BrandQuantum, a South African-based software company that delivers a cloud-based, secure and modular platform to help companies achieve brand consistency across all Microsoft programmes, has today announced that it has achieved Microsoft IP Co-Sell status. In addition to this, BrandMail is a Microsoft Preferred Solution, which is identified by the Preferred Solutions Badge in the Microsoft AppSource, which means that it has been certified according to specific criteria and has been vetted against controls derived from leading industry standard frameworks, to ensure that strong security and compliance practices are in place to protect customer data.

Microsoft IP Co-Sell is an initiative that allows eligible partners to reach more customers and accelerate the extent of their products and services to a broader market. As a Microsoft IP Co-Sell partner, BrandQuantum’s BrandMail and BrandOffice solutions can now be sold directly and marketed by Microsoft resellers targeting enterprise clients across South Africa and America and is available via the Microsoft AppSource store.

According to Paula Sartini, founder and CEO at BrandQuantum, “We are delighted to be a Microsoft IP Co-Sell partner and believe that the partnership provides a great opportunity for us to help more companies overcome their brand consistency challenges by using our solutions within Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Outlook.”

BrandOffice seamlessly integrates with Microsoft Office to empower every employee across an organisation to deliver brand consistency in all documents, spreadsheets and presentations. The offering provides:

• Easy access to templates and content through BrandOffice toolbars inside Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint
• Permission-based access to documents, ensuring only employees that need access can access certain documentation and templates
• Centrally manage brand standards including fonts, colours, style sets and multiple brand themes
• BrandOffice inserts provide added security features such as content locking for specific content parts
• Expiry dates, audit logs and content owners ensure governance and compliance and are ideal for contract and proposal management.

BrandMail seamlessly integrates with Microsoft Outlook to deliver consistently branded emails via a single toolbar across an entire organisation. This includes:

• Consistently designed and professional email signatures which are rolled out and managed centrally
• Email banners that can be edited internally to promote the latest campaigns
• Rate My Service which allows customers to provide immediate feedback on the customer experience from within the email signature
• BrandMe page which provides a digital business card, carrying all the company information customers want and acts as a verification tool to ensure that emails are authentic and originated from the sender’s organisation; and
• BrandInsight provides real-time analytics on email usage across all BrandMail users, providing meaningful business insights. 

BrandQuantum today announced the launch of BrandMail Rate My Service and Animated Surveys, service rating features that are embedded within employee email signatures. These new offerings allow customers to rate the customer service they have received immediately from within emails sent from employees. BrandMail helps companies to deliver consistent email experiences with centrally managed, tamperproof email signatures that provide verification functionality and other features including email banners, campaigns, and a business card generator. 

“Customer service has always been an important differentiator for brands and in today’s competitive market, companies are no longer competing against the service delivered by competitors but rather against the best experiences customers have received from companies in other industries too,” says Paula Sartini, founder, and CEO at BrandQuantum. “In addition to this, tighter regulations are being placed on companies, such as the Treat your Customer Fairly (TCF) Act, that urge companies to track their service levels and measure their customer service on an ongoing basis. This is good news for the consumer.”

Customer service impacts directly on a company’s success. This is supported by findings from a Zendesk [1] study which found that 66% of B2B and 52% of B2C customers stopped buying from a brand after they experienced bad customer service. However, according to the PWC Experience is everything: Here’s how to get it right [2] report, 54% of U.S. consumers say customer experience needs to be improved at most companies.