Pci-pal Share Discussion Threads

[simon gordon] 29/11/2023 12:09

Lucretius on LSE - 18/10/23:

RE: BLIER v. SYCURIO, INC F/K/A SEMAFONE, INC. et al

Victor,

Great spot, as always. I couldn’t resist the temptation to buy one or two of the documents. It’s another great illustration, if the allegations of the plaintiff, Connor Blier, are to be believed of just how dysfunctional and unethical Livingbridge/ Sycurio are, and of who is calling the shots.

According to the plaintiff, Livingbridge is making all the important decisions at Sycurio, which confirms what we strongly suspected. For instance, four out of the five directors of Sycurio Inc are Livingbridge employees. Mr Blair joined Sycurio US as VP marketing in January 2022 on a salary of $200,000 with an “Incentive Bonus” of up to 20% if he was still employed a year later. He was also promised “sweet equity of 6,000 shares upfront”, whose value former Sycurio CEO, Gary Barnett, apparently told him was forecasted to be approximately $900,000 “upon an eventual exit”. Although the complaint does not state it, these share would have been in Yale Topco Ltd, Sycurio’s ultimate holding company, incorporated in the tax haven of Jersey.

Surprise, surprise: Mr Blair, despite repeatedly asking for it and complaining he hadn’t received it, never did get his “sweet equity”; he did, however, get a special New Year’s present from Livingbridge/Sycurio: the sack in January 2023, five days before he would have become entitled to his “Incentive Bonus”.

Mr Blair’s complaint offers some illuminating insights into how Livingbridge has been “developing221; Sycurio’s business. Livingbridge/Sycurio “misrepresented to him [Mr Blier] their available products and services, the functionality and viability of existing products and services, and the existing sales pipeline.” And “In response to his complaints….[Livingbridge/Sycurio] began to strip Blier of resources necessary to perform his job, including by reducing his monthly advertising budget by approximately seventy present (70%), by reducing Blier’s team from five (5) to three (3), and by eliminating the 2022 marketing pipeline production budget”. The Livingbride/Sycurio response to Mr Blier’s demand for his “Incentive Bonus” and compensation for the “sweet equity” he never got will make interesting reading.

According to records at the Companies Registry in Jersey, Mr Barnett held at one point 31,131 “sweet equity” shares in Yale Topco Ltd. If these would have been worth what Mr Barnett apparently told Mr Blier his “sweet equity” was forecast to be worth on “eventual exit” that comes to nearly $4.7m. This begs the question of why Mr Barnett walked away from such sweet “sweet equity” in May 2022.

Of course, the very use in the same sentence of Livingbridge/Sycurio with the phrase “sweet equity is extremely problematic. Based on the valuation forecast given to Mr Blier, Sycurio’s entire equity would be worth in excess of $350m on “eventual exit”. Utterly risible. As Livingbridge/Sycurio continue to butcher the IP.

[andre] 28/11/2023 17:30

That would be my guess. It is not a post which says - hire me.

[adamb1978] 28/11/2023 08:06

Probably also near the end of his career by the look of the photo so might feel able to call these things out without too much downside

[andre] 28/11/2023 07:27

He has. But he also hasn't lasted long at his last few posts. Comes across as a serial jumper but it doesn't mean he is wrong. Obviously not working there anymore.

[adamb1978] 26/11/2023 22:15

I assume he thinks that he can back up all the claims, but equally I could see Sycurio trying to convince him to delete the post. That said, unless he posted it when p*ssed, I can't see why he would

Sycurio does seem like a complete basket case either way. Great for PCI Pal - there's not many companies in this industry so with one of them being a complete crock, it makes a big difference.

[simon gordon] 25/11/2023 13:03

Mike Mateer - 17/11/23

How Amazon Connect Disrupts Traditional Contact Center Solutions

Amazon Connect, along with services like Lex, Pinpoint, and Contact Lens, is disrupting traditional contact center as a service (CCaaS) solutions. Amazon Connect is a cloud-native contact center service with key advantages over traditional offerings including:

-Amazon Connect scales instantly and automatically based on call volume. Resources are provisioned as needed to meet demand. This eliminates capacity constraints and ensures optimal responsiveness for customers. Traditional CCaaS solutions typically require manual intervention to scale, and often cannot scale as rapidly as needed.

