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Welcome to GPA Connect
Your quarterly GPA club news
Issue one: Spring 2022
Connecting together as the PPDS Global Partner Alliance
I am delighted to welcome you to your very first edition of GPA Connect – your quarterly newsletter bringing insider insights as a member of the PPDS Global Partner Alliance.
Our international team here at PPDS started to form the GPA over a year ago and we are very proud to say that the Alliance has grown from strength to strength in that time. Now, together with you, we are a unique club of 54 supportive and connected businesses, and we are growing almost daily.
Importantly, our global ambitions are being realised and we now have members in North America and Asia Pacific, as well as across EMEA. And we continue to grow!
A big thank you to all our members for your support during our formational year. Together we build better business for our global customers. Together we are the PPDS Global Partner Alliance.
Looking forward to seeing you soon.
Simone Gagliardi
Connect with us ISE 2022
2022 will be a very different ISE. That’s not because we will be in Barcelona for the first time, or because of the exciting line up of products and solutions we will be showcasing on our stand – 3Q600.
ISE 2022 is providing us all with an occasion to come together as an industry. And we are very much looking forward to welcoming all of our partners and being together with you on the Philips stand – in person – for the first time in what seems like a very long time.
On stand, you will be able to journey through zones representing our key industry areas – Corporate, Retail, Education and Hospitality. Discovering our latest line-up of displays ranging from the near limitless possibilities made possible with our expanding range of direct view LED, through to the world-first features that continue to flourish in our Philips MediaSuite hospitality TVs. We will also be showcasing our complementary solutions, and, of course, officially introducing our Wave Cloud based platform in a dedicated and private first floor lounge.
A part of the club – the very first PPDS GPA dinner
We are also looking forward to be welcoming representatives from each of our partner members to celebrate with us, joining together as the PPDS Global Partner Alliance for cocktails, Mediterranean mezze and music, in an intimate setting that allows us to mingle and network.
We are delighted to be hosting our very first GPA dinner at Pangea, situated in the old Coliseum Cinema in the heart of Barcelona. This amazing venue is a travel agency by day – the biggest travel agency in the world. And it is packed with Philips professional displays, arranged to delight customers as they look for their next global destination. Out of hours and the venue transforms into a fantastic event space. Where better for our global partners to meet?
Our relaxed program for the event will include engaging speakers, delivering five minute topics selected to inspire us all. We will bring you a full round up of ISE and the GPA dinner in our next issue.
Simone Gagliardi - Connected presence
Designed to bring leaders across our industry together to create a connected global network, the PPDS GPA delivers real value not only to its members, but to our whole business community. When any PPDS partner needs support with an international project, it’s the GPA members who will benefit from that business too.
Heading up the GPA, Simone Gagliardi has an incredible network of business connections. We took five minutes with him to discover his journey building the Alliance in the last 12 months…
What does the GPA mean to you?
Our Global Partner Alliance – the PPDS GPA – is much more than a grouping of partners selected for their international presence. Each of our GPA members has been selected as a trusted member of our network, a partner who epitomises quality and expertise, and who has clear synergies with the PPDS way of working. For our partners, the GPA is a trusted network that connects our partners with proven expertise – across every territory and in every marketplace. For us, the GPA was conceived as a meeting of the very best. And its certainly turning out that way!
How are you building the GPA?
Our GPA ‘club’ is by select invitation only. Working with directors and key team members in each territory, we select members of the GPA to represent us with each of the technologies we offer, and across our strategically-selected key industries.
As a member who has already been invited to the ‘club’ you should be aware that this is a pretty big thing! And we aim to keep building on the benefits for you, to ensure your business, and ours, can continue to grow into the future.
How did you choose the name ‘GPA’?
At PPDS we try to have very clear names for our programs and initiatives. We elected to call our network the Global Partner Alliance because it is immediately recognisable and very translatable on an international level. Funnily enough, we recently reviewed the name, yet in a poll carried out internationally with some of our own business members, GPA remained a clear winner for us all.
