Primary Job Title MD, Thomas Nelson - Australia Primary Organization HarperCollins
Gender Male
Ted co-founded Panviva Pty Ltd in 1996, following more than two decades of broad publishing and technology experience across a variety of roles, including:
Managing Director – Thomas Nelson Australia (part of Thomson Learning)
General Manager, College Division – Thomas Nelson Australia
Board Member of the Australian Publishers Association
Board Member of the Australian Copyright Council
A graduate of Melbourne University with an undergraduate degree in Agricultural Science, Ted opted for a career in business and turned his attention to selling textbooks, with a particular interest in business, science and computing.
That is where Ted’s love affair with publishing and technology really took off. He quickly climbed the ‘publishing ladder’ advancing to General Manger within a decade. Along the way he completed his MBA and the Executive Management program at INSEAD.
After 20 years working for US-owned global publishing companies, Ted switched tracks and purchased CD-Framework, a specialist consultancy focused on creating and publishing computer-based process documentation and training for end users in corporations. CD-Framework later became Panviva.
Drawing on his commercial publishing experience, Ted identified a clear disconnect in the way Internet technology was being used to deliver training materials and detailed information to ‘front-line’ customer service staff. Out of this realisation SupportPoint was born, providing a better way to connect staff with the information they need to do their jobs right first time, with less need for training. “Many people believed that content was king, but I didn’t agree. Context is king for employees struggling to use complex systems and processes and to service customers in real time with complex and fast changing products. Finding everything on a topic doesn’t help time-poor employees who need just the right information for the task at hand. We devised a way to deliver the critical information to end users at their moment of need, context sensitive with the task they were performing at the time they asked for assistance,” Ted says.
After extensive market research and the fostering of several key partnerships (including Verizon Terremark), Panviva became a global leader in business process guidance servicing some of the world’s largest customer service businesses, including Westpac, BT, Bupa, Blue Cross, National Australia Bank, ANZ, Foxtel and CUB.
The latest development, from Ted and his team, is SupportPoint Cloud; transitioning business process guidance to a truly SaaS-ready, highly scalable business solution, that is ready and able to support the world’s largest and most complex organisations.
SupportPoint Cloud is a ‘game changer’ for Panviva and its customers - a GPS for the job.