-Amazon Connect deploys your contact center infrastructure in multiple global locations with automatic failover. This high availability architecture provides disaster recovery capabilities not feasible with traditional CCaaS solutions. There is no single point of failure.

-Amazon Connect charges based on usage with no upfront investments or long-term contracts. You only pay for the resources you consume. This consumption-based pricing model reduces risk and optimizes costs in a way that traditional CCaaS solutions cannot match.

-Amazon Connect seamlessly integrates with AI services like Lex for conversational IVRs, Pinpoint for campaign management, and Contact Lens for call sentiment analysis. These intelligent features provide next-generation capabilities not found in most traditional CCaaS offerings.

-Amazon Connect follows the cloud-native operating expense model. There are no capital expenses for hardware or software. Costs scale linearly with demand. This OpEx model provides more flexibility and cost efficiency than the CapEx model of traditional on-premise contact center infrastructure.

Like all AWS services, Amazon Connect meets rigorous security standards and compliances. Its cloud infrastructure is designed to satisfy the requirements of the most security-sensitive organizations. This high level of security and compliance gives Amazon Connect advantages over many traditional CCaaS solutions.

Amazon Connect disrupts traditional contact center solutions through a modern, cloud-native architecture with advantages like elastic scalability, global redundancy, consumption-based pricing, integrated AI, OpEx cost model, and strong security. For organizations embracing digital transformation, Amazon Connect should be a top choice for an innovative CCaaS solution ready for the future. Are you ready?



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Cavendish on PCIP, page 15 - 9/11/23

The platform and solutions are certified to the highest security standards; designed through AWS to seamlessly scale, readily integrate with third-party environments, and provide a highly resilient service; and numerous patents protect the core innovations across key international markets

PCI Pal’s platform and solutions are entirely cloud-based on AWS, and are certified to the highest levels of security, including PCI DSS level 1 and ISO 27001 certification.

The platform’s architecture is designed to:

- Seamlessly scale – The platform takes full advantage of Amazon’s high availability model, as it utilises load balancing and autoscaling to automatically ramp up to demand peaks and avoid faults.

- Readily integrate with third-party environments – While the majority of the group’s partners and customers also use AWS, which enhances the speed that PCI Pal can deploy in these cases, the platform is agnostic to any third-party environment. It can readily integrate with other public cloud providers, hybrid cloud infrastructure, or on-premises deployments, where PCI Pal will continue to securely handle payments via AWS.

- Provide a highly resilient service with 24/7 global support – The platform regularly achieves 99.999% uptime or better, with Q4 23 at 100% uptime across all aspects of the platform and connectivity. It is split into a series of regions within each country, which are currently the US, Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand, and across Europe. Each region consists of multiple fully isolated independent data centres replicated across two or more availability zones, which
enables the platform to continue uninterrupted should a data centre fail.

To differentiate and reflect the robustness of the platform, PCI Pal received the AWS Service Ready designation for Amazon Connect in August 2023, which verifies the deployment of architectural and operational best practices, a demonstrated ability to repeatedly deploy the solutions at scale, and that customers are enthusiastically advocating the platform.

[simon gordon] 23/11/2023 06:26

Morning All,

They've landed one of the three award nominations:

Payments Compliance Technology of the Year

WINNER: PCI Pal

[simon gordon] 22/11/2023 09:08

Payment awards tonight...

PCIP shortlisted in three categories:

Payments Compliance Technology of the Year
-Fenergo
-Kani Payments
-PCI Pal
-VIXIO

Payment Technology Provider of the Year- SME
-Modern World Business Solutions
-MultiPay Global Solutions
-OpenPayd
-PCI Pal
-Weavr

Open Banking Initiative of the Year
-Brite Payments
-Global Payments
-HSBC Open Payments - HSBC UK & Token.io
-Moneyhub
-Ordo & Custom Credit
-Payit by NatWest
-PCI Pal
-Weavr



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Contact Centres - 21/11/23:

New Calabrio Research: The Impact of AI on Contact Centre Agents

Are Your Agents Ready for Future Success? New Calabrio research says AI will impact customer service agents, but not in the way most of us think.

