The subscription, billing and customer relationship management (CRM) specialist, has named Bhavesh Vaghela its new Chief Executive Officer, as the company aims to capitalise on the sales and marketing successes that are coming to define it as a key player in the rapidly changing pay-TV marketplace.

Vaghela steps up from his role as Paywizard’s Chief Marketing Officer, replacing former CEO Jonathan Guthrie, who remains on the board and is taking a step back from the business after 20 years of building the company into a leading pay-TV solution provider.

Andrew Burke, Paywizard’s Chairman, comments: “Bhavesh is the right man to lead the business at this point in its development. In the past year, we have made amazing progress in communicating just what Paywizard can do to enable pay-TV operators to more effectively reach out to subscribers, build customer loyalty and grow their businesses. That progress is now driving strong international interest in our unique approach to effective subscriber management.”

Burke adds: “The Board would like to thank Jonathan for his exceptional accomplishments over the last 20 years and want to wish him all the very best in his future endeavours.”

Vaghela says: “This is a fantastic opportunity and I’m thrilled to be taking the leadership role at Paywizard at a time we are working with pay-TV operators to deliver the tools they need to meet the demands of a marketplace undergoing seismic shifts. The explosion of video-on-demand, surging uptake of services across an array of mobile and smart devices, and multi-service operators branching into new areas make this a pivotal time for the industry.”

He notes: “Being able to adapt to shifting trends in subscriber behaviour and recognise changing subscriber needs is critical for pay-TV operators today, and we will continue to offer innovative solutions that enable our clients to evolve with their customers.”

The appointment of Vaghela as CEO comes after a series of marketing-led initiatives helped Paywizard to sign new clients and forge a key strategic partnership with audience data analytics expert Genius Digital – allowing Paywizard to build a 360-degree subscriber view for pay-TV operators. In addition to recent business wins that include contracts with Philippine cable operator Asian Vision and British app provider Jolt My Car, the company has forged new deals with two tier-one EMEA broadcasters.

Burke says: “We want to build on the momentum we’ve achieved, which has been driven by a number of award-winning product innovations that we were able to successfully take to the marketplace and create genuine excitement. I’m confident that Bhavesh will do that.”

Vaghela, who joined the company in October 2015, oversaw the launch of Paywizard’s ‘Decision Moments’ dashboard for its Agile subscription management platform last year after the company commissioned extensive research on what really drives consumer choices when it comes to pay-TV – identifying the key points in the customer journey.

Further research released by the company this year highlighted the critical importance of customer experience to pay-TV providers aiming to stem churn and grow customer relationships. The global survey of 6,200 consumers revealed that failure to understand a customer – and to provide a consistently positive customer experience as a result – can have a fatal impact on a subscriber relationship as a quarter of those surveyed had cancelled a digital pay-TV service due to poor customer experience, while close to half had retained a subscription they considered terminating because of positive factors.

Vaghela has over 17 years’ experience in broadcast and video technology, IT, software and data analytics. He was previously CMO at ResponseTap and held senior roles at a number of fast-growing technology companies, including IntraLinks, OpenText and Oracle, overseeing the marketing of Software as a Service (SaaS) and on-premise solutions in Europe the Middle East and Africa, Asia Pacific, and North America.

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