiceNow Disputes Management, Built with Visa—a single, connected disputes resolution solution for issuers. Managing disputes currently involves multiple systems and teams, and many financial institutions often use siloed solutions that are not fully integrated with one another. This disconnected approach creates complexity, delays crediting and resolving disputes, can create potential losses, and ultimately, impacts the customer experience. ServiceNow Disputes Management, Built with Visa is a streamlined solution that blends the best of ServiceNow’s AI-first platform and the company’s Financial Services Operations solution with Visa’s deep technology investments. Each year, Visa helps prevent $30 billion in fraud for consumers and small businesses using cutting edge technology, including tokenization and AI, deployed throughout the entire payments ecosystem, including disputes management. “At the heart of our alliance is a commitment to build industry-leading products that help financial institutions boost employee productivity, create great customer experiences, and drive business growth,” said John Ball, senior vice president and general manager, customer and industry workflows, ServiceNow. “By making Visa’s services available through ServiceNow’s intelligent, AI-first platform, we’re powering innovation and setting a new standard in the payments industry.” “Solving customer pain points is core to our business at Visa, and collaborating with an industry leader like ServiceNow will allow us to help issuer partners resolve disputes more efficiently,” said Vanessa Colella, global head of innovation and digital partnerships, Visa. “ServiceNow and Visa look forward to offering clients the latest technology solutions, so they can focus on delivering an excellent experience for their customers.” ServiceNow Disputes Management, Built with Visa will unite the entire dispute management process – from the first indication that a charge is questionable to early resolution, investigation, and final resolution. It includes a single experience for solving disputes so that employees can have high quality engagements with cardholders, as well as dashboards, automation, alerts, and the ability to audit all transactions. Two standout features enhance its efficiency: a modern, user-friendly low code platform that allows financial institutions to make swift updates to their disputes management process, and generative AI-powered experiences that improve customer intake and agent investigation. The solution also incorporates ongoing changes to disputes rules and applies industry best practices for processes, workflows, and staying ahead of fraud. “Banks should prioritize their CX efforts around the drivers that most influence customer loyalty. For example, resolving problems and issues quickly remains one of the most important drivers of CX and retention for many banks,” wrote Alyson Clarke, principal analyst at Forrester Research. “Banks that adopt modern and flexible digital banking processing platforms will find it easier and faster to deliver innovative (and profitable) customer solutions.”1 ServiceNow is committed to revolutionizing financial services with new products and services. This initial integration marks the beginning of a more extensive, multi-phased relationship between Visa and ServiceNow. The companies will continue to build new solutions and will distribute Visa products and services to joint customers. Together, ServiceNow and Visa will help clients improve dispute management. 1Forrester, Consumer Banking Trends, 2024: Trends Shaping Retail Consumer Banking In The Current Economic Climate, Jan 17, 2024 About ServiceNow ServiceNow makes the world work better for everyone. Our cloud‑based platform and solutions help digitize and unify organizations so that they can find smarter, faster, better ways to make work flow. So employees and customers can be more connected, more innovative, and more agile. And we can all create the future we imagine. The world works with ServiceNowTM.

Read More

Financial Management

H.I.G. Capital Completes Acquisition of CHA Consulting

H.I.G | January 23, 2024

H.I.G. Capital (“H.I.G.”), a global alternative investment firm with $60 billion of capital under management, is pleased to announce that one of its affiliates has completed the acquisition of CHA Consulting, Inc. (“CHA” or the “Company”), a leading full-service engineering, design, consulting, and program management firm providing a range of technology-enabled services to public, private, and institutional clients. CHA’s existing management team, led by President Jim Stephenson, will continue to lead the Company and remain shareholders in the business. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Founded in 1952 and headquartered in Albany, New York, CHA operates under three main sectors: infrastructure, power & manufacturing, and commercial & institutional. The Company serves clients across diversified end-markets including government, manufacturing, transportation, utility, water resources, commercial, and education. Through a combination of experienced and high-quality engineers, end-market expertise, and diverse capabilities, CHA provides industry-leading service to its blue-chip customer base. Jim Stephenson, President & CEO of CHA Consulting and Holdings, Inc., commented, “H.I.G. brings tremendous financial and operational resources with a great track record supporting companies and delivering value. We are confident this partnership will further position CHA for continued growth and will provide opportunities to better support our clients and the markets we serve.” “We are excited to partner with Jim and his exceptional management team. CHA provides critical engineering services through its talented team and is well-positioned for continued growth, capitalizing on accelerating investments in the end markets they serve across the United States and Canada. We look forward to supporting the team’s growth strategy and strategically broadening its operational scope across North America, both organically and through additional add-on acquisitions,” added Matt Hankins, Managing Director at H.I.G. Capital. Houlihan Lokey, Inc. served as lead financial advisor with support from AEC Advisors, and Simpson Thatcher & Bartlett LLP served as legal counsel for CHA. Harris Williams LLC served as financial advisor, and Ropes & Gray LLP served as legal counsel to H.I.G. About CHA Consulting CHA Consulting, Inc. is an innovative, full-service engineering, design, consulting, and program management firm providing a wide range of technology-enhanced services to public, private, and institutional clients. They are focused on delivering sustainable, integrated solutions to the world's most challenging infrastructure projects across utilities, transportation, water, and other critical commercial and industrial end-markets. CHA was ranked 69th largest engineering firm in the U.S. in 2023 by ENR, with approximately 1,800 employees and 50 offices throughout the U.S. and Canada. About H.I.G. Capital H.I.G. Capital is a leading global alternative investment firm with $60 billion of capital under management.* Based in Miami, and with offices in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco in the United States, as well as international affiliate offices in Hamburg, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, Milan, Paris, Bogotá, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, and Dubai, H.I.G. specializes in providing both debt and equity capital to mid-sized companies, utilizing a flexible and operationally focused/ value-added approach H.I.G.’s equity funds invest in management buyouts, recapitalizations, and corporate carve-outs of both profitable as well as underperforming manufacturing and service businesses. H.I.G.’s debt funds invest in senior, unitranche, and junior debt financing to companies across the size spectrum, both on a primary (direct origination) basis, as well as in the secondary markets. H.I.G. also manages a publicly traded BDC, WhiteHorse Finance. H.I.G.’s real estate funds invest in value-added properties, which can benefit from improved asset management practices. H.I.G. Infrastructure focuses on making value-add and core plus investments in the infrastructure sector. Since its founding in 1993, H.I.G. has invested in and managed more than 400 companies worldwide. The firm’s current portfolio includes more than 100 companies with combined sales in excess of $53 billion.

Read More

Spotlight

Boost.ai

Boost.ai

Boost.ai specializes in enterprise-grade conversational artificial intelligence (AI). Inventor of the world’s most user-friendly conversational AI platform, Boost.ai empowers frontline customer service teams to automate customer service interactions with proprietary self-learning AI and a no-code so...

Events

Resources

resource image

Investment Management, Wealth Management

Sovereign Wealth Funds Insights

Whitepaper

resource image

Investment Management, Wealth Management

Meeting the EBA loan origination and loan monitoring guidelines

Whitepaper

resource image

Investment Management, Wealth Management

Sovereign Wealth Funds Insights

Whitepaper

resource image

Investment Management, Wealth Management

Meeting the EBA loan origination and loan monitoring guidelines

Whitepaper

Events