The role of technology, including Artificial Intelligence (AI), is gaining momentum in contact centres. Yet 70% of managers predict they will need more, not fewer agents in the next 10 years to handle increasingly complex customer enquiries.

As a result, agent skillsets are set to change. Almost one quarter (23%) of contact centre managers believe ‘critical thinking skills like problem-solving and troubleshooting’ and ‘adaptability and continuous learning’ (22%) are the most important proficiencies for agents to be successful in the future. However, the reality is many agents are not yet ready to meet the demands of an AI future—but they can be by:

» Putting employee engagement top of the agenda

» Adopting agent-empowering tech such as self-service scheduling apps

» Placing greater emphasis on targeted, proactive training using AI to improve agents’ skills

» Measuring the results of training and development for continuous improvement

» Future-proofing recruitment



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Genesys - 9/11/23:

BEHIND THE AI HYPE: DISPELLING 10 CONTACT CENTER MISCONCEPTIONS

More than three-quarters of senior business leaders agree that artificial intelligence (AI) will be a critical part of their customer experience (CX) operations in the coming years. But it’s all too easy to get distracted by the AI hype, which can impede progress when using the technology to build a competitive edge.

At a recent Contact Center West 2023: A Frost & Sullivan Executive MindXchange, acclaimed speaker and AI expert Christina “CK” Kerley debunked 10 misconceptions CX leaders have about what contact center AI can do. During her keynote “Shock, Awe & AI,” she reframed the AI hype into the following AI truths.

Continued...

[simon gordon] 21/11/2023 10:56

UC Today - 8/11/23:

Zoom Crowned King of UC at UC Awards; is CCaaS Next?

Welcome to Our Exclusive Interview at Zoomtopia 2023 with Vi Chau, Head of Product for Zoom Phone and Zoom Contact Center. Will Zoom be the New King of UC and CCaaS?👑

🔍 What's Covered:

1️⃣ Vision & Origins - How did Zoom evolve from a simple video conferencing tool to a comprehensive UC platform?
2️⃣ Growth Secrets - What fueled Zoom's meteoric rise in the UCaaS landscape?
3️⃣ Buy or Build - Why did Zoom opt to develop its own contact center solution?
4️⃣ UCaaS & CCaaS Synergy - Why is an integrated solution better?
5️⃣ Cutting-Edge Features - What sets Zoom Contact Center apart?
6️⃣ Collaboration - How do Zoom Phone users and contact center agents interact?
7️⃣ Data-Driven Excellence - How is customer data shaping the Zoom experience?
8️⃣ Recent Innovations - What's new and impactful in Zoom Contact Center?
9️⃣ Go-to-Market Strategy - How can organizations evaluate and purchase Zoom Contact Center?
🔟 Smooth Deployment - Making the complex simple.



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Seamlessxtra - 15/11/23

Vi Chau, Head of Product – Zoom Phone and Zoom Contact Center added, “We are delighted to partner with PCI Pal to elevate our payment and compliance proposition for our customers. PCI Pal’s flexibility and innovation mean we can empower businesses to facilitate payments securely throughout our Zoom CX and Phone portfolio.”



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ECK Interims - 21/11/23:

Growth Drivers - new PCI DSS standard

One of the key drivers for the adoption of our solutions is the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard ('PCI DSS'), which all merchants need to comply with to help protect their customer's data, to avoid higher payment processing charges and to reduce the risk of substantial fines. Eckoh has maintained continual PCI DSS compliance at level 1, the highest level, since 2010.

The Standard has evolved over time to try and address the ever-increasing threat of fraud and hacking and the most meaningful change to the standard since 2016 comes into force from April 2024, when v4.0 becomes applicable. From this date any organisation who is audited for compliance with the Standard will be expected to comply with the new regulations that were first published in March 2022.