You were focusing on retail in the international team?
While I was supporting the international team with my retail knowledge and expertise built up over many years in the industry, actually it has always been the intention that I oversee all the functions of the GPA. You will no doubt have seen we are recruiting for an international account manager to cover retail and, with core solutions, as well as our direct view LED range growing all the time, retail will continue to be a strong sector for our international team.
You joined PPDS back in 2011. What have you learned?
PPDS is a business built on teamwork, especially with our partners. Throughout my time working as the Sales Director for Italy, collaborating and connecting with customers always resulted in netter business. That same strategy is highly portable, and it is the model upon which the Global Partner Alliance is built. Customer service should always come from the core.
Connecting the dots with Valeriia Polovkova
Valeriia Polovkova was welcomed into the international customer service team here at PPDS as our International Project Manager in January and she has never looked back. With strong foundations in the technology sector, Valeriia joins us after a ten-year span working for quality assurance with Philips TVs, lighting and signage at the Telebalt factory in Kaliningrad.
Her role as project manager will mean that Valeriia is one of the key people you may talk to from PPDS as a GPA member. She gets things done, pulling together the support and the teams needed from all around the globe. Connecting the dots on the map that create our global network!
Welcoming Valeriia to the company, Simone Gagliardi said: “Valeriia is already a talented, well connected and highly regarded member of our team. Pulling together skills, strategies and solutions from across the globe, and making sure that they all work seamlessly, is no easy task. Valeriia dived straight in and she has earned the respect of all colleagues. If you haven’t yet had the pleasure, you soon will!”
Connecting for success - B&B Hotels
B&B Hotels is the leading and fastest growing independent hotel chain in the budget and economy hospitality sector in Europe. The group offers warm, modern and affordable accommodation with an ‘Only for Everyone’ promise, bringing comfort, design and high quality services to both business and leisure customers at an attractive price.
Established 30 years ago, the B&B group continues to expand and now has more 600 hotels in 14 countries.
Recognised as one of the most innovative hotel concepts in the budget segment, when B&B started working on their new Central and Eastern Europe openings in Budapest and Maribor, they turned to PPDS GPA member, Kemcomm, for their installations.
The perfect opportunity to take advantage of their membership, Kemcomm enlisted the PPDS Global Partner Alliance to bring together member collaborations in Hungary and Slovenia to support the project, and we put them in touch with Hotel Interactive and Cronex.
“Being a member of the PPDS GPA has allowed us to roll out projects in Central and Eastern Europe much more efficiently and effectively, delighting our customers with local service, proven solutions and, of course, Philips professional displays. The PPDS GPA is definitely a winning connection for us.” Marco Cazzaniga - Sales Manager Hospitality at Kemcomm
Fast facts
- 102 x fully installed and configured 43” HFL5114 Philips MediaSuite TVs (including fixed bracket)
- 1 x 43” Philips D-Line (including fixed bracket) managed by CMND
- CMND software installation and configuration
Valerio Duchini, Chief Executive Officer at B&B Hotels Italia SpA
PPDS GPA members - delivering a seamless system integration service, everywhere
“While every hotel opening is unique, the in-room experiences we offer for our guests need to be constant throughout our portfolio. We found the right solution with Philips professional displays and we wanted to carry it out across our new European openings. Our relationship with Kemcomm spans many years and, when they introduced the option to replicate their service for our new openings in Budapest (Hungary) and Maribor (Slovenia) via their membership with the PPDS Global Partner Alliance, we were positive to expand our trusted relationship beyond the borders. The quality provided by Kemcomm’s PPDS GPA partners, Hotel Interactive and Cronex, and their knowledge of Philips professional TV solutions, made it a great experience for our local hotel staff and a seamless integration – from the head end in the back office to the welcome messaging on the Philips guest room TVs.”
