Breaking news here from Texpert Towers, where our partnership with BAA has been recognised by the Customer Contact Association in their Excellence Awards.

Texperts and BAA have been working together since March 2008, when Terminal 5 opened.  With dozens of airlines moving around the airport in the intervening 18 months, BAA and Texperts brought the full strength of the Texperts platform to bear for Heathrow passengers, enabling tens of thousands of customers each month to get to the right terminal on time.

Customers just text the flight number, or whatever flight details they have, to 64222 (64BAA) and Texperts do the rest.

We are really pleased that this innovative solution has been recognised by the prestigious CCA Excellence Awards.  Thomas will be going to Edinburgh to attend the ceremony; fingers crossed he comes back with another award for our growing cabinet!

Comments from the judges included:

• “Innovative, unique and leading edge, benefits both financial and in terms of the customer experience … This submission stands out from the crowd and in itself is clear and comprehensive.”
• “There is clear evidence of a partnership working together to find a solution which has improved customer service in a new and accessible way. Tangible results are shown and valuable data is being utilised to further improve the service, including customer feedback.”
• “The advantages of this service to the time-pressured customer are very clear. What’s great about this service is that it is simple to use, responsive, evolving and potentially, invaluable. What’s more, it demonstrates the commitment BAA has to ‘going the extra mile’ to help its customers. This is a very original solution to a very old problem - how to find out what you don’t know quickly and easily.  A great submission.”

We couldn’t agree more!

Last night, Sarah McVittie added to Texperts’ trophy cabinet by winning the “Businesswoman of the Year” accolade at the Cambridge Evening News Business Excellence Awards. The distinguished panel adjudicating the award recognised Sarah’s recent achievements, as well as her track record in the mobile sector:

“Businesswoman of the Year was won by Sarah McVittie, co-founder and chief executive of Texperts, which underwent a £100,000 rebranding in the past year from its original name of 82ASK and has since gone from strength to strength.”

Sarah saw off some tough competition in contention for the award, which is sponsored by Cambridge’s new Grand Arcade, a major retail development in city centre that opened yesterday (27 March 2008). On winning the award, Sarah said, “I’m delighted to win this award. This is a major recognition for the accomplishments of the entire Texperts team - it’s a company I’m proud to have built, and we’ve got more innovations lined up for the future.”

The prestigious MediaGuardian Innovation Awards have come and gone, and in a tightly-fought competition, Sarah is a runner up in “Rising Star of the Year” category. Here’s what the judges had to say:

“Sarah McVittie is the founder and CEO of the Texperts, a UK-based service which lets people text in any question and have it answered within minutes. This year alone she has effectively steered her company through a complete rebrand, tripled the size of the company to 265 people in order to meet the demand and successfully raised £1.5 million of funding to take the company to the next stage.”

The event itself was great, according to Sarah, and she was glad to see other industry movers and shakers there, including SMS Text News stalwart Ewan MacLeod. All in all, being recognised at the inaugural MediaGuardian Awards is a real honour for Texperts, and a feather in Sarah’s cap.

Texperts CEO Sarah McVittie has managed to nab yet another award nomination, this time in the “Businesswoman of the Year” category of the Cambridge Evening News Business Excellence Awards.

Sarah McVittie, currently on site at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, said ” this award shortlisting is excellent news for us, and very humbling. At Texperts we are very proud of our connections to Cambridge and the region, so it’s a real honour to be nominated.”

This makes two award nominations for Sarah in 2008. She is also in contention for the “Rising Star of the Year” category of the inaugural MediaGuardian Innovation Awards.

The Cambridge Evening News Business Excellence Awards will be decided on March 27 2008. The judges are Nigel Brown OBE, chairman of the Greater Cambridge Partnership, Walter Herriot OBE, now a professor at Anglia Ruskin and also managing director of St John’s Innovation Centre.

Breaking news! Texperts CEO and one-woman army Sarah McVittie has stormed into another award short-listing, this time in the “Rising Star of the Year” category of the inaugural MediaGuardian Innovation Awards.

The panel invited nominations from MediaGuardian readers, and from the many hundreds of entries Sarah has emerged as one of the three finalists. The awards ceremony will be held at IndigO2 on March 6.

Texperts has a distinguished history of grabbing prestigious awards in a variety of categories, from innovation, to management, to HR, to cutting-edge technology. Sarah is delighted with the MediaGuardian Innovation nomination, saying “it’s a real honour to be shortlisted for the MediaGuardian award, especially in the inaugural round. At Texperts we take great pride in our track record, and I’m proud to lead this exceptional team of innovators.”