There are 60 new requirements that have been added, and 71 that have been changed in v4.0 and the implications for merchants who are currently compliant is that these changes are numerous and complex and will drive up compliance costs and increase the resources required to complete 'business as usual' processes. It is also probable that a percentage of companies will fail their audits due to the scale and challenge of the changes. With PCI DSS still being the regulatory standard that drives most sales conversations for Eckoh, it is anticipated that the challenges (and increased risk) associated with implementing v4.0 by merchants will lead to an increase in sales opportunities for Eckoh's solutions.

[simon gordon] 21/11/2023 08:20

Received from my broker this morning a voting notification for the AGM, scheduled date is Tuesday, 12th December.

Thought this an interesting quote from a PI on the GHT thread:

"Both Techinvest and TechmarketView in the past have referred to GHT's software as being transformational in GHT's market area. I know however from my own past experience in IT sales it doesn't matter how good your product is, it can still be very difficult to dislodge incumbent suppliers. That is the reason I feel for the stubbornly low organic growth and the disappointing share price performance."

-richjp, 18/11/23.


Zoom had their Q3 earnings out last night, with a small upgrade. Zoom contact centre up to 700 customers. Watched a vid yesterday with the head of their contact centre division, talked about three ways to access the contact centre: Text, Voice or Face. Zoom's strong point is the Face.

[simon gordon] 20/11/2023 11:22

Rathbones 32 page report:

The Cloud Revolution

The cloud is the most important yet least understood trend in IT. With cloud services touching virtually every aspect of our lives behind the scenes, you may find it surprising that companies have so far only redirected a small fraction of their IT budgets to the cloud. We believe there is much more to come.

It took on-premise data bases and servers 40 years from when they were introduced in the early 1980s to reach full maturity. Following a similar trajectory, our best guess is that we are only in the sixth or seventh year of a multidecade transition to the cloud.

As companies around the world join an arms race to compete in the digital era, we see annual spending on cloud services growing nearly five times by 2030 to $1.3 trillion. We think cloud services can sustain similar levels of long-term growth to US ecommerce sales.

[adamb1978] 17/11/2023 19:26

Taking a while for the Markman Hearing result to come out...

[simon gordon] 17/11/2023 18:08

First constructive weekly candle in seven weeks. Think there is an overhang. Asked Walbrook about this but they were none the wiser. Been fairly easy to pick up stock for past couple of weeks.

Maybe with James Barham now being based in the London office he can spread the story more widely.


free stock charts from uk.advfn.com

[simon gordon] 16/11/2023 21:15

Denmark

This country has the world’s largest shipping company (Mærsk), the world’s largest enzyme company (Novozymes), the world’s largest dairy bacteria starter-culture company (Chr. Hansen), one of the world’s largest pharmacetical companies (Novo Nordisk), one of the world’s largest wind turbine energy companies (Vestas), and the fourth largest brewery in the world (Carlsberg). How does it achieve this with a population of only 5.4 million? I think that, more than anything else, Denmark’s more even distribution of education and training opportunities, through public investment, helps them outperform many of their competitors. For many decades now, the Danes have been committed to serious public investment in education and training to meet vocational needs, with the result that they have a very productive economy.

-Pensioncraft

[simon gordon] 16/11/2023 21:08

It doesn't need to be a PE house. HOTC was trade buyer, was 100p before it started rising and is going for 375p, nearly a four bagger in a couple of months. The risk on the patent side is minimal. Even Sycurio agree that the workaround doesn't infringe. It's becoming rear view mirror. The risk can now be clearly priced.

In a couple of years time, there might not be much of London market left for PIs. Incredible how this state of affairs has been allowed to happen. The country of Adam Smith and John Maynard Keynes!! It's infuriating.

[adamb1978] 16/11/2023 20:59

It is very cheap, but any PE fund, or even listed company, is likely to find it very difficult to make a move on PCIP whlst the legal stuff is going on. The patent cases actually give PCIP something of a shield in that they can grow without an acquiror likely appearing.

And once the legal noise is out of the way, the re-rating should be rapid.

[andre] 16/11/2023 20:25

Agreed. Which is what made me think it may be a tip or Twitter/X thing. Definitely in concert with the amount of even 10k and 20k trades. I suppose it could be a stake build. Let it drop back and do it again? We will see soon enough.