Carillion celebrates new Sheffield helpdesk home
Leading support services company Carillion is celebrating the successful re-location of its facilities management helpdesk to brand new state-of-the-art offices at The Square in Sheffield.
Known internally as the National Support Centre (NSC), the Sheffield-based helpdesk is Carillion’s primary interface between its customers and its own team of service providers.
The specialist facilities management hub answers calls 24 hours a day, 7 days a week from Carillion’s customers around the UK and Ireland, including Deutsche Bank, Siemens, Centrica and Virgin Media.
The search led the team to Sheffield’s Castlegate area and The Square where Carillion Developments had just completed the Office 2 building.
Affording occupants spectacular views across South Yorkshire, the 42,000sq ft building comprises 6 floors of Grade A office accommodation and was developed in 2009 as Phase 2 of the flagship Sheffield office scheme, widely recognised as the driving force behind the regeneration of the Castlegate area of the city.
Between January and the end of March 2010, The Square’s internal FM team worked hand-in-hand with the NSC’s management to ensure the re-location of the 100-strong team was, first of all, planned with military precision, then executed seamlessly to ensure that not a single customer call went unanswered.
Richard Sykes, managing director of Carillion Service Solutions, praised the team for this remarkable achievement before cutting the ribbon to officially open the new offices, in front of an assembled crowd which included local Sheffield dignitaries, key project stakeholders including representatives from regional development agencies, Creativesheffield and Yorkshire Forward, and guests from across Carillion.
Ann Allen, Investment Manager at Creativesheffield, commented: “The commitment of Carillion to locate the NSC in Sheffield, safeguarding jobs in the area, is fantastic. It sends a clear signal that business confidence in the city office market and service sector remains strong, despite the current climate.”
Head of the National Support Centre since mid-2009, Sara Worrall, echoed these sentiments, paying tribute to her team’s dedication not only to customer service but to ‘going the extra mile’ in the name of work : “In the past 12 months alone, the NSC’s team has handled almost 300,000 calls, talked on the telephone for an incredible 1,069,716 minutes and arranged the resolution of a vast range of FM issues, from unblocking toilets and freeing people from malfunctioning lifts, through to changing lightbulbs, cleaning fish tanks and catching rodents.”
As if to illustrate Sara’s point, Peter Hewitt, of Mosborough - a member of the NSC’s call centre team since October 2008 and, in his spare time, a locally-renowned confectionery artist (trading under his “Ellie’s Originals” brand name) - surprised colleagues and visitors on the day by arriving at work with one of his own creations - an enormous commemorative cake bearing the Carillion logo.
ENDS
For further information:
Shelley Eyers – Carillion Group Communications Manager
01902 316444/07764 835200/shelley.eyers@carillionplc.com
Notes to editors
Carillion is the UK’s leading support services company with a substantial portfolio of Public Private Partnership projects and extensive construction capabilities.
The Group has annual revenue of over £5 billion, employs around 50,000 people and operates across the UK, in the Middle East, Canada and the Caribbean.
In the UK, Carillion’s principal market sectors are Defence, Education, Health, Facilities Management & Services, Rail, Roads, Building, Civil Engineering and Utilities Services.
This and other Carillion news releases can be found at www.carillionplc.com
